Against the Horizon - 05 - Outbreak
Chapter 5 - Outbreak
So he's the one with the hippie parents... Well, at least according to Thomas, Alex thought, looking at the snake-boy. The two of them, not wanting to be seen by indiscreet eyes, had taken refuge in the glade at the center of the small wooden area next to the library, and they were sitting on the ground... well, Alex was, at least. November was more rolled up on the ground. His transformation must've started even before mine, Alex considered. Well, at least now I know I wasn't the first one... The thought was somehow comforting. He looked at November, an expectant look on his muzzle. So... Is he gonna say something? Maybe I should break the ice. "So, um... you turned into a snake, right?" That was a really stupid thing to say. And probably offensive, too."Yeah," November replied in an almost apologetic tone. "One morning I woke up and... well, my legs were gone." He had a thin, childish voice that clashed with his current appearance. "Luckily, my dorm room was on the first floor, and I managed to slither outside the window before anyone could notice." "You mean like your roommate?" Alex asked in a casual way.The snake lowered his head and looked at the grass with his vertically-slit hazelnut eyes. "I... didn't have a roommate," a moment of silence. "Or someone who could notice I was missing, I guess."Alex scratched nervously the ground with one of his feet paws, digging parallel lines among the tender grass. Oooookay, we're entering into an awkward territory... "I'm... sorry," he said in a demure tone. Even if don't know exactly why. November shook his head. "It's not your fault, Alex. I've never been the type of person that gets easily noticed by others... Or I should probably say I wasn't, since I'm not even a person anymore." He stared at his own long body and tail with a bitter look in his reptilian irises.Alex acted totally on impulse: he got back on his feet and grabbed the snake boy in his arms. For the second time, he was surprised by how warm the bronzed scales were. "No, November, don't... don't say that. Even if we have changed, we are still us; we are still humans, even if just on the inside. And you see... I am here, I noticed you." Well, he's a fifteen feet long snake man, it would be quite impossible not to notice him, he said to himself, but luckily that part of his speech remained but a thought in his head. "I'm hugging you, even. And if you want... I'll be your friend, November. So don't say something that sad again, okay?" November brushed his scaled head against the lithe chest of the foxboy, letting out strange, liquid hisses from time to time. It took a while for the very confused Alex to understand what was going on: the snake was crying, even if no tears fell from his big, almond-shaped eyes. Alex petted his smooth back gently, unsure of what to do; the only thing he was adamant about, however, was that he was feeling sorry for November. I wanted him to feel better, just like Joss did to me before, he thought, and that simple and sudden realization filled him with a new awareness: after all, no matter how much he had changed in the past few days, he was still human and still himself, just like he had said to his mother... And the same thing was true for the snake who was crying softly between his arms. November sniffed. "Thank you... Thank you, t-thank you..." he repeated, just like before. The sinuous arms of the reptile wrapped around Alex's back, reciprocating the hug; this time, however, the fox didn't feel any fear whatsoever. "The only thing I was w-waiting for was for someone to s-say something like that..." The forked tongue slithered outside the snake's mouth a couple of times as he talked, but despite the appendage tickling the skin of his neck, Alex managed not to burst into laughter and ruin the moment. "Don't worry, I'll be here for you," he said instead, trying to mirror as he could the way Joss had cheered him up. "We can just stay here and hug, if that's what you want... Or we can talk. I'm sure you have many things to say about what happened to you, so if you want to give vent to your emotions, I am here. I will listen, and I promise I won't judge you."The snake ended the hug with extreme caution, as if the was afraid that Alex would have disappeared into thin air the moment he stopped touching him. When he realized that, indeed, the foxboy was there to stay, he sighed another time; it was painfully clear that what he wanted to say was costing him a lot of willpower. "Y-yeah... Let's talk. I think I need that." He lowered his head, and Alex could have sworn he had never seen anyone so ashamed of himself. "T-two nights ago I thought... About killing myself.""What?!" Alex exclaimed, the fur on his head standing erect for the shock. "No!" If there was one thing he had never contemplated in his entire life, not even once, it was suicide. To him it seemed like the most coward and egotistic choice a person could make. November raised his head again, an expression of deep confusion on his upturned snout. "Y-yeah...", he mumbled under his breath. "B-but thanks for that," he added, the shadow of a smile appearing on his wide mouth. "Um? For what?" It was now Alex's turn to be puzzled."For the reaction you had. Like you, you know... genuinely care for me," the snake replied in a meek voice.Okay, this calls for another hug. "Yeah. Because I do care," Alex said, encircling the body of the snake with his hands again. "I'm your friend, remember? Friends care for each other.""F-friends..." November repeated, and his tongue darted outside as if it was savoring the word the moment it passed through his mouth. "R-right, we are friends. I'm sorry, Alex, I...""No, it's alright," the foxboy replied, nodding. "And I'm sorry, too, for yelling at you like that. But I want you to know this: you are not alone. We are all on the same boat right now."November's brown eyes widened. "You mean everyone is changing? Like, in the world?" The tip of his long tail started twitching on its own accord, as if it was trying to swat