[Vfw-times] plans

[Daniel Fahl]

Plans

 Seattle. In one word it explains to just about everyone
what you think when you
say a riches to rags story. This city used to be very rich.
Then came along Doctor
Elias Krushtev. He got the world into a frenzy with his
little DNA booths. A large
number of people went to them.

 They were people looking to intimidate others, looking for
a quick high, the idiots,
the crazies, but the biggest group of them were teenagers.
Teenagers trying to rebel in all
new all different ways. Besides what was the harm of having
your DNA merged with
that of animals. So what if you came out as a animal man, or
as the media termed it
morph(from the word anthropomorphic meaning to give human
characteristics to
something actually that athropomorphiszim but hey I’m no
English grad). In fact for a
very short time it was a real rage and considered cool. Some
of the weirdest trends are
considered cool aren’t they?

 Then the government cam along and really cracked down on
them. Or rather they
cracked down on the booths. They raised all sorts of
restrictions and junk against them
eventually declaring them illegal. The entire world followed
suit with those laws.
 Well you see everyone thought hat it was reversible Dr.
Krushtev said it was why
would he lie. Well he did lie. Turned out very quickly that
if you tried reversing
the person you were trying to reverse became a pile a of
steaming goop.  So a couple
thousand if not a couple million were stuck as animal
people. Then the government did
something very stupid. They declared the morphs not truly
human. So they weren’t  able
 to vote, weren’t covered by minimum wage and a huge number
of laws everyone takes for
granted.

 Quickly hundreds of morphs lost their jobs and became the
lowest class in the
United States. Many started to work in sweat shops. others
work at better but just barley.
many more became homeless vagrants on the streets. It was
eventual I guess that hordes
of them would move to Seattle where dr. Krushtev had set up
his lab. Thing was that
Krushtev went under ground. No one saw him since the
American government declared
his stuff illegal. Well every knows he made a huge fortune
on it. Apparently he did some
thing with the stock market with his company. many say it
was illegal.  Of course that is
when the hidden places where found about the city and in
many other cities people started
 finding DNA booths. Only a couple but it was rumored that
Dr Krushtev had built hundreds maybe
thousands.

 That is where I came in. See I always lived in Seattle. It
was about ten years after the mass morph
migration to the city, which absolutely crushed the economy
of the city and the crime rate went through he
roof, when I was born. I lived in a family which didn’t even
fell the impact from he economic slump we
were already in it. My dad was giant blob of fat who
occasionally moved from his chair. And my mom
was a frittered little woman who did whatever he told her.

 He made me sick. He ignored me and when he did noticed me
he said some very nasty things. We
survived on the government’s check. My dad was of the
opinion that just about everyone was wrong an he
was right. I bet if he cared he would have hated the morphs.
As it was he didn’t care because he didn’t go
out looking for work like they did.

 So I grew up in a an area which was poor decrepit, and had
a  couple of well to do morphs in it. It wasn’t
the nicest place. I some how avoided drugs and gangs for my
young days and years. I don’t; know how.
Then  when I was 16 things turned sick at my house. Dad got
a lot worse, he started hitting mom. Then
one night he went into a drunken craze and started to beat
her into an inch of her life. By that time I had
developed a wiry muscle.I looked weak but I wasn’t. I had
had enough with what he was going and ran to
y
moms rescue. I punched my father then pushed him into0 out
table. He groaned bit and went unconscious
I think the guy had a very thin skull or something.

  I ran after that out the front door. I don’t know why.
Guess I couldn’t handle that house anymore. So I
ran. For a couple of days I wandered about the city
surviving where I could and eating when I could. I
loved it.

 Then I went into an abandoned par of town it was worse then
my old neighborhood. As I walked
thorough it I sensed someone watching me. I turned about
looking but I saw nothing. Then I heard the
laughing. I was bone chilling and scary. From the shadows
came a grouping of maybe 20 hyenas. They
were dressed in basic clothes. Many just wore rags. They
giggled and laughed as the circled me. I couldn’t
have outrun them if I wanted to.

