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**The Victoria Chronicles

Changes**

Chapter 02

After the Storm Comes a New Dawn

All sense of time was meaningless as Vic stumbled to the far end of the woods in the heavy rain. His shoulder hurt, his chest hurt, his skin itched, his insides really hurt, and his head throbbed something fierce. He had given up trying to remove the strange device he had found stuck to his left arm. Whatever it was it was stuck fast to his skin and even felt like it had somehow grafted itself to the nerves underneath.

But more pressing then that he had to find help. The men that had attacked him and his friends had taken Sarah and Ben, and the apparent leader had shot Vic in the shoulder, arm and chest just before the fox that had been lingering around camp knocked him down to the ground. Luck was on Vic's side as the man had been at some distance from him and the body blow from the fox had knocked him down a hill and the two had ended up out of sight in some bushes before Vic momentary lost conciseness after seeing a bright flash in front of his eyes. The man had assumed him dead, or at least not worth his time climbing down a steep hill into a thorn thicket.

Vic came to a short time later. It was now raining heavily and after waiting to make sure the danger had passed Vic extricated himself out of the thorns and shot, bruised, and suffering some minor blood loss he binded his arm with strips ripped from his shirt before he stumbled back up the muddied hill to the ravaged camp.

At the top he found the camp in disarray and after looking around for any sign of who had attacked them and where they might have gone he decided to go for help. The Jeep had been trashed, being turned inside out while the men had searched every conceivable space inside and made new ones with the camps wood axe. What they had been looking for Vic couldn't begin to guess.

With a few meager supplies in hand Vic had set out towards the closest town.

After stumbling and slipping through the mud for some time he broke through the remaining brush and spied a farm yard a short distance from the edge of the woods. The barns were closest so he headed there to get out of the rain.

Reaching the barn he pushed the door open just enough to squeeze inside out of the night air. Looking around through fading vision he saw an open stall on the far end that looked reasonably clean. He felt dizzy and tired and needed to take a rest. He just needed to rest for a few minutes to clear his head before continuing his search for help.

Leaning against the stall wall he slowly slid down to the hay covered floor before falling to his side. Though not as comfortable as his mattress at home in his current state the hay felt like the softest bed in the world right now. And despite his efforts to stay awake it wasn't long before the darkness started to creep into his vision.

But as he lay there staring at blankly at the walls he could almost swear that the hair on his arms was lengthening and changing to a black and orange color as it covered his skin. Almost like fur.

The next morning the storm had passed.

Two men and a young girl crossing the farmyard towards the barn.

"That was quite the storm last night." the younger of the two men said leading the way to the barn and outbuildings. "We'll need to look for damage and make sure the animals are all ok. Katie go check the main barn while Pops and I check out the machinery shed."

"Ok dad." Kate said while the two men veered of towards a large metal garage building.

Pushing the large double doors open Katie checked on each animal in turn down one side then the other, working her way to the back of the barn. So far all the animals seemed fine. Sure, there were some knocked over water buckets from panicked animals from the night before, but otherwise they all seemed fine and the barn so far had weathered the storm with minimal damage.

But when she got to the back she found something that didn't belong.

"Dad! Pops!" Katie yelled as load as she could, "Come quick!"

The two men came running as Katie met them at the open doorway. "What's wrong Katie?" the father said slightly out of breath from running back across the yard.

"In the back stall!" She said pointing to the back of the barn. "There's something in there!"

The two men headed to the back of the barn and peering in were completely unprepared for what they found.

"What in blazes?!" the father exclaimed skidding to a halt.

"What is it dad?" Katie asked peering around the edge of the door frame. "It looks like a werewolf!"

"I don't know nothing about any werewolf, but someone's been shooting at it." Pops said kneeling down and looking at the crude bandages tied loosely around one of the creature's shoulder and arm. "Katie, go tell your mother she has a patient."

"Yes Pops." Kate said turning and running out of the barn.

"Do you think that's a good idea Pops?"

"If it were dangerous the animals would be in acting worried. I'm more worried about that they seem this calm after that storm we had last night." Pops said wrapping up the unconscious creature in an old horse blanket and gathering it up in his arms before standing up. "Besides, this creature's so light and thin I doubt it could put up much of a struggle. Look how baggy the cloths it is wearing are. It's like they were made for something larger."

The two men left the barn and headed across the yard to the small modern prefab addition attached to the side of the house. As they approached the outside door opened and a woman in her late thirties stepped out.