some fastidious flies. Alex grinned back at him. "Well, not in the world maybe... More like in this campus. I know at least three other people who are turning into, well... Whatever exactly we are now." November opened his mouth, but Alex intercepted his question. "In case you're wondering, none of them is becoming a snake or a fox; apparently, everyone is bound to be a different animal. You're the first non-mammal I see, by the way.""Oh!" the snakeboy looked very curious and involved all of a sudden. The notion that he wasn't the one transforming into an animal man had cheered him up at least a bit; or maybe his interest on the mysterious phenomenon, now that he had found someone to talk to, was genuine. "I wonder if there's some kind of reason behind that. It can't be that we're becoming our favourite animals since I've never cared about snakes that much, and... what are your friends turning into, by the way?""A kangaroo, a lemur and a..." Alex scratched the back of his head. What was Marnie's animal called again? Oh, yeah. "An ocelot. Which is some kind of small leopard, from what I could get." "Mmh..." The black tongue of the snake slithered a couple of times outside his mouth, following the same rhythm of his breathing; he seemed lost in his thoughts, and Alex just stared at him intently: now that the foxboy was taking some time to look at his new friend, he realized that what Thomas had said that very morning was true. It sure is incredible, seeing a hybrid between a human and a snake... Although he's probably not a true reptile: when I touched him he was warm just like a person, after all. Well, except for the scales. He absent-mindedly massaged the bump at the end of his spine through the fabric of his pants: still no reaction. His tail wasn't ready - or willing - to come out yet. I bet Thomas would be very interested in talking to him... Wait, now that I think of it, I'm sure he would ask November if his penis is forked or something embarrassing. "You know, they are strange choices indeed," the hissing, nasal voice of November tore Alex from his train of thoughts. "Especially the lemur and the ocelot." "What do you mean by 'choices'?" Alex asked, a bit taken aback. That of November had been - no pun intended - a bizarre choice of words indeed.The snake crossed his arms over his chest; only in that moment the fox noticed that November, despite sporting small but visible pecs, didn't have any nipples. "Well, during these long days I had a lot of time to think about what was happening to me and why... Of course, all my previous speculations are invalid now, since they were based on the assumption that I was the only one changing."Alex looked at him with perplexed eyes. For someone who was used to not being noticed he really likes to talk! And now I'm sure he and Thomas will get along nicely. I understood like only a half of the words he had used in his last sentence... "You know, even if they may be wrong, it could still be interesting to know them. Since we don't know anything about this thing, every bit of information we can find or deduce can be important."November nodded. "Mh, you're right... Even though my hypotheses weren't that good, I'm afraid. I even thought I was the victim of some weird and previously unheard of allergic reaction!" the snake let out a nasal fit of laughter that sent unpleasant shivers down Alex's spine. "But anyway, one of my theories was that I was getting dosed with some secret chemical in order to recombine my DNA." "Um... And why should someone do something like that?" Alex asked back. "And to the students of a random US college campus?"The snakeboy shook his head. "I don't know... unfortunately, I didn't have elements to prove one theory or another but... What if this is an experiment made by the army to create super soldiers?""I'm sorry, what?" Alex replied, dumbfounded. What is he going to tell me next, that reptilians are somehow involved? The foxboy looked at his interlocutor and shrugged. Well, okay, I guess that's already true in a way.November tilted his head in a way that made him look more like a bird than a reptile. "Well, it wouldn't be that strange, right? I mean, who can have the power and the means to turn people into anthropomorphic animals?"I don't know, Dumbledore? "It's a hypothesis, yeah. I guess the only thing we can do is wait and see what happens, right?"The vertical slits in the snake's eyes narrowed. "Yeah... For some weird reason, I feel this compulsion not to leave this place. Like I have to wait until the whole thing is over before being able to go away. Does that make sense to you?" "Yep. Me and my friends talked about that yesterday... Apparently that's true for everyone, and that's why no one in the outside world still has discovered what's happening here. Even if by now I think it's a matter of days, if not hours... I mean, the two of us stayed hidden, but I highly doubt people won't notice that drunken guy with the satyr horns." Alex pricked up his pointy ears. "Um... What's that noise?""Huh?" November replied. He looked around and lowered his head with a quick, liquid gesture. "There are people with flashlights over there!" he hissed, pointing with a clawed finger in the general direction of the library."Shit," Alex murmured. He could smell the scent of three or four humans now, and could hear them murmuring and moving clumsily around. "We should go, November. Wanna come with me? My roommate knows about me, you can stay with us if you want to."The snake seemed to consider the offer for a moment, but then he shook his head. "You can move in a more inconspicuous way than me... I'd be way too noticeable." He hugged the other quickly for one last time. "I'll be hidden around here, okay? And... thank you for everything, Alex." For a moment, it looked like November was trying to decide whether or not kissing the fox, but then he slithered away with surprising speed before disappearing into the foliage of some nearby bushes. Alex stared at the group of people pointing their flashlights around the place: from the smell they emanated, they were in clear distress, fear even. I should jump out and scare them shitless, he pondered for a second. ...naah, I don't want to be an asshole. He pulled the hood of his jacket over his head again, and ran away from the place as quickly and silently as he could. He was so busy not trying to be seen by anyone, that his senses didn't even register the big, winged but clearly humanoid silhouette that took off from one of the nearby treetops and hovered over him for a couple of seconds, before flying away in complete, eerie silence.
