FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter Thirteen - Left Behind

Chaos sighed as he walked through the facility, a huge stack of paperwork in his arms as he walked through the halls of the underground hallways... at least until he ran into someone and caused it all to scatter to the ground. "I'm so sorry!" the naga that had just run into him said as they looked at the mess of files on the steel floor, both serpent and canine working to gather them up again. "This is totally my fault, I was a million miles away and wasn't watching where I was going..."

"It's alright," Chaos said as he stacked the folders on top of one another once more. "There's a reason we keep everything bound together, I just need to do a little reorganizing is all. Usually we had Ian do all of this, but... you know."

The husky could see the understanding on serpentine face as the naga nodded, informing him that they had to do the same in the microbiology lab as he helped him get loaded up once more before patting him on the back and telling him to have a good night. It was true, normally he didn't have to do such tasks, but with the increasing shortage of staff in the lab, the scientists that remained had to take up more of the slack. Ever since that Bal'Kar known as Serathin came in the situation had slowly began to degrade... at first it was just people getting horny with one another, but soon people started to defect to the side of the tentacle monster they housed within. So far six had made the plunge into the bio-extract pools of the nearby cavern, and he knew that there were a few more that had been talking about making the plunge.

It was at that point that Dr. Winters had quarantined off the entire observation deck of the cave, suspending most of the testing that was being done, and also initiated a potential contamination lockdown in order to keep any potential infection they all experienced from leaking into the outside military base. This gave the entire base an eerie quality and many of the workers down there who were already on edge now were at the breaking point. For Chaos; however, his inner turmoil was for a far different reason... and as he set down the pile of files on his desk that reason stared him right in the face.

"Why did you do it, guys..." Chaos said to himself as he picked up the picture frame that held the photo of himself, Newlyn, and Erin, his red eyes scanning over the image of the three of them smiling. "You could have at least warned me or something before you went got yourself all tentacley like that. Now who am I going to talk to about all the strange stuff that's going on here..."

The canine just began to settle into his chair to document the massive amount of test results when he saw that a new facility-wide e-mail appeared, Chaos sighing again before clicking on it. "This is Dr. Winters," the e-mail said. "This is just to inform you that we're having mandatory psych evaluations for all personnel, please make an appointment with the new human resources director so that you can schedule a time slot."

The mention of the new HR person caused a pang of sadness in the husky, but he tried not to let it get to him as he brought up the e-mail address to schedule an appointment. He wasn't sure why he needed to do such a thing, anyway, since they were likely looking for people who were showing signs of being tainted by the Bal'Kar and he never went close to the observation wing. Everyone else that had succumbed and got turned either were exposed to the original one or had contact with someone that was actively turning. Other than that everyone else appeared to be fine, though he interacted with two of the new additions to the hive they had turned rather quickly.

"Makes you wonder, huh..." a voice said, Chaos startled slightly by it since he had closed the door with his foot and didn't hear it open again. But it was nothing compared to the shock that he experienced when he looked up and saw who it was. "Perhaps Dr. Winters is trying to find out what is causing everyone to suddenly get the tentacle lust?"

The husky's jaw was still dropped when he saw the snow leopard sitting on the other side, staring at him with those glowing green eyes. "Newlyn..." Chaos said with a gasp. "What... how... you're..."

"A Bal'Kar?" Newlyn finished the sentence with a chuckle. "Or maybe you were going to say confined to the caverns outside of the facility in the mountains? You should see it by the way, Serathin has this amazing lattice and Erin is so swollen with eggs that she could burst. I'm helping where I can, expanding the caverns deeper and creating more bio-extract pits."

Chaos found his mouth opening and closing but no sounds came out, the snow leopard sitting back and waiting with a small smile on his face for the husky to regain his composure. "This isn't real..." the husky said as he shook his head, trying not to look his friend in those glowing, green eyes. "I'm hallucinating from being overworked or my brain is still trying to process why you two would do such a thing. I'm just... losing my mind is all..."

"I don't think that you're losing your mind," Newlyn said as he leaned back. "I think you're gaining it in back, in fact."

