"FUCK YOU!" Damian's shrill shriek filled my tiny apartment, "Where the fuck do you get off luring me into your home and then start trying to make me think this shit is real! I ought to go get my fucking gun and blow your fucking face off!"

"There's a gun right there on the bookshelf if you want to do so," I gestured to the gun I kept next to the kitchen, "But it's been two or three decades going by how delipidated everything is so the powder's probably bad."

Damian seemed to jump as he spotted the barrel of the large bore revolver poking over the side of the bookshelf, without turning his head. He seemed to hesitate before rushing over and grabbing the revolver, damn near toppling over from the weight of the two and a half pounds of pistol and ammo before shakily pointing it in my direction. I remained fairly calm, I was pretty sure that the powder in those shells were bad at this point, add in the fact it was loaded with .410 shot I was fairly certain the pellets would bounce off my ferrous body. "You think I won't do it asshole!? I'll fucking do it! Now call the hospital and take that shit back or I'll do it."

"You can try calling yourself," I pushed my phone to the floor, "You can try and shoot me too if it will make you feel better. It won't change what's been done to us though."

With an angry hiss Damian slammed the trigger back so roughly that even if the shell had fired off he'd likely have missed. His hisses became much wetter and wheezier as his arms seemed to lose their strength pulling the trigger a couple more times before and collapsing onto his knees with hiccupping hissy sobs, his little cat ears folding back flat. "This can't be real, man. It's gotta be a some kind of trick or hallucination or something. I-I c-can't be this! I was so close to going straight! How can I work a good job, clear my debt, and show my family I'm a changed man a-as THIS!?"

The tiny fluffy raptor man began to wheeze loudly as he went completely limp to the point of letting his head impact snout first on the floor. I fully empathized with the man, I wanted to join him in freaking out, letting out the rage, pain, and helplessness I felt at this absolute violation of all that we were and had been. To howl in helpless fury at the realization that all of our plans and hopes for the future had been completely and utterly rewritten by the whims of a group of callous monsters that saw us as nothing more than their amusement. However, I still had steps to follow, objectives to focus on, things that needed doing. The breakdown could come later, we were men and we had a job to do. I just needed to remind him of this.

"Damian!" I snapped, wrapping a tail carefully around him to force him to stand, "Cut the pity party! Stand up and go put a shirt on!"

"What's the point?" Damian warbled, but he was at least standing up and seemed to be focusing on me again, "Everything and everyone's gone, what's the point any more?"

"We're still here you twit!" I snapped at him, "That means there are others still around as well. People as lost and confused as you are, quite possibly children!" His warbling sobs froze at that, "Have you ever paid attention to how many families there are in this apartment complex alone Damian? And there's seven complexes and two hotels within a couple blocks of here, each of them likely loaded with men, women, and children who like us are now scared and lost! You want to prove yourself? Then man the hell up! They are going to need direction and comfort to keep them from doing something stupid like hiding in their rooms until they starve and I can't do that by myself."

Damian was stock still for several seconds, his little raptor face seeming to radiate shock and horror until he finally said, "Fuck, you're right. There could be kids out there alone and scared! We gotta go help them!" He began to wiggle and fight against my tail, no longer needing it to keep him upright.

"Shirt first," I insisted, pushing him toward the bedroom, his mouth opened to argue and I quickly cut him off, "No one looks like people anymore Damian. Wearing a shirt or some kind of clothing clearly marks you as more than just some animal and is a little piece of our old selves to hold onto." I paused to eye the tiny man up and down, "Besides, a shirt would look cute on you and help offset how discomforting your eyes are."

The little man seemed to sulk at that, "I can't even blink the damn things and that's really bothering me." he grumbled something under his breath that sounded like, 'fucking random mutathingy' before he sighed, "Should I go grab one of mine or?"

"I don't mind you taking one of mine, I can't exactly wear them any more." I waggled my long serpentine body for emphasis, making it all jingle like chainmail, "Depends if you're fine going out again with your manhood hanging out."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Again Damian's little raptor arms shot to his groin before he tilted his head, "FUCK! Where's mah dick!? Am I a chick now!?"

"Join the unsure club," I commiserate with a grumble. "I don't think reptiles have external genitals but I've no clue how to tell a male from a female."

"If I ever find the cunts who did this to us..." Damian rumbled as he stomped into my bedroom to find a shirt.

"Get in line, I called first dibs." I called after him, pulling out my camping bag. "I won't say no to someone to work the gut while I choke them out though." I spent a moment fumbling with the zipper before opening the bag. Nylon tent should be fine, the striker and cooking kit should also be fine thanks to stainless steel, actually no, crud the stove was a kerosene stove so that might not burn, well the stand should still be good for cooking things over a fire. Oh good looks like Damian finally found the shirt drawer...

