Colin had never heard that loud of a sound come from a human before. Sometimes Jenny would squeal in excitement, but it paled in comparison to the shrill of terror that her mother had belted out. Colin recalled her name was Mommy, but he felt like she might have more than one name for some reason he couldn’t explain.

  Colin sighed and shook his head. He felt close to Mommy too. Much closer than he reasonably should for only having seen her once. He knew her, but it was as if the knowledge was locked away.

  Extra food should help him get smart enough, but he failed to sneak an extra meal from Mommy like he was planning. Looking out the door where Mommy had fled, Colin sighed again like he learned from Jenny.

  Too bad.

  He could still feel Mommy’s life pulse in the next room. It was getting easier to read life pulses from humans and in addition to intent he could now decipher emotions. When Colin read Mommy’s pulse, it was a mix of panic and "seek help" as the intent. After several minutes, He felt her emotions include impatience mixed with her terror.

  Some time passed before Colin felt two new life pulses approach the house, but neither one was Jenny. The intent the male human gave off was protective concern. The new female pulsed with wariness, but Colin felt the intent shift to bloodlust after it approached Mommy.

  RUN.

  Every one of Colin's instincts screamed for him to flee. He had hunted enough prey at this point to instinctively know that he was in extreme danger. An apex predator had its sights on him and it was moments away from killing him.

  Colin climbed the net.

  The pulses grew closer.

  Colin used his escape method and dropped outside the net.

  The predator's pulse and the protector’s pulse was just outside the door with Mommy’s pulse just behind them.

  There wasn’t enough time.

  Colin raced for the window.

  The door behind him boomed as the predator pulse kicked it in.

  Colin didn’t dare look back as he made it to the window. As he leaped out, he heard a terribly loud bang and felt a sharp pain flare-up in his side as a bullet passed straight through him.

  Dazed by the pain, Colin hit the ground hard and bolted for the cover of the nearby woods. Seconds later, more loud noises came from behind him followed instantly by impact sounds all around him.

  A bullet struck Colin’s right claw.

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  “No!” Colin whimpered in pain, and urged his inefficient body to move faster.

  Nearing the first tree, he kicked it into high gear but stumbled as another bullet clipped one of his legs and snapped it off completely.

  “No, no, no, nonono.” Colin begged the pain to stop. It was so hard to concentrate on anything other than the pain, but somehow he managed to keep running without slowing much.

  PAIN.

  Colin’s base instincts were trying to take the wheel from him, but if he gave in right now, he was afraid he might die. He knew he wasn’t the smartest, but this was a time to think and decide his best course of action as he fled. The cover of the trees may have stopped the bullets for now, but that predator still had the killing intent directed at him.

  PAIN.

  There was no way Colin could overpower whatever a human with a gun. He didn’t even understand fully what a gun was, but he knew it meant death and he felt how true that was.

  Colin felt his only real option left was to hide.

  The predator’s pulse left the bedroom window and headed in the opposite direction as Colin. Soon, it disappeared outside of Colin’s range of senses.

  Its pulse didn’t feel like he was giving up before it disappeared though. If anything, the pulse had grown more determined.

  Colin seized his chance to find a place to hide, but had to keep moving. None of the trees he passed had any nooks or crannies.

  The predator’s pulse came back in his range and it was moving toward him faster than Colin could run.

  He was running out of time.

  There was enough distance still between them, so Colin would stay unseen for a little bit still. Before that predator of a woman caught up though, he needed to find a place to hide.

  Colin was so focused on the pulse that was gaining on him, that he ran straight into the water without realizing it.

  His body wasn’t made for swimming right now, but he didn’t have time to backtrack. Colin took a deep breath to calm himself. Wait.

  He could still breathe underwater.

  Realizing he could hide in the water gave Colin the renewed vigor he needed.

  The predatory pulse was getting dangerously close again.

  Colin used his grip and claws to scramble off the shoreline and fully submerge himself. He crawled along the bottom of the water toward a grouping of reeds and wrestled his way into them. His body was awkward and clunky. He’d gotten complacent eating whatever Jenny had brought him and now he was paying for it.

  Colin winced as a sturdy reed brushed roughly against his side. He saw that he was bleeding in multiple places. The blood was a greenish-silver color that stood out in the water.

  Too late, Colin realized that he had painted a perfect trail to himself and now he could feel the predator at the edge of the shoreline.

  Colin went still with fear.

  She stood there with a killing intent that burned.

  A muffled version of the loud bang from before went off.

  Then another.

  Bullets impacted far too close to Colin and he started struggling sideways through the reeds as fast as he could manage. The pain continued to flare at his side every time a reed brushed over the wound, but he couldn’t let that slow him.

  Even as Colin moved, the bullet sounds stayed in his original hiding area. He was making distance now between himself and the predator’s pulse. Colin squeezed his eyes closed and stifled a whimper to keep from blowing bubbles. He didn’t stop moving in the hopes that his blood trail was covered by the reeds and kept moving.

  The pulse grew further away, but Colin wouldn’t feel safe until the predator was far, far out of his sensing range.