The Sound of Silence: Fire in the Dark, Fanfiction Book #2

Chapter Six

He could smell the beast first before he even heard Sasha's gun firing into the night. 

The crunch of snow, the hot breath of a prowling animal. The smell of a predator that had been hunting in the wilderness for perhaps several weeks.

It didn't take but a drop of his hatchet and a click of his gun. He aimed and let it fire, but whatever decided to hunt after him leapt, leaving a cloud of snow in its wake. He spun on the balls of his feet, hoping to catch sight of the creature. It darted around him, reminiscent of a beast not very keen on staying very still. 

Like a wild animal, and not at all like the virus-infected undead he was so used to.

He kept his gun level, all the while waiting for the beast to come closer. He kept his back to the fire, even with the dwindling light and warmth. He shivered; it was growing cold, a bit too cold to his liking. 

He needed to get back to the cabin. 

The beast lunged again with a loud roar. He felt claws into his back, cutting into skin, into bone. He howled loudly, taken for a moment with the sheer paralyzing pain through his back. The Plagas screamed in his head, the searing pain blooming from the parasitic womb...

...and followed with burning anger, a primal, wild flame that pulsed through his heart and burned through his body. But he didn't remember this, other than that searing, blooming pain from his back, the fevered heat that constantly thundered like a heartbeat at his back. Then cold...like ice, cloaking him into a chilling embrace.

And he remembered a deep sleep...

When he did wake, he was in the cabin, rolled up in a blanket that, unfortunately, smelled very much like cat, but with his back abnormally exposed in a strange manner. He winced, but Sasha hushed him.

"What happened?" He asked, but winced as something like hands wrung cold cloth at his...wait...

He glanced back, seeing strange appendages over his shoulders. They held a bright color of deep red, brightening to a warm luminescent yellow at the very end of the thin veils of membrane. He winced as Sasha laid cold cloth on the veins. He told him, "Don't, that's cold...!"

Sasha leered back, as if startled. He then nodded and asked, "Can you feel my hands?"

"When you touch them yes," Leon admitted. He grumbled and shifted, causing his...well whatever they were, to shift as well, as if to stretch. He asked, "What're...are these wings?"

"Might be," Sasha admitted, "I've never seen a mutation like this before..."

"What do you remember?" Came Zemira's quiet voice, though the shock was barely held from it. Clearly... The FBI agent had never seen actual wings before. "And uh, how did you manage to get wings?"

"Oh..." Leon groaned and rubbed his face. He muttered, "I remember chopping wood for the house. And I remember some big...fuck I don't know, some big beast coming after me. I tried to take some shots of him last night, but he got my back from behind."

He winced and muttered, "I go from being a woodsman to a fairy. Great...just my luck."

Sasha chuckled and noted, "Well, it seems to have saved your life."

"Or not..." Leon grumbled. He furrowed his brows and focused, trying to raise his new mutation. They responded, rising farther and farther from his shoulders and back and stretching as far as they could. He muttered, "...well well well...I guess these appendages aren't independently acting..."

"Is that a good thing?" She asked, sitting cross-legged beside Leon. "That they aren't independently acting?"

"Maybe..." Leon remarked. He focused to see if he could get them to flap, and sure enough, they flapped, eventually picking up to a full buzzing flutter. They also took a warm glow, deep red from his back to the golden yellow at the ends. He hummed.