1 Initializing

"Kain, the ambulance can't make it out here! They say the bridge is washed out!" A petite blonde woman held a phone with one hand while stroking the back of a young boy's head with the other—her tears adding to the rain falling to the ground.

"God damn it! I don't care if the damned bridge is out; Alex needs a hospital!" The father clung to the child tightly as he showed clear concern for his safety. The man ran his hands through the hair of the boy, " It'll be ok, Chunky Monkey."

"We've run out of options, and we have to get him out of this rain! Maybe we can take him home and treat him until they can send a helicopter." Carol was distraught and wasn't being rational. "What good is helping him if he dies of infection? The hospital says we should take him home and wait!"

The boy clenched his stomach in agony as he writhed in pain. He appeared to be approximately 12 years old, but the anguish in his eyes was that of a dying old man. He had experienced far more than any child, in the past few moments, than they would their whole lives. His skin started to split apart, unable to contain the muscles that lay beneath and blood spread across his body.

Kain, still holding the child, abandoned his car and began moving toward a nearby river. "I know where Jimmy keeps his keys, he won't mind! We'll take the boat for the night. Have the ambulance meet us at the docks!"

His father's coat was the only thing protecting him from the elements as a torrential downpour soaked his wounds, washing away the blood instantly. Had he not been wrapped so tightly, they would have noticed that underneath his skin lay another growing layer, rough and grey in color.

"Kain, think about the storm, Please! If that old boat tips over, we'll all die!" Carol was begging her husband to let them return home.

Alex's limbs began to stretch, and his eyes began to change. The whites turned a bright vibrant yellow, and the pupils became quite large, removing what little brown was there. Three claws tore through the toes of his shoes, and his body became more dense.

His newfound weight dragged him from his father's arms. Upon reaching the ground, he sunk a few inches in, embedding himself slightly into the earth.

"Alex!" Kain reached to retrieve his son, only to be met with two grey arms shredding the jacket that once wrapped him. Unable to move, Kain stared as a reptilian monster rose from the spot Alex was once in.

"No, Alex!!! What happened to you?" Carol screamed while she kneeled and held onto one of the pieces of Kain's Jacket that had fallen to the ground. She was completely incapable of comprehending the situation.

The creature let out a roar that resounded through the air; the deafening sound grew louder as its body exploded in size.

The thing was towering over him and was the height of a two-story house within seconds. Kain didn't know what to do, so he grabbed his wife's hand, pulled her out of the mud, and immediately fled toward the vehicle they arrived in.

This drew the attention of the newly awakened beast, which seemed to be acting on instinct, causing it to immediately target the couple. Its body snapped into the direction of the two, and it bellowed ferociously! The sound was deep and guttural, causing even the windows on the vehicle to tremor.

Kain pulled his spouse into the vehicle with him and quickly locked the doors. Sliding to the floor, the couple whimpered quietly out of fear as they hid from the thing that had spawned from their son.

With every step the titan took, the earth trembled, and the pair flinched at the vibrations from the ground. Every moment they expected to be there last. Suddenly the quaking stopped, and they began to release a sigh of relief. Before the wife could finish, her side of the vehicle was crushed.

Panicking, Kain grabbed a flare gun from beneath the seat, he promptly dove out of the vehicle and took aim at the beast. He fired, and a glowing red flare sailed into the sky. He watched as the light streaked across the night before promptly bouncing off of the nostril of the giant. It immediately sneezed from the fumes and seemed to become agitated.

The monster took a step closer to its father and lowered itself to take a bite out of the man. It wrapped its mouth around his waist and began to lift its head back. This didn't kill him immediately, but the sounds of screaming had now shifted to the inside of the beast's mouth.

The creature noticed an array of flashing lights heading toward it. The lights were in the distance, and the creature seemed to be drawn toward them like a moth to a flame. Upon inspecting the lights, something had awoken inside the creature; rather, someone had awoken.

