After The Change: Birth of a Giant (Patreon)

The light was fading on a long day. As the sun began to dip below the vast horizon Red Team set about making their safe zone secure. The old civic centre in the ruins of this habitation zone served as a base for the night. A watch was set, as always, in the highest spots so that a panoramic view of the surrounding area could alert the team to overnight incursions by giants, and they could retreat to the lower or even basement levels. It was Candice’s first tour outside of her city and she was nervous. Knowing the protocols for sighting a giant didn’t mean that she was prepared to actually see one. It all felt too soon and too close. She was to take second watch and was trying to close her eyes for a couple of hours to get some rest. In the end it hadn’t been longer than about ten minutes before she began to feel a tightness in her chest. Her heart pounded until it was shaking her ribcage, forcing huge amounts of blood and adrenaline around her body. She didn’t think that this was what a heart attack was supposed to feel like. She felt wired, vastly over stimulated, and her skin felt like it almost crackled with energy. She loosened her collar. The air in the room felt so close… no, hang on, not the air, her clothes. They were like a second skin, constricting her, until she took a deep breath and they all seemed to shred in an instant. She cried out and all of a sudden there was a commotion around her. These people around her, her team, all looked like toys. She reached out and Sanchez fell back screaming. They all scattered like flies as she flailed, knocking through a wall, and then the room span and broke apart as her growing body ripped through the reinforced concrete structure. It was all a haze. She cried out. Then there was fresh air. It was such a relief that she gulped breaths down. Now she felt a tingling deep within her as her head continued to rise above the neighbouring buildings. On her knees now she felt the rubble of the now destroyed civic centre slough off her skin and the tingling subsided. She felt invincible, like she’d overdosed on stimulant. She threw her head back and let out an animal roar that echoed around the skeletal remains of thee city. Somewhere in the back of her mind an excited voice whispered, “You’re a big one now.”