Wellington, Massachusetts once a sprawling city with a population of half a million has been declining as of late with the transference of many manufacturing jobs overseas or to Mexico. If one was to consider just the size of the population as the only requirement for being a city then Wellington was in trouble of being down graded to a town. The last census put the city as have a population of just slightly over hundred thousand. Every year the City Council is raising taxes, inventing another, reducing services, or cutting services. Most jobs in Wellington now a days are in the service industry or require an expensive post high school education. Just last year escapehere.com listed Wellington in there 10 Worst Cities to Visit in the United States and neighborhoodscout.com listed Wellington in their Top 100 most dangerous places to live in the USA.

Tourism dried up after that, what museums survived the Great Recession of 2007 have since shuddered their doors and boarded up their windows. The zoo had their water supply poisoned by unknown individual(s). Many of the animals were killed, the ones that survived were given to other zoos around the world for their own safety.

The woods outside the city limits no one dares visit if they value their lives. One of the first services to have their budget cut was Animal Control, eventually it was out right eliminated. Without Animal Control the wild animals became to much of a problem. The last person to enter the woods was four years ago, he was looking for his daughter who had run away from home. He came back carrying what little of her remains he could find. He had to be rushed to the hospital from his own wounds. He didn't survive, by the end he was begging God and the hospital staff to let him die.

A secret exists in the woods, one that is heavily protected. It is a sanctuary for those that can live in the human world and in the animal kingdom.

Wellington in the late afternoon was quiet, a ghost of the bustling city it once was. The once urban paradise was slowly being claimed back by nature, one run down building at a time. The Wellington Zoo, a paradise for children once upon a time, was desolate; cages empty, utilities rusted, and looking like a place straight out of a horror magazine. Amidst the enclosures that had become the deathbed of a majority of the animals kept there was a grand statue of a roaring lion. Then, it had been one of the main attractions of the zoo, a great marble statue carved to the liking of the zoo's star. Now, one of the ears was missing, and muck and filth clothed the ferocious animal. Perched on his nose was a small black bird, a raven with a green streak on its left wing.

Alex cawed, and spread her wings. Being in the ruins of the zoo was a strange feeling for her. Being a shifter, it was like she was half-animal, and that half-animal part of her mourned the death that befell those who once lived for entertainment at the establishment. The human part of her, though, found the place absolutely morbid. She loved it.

She flew away from her perch and headed straight for one of the nicer buildings - a bird enclosure. She'd cleaned up the place just a few days ago and made a small cot in one corner. Placed in a rather messy heap above with was her clothes. Shamelessly, as there really wasn't anyone near, she turned back to her human form, naked as the day she was born. She lazily put on her clothes: ripped jeans, dark boots, a Cattle Decapitation band shirt, and a dark grey sleeveless jacket. She slipped on spiked bracelets as she headed out, her footsteps loud in the eery silence.

Once she was set, she found a seemingly stable bench and settled on it, arms sprawled on its back.

Elena was strolling around the zoo as a cat, she missed the animals, especially the feline ones. The birds she missed the least, they made her hungry. On several occasions it was all she could some times to stop herself from jumping into their sanctuary and devouring as many as she could. She walked up to the statue of the great lion. She jumped on to the marble base and eventually on to its back. She mimicked the statues pose, it made her feel strong and regal. She thought about how she used to stare at him when he was still alive, she couldn't remember his name so she referred to him as Mufasa.

Once she was done posing she caught a whiff of something. She followed the smell the the source on the lion's nose. She sniffed the nose for several minutes. The smell puzzled her. It was strangely familiar but different. Then she was distracted by a crow. She jumped down and stalked the crow. She tracked it to the former panda enclosure and pounced on the crow. She snapped it's neck and proceeded to feed, occasionally spitting out a feather.

Once she was done with the crow, she looked around. She noticed a female human so she proceeded to cautiously watch.

