I was shaking so hard my teeth clicked together. Before I could recover from the shock, the others leaned over the shattered wall above me and peered down. All of them were grinning, some baring fangs that glinted beneath the sunlight.
Unlike human canines, theirs were longer, sharper, made for killing.
"So you were hiding here?" The rabbit-eared one raised his hunting rifle and aimed it at me.
In that instant my mind emptied, leaving only a single thought. I did not want to die.
No matter how many eras collapsed, no matter how the world had changed, there was one thing embedded in human DNA that would never vanish: the instinct to survive.
Drawing on the last scraps of strength in my body, I forced myself to spring up and run. At least I believed I was running. Even knowing I could never outrun a bullet, I refused to sit still and wait for death.
I had slept in that cryo-chamber—God knows how long—just for the chance to be saved. I did not want to die.
"Catch it!"
The shout behind me made my heart leap, and I ran harder, head down.
Bang!
The bullet grazed my ear. I screamed, clapped my hand over the ringing pain, but forced my legs to keep moving.
"Wait, don't shoot."
Their voices blurred together behind me, muffled by the ringing in my ears and the pounding of blood in my veins. My chaotic thoughts scrambled to piece everything together, to form even a vague picture of the world I had awakened into.
Between ragged breaths, I caught a strange scent threading through the metallic tang of the air.
It was pungent, strong enough to make my nose wrinkle.
"GRRRRR!"
A deep, thunderous growl latched onto the back of my neck. I sucked in a breath between clenched teeth and kept running, too terrified even to look back.
The scorching sunlight suddenly vanished from my skin. Something was above me. Something large.
I tilted my head upward—and froze.
A coat of black fur, dark as a bottomless night, stretched over a long, powerful body that blocked out the sky. The sight swallowed me whole, just like the darkness of cryosleep had once done.
Thud.
The giant creature landed before me, the impact trembling through the ground and sending me stumbling. Amber eyes locked onto me, fixing me in place.
Not a cat. A panther. A black panther. Even on all fours, it stood nearly as tall as I was. Its body stretched at least two meters long.
I had never seen a panther of such monstrous size.
It took a heavy step toward me, claws scraping grooves into the pavement. Its jaws parted in a low snarl, teeth shining like polished blades, as though it could tear me open at any moment.
Gasping, I backed away, preparing to run in the opposite direction. Human will was stubborn; we clung to life even when logic gave up.
But then my back slammed into something solid, like a stone wall. A wave of hot breath rolled down over my head, numbing my scalp.
Trembling, clutching my torn clothes, I forced myself to look up.
A towering stag stood behind me, antlers spiraling in elaborate curves. It had to be three meters tall.
"Fast little runner, aren't you?" I flinched and glanced left.
The rabbit was the only one who hadn't transformed. Half human, half beast, he held his rifle with casual menace, its barrel aimed at me like a silent threat.
Realizing I could no longer escape, my legs buckled and I collapsed. Gravel tore open the wounds on my knees once more, but I barely felt it.
"Not running anymore?" The rabbit prodded my shoulder with the muzzle of his rifle. "How boring."
So this was what animals felt like when hunted, driven to the edge until there was nowhere left to go. It was not pleasant.
"This one looks different." The voice rumbled above me as the stag shrank back into a humanoid form. "It can run on two legs like we do."
The panther stood up as well, its dark fur receding under human skin that surfaced in its place.
"It's wearing clothes. Might be someone's pet." He said.
The rabbit nudged my chin upward with the cold barrel of his gun. "No collar. Maybe abandoned."
My fingers curled against the dirt, gathering grit into my palm. I was no longer even sure I was breathing. My chest was constricted, as if someone had tied a rope around my lungs.
In that moment of despair, my mind sharpened with unnatural clarity. The scattered pieces of information finally linked together, forming an answer I did not want to believe.
These were not humans. Not hybrids. Not mutants of humanity.
They were animals that had evolved, able to shift forms. A phenomenon unscientific and absurd, yet happening right before my eyes. Denial was impossible.
Why? Was it a biological catastrophe? A failed experiment? A natural mutation?
I no longer trusted my old human assumptions. In this overturned world, our former logic might hold no meaning.
"Let's take it back first." The panther pulled a rope from the pouch at his side and stepped toward me, binding my wrists.
The coarse fibers scraped my skin, biting into my already bruised flesh. Pain flared, but I did not dare make a sound.
Judging by the human-like creature that attacked me earlier, and by the way these beast-men behaved toward humans… I could already see the reversal of roles.
If I spoke, I had no idea what horrors might follow.
The panther's amber gaze lifted to meet mine. There was still a wildness in it, but it was layered with human intelligence. The combination made my blood run cold.
"At least it looks pretty. Should fetch a good price."
I had nothing left. After the chase and the exhaustion of waking from hibernation, my strength was spent. They dragged me across the ground like an object, no, more like an animal.
Human strength had become something small and pathetic in this world.
I lifted my eyes to the highway that had once stretched proudly across the land, now nothing but ruins swallowed by wilderness. The view was as bleak as the gray sky pressing down on my head.
Where would my fate lead?
Perhaps only God knew.
And even then… only if He still existed in this fallen Eden.
***