Useless Latecomers

Sitting back up, Zac spat, clearing the disgusting taste of his vomit from his mouth. He looked around to get his bearings, and found that, once again, he was lost in the forest that seemed to cover much of the Transition Zone.

Zac was still breathing rapidly, taking short shallow breaths, panicked and shaky after he had lost control of himself in the clearing.

Even though his wolfish instincts had taken over, it didn't mean that he had any lapse in memory, Zac could clearly remember tearing out the throats of wolf after wolf, and running around on all fours.

With his enhanced senses, the memory of the smells he had experienced was so sharp that it felt as though he was still there, and the blood caking his mouth and chest didn't help in the slightest.

'I've got to get back, and I need to transform back into a human.' Zac thought, he knew that Fredrick's good nature meant he'd be worried, looking for Zac all around the clearing.

'S***. If they find the wolf I killed and the rescue blanket, then Fredrick might suspect that I'm hiding something, I need to get back there!' Zac realized that he'd left the blanket behind, only a few feet from the corpse of the wolf he'd slain.

'How on earth am I going to find my way back, though?' Zac looked around anxiously, looking around for any broken branches to see if he could figure youtube where he'd come from.

But Zac's transformation meant that not only was he stronger and faster, but he also instinctively slipped through the plants choking the lower layers of the forest cleanly, just like any Forest Wolf might.

'Hold on. Maybe I can smell my way back." Zac took a deep sniff, gagging a little at the strong smell of blood. He closed his eyes, focusing on the different scents, he could smell blood, the earthy smell of the forest, a sharp scent that had to be a nearby flower.

Zac's nose started to twitch as the pollen all around him started to enter his sensitive new nose, but he ignored it, and continued to take deep sniffs.

'There.' Zac zoned in on a distinctive musky odor, it was like the smell of a dog, except stronger, and sharper on his nose.

He moved his head around, trying to find where the smell was strongest, and nose to the ground, back on all fours, Zac trotted back toward the clearing where he had so savagely ripped into wolf after wolf.

------

Back in the clearing, Frederick had disappeared into the forest, while Jay and Ying were talking in low voices to the lone survivor, the young woman who clutched a small child in her arms.

She was a short woman, but looked even tinier next to the towering figures of the two Augmented.

The three of them were an almost comical sight, Ying would be tall compared to most regular humans, but his torso was far broader than any person.

But Jay towered over evn Ying, and dwarfed him in his width and sheer size, completely covered in dense exaggerated muscle, he had a figure that would make even a body builder jealous.

"Alright, ma'am. How are you feeling?" Jay asked in his extremely deep voice, they had moved away from the bodies of the wolves, off to one side of the clearing.

They wanted to reassure the survivor as much as they could, and would have left the clearing if it wasn't for the fact that they were waiting for the rest of their crew.

The others definitely would have seen or heard the flare, and would be heading their way.

"I'm okay. Less scared now that you all are here." The woman gave them a weak smile, clutching her child tightly to her chest, who squirmed in her grip, looking around with wide eyes at the two odd men that towered above it.

"That's great, ma'am. My name is Jay, and this is Ying." Jay gestured to himself and then to Ying before continuing. "We're going to look after you until the sanctioned teams arrive, once they're near, we're going to head off, but we'll definitely make sure you're completely safe." Jay spoke slowly and as softly as he could while still being heard.

"Huh? What do you mean? Aren't you all rescuers? The ITC sends rescue teams, right! That's what all the ads say! Follow ACE and a rescue team will find you." The woman's face crinkled into a scared expression, and her eyes filled with tears, looking as though she might cry.

"No, no, no. Ma'am, we mean you absolutely no harm. I promise you, we're here to make sure you're safe." Jay knelt down to the woman's level, and spoke softly, his hands up in front of him, trying, ineffectively, to make himself as small and unthreatening as possible.

"Every time, you go and decide to be honest. What's the point? It never goes well." Standing off to the side, Ying hissed under his breath, quiet enough that the woman couldn't hear, but Jay's enhanced senses easily picked up.

"Ma'am. With Transition Zones this large, the ITC needs some time to gather AUgmented who are powerful enough to delve into it safely. Just think of us as volunteers, bridging the gap until the proper authorities arrive." Jay said with a smile, patting the woman on the shoulder with an enormous hand.

"Proper authorities. Pah. More like useless latecomers. Barely anyone would survive a Transition if it weren't for people like us, and then the ITC b******* go and brag about the rescue statistics." Ying continued to complain under his breath, the slightest twitch in Jay's eyebrow the only sign that he was getting more and more annoyed.

"So you're not going to kidnap me and my son?" The woman said weakly, her voice shaking.

"Of course not. We're just going to keep you and your son safe, that's it." Jay gave the woman a strained grin, struggling to keep a cheerful expression and not turn to Ying and start yelling at him.

"Phweeeet." A loud whistle came from a bunch of ferns to one side of the clearing.

"You guys really did a number on these wolves."