Titus wandered through the entrance of the town, his eyes scanning the broken down buildings and the dilapidated look of the entire city. This wasn't a place that would survive much longer. If this city were an animal, it would be being stalked by scavengers by now, hungry and waiting to rip it to shreds and feast on the remains. He didn't like the look of the place, it was too sad and dismal. He made his way towards the city zoo, wondering where he might find someone who could tell him how to find the group of shifters he'd come to this city in search of. This was the city nearest to where he'd heard they had begun to gather, but from here he hadn't any idea where to begin looking. After all, it wasn't like he could ask for directions to the nearest shape shifter camp. He decided the old zoo might be the place to begin his search, since it was possible that a few of the shifters might find comfort in the solace of the place, without worrying that they'd be identified as out of place. He, himself, wouldn't be able to be shift in the zoo, at least, not without drawing attention. He noticed the lion statue first, and his eyes gazed at it for a moment, filled with sadness. Such a proud creature, reduced to such a terrible state.

However, something else caught his eye and he turned away, his eyes fixing on the young woman sitting on the bench nearby. He was wearing a tight fitting brown t shirt and dirty jeans. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and walked over to her, curious. She was rather attractive, but he could tell from her dark clothing and style that she wasn't the helpless type. Or at least, she didn't project that. He stood next to the bench, turning his head to look down at her, his hand still in his pockets and said, "So, what brings you to this sad place? Surely it cannot be the view."

It’s here… plenty of things have died here… but how is there still no food?

Marie had trawled through the large predator enclosures one by one, searching for food. The only clothes she had on her was a thick, matted [and now from scaling broken wired fences, rather quite torn and tattered] Russian style trenchcoat that she picked up in a dumpster outside a thrift store. It was a good find at the time when the cold Canadian winds blew through the night, but here in the blazing American Summer it was just more of a burden. But she had nothing to replace it with for now.
Marie was about to absent mindedly venture out into the forest looking for something, before a local stopped her in her tracks, and warned her about the dangers beyond the city walls. Disappointed, she turned around and followed the next concentrated scent of death that she could find – it was old, but still fairly strong, and apparently the scent led her straight to a zoo.

Yeah… this one… this one’s recent. Small bird? Large bird? Who cares, food is food.

She followed the scent of a fresh kill, but only to find a bloody concrete wall and a black cat sitting in front of it. It looked like none of the meat from the dead bird was left. “Are you kidding me?” Marie mused half to herself. She gathered what was left of the crow feathers into her palm then heaved herself up on the wall behind the cat, spieling off another monologue half to herself.

“It’s a little rude to just eat for yourself, and then not leave anything for guests, Mr.Kitty” Marie said, nibbling on a few feathers at a time. “Keep up this behaviour, and I’ll eat you as well. Don’t think I haven’t eaten cats before…”

Yolanda was curled up under a small and dilapidated enclosure at the once thriving zoo. She was in her snake form, finding it easier to blend into the dying grass with her darker colours. The only thing that stood out on her were her black markings, looking something akin to an ink blot in a Rorschach test. In her human form, the blots shifted into an elaborate tattoo that marked most of her back; a morbid artwork of demons and fallen angels, watched over by the Devil himself. Yolanda supposed her shifting into a snake fit in with her tattoo. She could be the snake in the Garden of Eden.

Lifting her head at the sound of passing footsteps, she was surprised to see both human and animal activity; something that hadn't been linked with the zoo in a long time. Uncoiling, she slipped slowly from under the enclosure, first making sure that her bag of clothing was nearby. Now behind the enclosure, she shifted to her human form, flexing her back. Quickly, Yolanda stooped and brought out the bag, getting dressed in simple black jeans, Converse and a white singlet. Hanging the bag over her shoulder, she quietly watched as the strangers, both animal and human, wandered around.

Alex had just slipped into a trance, wandering into dream land. There she was, back in her old apartment with Kelly in the kitchen, making breakfast for the both of them. The delicious smell of bacon and eggs filled their small home, and Alex's stomach growled. Kelly looked over her shoulder with an affectionate smile, shaking her head at the sillyness of her roommate. In turn, Alex jokingly ordered her to hurry up amd serve her. That was their dynamic, and they both loved it. It pained Alex that she could only relive these memories. Returning back to their apartment would be dangerous, and Alex would never bring Kelly into the way of harm.

