The Shapeshifter

Mystica

As I started jogging along the single desert path, I heard something rustle in the bushes. I creeped slowly and carefully towards it, inching with every hesitant step. I pushed aside the bushes to find something black, something crouching down, someone called... Luke. I glared at the bush of jet black hair as it slowly turned to reveal Luke smiling sheepishly at me, saying softly,"Sorry for the scare."

I stepped back and allowed Luke to crawl out of the bush. "You also can come out now, Jessica. That was not a guy from the Institute." Luke called out, turning around once again to look at another bush.

Jessica slowly stepped out of that bush, armed with a stun gun that I had seen James carrying in his jacket pocket. "How did you ge-" I started, before hearing a sound of footsteps and angry voices.

I managed to hear part of the conversation. "Where are the shapeshifters? We need them back here right now!" That sounded like professor Jason. My mind raced. They knew we were gone! I signaled to my friends, and we headed into the deep and dense jungle.

Jessica handed me a stun gun, and I kept it in my jeans pocket, thinking that I might need that later. We trudged through the jungle, each step producing an unpleasant squelching noise. The noise was unsettling, but it meant that we were progressing and that James and professor Jason weren't following us.

I heaved a sigh of relief and looking down, I continued on. After a few more steps, I bumped into something large.

That was the moment I realised I had actually bumped into James. I looked up, and saw that he was pointing a stun gun at me. I reached into my jeans pocket, but I didn't find my stun gun. I looked back at James, who was smiling in delight. Then, the world was black. I felt myself falling, but I never did touch the ground. A pair of big, beefy, strong hands caught me.