Decisions

by Mel Todd

  Decisions

  Kaylid Tales

  Mel Todd

  Bad Ash Publishing

  Atlanta, Georgia

  Copyright © 2018 by Melisa Todd

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

  Bad Ash Publishing.com

  Atlanta, Georgia 30127

  www.badashpublishing.com.com

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Book Layout © 2017 BookDesignTemplates.com

  Cover by http://www.ampersandbookcovers.com/

  Decisions/ Mel Todd -- 1st ed.

  ISBN 978-0-0000000-0-0

  Doug – thank you for all the ass kicking.

  Not deciding is making a decision.

  ― Cassandra borden

  CONTENTS

  Surprise!

  Aftermath

  Secrets

  Lichen

  Experimentation

  Deadlines

  All or Nothing

  Dreams

  Threats

  Refuse to Give In

  Nature Calls

  No More

  In an Instant

  String Pulling

  The Places You Go

  Welcome to the Jungle

  Adaptability

  Food Options

  Decision Time

  Past the Brink

  Path Home

  Epilogue

  1

  Surprise!

  The solar flare that has been caressing the Earth for a few days, has spawned Aurora Borealis as low as Medfod, Oregon. Tonight promises to have them be just as spectacular. While we in the Sacramento Valley won’t be so lucky, we do have a gorgeous day ahead, so don’t forget to wear that sunscreen. ~KWAK News

  Cass dragged herself from bed, rubbing her head and headed for the kitchen. With a dry throat and pounding headache, water, icy cold water had priority.

  "Damn, if I'm going to have a hangover, I'd like to have at least drank something last night." She muttered, her voice scratchy, even as she poured water in a glass and drained it. She’d shut off the alarm but didn’t manage to drag herself out of bed until well after nine. Normally she’d be at work before eight.

  The water helped with the throat but not the aching pain and headache. "Wonderful. How in the world did I catch a virus? I never talk to anyone, well not in person, if I can avoid it." She leaned her head against the cool stainless-steel fridge and moaned with relief. She stood there for far too long before she pulled herself up.

  “Come on, work remember. You need to get to work. Even if you don't want to." Her voice bounced off the walls in her kitchen and convinced her to get moving. Talking to herself had become a bad habit. She'd lived alone for so long and worked in almost total isolation that sometimes the sound of her voice was the only thing that convinced her she existed.

  Cass enjoyed her job, working as a researcher on plant extracts for a local start up lab, Demeter, LTD. Today, she wanted to crawl back into bed. In the bathroom she downed a few ibuprofen and winced as she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Normally her shoulder length dark brown hair lay flat and straight, today it stood up in weird swirls and whirls, and her pale blue eyes were blood shot and felt swollen.

  She drew back blinking. "Umm, maybe I should stay home? I look like an extra in a zombie movie." This time she took a serious assessment of her body and frowned, achy, fever, bloodshot eyes, headache, but no congestion, no heavy lungs, and where did that ringing in her head come from?

  "No, I will not admit defeat." she muttered. It sounded weak even to her, but she stripped out of her night-shirt and underwear, determined to power through. "Shower will help."

  She stared at her pale face in the mirror, her pale skin appeared gray, almost pasty today. A wave of dizziness gripped her. Cass grabbed onto the sink trying to shake it off. Her body felt like someone had aimed a flame thrower at her. Catching sight of herself in the mirror, she froze, eyes locked on the being looking back at her. Her eyes weren't her eyes, they had changed shape and color. Knees buckled without her consent and Cass fell to the ground as pain exploded through her body and the world short circuited out of awareness.

  Her eyes flicked open, she lay there frozen, even as her chest heaved to bring in oxygen. Everything looked odd. Off somehow. The colors and brightness not quite right. The pretty fleur-de-lis pattern on the tile of her shower should be visible from where she lay, but the pattern seemed blurred for some reason.

  Oh god, did I smack my head and damage my ocular nerve?

  The thought rippled through and she jerked her hand up to feel the back of her head and a huge paw with six-inch-long claws lifted towards her face.

  She shrieked and tried to scramble backwards, but the sound that reverberated in the bathroom freaked her out. She flipped over trying to see who could have made that sound. The claws moved also, clattering against the tile floor as her body twisted in a motion that she shouldn’t have been able to make, shoving her against the glass shower door. Cass scanned every inch of the bathroom trying to focus her eyes, but it still seemed blurry any more than a few feet away. No matter how hard she looked no one was there.

  "Okay, take a deep breath." She muttered, or she mean to mutter all that came out were weird growls and chirps and she froze again. Her heart beat in her chest so hard she could see it pulsing in her vision then she fought a wave of dizziness.

  Forcing a lump of fear and stress down she swallowed then closed her eyes and listened. The only sound her own harsh, rapid breathing and a heart that she suspected would explode any second.

  Deep breath.