****

Alex had been through so much agony today and seeing the lights had caused his eyes to dilate slightly, inciting a headache. The migraine was quite intense, and those lights were causing it to be so much worse.

Alex decided to run towards the lights, which was difficult at first. Learning how to maneuver in this new body came naturally but was also awkward as well. He felt like he had some decision in his movements, but it felt as if his body was refusing to let him take full control.

As he approached the lights, hundreds of people began to swarm around them. They were all police officers and firefighters stationed on this side of the city. With the bridge collapsing and the storm occurring, they couldn't call their full force, but a few hundred responded to the call quickly.

Alex squinted as bright lights filled the sky; the flashing lights from the cars and trucks painted a chaotic scene while the spotlights in the rain increased the lights' intensity. Suddenly he felt a barrage of what felt like mosquito bites all over his body.

A strong force was pounding against his chest, making him extremely uncomfortable. Wanting them to stop so that they could help him regain control, Alex released another ear-shattering roar and began walking forward. Out of fear and desperation, he tried to communicate once more but continued to be attacked. He wanted the pain to stop, and so he began to thrash around violently, harming everything in his path… Living or not.

At first, he only stepped on the firetrucks that were blasting him with extreme amounts of water pressure. That wasn't enough; the firefighters started grabbing firearms from the police officers and shooting at the child. Alex couldn't take it anymore; he had begun to suffer bruises and could tell his body was growing weaker. He began to fear that he was bleeding in some places but couldn't tell due to the constant downfall of rain.

Alex began to howl in pain as the damage to his body continued to build. He was confused as to why those who were supposed to be protecting him seemed to only want to hurt him. He began to throw a tantrum, doing to them what they had done to him.

Alex ran directly toward the officers and began stepping on as many as possible. After he defeated nearly half of the police force in a single sweep, they finally decided to try and take cover in nearby homes.

Their attacks increased from what they thought was a safe place and the 12-year-old did not like this. So, Alex did what he thought was right, and he grasped a police car in his jaws and did his best to force it through the side of the homes in which the officers sought refuge.

The situation quickly escalated, causing more damage to the area. Alexander watched as a fire broke out from the car's destruction inside the home and decided to move on to the next.

The poor local families were now being dragged into this fight against the beast, which caused the police department to take drastic measures. They had sent a helicopter out from their headquarters on the other side of the city, and it took a while to arrive due to the storm.

By the time the helicopter arrived, multiple homes had collapsed due to Alex, and over two hundred people had been slain. Still, when it got there, it was finally able to cause Alex to back off slightly due to its fully automatic weapons and ability to stay out of reach.

Alexander attempted to reach his massive jaws for the helicopter whenever he got an opportunity, but it never worked. He quickly realized that they were using it to gain access to the weaker inside of his mouth and chose to run away.

Alex retreated to the river and recalled a movie about a T-Rex not swimming very well. With this memory, he did his best to avoid falling into the raging water, but it was impossible.

As soon as he had moved away from the civilians and they deemed it safe, the police force showed their trump card.

They had recently confiscated a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) from a local gang during a drug bust. Thankfully, the officer firing the RPG from the helicopter had no experience with such a weapon. He aimed for Alexander when he fired, but he didn't account for the rocket's weight.

The missile landed and exploded at Alexander's feet, debris was thrown into the air, rocks and shrapnel pelted him from below, and at the same time, the force pushed him into the water.

As his heavy body sank into the river, his lungs filled with dirty water, and Alexander thought he would die. As his consciousness began to fade and his vision blurred in and out, he realized that his body was starting to shrink. The raging storm above the city had finally broken, and the sun was beginning to peek through the clouds.

"Boy, you sure lucked out that I chose to stay in the city this weekend," a mysterious elderly man with white hair and a cane in one hand stood on the water and offered one hand to Alexander before pulling him out of the water.

But, Alexander had his eyes focused on a different sight that appeared in front of his eyes that were stinging from the filthy water he came from.

[Welcome to the Were-Rex System. Initializing...]