Branches flew at his face smacking against his skin, one after the other. The hand he held up as a shield did little to stop their assault. His face was stinging, but he didn’t dare slow. The thickness of the night was making it difficult to see in this dense patch of woods. Mike listened for signs that he was being followed, but the only noise was the sound of his own heavy breathing and footfalls as his feet crashed against fallen leaves, twigs, and pine needles. He had to keep moving so he wouldn’t be caught out in the open. He needed to find a place to hide, and he needed a moment to think of a plan. There were eyes on him, he knew it, he could feel them. Mike thought of the eyes he’d just seen, glowing and angry. He never wanted to see those eyes again. He had to keep running. He had to get away. A sharp bolt of pain hammered his right toe and spread like lightning up into his leg. He felt his leg give way, and in a second he was on the ground. His knee hit something hard on the way down, and he stifled a groan as the pain continued further up his right leg. Ignoring the pain, he quickly rolled over, sat up, and opened his eyes wide, scanning the woods. There was no movement and no sound other than that of his own heavy breathing. Shifting his eyes through the trees, he had a brief moment of panic as he imagined the creature pouncing on him in the dark. The creature, or beast, or whatever it was that he’d seen in that cage, there was no hiding from something like that, and he knew he needed to get up and keep running. It could be anywhere in these woods, hunting him down, sniffing him out. Jumping to his feet, he was reminded of the pain in his leg and had a moment where he thought he’d fall again, but he grabbed ahold of the nearest tree and steadied himself before deciding which way to continue his retreat. That’s when he heard a branch crack from behind him, and a low rumbling growl. It had found him. He was right, there was no escape from something like that. He’d known as soon as he’d seen it in that cage. This creature had been genetically designed to hunt, and he was easy prey. Slowly, he turned around and peered out into the darkness. Emerging from behind a large tree was the creature he’d seen through the window. It had been an accident that he’d stumbled upon it. He hadn’t meant to lose the path. The creature was only a dark silhouette in the woods, but as it lumbered towards him, he recognized it. The monster was the size of a bear, down on all fours, but it did not resemble anything he’d ever seen before. Its thick, leathery skin was speckled with small patches of coarse black hair, like the skin of a mangy dog. As it got closer, it rose to its hind legs and towered over him, revealing razor sharp claws and thin muscular arms that appeared to be more human than animal. Mike stared into it’s glowing yellow eyes and felt a lump form in his throat as the terror gripped him. He felt warm liquid trickle down the leg of his pants, and realized he had wet himself. The beast’s large gaping mouth, which barely kept hold of its protruding fangs, appeared to lift at the corners in a triumphant smile. Just as Mike had resigned himself to death, a woman’s voice startled him from his terror, “Hello! I’m so sorry about this,” the voice said, “ I don’t know how you stumbled upon our lab. I really thought we had a good little hiding place out there.” At first, Mike thought the voice had come from the creature, but then a small blonde woman stepped out of the shadows from behind the beast. She wore a long white lab coat and appeared to be just as out of breath as Mike was. “You gave us a good run there,” she said, then patted the creature on the back and managed a slight chuckle, “My name is Myra.” Mike didn’t know what to say. He was frightened, but clearly this woman had control of the beast and this had all just been a misunderstanding. He breathed a sigh of relief, crossed his legs to cover the wet patch down the front of his pants, then introduced himself, “I’m Mike. I...well, I was walking in the woods. I only wanted to go for a walk and I just lost the trail. I saw the light from your… lab? ...” “No need to explain,” said the woman in the white coat, waving him off, “Everything is taken care of now.” Myra smiled, nodded at Mike, then turned to walk away. “Wait,” Mike said, “Where are you going?” “Oh, I don’t want to get my coat dirty. It’s white,” She said, glancing down at her long coat and gesturing at it with her hands. Myra wrinkled up her nose, flashed a smile, then continued walking back into the woods. Mike took a step in her direction, but in a flash of realization it occurred to him that the beast had been locked in a cage when he’d first seen it. Someone would have needed to let it loose. He turned to look at the creature. The beast pounced, swallowed Mike’s head, and tore it from his shoulders all in one motion. Blood gushed from the neck of the headless man and sprayed across the dark patch of forest, but not on Myra’s white coat.