FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Synopsis: While feeding a new attraction at the zoo where he works, a relatively new employee is accidentally bitten by a genetically altered wolf. He is then surprised by what happens next and even more surprised by what will ultimitely become of him.

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"Hey, John, I need you to do something for me."

I barely hear her voice over the radio playing in front of me and go on tapping my fingers on the surface of the table. Nodding my head up and down like an idiot, I try to enjoy the very few pleasures I have here on this job. Those pleasures consist mainly of the radio and free, cheap canned soda from the refrigerator.

Amanda, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want me to enjoy these few pleasures. She's the top dog here on in the zoo on this shift, having worked here for nearly eight years of her life. I've only been here for six months and only working third shift because I go to college because I really don't want to work here for eight years of my life like her.

She stands behind me in the doorway. I can almost feel her presence against the back of my neck. On a shiny bit of metal on the thirty-year-old radio, I see her widen her stance and stand akimbo. Clearing her throat, I know that soon enough she's going to explode on me.

Sighing, I put my arms up over my head and swing around on the cheap office chair that they've given us to lounge in. Crossing my legs once I'm facing her, I look to her eyes with a gentle smile on my face. Amanda doesn't look happy at all. It's basically because I've found a second to sit and do nothing. She hates that.

"What's happening?" I say to her.

"Well, John, by the looks of it, absolutely nothing." Amanda says to me with attitude, crossing her arms.

"Great," I reply, "then I can just go back to enjoying the music playing tonight. They've finally made a good selection on this station."

Uncrossing my legs, I fake turning around, guessing that she'll stop me before I even can see the radio again. As she steps forward, I stop and know that I am right. Letting her arms swing, she approaches me with her brown hair swinging around, framing her face.

"I need you to go do some work, John, and stop lazing around like a damned ape." Amanda says.

I purse my lips a bit and then sit back in the chair, waiting for her to continue. Instead, she stands quietly, her eyes narrowing to slits and her face becoming a bit flushed. Her anger is coming up. I can feel it bubbling like a volcano about to pierce the surface of the planet.

"I mean, now, Jonathan." She says.

I laugh a bit at her using my full name, like she's my mother. She sighs and lets her arms drop down at her side, having placed them on her hip again for just a second. I rock forward and then stand up, the office chair creaking as my weight is lifted off of it. As I am standing up fully, Amanda takes a step back and looks me directly in the eyes.

"I need you to take some extra food down to the wolves den." Amanda tells me. "Richard says that we have to keep them extra fed because of how special their species is."

"Richard said this?" I ask her, my head cocked to the side. "The suit wearing, pencil pushing weakling who always says 'But, Marian, how on earth are you going to find a way to pay for this' and then sighs when she tells him she'll figure it out?"

Amanda can't take it, she smiles and then laughs at my impression of our immediate superior. Richard is a sad little lawyer-like man in his early forties who doesn't know how to stand up for himself yet will boss around everybody beneath him to compensate for his lack of strength.

"I don't know." Amanda says happily. "I figure Mary told him to tell us to do it. She's the big boss around here and I don't want to have her on my case. I can handle Rich, that pathetic slob of a man. Mary, despite being happy-go-lucky and caring, I can't deal with at all."

I step forward and throw my arms up in defense. Then I begin to walk past her and towards the door leading out onto the dark main avenue leading through the zoo.

"Alright, alright, I'll go do it." I say to her as I walk. "I don't want Mr. Zombie getting on my case either."

Amanda laughs at the joke at Richard and follows me towards the door. As I near the door, I twist the knob, thrust it open and step through it in one smooth motion. Stepping outside and down the three wooden steps, I begin out into the dark macadam street between maintenance buildings.

Stepping down the stairs, Amanda follows me outside and then comes up beside me as I look to the gator that we use to get around this huge zoo. Slowing down, I turn towards my supervisor and see her cross her arms and look towards the small truck.

"The buckets of meat are already in the back, John, so you're all ready to take it over to the wolves den." Amanda says. "When you're in there, don't get bit. They may be different from regular wolves, but Mary told me that the wolves turn feral when they're hungry, which they become very often."

"Don't worry about it." I reply to her. "These genetically altered wolves are more like dogs. I don't think they're going to hurt me."

"Alright, but, if you need me, just give a ring through the two way." Amanda tells me, touching the radio at her hip.

