On the next page something was scribbled:

40 million dollar question

The person didn't sign, but didn't need to. It was obvious who had written it, but it wasn't obvious when it had been written and why it had been written. Mr. LeBlanc even scribbled out how he did the mind switch. She really didn't care right then at the moment. Had it been Mr. LeBlanc the one who entered the building while they were looking for flashlights?
"Wow!" Jeffrey exclaimed from his position about five meters away.
Andy turned around to see Jeffrey had a picture in his hand and was gawking at it. His eyes were open wide. He seemed to have noticed that he got her attention for he had started examining her. Andy walked over to him and ripped the picture out of his hands. After one glimpse, she knew what it was: a naked woman's body, her body. In the picture she had a necklace on and was standing in front of the bathtub. Someone had shot a picture of her naked.
"Hey!" she explained and turned red, the same kind of red as a ripe tomato.
"You mean I can't keep it?"
"What?" asked Matthew.
"My favorite picture of Andy. Hey, I found it!"
Andy put it into her pocket. She might as well keep it, in case it would come in use. The other thing Jeffrey had found was also interesting: a file wide open on the desk about Ryan. But whatever happened to Ryan had been torn out. The paper had been set up the same way as Andy's was:

SUBJECT NR 23
Name: Ryan
Age: 16
Birthday: December 19th
Place of birth: Unknown
Height: 6"3
Weight: Unknown
Hair color: doesn't matter
Eye color: doesn't matter

Ryan was my first specimen in…

Why wouldn't LeBlanc be interested it the hair and eye color of Ryan? Andy had to wonder as she glanced through the first and only page. Taped on to the page at the bottom was a cute picture of Ryan. In the photo he had been walking. He had a big smile on his face, which always had made Andy fell happy.
Andy pulled off the picture and put it into her pocket. She had never actually taken his portrait before and this one she had to keep. She wanted to have it framed.
Matthew had found nothing in LeBlanc's drawers, partly because someone had already taken all the interesting stuff out. Probably Mr. LeBlanc's research logs. Making sure they didn't oversee anything, they searched the room again, didn't find anything of importance.
This time however once they wanted to get out of the room, they noticed the door had been locked, from the outside. The lock had stuffed on the inside, like the person had known that they would enter the room. To top things off there were no windows in the room.
"We're locked in!" Matthew exclaimed.
"Someone must have locked us in!"
"I seem to notice that there is no way of escaping."
"Let's check for trap doors."
"That might help," said Jeffrey, "Because if I've read this note completely…"
"What note?"
"The one that I found right in front of me."
"What does it say?"
"That we have twenty minutes to evacuate because that's how long it takes for the gas to reach this room."
"What kinda gas?"
"Don't know, it doesn't say."
"Shit. What did the person write?"
"Have a pleasant time, Andy, in your last 20 minutes. I thing the gas will be a pleasant, slow death! I'm really sorry your friends have to die with you."
Andy didn't answer.
"Well, let's get started then!"
The first place they looked was behind the filing cabinet. It took Matthew and Jeffrey to move it, but after three minutes the thing was out of its place. There was no trapdoor. No way of getting out. Andy stood there think while the boys moved everything out of place. No trapdoors, no secret passage ways. Nothing of that sort.
16 minutes had passed since they had found the note. So that would give them approximately 4 minutes. The gas was already starting to smell in the air. It was a putrid stench, but it won't damage them for enough four minutes.
Andy gave up and sat down on the luxurious chair thinking that would be her resting-place. Then a stupid idea crossed her mind. One the chair was a number pad, just like on a telephone. She had remembered seeing tapped on to something a list of numbers, they may have been the codes. But where did she observe the numbers?
"I think I've figured out how to get out of here. Try to find a paper with codes on it!" she ordered the two boys to do. Three minutes latter they were empty handed, a minute until the gas with knock them out of existence. One minute before Andy will never be able to see her mother again. Jeffrey and Matthew were sitting on the chair next to each other so they were squashed. Andy sat on top of them and gave them both a quick kiss on the check. Then she took out Ryan's portrait again. She kissed it and closed her eyes. 20 seconds were left. That's when Jeffrey remember where he saw a code… on the back of the nude picture of Andy.
Andy took the picture out and turned it around. The number was 20 digits long. 2318934503343984648. She typed in the numbers, hoping to get it right. 2 seconds were left once the chair suddenly fell through the floor. Like on a roller coaster the chair speed down. It was dark and Andy felt hands grab her. The chair swooped around, going up and down and side to side. Finally it halted. They waited three seconds till some kind of door opened, revealing fresh air. The temperature had seemed to go down a couple of notches since they had been outside the last time, but it was still over 20°c. The stars were still out so the weather had pretty much not changed. But their location had. That they noticed the moment they had gotten out of the place. They were outside and once again in the forest. But this time they were at the lake.
Why would Mr. LeBlanc plan his escape pod to land there? Andy wondered and decided to share her question with the other two.
"So you think that they must be a reason for him wanting to land here?" Matthew asked her.
"Yes, I do. But it's probably more planned then we think. While building the place he must have thought it all the way through."
"Which means," said Jeffrey the logical thinker, who had also time to time read her stories through and loved them, "that there must be something useful around here somewhere…"
"Well hidden enough for bystanders not to see, if they should just happen to walk by here."