There was something uncanny in the campus, some kind of ultrasonic hum that made Alex's ears vibrate and twitch, even if they weren't able to translate the impulse into a coherent sound... or maybe it was just acute nervousness. He would've expected to find more search parties or something like that, but he didn't stumble into no one, and less than ten minutes later he was closing the door of his room behind his furry back. Lying against the wood for a moment, the foxboy drew a long breath through his pointed muzzle. It's happening, he thought. Whatever this thing is, it's getting too big to be containable. His eyes went to Joss, who was sleeping soundly in his bed, wearing only a pair of shorts: he looked peaceful and without a thought, his broad jock face almost angelic in appearance. D-damn... He is hot, after all, Alex thought and immediately felt a pang of guilt. Oh, come on, he's straight and most of all he's my friend! Nonetheless, the fox took a step towards the sleeping guy. But what if the transformation can also change the sexual orientation of someone? Joss was so gentle, so considerate and quite hunky, even though he wasn't the brightest tool in the shed... Alex shook his pointed head, the voice of Thomas echoing in his brain. Starcross, dude, this is reality, not some stupid fanfiction, okay? People don't become gay overnight. Well, it's not like they usually become foxes or lemurs or snakes either, but whatever, the foxboy sighed. Without even realizing it, he was standing right in front of his roommate's bed; he looked down, at his plump lips disclosing with every breath. B-but maybe... I can try and kiss him? Only once? Who knows, he might even like it... The mere idea of kissing Joss made the tip of his pointed canine dick emerge from the furry sheath and press against the elastic band of his underwear; the foxboy barely suffocated a yelp: his shaft was very sensitive now, even too much... Last time he had masturbated he had cum in mere minutes; quite intense, but not particularly satisfying.C-come on, I shouldn't fantasize about Joss... It would be like betraying Iceman..., he said to himself, discarding his hoodie and jeans with almost involuntary gestures; thinking to his sexy crush, however, didn't help in the least: his erection became even more rampant, emerging from his boxers like a fleshy, blood-engorged pillar. F-fuck, why am I feeling so horny?, he whimpered internally, feeling his eyes getting watery for frustration and arousal. The idea was embarrassing, but Alex couldn't possibly deny his desire anymore: he HAD to masturbate, right there. "Damn, I... I'm sorry, Joss...", the foxboy murmured after a pitiful sigh, climbing on his bed and almost ripping off his underwear from his furry groin; nestled between his legs, shining slick because of a ray of moonlight, his new cock stood proud, still strange and alien but at the same time fascinating and - Alex gulped while realizing that - almost appetizing. I wonder... I wonder how would it feel to suck myself, he found himself thinking. After all, he was nimbler than the average human being, which meant that autofellatio was a concrete possibility... And not only that. The idea, as embarrassing as it might sound, was actually becoming more and more appealing with every passing second. "Please, Joss..." Alex prayed in a tiny whisper. "Please, don't wake up..." The naked foxboy lied on his bed, the mattress strangely cold under his furry back; he then tried to curl into a ball of sorts by bringing his feet behind his head, but his own increased flexibility surprised him so much that less than a second later he found his glistening dog penis hovering at a couple of inches from the end of his muzzle. He took a good sniff, curious about how could his new member could possibly smell: his sensitive nose was filled with an intense and pungent - but not at all unpleasant - scent. "Well... might as well try it..." Alex murmured. His pink canine tongue darted outside the muzzle and gave a tentative lick at the tapered point of his dick, and he shivered: his precum was salty and set his teeth on edge a bit... but, just like the smell, it wasn't bad at all. Before he could even realize it, his lips had opened and the cock tip had slid inside his mouth; Alex let out a small sigh of surprise, that quickly evolved into a gentle murr of pleasure. It feels... Damn, it feels really nice..., he thought; after he had gotten used to the slightly bitter taste of his own pre, he began to suck and lick the fleshy tube inside his maws with gusto, his tongue and palate massaging it and eliciting spasms of pure bliss. After a couple of minutes of experimentation, Alex started getting bolder in his sucking, at least until one of his pointed fangs scraped against the delicate surface of his dick, causing him to wince in pain. Better be careful, he thought. Well, at least this is a good practice for when I'll find myself a boyfriend... He turned his head on the right as much as he could to check on Joss, in case the obvious slurping sounds he was making had woke him up, but what he saw surprised him so much that his shaft nearly escaped from the grip of his muzzle.The body of his roommate was lit by the silvery light of the moon; his eyes were closed shut, and he was clearly still sleeping... but there was something different in his behaviour. He was shaking and stirring in his bed with a distressed look on his face and sweat dripping down his forehead, as if he was experiencing a restless dream; as he let