She slaps me on the back like a dude and then turns to go up into the lounge trailer, probably to do the same thing I was doing just minutes ago. Turning to watch her go, I wait until she is up into the building and I can no longer see the light from inside flowing into the dark night before I turn to go. When the door closes entirely, I sigh, roll my eyes and mount the gator.

Turning the engine on, the lights flick on revealing the rocky ground and I press the gas to start through the zoo. Beginning up the roads between the dozens upon dozens of exhibits, I notice the only thing I hear is the little engine below me. The zoo is absolutely silent after closing time, which is kind nice.

The silence in my job is one of the few things that I actually enjoy. Working between closing time and opening time, tending to the animals and doing all the things that most people don't see during the day, usually sucks because I'm dead tired when I get home. But working with tired animals is better than working with pissed off people.

I used to work at a Little Caesar's franchise before this, one of the busiest ones in the area. The worst part is that it was halfway between the busy city and the surrounding countryside, so I'd get stereotypical ghetto citizens and stereotypical white trash. They hated each other and would fight.

Screaming people and miserable, crying kids and a lot of people who smelled like they hadn't showered in years made that job a living hell. I'm glad I quit that job the first chance I got and found this job really quickly. I don't know what I would have done if the money would have run out. My dad, though, would have been involved and he would have been pissed.

Anyways, the wolves that Amanda was talking about are a new exhibit that came in just a few weeks ago. They're supposed to some strange strain of genetically altered animals. The wolves are supposed to be healthier, faster, stronger, and smarter but at the same time have the same happy, pleasing, loving demeanor of the average dog. One seemed to defeat the other, but, I'm not complaining.

The people would be able to actually go into the exhibit to interact with the well-behaved animals. They'd be able to touch them, feed them and watch them play from close up. Of course those that went in still had to sign wavers and go through a short orientation of what to do and what not to do, but the people still loved it.

To tell the truth the wolves are my favorite animals here. At night, the youngest of them would still be playing and roughhousing while the older ones slept. They are absolutely adorable and innocent as anything. I'm glad that I get to be with them when all the people aren't here. The animals are so much more polite and better behaved than their human counterparts most of the time.

Guiding the gator through the narrow pathways, I pass several giant enclosures, one for the African lion and the other for the hippo. The lights that hang above are the only things that light the pathways ahead. I have to rely on my headlights and my memory so as not to crash into anything, which I've done before.

After a five minute ride, I find the enclosure without much problem and park the gator outside the wide, high iron gate that seals off the path from the den below. I kill the engine, which is hard to hear even when on, and step from the driver's seat. Wiping my hands of a bit of sweat, I walk around the back of the truck.

Without stopping, I grab two large metal pails from the cargo bed in back. The two bang together along the bed and then slam against the inside of the walls. The sound is loud enough that I know the wolves must know I'm coming to feed them. Holding a bucket in each hand, I begin towards the iron gate.

"God, this meat stinks." I comment as I walk, sneering and letting out a loud sigh.

The bones in some of the pieces of beef knock against the metal and quickly I begin to her yelping and yipping through the darkness. Walking to the metal gate, I look through the bars and quickly see wolf faces staring back at me, eyes intently pinned on the swinging buckets at my sides.

I smile and then balance the pail on my knee as I unlock the door with a key hanging at my waist. When the lock flips and the door opens slightly, I force it open with my hip, slip through the opening and then lock it behind me once more. Immediately upon entering the enclosure, I am mobbed by furry animals, all trying to get at the food I have in my arms.

Several wolves jump up onto my body and thrust their heads down into the pails while others dig muzzles and noses into my pants and shirt, hoping to get a hand out without having to fight to get directly to the food. Quickly, I pull the buckets up away from my hips and hold them over my shoulders. The wolves drop down and immediately sit, like a well-behaved dog, and stare up at me.

"Oh, you'll get food, guys, just wait a minute." I say to them, as if they could respond.

Beginning forward, I walk down stone stairs that go into the center of the forest-like enclosure, around which are caves that act as dens for the wolves. The wolves follow me down the stairs, prancing around me, their eyes staring up at me and the buckets. They constantly make yipping noises, begging for the food immediately.

At the bottom of the stairs, I go to the very center, where several bowls are on the ground for them. As I near them, the wolves rush to their bowls as others emerge from the dens, aroused by all the commotion. Females and pups stand in the openings of the dens, glazed eyes wondering what's happening.