The sound of footsteps snapped Alex away from her dreams, and she opened her eyes to see a man stood near her. He was an unfamiliar face in a place that the residents so very rarely entered. He would seem odd to the average Joe, but to a shifter like Alex, he was dangerous. She narrowed her eyes at him, her relaxed pose tensing. "Maybe I wanted to be alone. Seems like abandoned and creepy zoo isn't enough to keep people away." She stood and kept a healthy distance between her and the man. She wasn't strong, so she wouldn't be able to overpower him, but she could rely on her knowledge of the city to outrun and lose him should the need arise. She just hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

"This place has seen death ten times over. That doesn't really scream 'tourist attraction', so what brings you here?" she inquired as she observed the man. As she did so, she caught sight of the other animals in the zoo. What in the world? What happened to it being abandoned? She sighed upon seeing Yolanda. Did they all decide to crash her lonesome party? Shaking her head slightly, she turned back to the man with a small smile on her lips. "Please don't say you're a ghost analyst or something bonkers like that."

Elena grew bored of the human she was watching. She also ignored the crazy person talking to herself. She leisurely walked in between the human male and human female. Once past them she started to jump on and off things at random. When she reached the gate to the zoo she squeezed through.

Outside the zoo, Elena grew more cautious since there were a hell of lot more dangers, there were cars, evil men, the crazies who liked to eat cats, dogs, etc. She took the safest and most direct route back to her place. Once she reached her penthouse apartment she shifted to her human form. She checked her cell phone for messages, there were a few she listened to them and deleted them all. She then slathered on some hair depilatory to make sure she was baby smooth all over. She then put on some basic undergarments, a skirt, a silk blouse, and three inch heels. She then went to her salon appointment.

Titus remained serious, bracing himself slightly when the girl got up and took a defensive posture. Having been in the wild for so many years, he was very attuned to the body language of other beings, even humans, though he had spent little time among them. He could tell this girl was wary, her eyes watching him carefully as she spoke. However, when she looked around at the various animals, he opened his senses and realized that there was indeed a large number of beings nearby, including another human, who seemed to be ignoring them. When the girl turned back to him, questioning him once more, her defensive posture seemed to have relaxed a little as she gave a small smile. He allowed himself a returning smile and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Why would I say something as silly as that. You know there's no such thing as ghosts." He glanced around at the depressing state of the zoo, his smile fading as he spoke again, half to himself. "Although, memories of sad events and loneliness can certainly leave behind feelings that could be mistaken for spirits of some sort." His attention turned back to the girl in front of him, his eyes locking with hers. "I came here in search of some people who might be able to help me. You see, I have a certain... health condition and I'd heard that there were some people near this city that might be able to help me."

"As subtle as smacking someone in the face with a brick." A rather loud voice rang out among the depressing silence of the zoo, relatively near those that had gathered. Nearby in an overgrown tree, Darren rested leisurely ontop of some of the thickly twisted and connected branches. He was slung over them in a half-haphazardly manor, both legs slung over one side while his head and chest rested on another. His body was twisted in such a way that it couldn't have been comfortable for most people, especially with his face half-buried into the rough tree bark like that. But the man looked to be rather comfortable, at least to those who could actually see him. With his dark clothing on and such still motions, it was hard, if not impossible to see him in the tree. Though after a few moments he untwisted himself and sat upright, stretching with a soft, tired-sounding groan.

"I wasn't aware this was a meeting spot for people, if I had known it was, I might have just stayed away and gotten some shut-eye elsewhere. But its hard to find a place where it is so quiet, you know? Everything is so loud." A grumble escapes Darren as he promptly slides right off of the branches he had been resting upon, not even bothering to try and catch himself on any of the other branches. He lands with a rather heavy sounding thud, it was a decently sized drop, but he stood up with a slightly preterbed expression, mostly masked by his sunglasses. He does not lift his head or square his shoulders or anything of the such, showing absolutely no signs of aggression, not even in his voice.

"Meeting in an abandoned zoo is sort of creepy for normal people, so I figure there must be something important going on here. Are you all going to continue your chattering so I have to relocate my napping spot or is it safe for me to climb back into that tree?" Darren wasn't really looking at the other man or the girl with the streak in her hair, in fact, he didn't even have his eyes open yet. He just stood there, somewhat swaying on his feet while fighting off a rather ferocious yawn.

Yolanda frowned slightly at the sudden influx of people. She tentatively stepped closer to the strangers, remaining silent for now. Her hands were tense by her sides, unsure of whether these people were there to help or hurt. They seemed relatively harmless, if not a little rude. Yolanda's fingers curled slightly in reflex as a male dropped down from a tree heavily, seemingly unharmed.

