Hayden is a hunter, ravenous and deadly. Her haunches crash against the sheet metal as she runs, sending reverberations and the hefty clack of her claws with each footfall. It is dark in the cave, a metal straight shot defined only by pockets of off-pink foliage that she knows she mustn’t eat. Her body slams against the steel wall as she barrels around a corner, braving the blow with nary a whimper. Her prey is close; there is a hint of its succulent aroma in the air.

She finds the cave’s exit, a narrow portway leading to the under canopy below. She takes it, claws skittering as she forces her scaled body through the opening. She drops to the forest floor and stumbles across its slick surface before regaining her footing. She senses other hunters in the dark, their distant footfalls and the tittering of hungry animals. She hears the mice that live in the darkest, quietest corners of the jungle where they gnaw out their existence. She considers refocusing her hunt to dine on the delicacy. She imagines their plump little bodies still holding the weight of their greasy autumnal fat. But she knows her real prize is far more valuable.

She ascends to the canopy. Her mouth fills with saliva that pours out in rivulets beyond her fangs. Her feast is close. There is another cave, one she must pry her way into with the hook-claws on her feet. The cave opens to her, and she is finally upon her prey.

She rends its soft skin apart with her hind claws and gulps mouthfuls of the sweet and cold flesh inside. She is dimly aware of the cave sealing behind her and the cold closing around her, but all that exists now is the bountiful meat disappearing down her gullet and filling her belly.

By the time she has devoured her prize she detects the unnatural hum echoing through the forest walls, seeping into the cave around her with a wash of bitter cold air. She snarls and reels backward, dragging her prey’s corpse along as she moves for the mouth of the cave.

She pushes the cave’s face aside to see that the jungle is now alive with light, a dozen miniature suns shining brilliantly to the brush below. The others have arrived, betrayed by their clumsy footfalls and the high squeals of their voices.

The taste for the hunt began to ebb in the dinosaur as her claws clicked against the tile. Her snout folded backwards and the dimples of her nose retreated beneath the cartilage of an appendage that had not been there moments ago. Names and feelings bubbled into her heart as her bones lengthened and her skin softened. She reached her full height as her scalp populated itself with hair follicles, running down loose to her shoulders.

She made a count of the others as she took her first full breath on human lungs, outside the bitter cold of the freezer. Six had already turned up; she’d need to attack the rest of the fridge quickly if she wanted to sate her diet… But the others had to eat, too. Hayden’s stomach growled.

Hayden tucked the vivisected remains of the box of [i]Big Belly[/i] Brand Dinosaur Chicken Tenders under her arm and her hands came back to pull her brown hair into a ponytail. Something rolled in the box -- she had missed one! She popped the cold nugget in her mouth and looked to Cee.

“Movie time?” She asked around a mouthful of frozen chicken.