The dawning sun pours into the back of the ambulance as Cameron slowly opens the back doors. Using the doors as cover, he peaks around the surrounding area to make sure you are clear to move. "Shit..." He pulls back into the vehicle. "I was hoping to get you to the car so we could drive back to the apartment... but there is too much debris in the roads to get anywhere. There are barricades that must have gone up last night and it looks like everyone just ditched their cars in the road." Cam looks at you somberly, "We'll have to walk, and by 'walk', I mean I'm gonna have to carry your ass. So we better get started." Your brother leans down in front of you then pulls you into a standing position, your burns making you feel like you're on fire all over again. You stifle a groan as Cam leans down to hook his arm under your uninjured left leg and you instinctively curl around his upper back as he lifts you into a fireman's carry. Both your left upper and lower appendages held firm in his right arm.
"Well, this isn't the height of comfort..." You jokingly complain, "But I suppose it's better than dying of exposure in the back of a defunct ambulance." You get a bit of a chuckle out of your brother. It reminds you that you have burns on one side of your body. "Ah, hey, I know I can be a funny guy, but watch the burns!" He leans down with you on him, picking up his shotgun with his left hand.
"You're not funny, I was just being polite." He shoots back, but you can hear a smile in his voice, even if you can't see it. "Alright, we gotta move quick so we can make it back to the apartment where we can rest up and wait for this whole debacle to blow over. I found some fresh bandages in here, we'll get you cleaned and re-wrapped once we get home." You tense a little in his grip, remembering what you found under your bandages just a moment ago. You don't have long to think on this as Cam steps out of the ambulance with you on his shoulders and pauses in front of a prostrate form.
The morning sun is quite bright, but you squint and crane your neck to see what you are standing in front of. You wish you hadn't. Lying in a pool of blood was a large bear-creature. You sure it -is- a bear, just... it looks different, not quite fully animal, maybe? And is it wearing clothes? You squint a little harder and you can make out shreds of some kind of deep, navy blue cloth, but what catches your eye is a patch on the bear's right shoulder, it reads 'St. John's Ambulance EMT'. You're stunned. The mostly intact sleeve surely belonged to one of those paramedics at last nights fire. What's it doing on this bear-thing...?
Cameron starts to walk the both of you away from the body, a knot is forming in your stomach as you begin to think once more upon your own predicament. Is that what's happening to people in town? Are they becoming some sort of feral creatures? Were all of those things Cameron saw last night actually people? If that's the case, what's going to happen to you? Are you going to lose your mind and attack your brother as well? You don't want to dwell on this much further, but if you -are- going to lose your mind, you don't want to squander what moments of clarity you have left. Once you reach the apartment, you'll have to talk to Cam about this.
A few minutes pass before your brother breaks the silence surrounding you, "Jesus, I expected the streets to be quiet, but..." He kicks at a stone, its journey practically echoing in the stark muteness of the city. "...not this quiet." Cam finishes his thought as you approach an abandoned barricade. A couple police cruisers form this impromptu obstacle in front of you, one of the cars is a burnt out husk while the other one's windows are shattered, the interior ripped up and looted. You watch as your brother navigates some haphazardly deployed spike strips and carries you over the wreckage. "*huff* Man, have you put on some pounds? I swear you used to be a real feather-weight back in the day..." He huffs again as he readjusts you on his shoulders, "Good on ya for goin' to the gym, but I coulda sworn you've grown taller, too... back when I picked you up back at the ambulance, you just seem to have grown. That is so not fair." Your brother grins despite his confusion to your sudden gains, he was always stronger than you growing up, but you had ended up growing taller than him and it became a little in-joke that you were his big, little brother... if only by a couple inches.
"Hey, it's not my fault that I wasn't gifted the strength of God Himself, the least I could do was be granted an extra inch or two in the height department!" You retort with good-natured sarcasm. "Maybe I'm just a late-bloomer?"
"Really late," Cam says, "You're what now? twenty-two? Geez, I guess your body is finally catching up with that big head of yours." You both start to laugh, a bit of the tension from last night washing away. You almost feel normal again... As a matter of fact, you're surprised by how quickly you've started to recover. As your brother had said, these types of injuries don't just heal over night, but in your case that is almost exactly what has happened. You can still feel your burns, but it is no longer excruciating and you don't feel particularly feverish as you might expect with such a grievous medical condition.
You both press on in comfortable silence as Cameron exerts himself getting you around and over roadblocks and other such hurdles. You still haven't seen another soul all the while, however, the morning sun reaching its apex signalling the approach of midday. You wonder where everyone could be? One night of chaos and the city appears like it has completely shutdown. That being said, you can't help but feel a prickling sensation on the back of your neck. Hair standing on end, you try to move your head about to try and find the source of your discomfort. Nothing. That doesn't really comfort you all that much though, there are so many hiding places in the surrounding street that anything could be out there.
