To Become Human

There it was again. That unmistakable sound of tree branches cracking underfoot. Just close enough behind that it overpowered the howling of the furious wind.

Douglas stopped in his tracks, turning around sharply, alerted by the sudden noise. Just like the previous times he swore he heard something, there was nobody near him. He sighed, pushing his ushanka down on his matted brown hair. He shouldered his hunting rifle as he stared at the vast ocean of trees surrounding him. The hunting range he used was pretty out of the way, and a lot of the bigger game was out of season; at this time of year, there were many times when Douglas was the only person on the range at all. He couldn't be sure that it wasn't just an animal making those noises, but on the other hand, he knew that sound when he heard it.

Any old animal could step on a tree branch, but what he had heard was the sound of branches being stomped on by heavy hunting boots, not unlike his.

Douglas sighed in defeat. He scanned the tree line one last time, then continued on his path through the vast forest. After several more minutes of walking, Douglas came across a clearing in the woods, through which a small stream ran. There was a hill-like mound of earth overlooking the clearing, so he crouched down upon the mound and placed his rifle evenly on the ground. He slowly brought his scope down and scanned the clearing, where a large doe was drinking peacefully from the stream.

Jackpot.

Slowly, he drew the rifle slightly upwards, his iron sights now directly locked onto the head of the unwary doe. His finger tensed on the trigger. His aim was true, and he could already anticipate the cathartic sound of his bullet ripping through the air.

SNAP!

Douglas jolted in surprise, firing off his rifle prematurely. His bullet embedded itself in a tree trunk, and the doe, visibly startled, raced away into the thick woods. It was the sound of snapping branches, only this time it was directly behind him. In an instant, Douglas leapt to his feet, swinging his rifle around in an unintentional display of anger and bravado. At last, Douglas had come face to face with the man stalking him throughout his trip. Douglas raised his rifle, pointing it angrily at...

...himself.

Douglas lowered his rifle, stepping back slowly. The man he was staring down was an identical copy of him. He dressed like him, he looked like him, he even drummed his fingers on his chin in the same idiosyncratic way Douglas did.

"Who... are you?" Douglas asked cautiously, regaining his footing after stumbling on the edge of the mound. The man stared blankly back at him.

"I could ask you the same thing," the man said back to him in his exact voice, "I've been trailing you all afternoon trying to figure out just what the hell you are, and why you look so much like I do!"

"Don't play that game with me!" Douglas snapped. His mind was flooded with the dozens of old sci-fi movies he watched as a kid, where the main character was met with an alien impostor who claimed to be the original. "I know who I am, and you're sure as hell not me!"

"Is that a bet you're willing to make, whoever you are?"

"My name... is Douglas!"

"Wrong," the man said back coldly, "my name is Douglas."

The two stared at each other as the wind continued to howl endlessly. Douglas' finger gripped even tighter on the trigger. He wasn't sure what was going on exactly, but he felt threatened and afraid. Both of those were bad emotions in the mind of a man holding a gun.

"Alright," Douglas said shakily, "if you're me, what's my mother's maiden name?"

"Sepania. Then she married Arthur Gatherson, my father, and took his name."

"When's my birthday?"

"May 30th. 1977, to be exact."

"In which grade did I get my first girlfriend?"

"9th grade. Her name was Katherine Stirling."

Douglas smiled as he raised the scope to his eye.

"Wrong. We only went to the dance together in 9th grade. We didn't officially date until sophomore year."

Before the man could utter another word, Douglas unthinkingly fired his rifle. It struck him directly in the forehead, sending him to the ground in a crumpled heap. As soon as he hit the ground, Douglas realized what he had done. Impostor or not, he had opened fire on another man. He glanced around his surroundings rapidly, using the flaps of his ushanka to dab at his sweaty forehead. The magnitude of the situation never fully grasped him until just then. He shouldered his rifle and slowly turned his attention back to the dead man as he felt the bile rising in the back of his throat.

The body had transformed. It no longer looked like his own. But its new appearance caused a scream of pure dread and terror to erupt from Douglas' throat, shaking the branches on trees and frightening away flocks of birds.



"Doctor Stirling! Telephone for you!"

Dr. Katherine Stirling looked up from her medical journal, placing it gently on her desk. She strode out of her office, gently closing the door behind her, preemptively reaching for the phone as she walked across the hall to get to it. It was an old landline, mostly used for non-emergency calls. The emergencies were handled by operators with much quicker and more efficient phone lines. She picked up the phone from its resting handle, and cradled it between her cheek and her shoulder.

"Dr. Stirling speaking?"

"Katherine? It's me, Douglas Gatherson. Look, I know we haven't talked in forever, but I really need your help with something."

Katherine paused, almost dropping the phone from her makeshift cradle. She hadn't heard Douglas' voice, let alone his name in over 15 years. She had gone to a different college after they broke up at the end of their senior year, and she never heard from him again.

"D-Douglas? What's going on? I haven't heard from you in forev-"

"I know, I know! Look, I know it's been a long time since we even saw each other, but something crazy just happened to me and I really need your help."

"Oh. A-Alright, well what's going on?"

"I... I really can't explain it. Just come to Parker's Hunting Range as soon as you can. And by that, I mean right away."

"Right away?! Douglas, I have patients to attend to, I can't just go off and-"

"This involves you! This isn't just some random thing I thought you'd be good with. My problem involves you directly, and if I don't solve it, something horrible is going to happen to both of us. Please. I know it's been awhile, and I know I'm asking a lot of you, but please come help me. The man working the range will know where you can find me."

