A Broken World, A Shattered Heart, A Fate Worse Than Death.....

"Dad," a teenage fox/wolf girl asks in a soft, sweet voice, "I’ve been meaning to ask you…Why are we different from Humans, what happened during The Great Mutation?"

Her tall burly wolf father turns and looks down at her and speaks in a deep, strong voice, "That's a difficult question to answer. I'm not sure you'd want to know anyway."

A fox/wolf boy, the girl’s one year younger brother, chimes in with his pubescent teen-voice, "I was wondering the same thing, c'mon tell us."

The burly wolf looks at his sleeping young fox/wolf daughter in his arms, "Fine, but only because your sister is asleep and you deserve to know.”

The kid's fox like ears perked with anticipation, attentively waiting for their father to tell them the story they never knew.
The father began to speak, "It all happened 18 years ago, everyone on the planet was a Human, we Mutants weren't even though possible to exist, the Human governments of the world were at war, some physical wars were taking place, but the worst war had no conflict. A new Cold War had been building tension for a few years, slowly but surely reaching its boiling point. The new century had brought much technical advancement, many had been lost after the wars of the past, but the new century brought something worse; weapons. The Human race had a problem, they always thought they could fight and control whatever they wanted, but that wasn't the case. These new weapons of mass destruction harnessed atomic radial power like no weapon ever had. These bombs were so powerful; a human wouldn't last five minutes near it with the most protective suit available. The US thought they had the best weapons, but they were wrong. An unknown source had a bomb 10 times as powerful as the US's strongest device. The unknown location launched their bomb aimed directly at Southern California. The war had begun. That's where I come in; I was an 18 year old runaway living in the back of a van. I ran away from my parents because they never loved me, they treated me like dirt; I was a burden to them. My sister stayed, not because she didn't want to be with me, but because she was a very talented musician, she had plans. I didn't have any plans. I respected her for staying in that hellhole to follow her dreams, even if it meant leaving me. I got myself into to some trouble on the streets of Southern Cali; quite a few people wanted me dead. One day I was at the harbor in my van thinking of a way to scrounge up some cash when Gustav and his gang found me. I owed them some money and I might have stabbed them all in the back, one of them literally. I was a big guy, capable of holding my own, but I wasn't going to stand a chance against 5 men with guns. I had gotten out of the van to try and flee but they pointed their guns right at my head, I froze. The nearest goon was 5 yards away, slowly closing in. I was done for...but then it happened. A bright light and wave of energy knocked in the city to their ass, the wave shattered every bit of glass and cracked the cement. An enormous mushroom cloud loomed over the city; everyone stopped and stared in awe. Then a second wave that had been building in the base of the cloud exploded releasing a green wall of soot-like gas. The gas spread at the speed of sound, no one had time to react. About 56 percent of the city's citizen started writhing in agony, I was one of them. I felt a pain like I had never felt before, my bones were cracking and rearranging, my ears slowly moved their way up the sides of my head, the form of my skull began to elongate. I was growing; my body quickly filled up my clothes until it finally tore free and continued to grow. My muscles were inflating; I became far stronger than any Human could ever hope to be. Fur was growing over my body; a tail painfully shot out of my ass and started growing long fluffy hairs. I opened my eyes, I looked down and saw the shreds of my clothes on the cement, a broken watch that my wrist out grew was in pieces on the ground. I lifted my heavy head as I got to my hands and knees, Gustav and his gang were staring at me in horror, they hadn't changed. Why? I unconsciously let out a monstrous roar. The goon ran but Gustav stayed; he wanted to finish the job. I got to my feet; I now stood over 7 feet tall. A gun was trembling in Gustav's hand, I stared into his fear filled eyes, and he pulled the trigger. Acting on instinct I leapt into the air with enough speed to dodge the bullet. Without even thinking my large fist connected with Gustav’s face continuing as my body pushed the back of his head closer to the ground, within half a second after my fist made contact with his face my fist was against the cement; Gustav’s head smashed like a watermelon beneath my might….”