Matthew looked as if he was following them, but nodded his head anyway, thinking maybe it might make him look as intelligent as they were. Andy saw right through it and knew he had no idea about anything.
"Like a car hidden in secret tree passage ways?" Jeffrey commented.
"Or like a boat."
"Great, let's just start looking around." Matthew suggested.
"Sure, can you see anything? I mean it's too dark."
"Don't let me say anything more, I'm stupid!" Matthew said.
"Sure, Mr. Stupid."
Andy shined her flashlight to see for anything unusual. Anything. But as she suspected there was nothing. No paths for them to follow, no visual bridges over the water, no hidden car. What else was she supposed to see? Cars hidden around every tree? A bridge saying: I lead to freedom? A yellow brick road just like in the wizard of Oz? What was she really looking for in the first place? Something that looked unusual? Or something that looked so normal?
She couldn't answer that question. But in the past she had been able to figure LeBlanc really easily out. Now she couldn't. What would she do in the same situation? Hide something somewhere so the others can't find it? But a place easy enough to remember in case of emergency. Had Mr. LeBlanc used it before? Was it even tried out?
"Andy," Matthew said, shining the flashlight straight, "We're not alone."
He said that because he heard footsteps. It couldn't have been the beast, the footsteps were a bit too delicate. Whoever it was, was walking very slowly as if he or she knew they were there. But the person never yelled, "`HELLO" or "HEY".
It, the person couldn't be identified as either a man or a woman, so it stayed an it, knew they were there. Maybe because the flashlight shown once to often in his face. The person continued walking in their direction, his footsteps getting louder and louder. Soon the person stood right before Andy. He stopped there for some reason. Andy grabbed the person and began to choke him. The person didn't react too quickly, but soon it tried to swarm itself free. It did something to make Andy loosen her grip. But she still held on.
"Hey Andy!" the person cried, "That happy to see me?"
The voice gave the person's identity away. Just the sound made Andy so happy she let go of the person and went to his front to give him a big hug. She was still in his arms as Jeffrey shined the flashlight to see what was happening. He too was really glad to see who it was. Matthew was also ecstatic to see who it was. He ran from his position to where Andy and the person was.
Jeffrey beat Matthew there but only by a couple of milliseconds.
"Hey pal!" Jeffrey told the person.
"Hey back to you too."
Andy finally let go of the person and observed him closely to make sure there were no variance between how the person had looked over 12 hours ago when they had last saw him. He did. No differences.
"What are you doing here?"
"The same reason why you're here, I'm lost."
"Why didn't you call once you saw the light?"
"I figured it could be Mr. LeBlanc or one of his workers. I ain't taking no chance."
"With my voice?" Andy asked.
"It could be. LeBlanc is bad. That thing, that's at least what I know. Ali told me I should snoop around his office and I found accidentally this escape pod. I found myself here."
"How long ago was that?"
"Long time. One o'clock!"
"No wonder why you didn't come back." Andy paused. "Did you see the monster?"
"Monster? No."
"When you arrived were all those people in the lab dead?"
"Nope."
"Would you happen to know when?"
"At 8 or 9 o'clock."
"Shit, there's a second one?" Matthew asked.
"Seems to be." Jeffrey answered.
"Did you happen to see what happened to all those poor workers?"
"Nah, I was hiding somewhere, but I couldn't see anything, just hear. The people didn't even try to stop whatever it was," Greg said and based his head.
He's lying, Andy thought, he's lying! Why would he? What is he hiding? Who is he trying to protect? Just judging by all the crap he was telling them, Andy knew something was going on. Andy was a writer, she could see obvious things other people couldn't see. Had Mr. LeBlanc done something to him, like what he did to her? What experiment had LeBlanc tried on Greg?
It was funny, because Greg now had jeans and a black turtleneck on. Before he had been wearing shorts. What was he trying to hide?
Andy grabbed for Greg's arm, but he stepped back right in time. He looked straight into her eyes. It was too dark out to see what he was trying to tell her, but his eyes were easy to see. Green, they were a beautiful shade of green. Andy never realized that Greg had such a beautiful eye color until now. She broke of the gaze by bending down.
Matthew and Jeffrey were both examining Andy's every move. Both were wondering what her problem was. Neither of them had seen Andy grab for Greg however she was still acting weirder than normal.
"What's wrong?" Greg asked Andy.
"Nothing."
She got up and told them that he shoelaces were opened. She smiled and walked over to Jeffrey seizing his hand, which held no gun. She didn't bother giving Greg a weapon, she didn't trust him.
Seeming to read her mind, Jeffrey whispered into her ear, "He's hiding something ain't he?"
"Yeah," she whispered back, "shall I get it out of him?"
"That would be good."
"Hey, am I allowed into the secrecy?" Matthew asked.
"He just asked me if I really don't want to give him the picture."
"What picture?"
"None, it's not that important."
She let go of Jeffrey.
Greg told them he knew a way out, to get back to the campsite. Andy didn't complain, so she followed him. She really didn't want to, but she pulled out the colt python. Greg looked at her and asked if that was meant for the monster. She shook her head and told him that it was meant for LeBlanc. She had a score to settle with him.
Andy didn't bother asking Greg if he had found something in LeBlanc's office, she didn't want to. He probably would just lie to her and say "no". Or "I didn't find what I was looking for."