Kneeling down, I lower the buckets and begin to fill the bowls with meat pieces from a local butcher's shop as well as bits of gravy and other fluids that the wolves enjoy. As I crawl past each bowl, filling it to the brim, the wolves dig their heads down into the meat and gruel, eating it hungrily.

Finally, as almost every bowl is filled, I begin to stand up again when I hear a loud bark. The wolves immediately stop eating and look up and around towards a large cave the farthest away from the front of the enclosure. On top of it is an arctic white wolf with deep blue eyes which is much bigger than the rest of the wolves.

He stares down on the other wolves, almost frowning, and then jumps down from on top of the cave. Landing gracefully, the alpha wolf struts towards the food and eyes up all the other wolves that began eating without him. The other wolves step away from their bowls as the alpha nears and finally, the large wolf is right before me.

Still kneeling, I look down to his bowl and then begin to fill it with what is left in the buckets. Almost turning the bottom of the bucket upside down, I tap the metal bottom, making a loud noise, and watch as everything rushes out into the large bowl. But I either mustn't fill the bowl fast enough for the wolf or have annoyed him with the noise.

Before I could do anything, the wolf's lips pull back, his ears lay flat and he jumps forward. His teeth open up and he sinks them down into my hand. Dropping the pail to the ground with a crash, I scream out in pain and try to pull away. The wolf doesn't hold on to me and quickly lets me go.

As I fall to the ground, the other wolves tuck their tails up under their body and quickly rush back towards their den. The alpha ignores me entirely and begins to eat as if nothing happened. Holding my bleeding hand, I lie on my back and stare at the blood rushing down onto my arm.

"Jesus fucking Christ, what happened?" I ask myself.

As my hand bleeds, I notice something shiny and silvery go into my blood and then disappear. Saliva, I figure, saliva from the wolf that bit me. Amanda did say that the wolves would bite when they're really hungry. I guess I should have done everything a little bit quicker, maybe then I wouldn't have gotten bitten.

Turning over, I climb up onto my hands and knees and then stand up, still holding my hand out in front of me, trying to keep it from bleeding as badly. Stumbling forward, I go up the stairs as quickly as I can. When I approach the gate, I pull the key on the string up from my waist and quickly unlock the door.

Without even stopping, I push the door open as I did before, step through and close and lock it all in one swift motion. Going to the gator, I sit down in the driver's seat and take several, deep breaths as I try to think about what I'm going to do. Immediately I think of the first aid kit in the gator.

Leaning over the center of the tiny vehicle, I open what used to be the glove compartment. From inside I pull a little first aid kid and place it into my lap. Shakily undoing the latch, I open the top and look inside. As I look over the gauze and other things that I would need to take care of myself my head quickly becomes woozy.

Finding it really hard to see straight, I close the lid and then sit back in the seat, looking over my bleeding hand. Usually I would make some kind of joke right about now, but, I'm finding it very hard to do. Looking past my bleeding arm, I see the world shake about as if were riding a tilt-a-whirl.

As I focus back on my hand, I suddenly find that the bleeding has begun to slow. In fact, it almost appears as if the wound is healing itself. With my head spinning like a top, I watch the bite marks on the back of my hand begin to close on their own, without any help.

Suddenly I realize that this mustn't be real, that it must all be just some strange hallucination. Looking down, away from my hand, I pull the radio from my hip and hold it towards my face. Like it or not, I have to call Amanda to come and save me. At first I think she'll rub it in my face, but, I know she'll help me regardless.

"Amanda" I say into the radio, "are you there?"

All I hear is static at first and lower the radio down into my lap. Sitting back into the chair, trying to relax and keep from falling out onto the ground, I stare out at the black sky above. Licking my lips a few times, I begin to feel even stranger than I did before. My mouth feels numb and my teeth feel strange against my tongue.

Even worse is that my ears feel tingly, like they're moving up my head. My skin has the same sensation, like somebody is scraping a thick brush down every bit of my skin repeatedly. Lowering my eyes down my hand which I have let lay limply in my lap I see that the blood seems to be disappearing into my jeans.

"Great." I say to myself. "It'll take me days just to get the . . . the blood out."

My head feels weak, like it was when I was sick when I was really little. It feels like I have a terrible fever, but I don't feel cold and my head doesn't feel hot. I just feel dizzy in a way that I haven't experienced since that fever. Suddenly a terrible pain rolls through my body, making me rock my head back and make a half howl, half gasping sound.

My extremities shake and shiver as the pain rolls like the tide down through them, crashing against my toes and fingers like the sea against a defiant ship. I gasp in a painful breath and then close my eyes tight. I don't know where Amanda is, I don't understand why she hasn't replied yet.

