"You can take my heart, you can take my breath, when you pry it from my cold dead chest." — The Resistance, Skillet

-:-

Come on, come on, come on, I chanted to myself. My muscles, or rather Shark's muscles, were already beginning to grow tired. We were working as hard as we possibly could to keep our pursuers on their toes. We darted around large trees, through dense and thorny undergrowth (which managed to snag in my fur at times), and veer them so deeply off the original road that even I wasn't completely sure if I would be able to find the way back to the compound.

"I know where we need to go when the time comes to start back. I can follow my scent back easily. Try to use the sense we share now, McKenzie. Try hard. Can't you smell our trail?"

In all honesty, I couldn't smell it. I wasn't sure how Shark was able to, either. We shared the same damn nose, and here she is telling me she could smell our trail that led from the compound to here. I could only smell wet dog and car fumes and exhaust, which, by the way, had a stench that was so much worse in the form of the dog, which must be why I didn't smell it in town or while on the bus. Maybe Shark's senses could be tapped into in human form, but with practice.

"Focus!" she commanded, making my sight blurry with concentration. She was trying to add more of herself in control, trying to force her conscious to join with mine. This was her body, she was thinking to herself importantly, and she should be in control of it more than me. "You cannot afford to be zoned out right now, stupid child!"

Stupid child? My blood began to boil at the harsh insult, and I felt the working of my paws on the forest floor begin to become heavier with each new time in came to the grassy floor, my body starting to grow numb to the pangs and aches whenever sharp branches stabbed at my flank, or when thorns caught my skin and my anger urging me to prove to her just how wrong her words were towards me. I was not going to let a dog call me stupid and get away with it, I was not going to prove her words right, and I was not a stupid child!

Before I knew it, I had lost track of time. The forest raced past quicker than I expected it too, leaving a blurry movement of green and brown behind, replacing it with more green and brown. Some of the shades were darker than the last, then were quickly blocked out by the sun beaming its light on the magnificent forest, making the surroundings brighter than they had been.

My parents appeared in my field of vision each time I leaped over a fallen tree, or turned around and darted in a different path. They stared at me, looking worried. My father was a tall man, with dark eyes and a strong jaw. He had his arms wrapped tightly around my increasingly worried looking mother. My mother, her dark brown hair pulled up in a high pony tail, her lips moving as though she were speaking to me. She reached one of her hands out to me, but each time I stretched my legs long enough to almost touch her, reach her, their image faded and appeared minutes later, their lips moving in a silent speak.

I grew frustrated when they kept appearing close, but couldn't be reached. It felt like I was experiencing a mirage, a trick of the mind, teasing the desires one seeks. My lips curled back and I lunged out at the distorted images, my claws slashing through them and a snarl ripping through my throat. It didn't sound like me at all, and if I was to hear that sound from an actual dog, I would probably turn tail and run to the nearest high ground.

My muscles were starting to burn, or maybe they had been burning for a while and I was only just feeling it. I didn't know which was true, but the burning felt outrageous. It knocked whatever breath I had left in my body, and my legs started giving out. I stumbled along, slowing down with each step I ran through the forest.

If I collapsed now, the damn assholes chasing me would, without any doubt, catch up to me and after that do God knows what.

And if that happened, I might just be failing this mission. But at whose fault? I didn't volunteer for this stupid mission, and if I had any say in what happened to me I would ask Silo to give me some training before they sent me out to the field.

But would he send me out thinking I didn't have a chance? A part of me muttered.

I hoped not. I hated Silo, and I was pretty pissed at the fact that nobody's given me every answer I sought out, but two people I thought were dead are in fact alive: my grandmother and Tommy.

A heavy twist of my stomach snapped me out of my thoughts, and something deep within my body kicked in. It rushed through me, from the tip of my tail to the ends of my ears and nose. It was a source of fresh, renewed energy, once waiting to be tapped into, and now activated.

My claws dug into the ground beneath me, and I increased my speed more and more. My tail zipped behind me, heart pounding heavily inside of my chest. My eyes narrowed to slits, my vision fuzzing in and out.

The forest around me was spinning, and not just because I was doing twists and turns to throw these asshats off my trail. I was truly watching as the world spun in circles, in a way where it as though a child spun the handle on a music box, and the handle was the world around me.

I reached out to Shark, looking for any sign of strength that remained. I felt her determination, her encouragement to me. She, too, was feeding into our race, but who knew how long that would be able to hold?

Stop running! My muscles pleaded, shaking under the tired weight of my body. Hide! Wait it out!

I wanted to do just that, oh how I desired so much too. I glanced around me, searching desperately for a spot that I could veer off trail without being seen so I could just ... break off.

There was a possibility I would be seen by the drivers, and if I stopped I would be caught — or worse: killed.

My best chance would be to take the risk and head straight back to where we came — the facility. At least there I would be surrounded by allies, and I will be able to regain energy and my breath.

I picked on my own scent trail from earlier, mentally cursing when I found that due to my constant twists and turns throughout the forest, they all sort of lapped over each other. I caught a wiff of a slightly musty part of my trail, confirming this to be the oldest out of all of them — so I followed it.

My ears flicked back and forth, listening for danger as I ran. The repetitive thud of my paws hitting the forest floor was the loudest, next to the breaking of branches and foliage being broken as I went.

My throat was burning with a flame that had been ignited from the dryness. Not even my mouth was producing enough saliva for me to swallow as a temporary source of hydration.

I didn't have much time. If I collapsed from dehydration or exhaustion before I got back to the raid, where I could be protected, then I would be captured — that's a fact.

I broke through a thorn bush, the prickly thorns sticking into my flank like claws of a predator attaching itself to its prey. I forced down a yelp of pain and continued through, not even noticing that my legs were beginning to wobble.