Wait, how did I know that? He's around a corner and my head is in a suitcase. Focusing on the sensation, I became aware of a new awareness. I seemed to passively know where the little raptor was every time he took a step and a rough idea of how much he weighed, Jesus, the man must barely weigh sixty pounds soaking wet now. Certainly useful, going to need to test and experiment with that later to discover the limits, but for now back to, ah there you are. How'd you survive the decades old boy? Hmm, a little bit of corrosion despite the parkerizing and silica packets in the bag, still, none along the edge so you're still as sharp as ever. I bet a good polishing session will have you as good as new again. I smiled as my tail held my favorite foot long bowie knife, Dale might have a point that kukris did better work for camping, but the foot long fighting knife just called to me. Add in the fact that its cross guard made it infinitely easier for my tail to hold and control as I walked it through a few simple gutting motions and it was clearly the better option than trying to wield it in my mouth.

"Uh, what do you need that for?" I cast my gaze over to Damian, now wearing a navy blue t-shirt of mine, it went down to his knees and elbows bunching up in the back near his tail. Poor guy, it must suck being that small. I was right he did look rather cute in the shirt, even though he was currently nervously recoiling from me at the moment. "Aren't we looking for other survivors?"

"You are," I corrected, "I am going to be heading down to the woods and river to see if I can't get something a bit fresher for everyone to eat. I'm sure I'm not the only one still hungry after that snack of Cheez'ems and I don't doubt everyone else is gonna be just as hungry as we are. Say can you strap on the sheath around right here on my, neck? Chest?"

"Oh, yeah, sure thing man." Damian skittered over to me and started using his dexterous little claws to wrap the deerskin sheath's Velcro into place. "You sure I should be going it alone, though?"

"Damian, look at me, what would most people do if they saw a giant metal snake slithering around?" I asked looking down at him, "I'm pretty sure you nearly shat yourself when you saw me."

"I'm tiny and you're big so sue me," the little raptor grumbled, "So are we going to be meeting up here or what's your plan?"

"I figured you send people to the volleyball court and have them start gathering dead wood around the tree and clearing the grass off the sand, turn it into a nice place for a fish fry to actually start meeting everyone and making less immediate plans. Sound good to you?" I slid my knife back into the sheath and gave it a few test draws, good enough for now.

"I guess, better than anything I had planned," Damian shrugged. Lucky little bastard, showing off his shoulders and arms before perking up, "Oh, I got a bunch of beer and whiskey in my place, should I bring that?"

"I, wouldn't." I stated after a moment's thought, "If memory serves most beers and alcohols go bad after a year or two. Add in the fact that we don't know how much our biology's been changed, even a good beer might be super poison to someone."

"Damn, I thought some booze would help settle folks," Damian sighed.

"Oh I don't doubt it will once people start brewing again, gonna be a hot ticket commodity for whoever figures out a couple good brews first." I chuckled slithering towards the door with Damian following behind me. "Oh, and you can skip this door, I know no one was living there when the Event happened. And keep an eye out for any outdoor grills that look to be in decent condition while you're going door to door, oh and charcoal, the match light stuff will have gone bad, but natural charcoal doesn't."

"Right, right, got it boss." Damian snarked.

"Oh God and heavens above, don't call me boss!" I gasped dramatically, "I might have been nutty enough to make an emergency plan for situations similar to this, or even weirder but that hardly makes me qualified to actually lead!" As we got back outside I glanced over to my 'patio'. Aw my jalapeño plants died! No peppers for the fry then I suppose.

"If you say so boss," I swiped my tail at his head which he easily ducked and skipped away with a 'wark wark wark' cackle before sobering, "I guess we're going our separate ways for a bit now huh."

"Oh don't be so dramatic about it," I rolled my head since I'm not sure I could roll my eyes anymore. "I'm just slithering through like six hundred feet of woodlands to snatch a few fish out of the river and you are literally walking around the complexes we both live at. Neither of us will be doing anything dangerous and will be meeting up again within a couple hours tops."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I was working myself up over nothing." Damian laughed bashfully, "See you in a bit Joe."

"See ya soon Damian." I gave the man a wave of my tail as I started slithering towards the woods to the south of the complex.

Honestly, I was nowhere near as sure of our safety as I let on. Sure I'd walked those woods several times as a man and found nothing more dangerous than a homeless man, but thirty years of no people could change the nature of both woods and beast, especially since I wouldn't be surprised to find that the local wildlife had changed as much as we had. As I thought of that, and began structuring the possible monsters that I might face in the woods or in the river I felt my pace quicken and an eager smile working its way onto my face. That primal violent part of myself that I'd kept locked up while in civilized society was stirring and I found myself all but hoping for a fight. As I passed the rusted remains of the overgrown gate the marked the edge of the complex I felt an eager chuckle bubble free of my throat as I cooed, "Let them come."