The tingling feeling seems to be everywhere, even places that I wish I didn't have to feel it. I don't understand any of this, what's going on? Pain seems to be the only thing I know, a strange, terrible pain that has come from nowhere. Wait, it comes from my arm, it comes from my hand where I got bit. What the hell did that wolf do to me?

"John, what's going on?" Amanda says through the radio.

Opening my eyes, I look down to my lap and grab the radio with the hand that was bleeding just thirty seconds ago. Lifting it from my lap, I press the button down with a numb finger and put my mouth to it.

"I got bit, Amanda." I tell her without regard to the volume. "I don't think I can make it back to the . . . to the lounge. My head hurts . . . really bad, I feel really weak. I was . . . I was bleeding. Please, come get . . . get me."

"Alright, John, just keep calm." Amanda tells me. "I'll be there as quickly as I can."

As the radio cuts off, I drop the black box as a new pain grips my hands. The radio plummets into my lap, bounces off of my jeans and then crashes to the ground where it skitters across the black macadam. Leaning forward, I lift both of my hands up into sight of my eyes and watch as I see something change.

That tingling feeling that I've been experiencing suddenly turns into something sprouting from my skin. At first it only looks like stubble, like the kind I shave off of my face each morning. But soon it is nearly as long and as course as . . . fur. The fur wraps first around the hand that was bitten but quickly wraps around the opposite hand as well.

"What's going on?" I ask myself, my head still spinning a bit.

I watch as the fur spreads down my arm like a moss that can't be contained, covering up every inch of my skin. It creeps beyond my elbow and then disappears up into my t-shirt, where I feel it begin to cover my chest and back. It feels so strange, so alien, something that nobody should have to experience.

On my hands, before I can lower them, I flip my hands over and see black spots appear on the fingers and on the palms. Roughening into what feels like rubber, they form pads, similar to what's on a common dog or cat. A snapping sound is audible as claws grow from the ends of my fingers, each one painful, but not unbearable.

My breathing rate climbs and soon I begin to feel the fur climbing up out of my shirt as it spreads over my entire body. Covering my head, I throw my arms up and place them around my neck. The rough pads feel strange on my skin, but, I can feel through them as if they were still my palms.

The first thing I feel is the fur spreading past the hands, unobstructed by my attempts to stop it, and begins to cover my face. As it spreads up over my chin, I suddenly feel a pain that breaks the numb feeling that has had it under an iron grip. Several loud cracking sounds pierce the quiet night, louder than my uncontrolled breathing.

Bone shifts and stretches, pulling away from my skull. It's almost like the tectonic plates moving across the surface of the world, making a new mountain range. My nose is pulled along with it, soon disappearing into this new feature on my head. With my hands, I reach up and feel what is going on.

As the painful cracking and stretching and shifting of bones engulf my head, I feel what appears to be a muzzle form where my chin, mouth and nose use to be. Stretching as long as my hand from tip to heel, it soon resembles the wolf that bit me. When a nose appears at the end, allowing well needed air to rush into my system, I force my mouth open and gasp.

"Jesus, help me!" I cry out, my words half slurred.

I begin to weep, not because of the pain, but because of the fear. I fear that I am becoming a strange monster, something out of a terrible, cheap B-movie made in 1941. But the thoughts are almost driven out of my mind when my body refuses to halt whatever it is undergoing.

Teeth, sharp and long, grow inside my mouth and my lips soon begin to regain feeling as little wisps of whiskers pop from on the sides of the long, furry muzzle. Swinging my eyes up to the mirror in the gator, I see what is becoming of me. It is horrible, half done, but horrible enough. The only things that I still recognize, hidden below the fur, are my ears. Even my hair has shortened and changed colors to blend and match with the fur that is engulfing me.

But that is not to last. Moments later, a new wave of pain occupies my mind and my ears begin a painful migration towards the top of my head. Already covered in the arctic white fur that has covered every inch of me, my ears begin to shrink and become pointed. Soon, they crack and migrate until they are large, erect triangles on top of my head.

I close my eyes and know that there is nothing I can do. The pain in my head is disappearing now, but, I know that there must be more to come. There is no way that this is already done. Turning, I step out of the gator and stand up in the night. A cool breeze whistles through the zoo and cools my sweaty body down a bit quicker.