Just as the husky was about to respond the intercom on his door buzz, Chaos looking over at the door for a second before turning back only to find that the snow leopard was gone. When he looked around he found himself truly alone, though the sense of his friend still being there lingered as the same naga from before opened the door and asked if he was busy. Chaos quickly shook his head and told the other researcher that he was too busy to talk to anyone at the moment, patting the pile of papers next to him to confirm it. The naga nodded and told him that he would catch up him with later, the husky breathing a sigh of relief when he was alone once more.

When Chaos stopped rubbing his hands against his face he pulled them down and looked around. He had half expected Newlyn to be there once more, but he found himself alone like before. Part of him still wondered if it hadn't been a trick of the mind as he looked back down at the picture that could have potentially triggered the vivid hallucination. The only way that he would know for certain would be to talk to the Bal'Kar snow leopard himself, but there was no way that was going to happen even remotely. Perhaps it was time to schedule that appointment, he thought to himself as he traced a finger over the bright cyan line on his fur, though as he looked at the clock on his desk he saw that even when he put in an e-mail it would likely not get responded to before the morning.

Thankfully for the husky he had plenty of paperwork to keep his mind on in the downtime, working late into the night to finish off what needed to get done. By the time he shut down the computer a last glance at the electronic clock showed that it was late into the night. Chaos grabbed all the finalized copies of the reports and carried them back to the lab they came from before heading back towards the researcher dormitories. One good thing that came forward from so many starting to go over to the caverns was that they no longer had to double up on bedrooms, which meant that when he collapsed from exhaustion he would at least be alone once he did.

Chaos walked inside the room and quickly showered off the work of the day, not only because the water felt soothing running through his fur, but also because it was now mandated by Dr. Winters in case there were residual spores that were somehow floating through the air. Once he was finished he enjoyed one of the perks of being alone in a room as he walked around naked while brushing his still-damp fur. As he made his way towards his bed he grabbed his laptop, even though there was no external internet he could still look through the video library that the computer kept up to date. Just as he was about to flop down he felt something that caused a shiver to run down his spine as his head slowly looked around when he felt another presence in the room.

"Chaos!" a feminine voice said as he was suddenly tackled from behind, his chest hitting the bed from the weight that was landed on his back. "We've missed you so much!"

The husky grunted and turned around and the second he was on his back he was assaulted once more as he felt a pair of forearms squeeze around his midsection. "Erin?!" Chaos said in surprised as he took the many-tailed wolf and moved her to the side. "But how..." as Erin grinned at him he once more put his hands against his head while he sat at the side of the bed. "I'm losing my mind, I should have gone down to the infirmary even if the psychiatrist wasn't there."

"Well you know what would have happened had you done that," Erin replied with a wink. "Dr. Winters would have put you in the quarantine that they just made in the former observation wing. Now while it would have made us able to see you we would be separated by bomb-proof glass and an elevator that no longer works. Still, I suppose we could have played charades or something, even if we couldn't give one another hugs."

Even though Chaos knew it was impossible that he was actually speaking to Erin he couldn't help but hug back, the feeling of her fur against his very real before she backed away. "I don't suppose you could tell me why you two did this," he asked, watching her tails swish around as she looked at her in confusion. "I mean, if this was really you and not just some mental coping mechanism where my two friends left me?"

"What a silly thought, Chaos," Erin replied as she hoped back off of the bed. "It's all the will of the Bal'Kar... Newlyn and I happened to have just seen the light a little quicker than the rest of those here. One of the reasons that we're trying to reach out to you is because we want you to see it, too... Serathin and the other Bal'Kar have been teaching us how to use our controllers, but I can't do it through this link. Newlyn; however, has a workaround that would allow us to show you and all you need to do is remember a couple of numbers, and as long as Dr. Winters didn't destroy our stuff you can see just how real this is."

Erin repeated the numbers and letters a few times until Chaos could repeat them back and then the wolfsune gave him another hug before she disappeared immediately once again. Even though the husky continued to feel where his friend had hugged around him he still tried to figure out why he was experiencing such things. At this point there were only two options, that he was slowly going crazy or that he had somehow become exposed and would find himself taking the plunge rather soon. As he slid into his bed he still wasn't sure which one of those two would be the better outcome...

The next day Chaos awoke to the sound of alarms going off, the startled canine quickly get dressed before going out to see what happened. It didn't long for him to find out that one of the spore samples had been accidently released in one of the clean rooms and that they had to once more shut down another bank of labs. Though it appeared no one was directly in contact several had to go to the quarantine facilities and everyone that was affected by it had to be examined by a mental health official. For Chaos that was a double hit, not only would he definitely not be seen by the psychiatrist today, but since one of his labs was affected he also didn't have any work to do that day.