out a short guttural noise that sounded like a bleat, one of his hands scratched his chest, right between his pecs, and buried his fingers in a large tuft of white hair. White hair that wasn't there when Alex had arrived. The idea of Joss changing in front of his own eyes sent a long shiver down his spine to his coccyx, as if the energy coming from the arousal and the excitement he was feeling was concentrating on the furry nub just above his ass. It was like everything was coming to a close at the very same time, for Alex: his change, the acceptance of what he was becoming, and the idea that the world around him was never going to be the same... The end of a chapter in his life, something that was apparently going to be sanctioned by a self-blowjob and the sprouting of a fox tail, as strange, silly or downright dirty that might sound.The foxboy kept sucking his own dick, the musky taste of his pre spurted from time to time on his tongue sending his taste bud, his brain, his entire body in an intoxicating frenzy. His mind was torn: he really wanted to orgasm, to taste his own cum for the first time in his life; but he also wanted that moment to last as much as possible. It was weird, it was embarrassing and there was the concrete chance that Joss would have woken up before he had finished... and that, in fact, was making Alex feel even more aroused: the possibility of being discovered while performing such a lewd act was like fuel for his horniness. Alex turned on the right for a second time: the fur over Joss' chest had spread some more, reaching his nipples and encircling them as if they were twin islands in a sea of white. Even his head looked weird, with a pair of bumps pressing from under the skin of his forehead: whatever beast his roommate was becoming, he would have ended up having a set of horns.More than the fur, that was what finally made Alex realize, through the fog that clouded his brain, that Joss had really begun to change, and that soon the two of them would've been equal... well, except for the species. That very idea made the foxboy walk another step upwards the metaphorical stairs leading to the climax, and the following sensation made him stop his blowing for some moments and cock his muzzle in confusion: something weird was happening to his dick, something that could have never happened when he was a human... Alex rose a trembling hand and touched the base of his freshly-changed penis, where the flesh emerged from the furred sheath: a pair of small egg-shaped glands had inflated under the flesh, hard and sensitive. That's... a knot! My first knot!, Alex realized before the waves preceding the orgasm washed away every semblance of thought from his brain, leaving only need and feverish desire behind. With an animalistic groan, the foxboy multiplied his efforts in making himself cum, sucking and slurping as if his life depended on that. He could feel the bump at the end of his spine burning and pulsing and growing - albeit at a snail's pace - and somehow inside of him he knew that once he had managed to reach the climax, he would have felt... complete. Complete and happy.The appearance of the knot had increased the sensitivity of his dick tenfold, and so less than a minute later Alex could feel it throbbing in his mouth while his brown eyes rolled in the back of his head. His ball, down in their wrinkly sack, churned, and a veritable stream of hot sticky substance invaded his mouth as if he was being sprayed by a hose; the foxboy coughed and sputtered, feeling the intense and savory taste of his cum obliterating his taste buds and clogging his trachea... But before he could yelp in surprise, the pain bloomed white right above his ass crack, expanding like a localized explosion. It indeed hurt, but only for a moment: the bump - much like an organic party cracker - burst out, splattering a modest quantity of blood on the bed sheets; the energy gathered there was converted into matter through some unknown means, and in the span of an instant a big, furry four-feet long tail snaked its way into the world, still a bit soggy but magnificent, exactly how Alex had kept picturing it during the past few days: luscious and soft, with bright orange fur and a black and white tip. As his dick kept squirting more and more stringy cum - albeit in progressively smaller quantity - Alex wagged his new appendage in dumb happiness, finally feeling a real foxboy. Half a minute later, the orgasm had finally subsided and had been replaced by a warm and fulfilling sensation of afterglow. Alex licked his black lips and let out a small and satisfied burp, enjoying the strange aftertaste the cum had left on his tongue after he had gulped all of it down, a slightly spicy quality that made his whole mouth tingle. His shaft, now finally appeased, had retreated back into his sheath, and Alex now felt content and sleepy. The foxboy crawled under the bed sheets - not caring at all about the droplets of blood drying on the light blue cloth - and stared at Joss one last time: the frat boy looked at peace now, the rhythm of his snores more regular, and even though the bumps on his forehead looked rather pointy and ready to break through his skin any minute, he didn't look like he was in pain. Alex smiled and hugged his own tail, smelling it and feeling it tickle his own pointy nose. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, and how the rest of my life is going to be, he thought, closing his eyes and resting his head on the pillow. But right now... I'm happy. And that's everything that counts. His body relaxed, his still tensed muscles loosened up.Before he could realize it, Alex had fallen into a dreamless sleep, dark and warm and peaceful.
