Chapter 1

Jackie was in the hospital for three weeks after the accident. For almost a week of that time she had been in a coma. Her car had been totaled in a collision with a chemical tanker truck. The tank had split open in the crash and Jackie had been literally bathed in the spill of chemicals from the truck. When they finally pulled her out of her smashed car she was unconscious and every part of her was covered by a thick layer of the truck's cargo. The firefighters had been forced to cut away her clothes right on the scene and spray her with water to wash away the worst of the spill.

The doctors were mystified by her condition and that was made worse by their inability to get a lab analysis of the spilled chemical. Somehow the sample containers were empty when the time came to run the tests. The company that owned the truck refused every request to reveal what had been in the truck so the doctors were pretty much reduced to just watchful waiting.

After a week passed in a coma Jackie slowly returned to awareness. Not all at once but in fits and starts. For several days everything held a dreamy quality until finally she came back to full consciousness. She found herself lying in a hospital bed feeling very weak. She had vague memories of strange dreams. She wondered how long she had been there and began to remember a few details of the accident.

After a few minutes a nurse walked into Jackie's hospital room. Noticing Jackie was awake she came over to the side of the bed. "Well, hello there!" the nurse said, smiling.

"How long have I been here?" Jackie asked the nurse.

"It's been a week since you were brought in, you've been out the whole time," the nurse answered. "Your doctor will be in to see you shortly, they've been wondering why you have been unconscious for so long."

"What was in the truck that hit me?" Jackie asked the nurse.

"You might not believe this but they don't know. When they checked the tank it was empty, as if it had never had anything in it."

"That is strange! Maybe the truck owner cleaned it out before they could check it. What about my clothes, I remember I was completely covered with that nasty stuff," Jackie asked.

"Strangely enough, when they tried to test your clothes it was the same thing. They were clean even though everyone who witnessed the accident remembered how you were literally soaked in the stuff from the truck," the nurse replied.

Despite the fact all of the substance had now disappeared Jackie had absorbed a considerable amount of it before the firemen washed it away. It had been at work in her body for more than a week now and was still changing her in ways that were yet to be revealed. Jackie did not know it yet but her life would be completely changed from then on.

Jackie was in the hospital for two weeks more after that. Much of that time was spent taking tests as the doctors kept trying to find the reason for Jackie's week long coma. It was a mystery to them why that had happened since Jackie had not been injured in any way they could find. It was a great mystery which the doctors never solved. Finally after two weeks the doctors gave up and Jackie was allowed to leave the hospital and go home.

When Jackie returned to her apartment it felt a little strange to her to return to its familiar space. It had been a strange three weeks she thought. She had called into work and had been given another two weeks to rest at home and complete her recovery.

She puttered around her apartment for a while until she started feeling sleepy. Even though she had been discharged from the hospital she still became fatigued easily. Unknown to her or her doctors this was the side effect of the substance she had absorbed in the accident which was still changing her body secretly.

Feeling sleepy Jackie went into her bedroom and lay down on her bed to take a nap. She didn't bother to undress or even get under the covers she just lay down on top. In a few moments she was asleep.