"Wat die hel?*" Yolanda murmured aloud, more to herself than to the people nearby. It had been a long time since she had seen a group of people anywhere near the zoo, let alone within the depressing confines.

[* 'what the hell?']

Alex looked around her, head reeling. Where had all these people come from? What in the world happened to her sanctuary? "What the hell?" she parroted Yolanda's statement, finding no other words to say about the situation. One moment she was alone and snoozing on a bench. The next some man approaches her. Then another second later, the zoo became home to an impromptu little shindig. Alex raised her hands up in surrender, obviously she couldn't claim the zoo as her own anymore, especially since she wasn't the only shifter around.

Speaking of shifters, Alex turned back her attention to Titus. By his thinly veiled words, he must be one of them as well. That was the only explanation as to why any sane person would enter their rundown city and the ruins of the zoo. And for some reason, he'd approached her for help, even though there was a bunch of other people lounging around in the zoo. She felt Darren's pain. She'd only wanted some time to rest, relax, especially under the stressful situation that was their messed up lives.

Whatever. First things first, she needed to make sure that this man in front of her really was a shifter. So, in a voice that invoked no questions, she ordered, "Shift." After she'd made sure that the man was one of then, well... She'd handle that later. Maybe she'd pass off the responsibility to someone else since there's so much of them running around willy nilly. But, yes, first things first. She stared at Titus, unblinking and awaiting for him to confirm everything.

Once at the salon Elena she struck a friendly chit chatty conversation with the receptionist. When Elena was called to a back room used for clients who need to completely disrobe. Once she was had shed all of her clothes, Thad an over friendly gay male came in and complimented her body, then began conversing about several small topics while he applied a depilatory to make sure she was baby smooth all over. After a few minutes she stepped into a shower to wash off the depilatory and any body hair. After she stepped out of the shower Thad applied a moisturizer and lotion combo. Once the moisturizer and lotion combo was thoroughly absorbed by the skin Thad handed her a robe to put on while he gathered up her clothes. Elena proceeded out to main area where she got the deluxe package, manicure, pedicure, eyebrow threading, facial, sun tanning, & hair styling.

Titus's primal urges went into overdrive when the young man suddenly dropped from the tree. He hadn't been expecting to encounter another shifter so soon, but this man was obviously one of them. The way he looked, moved, and acted all screamed shifter to Titus's senses. He'd found that when the shifter was a large predator, he often could tell even when they were in human form. However, if their other form was more discreet, he would sometimes miss it. His muscles tensed and his eyes turned back to the girl in front of him as she commanded him to shift and stared into his eyes, her own unwavering.

She had taken him by surprise with the command, both because of it being a command coming from an obviously physically inferior woman, and also because she obviously had some knowledge of his nature simply by his question. If she knew that much about him so easily, it could only mean that she was one herself. Still, he wasn't sure he wanted to shift in so open of a place. The look of surprise faded from his face and his own gaze became as steely as hers, staring back at her, trying to assess whether he would be safe showing this girl what he considered to be his true form. After a long moment of silence he said, "Not here. Too many prying eyes. I don't trust them, and to be honest, I'm not sure I trust you either. However, if you are willing to confirm your own ability to shift, I'll do the same. Still, not here. Do you know of a place that would give us more privacy?"

Marie watched the small gathering of people from the wall - she had good eyes, at least, but couldn’t quite catch the words the rest of them were saying. When she saw the tall man with the dark clothes jump out of the tree, she figured she could inch in a little closer without anyone noticing. After all, this gathering seemed to be getting pretty large already. She only managed to get the last few lines of the Scar-faced man’s speech, but that was more than enough to get her excited.

“Shift, wasn’t it!” Marie shouted almost cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to the rising tensions. “Demonic Shifter is the name that they give me! They tried to make out like I was the weird one, but it was those other people who were weird all along! Not me!” Marie stood squarely in front of Titus, peering into his eyes; since he was the one she heard last.

“It’s a normal thing to do, isn’t it? Oh, please tell me it’s normal. You can do it, right?”

