Love Knows No Bounds - A Morning Suprise
The sun's rays peeked through the blinds and alighted on the face of a small boy. He opened his eyes and blinked before yawing and lazily stretching his arms out. His cat, Matilda, was always there at the edge of the bed every morning. "Good morning, Matilda" he said to his cat. "Good morning, Zeke" she replied. Startled by this response, Zeke fell out of his bed, bumping his head against the wall. ‘For a dream, this seems strangely realistic' he thought to himself, before a movement caught his eye. He saw a tail swishing lazily beside him, and when he looked down, he was amazed at what he saw. His body was covered in thick fur, a cobalt black for most of his body, but a metallic blue on his chest that shimmered in the sunlight. He was 5'10", 128 pounds, and of slightly more than average build. His eyes were an orange-green color and he could see every corner of his room clearly, despite the darkness of his unlit room. When he took all this in, he fainted. * * *
2014
A TV screen flickers in the corner of a New York apartment. It's small, but very clear. Nowadays, everyone has a dish and an HDTV. Channel 21 news is back on, after what seemed like a lifetime of commercials. WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING NEWS BULLETIN the television speakers blare. THERE HAVE BEEN 2 MORE CASES OF THE STRANGE DISEASE EXPERTS ARE CALLING ‘ZOOMAAD'. ZOOMorphic Animal Autoimmune Disease â€" or ZOOMAAD for short, had been transforming people into furs. They went to bed as a human and when they woke up, they had changed completely. THOUGH THE NUMBER OF REPORTED CASES SEEMS TO BE WINDING COWN TO ZERO, WE ADVISE YOU USE CAUTION UNTIL SCIENTISTS HAVE FOUND A CURE. The government, however, had their own cure. They gathered all the furs up and shipped them off to fight in the war, thinking they would all be dead soon. Instead, the furs were found to be quicker, stronger, and more determined than the regular soldiers. This marked a turning point in US history, as the government began to pump large amounts of chemicals into water supplies across the nation, hoping for the same results as the lab tests showed. Spared from this were the upper class, who mainly imported expensive waters from exotic places such as Fiji and New Zealand. Eventually, with no cases of people becoming furs, the government stopped polluting the waterways of the nation and focused on new things, such as radioactive grenades, that might help them in wars. * * *
2019
A MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT IS HAPPENING ACROSS AMERICA IN THE FORM OF A DISEASE KNOWN AS ‘ZOOMAAD'. NEW CASES ARE POPPING UP EVERYWHERE. IT SEEMS THAT, INSTEAD OF BEING CURED, THIS DISEASE WAS LAYING DORMANT INSIDE PEOPLE FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS. A RECENT OUTBREAK OF INFLUENZA SEEMED TO HAVE TRIGGERED THE DISEASE, WHICH HAD NO PROBLEM INFECTING PEOPLE WITH THEIR IMMUNE SYSTEMS ALREADY WEAKEND. And so it began. All across the US, people were becoming furs. As much as 20% of the population became furs, but many who could not provide health care (for the disease initially caused great harm to the body) died and most of the furs were shipped off to war after war. Eventually, new cases stopped appearing and life returned to normal for most people, with the exception of a fur here and there. At least this took care of one of the government's problems. Most of the homeless were wiped out by the disease and poverty levels were at an all-time low. Army recruiting was also seeing a considerable high, since many of the furs ran away from their homes so they wouldn't disgrace the family. There were many cases of brutality against furs, but these became sparse as everyone gradually integrated back into society. As far as a cure, information "leaked" from government agencies that one was being tested even as the country woke each morning, but inside the White House, "A cure?! Why the hell would we make a cure when these furs are so much better at fighting?!" After a few months, people stopped talking about the subject, since they had already been through too many false promises already. Life went on as normal. 3 MONTHS LATER... Zeke came to after blacking out on the ground. Something was tickling his face, and once he opened his eyes, he could see it was his tail. He knew that people were still becoming furs, but he never thought he could be one. He knew how people were affected by the disease depended on the person's body and the things around him, and living with a cat must have caused this specific change to happen to him. Soon, shock turned into bewilderment, with curiosity soon following. Zeke wanted to see what he could do. He began thinking, but his concentration was lost as he began to glow a dull yellow color. His body and appendages shrunk down and he found himself to have become a cat. He realized this must be one of his powers, and sure enough, he changed back to his anthro form as soon as he thought about it. After testing a few things out, he found he had better balance, was stealthier, quieter, and much quicker than he was previously. ‘This might not be as bad as I thought' he said in his mind. Explaining to his parents....that would be another thing.