Just before I collapsed, I leaped through the forest and landed in the clearing of the compound, legs shaking. Men and women turned their heads, racing towards me with guns. My blurred vision couldn't tell if they were on my side or theirs. I braced myself for the smack of bullets, accepting my fate, but they never came.

They were rushing past me, shooting into the forest and yelling commands at one another. They're the good guys, I reassured myself. I allowed my legs to collapse from underneath me as the bullets kept firing into the forest.

My ears sang with pain as blood rushed to my ears, a terrible headache coursing through my entire skull. Throb. Throb. Throb. Throb. Throb.

An explosion sounded, and I felt heat on my cheek. I lifted my furry head, gazing back and watching flames erupt from a burning car.

"Got 'em!" A female brunette roared, keeping her gun up and searching through the forest. "How many more went after her?"

A confused, unsure reply sounded from a few others, but I didn't listen. Pain coursed through my entire body now as my bones began to crack, readjusting themselves to their original places. My body lost its rough coat, sinking into peachy skin of my naked self. The second the shift ended, a dull throb and burning stomach were left behind.

I propped myself up on my hands and knees, shaking like a mad human being, weak and unable to get up. My brain wasn't processing movements, it didn't tell my body what to do next, so I continue to stay like this, shaking.

"Dammit she's in shock," a rough voice hissed. "I knew this would happen. Fucking Silo."

I vomited in response, dark red liquid dominating the fluids that came up from my stomach.

"Shit's sake," the same woman yelled.

"Keep your voice down," a deeper male voice snapped. I heard footsteps in my direction. "Sometimes I don't understand Silo's motives. She wasn't ready for that, physically, mentally, or emotionally, and now she's paying for it."

"She'll be dead before this damned raid is over," the woman added bitterly.

Their words were slowly, very slowly, working my mind. Was I dying? What was I dying from? Are they here to kill me because I didn't do what they asked?

"She won't be dead." A sharp warning was in the statement, and there was a long silence as though a quiet argument between the two speakers was going on. "She's not dying," the deep male voice stated again, a soft growl following. More silence.

Was I dying? I asked myself as I lay trembling on the forest floor in agony. Fire spread through my veins, leaving behind a burning throb. My throat fell like it was up in flames, and my skin is was crawling with invisible fire ants.  It certainly felt like I was dying.

"McKenzie?" Is that my name? My head lifted weakly, and my eyes drifted up to a dark skinned male. A blinding white light crossed my pupils and I shot back, as if on instinct, and covered them.

Many stepped back from me in surprise at my sudden jerking movements. The woman regarded me with icy eyes, curious and calculating. "How do you feel?"

"My insides are burning," I choked, licking my own blood off my dry lips. A sharp metallic taste was stranded inside my mouth, tainting my tastebuds. "Everything hurts."

"That's expected," the woman told me, crouching down and running her hands across my bare back. The trail her hands left across my skin was like dry ice being poured onto a lit fire. I let out a strangled groan of pain, unable to stand it. "Does that hurt?"

"Stop touching," I whispered, squeezing my burning eyes shut as the sensation coursed through me. It made my stomach clench and lurch. I dry heaved, trying to vomit up substance that wasn't in my stomach to begin with. "Stop."

"I'm not touching you anymore," she murmured, still crouching to my level. "What does it feel like? Describe the pain to me."

She wanted me to describe this pain? How could I describe something so terribly torturous when I couldn't even find myself able to think about just how painful it was.

"P-please help me," I whispered as another jolt of icy hot burning knocked into me. This time, my arms and legs gave out and I collapsed to my side. I curled into myself and screamed in agony as the pain pounded against me over and over, like aggressive waves slamming into the side of a boat.

"Fuck!" The man snarled. I heard gunshots close by, followed by ripping and lots of animalistic noises.

"Where the fuck is Silo?" the woman, still crouched above me. I didn't care where he was. I didn't care where I was, even. I just wanted this torture to come to an end.

"Please don't fall asleep," the woman advised, brushing her nails lightly against my cheek. The sting made me shoot awake instantly. "I can't risk you dying if you do."

I wanted to tell her to screw off and let me sleep. But my mouth wouldn't produce the words.

Eventually, not even she could keep me from passing out from the agony.

-:-

Meanwhile, Silo and Giselle stared in shock at the information on McKenzie that they had pulled up.

They gave her name, age, sex, birthday, place of residence, and everything else that made a file on a person. It was below in the classified information section that sent the two into a spiral of disbelief and shock.

"The patient was given her chip - injection at six months old, and the sister chip was given seventeen years later to a purebred Alaskan husky that was the patient's companion," Giselle read aloud, her throat drying as she read. "Silo—"

She couldn't keep the disgust back from her words. McKenzie was but a young infant when she received the chip. For the beginning of her life, she was in this horrible mess without even knowing it.

"I know," the chief replied before she could finish. He scrolled down and stopped, his sharp gaze scanning more lines. "Though the transformation was successful upon activation, the patient failed to adapt to chip's commands."

"Is it possible we can get more information on this chip?" Giselle asked her leader, her knuckles turning white from how hard she clenched her fists.

"Hm." He scrolled through, his mind racing with questions that required answers. "Here's something." He leaned forward and read, "This chip was created without the tracking device installed in hopes that the recipient would follow the brain signals that the chip would send out when activated. This failed in the patient's case, but it provided her with enhanced abilities that the normal recipients of Chip A1 receive. This experiment failed in controlling the patient, making her a dangerous escape."

"Fuck," Giselle whispered. "Silo read that last line."

Silo peered at it and said aloud, his breath catching in surprise, "In return for money, the chip was installed with the permission and consent of her parents."