Titus was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the girl who he had sensed behind him earlier. What bothered him even more was that she was saying things out loud that he wouldn't have liked anyone to say out loud, especially when addressing him. He backed away from her, frowning and assessing her. She seemed to be a rather outgoing young woman, and a bit childish in manner, though she seemed to be in her late teens. She was rather plain looking, and the way she behaved was rather odd. She was shorter than him, but she didn't have any qualms about staring at his face and she didn't blink when he met her eyes. Unlike the other girl, though, he didn't think it was out of bravery, but more of a childish naivete. While he was initially frowning, his gaze softened and he said simply, "You shouldn't speak about those kinds of things out loud. Why don't you come with us and we'll talk about it somewhere else." He looked up at the other girl, motioning for her to follow him and he walked out the entrance of the zoo, back towards the woods.

"Stop right there, man," Alex half-shouted. She was having a migraine with the sudden onslaught of people. The loud mouthed lady was obviously a shifter, and the man had confirmed his status as well, but she needed to see. "You can shift right here, right now. No one's around that isn't a shifter." The animals around and the random people suddenly popping up. The aura that surrounded them screamed of being a shifter. Besides, Alex was certain that there wouldn't be some random mundane person wandering around the zoo.

But obviously, the man was still quite hesitant to shift until someone else shifted too. Alex sighed, already resigning herself to fate. She began to strip, quickly, in the middle of the desolate zoo. She was a shifter, and sometimes that meant having to strip in front of a huge group of people. Okay, maybe not, but she didn't really want to ruin her clothes and she wasn't leading the man to the woods without further confirming his being a shifter, so this was the best thing she could think of. Stark naked, Alex folded her clothes neatly and placed them on the bench. It took less than a minute for her to shift into her raven form and perch on the man's shoulder, cawing loudly into his ear.

Titus had paused for a moment when the dark haired girl had called out to him, but then had continued walking towards the woods. A minute or so later a raven flew over to him and perched on his shoulder, cawing loudly in his ear. He turned towards it, his intuition telling him exactly who it was. He frowned slightly as he continued walking and said, "There's no need to yell. I simply don't feel comfortable shifting in such an open space, where there are prying eyes. As I said earlier, I don't know if I can trust those others, and am not complete sure if I can even trust you, but I have to start somewhere, and you and this girl," he gestured to Marie, "Seem like you would be the least amount of trouble if you do turn out to be untrustworthy."

“Eh? So I shouldn’t have… out loud…” Marie pondered for a moment, with her head down, then decided to follow the tall guy. “You mean this thing is hidden? Like a secret?”

She was about to notify him of the girl from before suddenly taking her clothes off in the middle of the zoo, and ask whether that was a normal thing or not too, but Marie almost shrieked when a black raven flew past her. When she removed her hands from over her face, she found it sitting neatly on the big guy’s shoulder. Oh! Her green streak is pretty was her first thought, followed by Wait… can I understand her? Somehow Marie felt that she could read meaning into the Raven’s voice on an instinctual level, even though that normally didn’t happen with animals. Not even other birds.

“Heh… I think I can be trustworthy! I think. I’ve never tried before. And I’m not trouble at all! I promise!” Although they did call me that too, didn’t they… “I’m Marie, you see. Now you can trust me, because I’ve given you my name, and we aren’t strangers anymore.”

"Hey..." Darren states simply with a low groan before quickly following after the large man, the crow, and the other girl. He was normally not one to chase after people, but in this occasion, his curiosity had been caught. They had woken him up from his nap that he had so desperately needed and now they were even going to leave him behind? Hrmph.

"Listen, I won't do anything weird or whatever... But this is the first time in a long while I've actually seen so many of us gathered before." His voice was still quite groggy and somehow managed to sound more like he had just woken up than it had before. It was relatively easy for him to catch up, he could have been walking beside them if he really wanted, but instead he kept a good distance of several feet between himself and them. He had spent a good part of his life being a predator, he knew better than to jump into a large group all at once... plus, distance was needed, especially for larger, more territorial animals. While he was not 100% sure about the other man, he had a good feeling he was not something tiny as either of these girls probably were. And if the other guy decided to start swinging, distance was probably going to be his only chance until he could gauge just what he would be dealing with. Not that he had to 'deal' with anything, he could leave anytime he wanted. This was just something that had struck him curious, he had not seen other shifters in number like this before.

"You don't have to trust me, either." Darren says simply as he followed behind at his 'safe' distance. "I just want to see, I'll even show you mine first if you want."