The kids said in unison, “YOU KILLED HIM!”
“I didn’t mean to kill him; I had a new strength I was getting used to. Now shut up I’m in the middle of the story. Anyway…I looked at my reflection in the pool of blood and saw someone else; a beast that had been locked away that was now free. I stood up with my hands out in front of me shaking my head. I buried my face into my hands while a tear shed from my right eye; I killed a man, for no reason…I was a monster. I was one of those things, ya’know the mindless Mutants that kill for fun, I was one, but I snapped myself back to reality before it was too late. I ran away, my fan had fallen into the now green harbor along with the pier in the explosion. As I ran towards the city I saw the destruction as the thick green mist parted; skyscrapers had fallen, bridges looked as though they had never existed and Humans and even Mutants were running and screaming. I looked up to see military helicopters hovering above; did they know this would happen? Much of the city was now a crater; I didn’t know how many had died that day. I saw Mutants of many kinds, foxes, lions, bears, it made me look in a proper mirror. I concluded that I was some kind of dog/wolf thing. Humans in hazmat suits and guns came charging down the streets shooting at the Mutants, I helped a family of Mutants into the sewer where I had seen others go. When I got deeper into the sewer it seemed others had had the same idea but no clue on what to do. I was bigger and taller than everyone else in the larger sewage junction, there must have been hundreds of frightened Mutants. I stood tall and raised my voice; I told everyone that we needed to get out of the city before they found us. I’ve had to use the sewers to escape before so I knew the way out. I helped everyone into the large pipe that would lead to outside of the city, but we were too late. Someone had sealed it; everyone began to climb a nearby exit pipe lead to the surface. The pipe ended on top of a hill on the outskirts of the city. An enormous looming cement wall surrounded the entire area, keeping us in. The air seemed green; the sun’s last rays of light silhouetted the destroyed city as it set. The large group began to walk back to the city, on the way we encountered many beasts hungry for blood; I fought them back while the group made it past. We eventually made it to the city’s center. The mayor, now a tiger Mutant, explained that we can let this defeat us, or we could come together to rebuild. That’s when I met…when I met….”
The girl asked, “Mom, you met mom right?”
The father froze in thought before replying, “Uhh…’it wasn’t her, there was another, the skunk’…ya, your mother, right.”
The father stood still sinking deeper into thought about his past, ‘The skunk, she used me. I left her days after meeting her and never looked back. That’s when I met my wife…my true love.’
“Dad?” the boy asked.
The father snapped back to reality, “Oh right, the story. By the time the Mutants of the city calmed down…what was left of them anyway…society managed to rebuild itself faster than anyone would have expected. We all new we’d need to create a system, but before we could begin we needed to seal off a large portion of the city which contained all of the blood thirsty over-mutated beasts and plants. That part of the city’s plant life was greatly affected by the toxic radiation. The plants grew like mad and within 2 days transformed that entire area of the city into a thick, dark jungle. The only way to split the town was to take down one of its own buildings. Luckily one was ready to fall anyway, so I knocked down the remaining supports with pure strength. The way to the East side of the city was sealed. The next morning two government helicopters flew into the ci-“
“Helicopters,” the daughter questioned, “really dad?”
“Yes, helicopters. Anyway, the helicopters hovered over the city square carrying a rectangular metal frame. A translucent greenish screen appeared within the metal frame depicting a Human face; a live video transmission. The Human spoke with a disgusted tone as he forced the words from his mouth, ‘G-Greetings Mutants, we have taken it upon ourselves to rebuild this once great nation. We will shine brighter than we ever have before. Unfortunately, you have been dubbed a threat, unless you frea-...Mutants can prove otherwise.’ The others in the crowd must have sensed the trick I was feeling because they all started yelling out insults and things like ‘We’ll never join you!’ The Humans caused this, why would we join them. The Human spoke again, ‘Very well, you will all be terminated shortly.’ Fear stuck the citizens like a bolt of lightning, after all every had been through, it was all about to be lost. Everyone fled to the outer wall; it was still as solid as ever. I had to do something, so I began punching the wall and to my amazement; a chunk of cement broke free of the wall where my fist made contact. I kept punching, others joined in until the wall had an opening big enough for everyone to fit through. It was then that I heard it; the missile headed straight for the city. We were too late. I-“