Cameron appears to have noticed something is off as well. He stops and crouches low, letting you roll of his shoulder and into a sitting position against a parked vehicle. He sits down next to you to catch his breath and check his shotgun. He pulls a couple of shot-shells out of the side pocket of his cargo pants and tops off his weapon. "Someone or something has been following us for a while. I think I caught a glimpse of something about a half-hour ago." He says, making sure the safety on the gun is set to 'off'. "I didn't think much of it because they kept to the shadows and didn't want to approach us in the open, but up ahead we'll have to cross through some kind of manufactured choke-point. One way in, one way out, no room for escape. If I was laying a trap, that's where it would be." You can feel your heart racing, you know you can trust your brother's expertise in this field, but just the thought of someone taking their time to deliberately ensnare you like some kind of prey has you feeling like you're going to be sick.
You're brother takes a deep breath before saying, "Stay here, if anything happens, try and get in to that store front over there and hide. There has got to still be a police force somewhere in this town, try and get in contact with them." Cameron points over to a pizza and sub place, just on the other side of the vehicle where you are hiding. You nod your head, just wanting to get this over with. Cameron moves out from behind the vehicle and begins to proceed toward the obvious trap.
He doesn't get too far before he is confronted by something your rational mind can't quite comprehend at this moment. From your vantage point, you can see two burly creatures step out from the far end of the funnel-like route, blocking the far exit. One of the creatures is quite tall and imposing, a thickset frame covered in fur and with the head of a mastiff, you can't see from your viewpoint but the slight hunch to his frame might indicate that he is standing on digitigrade paws, he probably has a tail, too. His companion is quite a stocky fellow - resembling something like a man-sized bulldog - and he's about half the height of the other, but you wouldn't doubt that he was the stronger of the two if his muscles were anything to go by. Neither of them are wearing much clothing, both are in tattered shorts and the bulldog is wearing a basketball jersey... You'd laugh if it wasn't so existentially terrifying.
Cameron wastes no time bringing his gun to bear on the unarmed monsters in front of him, lining up his shot. Suddenly, the car door to his left is kicked open, bashing right into him causing your brothers first shot to go wide of his intended targets. A third creature then hops out of the vehicle to join the fray. A black mutt bears his fangs as he lunges at your brother, his shotgun getting kicked away. Cameron manages to wrestle the first assailant to the ground, getting a few good punches in, but then the others join the fight. When the mastiff picks up the discarded shotgun, you know you have to do something. Your injuries not encumbering you in the slightest, you pick yourself up and begin to run toward the one-sided engagement.
Only to be stopped short by something big and furry grabbing you by the back of the neck, sharp claws digging into your flesh, "Now where do you think you're going, pup..." A chill runs down your spine as another furred paw-hand grabs your bandaged arm and roughly spins you around so that you are facing your assailant. You are looking right into the eyes and dark-muzzled visage of what you can only assume is a hyena-creature, "You think you can just pass through our hard-won territory for free, do ya? Well, I got news for you, kid, since we took this area from the city, it has become something of a toll road and you gotta pay a fee..." He cracks something akin to a smile, but it shows off too many of his fangs and it chills you right to the bone. Speaking of bone, unlike his friends this guy isn't wearing anything at all and it is becoming readily apparent what kind of 'payment' this toll road excepts. His throbbing shaft is poking out of his sheath, looking ready to do some serious damage, judging by its size and the colossal bitch-breaker at its base.
He runs his rough tongue across your face and it makes you shiver, more from fear than anything else. "Lets see what we have to play with," the bespeckled hyena says as he tears at your bandages, "How thoughtful, gift wrapping yourself like this." He lets out a chuckling sound that couldn't be further from representing true mirth. You watch as he undoes your bindings, powerless to stop his advances, and reveals row upon row of white-crystalline scales, pronounced and ridged as they are, wrapping around the areas that were once burned skin. "Hm, what have we here..." Muses the monster-man as he gets a closer look at you lizard-like flesh. That's when you see a flash of movement, over the shoulder of your captor, in an alley just behind the hyena-man.
*CRACK* a flash and loud shot ring from the alley. The hyena howls in pain as he grips his arm where the bullet grazed him, then you hear the figure shouting, "This way, son! Follow me!" You waste no time side-stepping your wounded, potential-rapist. Only pausing to look back at where your brother was fending off the others of this pack. You see him pinned to the side of a vehicle, the bulldog and the mutt holding him secure - both bleeding with cuts and at least one broken fang from your brother's punches - as the mastiff with the gun swings around to see you moving towards the alley. A shot rings out as the gun-toting dog futilely tries to prevent you from escaping. "Hurry!" A shout from inside the alleyway prompts you to get into shelter. The image of your beaten brother sticks in your mind as you follow your savior through the maze of corridors and into the side entrance of one of the buildings. In the small room, a gas lamp is burning and you finally get a good look at the person who saved you...