Taking three steps away from the gator, and taking a cold breath, I ready myself for the next wave. Almost immediately, it hits me. My legs buckle beneath me and I fall to the macadam with a loud thud. Lying on my side, I writhe around on the ground as my muscles contract and relax beyond my control.

Without waiting for the painful wave to subside, I roll onto my hands and knees and lift myself up. Opening my eyes, I stare down at the black macadam and then close them again, focusing only on what is happening to me. In my feet, I feel something stretch the bones that are in my feet.

Like the terrible punishment used in the medieval ages, I feel something stretch and contort my feet in a way that is almost beyond words. My toes and the front end of my feet feel like they are remaining unchanged, but my lower legs and rear end of my feet change.

My lower leg shrinks and length is added to my feet. My heel becomes a new ankle and soon, there are three pieces to my legs. Gasping thrice, I feel something begin to pull my little toe up the side of my new lower leg. Several loud cracks force the remaining toes into a new position.

When the pain goes down, I flex my new feet hardly without thinking, and feel that there is definitely something wrong. My feet are now focused on the toes, all my weight is there. I have paws, two dog's paws to walk on. Several snaps tell me claws have replaced toenails and fur and pads have made them almost real.

"Amanda, where are you?" I ask nobody in general.

My words are no longer slurred. In fact, they're as crystal clear, if not clearer, than before. I've already become accustomed to my new lips, new teeth and even new tongue. Like the same way that I'm already used to the pads on my hands and claws at the ends of each finger.

Opening my eyes again, I look towards the black macadam and then grit my teeth. One last pain burns behind me. Like a tree struggling to sprout from the ground, I feel something thrust from the end of my spine. In a terrible, inhuman way, something pushes down the back of my jeans.

Without thinking, I reach around and, with my newfound claws, rip into the seams of the jeans. Ripping them open, something pops out and continues to grow, not slowed by the confinements of my clothes. The fur with the same tingling, pins-and-needles feeling, spreads down this new part of my body.

But, this is possibly the quickest and least painful part of the entire ordeal. Soon, the pain is gone when the thing grows to nearly two feet, three feet, maybe more, I don't know, leaving only the tingling growth of the new fur. Then, as the fur ceases growing like weeds, there is nothing more.

With strange thoughts, I control this new piece of my body, throwing it around, making a slight wind that goes up the length of my body. Without even looking, I know it is a tail. My jaw is ajar and I look down towards the black macadam, just trying to take it all in.

Within moments, my body feels extremely tired. My arms and legs buckle beneath me and I fall to my left side. Lying with my fur actually feeling strangely soft and comforting against my body, I look across the road and towards the gate that surrounds the entire zoo.

Watching the stucco-tan wall, I see lights flash across the sides and then grow brighter and brighter. A little engine purrs as something comes towards me. As the lights get even brighter, a large shadow is cast by my body across the ground. Then brakes squeal as that thing comes to a stop behind me. The engine is killed.

My eyes feel heavy and I close them, despite knowing that Amanda has finally come to save me way after it is too late. As my mind begins to close in on itself, terrible lethargy forcing my consciousness to relax and rest, I hear footsteps come towards me.

"John . . . John are you alright?" I hear Amanda say.

The footsteps get close to me and then stop. Moments later, gentle hands touch my arms and face and Amanda is silent. Her left hand runs over my soft, furry face, feeling the new fur that covers it like carpeting, trying to take it all in. Gently, she rolls me onto my back and then places fingers around my muzzle.

Lifting the muzzle off of the ground, my eyes look up towards her. Her face is pale white and her eyes are watery and glazed over, like this is all her fault. She touches my chest, runs a finger to my side and then grabs my hand, feeling the pad for a second and then grasping it entirely.

"John, is that you?" She asks me.

I nod my head and then begin to close my eyes and roll my muzzle towards the ground again. She grabs my muzzle again and then forces me to open my eyes. Looking up at her, I see her shake her head.

"Don't go to sleep, don't, please." She begs of me, near to tears. "What am I gonna tell Mary?"

"Can we even . . . tell Mary?" I ask.

"I don't . . . know." She says.

The sun begins to gently rise over the wall behind her and I lick my lips. She sits back, puts her hands into her lap and then sighs. I smile a little bit, hoping to make a joke with what energy I have left. But, my mind is almost close to shutting down due to lack of energy, so, I just yawn and look to her with a bit of kindness.

"I don't know what you're gonna do, Amanda." I say. "But, whatever it is, it better be good."