The morning after the completion of his change, Alex Starcross was lying on his bed and petting his luscious tail with mechanical gestures, enveloped in the golden light pouring from the window and wearing only a pair of denim shorts he had summarily created a hole into for his hew appendage with his claws. Now that he was an anthro-fox through and through, he felt better and more uplifted than he had been in days. At least now I know who I am... Well, kind of, he pondered, toying with the snow-white point of his new fluffy appendage. I'm not something in between, whatever I have become will be my new me from now on. The thought was of course a bit scaring, but also somewhat comforting. Well, it's not like I can do anything about this... The door of the room burst open, and Alex let out a surprised, high-pitched yip before rolling down the bed and hiding behind the mattress. "Starcross, the hell are you doing?" A familiar voice groaned from the threshold. "Thomas, for fuck's sake!" Alex exclaimed, emerging from behind the bed after he was sure his friend had closed the door behind him. "You scared me to death!""Well, don't leave the door open next time, then," the blond-haired nerd replied in a matter-of-fact tone. He was carrying around a black duffel bag and - to Alex's dismay - his tail was hanging freely outside the back of his pants, and he likewise wasn't doing anything to hide his black claws and the light grey fur creeping up his arms, nor the fact that his eyes had apparently turned golden yellow in the span of one night. "Even though, I mean, it's not like you have to react that way anymore...""What do you mean?" Alex replied, still wary. Thomas, in the meantime, was unzipping the duffel bag and fishing out his video camera and a small tablet. "Tonight, someone uploaded a series of videos on Youtube about... well, you can see by yourself." The young man tapped a couple of times on the screen of his handheld device, and some confusing, grainy footage started playing: the quality was abysmal, but the drunken hipster sporting an impressive set of black, curved horns was clearly visible while he dawdled down one of the campus' walkways. "This is the most viewed one... More than seven hundred thousand clicks in the first two hours. We are over two million views right now," Thomas' voice didn't sound overly preoccupied... More like anxious, as if he was in trepidation. "There are many others, though. One is labelled 'OMG THE MOTHMAN!!!1!' and features something big flying against the night sky..." He sneered. "Yeah, Mothman my ass, those are clearly avian wings.""You mean that... Now everyone knows what's happening here?" Alex asked in a thin voice. His thoughts immediately went to his mother, and he could feel his stomach hardening into a spiked boulder. Thomas sighed. "Well... It was inevitable, considering the range of the phenomenon. I mean, this is not about just you turning into a fox guy... whatever this thing is, it's affecting thousands of people here on the campus. And before you ask yes, all those videos are coming from here: if something like this is happening elsewhere in the world, there's no way to know for now. We're probably going to be the headline for the news around the world for the next few months, I think... That's why I brought my baby with me," and he tapped over the slick, black plastic shell of his camera. "Huh?" Alex was confused. "You mean you want to shoot one of your vlogs here?""Vlogs? Nah. I scrapped that idea, too boring," he tucked an unruly strand of hair behind a suspiciously pointed ear. "No, now that you finally had the decency to sprout your own tail - great job, by the way, will look perfect on film - I have something waaaaaaay better in mind." Thomas looked around, with the expression of someone who had just realized something important was missing. "Come to think of it, where's the Homo Erectus?" Alex pointed a thumb towards the bathroom door, from where a faint pouring of water could be heard. "Taking a shower. And don't call him like that, it's rude."Thomas raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say 'whatever'. "Has he started changing, too?"The foxboy diverted his glance, grateful that the fur on his face could cover his reddening cheeks. "Y-yeah. You'll see it as soon as he comes out... You need him too, for that video?""Mh? No, no. I just want you to do something for me, okay?" Thomas turned his camera on and pointed it towards his friend. "It will only take a couple of minutes, and I can guarantee you we'll get millions of views on Youtube." "Dude, I don't..." Alex shook his head. "Okay, whatever, you won't stop pestering me anyway if I don't do that. So? What do I have to do?""It's very easy... Just spread your legs a bit.""Like this?""A little bit more. Okay, perfect. Now turn your chest to the right... Yeah, like that. Maybe it's a bit too much right now... Yeah, that's perfect.""Care to explain what exactly am I doing, Thomas?""Later, later. No need to waste time now," the blond-haired boy blurted out with a peeved gesture of his free hand. "Now raise your arms... No, not that way, you're not trying to catch birds. Keep them on the side of your body, with your elbows bent... Okay, that's great. Oh, and close your hands into fists, but keep them a bit limp.""I still don't know what..." Alex tried to protest, but it was all in vain."Okay, now there's just one more thing you have to do..." Thomas interrupted him, looking at him through the lens of his video camera. "You have to tell me 'What does the fox say?'