  She inhaled slowly through her nose and instantly began choking as scents assaulted her sensitive nose like burr weeds. Cass had always had a sensitive nose, it was one of the reasons she excelled at her job. She could smell differences, recognized chemical compounds, and often let that sense help her make decisions in a lab where one drop could be one drop too many. But that sensitivity had been magnified a thousand times; bleach, coconut, lavender, antiseptic, sweat, mint toothpaste, and urine all battered their way into her mind and she freaked.

  Panting, she raced out of the bathroom, part of her noting she was too low, nothing made sense, but all she could do was try to get away. Running from room to room, trying to find a way out, unable to even think about how doors worked; she found herself under her bed, the darkness, the subtle scents of sweat and dust surrounding, her calmed her heart and mind. She lay her head on the floor eyes closed and just breathed.

  Cassandra Elizabeth Borden, use your mind and think. You’re a scientist use your brain and quit reacting like a hormone addled idiot.

  Her mental voice sounded like her mom when she did that and perversely it made her feel a little bit better. Another deep breath then she opened her eyes. The darkness under the bed didn’t seem as dark as it should have.

  Why am I laying on my belly?

  That thought filtered to the top as she registered her odd pose. The dust made her nose itch and she reached up to itch it and froze as claws came into her field of vision. Her heart rate accelerated a bit, but this time she kept a hold of herself and slowly wiggled her finger. The first most index claw went up and down and now that she paid attention, because you didn’t normally pay attention to what it felt like to move your fingers you just did it, she could feel her claw move.

  I have claws.

  The thought lay stark, li
ke a fact in the lab, something you couldn’t avoid. Facts like that made her feel better. This one didn’t. With slow meticulous precision, a tendency that made her so good in the lab, her gaze traveled up her arm. Well, paw and forearm. Rather than being slightly tan with faint blond hairs, it was covered with dark brown shaggy fur. Experimentally she moved the entire leg.

  Yep, I have a paw and am covered with fur.

  That fact also lay there, but this time it didn’t seem so awful. More like an interesting fact she’d never encountered before that might change everything. Cass ran her tongue over her teeth – sharp, long teeth in a narrow mouth – and her tongue slipped out to lick her nose, a skill she’d never possessed.

  Okay, that implies a lot.

  With slow interest, cataloging everything, she went over her whole body; arms, legs, ears, and to her both surprise and not surprise, a tail. By the time she got that far, she’d rather expected the tail, but expecting a tail and having a tail were two different things.

  Either I hit my head and this is all a dream the likes of which could fund research papers for years, or I’ve turned into an animal. Badger or wolverine or something like that.

  Only one way to know for sure.

  Conflicting thoughts urged her back into the safety of the dark space under the bed and forward into discovery. An eternity that was mere seconds later, she gazed, mouth ajar and brain absolutely quiet for the first time in a long time. A wolverine reflected back at her in the mirror.

  Wolverines don’t normally get above thirty pounds or so.

  Her thought seemed abstract, distant, and she slumped down, unable to take her gaze off the dark brown creature with pale stripe along its ribs and across its forehead.

  Breathe, you can’t do anything if you’re running around like an idiot.

  Again the internal voice came across like her mother stood behind her. It had the effect of putting some starch into her spine.

  Data, I need data. I can’t do anything without data.

  That thought helped push back the gibbering thought that this couldn’t be possible and Cass started doing what any good scientist did, she gathered data. Weighing herself required her to stand on her hind legs and bend to see the numbers.

  Weight 158 pounds. Huh, I lost two pounds since last week. Yay me.

  She checked her height as best she could, though she didn't expect to be the same height in this form as in human; on her hind legs she stood five feet, a good five inches shorter. The claws were long, strong, and extremely dexterous.

  I'll need to research wolverines when this is done.

  Her nose twitched and she realized she was ignoring valuable data. She started to sniff and inspect herself, the wolverine body was flexible in a way that only Olympic athletes normally were. She could smell a strange scent, not unpleasant but slightly musky. It reminded her of what her nose had caught when she'd walked in on a college roommate having sex - rich, sharp, and screaming femininity. This scent had the same base but was more subtle, yet stronger at the same time.

  Huh. Better hope I don't run into any male wolverines.

  All the data collected, she fretted about not being able to write it down. Sighing, she faced what her initial panic and then fascination had allowed her to push to the back of her mind.

  I need my notebook. But I guess the question is why am I a wolverine? Why did I turn into one?

  That question burned bright, but she couldn't come up with an idea. Even if she added in mad scientists, weird experiments, and a lab accident gone wrong, of which she didn't know any.

  There hadn't been any experiments and nothing had gone wrong in her lab. She didn't know of any way this could work, at least not without magic. And she didn't believe in magic, no matter how much she wanted to on some days.

  Rising up on her hind legs she peered at the clock and sighed.

  Chuck is going to throw a fit and make my life hell. Not only am I hours late, I didn't call. Dammit. Bright side, if I never change back, I never have to deal with Chuck again.

