(About two months ago, I started the original Animal Apocalypse story line, with not much attention being paid toward it. I've always wanted to write a saga-like story on here, so why not start now? Feel free to add your own chapters, but it will be me writing the full storyline. The "disease" will remain the same, with a few modifications)
July 30th, 1967:
Naomi Phelps was a pretty girl, and the whole town of Ashbury knew it. She was constantly being hounded by all the local men, from the ages of 16-70. Since she was only 20, she typically stayed toward the lower end of the spectrum.
She spent her summer nights (when she wasn't brining a flash-in-the-pan boyfriend home) sitting alone in her room, listening to her Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin records. She didn't need much, but what she had always wanted was car. She couldn't wait to escape this deathtrap town of hers. So, as much as it pained her, she would need to get a job. She was scanning the local paper when she found a suspiciously high-paying job: "Lab Assistant. 3 openings. No prior experience needed. $10 an hour. Show up on the house on the hill. You know which one. 9:00 PM sharp."
Despite the suspicious nature of the ad, she was desperate, show she showed up the next night at 9:00 sharp.
The walk up the hill through the terrifying tangle of trees had been nerve-wracking, but she finally reached the front door. The house was a large one, with wings, couplets, and many, may windows. She pressed the buzzer and stood outside the doors, waiting for someone (something?) to answer.
She was surprised when the door opened a minute later. A homely girl of about 25 stood in front of her, already wearing a lab coat. She had thick glasses and frizzy hair. "Hello. You must be one of the other applicants." Naomi eyed her with suspicion. The girl looked so... professional. And she had worn a flowing blouse and white pants to this. What was she getting herself into?
"I'm Jackie. You're the last to arrive. Please follow me down to the basement."
Ok, she REALLY wasn't liking the sound of any of this. But, still, she needed the money. So Naomi followed Jackie down a long hallway to a door. It had three padlocks on it. Adrian unlocked all three of them and they both started down the winding staircase.
At the bottom was a vault-sized door with two other people standing in front of it: an attractive girl about Naomi's age, and a 35ish looking man in a lab coat. "Hello. You must be the third applicant. My name is Dr. Benjamin Carter, and you're in for the scientific pinnacle of your career." Naomi eyed the other two girls, wondering why either them didn't look the least bit afraid or worried. "Hey. I'm Adrian." The other girl said in a tired voice. She had shoulder-length brown hair and a pretty face.
"OK! Enough chit-chat. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty of this job." Dr. Carter said with enthusiasm. He opened a small box beside the door and entered a code.
The door swung open with a creaking sound. It was pitch black in there. Naomi's fear boiled over and she started to back away slowly. "Where are you going, my dear?" Dr. Carter said in a whispering voice. "You've not seen your job." Naomi looked on uneasily as Adrian and Jackie entered the gloom. "Go on." Dr. Carter said. His voice sounded quite stern. Fighting back the urge to run away from this dark, mysterious room and these three people she had never seen before, Naomi entered the dark room. She could hear a faint growling noise. The door swung closed behind her, leaving the room in complete dark. It was way hotter in the room than it should have been.
There was a clicking noise, and overhead lighting turned on one after the other overhead, revealing a basement-sized room. When Naomi saw what was in the middle of it, she screamed.
A cage with Plexiglas walls about the size of a pantry stood in the middle of the room. A vent was on top, circulating air in and out. A tall table with four stools stood facing the cage, strewn with notebooks, ballpoint pens, and broken pencils. On the far side of the room a lab was set up with many bubbling beakers full of mysterious liquids. And in the cage was a college-aged man, beating on the walls of his tomb with fists.
Adrian and Jackie exchanged shocked glances but did not scream like Naomi did.
"You three lucky ladies are in for a real treat. I've been working on this virus for fifteen years now. You see, I have been trying to bioengineer a new weapon of chemical warfare: one that turns humans into animals. It's quite simple: once someone is exposed to the virus, the first animal that comes within five feet of the victim will be what the victim transforms into. I'd like the transformation to be instantaneous, but I haven't worked out the gene yet. So the transformation lasts about a week. In it, the victim slowly physically and mentally converts into the animal, a perfect carbon copy of it, in fact. Now, I'm a very busy man. I don't have time to sit down here all week and record the transformation. So I've hired you three ladies to record it for me. You will be paid handsomely and then you will be free to go. Just don't try anything funny or..." he plucked a beaker from a nearby table, vacuumed shut. "You'll find yourself exposed to said disease. Now, I've already infected our subject" Dr. Carter said, pointing at the student "about three hours ago, so you ladies can just start right now. I'll bring you three meals a day, and there's an attached bathroom over there, but other than that, your jobs will soley be to watch and take notes. And don't try to break the glass. You'll just get infected. And if you tell anyone abut this, I WILL find out. And you'll wish you had never come down here. Now goodbye..." and with that, he left the room quickly before the three girls could say anything.
"Well, I guess we better get to work..." Jackie gulped, and started towards the table. "ARE YOU CRAZY????" Naomi yelled. "We need to find a way out of here!" 'Wait!" Adrian yelled. "You heard him. If we try to escape, he'll infect us!"
Naomi gulped. "You are right. Our only option is too... watch." All three girls eyed the terrified student. With that, they sat down to start recording.