." A long, tense moment of silence followed. "Come on, Starcross, I'm waiting. The soon we have the video, the soon we can turn you into the next viral sensation." The foxboy crossed his arms on his chest. "I'm not gonna be doing that, Thomas."The nerd stared back at him with puppy golden eyes. "But why? Do you have any idea how famous will you become?" The fox scowled. "If the truth about the campus is exposed, we'll become famous anyway, right? Also, that song is stupid and doesn't apply to me in the least: I don't have blue eyes, I don't dig holes, least of all I chase mice, and I'm sure that I'd be able to communicate with any horse I may meet around the campus without using Morse code," Alex actually counted on his padded fingertips all the inconsistencies. Thomas seemed smitten by those words. "Oh, yeah... Well, it can't be helped. I have to revert to my original plan after all. You really suck as a friend, Starcross.""You're welcome," the fox replied in an equally dry tone. "And what was your original plan anyway?""Find a horse guy and make him sing 'Look at my horse, my horse is amazing', obviously.""Hey!" an alarmed shout came from behind the closed bathroom door. The sound of the shower had stopped a couple minutes prior, but the other two occupants of the room hadn't realized that. "Facebook disappeared! It's, like... completely gone!" "You mean Zuckerberg has accidentally pressed 'Delete' on his keyboard, Joss?" Thomas replied with a wry smile on his face."Come on, dude, stop being such a smartass with him," Alex reprimanded him. "He doesn't deserve to be treated like that."The bespectacled boy lowered his eyes on the floor. "Sometimes I really don't understand you, Starcross," he murmured. "Sorry, Joss, I didn't mean to!" He then added at a higher tone of voice."You didn't mean to do what?" Joss replied on the other side of the door. "Oh, by the way, good morning, Thomas! What brings you here, dude?""Wanted to do a video with Starcross, but he's uncooperative. Why don't you come out of the bathroom so I can see how do you look like?""Yeah, of course, dude! Just gimme a sec..." The frat boy unlocked the door and stepped outside the bathroom, dressed only with his bathrobe, his cellphone clutched in his beefy hand. "By the way, you're good with electronic stuff, right? Can you try to find out why has Facebook disappeared?"The first stage of Joss' transformation was weird, considering how the change had progressed for everyone else Alex knew about: instead of a random part of his body being completely converted, it was like his whole body was slowly conforming to his new shape. He looked a bit taller and more muscled, with a fuzzy carpet of white hair all over his chest and the lower part of his limbs, like a pair of furred gloves and boots. His nails were darker and thicker, like tiny hooves, and his face was oddly elongated, with bigger and more prominent nostrils. Despite this he still looked passably handsome, even if in a different and almost alien way, an impression magnified by his forehead, where the small bumps had punctured his skin and were developing into proper horns. "Kinda wicked, huh?" he said with a big smile, pointing a finger at himself. "Those things are very itchy, though..." he started rubbing one of his horn stubs with a slightly uncomfortable expression. "Oreamnos Americanus, I'd say," Thomas murmured while nodding."I beg your pardon?" Alex looked at him, flicking his ears instinctively in an inquisitive gesture."Mountain goat. That's what I think Joss is turning into. Well, it's just a hypothesis, but..." "You said it's something American, right?" Joss interrupted him. "Yeah, I'm okay with that. It sounds like, y'know, patriotic and stuff."Thomas furrowed his brow. "You know, I really have no idea how to interpret your thought processes. Well, in the case you actually have any, I mean." His golden eyes shifted to Alex, who was on the verge of replying. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I should stop being a smartass with him. Sorry about that." He then turned towards Joss again. "Come on, show me your phone, goat man."The frat boy gave his smartphone to Thomas, whose fingers - despite now being tipped with claws - moved with inhuman speed on the touchscreen. "Are you sure you didn't turn the WiFi off by mistake?"Joss scratched the skin around one of his horns. "To be honest, Thomas, I don't know anything about that kind of stuff...So maybe?" He lowered his eyes, looking a bit guilty. "I'm sorry I am so stupid, man... No wonder you don't like me." Thomas stopped focusing on the cell phone; all of a sudden, he seemed troubled. "What do you mean, I don't like you?" he repeated. "Yeah, sure, I think you're an idiot, but that doesn't mean you're not a good guy, Joss. You're clearly gentle and kind, and your childhood naiveté is almost refreshing... Not to mention the fact that you're able to live in the same room with Starcross, which is no easy feat.""Hey, you know I'm here, right?" Alex asked in a nonchalant tone."Of course I know, I still have peripheral vision," Thomas replied. "But, you see, Joss... That's simply how I interact with the people I care about." He teased his chin with a clawed finger, a pensive look on his face. "Guess I really am a smartass, after all..."Joss didn't reply: instead, he just hugged Thomas, a big smile on his face. "Dude, I'm so happy!" he exclaimed while exposing teeth that looked squarer and flatter than those of a normal human. "I was sure that you hated me, y'know!"Thomas tried to wiggle out of the hug. "Yeah, we are friends, but... Let's never do something like that again, okay? I could totally feel your package through the bathrobe." He focused back again on the smartphone, but the fact that his cheeks were a bit flushed didn't escape Alex. "Um... Everything seems fine, except for the fact that there's no connection." He grabbed his tablet, and his perplexed expression intensified. "Weird... That worked perfectly just some minutes ago. Check your laptop, Starcross." The foxboy, however, had already darted towards his PC. "The campus' WiFi... It's gone!" he exclaimed; he was starting to feel uncomfortable, a cold sensation of anxiety slithering through his veins towards his heart. "Try and call someone!" he shouted to his two friends.Thomas shook his head while staring at the screen of Joss' smartphone. "It's useless, Starcross... There's no line.""Do you think it has something to do with, like, what's happening to us?" Joss asked; his broad face was a mask of confusion. "We... we have to do something!" Alex almost yelped in a pained tone. "My mom, she... she will be so worried! And your families, too!" Behind his back, his tail twitched and swished through the air like a furry, unquiet whip; he tried to bite his nails, but with his new fangs and claws the only thing he got was a sudden jolt of pain."Come on, guys, calm down!" Thomas put his tablet and his camera back into his duffel bag; of the three of them, he looked like the only one able not to give in to panic. "Joss, put some clothes on. Starcross, bring your laptop with you. Maybe it's just a temporary disservice, but we have to be ready in case it's something worse." "Something worse?" Joss repeated with painful slowness. "Like what?"Thomas pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I don't know, but I'm sure as hell going to find out."
