June 5th

Near Some Wreckage of the Mayflower

Amanda

“What the hell is this?” I asked as I looked down at the scene below. I was standing on a cliff in a cold forest looking into the valley below. Instead of a fledgling settlement, I saw the wing of the spaceship somehow expand to cover it. Furthermore, there were no people as far as I could see. As for how I got here, don’t understand a woman with a motorcycle.

Deciding that waiting was foolish, I walked down to the site. Worst come to worst, they’d kill me. However, I was too determined to let that happen. I needed to get my revenge on Scarlett for how she humiliated me.

When I reached the valley, I ran around the perimeter of the metallic building. It took about twenty minutes, but I finally found something that looked like a door. It was hard to tell, but it had a black outline which stood out against the otherwise entirely white ship. I knocked on the door and stood back.

The door soon opened to reveal two guards looking at me. “Follow us,” one of them said before escorting me inside. Once we were in, the door shut. The two guards flanked me as we walked through the hallway.

“What is this place?” I asked as I looked at them. They were two men in their early twenties with gruff expressions on their faces. “I want to know since it’s odd that this crash site isn’t a collection of tents and barbed wire.”

“You’ll learn once you’re there,” one of the guards replied before we continued in silence.

After a few minutes, we arrived at a large set of double doors. One of the guards typed something in a nearby keypad, making the doors open up. “Get in there. Don’t make the Director wait,” one of the guards said before pushing me through the doors. After the initial jolt, I walked through to see a staircase leading to a bright light at the top. The doors closed behind me, informing me that I had to continue.

As I ascended the staircase, thoughts flowed through my head. This Director sounded like some sort of leader. If he had resources at his disposal, he could help me get my revenge. There would be costs, but Scarlett needed to pay for humiliating me and stealing my father’s love ever since she was abducted.

Once I reached the top of the stairs, I looked at the room ahead. It was in a semicircle shape with the round part having glass walls that acted like windows. A long desk stretched across the end of the room closer to the glass with a chair behind it. On the chair sat an old man. He was in his late fifties with a couple of wrinkles on his face. He looked at me with a smile as he said, “Take a seat, Ms. Campbell.”

I walked over to the seat on the other side of the desk and sat down. I put an elbow on the desk and leaned against it. “What do you want with me?”

He put on a pair of glasses and explained, “I know who you are. You could’ve probably guessed that by the way I referred to you by your last name.” I scowled as I didn’t realize it. He continued, “You are a very special person, I can give you that. Not many people can claim they’re the daughter of a rich man and the sister of a mutant.”

“Don’t mention her again!” I shouted as I glared at him.

He chuckled. “Miss Campbell, show some manners. She’s the reason we have hope for you. You see, when we broke apart from the others, we managed to keep the Qarri’s research documents. What we discovered was astounding. They preserved documents on Scarlett that highlight the way to advance the human genome. However, there are two main problems. The first is that we don’t know if the method is restricted to only her or if others can be manipulated.”

“So you want to turn me into a mutant freak?” I asked concerned as I leaned back in the chair.

He just looked at me and stated, “Perhaps. To be honest, it’d be easier for us to study how the mutagenic serum works on different humans by testing something similar on someone close to Scarlett, such as yourself.”

I pondered what he said for a while. While I didn’t care to lose my human form, it would bring me a step closer to genetic alteration that could enhance my abilities. It was an opportunity I couldn’t let slide. However, I needed to find a form I would be fine with for the rest of my life.

He leaned back in his chair and said, “Take your time. And if you’ll like, I can show you show drawings of what you’d look like with different animal-like traits.”

I flinched before mischievously smirking and asking, “Too much time on the internet, huh? Doing some practice before applying hybridization for yourself? Are you just secretly a furry trying to turn me into a…”

“Shut up!” he shouted back, obviously enraged by what I was insinuating. It was exactly the reaction I wanted. I laughed out loud, making him add, “Though I was going to experiment on myself once it was safe.”

I was about to ask some more questions when I noticed a door open from the lab. In walked a creature I only thought I’d see once in my life. Before me was a six-foot-tall anthropomorphic fox man with tan fur and hair. He was wearing a lab coat as he carried a clipboard in hand. For some reason, the Director acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. “What is it, Dr. Fox?” the Director asked, horrifying me with the fact that they remained a scientist after what they turned him into.

The foxman looked at his clipboard and announced, “The younglings are progressing nicely. It seems that turning some of us scientists into foxpeople made them feel more welcome and included. Perhaps they think it’s a familial resemblance.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I looked between the two and asked, “What the hell is going on? Familial resemblance? Younglings? Turning scientists into foxpeople? And then renaming a scientist to Dr. Fox? This is a madhouse!”

Dr. Fox looked at me and held one of his clawed and furred fingers up. “First off, Fox is my original surname. It’s just a crazy coincidence things worked out that way,” he replied before pausing for a bit. After the pause, he continued, “Secondly, I think it’ll be best to show you.” He opened a door and pointed for me to follow.

Once I walked through the door, I could see an absolutely massive laboratory complex. Beeping echoed against the walls as scientists scrambled below. So far, all of the scientists in the testing chamber we were walking over were human. Completely normal human beings. I pointed to those scientists and asked, “What are they researching? And why are they still human if they forced you to be experimented on?”

Dr. Fox laughed and explained, “Nobody forced me to undergo the mutation. I did it of my own free will. You see, as a child I always had a fascination with foxes. They are graceful animals.”