That meant that the husky had a chance to look in on his visions and the information that they had provided him. While the rest of the facility staff had decided to either spend their time in one of the rec rooms or back in the dorms Chaos made his way towards one of the quarantine storage units. As a precautionary measure any staff member that decided to become a Bal'Kar had their things logged in, examined for contamination, and then put away in specialized sealed storage containers for safe keeping. If what the ghost of Erin had said was true the item that he was looking for might have been destroyed in the interest of safety, but if it hadn't perhaps he would get some insight into why he was seeing things.

As soon as he swiped his card through the reader in order to get inside the room Chaos felt a pit of doubt begin to form in his stomach. Though no one had been implicitly told that they couldn't go into one of these areas ,he was pretty sure that if he was caught rummaging around the items of those he had converted that there would be some questions to answer. Still... it was very likely that no one would come to this place and with everything being organized he knew where to go. It only took a few minutes before he found the bin marked with Newlyn's name on it and brought it over to the nearby table to open it.

The second he cracked the seal Chaos frowned as he heard the hissing of air getting sucked in, the vacuum seal broken as he took the cover off. There was no way he would be able to depressurize it when he was done, but at this point if anyone really wanted to see what he was doing they would likely find his trail, anyway. As he took out the items that they had quarantined the husky couldn't believe how everything that he, or anyone at this facility for that matter, had pretty much fit in one storage box. It made it relatively easy to find the item he was looking for and as he picked it up he uncovered something that had caused him to pause, the eyes of a plushie that he and Erin had given him staring back at him that caused him to look away for a second.

Once he was finished with his search Chaos sealed up the box as best he could and pushed it back on the shelf, then grabbed what he had plundered for it to leave. He walked briskly towards the door and moved to open it, only to jump back slightly when it did so without his prompting. "Hello there, Chaos," Dr. Winters said as he appeared on the other side of the threshold. "When I saw that the electronic containment seal had been broken in this area I thought it might have been a malfunction, fancy seeing you there."

"Oh... I..." the husky said as he tried to quickly think of a good excuse for why he was there. "I just... wanted... to..." he was cut short when the tiger just rose a hand and waved it dismissively in front of him.

"May I see it?" August said as he pointed to the item in question, Chaos swallowing hard as he handed the item over to him. The tiger looked at the plushie and sighed, giving it a cursory examination before handing it back. "I suppose Newlyn was a friend of yours... must be hard, him being one of the first that had turned back when all of this seemed like a plausible reality."

"Uh, yeah, he was," Chaos replied quickly as he took the plush back. "What do you mean when you said this seemed like a plausible reality? Is it not anymore?"

The tiger looked like he was about to say something when he closed his mouth and looked away for a second as though to compose himself before finally speaking. "I honestly don't know what's reality anymore," August confessed with a shrug. "We're losing personnel every other day now and I fear that we're all already doomed to become one of those creatures, just like what Serathin had said before he got here. I thought we could find a way to stop it, maybe even have man and Bal'Kar live peacefully together, but if we keep losing people... sorry, I shouldn't be burdening you with this, next time you want something of your friend's please go through the proper channels, alright?"

Chaos quickly nodded and thanked the tiger before leaving with the stuffed animal still clutched in his hands. Though he tried not to show it he could tell he was moving a little faster than normal through the hallways in order to get to his room, heart racing in his chest as he immediately closed and locked the door behind him. While he wasn't sure he had gotten away with what he had done he knew that for the time being that he was safe, which was enough for him as he put the plushie on the desk before reaching to retrieve the actual item he had gone to get. He was just glad he had decided to tuck it away as he pulled the laptop computer from the back waistband of his pants and put it on the bedspread.

As Chaos waited for the screen to boot up he felt his anxiety growing even more than during his confrontation with Dr. Winters. In the back of his mind he knew that he was going down the rabbit hole, but something inside him compelled him to push forward as he saw the login screen pop up. It was the moment of truth at this point and his fingers shook slightly as he put in the password that had been given to him by his friend. Once he put the last one in he got a message saying that the information had been denied, causing his stomach to sink into his feet until he saw something that caused him to mentally smack himself.