The sun shone over the campus, enveloping everything with warm, gentle rays of light; despite it being one of the most perfect days of spring the world had even seen, though, the atmosphere of the place was disquieting, if not outright creepy: those who were walking around - be them still human or already transforming - wandered aimlessly up and down the paths like zombies, their faces tense and their eyes heavy and unfocused.No more secrets now..., Alex thought while staring at the guy walking in front of them: he was a heavy-set young man with broad shoulders and a long, furry and ropey dark grey tail emerging from the edge of his khaki pants. I wonder how the world is going to react to all this... The big tailed guy bumped into a bespectacled girl that still looked like a normal human being - expect for her wildly colored hair that looked like a rainbow cascade of feathers - and both of them jerked as if they had been hit by a jolt of electricity. "Where are we going, exactly?" Joss asked. Since the only major changes he had experienced so far were his horn stubs, his old clothes still fitted perfectly, although the white fur covering parts of his body made him look like a contemporary satyr. Thomas cleared his throat. "Well, since our cell phones are useless, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try the landlines, too. There's a still functioning phone box down this road... Of course, no one uses it anymore now that everyone and their grandmas have cell phones; well, apart from drunken frat boys using it as a pisshole..." he added with a grimace of disgust."Oh, yeah! I remember that place! Two weeks ago I..." Joss exclaimed, but his voice waned and faded after Thomas had glared at him with a killer stare.The phone box indeed looked old and neglected, the bright red painting partially scraped off revealing the metal underneath; the moment Thomas opened the small door of the booth, Alex yelped in revulsion at the intense, acrid smell of urine offending his nose. The blond nerd stepped inside and picked up the receiver. "Nothing," he murmured in a dejected tone while hanging up again. "Maybe it's simply out of order?" Alex asked, clinging to a small but ever decreasing figment of hope. Joss patted on his shoulder with his white furred hand and gave him a small smile to cheer him up at least a bit."Maybe," Thomas replied. He closed the phone booth's door behind him and wrinkled his nose: even if his sense of smell was still that of a human, the stink inside there was horrible anyway. "But there are still other phones in the campus. We should go and find the others first, though... Since we can't communicate via cell phones, it's better to stick together, and..."The sentence was cut short but a high-pitched shriek: the girl with the multicolored feather-hair had taken refuge behind a tree as a fifteen feet long snake slithered in front of her with a guilty and embarrassed look on his upturned muzzle; when the reptile saw the three people standing next to the phone box, though, his almond-shaped eyes sparkled. "Alex!" he shouted, crawling rapidly towards the fox."Oh, hey, November!" Alex replied in a sheepish tone, while Thomas and Joss stared at him dumb-founded. "Yeah, I still haven't told you about him, right? This is November Raines. He's the snake boy that friend of yours saw during the latest party." "She's not my friend, just some crazy chick," the frat boy replied. He then stretched a furred hand towards the snake. "Nice to meet you, dude. Name's Joss.""N-November," the snake replied, his eyes now low and full of doubt. He seemed quite uncomfortable, but shook Joss' hand either way."And he's Thomas, by the way," Alex hurriedly added, pushing his friend forward. "I'm sure you'll get along great!""I see you finished your change!" November exclaimed; apparently, focusing his attention on Alex made him way more talkative. "A-and what are your friends becoming?""I'm a ring-tailed lemur," Thomas replied. He was eyeing November with clear suspicion in his eyes, especially after Alex had said that he was sure they would've gotten along. "And Joss here...""Wait, I think I remember..." the frat boy's forehead burrowed between his short black horns. "An American Oreo, right?"A moment of silence. "...yeah. That's right. You're turning into a cookie," Thomas replied, deadpan."I'm so glad I found a familiar face!" November exclaimed. Alex smirked, since he knew - at least from what the snake had told him the night before - that he was the only familiar face for him. "The day is now 20% cooler!" "...wait," Thomas' tail stiffened; it looked like an oversized pipe cleaner. "Please, don't tell me you're a brony..."The snake gave him an annoyed look. "Huh? So what?" For the first time since Alex had met him, November looked outright hostile towards someone."You bronies give me the creeps... And anyway, Adventure Time is way better!""Yeah, if you're on LSD, maybe!"November and Thomas both turned towards Alex at the same time, their eyes burning with the same fanatic flame. "You have to choose, Starcross!" the latter roared."Yeah, you can't be friend with both of us! It's impossible!" the snake piled it on, his forked tongue darting in and out his muzzle to punctuate his speech.Luckily, the crisis was averted when Joss placed his hands on Thomas and November's shoulders and looked at them with a big smile on his face. "Come on, guys, stop fighting!" he exclaimed in a happy tone, but Alex noticed that his fingers were squeezing tighter and tighter. "You're making my buddy Alex uncomfortable, y'know."November gulped. "I... I'm s-sorry..." he hissed in a meek tone. "Y-yeah, me too..." Thomas squirmed, trying to escape the iron grip without much success. "Could you... Could you let me go now, Joss?""Sure thing!" The snake and the nerd exchanged a rancorous glance, but decided to bury the fanboy hatchet... at least for the moment.