What was he actually looking for? Nothing of that important or was it? Andy needed to talk to Greg, but alone. She knew that something had happened to him. Was it him who had tried to kill them? Was it him who had locked them into the room and turned on the gas? Why would Greg want to kill them? Because he was secretly working for LeBlanc? That could be it, Andy pondered.
The perfect opportunity for Andy to ask Greg what the hell was going on with him came ten minutes later as Jeffrey complained about having to piss. He didn't want to go alone, so Matthew went with him. They were told not to wander off too far, just in case the monster was in the mood again for murdering.
Andy tried before anything to get hold of Greg's arm. This time however Greg had let her. Without words Andy slowly pulled up the sleeve. It revealed exactly what Andy thought it would be. A hairy arms. The hair was about 4 inches long. Andy looked at his fingernails to see them too had grown.
"Shit, why?" Andy whispered.
Greg didn't answer.
"Was it you who had killed all Mr. LeBlanc's scientists?"
Greg still didn't answer.
"How long do you have until you change completely?"
Greg's lips didn't move.
"Why aren't you talking to me?"
Greg remanded silent.
"I can understand that you won't answer. You're scared, right? Did he cut along your arm as well? Did he enjoy watching you bleed as he did by Ryan?"
Greg glared straight into Andy's eyes.
"Greg…"
Suddenly Andy could feel something scratching her stomach. Greg had dug his nails into Andy's stomach. He felt Andy's warm blood slowly starting to pour down her belly and onto his hands. It made him feel good.
Andy didn't scream but tighten her grip around the gun. She didn't want to shoot him, but she had also wanted to save her own life. So she whacked the gun as hard as she could against his head. Greg grunted as his nails slid out of her guts and then fell down. Andy could only fell pain as she watched Greg's form change for the last time. Greg didn't look like Greg anymore, but just like the monster's appearance.
"Jeff! Matt!" she yelled hoping they weren't that far away.
Neither of them answered her calling.
"Help!" she tried again, but didn't get an answer.
Greg started to stir again. His green eyes flashed open and a split second later, he was on top of her. The gun was thrown out of her hand. Where it landed, she would never know. The gun was never located. She only had the gun, which she knew nothing about.
The monster, which had been once Greg, started licking at her wound. Andy watched terrified as the monster tore her shirt off.
"Greg," she whined.
"Greg's dead." the monster answered.
"Kill me," Andy told it.
"A little torture makes everything better."
Andy almost had the barrel of the gun. She just had to stall the monster a couple of seconds longer. But how?
"I enjoy pain. The more time your death takes, the happier it makes me."
"Well, you should have killed me once you had the chance!" Andy said as she pulled out the gun. She pulled the trigger, hoping the silhouette was pointing upwards. The monster drew back in pain.
The gun had blown off the better half of his behind leg. Andy, in pain herself, stood up to see the Greg-monster whimpering. She wanted to get down and help him, but what was she supposed to do? She staggered over to her old friend and bent down. The monster snapped at her, as if telling her to leave it alone.
"Greg?" she asked finally.
"Shot me again, please Andy? End this pain… And help the other monsters. I've killed so many already, nobody else has to die." The monster spoke, in Greg's voice.
Andy got up. "I love you…"
"Please?"
Andy's finger caressed the trigger. Very quickly Andy pulled it. The sound of the bullet racing out made a terrible sound and an echo that could be heard over a mile away. The bullet tore into Greg's heart, making his whole body explode. His insides blew everywhere and Andy got a part of his intestine in her hair. She pulled it out and screamed. It had been a lot harder than she expected it to be. That was the first time she killed someone and wanted it to be the last, but she knew it wouldn't. She felt warm tears dripping down her face, but not from the injury the monster had made, but from the death of the monster.
"Andy!"
She heard somebody call, but didn't turn around to see who was calling her. She knew who it had been anyways. Matthew approached and gleamed his flashlight onto what Andy had hers gleamed on. It took him a minute to react. Jeffrey remanded behind Matthew since he didn't want to see what it was. All he could see was that Andy had only a bra on and was bleeding.
"You alright?"
"No… I killed him."
"Where's Greg?"
"There," Andy said while pointing at the remains of her once active friend.
"Andy, what happened? You're bleeding."
"Poor Greg… That bastard is gonna look worse than this once I'm finished with him!" Andy swore.
"Is that his blood on you?"
Andy turned around so Jeffrey could see what happened to her. The cuts were not very big, 6 cm at the largest, but they were deep. You couldn't see her insides, but surrounding everywhere was a deep shade of blue, which some people consider purple. Andy was soaked in blood, from her shoes to her hair. But not all the blood had belonged to Andy and it was good thing it wasn't.
"It's everyone's blood who I've seen dead."
"Well we found something that might help us."
"Where?"
Jeffrey scooped Andy off her feet. Andy wasn't surprised, in her state nothing matter. She needed a doctor and fast. First things first though. Get Mr. LeBlanc.
On the way Andy reloaded the gun to it's full capacity. She liked the gun, but wasn't gonna use it on Mr. LeBlanc. Him, she was going to torture, make him feel pain as she had felt. Maybe revenge was the reason she was still breathing.
