Chapter 10 A Stray cat appears. Part 2. (Edited)

BANG, BANG, BANG.

Three gunshots rang out behind Anna, the first shot, made the left side mirror fly off. Then the second bullet smashed through the rear window hitting the rearview mirror. While the last bullet ricocheted off some of the debris from the back window, and hit something within the cab, causing it to ricochet again hitting Anna somewhere in the ribs. Almost making her faint from the pain.

The sudden pain from the gunshot caused her to curl, jerking the wheel, sending the truck into oncoming traffic.

*Grunts*

"MUTHER F*****!"

Barely getting the truck under control I, nearly missed an oncoming car, and swerved back into the correct lane.

( This is not good, I got hit somewhere in the chest area, it might have hit a vital area, luckily it doesn't seem that my lung was punctured. )

~~~ Five miles down the road ~~~

Anna seems to be losing consciousness.

( Everything, is starting to go dark, I need to pull over soon. )

Slowly nodding off at the wheel. Annas' head smashed into the steering wheel setting off the horn, before waking her up from the pain, and noise. Deciding that was a close enough call, she started to pull over. Looking around she felt it was far enough, from the gas station, and could take a quick stop. Seeing a path up ahead she decided to pull off onto the shoulder, taking the path that lead behind some trees, which she could use for cover. Eventually, the truck came to a stop. About to pass out. With her eyes drooping, and her head bobbing she reached up and grabbed the philosopher's stone.

( Work, work, work, I'm so tired. )

( No not yet, I'm not safe. )

"No..."

Pant, pant.

"Not yet..."

Struggling to stay awake. Anna tried to get her shirt off, however, she was too weak from the wound. With her arms falling to her side she gave up. Failing to catch her breath, she mumbled.

"D**it..."

Pant, pant, Anna was gasping for air.

( It looks like I don't have much of a choice, I have to start the process now. )

Grabbing the philosopher's stone again out of desperation, she closed her eyes and focused her mind. Feeling a flow of warm energy around her chest, it was an old feeling but something new at the same time. The energy she was so used to was no longer churning and resisting her but flowed smoothly throughout her body.

A light glow enveloped Annas's body. Within seconds, her body started to change. Her hair grew long, and her scrawny sculpture plumped up and surpassed what a normal twelve-year-old child should look like. Like a ball of clay being sculpted her body grew in a variety of odd ways. However, as the glow faded her body completely changed. She was now five foot four, the scars on her body were gone, and the shell from the gunshot was now a scale, on the back of her head, but she did not know that. As for the wound from the gunshot it was nowhere to be seen.

Opening her eyes, her irises were red with a slit pupil, for a split second. Morphing and wiggling the eye turned back to normal milliseconds later. Opening her mouth she spits out many cracked and broken teeth, followed by some purple blood onto the dashboard of the truck. The teeth turned to dust, and the blood disappeared in thin air.

( Odd. )

Hearing the oncoming sirens in the distance, she quickly looks into the passenger glove box, and the armrest storage, for anything useful. Within the glove box, there was a pink beany, and in the armrest, there was some spare change, paper clips, and one or two really sticky-looking rubberbands. Grabbing the beany and the spare change she hops out of the truck with her sac. Finding nobody around, she quickly changed out of the ooze and blood-covered clothing she was wearing and put on something clean from the sack. Even though everything was now smaller, it looked appropriate. She packed everything away as fast as she could and started to head out. Hiking through the forest, and slowly exiting the street, heading back to the gas station. Not even three seconds after leaving the forest, three cops sped by.

~~~

Swoosh, Swoosh, Swoosh.

The three cop cars did not even slow down when they passed Anna. Quickly passing the area the truck was dumped at. Anna sighed in relief and wiped the cold sweat off her forehead, continuing on her way, for about an hour and a half. After walking for so long she could see the gas station down the road. Picking up her pace, she was there in another ten minutes. As she reached the gas station. She could see that no cops were there, and the broken glass from the gunshots had already been cleaned up. Taking a second to look around, she reaches into her bag and looked inside for anything useful. Seeing mostly useless trash, she used her ability to transform some of it into an old torn map. Then thinking of something brilliant.

Walking into the gas station, with the map in hand, and constantly turning it and tilting her head, she waited. Taking a second to think about what she had to say, she saw a line and got in while still looking at the map.

