Kristy watched Jenny send a small, green, bugman, that she named Greenie, out of the car and shook her head in stunned amazement. So much had happened in such a small amount of time that she felt overwhelmed by the changes.

  Her daughter had strange powers that no human should have, much less a little girl, her husband disappeared and returned as some kind of transforming monster that no longer had his own body. She held Colin in his chicken form and thought to herself that she would only tolerate him not having a human transformation for so long. It was a low priority with a town on fire, sure, but it was one that would not go ignored by her.

  Then there was herself, Kristy stared at her own hands and realized it wasn’t just her husband and child that came out of this situation with strange powers. Ever since Colin cured her cancer, she had felt different as if something inside of her was changing, but she had disregarded it at first. The longer she spent connected to Jenny and Colin, though, the more that strange feeling had grown until it swelled into an unavoidable source within her. Even now it was swirling inside of her. She thought about how she had healed Colin’s bullet wound, how she had managed to calm his raging instincts and bring her sweet Colin back from the brink of losing himself.

  It was all so much to process, but one thing was easy to be sure of: Her family was together and she would never let them be taken from her again. If that meant harnessing the power inside of herself, then she would embrace it with an open heart.

  “Do you see anything?” Holly asked Jenny with a sharp look in her eyes. There was something about the woman that made her uneasy.

  Kristy could overlook the fact that Holly had shot her husband on two separate occasions now. She pet Colin at the thought and he ruffled his feathers and sent her a pulse of love which she returned. No, she could justify the good behind Holly’s actions and see it as the protective acts they were. What truly made Kristy nervous about Holly was her loyalty to her mission above all else. She didn’t miss the fact that Holly dodged Kristy’s request to leave her family out of her report. Holly was obviously driven by doing the right thing, but that could threaten Kristy’s family in certain situations.

  ”I see people running around, but they look scary. Like their not normal people. They look scary. I don’t wanna fight them.” Jenny whimpered as she leaned her head into Kristy and squeezed her eyes shut.

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  “Can you look just a little longer? What’s on fire?” Holly urged and Kristy narrowed her eyes at her.

  “I’ll try,” Jenny said and Kristy squeezed her into a hug, “There’s houses on fire and cars too. Lots of crashed cars on that one road we were on before and lots of people on the ground, not moving.”

  “Okay Jenny, that’s enough, you did amazing, but bring Greenie back,” Kristy said in a hurry, hoping Jenny wouldn’t realize those were likely dead bodies she saw.

  ”Okay,” Jenny agreed and within minutes, Greenie was back in the car. Greenie shrunk on Jenny’s hand and she slid it back into her pocket. It made Kristy feel uneasy that Jenny had the thing, but she wasn’t sure it was right to take it from her if it was a part of her.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go into town,” Kristy said to Holly.

  Holly nodded and after a little while said, ”I’d have to agree, but I’m reluctant to leave you on your own. Merrin managed to escape while we were distracted and she could pose a threat to your family.”

  “So what do we do?” Kristy held her family tighter as she said the words.

  Holly reached out to Higgins, who was still unconscious, and squeezed his arm. She slowly shook her head but didn’t look away from Higgins, “I’m starting to think that I’m in over my head. This is not a one woman show, but headquarters is insistent on keeping it that way. I can’t conceivably ask you to risk your family, but you saved Higgins’s life. What if you could make a difference to those people in town? Honestly, I don’t know what we should do, but I want to make a difference if possible. The only way I can think of doing anything impactful though, is with the help of your family.”

  Kristy looked to Colin for his thoughts.

  Colin opened his beak and spoke so clearly, it made Kristy wonder where his voice was actually coming from, “I’m pretty hungry after resisting my inner urges. I can feel myself hungering for the next stage of development even while being in control. I’m sure we can raid a grocery store that’s not on fire while we’re in town. If we can’t help anyone, If the worst happens and they are too far gone, at least it will give me an easy meal while protecting you.”

  “So you’re thinking with your stomach mostly,” Kristy said with a scrunched brow. While she was hesitant to go into town, she also felt compelled to help her neighbors if she could make a difference. Part of her worried that Colin was still being influenced by his instincts. She’d have to stay close to him to make sure he remained in control of himself.

  “What if we try to capture one of the people Jenny saw?” Holly said.

  “Why?” Kristy asked, sure Holly was going somewhere with this.

  “Our main point of indecision right now is whether or not you can help people who ended up like Higgins would have without you. If we capture one person, we can start small, see if you can do something and gain a little more insight into what’s really happening to the town. We can also let Jenny hang back and hide from the most gruesome parts.”

  Kristy appreciated that Holly was thinking of Jenny in her plan, that was enough to tip the scales for now, “Alright, let’s try it.”