The thing that they had found had been very useful. It was a car. Matthew opened the door for Jeffrey and Jeffrey lay her down on the back seat. He got in, so she could put her head on his lap. Matthew shut the door again and got into the front seat. He started the ignition. This wasn't a normal car. Like the escape pod, it felt as if it was falling. This one even moved faster than the last one, it reached it's destination in less than 7 seconds. Matthew looked at the speed dial and it reached higher than the car was able to do. It stopped suddenly and Andy almost fell off the seat.
This time, they knew where they were. They were in the parking lot, where they had first seen the campgrounds and where they were still excited about the trip. Now none of them, especially the ones waiting to see what fate would bring them, were ecstatic. Matthew, as did Jeffrey, wished more than anything to get home and crawl into bed and forget that any of this ever happened.
Andy sat up on her own and opened the door. She was staggering, but the rage that constantly built itself worse and worse inside her, helped her. It helped her get out of the car and slam the door. Jeffrey got out on the other side and had to really admire Andy. She was still full of rage, even if she was so hurt.
Followed by the two guys, she walked to the cafeteria, where there was light glowing. That was the spot where she thought she would find them all. The door was locked.
"Let us in!" she howled, but received no answer.
"Please?" Jeffrey added, but also received silence.
Andy took from Jeffrey's pocket the small gun out and told the others to stand clear. Without second thoughts, she fired the gun at the lock, making it explode. She gave the door a push and it slid open. Inside were her friends. They were sitting down at a table, a few were even crying. They were tied to the chairs, but their mouths could open, so they could communicate. They all looked astound to see survivors.
It had been 11 people in total who had been tied to the chairs. Matthew and Jeffrey raced over to help them.
"Thank god," Audrey said, one of the counselors, "It's Mr. LeBlanc, he has gone crazy!"
"Nah, he's always been crazy."
"Andy, are you alright… Look at you…" Tina commented through her tears. Tina was really light hearted in antithesis to Andy, and cried at almost anything. She wasn't the only one crying, but Ali's, Audrey's, Natasha's, Kirk's and Anthony's eyes were all red and blotchy.
"I've seen better days," Andy replied fully in control of herself.
"What happened to you?"
"You're all covered in blood," Bruce added.
"It's not all mine. Some belongs to Greg too."
"You killed Greg?" the others asked all curious and all of a sudden scarred of Andy.
"He did this to me!" she said and pointed to her stomach. "Then he wanted to torture me. So I shot him in the leg and he told me to kill him."
The others all starred at her not knowing what to say.
She continued, "I didn't want to kill him, but he was already dead."
"I'm not following you," Justin managed to say.
"You don't need to. I'll explain later."
Andy looked at Ali, who still wished Andy would leave. The monster wanted Andy, she thought and being around her was a curse.
Reading her mind, Andy said, "I think I know what's going on. But I'll tell you after."
Andy started walking towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Matthew asked her.
"To settler the score," she retorted.
"Wait, don't leave yet, you don't know where to find LeBlanc!" Audrey called.
That made Andy stop. Maybe she was right. Maybe Andy did need to know a little more.
"I should tell you where to find him, but first maybe you should get…"
"I want him to see this! I want him to see what he did and what he is gonna pay for!"
"Well, he would be in his office, but I warn you about the beast."
"If the beast shows up tell him where I am, don't do anything else."
"I'm make sure of it," said Matthew.
All the others still had confused looks on their scarred faces.
"Because of it, we didn't dehydrate. It saved our lives…"
"Are we talking about the same thing?"
"Aye," Andy answered and waved to them. She departed them.
As soon as she was out of the room, she threw Matthew's extra gun back into the room. She pulled out the one she had used to kill Greg with. Taking out her flashlight to be able to see better she went right to Mr. LeBlanc's office, but slower than normal since she couldn't walk anymore. The wounds her body showed, didn't seem to harm her anymore. She practically didn't notice it.
The thing that had surprised her was, was that the door was wide open. This time she took precautions and shot off the lock. The office was small, but there was another room. As Andy entered the second room, she saw that it was exactly like a doctor's office and the room seemed familiar. It was the same room where Mr. LeBlanc had changed her mind around for the second time. He wasn't in there, but some of his assistants were. They looked at her in shock and didn't know what to say. They saw the gun in her hand, they saw the silver bullets race out, killing all of them but one.
"Where's LeBlanc?" she howled.
"I… don't know…"
"Tell me weenie shit!"
The man looked at her. "In the building… next door…"
"Thanx," she said and put a bullet through his head.
She marched out of the room and out of the office. There was a building next door to the left. That's where she went. Sauntering over to the place everything to find everything hurting more. Not really with herself she didn't really noticed she killed 4 men, but didn't see them as normal people she saw them as little LeBlancs. It's easy to kill someone, she pondered as she broke into the house.
Sure enough Mr. LeBlanc was in there, alone. He looked at her as she entered; somehow he knew she was coming. Maybe he had heard the echoes of the bullets. Maybe he just knew.
She pointed the gun at his head and smiled.
"It's gonna be a thrill putting one of these bullets through your head," she told him.
"I see you failed once again."
"A little bash on the old noggin and back to my sweet self."
"I see."
"You stupid bastard!"
"I'm surprised to see you alive. What happened to my second monster?"
"The same thing that is going to happen to you."
"I'm delighted!"
"Why did you change him?"
"Who? I wanted to try out my new experiment. The perfect man. Okay, so he was a bit hairy, but all in all he was chaotic. Look what he did to my lab assistants!"