 “Your on our territory human” said the largest Hyena I
later found out his name was Jeremy. He was a
large imposing and well scary. His mouth hung open in a leer
showing rows and rows of sharp teeth.

 “Well I’ll just go then” I said quietly backing up.

 “Not so fast kid, first we want what is in the pack,” said
another hyena whose name was Kevin.

 “Forget it this is my only bag,” I said.  It was all I had
the sense of leaving with it before I left home. It
had my food in it and all my worldly possessions they
weren’t much but damn if I was going to give them
up that easily.

 “Then prepare to fight kid” said a voice. Next thing I know
about 200 pounds of hyena was barreling
right at me. I leaped to my side and the hulk of hyena ran
right past me. As it ran at me again I leaped up
and was bale to dogged yet again but this time I grabbed
onto the mane of black hair on it’s neck and held
on for dear life. The hyena tried to reach me with it’s
hands but I held on still.

 One or two more hyena ran at me. I Let go and with luck was
able to kick one hyena very hard. It
staggered for a moment as the other one ran at me. This time
I kicked it in the knee cap, then punched it
on the stomach. The hyena staggered about for a bit. I was
defiantly out classed and out gunned but damn
if I was going to give up easily and with out fight.

 They finally cornered me with my back to the wall. One
grabbed me the other took my bag. I was beat
and I knew it all I had to hope for was they weren’t going
to kill me because I had defiantly about all three
hyenas that had gone after me through a lot to of pain. One
had a bloody nose, another was favoring it’s
right leg and another had clumps of fur missing. They were
growling at me.

  “Enough! Kid you have moxy I respect that,” said Jeremy
the large hyena. His fur was a deep red color
in contrast to the beige ad brown fur of the other hyenas.
“How about this I let you keep the pack.”

 “Thanks” I said not understanding now I do, of course the
hyenas like a challenge and don’t; like
outsiders but they love it when people stand up to them I
had lasted the longest with the fewest injuries
that commended respect.

 “You looks as if you need a place to spend the night too
and perhaps a meal,” said another hyena. I later
found out she was the female in charge of the group, her
name was Serengeti. She didn’t look too
feminine but then again few morphs have breasts. I also
found out that hyenas follow the lead females not
the males. But then Jeremy really liked posturing in front
of the intruders in their ‘territory’.  Well I’d
decided I wasn’t going to pass up a free meal and place to
sleep. Their home was in a junkyard a block
down the street. They had made the junk into a surprisingly
comfortable homes and burros for themselves.
 That night I had my first meal of stir fried rat. Well I
felt comfortable there, I really did. It was a nice
place. They gave me a blanket saying they didn’t need it
they did have fur after all. Well one night turned
to a few nights then a few weeks and pretty soon it was
about two months that I had been spending with
the hyenas.

 I found them wonderful. They were all a bit older then me
by a couple of years. Only three were from
before the DNA booths were outlawed. I had to wonder how
they had become hyenas but I never
questioned it. Here they acted like a family and they
started to treat em like a member of their pack. I even
went out on one of their scavenger hunts a few times. I feel
in love with their life.  They treated me
wonderfully, they truly respected and loved each other. I
found with hem something that always lacked
with my mom and dad, a true family.

   The one night I said something that truly changed my
life,  “You realize Chomper it’s been almost three
months since I came here?”

   Chomper was a hyena with large boxy snout he could bite
through just about anything as he had a
really strong jaw. We had become best pal in the month I had
spent there we even bunked together.  “It
has, weird Wally, how the heck did you keep track” he asked.

 “Oh I just have been thinking about it that is all. You
know what I wish though. I wish I could be like you
guys. That way we could be a better help and I could stay
here forever,” I said.

 Chomper looked at me for a second then said something very
unusual. “Do you truthfully mean that?”

 “Yeah I guess I do. Well without a DNA booth that pretty
impossible huh?” I said.

