I woke slowly from an awfully nasty nightmare. I had been stuck to a singular viewpoint, staring at a road, unable to move or see anything but the occasional vehicle pass. I felt deeply uncomfortable, as if I had slept in a bed made out of hard cold lumpy leather. Then all of a sudden it hit me.

“I’m still out in the middle of nowhere in the car!” I jolted upright making scraping noises against the roof of my car as my body tried to stand. And I felt a deep shift in balance as something sizable nearly hits me in the face. One hand shot to my chest and the other shot to my head in an awkward cramped version of ‘Pat your head and rub your belly’ and the penny dropped. I wasn’t a guy anymore...I wasn’t even sure I was human. I reached for the rear view mirror and twisted it in my direction.

“Holy shit I’m beautiful”. I was certainly female now, my height hadn’t seemed to change much but I’d lost much of the weight that I had as a boy to be very slender. To my tired and shifted view my new boobs looked huge under my now ill fitting black hoodie, and my new ghostly white long hair kept getting in the way. Even stranger than that though my right arm, which I hadn’t leant on whilst I was out for the count, wasn’t even made out of flesh anymore, it didn’t feel particularly heavy, and was seemingly identical in size and proportions to my normal arm, but it was made out of a strange blue metal. Which wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before.

That doesn’t even rank at the top of my new quirks and features I gained in that supernatural storm: “I have antennae now?!”. I was suddenly a little pleased rather than disappointed that my car had a sunroof now. Seemingly in response to this I hear the recognisable sound of the pop-up headlights flipping down.

Pulling the sleeve of my hoodie down I take a look around to see if anything had happened outside of the car, everything seemed to be normal where I was, and the sky had returned to being clear and starry. Sighing, I attempt to turn on the engine using the key but it wouldn’t start.

“I really really hope that I haven’t damaged your internals car” I curse myself for not being able to turn it off properly before the storm claimed my consciousness. “That freak arse storm turned out really painful. Guess you can’t suddenly shift gender and become a Cyborg without it feeling like it’s ripping your flesh away,” I punch myself in the leg with my normal arm.

All of a sudden I feel a presence nearing me. I look behind outside the rear clamshell window and see nothing, but I know something is on its way down the road towards me, and then the blue and red flashing lights come into view, I very quickly pull my hood up to hide the antennae, and lay my left metal arm down behind my body, so that when the cop inevitably walks up to the car left strewn in the middle of the road and sees me he isn’t spooked by my new robotic appendages. A ton of thoughts rush through my mind, worries about being taken in to the station for questioning, or instant imprisonment to experiment in case they wish to experiment on me to find out what the arm is made of. I suddenly wish my car would start or at least move, or the cop to just ignore me and drive on, but I know that would be impossible.

However, out of the corner of my eye in the mirror I see that my antennae just pulse slightly and weakly, and my car begins to roll forwards a little bit.

“I can make you move?” I felt the presence of the cop car had been joined by something else in my mind, a very faint feeling of what seemed to be my own vehicle. I willed it on harder and as it picked up speed rolling I twisted the key to attempt a rolling start and with a groan it started up and everything came back to me, headlights, steering feel and full power. I laughed and punched the air, gripping the steering wheel with my metal arm. In my triumph for getting it started I missed the police lights get closer and closer, and all of a sudden the policeman was right behind me. I panicked and in my worry I willed that the car behind would just stop already and leave me alone, I didn’t need another problem in my life right now. And much like my own car had started up. All of a sudden the lights behind me vanished and shut off.

“Thanks officer!” I squealed out loud, almost missing the next corner in my giddy happiness.

***

Officer Jim Birchwood was on his late night shift alone, patrolling the woods in the very north of Hillchester when the night sky was suddenly illuminated by unnatural glowing lights and an intense storm, he pulled over to the side of the road to watch the lightshow in awe. It had been a silent night prior and he hadn’t expected that to change. The storm had done a lot of alleviate his boredom. And then the calls started.

“All officers on patrol, it’s been reported that there are currently two people who appear to be dressed in costumes with wolf masks attacking people with what I’m told are claws in a restaurant in south Hillchester” His radio buzzed at him, the late night controller sounding like he didn’t even believe his own words. Jim shook his head dismissively.

“Fucking teenagers these days, mental” Jim presses the response button on his radio “This is Officer Birchwood. I’ve got my stab resistant vest on, I’m on my way to the incident in south Hillchester”

“Roger Officer, be warned there now appears to be reports that a member of the public is fighting them back with what I’m told to be some kind of taser? Be careful and get there quick”.

“The storms driven everyone insane, they must think its the apocalypse or a purge, I am going to need many beers later” He sighed. Reaching down to his dashboard controls he flips on the lights and the siren and speeds off through the woods, all of a sudden though he catches a glimpse of a light in the road ahead. A sports car of some sort appeared to be stranded in the road, looking like it had a mighty spin with mud draped down its side, as he begun to get nearer the car all of a sudden it shot away from him. His hand shot to his radio.

“Control, I’m in pursuit of a dark coloured sports car which has just made off from me, they’re doing well in excess of the speed limit alrea-” He exclaimed into the radio only to be cut off when his car suddenly completely cut out and jolted to the right. With all the lights out and the steering unresponsive, Jim could only watch in horror as the trees rushed at his patrol vehicle. It pitches into a ditch, tipping the rear end over in a front-flip with the rear of the vehicle ending up resting against the trunk of a tree. Jim was alive, but heavily injured. The jerk of the wheel has broken his right arm and his leg was trapped under the dash of the car. With his remaining strength before passing out from the pain he presses his panic button. “That… doesn’t… make sense…” and then his world goes black.

***

Despite the horrifying events of the day. I couldn’t really help myself to a little bit of happiness.

“Burning up the night, the streets on fire. Burning deep inside, my love’s forever” I sang along to myself with my new higher voice, really quite chuffed with the fact I’d managed to shake off the policeman. I pulled into the apartment complex car park and garages as quietly as the car could manage and drove it into my garage. It had seemed I wasn’t the only one who appeared to have something change about them, there were unnatural craters in the walls and the road and I could hear lots more sirens in the distance. After closing the garage door, again as quietly as possible, I quickly shuffled over to my apartment and opened up the door. A few steps into the apartment I realised that the TV was on. Something isn’t right here, I don’t usually leave anything on.

“Cyrus? Is that you?”

Oh shit.