"So it was you, who tried to kill us?"
"Nah, I was never at the lab. I saw it through my cameras."
"Then it was you tried to kill us. The person locked us into your office. By gas?"
"Gas?"
"Someone wrote us a note saying something about gas."
"I wouldn't have tried to kill you by locking you into my office. I would have at least thought before and would have realized about the escape pod. "
"Screw you."
Mr. LeBlanc stood up from his seat.
"Sit down, or I'll shoot."
"And what about Ryan, you don't want me to change him back for you?"
"Can you?"
"I'm a genius. I always invent a reverse."
"Why are you trying to help me? I know that's not because of this gun."
"Who says I'll reverse it?"
"I WANT RYAN BACK!"
"And Greg?"
"He's dead."
"You killed your own friend?"
"What alternative did I have? He asked me to kill me."
"Another failure."
"Why?"
"Greg was supposed to be dead."
"Is everything you do a flunk?"
"Shut up."
Andy thought for a minute. It never occurred to her that the mutation could be reversed. Nor did she think somebody on LeBlanc's side was still alive. She had thought she had gotten them all. But LeBlanc had too many workers.
One stood behind her pointing a gun at her. As he made his presence clear, Andy turned around to see what kind of person it was. It was the bus driver, Todd. His face was full of sweat. His eyes were fixed on the girl, who looked like she should be long dead. But she wasn't dead. She was standing there starring at him, her gun also pointed towards him.
Thinking he was smart, he said, "Put down your gun."
"Do I look stupid to you?"
"Put it down!" Todd replied for the second time.
"You've got a simple revolver and I got this strong gun that could blow anything apart. And you think that I'm going to be stupid and put my gun down?"
"I will shot," Todd shouted or tried to. He sounded edgy in comparison to Andy.
Todd never got the chance to pull the trigger for Andy pressed down on hers. The bullet speed through the air and hit Todd in the right eye. From the vibration his whole head blew up. Andy watched all this and did nothing.
She turned her attention back to Mr. LeBlanc.
"You have no heart."
"Right now it's rage."
Andy heard a growl come from outside. It sounded like the monster. She went over to Mr. LeBlanc and grabbed his hair. She started dragging him.
"Hey I'll walk!" he said and she let go.
Surprisingly he walked next to her and didn't put up a fight. That scarred her a bit, but she didn't want to do anything. Outside there was a riot going on. Ten men and a beast. None of them had guns. They were all surrounding the monster. As soon as the men saw Andy coming, two men moved out of the way. The monster raced towards her. It snarled and looked like it wanted to attack her. Andy watched all this, surprised. She thought the monster liked her.
At the last second possible she moved out of the way, but tripped and the gun went flying. As she saw the monster coming towards her, she thought it was all over for her. She observed every move the monster made.
Mr. LeBlanc had planned this, she thought. He knew. But why is Ryan attacking me? At the last possible moment she screamed "Ryan!" and that made it slow down a bit. It recognized her voice but still wanted to attack.
It moved a step closer and she said his name once more. That slowed it down and Andy was able to sit up. She looked right into the monster blue eyes. The same shade Ryan's had been. The creature stayed in it's place and starred back. It's long teeth looked like those of a vampires.
"Do you remember me?" she asked the beast loud enough for all the people to hear.
"Torture her," LeBlanc said.
"You changed him, huh Mr. LeBlanc? To evil?"
"I like to take credit. I'm going to enjoy watching your death."
Somehow that made Andy remembered about the last time she had seen Ryan alive. He told her he had loved her. She heard "I love you" ring in her ears. She wanted to tell Ryan she loved him and how she missed him.
"I know you won't help me anymore, but I love you. Really I do. I waited for you the last eight months, never really facing the fact that you were supposed to be dead. It hurt me Ryan, not seeing you anymore."
"How touching!" Mr. LeBlanc said.
The monster inched itself closer to Andy face, they were almost touching.
"Andy," the monster breathed. Only Andy heard that.
He's trying to remember me! she thought.
Something in the creature's mind was telling it, Andy loved it. It loved Andy. It couldn't hurt her, no matter what cost. She wouldn't hurt it either. The monster did not know of love, it knew only of hatred.
It slowly lift it's paw up. Please don't do it, something told the monster. The monster put it's paw down and edged away from Andy. Then it attacked the ten men, killing each of them in one blow. It sliced off all their heads. While this was happening, Andy got up and headed towards LeBlanc. He just stood there, watching. His experiments on humans hadn't done too well: 4 out of 5 had been failures. Andy looked at LeBlanc and smiled a wicked smile.
"See? What are you going to do?"
He didn't answer.
"It's time for you to change him back!"
"I refuse."
"Then I'll kill you and get some other scientist to do it for me."
"Right. I burned all the papers."
"I know you're lying. The person, who had tried to kill us, went after the papers. If it wasn't you, then who? He should still have them."
"Sure. He tries to kill you and you thing he is going to help you?"
"Andy," the monster said from next to her.
"Ryan?"
"I love you," it said.
"How sweet," Mr. LeBlanc said.
Andy walloped him one, he knew she would. He didn't fall down, but from her long nails, the smack had drawn blood. His face swelled up, but stayed peach, his normal skin color. It had hurt him, Andy saw it in his eyes.
