Chapter 11: Lost

Perspective: Daniel

There was a palpable tension as they brought the next test subject into the room. He was a young fox anthro with fiery orange fur who reminded me a bit of Eddie except for his blue eyes, which were full of a cautious optimism. I knew that look; It was the same look I'd seen in the mirror on the day I'd changed, the last day I saw my human face.

The fox's name was Windsor, one of the more unfortunate victims of the first strain whose transformation had left him crippled. During the shift, which apparently took days, his spine had been pushed out of place and left him paralyzed from the waist down. Because of this, he entered the quarantine room via wheelchair. If things went right, he would be able to leave on foot.

"Ready?" I asked, remembering this as the one word Eddie had said to me before I became patient zero of the second strain.

"Like you wouldn't believe." he said. I cracked a smirk at this, wishing I'd had the wit to say something as snappy as that before I transformed.

I nodded and reached out, placing my hand on his arm and allowing the virus that ran through me to transfer to him. The touch was really just for assurance; It was likely the virus had already transferred when I got close enough to breathe on him.

"Feel anything, Win?" I heard Eddie ask through the room's intercom.

"Not really, I—" The fox paused mid-sentence and looked down, wiggling his toes.

Then it hit me.

"Holy shit…" Windsor muttered under his breath. He pushed himself up off of his chair, standing strong. He didn't even stumble.

"Holy shit." I said, grinning.

He whooped and high-fived me, both of us laughing—along with the cheers I could hear coming from the observation room. I glanced up toward the thick glass pane separating us from the science team and saw them high-fiving as well, followed by Eddie and Jess hugging tightly.

——

It was another two and a half weeks before they finally released me from quarantine, when I was confirmed to be no longer contagious. In that time, the US government had released a vaccine against the first strain, but couldn't do anything about those who were already infected. There were still hundreds of thousands of furries who were left unchanged, and millions of non-furries who had been changed against their will. Hopefully, the second strain would fix things, but it was in the middle of an exhaustive series of clinical trials, with weeks more to go before we could even consider releasing it into the public.

I tried to take things slowly; It was intense to rejoin the others after weeks alone. The quarantine room had been quiet and solitary. Now, back in society again, I would have to readapt to the cacophony of everyday life. It was also odd hearing about the outside world as well. The FSF base of operations was relatively isolated from the rest of the world, so I hadn't been as inundated with news from the rest of the world. Strangely, this had made me feel better, almost lighter, like I had peace of mind. But then maybe it was just my transformation.

It was exactly like Gordon had said; I could see and hear and smell so much more now. I saw every thread that made up my favorite hoodie, caught its familiar smell from across the room. I could smell the plasticky scent of the FSF members' body armor, caught their sweat in clouds whenever I went near them. I could tell what they had eaten for lunch by their breath, even hours afterward. I smelled the gunmetal of their weapons, a metallic scent like that of pennies, but also the weapon oil that greased their moving parts and the gunpowder beneath. Before long, I learned to literally smell if a gun was loaded or not, scenting the copper bullet inside the chamber, separating its smell from the rest of the gun. Opening the door to the shooting range issued an invisible cloud of gun smoke, a palpable scent that hit me like a wall, and the guns were deafening—actually literally deafening—a sound that left my ears ringing. They had been loud before, but now the sound of gunshots was like an instant migraine, a bang that rocked my world.

This was the first time I finally got to experience the specially designed ear protection used by Gordon and the other anthros. Hell, even humans needed ear protection in a shooting range, but it wasn't nearly as advanced or finely-tuned as this. The small conical ear pieces fit snugly into my ears, though it took a second to get it in the right position, as I wasn't used to my new ear canals.

"They work like military grade noise-canceling headphones." Gordon said, pointing to his own ears.

"They catch any particularly loud sound, then reverse the wavelength and play it back so that it, well, cancels out."

"That's why I can hear you but not the gunshots." I concluded. Gordon nodded.

"It's pretty advanced to be this small, too." he said. "Our engineering team works real wonders."

"And those bulletproof vests you guys wear?" I asked. "I'd imagine they get pretty stuffy."

"Ah." he said. "Military grade coolant systems embedded under the protective outer layer."

"Cool." I said.

One of the first things I had noticed was the change in my voice. Somehow, it was just how I had always imagined my fursona's voice would sound, not too different from my own voice in terms of general accent and dialect, but at the same time distinctly different. My new voice was that much deeper in tone, to the point I could even sound commanding if I wanted to.

There was a change in character, too. There were psychological effects to my transformation; I felt bolder than I'd ever been. I was more confident and comfortable in fur than I had ever been in my skin, like I was really, finally myself. I'd thought about asking Eddie whether this was in fact biological, some kind of neurological shift caused by the virus itself, or if this was simply a subconscious response to my transformation, but I hadn't gotten around to it. He and the rest of the team had been extremely busy ever since the trial phase started.

——

The others had planned a party to celebrate the initial success of the second virus and they'd kindly waited for me to get out of quarantine to throw it. I entered the mess hall to find the celebrations in full swing, the scent of various snack foods and different types of alcohol meeting my nose before I entered the room. It wasn't like a birthday party, more like a simple get together. The sound of the conversation was a bit intense and I had to focus to tune out the louder and rowdier partiers. Then I caught a voice I recognized.

"I'm surprised at how well the tests have been going." Eddie was saying across the room. I saw him leaned against a wall next to Jess.

"I know," she replied, tail swishing behind her idly, "I'm almost… waiting for things to go wrong."

"Hey, come on. It's not gonna happen." Eddie said gently. "We're prepared for any scenario. Murphy's Law ain't gonna catch up to us."

"That's the first time you've ever used the word 'ain't' isn't it?" she giggled.

"Maybe." he said, pushing her playfully.

I saw him glance toward the floor and a tension permeated the room, one the other partygoers were oblivious to.

"Actually, Jess, there's… something I've been meaning to tell you." he said.

Suddenly, I was very aware that I was eavesdropping. Not that I'd been doing it on purpose, but my new powers of superhuman hearing were exciting and I'd jumped at the chance to try them out. I was still across the room, but I could swear I could hear his heartbeat. Maybe it was just mine.

"I… uh… I actually put together a simulation that tracks viral outbreaks." Eddie stammered. "So that way if something does happen, we'll know how to handle it."

"Oh." Jess said. "I thought you were about to say something else."

"Something… like what?" Eddie asked.

"I thought you were going to tell me there was a problem with one of the tests!" she chuckled. This time, she was the one to punch him playfully on the arm. He gave a painfully nervous laugh in response. I'd planned on avoiding everyone for most of the party, but I decided that saving Eddie from this terribly awkward conversation was an imperative.

"Hey, guys." I said as I walked over.

"Daniel, hi!" Eddie said, obviously grateful for a chance to change the subject. "Glad to be out of quarantine?"

"Oh, yeah." I chuckled. "I mean usually I'm kind of a shut in, but even I can only be cooped up for so long."

"You and Gordon seem to be getting along." Jess noted. "Have you found anyone your age around here?"

"Well, most people are at least a year or two older than me." I said. "But it's fine. I feel like I fit in here."

I saw Eddie glance around the room with a faint smile, like he was only just realizing the same thing. We conversed lightly for a few minutes before someone entered the room—someone panicked. I caught the smell of sweat and heard his hammering heartbeat before the jackal anthro walked over to our group.

"Did you guys hear what happened? The AFA grabbed Gordon." he said.

My heart stopped.

"What?" I blurted.

"He was on a stealth mission, a recon op, to gather intel on an AFA base. He's MIA."