"Of course capslock is on," he grumbled to himself as he once more put in the passcode correctly. Once he was done he pressed the enter key and only had to wait a few seconds before the laptop welcomed him and brought him to the desktop screen. The husky's eyes widened as he realized that it had worked, which meant that Erin and probably Newlyn were not just figments of his imagination struggling to cope with the events going on at the facility. But if that's the case, that would mean that maybe Dr. Winters was righter than he had thought...

Either way Chaos knew where he needed to go next, opening the hidden partition that contained the secret camera feed inside the Bal'Kar cavern. With all the modifications going on he half-expected that the camera would have been destroyed already, but once it found the signal he saw that it was still completely fine. His guess was that they didn't disturb its location on purpose in case someone like him logged in to take a look, though all he could see at the moment was the glowing green bio-extract pools. It didn't take long, though, for him to see someone moving into the shot, the husky's mouth opening slightly when he saw Newlyn come in and wave at the camera like he knew he was there.

Though the snow leopard was in his guise form it was clear that there had been some fundamental changes to the feline since Chaos had last seen him. The most striking difference was the eyes, those glowing green orbs seemed to stare right into his soul as several shiny black tentacles peeked their way out of his body. It was clear that he was in his original form for his benefit, though the husky wondered how the Bal'Kar knew he was about to come online. Unfortunately there was no way that he could ask as the feed didn't include sound going in either direction, though it seemed that Newlyn had a plan for this, too, as he held up a finger. Chaos' eyes remained glued to the screen as he watched two larger tentacles grow their way out of his back, the ends forming flower-like petals before they opened to reveal a similar set of glowing green eyes that were the hallmark of what some of the others called controller tentacles.

Even though he had heard the stories of what they could do Chaos couldn't help but watch them as they curled around the snow leopard, Newlyn giving them a pet before looking back at the husky and gesturing at them. The husky was a bit confused at what he was trying to say by that, especially when he did it again and then pointed at him. Was he supposed to be getting hypnotized by them or something? Even though they did move in a hypnotic pattern he wasn't feeling anything in particular from them, though apparently something happened because the Bal'Kar gave him the thumbs up as the fur on his fingers began to transform into shiny rubber and white bone.

Chaos continued to watch the screen as he believed he was about to watch his friend transform, though the screen was mostly filled with the watchful gaze of the controller tentacle that seemed to be staring at him. He looked away from the screen in order to shift his position while hoping that he was able to see more of the transformation. When he looked back he saw the controller tentacle was now closer to the camera than ever... at least that's what he thought until it blinked. His eyes widened as the controller tentacle rose up and continued to look straight at him as he realized that it was inside the room.

The husky fell backwards on his bed as the controller tentacle began to push its way forward, and when he kicked the laptop away he found that it wasn't connected to the screen at all. Soon it was joined by a second one and as he tried to hold them back and look away he felt a tugging against his back. It didn't take much for him to realize where they were coming from, feeling the pressure against his back from the tentacles that had somehow emerged out of his flesh. It caused the confused male to accidently slip his grasp and they immediately got within a few inches of his face as those seether tentacles underneath those eyes wiggled right in front of his muzzle.

Almost immediately there was an intense psychic wave that washed over him, one that caused his entire body to become inflamed with lust. He could feel his eyes widen as he could feel their power growing inside, his hands grabbing against his body as his back arched slightly in pleasure. There was nothing he could do, even if he wanted to run those eyes kept him completely enthralled and lying there on the bed. He couldn't even think about doing such a thing though as his hands quickly drifted down towards his groin while under the careful watch of the controllers.

"That's it..." Newlyn's voice came dripping out of the ether as Chaos began to stroke himself. "Give in to the lussstssss... let them guide you into new realms of pleasure like you've never experienced before..." those words continued to echo in his mind as he began to stroke his fully erect cock, the husky hardly able to comprehend what was happening to him. As those watchful green eyes continued to bathe him in their glowing light he was finally able to pry his gaze away from them, only to look down on his own member that he had gripped with his fingers as it oozed a green slime over them instead of his usual pre.