Drawing Andy's attention away from the scientist, Ali made her appearance clear. She yelled at Andy. With her was Matthew's shotgun. Andy's other weapon lay ten meters away in the other direction. Somehow Ali looked differently from her normal self. Like Andy she looked full of rage. Unlike Andy, even at her fullest, she could never pull the trigger. But she put on a good show.
"Move away from the monster!" she demanded.
"Ali put the gun down," Andy told her friend in return.
"Why should I? I've got the advantages here. The monster's bad, therefore it has got to be stopped."
"The only one here who has to be stopped is LeBlanc," Andy countered.
Ryan put something into Andy's hands. It was her gun. Of course! Ryan had gone to get it. But Andy wouldn't shoot Ali, just like Ali wouldn't shoot Andy. It was that simple.
Andy showed Ali her gun and told her about the variances between the two guns, how much stronger hers was than the one Ali had. Ali just listened, didn't say a word. To demonstrate, Andy fired once at LeBlanc. The bullet tore of LeBlanc's right leg. He stumbled and grunted in pain.
"I'll shoot myself if you dare shoot at him!" Andy said.
Ali moved closer. Andy had been right about the guns, maybe she was right about the monster. Ali had second thoughts about murdering the monster, even if it had killed thousands.
"Andy," Ali started then forgot what she was going to say.
"Just put down the gun."
"And yours?"
"I won't shoot you, I just want to reinsure Ryan's safety."
Ali dropped the gun. She wouldn't have had the guts to shot it anyways.
They all gathered around LeBlanc, who was pleading for them to end it for him. Andy had second thoughts for how then would she help Ryan? LeBlanc handed her a set of keys for a drawer where the antidote was. He explained to her she should take a purple potion and not the black. The black was something else. Nodding she hoped he was telling the truth. She shot him once in the head, ending his half-gone-through life.
Andy headed for LeBlanc's office. Trusting LeBlanc she unlocked the desk's drawers and pulled out the purple bottle. She didn't know why, but she assumed he was telling the truth. For Ryan's sake. For her sake. The last thing she wanted to do was put a slug into Ryan's body. She forced Ryan to drink the purple stuff and crossed her fingers. There was a second purple bottle, which she also took.
Ali and Andy saw the unexplainable thing happen. The fur on the monster's back fell off. Ryan's body started to form itself back into human form. The nails and the teeth shrunk back to normal size, just like they had been once Andy had last saw him. It took less than a minute for him to change back into a human. Before her Ryan was on his knees in a pair of underpants. The rest of him was naked.
"Ryan?" Andy whispered.
He got up onto his feet.
"Andy? Am… I normal…"
He didn't need to finish since he saw his hands.
"It's unbelievable… Andy! Look at yourself! I would hug you, but I would be afraid to touch you."
"Let's go back to the others," Ali suggested, not believing that she was looking at Andy's sweetheart.
Ryan did end up touching her, he picked her up. She felt so happy that all was over.
But it wasn't. Matthew and Jeffrey reminded her about the other person, the one who had tried to kill them.
All of the people in the room were surprised to see Ryan. Tina muttered a "Oh my God". Natasha wiped at her eyes. It was impossible that Ryan was standing there, he was supposed to be dead.
It came to Matthew's attention that Andy had told him the truth.
Andy was happy where she was. In Ryan's arms. He never guessed he would see Ryan again and he also never guessed that he'd see Andy so happy. She was gleaming. Probably forgot all about the pain that she was supposed to have.
"Hey Ryan!" Jeffrey said, also content for Andy.
"Hey Jeff!" Ryan exclaimed.
Ryan walked over to a table and put Andy down. He ordered one of the girls and Jeff to go and get him a wash cloth and, if found, a bucket full of water. They came back a minute later with two buckets and a wash cloth.
Ryan thanked them and put the wash cloth under water. He pulled it out and squeezed it. Starting with Andy's face, he started to clean off the blood.
Nobody was paying attention to the door, but the growling noise had been heard. All turned around to see a monster, one which looked the same as Ryan had.
Natasha was the farthest back and was the first to see it. Before she had the chance to scream it ripped her body in half. She had been able to feel how it was getting your body stretched. The poor beautiful girl felt so much pain. The last thing she ever saw was her blood, leaking out of her once perfect figure.
The monster went after Anthony next and slaughtered him as quickly as it did to Natasha. This time Renee saw what was happening and also had the chance to scream before it butchered him into three pieces.
The others saw his body being cut once along the shoulders. Blood sprang out. Then they saw the second cut.
It was Ali's idea for them to run to the kitchen, but only Jeffrey, Matthew, John, Bruce, Tina, Kirk, Justin, Ethan and her made it. They locked and then barricaded the door. Audrey was slashed in her third step in trying to get there. Ryan stood there watching it, however didn't move. Andy sat up and was also watching the monster wipe away her friends. She still had the gun with her, tucked underneath her, but didn't shoot it since she only had one remaining bullet.
Andy would have shot had she been able to see the monster. She couldn't see it therefore she did not shoot at it. Wasting her last bullet would be dumb.
After Audrey was killed, the monster sat down in front of the door where the others had ran into. It didn't attack Ryan or Andy, it just sat there peacefully.
Ryan was confused, but Andy wasn't. She knew why it hadn't attacked them. It was told not to. Quite simple.
