Colin flew towards a pack of seven Changed. They were hunkered down inside of a gas station car wash. One of those ones that was just small enough to make you wonder if it was going to tear into your car instead of washing it.

  Colin remained in Dragonfly form and perched on top of the covering above the gas pumps. He was still well within range and locked down the seven inside of the car wash. It still felt easy. He tested his own movement capabilities, by flying a couple of circles and barrel rolls, but he could move without hassle while locking down seven Changed. He spread his senses to look for another group within range, but instead he sensed something that didn’t make sense.

  An armored SWAT car was parked nearby with four men inside. Not Changed, they were regular humans. Colin flew to the SWAT car and landed on the roof.

  “I still don’t get why we can’t strike now. What’s the point of waiting three more days,” The man sitting front passenger complained.

  “You’re not here to think,” The woman in the driver’s seat said, “You’re here to follow orders and execute the mission.”

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  Colin’s stomach dropped. What mission was there in three days?

  “I’m just saying we could capture those Changed right now and be on our merry way today. That seems like an effective use of our time instead of waiting around twiddling our thumbs,” The man said.

  “There you go thinking again,” The woman said.

  “But I have a point right?” The man insisted.

  “You’ve seen how they’ve mutated so far. What if they change further in the next few days and us capturing them early halts that evolutionary process?”

  “Oh yeah, that actually makes sense,” the man said, “Boss?”

  “What? Jerry?” The woman sighed.

  “Can we go get snacks? I mean, since we don’t get to do anything for three days anyway.” Jerry asked.

  “Fine,” the woman said and they rolled up the windows and drove slowly towards the Kroger that Colin’s family just came from.

  Colin considered attacking them, but he pushed down his first instinct and instead flew back to join his family and report what he just learned. If saving a town of Changed hadn’t been enough work on its own, now they had to deal with these SWAT people abducting Changed before Kristy could cure them.

  On his way there, he noticed several drones flying overhead and had a feeling they were sending surveillance back to the government. Hopefully Holly could feed some information back to them, so they would know how much danger they were in.

  On the way back, Colin hunted and fed for several hours until he felt himself reach the next threshold. If he had three days, now was his best chance to improve before something bad happened.