It's More Than Nature

“Grab that box and come on Ghoul” Jet shouted from around the shed.
“I’m coming okay? just give me a second this stuff smells awful” Ghoul plugged his nose and feigned falling over from the stench.
Party laughed despite his best efforts not to, Ghoul was such a little kid sometimes, but it was a relief from all the missions they’d been through so far it was what kept him sane.
“Hey Party over here I found another mutant”
Great another mutant he thought only the 5th this week. He sighed and called back “Okay I’m coming”
He made his way through the rocks checking for any more mutants, he’d already been bitten by what they had dubbed a ‘Dylakane Cobra’ a King cobra with teeth like a great white sharks and each lined with Dylakane a super strong halocanagine that could keep you crazy for a couple weeks. This Party knew firsthand as he winced thinking of the last two weeks he’d been locked in a room seeing dracs surround him and overpower him torturing him for what seemed like years when in all actuality he was locked in his room at the base with halocanagines coursing through his body. So as he picked around the rocks making sure there were none in site and satisfied they would’t suddenly appear he circled the out cropping of rocks and made his way towards his brother.
He drew back invonlintarily as he rounded the corner to see his brother crouched over a mutant that looked like a cross between a lion and a coyote. Its muscles bulged under the skin that was pulled tight around its body it had the mane of a lion the muzzle of a coyote and the yellow eyes of a coyote.
“So whats the deal with this one?”
“Well” Kobra said “besides the fact that I’ve shot it in the head 4 times and its come back to life each time”
Party sighed this was not what he wanted to find he just wanted to load the stuff they were supposed to be taking from the abandoned shed to the base and be done with these recon missions. He pulled out his black sketch diary and took a quick sketch of the animal, taking a mental image to add details from later.
“So” he scribbled furiously in his notebook “what should we call it” he continued writing down everything he could about the strange creature in front of him.
“I don’t know I really think we should know more about it before we” He was abruptly cut off at the sound of screaming from around the shed.
“Great what now” Kobra took off running towards the noise.
“Hey we need a plan and what about the” the animal suddenly began to move and pull itself up. Party gave an exasperated sigh ‘why me’ he thought and he pulled out his ray gun and turned to the animal aiming for the head “sorry guy or girl maybe? this is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me” he grinned a sort of half smile and pulled the trigger just as the animal lunged forward snarling. The ray stopped it dead in its tracks as it fell to the ground in a heap.
“now to find out whats got them all in a fit”
Party picked across the rocks again making sure nothing was among them to bite him. ‘oh for crying out loud another squad of them’ he thought as he saw a squad of 20 or so dracs trading rays with his team and with 20 against 5 they didn’t have a chance especially with 2 new recruits and even as he thought it one of the new recruits fell with a deadly shot to the head. The other panicked and took off running before a group of 3 dracs perused him over taking him and pulling his arms behind his back before shooting him in the head, he winced as he saw the guys ducking behind an overturned beat up car. Well its party to save the day again he grimaced as he tryed to stay hidden as he made his way around the shed and snuck up to the van. Thank god the door was already open it would take too much noise to open and they would notice him. He took care to open climb in slowly so not to rock the van and slipped into the drivers seat hoping the tinted windows would keep him out of site ‘please’ he begged ‘if there is another force out there at all let it turn over on the first try’ he crossed his fingers and turned the key. The van groaned but died abruptly ‘ha no such luck’ he tried the van again and it caught he grinned and put the van into drive and stomped on the gas making a U turn and pulled in front of the guys.
“Get in” he screamed.
The boys all piled in dragging the body of the fallen recruit “leave the other he was a deserter” Jet called to him.
“can do” he stomped on the gas again and pulled away leaving the dracs in a cloud of dust. He grinned maybe he was lucky after all.
A large thump came from the top of the roof as it caved in a little
“what the” Ghoul didn’t have time to finish as a razor sharp talon of the mutant he’d just shot in the head ripped the top off the van like it was cutting through butter. Party panicked as the creature jumped into the van and gave a loud growl and its talons heading straight for his brothers face.