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Description
Gideon and his family were on a road trip to some island somewhere in southwestern Florida, a place called Sanibel Island. Going a long way by car from his hometown in St. Louis, he sat and looked at what America's cities like Nashville, Atlanta, and Chattanooga had to offer. Not okY that, but he saw the different lands in America's countryside. From cardboard flat farmlands to the great Smoky Hills and Smoky Mountains, as well as the tall trees, standing still and tall like any steel building, in Georgia and Florida. He was a very patient person, luckily, and he was very grateful for that at least. Sitting in a Dodge Caravan for more than ten hours, with a few rest stops in between, crossing five states in one day. There have been some thoughts and sentences that popped in Gideon's head: "This'd better be worth it," "Why couldn't we just fly there? It would go a lot faster," and the obvious one, "Are we there yet?"

Today Gideon and his family traveled from the metro area of Atlanta, Georgia and they stopped at some gas station next to the interstate. Gideon's mother was a little drained from driving and sitting in one place focused for a few hours. They, Gideon, his parents, and his little brother, all went inside to get junk food. Candy, chocolates, chips, soda, smoothies, whatever. Gideon's brother, Tommy, got a Snicker's bar and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. His father got a can of Monster Energy Drink and some Jack Link's beef jerky in a bag. His mother was currently in the restroom. He was about to get some Warheads and a bottle of Sprite when he saw some label pique his interest and curiosity outside and across the street.

It said in old faded yellow text on the top of the small-roofed building: " Super Duper Citrus Center," and under it said "Live Baby Gators Inside!"

Baby gators? He thought to himself. Like actual baby alligators? No... They can't just have them, can they?

He was interested to see what was inside the old wooden place, suspecting it would just be a hoax and some sort of lie. A tourist trap maybe. Regardless he wanted to see if the advertisement was true. Thus, he asked his parents to go over across the street for some orange juice, mentioning the baby gators as an "if" or "maybe" in terms of seeing them and taking a picture of them. No way in hell they'd get one and take it back home as a pet. They have Tommy and Gideon, and that's plenty.

Luckily, Gideon's father was pretty lax and chill about it, so he agreed to going over to the Citrus Center to see some baby gators and get some orange juice as well.

Inside the place was an old wooden store with carton after carton and jug after jug of orange juice on frozen and cold shelves to keep it fresh and refreshing. And over to the left of all that were cages, most of them containing a baby alligator inside. Gideon was surprised, and practically couldn't believe what he saw. Seeing alligators and crocodiles at a zoo is one thing, but to see younglings like these anywhere else made him feel like he was on a show about rednecks on the History Channel. The store clerk and his parents were meanwhile taking about their trip and where they're from and where they're going. Yaddah yaddah yaddah. Memorable bullshit like that. Gideon was mesmerized at how the gators just looked at him, no threatening hisses or showing of their small but sharp teeth. He saw one in the corner look at him and the little guy was a short way away from the others. Gideon crouched down, almost kneeling, and looked at the gator slowly walk towards the edge of his cage and closer to Gideon.

"There there, little guy," he said to the alligator, "I'm not gonna hurt you."

Gideon reached a hand out in between the bars in order to pet the cute seeming reptile and he does pet the alligator for a short minute. Right before the alligator bit him on his palm and the back of his hand.

"Ggh! Ow!" He said aloud and cowered back, sitting in a feeble position and leaned from one side to the other, grunting and looking at his bitten hand bleed. It was painful like a bunch of needles jabbed into him until it strangely ceased. The pain stopped and Gideon felt it disappear like waking up after a bad dream or pouring hydrogen peroxide on a dirty cut or wound.

Gideon looked at his and couldn't believe what he saw: his hand was pulsing and twitching, and the bleeding stopped. His bite was healing impossibly fast and Gideon couldn't help but start to sweat and feel hot uncontrollably, as staying under the hot Florida sun for an hour.

"Hey Dad?" Gideon asked to his father, hiding his hand into his pocket, "C-Can I go to the restroom real quick?"

"Sure thing, sport," his father said. "Just don't take forever or we'll loose more time to get to the condo."

"Thanks Dad," Gideon said with a smile before he darted to the restroom and shut the door and locked it, letting out deep sighs of relief and some nervous panting. He couldn't figure out why he felt so warm and hot. He got some paper towels and dabbed them on him, getting the sweat off of him.

"What's going on?" he asked himself, "Why am I so hot?"

That's when he looked at his hand and froze, terrified at what he saw next. His fingernails lengthened and extended outwards, having pointed ends, and becoming more like sharp and short fingernail-like claws. His hand still pulsed and started to feel different on both his palm and the back of his hand. He felt his palm become a little more leathery and and rough to the touch. His hand turned a pale color with a green tint, slowly becoming greener by the minute. Gideon's thoughts ran in circles in his head and he felt like his clothes were the problem. Thus he threw off his shirt and hat, but couldn't reach to remove his pants and socks and shoes as he felt some type of surge flow like a river in his body. It started with his green hand and arm, growing bigger and wider, muscles spasming and bulging larger. It reached to his shoulder and his entire arm was much bigger than before, stronger, harder, greener, and scaled too. It looked inhuman, as if belonging to some over creature. His other arm followed suit and both shoulders were bigger than before, the changes seeping into his torso.

Gideon's torso cracked and grew bigger as his chest barreled outwards into a proper muscled chest with pectorals forming, a hardened six pack popping into place, two at a time, and his back growing bigger and sturdier. His shirt was torn apart as his torso grew and his legs and knees were next in line. With audible cracks and pops, his legs became longer and straightened out, feet growing in his shoes and straining them greatly. The muscles in his legs swelled up and grew, stopping them from shaking. They were struggling to keep his heavier top half of his body but not anymore.

All the while, Gideon felt a pushing feeling above his rear as his spine extends, and the pushing becomes a pulling. A tail forms and the rest of Gideon's clothes explode as his gator tail, heavy, thick, and strong falls and moves a little to Gideon's will. It's his own tail now. Before he could say anything in shock, his neck grows thicker and bigger, and the scales were creeping up to his face. He felt his voice deepen a little as his neck grew and more low growls and grunts escaped his mouth. Gideon's hair fell off and his face stretched and pushed out, bones cracking and popping loudly, reconfiguring and reshaping to an alligator's muzzle and head, the scales catching up with it. His old teeth fell out as he spit them out a few at a time with a little blood dripping onto the tiled floor. Sharper, more dangerous sets lf teeth grow in Gideon's mouth and his white human eyes turn to a yellow reptilian glare and he couldn't help but let out a low hiss and snarl as he felt the last finishing touches and his transformation was complete. He was this huge, anthropomorphic alligator thing that was incredibly strong and well built like a true monster he appeared to be now. Gideon was shocked to see himself in the mirror and he heard banging on the door.

"Ssssshhhhit." He said in his newer deeper voice. He heard police sirens outside. This can't be good.

"Fuck it..."