In the doorway, as Andy suspected stood a man. She couldn't thoroughly see who it was, but she knew who it was. It had been a person she had never seen before, but knew had existed. He saw Andy and Ryan. It had been a while since he had last seen Ryan in human form.
"I theorize the gas didn't stop you," the person told Andy. And to Ryan, he said, "Nice to see you as a human again."
Neither of them answered. Andy was waiting for the perfect time. Her last bullet was meant to be put through his head.
"I think you know why I'm here," he told them.
"How many millions did LeBlanc cheat you out of? One? Ten? A hundred?"
"Go on."
"You were the one who had to do all the dirty work. How did you get the money again? Was it by robbing somebody's house? It really doesn't matter. And Mr. LeBlanc always put off your paycheck. He never wanted to pay you. He was going to kill you. You found out about it and went into the lab to get all his notes and sell them to another company. I guess you heard us talk. At first I thought it had been LeBlanc, but LeBlanc knew about the pod. A note saying something about 40 million dollars. Is that how much he cheated you?"
"How did you figured that one out?"
"It was written on a page in my file. At first I had no idea what it had been."
"I have to give you credit. You do have a talent for thinking. Do you know the other reason?"
"He had problems experimenting on humans. None of his trials work out."
"Wow, you do think logically, just what LeBlanc had said. It's too bad you'll never be able to use it!"
He pulled out a gun, just like the one she had hidden behind her back. The monster stayed where it was. Andy handed Ryan the bottle and told him to go feed it to the beast. Obediently he left her side and went to the monster. The man, who neither knew the name of let this happen. Instead he walked over towards Andy. He looked at her and smiled. Andy wasn't sure who was uglier: Mr. LeBlanc or this man. Half his face had been burned off. On the other side above his eye, he had a scar. He stuck his tongue out and started moving it around.
"Before you die, I think I might as well have fun with you."
"You better not touch her!" Ryan roared.
The man pulled the trigger. Andy couldn't see if he had gotten Ryan or not, but she pulled out her weapon and shot. The man sat down on Andy, which made pain shoot through her body forcing her to cry out in pain. He began feeling off her body, not caring about all the blood, giving Andy enough time to withdraw her gun. Andy pulled the trigger. Since her range was a lot closer, it was a sure hit. The man cried as the bullet tore him into pieces. She took the bag out from his hand.
Andy ran over to Ryan. She noticed he was just barely hit in the right arm, meaning it would just leave a small scare and that he would be alright. She sat down on top of him and smiled, thrilled that her Ryan was lying underneath her. Ryan was just as thrilled to see her too, he didn't bother complaining about his arm.
The monster had turned out to be a girl. Neither of them knew her, but she was crying and thanking them, happy that her fate from staying a murdering monster had been changed around. She was content about being herself once again.
The others piled out of the room. All were relieved to see Andy and Ryan alive. The other girl was new to them, but neither of them said anything. John even gave her a hug, just to show her everyone was there for her.

Not shortly later, the police arrived. Neither of them had phoned them, but it was soon figured out it had been Julian. He had been hiding somewhere, nobody was actually sure and he never told them. He wanted it to stay his secret.
The head policewoman took one look around the place and asked what had happened. The tattered bodies weren't a pleasant sight and the man with the gun still in his hand, but otherwise as bad off as the others couldn't really be considered the killer. She introduced herself as Mrs. Moore, but they were to call her Rachel.
Andy had been the one to answer.
"You don't want to know."
The others all remand silent because Andy had told them to let her do the talking.
"Miss are you alright?" Rachel asked.
"I'll live."
"What happened?" she said, repeating her first question.
"I don't think you want to know."
"I think you're right, I don't want to know. But it's my job."
"Let's just say you won't believe anything I say."
All of them were taken to the hospital. Andy and Ryan were the only really injured. The doctors were as interested as the detective had been in knowing what had happened. Again Andy gave them the same answer, 'You don't wanna know'.
Doctors took care of their wounds, still confused at what happened, but really didn't want to know since the cuts were a little too awkward.
Soon enough they found themselves driving home. The doctors didn't want to let them go, especially Andy, but she promised she would go see a doctor first thing.
The police drove them back. Andy got into a car with Ryan and Julian. Thinking Julian was sleeping Ryan pulled Andy in close.
"Close your eyes," he instructed her to do.
Julian who had been siting next to them looked out the window making it a clear fact he was still awake.
Andy knew what Ryan wanted. Eagerly she closed her eyes. She felt his soft lips press on to hers. She felt his tongue propelling around in her mouth searching for hers. The kiss lasted for 10 minutes. He finally pulled away from her. She opened her eyes.
"I've been waiting for that for a long time."
"Can you guys stop being so mushy? I'm still here," Julian said obviously not as tired as the rest of them. Andy was fatigued, but couldn't show it. Ryan was with her. Her Ryan in flesh and bones. How tired she was didn't matter.
Andy didn't care what Julian said; she planted a kiss on Ryan's mouth. She pulled away, thinking to herself how lucky she was. The sweetest guy in the world was hers. All hers. She had finally found him.
Andy cuddled herself warmer into Ryan's chest. Her eyes slowly closed.
She had an amiable dream.