Katherine grimaced. There was no shaking him or whatever he wanted with her. Part of her thought it was just a half assed excuse to see her again. On the other hand, he seemed to exhibit true panic and uncertainty in his voice alone. Whatever was bothering him so badly seemed to be legitimate.

"Fine. I'll see if another doctor can cover my shift. But this better be quick."

She hung up before he could respond, striding over to her secretary.

"Kerri, could you see if anybody's available to cover my shift. I hate for this to be so last minute but a... family emergency came up and I'm needed right away."

"Oh! Umm, I'm sure I could find someone to cover you. How long do you expect to be out?"

"I really couldn't say. I really don't wanna talk about it, but it sounded pretty bad over the phone. But thanks Kerri, you're a lifesaver as always."

Kerri murmured something incomprehensible as Katherine walked briskly towards the front doors of the hospital. She started her car, pulled out of the parking lot, and sped off towards the hunting range.

When she arrived, she was greeted by a lone employee working the front desk of the registration. He was an older man, with only a few strands of gray hair dotting his scalp. He wore a red flannel shirt with overalls. He smiled a nearly toothless smile as Katherine approached.

"Howdy there. Don't reckon you've come around these parts, so what can I do ye for?" he asked.

"I was told to meet Douglas Gatherson. He said he needed my help carrying a deer back to the car."

"He did? Hoo boy, Douglas gone caught himself a big 'un!" the old man enthusiastically pointed to a mounted map detailing the various trails.

"Douglas took this here blue trail. If you stick to that, ye'll be sure to find him!"

"Got it. Thanks for the help." she replied as she headed off on the trail he had indicated.

She found Douglas about an hour into the trail. She didn't notice him until he called out to her from afar, and she realized he had wandered not too far off the trail.

"Katherine! Over here!"

She turned and saw him standing over a crumpled heap; from the distance, she couldn't make out exactly what it was. However, she could see the worry on Douglas' face, and she could only identify it as a look of pure dread and anxiety. Without uttering a word, she raced off towards him and his mystery predicament.

When Katherine approached Douglas, he simply gestured to the thing laying on the ground. Katherine glanced at the ground and stepped back immediately. She stifled a scream with her hand as she looked down in pure horror.

The thing on the ground was wearing a human's clothes, but it was far from human. Its skin was a pale milky white, and its face had absolutely no facial features. It was just a blank slate of a face. The only noticeable feature was an indentation from where the thing was evidently shot, but it was a bloodless wound.

"Douglas, wh...what is that?

"I-I don't know. Whatever it was, it looked... it looked just like me."

"What?"

"When I encountered this thing, it was an exact duplicate of me. Everything down to my nervous ticks. After I...after I shot it, it fell to the ground and turned into that thing."

"If I wasn't seeing it now, I know for a fact I would think you're batshit crazy. But this is unlike anything I've ever seen. So wait, how does all this involve me?"

Douglas frowned, kicking up leaves with the toe of his boot.

"This thing knew who you were. Whatever it is, it had my memories. It knew who my parents are, it knew when I was born, and it knew who you are. I don't know how, but if this thing can take memories as well as shape, then this isn't just our problem anymore."

Katherine knelt down, examining the body.

"Hey, come look at this." she motioned Douglas over as she examined the thing's face. She pointed to the area of impact where the thing was shot.

"Look. The area around the wound is softened."

"...Come again?"

"Look." Katherine said. She lightly prodded the edges of the bullet wound, and it looked as though she was pressing her finger into a ball of dough. The tip of her finger seemed to disappear into the thing's flesh as though it was silly putty. Douglas looked on with abstract confusion. Katherine withdrew her finger and began to inspect the rest of the body.

"Douglas," she said with a hint of both panic and curiosity in her voice, "its whole body feels like this."

"But what does this all mean?"

Katherine stood, still examining the thing.

"My only guess as to why any organism would be structured this way is to... absorb something else."

"And if that's true, how did it look like me?"

Katherine grimaced. "I think I know, but you may not like it."

Once again, she knelt down, pressing her palm against the thing's face and letting it slowly sink in. After several seconds, she pulled her hand back out. She opened her fist to reveal a small shred of cloth. The tip of her pointer finger was dotted with a small fleck of blood. Douglas took a look at the cloth, then down at his own shirt.

"That's..."

"It's the same material as your shirt. Did you injure yourself in any way during your trip here?"

"Yeah, I cut myself on a thicket when I was trying to scout for game. It tore off a bit of my shirt, but I didn't think anything of it."

As soon as he said it, the two looked at each other in mutually assured horror. They had unlocked the secret of the creature, using only a shred of cloth and a speck of blood.

"It must use the blood to replicate the human image..." Katherine began.

"...And it uses the clothing sample to replicate what we wear..." Douglas finished.

"Douglas, whatever the hell this thing is, it's dangerous. This could be a threat to the entire world!"

"I know, there's gotta be something we can do, right?"

"Hold on," she said as she paced, looking up at the sky, "my old coworker became a biologist. Maybe he can help us figure out what this is, or at the very least, what else it can do."

"Alright! You get him over here, I'll keep an eye on the bo-"

The thing was gone. The wind howled for the first time in hours as Katherine and Douglas stared at the patch of leaves where it lay in disbelief.

Sweat began to pour down Douglas' face. He heard it again. That damned noise that had been haunting him since the beginning of the trip. Once again, it was coming from right behind him.

SNAP!