The father stopped speaking and put his arm out to halt the girl and boy following him. “Shh.” He whispered. He handed the sleeping girl to the teenage girl and pulled out a hand gun. The gun looked miniscule in the father’s beastly hands. He pointed the gun through the thick green mist covering the forest floor they were walking through. He taught his children Sign Language for situations specifically of this nature, he signed ‘stay here, keep quite.’ Immediately after signing the message he ran into the mist. The thin cold cloud surrounded the children, they felt a despair wash over themselves like a wave that they could escape. They heard a gunshot and yell from their father. The sleeping girl woke just before the yell. Fear filled them all. They heard their father yell out to them, “DON’T MOVE-GAAAH-A MUSCLE!” He was in pain. Their father possessed a set of peculiar skills, one of which was the ability to spin his tail a remarkable speeds. His tail fan blew the mist in the surrounding area away to reveal an enormous plant creature. It’s man eating plant head hung suspended between vines in the trees above. They walked right into a trap. The vines slithered and sung towards the kids, at the tip of each vine was a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. The father dove towards a vine headed for his son and with his powerful jaw bit cleanly through the vine. The plant’s head roared in pain, the son joined in and began biting the vines like his father; soon all of the vines attacking them were destroyed. The plant wasn’t done yet; the head opened an enormous gaping mouth it opened so wide it turned itself inside out. A disgusting sound of tearing flesh was heard; from the throat a skinless Human slowly lowered from the plants throat connected to each other by stingy bits of flesh; this poor Human was the plant’s lifeless puppet. Blood and other fluids were leaking from every possible point producing a horrid stench similar to that of raw chicken and expired milk. The flesh puppet lifted its head after its feet touched the ground; it had two dark holes were its eyes once were and only 6 sharp teeth in its gaping mouth. The puppet lunged at them with astonishing speed; as quickly as it lunged it fell. The kids were staring at the motionless puppet at their feet, they looked up to see their father standing with his back to them with a sword in his hand; he cut the strings holding the puppet so fast no one saw him. The plant was screaming as jets of blood and other fluids spewed from the freshly cut strings beneath it. The kids watched as their father got low and ran towards a tree with his sword drawn, he jumped and pushed off of the tree with his strong legs launching himself at the plant; he cut the head at its base. The fleshy wet head landed on the ground with a crash, splashing some fluids on the kids and father who landed next to it. The plant stopped screaming; it was dead. The father stood still with his head hanging, a tear glistened as is streamed down his face. “I’m sorry.” He said softly.
He lifted his arm over his right shoulder and returned the sword to its holster on his back. The swords beautiful handle shone magnificently as it caught a small ray of light that was now breaking through the trees; the sun has finally risen.

(perfect song for this)

Time flows
Nobody knows
The years go by
Where we go
Alone from here

Night falls
Strange colored walls
My eyes deceive
What is wrong
With me?

Deep in the night you think everything's right
Tell it to yourself
Say it's just a nightmare

Something is telling you
Nothing can change where you are
Again

Why it should matter
Your dreams of a child
Innocence is gone
Only fear to play with

Faces are changing
But nothing is changing the pain
Too late

Two steps I take getting closer
And closer

And one more breath I take
Sends me further back

Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah

Over and over it calls to your soul
Say it isn't so
Emptiness surrounds you

No one can help
If the angels refuse to come near
Who's there

Cold faded photos
They lay by your side
Something in my room
Nevermind the reason

Visions are lying and reasons just live to survive
This time

The cold (The cold)
The light (The light)
The fear (The fear)
Returning

It's not (It's not)
The eyes (The eyes)
You feel (You feel)
That's chilling you.

"Acceptance" by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn