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photomorphshop And sequel to this story: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/25332106/ Breah and Millie, having been exposed to a transformation virus, begin the process of changing into an anthropomorphic horse and seagull respectively. The following is an account given to the relevant health authorities.
Mild language warning, but I don't suppose there's enough swearing to mark this story as Mature.
<--- PREV | FIRST | NEXT ---X
Infection Account: Patients B0-004 and B0-005
By: DankeDonuts
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/dankedonuts/
Illustration by: Jakkal
https://www.furaffinity.net//user/jakkal/
Hi! My name is Breah ████. I live at █████████, in ██████, █████████. With my roomie, Millie █████. I suppose she’s here too, by now? I hope she’s doing OK. She tends to get stressed kinda easily. Here, I wrote a letter for her if you could please see that she gets it? Thanks!
As for what happened? Well, I’m happy to help you folks out, but I don’t suppose it’s all that big a deal, really. I mean, I look a bit different, sure, but everybody changes throughout their life, right? And I can’t keep meat down anymore, I found that out this morning, but I was already trying to change my diet. So many people I know have become diabetic over the past few years. I need to make some changes or I could be next, right? So this could be a net positive! But as to how it happened… Well, I wasn’t really paying all that much attention. You’d have to ask Millie.
. . .
Millie █████. █████████, ██████, ████████. First of all, I want it stated for the record that I have been very cooperative with the men and women of the Center For Disease Control. I’m all for helping anyone who can figure out what happened to me and how to fix it. And I’m very sorry towards anyone who may have been affected by contact with me. I want to do everything I can to put an end to this crisis.
I’m a victim here too, just remember that! If you’re looking for someone to blame, you might start with Julia ██████. She lives over in ███████. And her boyfriend, Geoff ███████. I’m pretty sure the weird stuff started with them. At least it did for me and Breah. Breah ████, my room-mate.
. . .
Looking back, I suppose it started with that guy on news in the racoon costume. Well, I suppose it wasn’t a costume, ha! I saw the news report about that. The poor guy causing a fuss at a hospital. The reporter didn’t say why, though. Just repeated something the staff said to make things sound like they weren’t a big deal. I remember it because I had been to that very same hospital just a few days earlier for a flu shot. █████████.
I wonder if that’s where it started? My mom’s always saying, ‘If you want to get sick, go to a hospital.’
. . .
It was Julia and her boyfriend. Has to be. We, me and Breah, met them for a late lunch on… I think it was Sunday. Yeah, Sunday. I thought they were decked out for a con for something, all made up to look like dogs or something. Only, Julia’s not the kind of gal to get caught dead at something like that. I figured Geoff’d dragged her into it. I never could. I kept bugging him to tell me how they pulled off the look. It was way better than the a lot of con costumes. Master level gear. Like foam rubber prosthetics, not the usual paper mache cheese. I figured it was something we could talk about, get to know him better. But he kept brushing off the questions, acting like it was no big deal. Like he didn’t know he was even wearing a costume.
Pretty obvious now that he wasn’t.
Julia blew her nose a couple of times. Check the security cams at ██████████. and you’ll see!
. . .
Hmmm, now that I think about it, the sneezing started at that early dinner. Around Four-ish on Sunday. I think maybe I had an allergic reaction to the seagull that attacked Millie. Seriously! We were eating outside, and this bird wanted her fries! It would not take no for an answer! I remember she had me check her out for cuts, and I gave her some wet-wipes from my purse.
Only thing is, she started sneezing too. After Julia and Geoff went their way and we went ours. When we were back inside the mall, no seagull around. We were out shopping that day, see. I needed some new clothes for an end of summer party I was planning to go to. I’m not sure what store we were in. I was trying on this cute little pink and black tiger-stripe tank when from the next dressing stall over, I hear Millie nose-blasting all over the place. Just as loud as you could be! “Wow, sorry,” I heard her say between sniffs.
She barely got a look at me when she started up again. Someone came to ask her to leave. Probably before she started losing everything down with snot.
. . .
What did Breah look like in the store? The tiger tanktop looked alright on her, I guess.
Huh?
What did she look like? What kind of question is -- no, wait [deep breath] I’m cooperating.
OK. Give me a second. Hmm. Putting my art classes to work I’d say she has a diamond-shaped face, upturned eyes, an upturned nose. Thick, angular eyebrows. Brown hair, up in a ponytail so it’d be out of her way for trying on clothes. Brown eyes a shade darker than her hair. Freckles all over her nose and cheeks. Slender frame. I’m not a lesbian, mind, so I’ve never really look looked at her.
She really did make that top work. Too bad they kicked me out before she could buy it. She’s not the kind of gal that would make me wait outside while she finishes her business.
. . .
I drove us to a strip-mall uptown to keep looking. There was a thing on the radio about the racoon guy. That’s where I first heard about it. I didn’t find anything, but she picked up this sweet looking leather vest. Pale brown with ties instead of buttons. The color reminded me of the carriage horses we saw before dinner, moving tourists around the mall and park. I’d had to pet one, but the driver didn’t like that. Millie told him off for me! I hate being confrontational. Millie, not so much.
What did she look like? Look like in the vest? I don’t know. Uhh… The vest worked on her. It’s a good match for her light hair and dark roots. It’s somewhere in-between wavy and curly, by the way. She gets it cut whenever it reaches her shoulders. Her skin’s a little lighter than mine, a little less pink. Big ol’ cheeks that make her look extra sweet when she smiles. She tends towards brighter, bolder lipsticks than I do. One of her grandmas is Vietnamese, which mostly comes through in her eyes. Those are bright blue. She had a halter top on that day, I could see how firm her belly is. We both work out at the college gym, but she puts more work into it. Me, I always end up chatting with someone.
Anyway, I didn’t find anything else that came close to that tiger shirt in the other places. And I was getting too headachy to really care. We started home but, I got super groggy all of a sudden. I couldn’t drive any more. I pulled over to have Millie take us the rest of the way to our apartment.
. . .
Whatever had hit us, it hit us hard. Breah was so out of it she hit her head on the way out of the car when we got home. About Seven, I think. I was dying for a nose tissue! But no matter how hard I blew, nothing was coming out! I tried so hard my back teeth started hurting. And my feet. I have no idea how blowing my nose would make my feet hurt, but whatever.
Breah was woozier than me, but somehow she kept herself together long enough to make us some tea. An herb blend with orange spice. She’s nice like that. I was so super stuffed-up that I could barely taste it, though. It opened up my nose, though. At least enough that I could breath. By the time she sat down to drink it up with me, she was complaining about her feet, too.
When I graduated high school, one of the weird gifts I got from my parents’ friends was a plug-in foot bath machine. “You’ll thank me after you’ve spent all say walking up and down campus,” he said. I figured ‘I’m not in my fifties, so I’ll probably do alright.’ I kept it around to be polite, but I never used it before Sunday night. But oh man, it felt so good! All warm and bubbly. My teeth kept bugging me, though. Looking back, that was the oddest thing.
. . .
We ended up taking turns with Millie’s foot tub. If we could have fit all four in there, I’m sure we would have!
The colds wrecked our plans for the evening, though. Millie makes jewelry to sell online. Wild, modern-art-looking designs. I had been looking to catch up on my social media posts. But neither of us could concentrate much, being so stuffed up. It was like having my head wrapped in a big, wet, hot, towel. You know what I mean? The tea I made helped with that, but I think it made my front teeth hurt. Everything’s a trade-off I suppose.
At least we had each other to be miserable with. I don’t remember whose idea it was to bring out the cards, but we ended up with a big pile of them on the kitchen table. Teapot to the left of it. To the right, a bowl of crushed ice to suck on, for our teeth. The foot bath in between us in the floor.
. . .
Didn’t you just ask me what Breah looked like?
Alright, alright! I’m remembering!
Long face. Long nose. Aquiline, I should say. Or Roman. She's got buck teeth. Her ears are a bit long up top. And set just a little higher on the head than most people's. A general proportion guide for drawing a human head is the tops of the ear are even with the subject's eyebrow and the bottom with the base of their nose. With her, the bottom of her lobes are more at cheek level. And her ears go well up to her hairline. Long and pointy, too.
Her hair was getting out of sorts. It had been a long day, so I wasn't so surprised to see her ponytail was coming undone in the back. I didn't say anything about it. I felt crud, she felt crud. Why bother primping? Who were we going to impress with runny noses and red eyes?
. . .
My ears were starting to ring while we played, so I wasn't concentrating much. I was losing a of hands, too. But I'll tell you want I remember. If that's what you want.
Millie has a roundish face. Very smooth cheeks. Big blue eyes. Tiny button nose. A little bit of an overbite. She's got this tell when she's bluffing, ha. She pulls on her ear. They're kinda small ears, I guess. Not as much earlobe as most people. I remember thinking the earrings she was wearing used to go down closer to her shoulders. Each one a squiggly line of copper wire holding a polished opal. She must have made a new set, shorter ones. Less chance of getting tangled in her curls.
On top of everything else, I started itching. Like, all over my arms. I would up scratching myself with the cards to give my nails a break.
"You too?" Millie asked. She’d been scratching too, I noticed. “I’ve been trying to ignore it.” She was speaking with her mouth shut. Kind of grumbling through her lips.
“You alright?” I asked. Sometimes you need to prod her to get her to open up.
“Heck no!” She shoved the last of the ice into her mouth. “We must’ve put on something that gave us an allergic reaction.”
“Formaldehyde in the clothes,” was my guess. “Maybe that’s why this cold got us so quick, too. Artificial everything nowadays. Our bodies know the difference!”
. . .
I stopped her before she started going off on GMO foods again.
I love games. You should see my board game collection. But there’s only so much playing around you can do with a stuffy head and a mouthful of toothache. We packed it in around Ten. A little early for me. I’m a night owl, and I like to spend night time with catching up on TV streams while I work on my projects. I’m only part way through that reboot show with the robot cowboys. But a cold’s a cold. I won the coin toss to use the shower first before bed.
But a toothache’s a toothache. I was as comfortable as I could make myself in bed. Had my favorite Professor Time night-shirt on and everything. But I just couldn’t get to sleep. And that wasn’t all. My thighs and ass started acting up, too. Getting all prickly like they’d fallen asleep and woken up. Like my feet. My hands were doing it, too. Plus the itching was still there. Everywhere. All that was easy to ignore, though, because of my teeth. That’s how bad they were.
I hated getting up to get to the bathroom. I was dizzy soon as I did. But I had to pop some cold pills. Over the counter, nothing major. Took me forever to get the cap off. It was on so tight it might as well have been glued. Must have been defective.
I lay back in bed feeling like shit for I don’t know how long until the pills kicked in and I finally dozed off.
I’m pretty sure I heard Breah get up once or twice.
. . .
We called it a night, and I waited to use the shower. The good part of being second was I got to keep my feet in the foot pool longer! I just sat there, listening to the water run, pretending the steam was opening up my nose.
The footsies kept bothering me even after I went to bed. My toes, specifically. I think I was asleep for a little while, but they woke me up. I sat up in bed to massage them. But they were so thickly calloused it was like nothing I did was getting through the skin to the muscle. Rubbing them made my hands hurt, too. And maybe it was my posture or maybe it was being so groggy, but my hinder and thighs started up too. My teeth were still a pain in the butt, too. Does that mean my butt was a pain in the tooth? Ha!
Have you ever been unable to sleep? Oh, of course you have. Just sitting there with in the dark, listening to all kinds of weird sounds that don’t come out in the daytime. The creeks and cracks, water gushing through pipes, and something skittering around behind a wall. I tried to focus on that instead of what I was going through.
I thought I heard a squawking noise from Millie’s room at one point. That’s when I figured I was hallucinating and finally took some sleeping pills from my nightstand.
. . .
Breah was my alarm. I slept through mine, and she tends to shout when she notices she’s missed hers. She doesn’t swear much, but oh boy, make her late for something, even a little thing like wake-up time, and you’ll hear things to make a sailor blush! I threw off my covers, hoping to beat her to the toilet while she was still stomping around. But no. We both came out of our rooms at the same time, and almost slammed into each other racing for the bathroom door in between.
What did she look like? Again?... Again. Lessee... Broad nose, especially around the nostrils. Really thick eyebrows, but not so much she doesn't look feminine. Her fingernails are dark and long. A rectangular body. That means not a lot of waist definition. She’s got a good bit of muscle definition, though, on her legs. I thought for a moment she'd come out of bed with heels on. But no, just her bare, black-toed feet. Her eyes had bags and her hair was a mess, but what can I say? She'd just gotten up.
I might have put up a fight for the bathroom, but her hand, her room, was closer to the handle. Especially after she tripped and slapped her hand right into it to keep from falling over. Did I mention how short her feet are? Not her toes, just the rest of them. Her big toes are rather long, actually. Not a great combination for maneuverability.
. . .
My butt was hurting real bad. I think that's what woke me up. I called in sick to work, then left my room to face the world.
Millie let me have the bathroom first. I let her in after I did my business, but made her promise to give it back before she started showering. I wanted another shower to steam more of the stupid cold out of me! Washing my hair was a gigantic pain. Up top, it was all matted. I scratched my nails into my head so hard to untangle everything that I ended up pulling clumps of hair out of my sides. Even more came out when I brushed up after. Looking back, I don't understand why I didn't find that unsettling.
Millie was making use of the foot-pool when I got out hair up in a towel, to let her wash up again.
How’d she look? Why do you keep asking that? It’s not like the answer will change. I mean, I don’t mind repeating myself. But why do you want to hear the same thing over and over? She has a very round head. Long neck. Long fingers with really short nails. She was scratching herself, but I wonder if she'd noticed.
I couldn’t see her ears under her hair, but I could see her shiny earrings were on by the time she came out of the bathroom. She'd changed into street clothes, after her shower. A cream-colored button-down dress. Short cut. It looked a bit loose on her. Up top, I mean. She’s wider at the hips than the shoulders, but the ruffling of the skirt helps hide that.
She wanted the foot tub back, but I had it! And I had breakfast, too, so I was keeping it. She plodded down on the couch to rub them. She really spoiled her toes, especially the ones in the middle. Or were they two in the middle? I wasn’t really paying attention, I guess. Her mouth was puffed out from the cold, and she was frowning. Bad as I was doing, I felt bad for her, too.
. . .
I grabbed more pills on my way out of the bathroom. The shower didn’t do as much to clear my head as the one the night before. Between that and running on not enough sleep, I wanted to grab whatever food I could keep down and then going to crawl back into bed.
Damn, I was jealous of Breah and her nice warm feet… Huh? Oh? She had tight fitting gym shorts. She hadn’t shaved her legs in a couple of days, by the looks of them. I didn’t say anything about that. T-shirt too, tight and a little too short. I could see a slice of her belly peeking out above the shorts. A grey cardigan over it all.
I stumbled through getting some cereal together. Kept hitting my middle toes on the kitchen cabinets. My head was swimming, so when she asked me “Are you listening to this?” my answer was, “No.”
She begged me over to the couch to see what was on TV. There was a ‘skunk’ attack at the mall where Julia works. Some loony in a costume, like the racoon in the hospital. Smartphone snapshots of this woman in a furry suit -- a skunk!, a lady skunk -- walking around one of the department stores. Had to be a guy, a really thin guy, under that suit. I’ve never met a woman who wanted to have extra breasts. I get trouble enough from guys I’ve never met over the two I have.
They interviewed the manager who escorted ‘her’ to a security room. She was sneezing too much to make any sense of what Skunky had been up to. Beyond fluff about how her store wasn’t responsible for any damages.
Next there was a bit with a man in a security uniform, who said she broke out of confinement and went running around in the food court.
This couple of shoppers they interviewed said ‘she’ got tackled in the food court by men in hazmat suits. The husband insisted that his phone was confiscated before he could upload any photos. The newscaster couldn’t confirm that, though.
“Two is a pattern, right? Breah asked me.
I think I shrugged. “Maybe it’s like that clown thing a few years ago. Bunch of assholes trying to stage a mass hysteria.”
. . .
I put the remote down, and flipped my laptop up. Started jotting through my social media feeds. If citizen journalists had gotten pics of a racoon and a skunk up, maybe there were more.
There were. A lot more. A Siamese-cat-woman sunbathing at a park in Olympia. A seven-foot-tall deer man trotting around the redwood park near San Francisco. Ratfolk in L.A. taking in a movie. A town I’d never heard of in Oregon, Klamath Falls, had a ferret-kid streak through a supermarket. There was a goldfish-woman swimming in a public fountain in Portland. Not a mermaid like in the movies. She had a fish head too, and tiny little arms with big fin-hands. Flopping around with a back-end between a tail and legs. Loads of tweets about other ‘animal’ folk up and down the west coast and in Vegas.
Millie was standing behind me, leaning into the chair so she could see what I was finding. “Wait a tick… Isn’t that store on the news the one where Julia works?”
“You’re right!” I feel terrible that I didn’t think of that sooner! Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was because I was obsessed with what I was finding online. Maybe I was getting frustrated with how long it takes to type on a flat keyboard with hand that were really starting to hurt and stiffen up.
Millie picked up the apartment phone to call her. And call her. And call her. “No answer.” I browsed up the mall’s phone number, so she could try to get the store itself. She gave up on that with an angry squawk that sent my teeth shivering. “The fucking lines are busy! Pardon my language, but that’s what she said.”
. . .
I didn’t want hold up Breah’s internet search, so I hopped on my smartphone. I’d never doxxed anyone before. And I suppose I wasn’t doing it then, really. Nothing illegal, no hacking. Just checking social sites, phone directories, and the like. I needed to reach Geoff, or Julia’s parents. Anyone who could help me get in touch with her. I made good time. Typing on my phone was really easy, all of a sudden. I used to be pretty clumsy at all those little buttons. Shows what a bit of motivation will do for you.
Trying to pin her parents down didn’t get anywhere. No social media presence. I found some leads on her cousin, but odds were she wouldn’t know anything. They don’t get along, so it’s not like Julia would have reached out to her if something was going south. I don’t know when I started sitting sideways with my feet crammed into the side of my seat. My feet were still bugging me, but I couldn’t sit right down in my ass anymore, either.
I decided to focus on Geoff, and that landed me a MeTime contact with his brother, Sam. I had to text him at least five times before he answered. We wrote back and forth a bit after that. He didn’t want to give a number out to a relative stranger. Which I guess I can understand, even if it was a great big fat pain in the ass at the time. But we got to texting and I convinced him of how worried I was getting about his lady friends. He told me he’d call Geoff and get back to me.
Breah kept pulling up new hits and calling them out to me. Sending them to my phone. A goat-man in a Tri-Cities strip mall. At lovebird at a theme park hotel. The thing that struck me was these were pretty mundane animals, overall. I mean, if you want to dress up and terrorize people, why a goat? “They outta put more work into it,” I told her. ‘Be a lion or a dragon or space unicorn. Something worth getting a picture taken.”
“Well, these are good suits, no matter what they’re of,” she said back.
Geoff’s brother texted me back with news that he couldn’t reach Geoff at all. Suddenly, Mr. Reluctant was asking me to keep him in the loop if I heard from Julia first. It’s all saved on my phone still, of you want to see it.
. . .
I moved the laptop to the kitchen after my head started clearing. The chairs were harder, but at least there was a hole in the back of them for my tail. I need to get new pants with a back-button. I remember giggling when I noticed it was swishing in tune to my typing. I had to type slowly, though, or my nails would have busted through the keyboard. If I was really going at it I never would have heard my tail at all.
Eventually, tweets came in that told me the mall had been shut down ever since the skunk-lady sighting. She’d been throwing stink bombs in the food court. The whole place was apparently a disaster zone. Of course, I told Millie about it.
. . .
I wasn’t getting anywhere trying to track Julia down. I turned on the TV to give my mind something to do other than chew itself up over how worried I was getting. Good thing there was a Star Train marathon on. And I mean the real, original episodes. Not the ones with the bullshit CGI makeovers. Those are almost never on TV anymore.
The couch started rustling my tailfeathers, so I lay down on the floor. With my feet hiked up over and into the foot-tub. Breah finally gave that up. Oh, it felt so good!
Sam texted me back to tell me that he was taking an early out from work to go looking for Geoff.
Around Four or Five, there was an ad for the local news, promising more developments on the ‘Animal Meme phenomenon” at Six. I told Breah I doubted they’d have anything we didn’t already know.
. . .
I couldn't wait until Six O’Clock for more news! I couldn’t take anymore waiting at all! The not knowing was driving me nuts! Julia was mixed up in this mess with the skunk somehow. She might have been hurt, or worse.
“We’ve got to go looking for her ourselves,” I decided. For both of us.
Millie agreed right away. “Yeah. I think I could do that. I think the cold is breaking.” I hadn’t reached for a tissue in a while, myself. But I was still snorting back snot now and then. I was positive I could drive. Looking back, we didn’t have much of a plan other than drive around to some places where she might be and hope we got lucky. But it was better than doing nothing!
I did have the foresight to leave a note on our door, in case Julia got our messages and came looking for us. “Hey J - If you’re reading this, we’re out looking for you. Please call! - B/M.”
It took forever to write, though. Pens and pencils are not made for four-fingered hands.
. . .
I’ll spare you the details of the potty break I took before we left. I never assume I’m going to find a bathroom I’d want to use.
I tried to text Julia again after I got out. And Sam, to let him know I was going on the hunt as well. But my smartphone chose that exact moment to crap out. The screen was on, but it wouldn’t let me type or swipe or app or anything.
I saw Breah over by the sink, so I figured I’d hop on her laptop for a mo.’
Just as I stepped into the kitchen, I felt my left earring slap into my shoulder and tumble down my dress. It clattered over to the living room wall.
. . .
After I wrote the note, I went to the sink, I packed some tissues into my purse, then went to the sink to pop another cold pill. I can’t take pills without water, so I got myself a cup. Filling it was easy enough, but then it was so heavy and slippery I had trouble getting the stupid water to my mouth. You try holding a glass when your fingers are one-third fingernail!
There was a nasty squawk behind me. I jumped so high I must have left hoofprints in the kitchen tile when I came down! “Don't’ move!”
“What the hell,” I shouted!
“Don't’ take a step! I lost an earring! Just now.” Millie was clawing through the carpet under the coffee table with her with her feet.
The other one slid down her front while she was talking. It hit the floor and bounced over to me. But at least it didn’t break. I know how hard she works on her creations. Half her room is games and scifi books. The rest is parts bins and a works station.
She found the one she’d been looking for. I motioned her over to the other. I tried to pick it up for her, but… I … couldn’t. I had to point it out to her. I almost dropped the glass on her head while she was picking it up!
. . .
How did she look when she pointed to the floor? [Audible sigh.] Thick, black toenails. All four-and-a-half of them. Fir on her ankles, and hair along her thighs. She really should swap out those gym trunks. They’re not as stretchy as they used to be. A bit of a tear along one side. But then I suppose it’s the only thing that’s comfortable to wear around her udders. Something of a pot-belly, but don’t tell her I said that.
Bit of hair peeking out from the cuff of her cardigan. Hairy knuckles, especially on the double-size middle finger. Brown, but a lighter shade than up top. A little hair over her breasts, too. Kind of a flat chest, really. Not that there's anything wrong with that. She’s got a large nose. Rather unique. I don’t know how to phrase it in terms of artistic anatomy.
. . .
How did she look coming up with the second ring? Well, she looked like Millie. I don’t know how many more times I can say the same thing.
Her feet are sort of yellow, and hard. Tick. Like they’re made up of calluses. There’s webbing between three of them, the big one in the middle has two claws on it. The fourth on on each foot if sticking out at an angle. Off to the side. She wasn’t wearing any legging under her dress, so I could see all the down feathers up and down her legs. They’re on her Back and shoulders too, and her arms. She’s got proper feathers on her breasts and along her elbows though. Snow white feathers, with a little silver on that tail.
Her chest is so thin her dress strap was slipping down again.
When she stooped down, I could see her tail. All white and silver and shiny. When she stood up, she had a flag smile on her face. Her teeth are yellow, and smooshed together. Like they’re trying to come to a point.
She tried putting her jewelry back on, and the smile melted away. She sort of fumbled around with her ear for a bit. I couldn’t see the problem under all her hair. A sort of faraway look came over her face, and she put the earring down on the kitchen table. She clicked her beak a few times, like you or I might bite a lip.
“Hey, you alright?” I think I asked.
“Sorry, zoned out for a minute,” she said. She shook out of it, and grabbed a jacket in case we were out late. That’s September for you. Feels pretty good until the sun goes down.
I think she left the earrings on the table when we left.
. . .
Breah gave her car keys a weird look, once she finally got them out of her purse. So I drove my car. ███████ Mall’s not that far off from the quickest route to Julia’s. So I headed that way first. Still closed. No, not just closed. Cut off from everything else. There were traffic cones up across the sidewalk, blocking off all the ways of driving in from the street. Even the parking garage was a no-go zone. The bus-stops were taped off with a detour sign, for crying out loud. There were news vans parked in the lot across the street, where the bank is.
The at little detour meant I approached Julia’s apartment from the north. There’s a hill to drive down going that way. So Breah and I had a bird’s eye view of some pretty weird shit. But scary shit, because it was happening to Julia’s apartment.
There were roadblocks cutting off the bit of street that sides up along her building. Unmarked white vans in the empty lot to the left. The east.
“Holy shit!” Breah whinnied, shaking her mane out. ‘What the hell is going on in this town?”
“No idea,” I muttered. Driving on down the hill.
“What the hell are you doing? We can’t get into the middle of this!”
“I have to get close enough to see if Julia’s car is in her spot!” Yeah, I was scared. But for my friend too. The tenants there have numbered slots to go with their room. I figured I could get close enough to see her spot without setting off any alarms.
“Drive casual,” I told myself, “But not too casual.”
. . .
Thank goodness Julia’s car wasn’t there! But what was there… It still makes me shiver.
Julia lives up on the top floor, the third floor. But there was a big… tube… thing… leading from a white van in the lot to one of the first-floor apartments. Three men in white Hazmat suits were walking down it. One of them carrying one of those little battering rams like a SWAT team uses. Right after that one busted the place open, the other two rushed inside. They all but dragged out someone who’s head was covered in some kind of sheet. Whoever it was, they were putting up a fight. Swiping, clawing, kicking. I thought I saw a hint of tail swishing around behind from their sweats.
That’s when I realized the car had stopped moving. I gave Millie a shove. “Drive! Drive! Drive!”
“Shit!” she chirped. Just as someone else in Hazmats, over to the left, pointed our way!
Millie put it in gear and moved so fast me head slapped into the back of my seat.
. . .
I wasn’t going to stick around. I mean, in retrospect, driving off was a bad idea. But think about what we had just seen! The vans were not marked as anything official! I didn’t know what else to do but get away. But it’s not like I was hightailing it. Breah started whinnying when I started moving again, but that was more shock than anything. I was shocked too.
I turned a few corners, again and again. Until I was driving alongside the river. Breah kept looking back, and I kept moving my eyes to the rear-view mirror. Just in case. No one was following us. No white vans. No cop cars. Nothing. I kept driving the river anyway.
I asked her to “Think up a place we can go. So, we look like we were just on our way there the whole time.”
“We could just keep following the river until we hit the college?” she said.
“Good idea.” It was a good idea. Classes don’t start up for another couple of days, but the stores and HUB will be open. Plenty of alibi. Not that we needed one. I turned up and away from the river to get there. At the first stop sign, the first stop I’d made since Julia’s apartment, I pulled my window down, so I could breathe better.
A few turns and several blocks later came the red light ahead of the bridge between us and the college. I came to a stop next to a little green two-seater with a black convertible top. I don’t know car models.
. . .
I’d rolled my window down while we were driving along the river. The feel of the wind in my mane should have helped me feel better. But all I could think of was that person I’d just seen hauled. Were they endangering other people in Julia’s building? I couldn’t make myself ask the question, ‘Had Julia been hauled out of her place too?’
Suddenly I hear someone shout, “Hey, Liz! Take a look at this!”
I whipped my head around to look at whatever ‘this’ was, and what I see is someone In the next car over taking a picture of me. “What the hell!?” I know I shouldn’t have shouted at them, but I was still dealing with all the other stuff! “What do you think you’re doing?”
There was someone in the passenger seat next to him. She was talking pictures too! I think she called him Nick. I couldn’t see her face. Or his. They were both hiding behind their phones.
“Take a picture of this, bitch!” I flipped her off… but… Was I able to take my pinky ring off? I noticed it was looking too small for my finger.
They just laughed and snapped more picks. I snorted at them and slammed my nails into the door, which made him jerk back. “Knock it off you fuuuu…” Well, I don’t quite recall what I said. [clears throat] It got pretty heated.
Millie ran the red light to get me away from them. She’s a good friend.
. . .
I had a perfect driving record.
I just needed to get away from the shouting.
I heard a car honk, but no one got hurt. No one drove into anything, or anyone. I didn’t stop until we were good and parked in front of the Library. I chose that spot because it’s hidden from the main streets.
“Just get out of the car normal-like,” I told myself, and Breah. “Act like nothing’s wrong and no one else will think anything is wrong.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said. We got out of the car, started strolling to the Student Union Building. It was somewhere safe, somewhere with lots of people, but no one who would cause us any trouble. I needed that right then. I couldn’t stop feeling tense. Not after what we had just seen, after what it could mean for someone I’ve known since high school.
I knew Breah was in the same place. And she has a regular job to worry about on top of that! I just take summer jobs for messing-around money, and they’re always done before classes begin to start.
The SUB was open. From the sounds of things, there was a freshman orientation going on. The cafeteria was open for them to look around in, but no one at the counter. I grabbed us some stuff from a vending machine, and she found us a spot where we could talk things through.
. . .
The common area of the SUB sits right between the cafeteria to one side, and a bunch of meeting rooms to the other. One of them is bigger than the other two. That’s the one where the guest speakers are given a stage. But I took one of the smaller ones. Where people sometimes set up games and whatnot. It was empty. Still had chairs and tables, though. Anyone who was at the SUB was there to get their books, deal with their schedules, pay tuition, that sort of thing. I doubt the arcade on the other end of the building was even open at all.
I paced the side of the room until Millie came in. She handed me the granola bar I’d asked for. She had a pack of toaster pastries. She took tiny little bits of them while we talked.
We came to the decision that the best thing to do was called the cops. Whatever was happening, they either knew about it already or they needed to. Julia there wasn’t much we could do about. They’d need her to be missing for twenty-four hours. That’s what all the TV shows say, anyway. But whatever we had seen at her apartment, that was big.
“We can’t get involved,” she insisted. “I just want to lie low for a little bit. Then, we get back to looking for Julia. And Geoff, too.”
“If it’s bad, and we say nothing, we’re as bad as whoever did it,” I told her. “We’d be helping the whoever dragged the stranger away.”
“Yeah, that’s true enough.” She didn’t say it, but I could tell Millie was thinking about how someone else might now trying to find that lost person from Julia’s building now. Asking themselves the same questions we had been, or trying to find people with answers.
. . .
Breah’s ears started flicking. That’s when I noticed it. Behind us, coming from out past the door. Or, rather, not past it. All, or most, of the students milling about outside had stopped milling. Some of the newbs were pressed up alongside the meeting room door. Others were standing back behind them. They were talking to each other. Softly, like we weren’t supposed to hear.
And they had their smartphones out. Taking photos of us.
That. Was. It.
I was tired of feeling anxious. Tired of feeling afraid. I pulled myself away from the table and ran at them. Halfway to them, anyway. I didn't get all the way out of the room. I was squawking at the top of my lungs, and flapping my arms about to make myself as big and scary as possible. "Rrrraawwwwkkkkk! Our friend is missing! You hear that? We don't even know if she made it to work this morning, but she sure as shoot never turned up anywhere else either! And her B.F. isn't saying anything, because he's gone too!. And all you can do is goof around with your phones! Just like those clowns on the road! Useless, all of you! Rrrraawwwwkkkkk!"
The lot of them stood back in shock. I took that as out moment. "Come one," I said! Going back and grabbing Breah by the hand. We stormed out of room and away together as friends.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves," I heard Breah say as we passed them.
. . .
As we were leaving the SUB, I pulled out my smartphone to make good on our decision. Call the police. But my smartphone wasn’t working. Millie’s had crudded out a few hours before. Did I mention that?
“Mine’s effed up, too,” I moaned.
“Must be a virus going ‘round,” Millie suggested. “I think there’s a payphone in the library.”
I told her I wasn’t sure the Library would be open. I knew there was a payphone in the SUB, though. In front of the book store.
“Do you want to go back in there?” She asked. I looked back. Saw the crowd had moved to the other side of the glass double-doors, and flatly told her, “No.”
“Library it is, then.”
We never got that far. We never got out of the parking lot. Your people were there, in their hazmat suits. With the white, unmarked vans. Circling Millie’s car. We turned to sneak away, and there was one behind us!
I couldn't see their face through the shield. Just a reflection of my muzzle, and Millie’s beak.
. . .
Yeah, I know what a taser feels like. I was the one that stepped up to take a hit from one in my self-defense class. And then I was here. Not counting the hospital gurney and the processing and the paperwork. And that lovely detox shower. All of which I’m sure is all very well documented.
Yesterday, someone in a nice suit showed me pictures of the woman you all say is me. Pictures of her with Breah. Snapshots from the security camera outside our apartment building. I didn’t listen until he had me take my ID cards out of my purse. Still could be faked, but I’m taking you at your word that I wasn’t always a seagull. Not that I can remember ever being anything else.
But if that is true, then like I said at the start, I’m a victim. Breah too. All I’m guilty of is trying to help a friend.
And a minor traffic violation.
. . .
I don’t hold any grudges towards the people who brought us in. Now that I see what is going on. They were just doing your jobs. What they thought was best for everyone. I hope that kind man who explained my situation to me isn’t mad I threw that water at him. That really wasn’t me at my best. I’m surprised at how long it took him to convince me I wasn’t always like this. Always a horse.
He did say that my parents had been contacted. That they’re on their way here from ██████. When will I be able to talk to them?
. . .
This crap better not affect my scholarship.
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photomorphshop And sequel to this story: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/25332106/ Breah and Millie, having been exposed to a transformation virus, begin the process of changing into an anthropomorphic horse and seagull respectively. The following is an account given to the relevant health authorities. Mild language warning, but I don't suppose there's enough swearing to mark this story as Mature.
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Infection Account: Patients B0-004 and B0-005
By: DankeDonuts
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/dankedonuts/
Illustration by: Jakkal
https://www.furaffinity.net//user/jakkal/
Hi! My name is Breah ████. I live at █████████, in ██████, █████████. With my roomie, Millie █████. I suppose she’s here too, by now? I hope she’s doing OK. She tends to get stressed kinda easily. Here, I wrote a letter for her if you could please see that she gets it? Thanks!
As for what happened? Well, I’m happy to help you folks out, but I don’t suppose it’s all that big a deal, really. I mean, I look a bit different, sure, but everybody changes throughout their life, right? And I can’t keep meat down anymore, I found that out this morning, but I was already trying to change my diet. So many people I know have become diabetic over the past few years. I need to make some changes or I could be next, right? So this could be a net positive! But as to how it happened… Well, I wasn’t really paying all that much attention. You’d have to ask Millie.
. . .
Millie █████. █████████, ██████, ████████. First of all, I want it stated for the record that I have been very cooperative with the men and women of the Center For Disease Control. I’m all for helping anyone who can figure out what happened to me and how to fix it. And I’m very sorry towards anyone who may have been affected by contact with me. I want to do everything I can to put an end to this crisis.
I’m a victim here too, just remember that! If you’re looking for someone to blame, you might start with Julia ██████. She lives over in ███████. And her boyfriend, Geoff ███████. I’m pretty sure the weird stuff started with them. At least it did for me and Breah. Breah ████, my room-mate.
. . .
Looking back, I suppose it started with that guy on news in the racoon costume. Well, I suppose it wasn’t a costume, ha! I saw the news report about that. The poor guy causing a fuss at a hospital. The reporter didn’t say why, though. Just repeated something the staff said to make things sound like they weren’t a big deal. I remember it because I had been to that very same hospital just a few days earlier for a flu shot. █████████.
I wonder if that’s where it started? My mom’s always saying, ‘If you want to get sick, go to a hospital.’
. . .
It was Julia and her boyfriend. Has to be. We, me and Breah, met them for a late lunch on… I think it was Sunday. Yeah, Sunday. I thought they were decked out for a con for something, all made up to look like dogs or something. Only, Julia’s not the kind of gal to get caught dead at something like that. I figured Geoff’d dragged her into it. I never could. I kept bugging him to tell me how they pulled off the look. It was way better than the a lot of con costumes. Master level gear. Like foam rubber prosthetics, not the usual paper mache cheese. I figured it was something we could talk about, get to know him better. But he kept brushing off the questions, acting like it was no big deal. Like he didn’t know he was even wearing a costume.
Pretty obvious now that he wasn’t.
Julia blew her nose a couple of times. Check the security cams at ██████████. and you’ll see!
. . .
Hmmm, now that I think about it, the sneezing started at that early dinner. Around Four-ish on Sunday. I think maybe I had an allergic reaction to the seagull that attacked Millie. Seriously! We were eating outside, and this bird wanted her fries! It would not take no for an answer! I remember she had me check her out for cuts, and I gave her some wet-wipes from my purse.
Only thing is, she started sneezing too. After Julia and Geoff went their way and we went ours. When we were back inside the mall, no seagull around. We were out shopping that day, see. I needed some new clothes for an end of summer party I was planning to go to. I’m not sure what store we were in. I was trying on this cute little pink and black tiger-stripe tank when from the next dressing stall over, I hear Millie nose-blasting all over the place. Just as loud as you could be! “Wow, sorry,” I heard her say between sniffs.
She barely got a look at me when she started up again. Someone came to ask her to leave. Probably before she started losing everything down with snot.
. . .
What did Breah look like in the store? The tiger tanktop looked alright on her, I guess.
Huh?
What did she look like? What kind of question is -- no, wait [deep breath] I’m cooperating.
OK. Give me a second. Hmm. Putting my art classes to work I’d say she has a diamond-shaped face, upturned eyes, an upturned nose. Thick, angular eyebrows. Brown hair, up in a ponytail so it’d be out of her way for trying on clothes. Brown eyes a shade darker than her hair. Freckles all over her nose and cheeks. Slender frame. I’m not a lesbian, mind, so I’ve never really look looked at her.
She really did make that top work. Too bad they kicked me out before she could buy it. She’s not the kind of gal that would make me wait outside while she finishes her business.
. . .
I drove us to a strip-mall uptown to keep looking. There was a thing on the radio about the racoon guy. That’s where I first heard about it. I didn’t find anything, but she picked up this sweet looking leather vest. Pale brown with ties instead of buttons. The color reminded me of the carriage horses we saw before dinner, moving tourists around the mall and park. I’d had to pet one, but the driver didn’t like that. Millie told him off for me! I hate being confrontational. Millie, not so much.
What did she look like? Look like in the vest? I don’t know. Uhh… The vest worked on her. It’s a good match for her light hair and dark roots. It’s somewhere in-between wavy and curly, by the way. She gets it cut whenever it reaches her shoulders. Her skin’s a little lighter than mine, a little less pink. Big ol’ cheeks that make her look extra sweet when she smiles. She tends towards brighter, bolder lipsticks than I do. One of her grandmas is Vietnamese, which mostly comes through in her eyes. Those are bright blue. She had a halter top on that day, I could see how firm her belly is. We both work out at the college gym, but she puts more work into it. Me, I always end up chatting with someone.
Anyway, I didn’t find anything else that came close to that tiger shirt in the other places. And I was getting too headachy to really care. We started home but, I got super groggy all of a sudden. I couldn’t drive any more. I pulled over to have Millie take us the rest of the way to our apartment.
. . .
Whatever had hit us, it hit us hard. Breah was so out of it she hit her head on the way out of the car when we got home. About Seven, I think. I was dying for a nose tissue! But no matter how hard I blew, nothing was coming out! I tried so hard my back teeth started hurting. And my feet. I have no idea how blowing my nose would make my feet hurt, but whatever.
Breah was woozier than me, but somehow she kept herself together long enough to make us some tea. An herb blend with orange spice. She’s nice like that. I was so super stuffed-up that I could barely taste it, though. It opened up my nose, though. At least enough that I could breath. By the time she sat down to drink it up with me, she was complaining about her feet, too.
When I graduated high school, one of the weird gifts I got from my parents’ friends was a plug-in foot bath machine. “You’ll thank me after you’ve spent all say walking up and down campus,” he said. I figured ‘I’m not in my fifties, so I’ll probably do alright.’ I kept it around to be polite, but I never used it before Sunday night. But oh man, it felt so good! All warm and bubbly. My teeth kept bugging me, though. Looking back, that was the oddest thing.
. . .
We ended up taking turns with Millie’s foot tub. If we could have fit all four in there, I’m sure we would have!
The colds wrecked our plans for the evening, though. Millie makes jewelry to sell online. Wild, modern-art-looking designs. I had been looking to catch up on my social media posts. But neither of us could concentrate much, being so stuffed up. It was like having my head wrapped in a big, wet, hot, towel. You know what I mean? The tea I made helped with that, but I think it made my front teeth hurt. Everything’s a trade-off I suppose.
At least we had each other to be miserable with. I don’t remember whose idea it was to bring out the cards, but we ended up with a big pile of them on the kitchen table. Teapot to the left of it. To the right, a bowl of crushed ice to suck on, for our teeth. The foot bath in between us in the floor.
. . .
Didn’t you just ask me what Breah looked like?
Alright, alright! I’m remembering!
Long face. Long nose. Aquiline, I should say. Or Roman. She's got buck teeth. Her ears are a bit long up top. And set just a little higher on the head than most people's. A general proportion guide for drawing a human head is the tops of the ear are even with the subject's eyebrow and the bottom with the base of their nose. With her, the bottom of her lobes are more at cheek level. And her ears go well up to her hairline. Long and pointy, too.
Her hair was getting out of sorts. It had been a long day, so I wasn't so surprised to see her ponytail was coming undone in the back. I didn't say anything about it. I felt crud, she felt crud. Why bother primping? Who were we going to impress with runny noses and red eyes?
. . .
My ears were starting to ring while we played, so I wasn't concentrating much. I was losing a of hands, too. But I'll tell you want I remember. If that's what you want.
Millie has a roundish face. Very smooth cheeks. Big blue eyes. Tiny button nose. A little bit of an overbite. She's got this tell when she's bluffing, ha. She pulls on her ear. They're kinda small ears, I guess. Not as much earlobe as most people. I remember thinking the earrings she was wearing used to go down closer to her shoulders. Each one a squiggly line of copper wire holding a polished opal. She must have made a new set, shorter ones. Less chance of getting tangled in her curls.
On top of everything else, I started itching. Like, all over my arms. I would up scratching myself with the cards to give my nails a break.
"You too?" Millie asked. She’d been scratching too, I noticed. “I’ve been trying to ignore it.” She was speaking with her mouth shut. Kind of grumbling through her lips.
“You alright?” I asked. Sometimes you need to prod her to get her to open up.
“Heck no!” She shoved the last of the ice into her mouth. “We must’ve put on something that gave us an allergic reaction.”
“Formaldehyde in the clothes,” was my guess. “Maybe that’s why this cold got us so quick, too. Artificial everything nowadays. Our bodies know the difference!”
. . .
I stopped her before she started going off on GMO foods again.
I love games. You should see my board game collection. But there’s only so much playing around you can do with a stuffy head and a mouthful of toothache. We packed it in around Ten. A little early for me. I’m a night owl, and I like to spend night time with catching up on TV streams while I work on my projects. I’m only part way through that reboot show with the robot cowboys. But a cold’s a cold. I won the coin toss to use the shower first before bed.
But a toothache’s a toothache. I was as comfortable as I could make myself in bed. Had my favorite Professor Time night-shirt on and everything. But I just couldn’t get to sleep. And that wasn’t all. My thighs and ass started acting up, too. Getting all prickly like they’d fallen asleep and woken up. Like my feet. My hands were doing it, too. Plus the itching was still there. Everywhere. All that was easy to ignore, though, because of my teeth. That’s how bad they were.
I hated getting up to get to the bathroom. I was dizzy soon as I did. But I had to pop some cold pills. Over the counter, nothing major. Took me forever to get the cap off. It was on so tight it might as well have been glued. Must have been defective.
I lay back in bed feeling like shit for I don’t know how long until the pills kicked in and I finally dozed off.
I’m pretty sure I heard Breah get up once or twice.
. . .
We called it a night, and I waited to use the shower. The good part of being second was I got to keep my feet in the foot pool longer! I just sat there, listening to the water run, pretending the steam was opening up my nose.
The footsies kept bothering me even after I went to bed. My toes, specifically. I think I was asleep for a little while, but they woke me up. I sat up in bed to massage them. But they were so thickly calloused it was like nothing I did was getting through the skin to the muscle. Rubbing them made my hands hurt, too. And maybe it was my posture or maybe it was being so groggy, but my hinder and thighs started up too. My teeth were still a pain in the butt, too. Does that mean my butt was a pain in the tooth? Ha!
Have you ever been unable to sleep? Oh, of course you have. Just sitting there with in the dark, listening to all kinds of weird sounds that don’t come out in the daytime. The creeks and cracks, water gushing through pipes, and something skittering around behind a wall. I tried to focus on that instead of what I was going through.
I thought I heard a squawking noise from Millie’s room at one point. That’s when I figured I was hallucinating and finally took some sleeping pills from my nightstand.
. . .
Breah was my alarm. I slept through mine, and she tends to shout when she notices she’s missed hers. She doesn’t swear much, but oh boy, make her late for something, even a little thing like wake-up time, and you’ll hear things to make a sailor blush! I threw off my covers, hoping to beat her to the toilet while she was still stomping around. But no. We both came out of our rooms at the same time, and almost slammed into each other racing for the bathroom door in between.
What did she look like? Again?... Again. Lessee... Broad nose, especially around the nostrils. Really thick eyebrows, but not so much she doesn't look feminine. Her fingernails are dark and long. A rectangular body. That means not a lot of waist definition. She’s got a good bit of muscle definition, though, on her legs. I thought for a moment she'd come out of bed with heels on. But no, just her bare, black-toed feet. Her eyes had bags and her hair was a mess, but what can I say? She'd just gotten up.
I might have put up a fight for the bathroom, but her hand, her room, was closer to the handle. Especially after she tripped and slapped her hand right into it to keep from falling over. Did I mention how short her feet are? Not her toes, just the rest of them. Her big toes are rather long, actually. Not a great combination for maneuverability.
. . .
My butt was hurting real bad. I think that's what woke me up. I called in sick to work, then left my room to face the world.
Millie let me have the bathroom first. I let her in after I did my business, but made her promise to give it back before she started showering. I wanted another shower to steam more of the stupid cold out of me! Washing my hair was a gigantic pain. Up top, it was all matted. I scratched my nails into my head so hard to untangle everything that I ended up pulling clumps of hair out of my sides. Even more came out when I brushed up after. Looking back, I don't understand why I didn't find that unsettling.
Millie was making use of the foot-pool when I got out hair up in a towel, to let her wash up again.
How’d she look? Why do you keep asking that? It’s not like the answer will change. I mean, I don’t mind repeating myself. But why do you want to hear the same thing over and over? She has a very round head. Long neck. Long fingers with really short nails. She was scratching herself, but I wonder if she'd noticed.
I couldn’t see her ears under her hair, but I could see her shiny earrings were on by the time she came out of the bathroom. She'd changed into street clothes, after her shower. A cream-colored button-down dress. Short cut. It looked a bit loose on her. Up top, I mean. She’s wider at the hips than the shoulders, but the ruffling of the skirt helps hide that.
She wanted the foot tub back, but I had it! And I had breakfast, too, so I was keeping it. She plodded down on the couch to rub them. She really spoiled her toes, especially the ones in the middle. Or were they two in the middle? I wasn’t really paying attention, I guess. Her mouth was puffed out from the cold, and she was frowning. Bad as I was doing, I felt bad for her, too.
. . .
I grabbed more pills on my way out of the bathroom. The shower didn’t do as much to clear my head as the one the night before. Between that and running on not enough sleep, I wanted to grab whatever food I could keep down and then going to crawl back into bed.
Damn, I was jealous of Breah and her nice warm feet… Huh? Oh? She had tight fitting gym shorts. She hadn’t shaved her legs in a couple of days, by the looks of them. I didn’t say anything about that. T-shirt too, tight and a little too short. I could see a slice of her belly peeking out above the shorts. A grey cardigan over it all.
I stumbled through getting some cereal together. Kept hitting my middle toes on the kitchen cabinets. My head was swimming, so when she asked me “Are you listening to this?” my answer was, “No.”
She begged me over to the couch to see what was on TV. There was a ‘skunk’ attack at the mall where Julia works. Some loony in a costume, like the racoon in the hospital. Smartphone snapshots of this woman in a furry suit -- a skunk!, a lady skunk -- walking around one of the department stores. Had to be a guy, a really thin guy, under that suit. I’ve never met a woman who wanted to have extra breasts. I get trouble enough from guys I’ve never met over the two I have.
They interviewed the manager who escorted ‘her’ to a security room. She was sneezing too much to make any sense of what Skunky had been up to. Beyond fluff about how her store wasn’t responsible for any damages.
Next there was a bit with a man in a security uniform, who said she broke out of confinement and went running around in the food court.
This couple of shoppers they interviewed said ‘she’ got tackled in the food court by men in hazmat suits. The husband insisted that his phone was confiscated before he could upload any photos. The newscaster couldn’t confirm that, though.
“Two is a pattern, right? Breah asked me.
I think I shrugged. “Maybe it’s like that clown thing a few years ago. Bunch of assholes trying to stage a mass hysteria.”
. . .
I put the remote down, and flipped my laptop up. Started jotting through my social media feeds. If citizen journalists had gotten pics of a racoon and a skunk up, maybe there were more.
There were. A lot more. A Siamese-cat-woman sunbathing at a park in Olympia. A seven-foot-tall deer man trotting around the redwood park near San Francisco. Ratfolk in L.A. taking in a movie. A town I’d never heard of in Oregon, Klamath Falls, had a ferret-kid streak through a supermarket. There was a goldfish-woman swimming in a public fountain in Portland. Not a mermaid like in the movies. She had a fish head too, and tiny little arms with big fin-hands. Flopping around with a back-end between a tail and legs. Loads of tweets about other ‘animal’ folk up and down the west coast and in Vegas.
Millie was standing behind me, leaning into the chair so she could see what I was finding. “Wait a tick… Isn’t that store on the news the one where Julia works?”
“You’re right!” I feel terrible that I didn’t think of that sooner! Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was because I was obsessed with what I was finding online. Maybe I was getting frustrated with how long it takes to type on a flat keyboard with hand that were really starting to hurt and stiffen up.
Millie picked up the apartment phone to call her. And call her. And call her. “No answer.” I browsed up the mall’s phone number, so she could try to get the store itself. She gave up on that with an angry squawk that sent my teeth shivering. “The fucking lines are busy! Pardon my language, but that’s what she said.”
. . .
I didn’t want hold up Breah’s internet search, so I hopped on my smartphone. I’d never doxxed anyone before. And I suppose I wasn’t doing it then, really. Nothing illegal, no hacking. Just checking social sites, phone directories, and the like. I needed to reach Geoff, or Julia’s parents. Anyone who could help me get in touch with her. I made good time. Typing on my phone was really easy, all of a sudden. I used to be pretty clumsy at all those little buttons. Shows what a bit of motivation will do for you.
Trying to pin her parents down didn’t get anywhere. No social media presence. I found some leads on her cousin, but odds were she wouldn’t know anything. They don’t get along, so it’s not like Julia would have reached out to her if something was going south. I don’t know when I started sitting sideways with my feet crammed into the side of my seat. My feet were still bugging me, but I couldn’t sit right down in my ass anymore, either.
I decided to focus on Geoff, and that landed me a MeTime contact with his brother, Sam. I had to text him at least five times before he answered. We wrote back and forth a bit after that. He didn’t want to give a number out to a relative stranger. Which I guess I can understand, even if it was a great big fat pain in the ass at the time. But we got to texting and I convinced him of how worried I was getting about his lady friends. He told me he’d call Geoff and get back to me.
Breah kept pulling up new hits and calling them out to me. Sending them to my phone. A goat-man in a Tri-Cities strip mall. At lovebird at a theme park hotel. The thing that struck me was these were pretty mundane animals, overall. I mean, if you want to dress up and terrorize people, why a goat? “They outta put more work into it,” I told her. ‘Be a lion or a dragon or space unicorn. Something worth getting a picture taken.”
“Well, these are good suits, no matter what they’re of,” she said back.
Geoff’s brother texted me back with news that he couldn’t reach Geoff at all. Suddenly, Mr. Reluctant was asking me to keep him in the loop if I heard from Julia first. It’s all saved on my phone still, of you want to see it.
. . .
I moved the laptop to the kitchen after my head started clearing. The chairs were harder, but at least there was a hole in the back of them for my tail. I need to get new pants with a back-button. I remember giggling when I noticed it was swishing in tune to my typing. I had to type slowly, though, or my nails would have busted through the keyboard. If I was really going at it I never would have heard my tail at all.
Eventually, tweets came in that told me the mall had been shut down ever since the skunk-lady sighting. She’d been throwing stink bombs in the food court. The whole place was apparently a disaster zone. Of course, I told Millie about it.
. . .
I wasn’t getting anywhere trying to track Julia down. I turned on the TV to give my mind something to do other than chew itself up over how worried I was getting. Good thing there was a Star Train marathon on. And I mean the real, original episodes. Not the ones with the bullshit CGI makeovers. Those are almost never on TV anymore.
The couch started rustling my tailfeathers, so I lay down on the floor. With my feet hiked up over and into the foot-tub. Breah finally gave that up. Oh, it felt so good!
Sam texted me back to tell me that he was taking an early out from work to go looking for Geoff.
Around Four or Five, there was an ad for the local news, promising more developments on the ‘Animal Meme phenomenon” at Six. I told Breah I doubted they’d have anything we didn’t already know.
. . .
I couldn't wait until Six O’Clock for more news! I couldn’t take anymore waiting at all! The not knowing was driving me nuts! Julia was mixed up in this mess with the skunk somehow. She might have been hurt, or worse.
“We’ve got to go looking for her ourselves,” I decided. For both of us.
Millie agreed right away. “Yeah. I think I could do that. I think the cold is breaking.” I hadn’t reached for a tissue in a while, myself. But I was still snorting back snot now and then. I was positive I could drive. Looking back, we didn’t have much of a plan other than drive around to some places where she might be and hope we got lucky. But it was better than doing nothing!
I did have the foresight to leave a note on our door, in case Julia got our messages and came looking for us. “Hey J - If you’re reading this, we’re out looking for you. Please call! - B/M.”
It took forever to write, though. Pens and pencils are not made for four-fingered hands.
. . .
I’ll spare you the details of the potty break I took before we left. I never assume I’m going to find a bathroom I’d want to use.
I tried to text Julia again after I got out. And Sam, to let him know I was going on the hunt as well. But my smartphone chose that exact moment to crap out. The screen was on, but it wouldn’t let me type or swipe or app or anything.
I saw Breah over by the sink, so I figured I’d hop on her laptop for a mo.’
Just as I stepped into the kitchen, I felt my left earring slap into my shoulder and tumble down my dress. It clattered over to the living room wall.
. . .
After I wrote the note, I went to the sink, I packed some tissues into my purse, then went to the sink to pop another cold pill. I can’t take pills without water, so I got myself a cup. Filling it was easy enough, but then it was so heavy and slippery I had trouble getting the stupid water to my mouth. You try holding a glass when your fingers are one-third fingernail!
There was a nasty squawk behind me. I jumped so high I must have left hoofprints in the kitchen tile when I came down! “Don't’ move!”
“What the hell,” I shouted!
“Don't’ take a step! I lost an earring! Just now.” Millie was clawing through the carpet under the coffee table with her with her feet.
The other one slid down her front while she was talking. It hit the floor and bounced over to me. But at least it didn’t break. I know how hard she works on her creations. Half her room is games and scifi books. The rest is parts bins and a works station.
She found the one she’d been looking for. I motioned her over to the other. I tried to pick it up for her, but… I … couldn’t. I had to point it out to her. I almost dropped the glass on her head while she was picking it up!
. . .
How did she look when she pointed to the floor? [Audible sigh.] Thick, black toenails. All four-and-a-half of them. Fir on her ankles, and hair along her thighs. She really should swap out those gym trunks. They’re not as stretchy as they used to be. A bit of a tear along one side. But then I suppose it’s the only thing that’s comfortable to wear around her udders. Something of a pot-belly, but don’t tell her I said that.
Bit of hair peeking out from the cuff of her cardigan. Hairy knuckles, especially on the double-size middle finger. Brown, but a lighter shade than up top. A little hair over her breasts, too. Kind of a flat chest, really. Not that there's anything wrong with that. She’s got a large nose. Rather unique. I don’t know how to phrase it in terms of artistic anatomy.
. . .
How did she look coming up with the second ring? Well, she looked like Millie. I don’t know how many more times I can say the same thing.
Her feet are sort of yellow, and hard. Tick. Like they’re made up of calluses. There’s webbing between three of them, the big one in the middle has two claws on it. The fourth on on each foot if sticking out at an angle. Off to the side. She wasn’t wearing any legging under her dress, so I could see all the down feathers up and down her legs. They’re on her Back and shoulders too, and her arms. She’s got proper feathers on her breasts and along her elbows though. Snow white feathers, with a little silver on that tail.
Her chest is so thin her dress strap was slipping down again.
When she stooped down, I could see her tail. All white and silver and shiny. When she stood up, she had a flag smile on her face. Her teeth are yellow, and smooshed together. Like they’re trying to come to a point.
She tried putting her jewelry back on, and the smile melted away. She sort of fumbled around with her ear for a bit. I couldn’t see the problem under all her hair. A sort of faraway look came over her face, and she put the earring down on the kitchen table. She clicked her beak a few times, like you or I might bite a lip.
“Hey, you alright?” I think I asked.
“Sorry, zoned out for a minute,” she said. She shook out of it, and grabbed a jacket in case we were out late. That’s September for you. Feels pretty good until the sun goes down.
I think she left the earrings on the table when we left.
. . .
Breah gave her car keys a weird look, once she finally got them out of her purse. So I drove my car. ███████ Mall’s not that far off from the quickest route to Julia’s. So I headed that way first. Still closed. No, not just closed. Cut off from everything else. There were traffic cones up across the sidewalk, blocking off all the ways of driving in from the street. Even the parking garage was a no-go zone. The bus-stops were taped off with a detour sign, for crying out loud. There were news vans parked in the lot across the street, where the bank is.
The at little detour meant I approached Julia’s apartment from the north. There’s a hill to drive down going that way. So Breah and I had a bird’s eye view of some pretty weird shit. But scary shit, because it was happening to Julia’s apartment.
There were roadblocks cutting off the bit of street that sides up along her building. Unmarked white vans in the empty lot to the left. The east.
“Holy shit!” Breah whinnied, shaking her mane out. ‘What the hell is going on in this town?”
“No idea,” I muttered. Driving on down the hill.
“What the hell are you doing? We can’t get into the middle of this!”
“I have to get close enough to see if Julia’s car is in her spot!” Yeah, I was scared. But for my friend too. The tenants there have numbered slots to go with their room. I figured I could get close enough to see her spot without setting off any alarms.
“Drive casual,” I told myself, “But not too casual.”
. . .
Thank goodness Julia’s car wasn’t there! But what was there… It still makes me shiver.
Julia lives up on the top floor, the third floor. But there was a big… tube… thing… leading from a white van in the lot to one of the first-floor apartments. Three men in white Hazmat suits were walking down it. One of them carrying one of those little battering rams like a SWAT team uses. Right after that one busted the place open, the other two rushed inside. They all but dragged out someone who’s head was covered in some kind of sheet. Whoever it was, they were putting up a fight. Swiping, clawing, kicking. I thought I saw a hint of tail swishing around behind from their sweats.
That’s when I realized the car had stopped moving. I gave Millie a shove. “Drive! Drive! Drive!”
“Shit!” she chirped. Just as someone else in Hazmats, over to the left, pointed our way!
Millie put it in gear and moved so fast me head slapped into the back of my seat.
. . .
I wasn’t going to stick around. I mean, in retrospect, driving off was a bad idea. But think about what we had just seen! The vans were not marked as anything official! I didn’t know what else to do but get away. But it’s not like I was hightailing it. Breah started whinnying when I started moving again, but that was more shock than anything. I was shocked too.
I turned a few corners, again and again. Until I was driving alongside the river. Breah kept looking back, and I kept moving my eyes to the rear-view mirror. Just in case. No one was following us. No white vans. No cop cars. Nothing. I kept driving the river anyway.
I asked her to “Think up a place we can go. So, we look like we were just on our way there the whole time.”
“We could just keep following the river until we hit the college?” she said.
“Good idea.” It was a good idea. Classes don’t start up for another couple of days, but the stores and HUB will be open. Plenty of alibi. Not that we needed one. I turned up and away from the river to get there. At the first stop sign, the first stop I’d made since Julia’s apartment, I pulled my window down, so I could breathe better.
A few turns and several blocks later came the red light ahead of the bridge between us and the college. I came to a stop next to a little green two-seater with a black convertible top. I don’t know car models.
. . .
I’d rolled my window down while we were driving along the river. The feel of the wind in my mane should have helped me feel better. But all I could think of was that person I’d just seen hauled. Were they endangering other people in Julia’s building? I couldn’t make myself ask the question, ‘Had Julia been hauled out of her place too?’
Suddenly I hear someone shout, “Hey, Liz! Take a look at this!”
I whipped my head around to look at whatever ‘this’ was, and what I see is someone In the next car over taking a picture of me. “What the hell!?” I know I shouldn’t have shouted at them, but I was still dealing with all the other stuff! “What do you think you’re doing?”
There was someone in the passenger seat next to him. She was talking pictures too! I think she called him Nick. I couldn’t see her face. Or his. They were both hiding behind their phones.
“Take a picture of this, bitch!” I flipped her off… but… Was I able to take my pinky ring off? I noticed it was looking too small for my finger.
They just laughed and snapped more picks. I snorted at them and slammed my nails into the door, which made him jerk back. “Knock it off you fuuuu…” Well, I don’t quite recall what I said. [clears throat] It got pretty heated.
Millie ran the red light to get me away from them. She’s a good friend.
. . .
I had a perfect driving record.
I just needed to get away from the shouting.
I heard a car honk, but no one got hurt. No one drove into anything, or anyone. I didn’t stop until we were good and parked in front of the Library. I chose that spot because it’s hidden from the main streets.
“Just get out of the car normal-like,” I told myself, and Breah. “Act like nothing’s wrong and no one else will think anything is wrong.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said. We got out of the car, started strolling to the Student Union Building. It was somewhere safe, somewhere with lots of people, but no one who would cause us any trouble. I needed that right then. I couldn’t stop feeling tense. Not after what we had just seen, after what it could mean for someone I’ve known since high school.
I knew Breah was in the same place. And she has a regular job to worry about on top of that! I just take summer jobs for messing-around money, and they’re always done before classes begin to start.
The SUB was open. From the sounds of things, there was a freshman orientation going on. The cafeteria was open for them to look around in, but no one at the counter. I grabbed us some stuff from a vending machine, and she found us a spot where we could talk things through.
. . .
The common area of the SUB sits right between the cafeteria to one side, and a bunch of meeting rooms to the other. One of them is bigger than the other two. That’s the one where the guest speakers are given a stage. But I took one of the smaller ones. Where people sometimes set up games and whatnot. It was empty. Still had chairs and tables, though. Anyone who was at the SUB was there to get their books, deal with their schedules, pay tuition, that sort of thing. I doubt the arcade on the other end of the building was even open at all.
I paced the side of the room until Millie came in. She handed me the granola bar I’d asked for. She had a pack of toaster pastries. She took tiny little bits of them while we talked.
We came to the decision that the best thing to do was called the cops. Whatever was happening, they either knew about it already or they needed to. Julia there wasn’t much we could do about. They’d need her to be missing for twenty-four hours. That’s what all the TV shows say, anyway. But whatever we had seen at her apartment, that was big.
“We can’t get involved,” she insisted. “I just want to lie low for a little bit. Then, we get back to looking for Julia. And Geoff, too.”
“If it’s bad, and we say nothing, we’re as bad as whoever did it,” I told her. “We’d be helping the whoever dragged the stranger away.”
“Yeah, that’s true enough.” She didn’t say it, but I could tell Millie was thinking about how someone else might now trying to find that lost person from Julia’s building now. Asking themselves the same questions we had been, or trying to find people with answers.
. . .
Breah’s ears started flicking. That’s when I noticed it. Behind us, coming from out past the door. Or, rather, not past it. All, or most, of the students milling about outside had stopped milling. Some of the newbs were pressed up alongside the meeting room door. Others were standing back behind them. They were talking to each other. Softly, like we weren’t supposed to hear.
And they had their smartphones out. Taking photos of us.
That. Was. It.
I was tired of feeling anxious. Tired of feeling afraid. I pulled myself away from the table and ran at them. Halfway to them, anyway. I didn't get all the way out of the room. I was squawking at the top of my lungs, and flapping my arms about to make myself as big and scary as possible. "Rrrraawwwwkkkkk! Our friend is missing! You hear that? We don't even know if she made it to work this morning, but she sure as shoot never turned up anywhere else either! And her B.F. isn't saying anything, because he's gone too!. And all you can do is goof around with your phones! Just like those clowns on the road! Useless, all of you! Rrrraawwwwkkkkk!"
The lot of them stood back in shock. I took that as out moment. "Come one," I said! Going back and grabbing Breah by the hand. We stormed out of room and away together as friends.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves," I heard Breah say as we passed them.
. . .
As we were leaving the SUB, I pulled out my smartphone to make good on our decision. Call the police. But my smartphone wasn’t working. Millie’s had crudded out a few hours before. Did I mention that?
“Mine’s effed up, too,” I moaned.
“Must be a virus going ‘round,” Millie suggested. “I think there’s a payphone in the library.”
I told her I wasn’t sure the Library would be open. I knew there was a payphone in the SUB, though. In front of the book store.
“Do you want to go back in there?” She asked. I looked back. Saw the crowd had moved to the other side of the glass double-doors, and flatly told her, “No.”
“Library it is, then.”
We never got that far. We never got out of the parking lot. Your people were there, in their hazmat suits. With the white, unmarked vans. Circling Millie’s car. We turned to sneak away, and there was one behind us!
I couldn't see their face through the shield. Just a reflection of my muzzle, and Millie’s beak.
. . .
Yeah, I know what a taser feels like. I was the one that stepped up to take a hit from one in my self-defense class. And then I was here. Not counting the hospital gurney and the processing and the paperwork. And that lovely detox shower. All of which I’m sure is all very well documented.
Yesterday, someone in a nice suit showed me pictures of the woman you all say is me. Pictures of her with Breah. Snapshots from the security camera outside our apartment building. I didn’t listen until he had me take my ID cards out of my purse. Still could be faked, but I’m taking you at your word that I wasn’t always a seagull. Not that I can remember ever being anything else.
But if that is true, then like I said at the start, I’m a victim. Breah too. All I’m guilty of is trying to help a friend.
And a minor traffic violation.
. . .
I don’t hold any grudges towards the people who brought us in. Now that I see what is going on. They were just doing your jobs. What they thought was best for everyone. I hope that kind man who explained my situation to me isn’t mad I threw that water at him. That really wasn’t me at my best. I’m surprised at how long it took him to convince me I wasn’t always like this. Always a horse.
He did say that my parents had been contacted. That they’re on their way here from ██████. When will I be able to talk to them?
. . .
This crap better not affect my scholarship.
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Category Story / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 307.9 kB
This was certainly a well-paced and well-framed story of chaos and friendship. Not only did you do well describing the characters and everything happening to and around them, but you handled their friendship, balancing their pros and cons throughout, right up to the ironic yet emotional climax.
I feel pretty happy now that I've read this story finally. What I like the most is how at the end they are finally convinced that whatever it was turned them into anthros made them think that was the case and the horse woman finally understood that she used to be human. What I hope is that whatever happened only happened to a certain percentage of people around and it was finally stopped and the world became a pretty unique mixed of humans and anthros. Now what I would like to see from this story is from the man's perspective of how he convinced someone who's infected that they were always a human.
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