  The idea made her snort. She'd never be that lucky. Chuck Werner acted as her lab director. He had two PhD's and yet couldn't get a slide set up properly. The perfect example of promoted to his highest level of incompetence, and she figured he hated her. One PhD and glowing reviews from everyone, two patents to her name in the last year, and people always asked what project she had going. He'd use this to make her look bad.

  And I have three lichen cultures I need to process to see if what I'm hoping for is there. If I miss more than another day I'll lose my window in their growth cycle.

  Those samples were important, but it had an odd distance to it that made her more stressed.

  What if I never turn back? What if I'm stuck as a wolverine?

  The idea made her heart race and a weird sound slipped out as she slumped to her belly. After a while boredom set in, something she didn't handle well. She needed a book or something to do, her knitting or macramé right now would be nice. Cass went over to her e-reader, but while she could get it open, it wouldn't recognize her claws or pads trying to turn pages. Frustrated she sank to the floor grumbling.

  I'm ready to be human again. Who would have thought a lack of paper books would be a drawback?

  2

  Aftermath

  There are reports of animals wandering around and most of them make little sense. As none of the zoos in the area are reporting any animal escapes, people are asked to stay calm and verify what they are seeing. The odds of cheetah’s, tiger’s, and wolves all invading the Sacramento valley today are slim. This might just be a solar flare driven madness, but it is causing issues with the 911 system. ~KWAK News

  Cass thought about her hands, her body and had to laugh at how much she'd taken for granted. Like open doors and cans. Even as the memories surface she felt something – a pulling, stretching – painful but nothing like what it had been. Before her mind could wrap around what happened, she realized she lay on the floor of her bedroom, naked, in human form.

  "I'm human?" She pushed herself up, glanced at the mirror, and sighed as a human face looked back at her. Cass turned and checked out her ass and couldn't decide if the emotion rippling through her was relief or disappointment at proof she turned back to fully human.

  A quick check and her head didn't ache, no more bloodshot eyes, back to normal as if it had never happened.

  "Huh. Data, gotta record the data." She headed for her desk, grabbed a notebook, to scribble everything down she had measured and recorded. She wasn’t sure what to do with it, but you never dismissed data. Writing it down made it both more real and less and she didn't know how to feel. It'd taken too long to still have any panic running through her system.

  As she set the notebook down, still turning over the idea in head and needing to see if she could figure out if this was random, signified a change in scope, or had been a one off to never happen again, she saw the time on her atomic clock – ten forty-five am.

  "Shit! Chuck will have a field day! He might certify my experiments as abandoned."

  She sprung for the shower and raced through her process, pulling on clothes with reckless hurry, the thought of Chuck tossing out her lichen driving her. As she headed out the door, she grabbed her phone and purse and tried to come up with a good reason for her lateness. Chuck would make her pay for this and she wanted to scream. She wanted time to think over the idea that she'd turned into a wolverine. No not an idea, a fact. For the first time ever, she wished she had cameras in her apartment so she could watch it over and over and see if she could figure out what had happened.

  Traffic seemed awfully heavy for this time of the morning and she hated to drive in the first place. One of the reasons she lived where she did was most of the time she could walk to work. Driving stressed her out and made everything that much more stressful. But given the day she was having, Cass had to drive. Walking would take thirty-five minutes, and at this point she already would face Chuck berating her. With a growl
of frustration Cass flipped on the radio. The regular ads were interspersed with rumors of a zoo losing some animals and an intense solar flare hitting the planet over the last day or so.

  I can’t tell anyone, well maybe Helena. She’d believe me, right? I mean, I don’t tell weird stories like that. But, no. Only Helena—if anyone else found out they’d lock me up, perform experiments on me. Thanks, but no thanks, I prefer to be the scientist. I’ll tell Helena and no one else. I wonder if I can repeat it? Wait does this mean it happened to other people?

  The thought struck her dumb for the rest of the drive as she thought about that idea. Pulling into the parking lot, she shut the car off and looked at the clock. The number gleaming at her chased all thoughts away about the weirdness leaving only panic.

  "Dear god, it's almost noon. Okay, come up with a good excuse. Flat tire and forgot my phone. That will have to do."

  Cass hated lying telling but telling Chuck she'd over slept and turned into a wolverine seemed fraught with danger.

  Pulling into the parking lot she took a deep breath, centered herself, and pushed back the quiver of panic that rode at the back of her mind.

  "Really." she muttered, "you turned into a freaking animal, and after the initial panic you think it's fascinating, but you are scared to go in and deal with the man who runs your lab? You should have turned into a mouse. Get a hold of yourself."

  Honestly, the animal thing caused less stress than Chuck ever did. I'm so getting a bottle of wine on the way home today. I've totally earned it. Shit, I forgot to get lunch. I'll grab something at the vending machine as I head to the lab.

  Food had never been a big deal to her, she was usually too involved in research to remember most meals. Getting out of the car she grabbed her badge and headed in. She badged in and headed to the small vending area, grabbing a bunch of nuts and dried fruit from the limited selection.