The Erruilion Plague: Book 1, From Roots of Evil

Chapter 2 - Down is the New Up

"... are you sure he's going to be okay doctor?" I heard as I slowly came to consciousness. I kept my eyes shut, as I could feel the bright light through my eyelids. "Yes really.... Actually I think he is coming to now." I grunted slightly and opened my eyes to be greeted by an oppressive onslaught of bleach white light. Squinting as someone quickly dims the lights, I can make out a hospital room with my mother and a doctor standing over me. I had all kinds tubes and monitors hooking me to monitors and a drip.

I groan again, and ask "Where am I? What happened?" The doctor looked mildly concerned, but answered me with a kind smile, "You're in the hospital Ben. You caught some nasty shrapnel from a bombing at the library, but we still don't know who was responsible for the attack..." I suddenly started to feel a rising panic and asked "Am I going to be okay? Did anyone die?" as my eyes widened slightly in horror. The doctor replied in a reassuring tone "Nobody died, excepting the bomber that is.... But I can't say if that will stay the same. It was a dirty bomb, carrying a very aggressive a non-communicable viral infection. It seems to not be killing anyone, but it's massively changing their biology." She frowned and continued "I only fear it mutating and spreading like wildfire, considering what it might bring upon the world. We're calling it the Erruilion virus for now."

It is at this moment I noticed what the doctor meant... My face was elongating, ears migrating, and spine extending beyond where it normally ends into a tail. My hands... They were starting to loose their nails in favor of claws, and pads were forming on the palm side. It was terrifying to take in all at once. I had no idea what was going on, and I asked the doctor in a fervor of panic "How long do you think it will take before whatever it's doing is... Well, done?" She put a hand on my shoulder and replied calmly "The infection seems to be progressing particularly fast in you and the patient across the curtain, as you both took a rather great deal of the shrapnel yourselves." gesturing over to it on the left side of the room from me, "And based on the rate you two are going at... By tomorrow. All the other victims seem to not have caught so much and are going far slower in their transformation. I'd expect the first of them to finish in about a month."

I was flabbergasted. This lady I barely knew just told me I was going to lose my humanity in less than a day, and to become who knows what. I was suddenly shaking at the thoughts of what I could become. Hell, I could even become a straight out house dog with how my appearance was going! My mother finally chimed in, having sat in silence this whole time, "Don't worry sweetie, it can't be too bad can it? On the bright side the doctor said your brain seems to be growing enough to warrant a substantial increase in your mental capability." She then looked at the doctor with a look pleading to confirm or deny this and the other woman just nodded. Great. She'd be after me for my grades again soon as I was functional again, saying now I did have the capabilities to do it. I looked the doctor in the eyes with a now solemn expression and asked in a grave tone I asked "Am I even human anymore?" She seemed to think long and hard about this question and answered "Not for long at the very least, Ben. You're going to be one of the first two of a new species." My head spun as I tried to process all of this. I leaned back, sighing. I then resigned to the inevitable, and I let the inky blackness of sleep claim me while I waited for fate to enact its will...

Or so I had hoped. Nightmares of what I could become ran rampant through my mind. I could end up some four legged monstrosity, shambling like a horror and shunned by society. I could just become a dog, which wouldn't be the worst thing I guess. I could maybe become some grotesque centaur like creature. The endless possibilities ran through my dreams terrorizing me throughout the sleep, and for all the time I was out I didn't get a moment's peace inside my head.