Just as Chaos began to get his own thoughts to rise above the pleasure he felt another burst of psychic energy, except this time he could clearly feel it connected to something besides the controllers as he began to pant. He could feel himself grow connected not only to the snow leopard that had been on the surveillance camera, but also the others that were down there as well. As his mind opened to them he could feel theirs do the same to him, giving him the knowledge of the Bal'Kar that he hadn't even realized he needed until that moment. The canine could feel the sensation of his skin beginning to crawl as more of that thick bio-extract began to ooze out of his mouth. This was happening, Chaos thought as his orgasm quickly approached, he was turning into a Bal'Kar...

Just as he came he let out a cry of pure bliss as he climaxed harder than ever in his entire life, his entire body thrusting upwards from the force of it and freezing it there until he was finished. After what felt like an eternity he finally collapsed back on his bed as the last of his seed dribbled out, though after he had finished panting and looked down at it he realized that the liquid was once more the normal white he had been used to. He reached up his other hand to his face to find that the liquid he had felt dribbling out of it was no longer there either as he slowly sat up from the bed. The biggest disappearance was the controllers that had been hovering over him right up until he came, and even though he could still feel the lust they generated and see them in his mind's, eye they were nowhere to be found.

As he slowly regained his composure he saw something that caused him to sober up very quickly as he gasped. "No no no!" he shouted as he hopped off his bed and knelt down on the floor where the laptop sat, the screen cracked completely down the middle and the casing busted. "Damnit! I must have kicked it off my bed... now how am I going to communicate with Newlyn..."

"Who said that you would need something like that to do it?" Newlyn said once more, Chaos looking up from the broken computer before jumping up and hugging the snow leopard. He felt another pair of arms around him and knew that Erin was there, too, with the three friends finally being back together once more. "Well it's certainly good to see you, too."

"I didn't think I would ever see you guys again," Chaos said as he broke up the hug between them.

"You don't think that we would forget you?" the snow leopard replied with a grin. "Now that you're more integrated into the hivemind we can finally communicate a little more effectively. Now all we have to do is get you into the caverns and get you fully converted, obviously we couldn't have you go full Bal'Kar here otherwise Dr. Winters would likely burn the entire facility to the ground."

Though Chaos nodded there was something very strange about having a transitioning mind of a Bal'Kar despite still possessing the body of a canine. There was something else as well... as Newlyn continued to look at him he realized that he owed so much to the snow leopard, but there was something more than that as well. He didn't have a way to say it, but there was a very deep connection between the two that he couldn't put his finger on and that he possibly couldn't until he had been properly indoctrinated. Even though the canine had been completely connected to the hivemind he wasn't able to translate the lust that he felt, which the two only attempted to do briefly until they saw the husky sprawl out on the ground practically humping the floor, and resorted once more to talk through the more normal means of communication instead.

"We're going to need you to get in contact with our inside man as soon as possible," Newlyn instructed. "Until then we're going to try and keep you off the grid as much as we can... but I can't guarantee that our lusts won't spill over to you. Once you meet with him he can help you with where to go. While we would love to guide you, ourselves, this connection will only serve to make it harder for you to resist the lust of the Bal'Kar, and we don't want you on Dr. Winters' radar."

The two exchanged one more hug and Chaos even found himself bowing slightly to the two two Bal'Kar, though primarily to Newlyn. When he averted his eyes back up from it he found that they were gone, taking the destroyed laptop and throwing it away before walking down the hallway as fast as he could. As he did he realized he didn't even know who he was looking for, though with the link of the Bal'Kar he could sense that there was someone that was one in guise form somewhere in the facility. It had to be someone who didn't have a lot of clearance... all the sensitive areas in the lab have pressure plates beneath them so that they know when a Bal'Kar is stepping on one with their immense weight...

"Chaos!" a voice shouted, causing the canine to nearly jump to the ceiling before he turned around and saw an armadillo that was his supervisor running up towards him. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. Where are you going?"

This time the husky was more than prepared with an answer should someone had caught him in the hallway. "Just heading down to the cafeteria to get some lunch," he quickly said as he motioned down the hall he was walking in. "Why?"

"Didn't you get the memo?" his supervisor asked, Chaos trying not to shake as he shook his head. "Good thing I caught you, then, Dr. Winters wants all of the essential research personnel to meet in lab seven in order to discuss new protocols for spore containment. C'mon, if we don't go now we're going to walk in on it late, and then everyone is going to stare."

Staring was the last thing that Chaos needed, particularly as he looked at the other male with lustful intent that he tampered back down before following him down the opposite hall...