( My body is still weak, even after devouring all that food my body is still failing. A simple five-mile walk already has me on the edge. The counter has enough sugary items that I can turn into cake, with my ability, and the leftover bread. Even without knowing the taste of the cake, the risk is worth the reward. I have no other choice. )

After many customers left, Anna finally gets to the front of the line. Discreetly looking around one more time and seeing no one else is in the gas station, she lowered the map.

"Hello miss how may I help you?"

"I can't seem to find the bus station, I went to this bus location, but the bus stop was not there, I even tried three other spots, but nothing, did they remove the bus stops?"

*Placing the map on the counter. Points at three random bus stop on the same line, and looks up at the clerk for help.*

"However there were no bus stops. Do you by chance know the bus rough situation, I need to get to the bus station's hub."

The clerk takes a quick look at the map giving it a once over.

"May I?"

"Sure go ahead."

The clerk picks up the map and looks at it for a second. While distracted Anna looks around to see if she's being watched again, and sneakily grabs a few things that would not make a sound before stuffing them in her pockets.

"Ahh, I see the problem. You were at an old bus station marked as 183K. That bus line no longer exists."

Taking a quick thinking pose he also said "One second. I might have something in the back that can help you."

Getting up from behind the counter he went to the back and grabs something. Anna taking advantage of this situation grabs some more stuff and packs them in her sack. Hearing the sound of a printer, she looks around the shop and quickly grabs some medication, while thinking about stealing some chips the clerk comes out from the back, and without thinking too much about the chips, she headed back to the counter.

"This is a newer map, you don't seem to have much on you, and it's only 20 cents so I'll cover it. You want to go here. This bus line will make you transfer to another bus line, however, it's the shortest route to the bus hub."

*Places the new map down and points at a specific location, before tracing it along, tapping, the transfer, then sliding his hand to the bus hub.*

"If you need to go to the bus station, you need to take the 201A and then transfer to the 204B take it to the third stop, and you will be there. If you forget you can always ask the bus driver for directions. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I need a seven-day bus pass, do you happen to carry those?"

"Yes, one second."

"Anything else?"

"No that will be all."

"Alright that will come to a total of $20, are you 17 or younger?"

"Yes? Why?"

"Ahh well if you are 17 or younger you apply for the reduced fare, so instead of paying $20, you pay $10."

"Oh cool."

"That comes to a total of $10. Will that be cash or credit?"

"Cash."

Handing over the cash, she grabbed the new map and the bus pass, while waving goodbye.

While walking backward the clerk tried to warn her but it was too late. Anna walked into a chip stand tripping over it, the clerk winced in pain before asking if she was ok. Anna taking the chance quickly bent over and started picking the stand up, she places most of the chips back, while still pocketing some. Getting up and apologizing to the clerk she quickly left.

( Thank god there was a $10 in the tip jar, that would have been very awkward. )

After walking a few blocks, she dug out the food, well more like candy and chips, and she starts eating it like crazy, completely forgetting about turning it into a cake.

( This should be more than enough food to fix my body. )

Jogging down the road, she started to look for a dense part of the forest. Finding a good spot, she looks around slightly before entering. Moving about fifty feet in, she looks up, nodded her head, and climbed a sturdy-looking tree, sitting on a random branch, she relaxed a little. Leaning back she takes a sigh of relief.

( Ok, let's finish off the rest of this food. )

~~~ Roughly 10 minutes later~~~

Letting out a girthy birp, that shook the leaves of the tree, she smiled happily.

"Man that hit the spot."

Closing her eyes, she started to focus before slowly reaching up and grabbing the philosopher's stone. As the process started again, a faint glow wrapped around her body, however this time instead of fixing her body, more black ooze came out of every pore she had. After the black ooze, her eyes, ears, nose, and other oraphases of the body, started leaking a purple substance.

Mentally exhausted from fixing her body, she let out a breath of hot air, so hot in fact it left flames. Without realizing it, the day finally started to cool off, and in a daze, she just sat there as the sun went down. Too tired from all the events, she just sat there and fell asleep.

After she had fallen asleep nine balls of light descended from the starry sky. Each light had a different color, and each sank into different parts of her body. After the ninth ball of light fused with her body, a larger light consisting of all of the colors descended and covered her body. If one were to see what was happening up close and personal, one would see the ball of light eating some sort of black energy coming off of her body. After a while, the light disappeared and with it, all the sludge-like substance that was on her body. With the sludge gone her body had a kind of glow.

Soon after Anna started to feel pain. It was bearable at first, however as time went on, it became worse.

The sounds of bones breaking, and screams could be heard from the forest.