When the quartet walked into Helena and Marnie's room, they found that Derek was already there, too. "Hey!" the Latino boy exclaimed, waving a hand. "I went to your room and didn't find anyone," he explained as November introduced himself to the girls (neither of them, luckily, had the same reaction the bespectacled young man had had some minutes before... although Helena did seem a bit wary at first). "So I came here and wait for you, since my cell phone is dead.""Yours, too?" Alex whimpered with a pitiful voice; his mind went to his mother, wondering if she had seen the videos on Youtube and whether or not she had tried to reach for him to no avail. "Everyone's, apparently," Derek sighed.The foxboy walked closer and patted him on the shoulder. "Are you feeling a bit better, Derek?" he asked in a concerned tone. "Yesterday you were very, um... well..." Derek nodded. "Yeah, I know... Sorry for making you worry, guys. It still isn't... That easy for me to accept all of this as it is for all of you, apparently. Last night, if it weren't for Tom, I would've surely drunk until I passed out." He chuckled nervously. "Well, at least I still haven't started changing, and neither is Helena. Maybe some of us are just immune?""Maybe," Alex replied, more because he wanted to cheer up his friend than because he really believed that to be true. Thomas, in the meantime, was checking the girls' cell phones with no avail. "What the hell is happening here?" he snorted, gritting his pointy teeth. "This is seriously getting on my nerves..." Alex noticed that the corners of his mouth were twitching, and even his fingers contracted and jerked from time to time. "We have to solve this problem, stat!" "Why is he so nervous?" November asked to Alex. "He looks like a shrew mouse that hasn't eaten in three hours..."The fox turned around and looked at the snake with wide eyes. "That's a strange and oddly specific metaphor..." "Truth is," Derek intervened, having finally regained some semblance of his trademark charming smile. "He's suffering from AIW.""AIW?" November repeated, cocking his upturned snout in confusion."Acute Internet Withdrawal," the Latino boy explained with a wider grin. "That's what happens to Tom when he cannot go on Twitter and spew some acid over the world at large in 140 characters or less.""Like that time they shut down the WiFi for maintenance two days straight, right?" Helena reminisced with an amused smile. "He was so nervous he looked ready to kill someone if that could have given him his Internet back!""Hey! I'm not THAT addicted!" Thomas protested, his ringed tail puffed up and upright. "Really? You were doing pretty strange shit that time!" Alex teased him, a huge grin on his triangular muzzle. "Didn't you start yelling at the clouds at some point?""Oh, and that's nothing!" Derek intervened. "The morning of the second day, I caught him in the bathroom lip-synching 'Eternal Flame' by the Bangles while using a shampoo bottle as a microphone." "H-hey!" the ears of Thomas were now of an interesting shade of crimson. "That song just gets me in the right mood, okay?""In the right mood for what?" Helena asked, before her expression turned a little disgusted. "...no, wait, I don't want to know"."Hey, I wasn't talking about masturbation!""You're giving us waaaay too much information, Thomas," Marnie said, jumping from her bed and crossing her room with the swagger of a top model on a cat walk, a thin speckled tail waving behind her with grace. The girl grabbed a remote control from her desk and jumped back on the bed next to Helena. "Let's see what's on TV," she added."Huh? Why?" November asked, his tongue slithering out of his mouth in confusion. Marnie shifted her enigmatic golden gaze on him. "Because right now it's our only way to know what's happening out there, apparently," she replied in her usual distant tone. "I don't know about you, but I'm curious about how the world will react to what's going on here.""Oh. Y-yeah..." the snake lowered his muzzle. "Sorry, I didn't want to..." The ocelot girl patted a hand on her legs. "Come and put your head here. I want to see if you like getting scratched," she said in a dreamy and detached tone, despite the fact that the words sounded very much like an order; November, however, didn't complain: he rolled up his long body on the floor and lowered his torso to rest his crossed arms on the mattress and his elongated muzzle on Marnie's knee. She started petting and massaging the speckled scales, and November exhaled a sigh of contentedness, his tongue darting in and out.Wow, Marnie managed to tame him in a second! She's really, well... incomprehensible, Alex thought; the fox then turned towards Helena. "Try the CNN. Maybe they're saying something about what's happening here."The moment the girl switched channel, though, the room fell into silence except for the sounds coming from the TV. "That's... that's our campus, right?" Joss asked, even if it was clear that the aerial view - judging from the shaky cam and the sound of the blades cutting through the air, it was taken from a helicopter - showed the square, white buildings that were so familiar for the seven students gathered in the room. The two words "Breaking News", written in all caps in a corner of the screen, felt as heavy as boulders. "They already sent a helicopter? That's..." Derek murmured, staring at the small TV with a hand over his mouth in mild shock. When the helicopter took a sudden turn on the left, though, the words withered and died in his mouth, leaving only a chocked gurgle behind.What was on the screen seemed preposterous, absurd, downright impossible... and yet it was there, in front of their very eyes. "They didn't send just a helicopter," Thomas whispered under his breath. "They sent the fucking army."