"Earle, what's this Katie is saying about a wounded animal? Some large dog or fox she was excited about?" she said as the men came up to the building.

"Kristine, you are not going to believe this!"

Pops politely pushed past his daughter with the creature bundled in his arms. Walking into the animal clinic he headed to an exam room and carefully deposited his charge on an exam table. As Kristine walked up behind him and peered over his shoulder he gently pulled back the blanket revealing the injured creature.

"Oh my god! Where did this come from?!"

"Dunno." Pops said taking a step back to allow Kristine room, "Katie found it in an empty stall in the barn. It must have wondered in during the storm last night."

Kristine started unbinding the crude bandages from around the wounds. "This things been shot! Go to the cabinets and get me some clean gauze and bandages."

Pulling close a rolling tool-cart she picked up her stethoscope and checked the creature's vitals. "Its hart's racing awfully fast. Hand me those forceps and the medium probe."

"What are you looking for?" pops asked handing her the requested tools.

"Bullets. There are no exit-wounds." She said carefully probing the first wound, "That means that they are still inside. I can't stitch it up with them still inside."

But before she started making much headway she felt something hard under the damaged flesh start pushing towards the surface. As she watch curiously a lead bullet pushed into view as was soon pushed out of the wound, clattering onto the metal table. It was soon followed by several others from the other bloody holes in the shoulder, arm, and chest. Then within seconds of expelling the foreign objects the skin started pulling back together and the skin started knitting itself closed.

"My lord!" Kristine gasped. "What manner of beast are you from?"

Soon the wounds were merely just discolored blemishes under red/orange fur.

"What in the world?"

After examining the wounds, or lack of them, to make sure there was no infections or further danger Kristine collected the bullet fragments and blood and put them in a specimen jar. Then she went back to her patient to continue her examination and monitor the creature's health.

Kristine then turned her attention to the creatures left arm.

"What's this thing?" she said lifting the arm up and examining the device surrounding the wrist. It was made of some sort of metallic substance and looked like it had been organically grown around the arm. It wrapped around the lower arm similar to a bracer and had a circular crystal with a slight convex surface. The crystals color at first a dull red, but slowly it transitioned to other colors as it shifted across them.

"Dad, look at this." Kristine said. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Pops look over his daughters shoulder at the strange device. "No. can't say I have. Can you take it off?"

Kristine looked over its surface then turned the arm and lifted it to look at the underside. The surface looked to be one piece as if it had been formed around the arm before solidifying.

"There's no buckle or clasp. Not even a hing anywhere." She said in disbelieve. "How would you put on or remove something like this?"

Kristine tried to move it or slide it off and even tried sliding it up further up the arm. It wouldn't budge at all except for the give in the skin underneath.

"It's like the thing is surgically grafted to the arm. Dad, what have you brought me?" Kristine said looking up at her father.

"I don't know where it came from. Only that Katie found it in the barn." Pops replied scratching his head. "It had to have wondered in during the storm last night. Beyond that? I don't know."

Pops look from the creature on the exam table to the specimen jar on the cart. "Hand one of those bullet fragments Kris." Kristine picked up one of the more intact fragments with a pair of locking forceps and handed them to Pops. He took the forceps by the handle and turned them this way and that looking at the fragment locked in its jaws. Then satisfied he handed them back.

"9mm hollow-point." Pops said flatly. "Whoever was shooting at it meant business."

"Any idea who?" Kristine asked as she further examined the creature's arm.

"Could be anyone. It's a very common round." Pops said, "But, the thing is, most ranchers and farmers around these parts carry a rifle or shotgun for defense and animal control. Better range accuracy, and stopping power at long range. Pistols not good at long range, it's for close range, and any farmer or rancher I know wouldn't like a creature like this that close if it was attacking to use a pistol."

"Then who would?" Kristine said turning around on her stool."

"Someone in the government." Pops replied darkly.

"What about locale police?" Kristine asked.

"The sheriff would have been around asking if we'd seen anything if something like this was prowling around." Pops replied glancing down at the creature again. "No. whoever did this was up close and personal."

Pops looked at the creature for a long moment before turning around and heading for the door. "I don't think we are going to find many more answers till this critter recovers and wakes up. In the meantime I have chores to do. Keep an eye on your patient and come get me if anything changes."

And with that pops left the clinic.