 Chomper giggled that insane hyena laughter. It was weird
after all this time I even liked that laugh I
really did. I could even tell the mood of a person by their
laugh. Chomper was defiantly being
mischievous. He wandered off breaking the conversation
suddenly.  I shrugged not knowing what was
going on but expecting some practical joke sooner or later.

 Then the other hyena came, “Is what Chomper says true
Wally,” Asked Serengeti..

  “Ugh what?” I asked.

 “That you would want to be one of us,” she said.

 “It’s true” I said.

 “We may just have what you need then,” said Jeremy as
Chomper grabbed me from behind and
carried me with them down out of the camp. Believe me that
is not hard, the hyenas were very strong. The
ones I had fought with I late later learned were the weakest
of the group.  They carried me to a subway
station and down into the he ground following some old
tunnels no one used anymore till we got to a
service door. We walked in and in the center was  door into
a small room with glass walls.

 “Is that what I think it is” I said staring at it.

 “Yep is a DNA booth in fact it the one we all used,” said
Jeremy.

 “So if I use it I’ll be like you,” I asked.

 “Yep” said Chomper but remember it’s irreversible so make
your decision carefully.”

 I thought about it for about two seconds. I wanted to be
part of this pack , this family. I stepped
inside without another word. The hyenas all began to laugh
and laugh. It was laughter for sheer
happiness. They approved. One went over to a switch and
flung it. As mist poured into the room I took off
my clothes. Soon I was naked into the booth. That was okay
the windows were fogged so no one could see
inside.

 As the mist twirled around me I thought about it everyone
said it was nano probes that did this. I
wondered
it is would hurt. As I thought this I glanced at my arm I
wanted to time this. Then I realized I had my
watch back at the camp and I also noticed the fur. A deep
chocolate brown fur was covering my arm I was
amazed it had sprung up so quickly it spread like wild fire
thickening across my body.

 My nails sharpened and sprung out into claws darkening to a
black color. I noticed small spots of black
fur on my chocolate brown fur nearly unnoticeable really. I
felt my hair it was already changing to the
mane of a hyena. I wondered what color it was. Then I saw a
protrusion from my face, it was a muzzle I
felt it as it grew. My nose turned wet and black. I rubbed
my ever larger tongue across my teeth they were
getting
sharper and sharper. My lips had become more rubbery like a
an animals. I felt my ears move to the
top of my head. A tail wagged behind me my tail it was s bit
scraggly like all hyena tails but it was mine. I
looked about my body I loved it. I felt powerful strong. My
jaws felt like they could crush steel, steel
nothgin maybe even titanium.

 I grabbed my cloths which barley fit my do put on what I
could, that wasn’t much and walked out. I
giggled  The rest of the pack came to me and crowded me and
sniffed at me others licked me with heir
tongues. I returned the gestures. It was as now a member of
the pack. I ran with them out of the subway to
the camp my home.

 That was about two tow years ago. Since then I found a mate
with Kathryn a hyena woman. I changed my
name it Bone Cracker too. I wanted to distance myself from
my human side as much as s possible. I run
with my friends on the hunts and guard our home for
intruders.

 Recently Kathryn and all the other females scents changed.
You know with the big green cloud everyone
saw over the city well two days late her scent changes. It
drove me wild along with every other male in the
pack. For about three days we did nothing but stay in our
hovels well doing ...you know. Now her scent
has changed again and she seems to be growing breasts. it’s
weird.

Don’t mention the part about Kathryn I just said in your
book.

*****
 ‘I would not dream of it sir. Your story will be wonderful
for my Book Morph World” said an aging old
man getting up from his seat.  The old man smiled as he
walked out of the hyena camp. The booths
worked as he had planned not only that but his cloud had
done it’s job. Everyone thought the morphs
couldn’t breed because they didn’t menstruate. He had
tricked them all they needed was a catalyst and
they would be seasonal like animals. Soon that hyena pack
would be having a mess of babies, like all the
other morphs in the city and the world.
 Dr. Krushtev smiled, it was all in the plan.


     The end?