Ryan is standing outside in her driveway. She knows that he was there, waiting for her to come out. It is her prince charming. She runs to the kitchen window and waves. He blows her a kiss. She sticks up her index finger meaning to tell him she'll be out in a minute. He nods and sits down, thinking it'll take her a bit longer. But it only takes her a minute to get outside. She sees him sitting and smiles. He loves that smile, it always made him brighten up inside. He thinks about how lucky he is to have her. She sits down between his open legs. She presses her lips against his. The kiss lasts a minute and she stands up. He groans because he wants to just kiss her. But she doesn't want that, she queries him for the ice cream he promised her. He laughs and tells her she should stop thinking about food.
"Let's go," she says to him.
"Did you just want me back for the ice cream?" he asks her not being serious.
"Why else?" she teases him.
Once he gets she lets him pull her into a hug and he kisses her again. She cherishes his sweet red lips and kisses them.
"I thought you didn't want me," Ryan tells her.
"I love you," Andy answers.
"I love you back!"
Andy goes up to his ear and whispers, "We have to get back here by five o'clock! My family ain't home."
He looks at her and grabs her.
"Why are we bothering going?"
"We could have ice cream here," Andy answers.
She unlocks the door for them. She runs, with his closely following her to her room. Inside he starts kissing her again. He slowly pulls of her T-shirt…

"Andy!" she heard Ryan say as he was shaking her. "We're almost at my house."
He was right, because the moment she opened her eyes, the car pulled to a stop. Andy insisted on going first and once she had given Ryan a signal he was to get out of the car.
Ryan's mother answered the door on the third ring. She looked surprised to see Andy.
"Hi," Andy said full of joy.
"Hi," the mother answered half wondering what she was doing there.
Since Andy had last seen Ryan's mother, she seemed to have aged ten years. It was clear the mother too will be once again happy.
"Are you alright?" the mother asked.
The mother probably said that for Andy knew herself she looked terrible. Bruises and cuts on her face, dark black circles underneath her eyes, a really funny bent nose and a fat lip.
"Couldn't be happier." That gave the mother something to think about. And added, "I came by to deliver a present."
Andy made a sign and Ryan got out of the car.
The mother couldn't believe her eyes. Her son was standing ten meters away from her. Her son, whom she thought for so long was dead and he was there! Standing in front of her. She felt the tears pour out of her eyes. Ryan ran to his mother and embraced her. He hugged her so tight she couldn't breathe anymore. But she didn't care. This moment she saw happening so many times, but all of them ended in a wet sweat. But not this time. This time she was awake. This time Ryan was standing before her, red eyed and sniffing.
"Mommy," he whispered into her ear.
"I… need to go phone your dad…" his mother answered and left.
Ryan turned himself towards Andy. She didn't have tears, but he didn't expect her to. He knew her well enough to know she didn't cry at sad scenes. He pulled her up close and kissed her. He loved the feeling of her body next to his, it made him fell human again, which of course he was.
"What was in the bag you picked up?" he asked her.
"You'll see… but only after this thing blows over," she answered mysteriously.
"Is it by chance money?" he asked her. "And LeBlanc's formulas?"
"Could be."
Ryan's mother came out and hugged her son again. She had missed him so much as much, if not more than Andy had.
"I have to go now," Andy told Ryan.
Ryan gave her a quick kiss on the lips and told her he'll come by soon. Andy smiled liking everything about that promise. She wanted him to come with her now, but that wasn't a good idea. His mother and family had missed him too. Andy gave Ryan's mother a kiss on the check and headed back to the patrol car. She found it nice of the cop to wait for her.
They pulled off in direction Andy's. It only took half a minute to get there since Andy didn't live so far away from Ryan. The cop stopped the car. Andy thanked her and gave Julian a quick kiss on the check. He smiled at her and told her how happy he was to see her normal again and once again she asked him where he had been. Received no answer but a smile.
Andy's little sister answered the door first. The small girl observed her sister's happy face and her bruised body. She thought about something good to say, so the sister said, "You look good."
Andy laughed. She found it funny.
"I always do!" she answered and went in.
Andy's mother came running. "Look at you!" she said.
Going up the stairs and told her mother she would tell her everything once she had slept enough. Okay with that answer Andy's mother didn't say anything.
In her room she got dressed into her pajamas. Before putting her head down, she looked into the bag. Ryan had predicated right. There was a sum of 40 million dollars inside the bag plus Mr. LeBlanc's papers. She smiled and finally went to sleep.

Epilogue

Ryan came by next day, getting surprising looks from Andy's family. They were not sure about what to think. Andy's mother told him Andy was not well, she had been sleeping since she got home. Ryan laughed and told Andy's mother once she heard what went on, she would understand completely what went on while they were at the camp.
Upstairs in her room Ryan woke Andy up by kissing her. Not fully awake Andy told him she had been dreaming about him.
"That's nice."
Behind him, Andy's mother walked in and closed the door. She desperately wanted to know what went on. Andy started from the beginning, telling her mother about everything, even about the 40 million dollars she had. Normally Andy's mother would have thought her daughter was crazy, but she realized it wasn't a lie what Andy told her.
"Did they search the woods in case of other survivors?" the mother asked.
"Found three people still alive."
Andy got up a couple of minutes and went with Ryan to check her email. It took five minutes for all the emails to be downloaded. Using that time Ryan kissed her.
All the emails were from inquiring minds who wanted to know what actually happened. One of the last emails caught their attention.
The person had written it so that the address could not be traced. The email itself said:

I want my money

The next one said:

I'm going to kill you.

THE END