The gunshots ring out outside. You hear a roar from your hiding place and then a scream as whatever the thing was bites the shooter. Slowly, over the next five minutes, the screams turn from human to a roar of a beast. Then you hear huge paws thudding on the pavement as two animals rush away into the night, when there had been only been one before.
Such is your life nowadays.
You can remember a few weeks ago, when life was normal. Then the rumors started popping up. A comet, the gossipers had said, had flown into the gravitational pull of our world and had struck the earth in mid-africa. That's when things started getting weird. On your way to work that fateful day, you smelled a thick, musky aroma in the air. You decided that it probably wasn't a good idea to go to work today.
That small choice may very well have saved your humanity.
Though it was pretty obvious now, it had been unclear then. The comet had carried a radioactive material previously unknown to scientists. It made every animal in the world (not insects, though, thank god, or everyone would be flies now) a "were" version of itself. That is, if an animal happened to come up and bite you, lick yo, or even touch you, you would feel fine.
For a while.
Then the changes would come. How long it took was randomized every time. For example, it had taken your friend Ben three days to turn into a dog. But it had only taken your friend Ashley two minutes to turn into a cat. You were sure to take note that you completely transformed into the animal. No anthros or partial transformations here. And once you had been transformed, no one knew if you retained your human intelligence or not. Because there was no cure.
Or was there?
You didn't have time to worry about that now. You barricaded yourself in your apartment and had to get rid of your trusty dog, Rusty, because once an animal was infected, it only had one thing in mind: to make more of it's kind. If the animal you encountered was male, it would make the victim female, and vice versa.
Of course, the first thing you noticed of the effects of the comet was a strange abundence of dogs and cats in your neighborhood. Gradually, you saw less and less of your neighbors and more and me dogs and cats. You went home that night and turned on the TV to a horrific sight. The signal came on and the desk of the news anchor was occupied by some half human, half cat creature.
"Geowd ereowing." This thing garbled. It's voice sounded like a cross between a cat's meows and mewls and a human voice. "I'meow Maareowcy Sumeowerrs and thissss is Chaneow Sevennn Noewssss. Pleamoews saaeow in your homesss. This epkdeowic is meowssive, and eveowry one is vulneowable." The thing started shrinkng and growing more fur on it's body. You geussed it was about 85% cat now. As it neared the end of it's transfromation, it's voice got more and more cat-like. "Leowsen to meow. Don'eowt goewww eowutside. And you'eowll eseowape meow feowt. Helowp yoeowselfff... meow, meow, meo." By this time, it was just an ordinary house sat sitting on on the anchor's desk. Suddenly, it got up on it's hauches, hissed, and kept right at the cameraman. You heard he scream right before the signal cut off.
You're awoken from your deep thought by a rumble of your stomach. It's been a while since you've eaten. You briefly go over the last rules: if one animal bites another, it'll transform into a combination of the two. Naturally, this leads to some very strange creatures. Animals like to mate with new mates right away, and pregnancy rates of the animals have magiclly acellerated, so a newly transformed dog could give birth to a litter of new, spices- spreading machines in half an hour. Oh, and humans biting animals have no effect whatsoever. And, lastly, yo remember reading on the news that your local zoo had let loose all of it's animals, so there's no telling what could be waiting for you.
So you tear down your barricades and start to head down the stairs when you see it. It's in your front hall. It's eyes are jutting quickly around the room, but it hasn't seen you yet. An animal, looking for more humans to transform, no doubt. but what animal is standing in your front hall?