I interrupted and mocked, “So you wanted to be an animal? Or did you have some deviant tastes? Perhaps loving animals a bit—”

“It’s not like that, Amanda Lily Campbell! Get your mind out of the gutter!” Dr. Fox shouted back as he was clearly offended by what I said. I could only snicker as I knew I was getting under his nerves. He pinched the bridge of his snout as we walked towards the door on the other side of the skywalk. Or perhaps “skywalk” was a nonindicative term considering everything was indoors.

Dr. Fox opened the door to the next room and guided me in. We were still in a skywalk, only this time the scene was different. Instead of the testing chambers of the previous room, this one resembled a lecture hall. It was completely empty, prompting me to ask, “What is this room for? Is there a college here?”

“Not quite,” Dr. Fox replied as he stopped in front of the door on the other end. He tapped his chin before explaining, “Those younglings we talked about earlier are rather young. We intend to give them a childhood and education here. They may be experiments, but we’re not monsters. Once they’re adults, they have the choice to leave or further their education to help us.”

I nodded as he opened the door to the next room. I followed after him since I was curious to see what could possibly explain his appearance and what the thing about younglings was about. What I saw there was shocking. Below our feet was a large nursery with several cribs. But it was what was in the cribs that shocked me. For in the cribs were anthropomorphic fox babies. What horrific experiments were they doing that they had to kidnap babies?

Dr. Fox put on his glasses, which made me curious how they stayed on when his ears where on the top of his head, and said, “These are the younglings, or rather most of them. During the spaceflight here, we did some experiments on embryos that people didn’t want. We figured that if their donors didn’t want them, they may as well go to good use.”

I gasped as I heard it. I wasn’t a political person, but it sounded horrible to torment those babies by bringing them into the world as freaks. “How many babies are in here?” I asked, dreading the answer.

Dr. Fox pushed his glasses up and answered, “One hundred thousand. And that’s not most of them. Overall, we have perhaps two million more embryos in stasis, already mutated into a vulpine form. And they’ll stay in stasis until we can get enough people to raise them. So far, the men and women who sacrifice their human forms to be like parents to these children is only sufficient for one hundred thousand babies to be born. Do you want to know the specifics of how a vulpine mutated woman has babies?”

I recoiled in disgust and shouted, “No! I have no plans to learn! Besides, I never intend to have children anyways! It just goes against who I am.”

Dr. Fox chuckled. “Amanda Lily Campbell, rebellious yet has never known love. Perhaps your disgust around the humanoid body keeps you from keeping a boyfriend.” I glared at him, making him shiver. I was short, but I could stare down men twice my size. My boyfriends weren’t in control of my relationships, I was.

Dr. Fox calmed down before continuing, “One of the things we were looking into was adding more genetic diversity into the human species. By creating and reinforcing a new subspecies based off of Scarlett’s unique mutation, we have a backup humanity in case a mysterious condition compromises the main subspecies of humans. As in, jeopardizing those like you.”

I smirked as I said, “Fortunately for those like you, I’m going to be unique. I’m not going to stay human, nor am I going to be whatever you are, foxman.” I started thinking about what I wanted to be. One idea was becoming a giant. “Perhaps I can be mutated into a giant,” I suggested.

He laughed loudly, hardly controlling himself. After what felt like a few minutes of Dr. Fox laughing, he managed to explain, “I’m sorry, but despite us managing to do the impossible in genetics, there’s the fact that our knowledge of genetics has advanced far more than cybernetics due to Qarri records being obsessed with the odd mutation of Scarlett. Being a giant is impossible due to the Square-Cube Law. Choose something more mundane.”

I then pondered for a while before a devious thought crossed my mind. While the mutation would turn me into a furry freak, it had one great aspect. I could show-up Scarlett by choosing an animal far scarier than a fox to resemble. To really drive it home, I was going to choose another canid. Perhaps it would lead to people seeing a family resemblance.

There were some doubts in my mind. Nagging thoughts struck me about the horrible mistake I would be making. There was the fact that I would lose most potential boyfriends. It wouldn’t be too much of a loss, though it meant that my weekends would be boring. There was the fact that the face I would see in the mirror wouldn’t be mine, but Scarlett seemed to get over it as she looked some strange pride in her freakish appearance.

There were some other benefits though. The mutation would provide enough research to further my progress. Perhaps they could make me taller and stronger than Scarlett. It was the greatest injustice in this world that my younger sister was taller than me, being at an average man’s height. I was supposed to be the rebellious punk biker, yet Scarlett managed to beat me in a fight. And then there was the intimidation factor. I would be very intimidating and get things to go my way. And if I thought they’d treat me like an animal, there was the fact that everyone seemed to quickly accept Scarlett as an equal.

With my mind decided, I looked at Dr. Fox and announced, “I know what I’m going to choose. If I must be given a mutant that gives me an animal resemblance, it’ll be a wolf.”

“Any particular species or color?” he asked back as he pulled out his clipboard.

I shrugged and said, “Let’s just do gray. I always thought wolves were cool. They’re like the vicious counterpart of dogs. I always wanted one, but my parents told me it was stupid when dogs exist. I hope I get the viciousness of a wolf with this mutation.”

Dr. Fox smirked. I don’t know how I could tell a smirk on his freakish muzzle, but I could. He shook his head and explained, “Ms. Campbell, mutation doesn’t change your personality. While you’ll look different, you’re still you.”

I tapped my chin before asking, “Can you make me taller as well? I hope to be at least a head taller than my sister and probably some boosted strength to boot.”

Dr. Fox frowned as he looked through his notes. “That’s very dangerous. The chance of survival in that case is probably only twenty-five percent. We can take some precautions and preliminary tests, but that’ll only increase survival chance to about fifty percent. Are you sure you want to be taller?”

I crossed my arms and gloated, “If my sister could cheat death, so can I.”