Nightmare Factory
A scientist finishes up his personal experiment and finds something unusual has happened during his time away...
What’s the first thing you need after six months of cryogenic stasis? That’s right; coffee.
…O.K,; I suppose clothes are first, but really, coffee. Luckily I had already taken care of both of those as the computer ran tests on my vitals and blood work. I was a scientist and researcher, not some crazy person who takes unnecessary risks. I was a man of science and logic…
…Who locked himself in a secret lab. And told almost no one. And was the head researcher at Dream Factory, a company that was officially listed as a provider of “personal services” in most business listings. And had his research rejected for being, “too extreme”. So yeah, perfectly sane.
A heavy sigh escaped me as I watched the computer go about its work. The whole idea of the company was to allow customers to experience their deepest personal fantasies, and a lot of those fantasies involve being someone other than who you are. Role play is always an option, and advancements in surgery allowed for some pretty extensive changes, but even that only went so far. What about the people who wanted to change even further, or those who were curious about trying something new but didn’t want to make a potentially life long commitment they weren’t so sure about?
I hadn’t mentioned my own personal preferences when I submitted my idea to the board, so the only saving grace when they flat out rejected my idea was that they didn’t tell me my personal preferences were horrible. No profit to be had, no interest, too dangerous; the rejections were numerous and each hurt more than the last. They told me to stop wasting time on this and go back to doing whatever I did in my lab for them. The urge to tell them that these kind of ideas was WHY they hired me in the first place was second only to my urge to punch each and every member of the board square in the jaw.
Well, their loss; I had been working on this project since college. I only joined up with Dream Factory to get funding to develop my pet project that was near completion. The board’s support would’ve sped things up, allowed me to sponsor test subjects, and generally just keep me from having to experiment on myself in secret. Still, it all seemed to be worth it. Vitals were normal… blood work all coming back within acceptable ranges… everything was perfect!
“Yes!” I pumped my fist in the air as each vital statistic came up with a drink check mark. “It worked! IT WORKED!”
CRASH! CLANG!
…What the hell was that? My lab was in an abandoned diner in a run down part of town. The cryonic tube was built after I modified the diner’s freezer, and I set up the rest of my lab in the adjoining kitchen. Around me in every direction was a least a mile of abandoned buildings to act as a buffer to make sure no one would accidently stumble across me. Yet somehow, someone seemed to be poking around in the diner section outside.
I only had a pair of cameras stationed outside for security, and both feeds were coming back with, “no response” when I tried to pull them up on the computer. There was still power going to them, so the only answer that sprang to mind was that they had been damaged or destroyed(More security was starting to seem like a brilliant idea in hindsight). Hoping maybe I could convince them to leave or at least see if there was a threat to my research or my safety, I slowly made my way to the double doors that separated the kitchen from the rest of the restaurant.
“Hello?...” I called out cautiously as I poked my head out. No response other than more banging and crashing followed. I traced the source of the sound to a table near the end of the room. I could see someone moving around down there, but the darkness and distance kept me from getting a better look. With a nervous gulp and my coffee still clutched tight in my hand, I slowly crept closer.
Is that… no, it couldn’t be, but… well, whoever was under that table had a tail. That wouldn’t be so shocking if it was some wild animal, but while the rear underneath was also covered in a grey-silver fur similar to the tail, the shape of said rear looked more human than animal. The overall shape of it and the hips suggested the owner was feminine, and I had to say; it was a damn fine looking ass.
“Hello…” My tone got a little warmer and more welcoming as I continued my examination of the woman. Her legs were covered in a similar shade of fur, the muscles underneath looking firm and solid. Whoever she was, she looked like she’d gotten access to my research and turned herself into the kind of woman I was looking for. Questions about how she got that way and what she was doing here were the next questions on my mind as she crawled out from under the table and turned toward me.
She didn’t seem like she was in the mood for questions, though. Maybe it was the way she started at me with red eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dark diner. Maybe it was the way she growled like a feral beast. Or maybe it was the blood that stained her face and muzzle that told me she wasn’t much of one for conversation.
“HELLO!” That was all I managed to get out before she leapt toward me in a feral rage.