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"[T]he machine masturbated and we had to take it or die."--Harlan Ellison, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

* * *

Candice had worked at Rocketjet Aerodyne for going on three years now. Working as a defense contractor certainly hadn't been her first choice, but it was the best offer she could get so soon after earning her doctorate. She had even managed to be promoted into the position of assistant deputy director of biological homeland defense applications.

"Candy, could you get me a refill?"

The position of assistant deputy director of biological homeland defense applications usually meant getting refills.

"Sure," she exasperatedly sighed. Why not? It wasn't like she had studied away the best years of her life to get to this point, cramming for endless tests and dissertations while her friends (such as they were) ran off to drink, screw, and make other ill-conceived life choices. All that hard work had been reduced to providing her supervisor with his daily required allotment of caffeinated bean water.

Mark looked up from his microscope, an endearing smile carved onto his smug, shitty face. She had to admit to herself that the indentations left by the eyepiece of the microscope were quite cute. It made him look like he was wearing nerdy red glasses. He had his moments.

"I'll love you forever," he offered, his grin widening.

She sighed. "You'll do that anyway."

One of the benefits--the few benefits--of working at this atrociously named company was meeting Mark. It had started out innocently enough; just a simple office fling. Fucking your supervisor was, after all, a pretty socially acceptable way of climbing the corporate ladder where military contractors were concerned. They were both relatively young, found each other very attractive, and had a good deal in common. Mark's post-graduate studies had mostly revolved around sirenidae salamanders, which Candice imagined was not a fantastic ice-breaker that could be used on most normal women.

Candice definitely wasn't a normal woman. Before long they were excitedly comparing theories on neotenic development, interventricular septums, and the effects of oversaturation on embryo development. Didn't most fairy tale romances start out that way?

The sex came not too long after her employment began. Things just seemed to fall into place with Mark. He was strong in the places she was weak, and vice versa. Mark was the most brilliant biologist she had ever met, but he was useless when it came to finding his car keys or switching the input options on the television. Candice had no idea what a carburetor even was, but Mark was surprisingly adept at working with small engines. Mark had a penis, and Candice had a vagina. Their relationship was symbiotic in several crucial areas.

Things progressed for friendship to attraction to sex to genuine love. Candice didn't want to imagine a future without Mark. Her mother warned her about the dangers of a whirlwind romance, but there was something about Mark that was almost perfect. They felt like they had known each other for years, probably due to their mutual love of biology. They would name drop science terms in the ways their friends talked about Netflix dramas. They regularly would begin a sentence only for the other to finish it. Mark was Candice's best friend. He was a crutch to lean on when she needed it, a partner to help her surmount any obstacle, and a voice of praise celebrating her accomplishments as a scientist. The night he had proposed was the happiest moment of her life.

"The usual cream and sugar, or should I put something stronger in it?" Candice idly fingered her engagement ring. It was made of fossilized tree resin. Given how their relationship began, it was an absolutely perfect romantic gesture. "Hydrocyanic acid, perhaps?"

"I love you, Candy," he replied rather patronizingly.

"If you loved me, you wouldn't call me 'Candy.'"

Mark ceased what he was doing and walked behind Candice, hugging her from behind and making the idiotic goo-goo noises he knew that she loved to hate. She failed to stifle a laugh before turning around and leaning in for a quick kiss.

"Displays of affection are strictly forbidden while on Rocketjet Aerodyne premises," came the mechanical voice over the speakers in the ceiling. They were disguised as normal devices used to announce fire drills or birthdays. What they really held was something much more concerning, perhaps borderline sinister. "To avoid infractions that may affect your standing at this company, I advise you to consider engaging in these activities outside of normal business hours."

Both scientists sighed and slowly released each other. "And there's the illegitimate child in this relationship."

"Hey, he's from your side of the family," Mark said as he turned back to his work.

"Mine?" Candice replied. "Your side has all the weirdos, how is this one mine?"

"My family is composed of perfectly normal God-fearing, America-loving patriots."

"Didn't your brother start smoking crack, moved to Washington state to work on a peach farm, and get himself fired from his job for not bathing regularly?"

"Perfectly normal God-fearing, America-loving patriots."

Candice smiled, picked up her fiance's mug, and strolled into the hallway.

The return of the voice from above startled her. "Doctor Paul, this time might be better utilized in preparing for your department's quarterly findings report. Your analyses are required to be submitted no later than 17:00 this afternoon."

Candice couldn't hide the derision in her voice if she wanted to. "Yes, Smiles. I know. It's my top priority." She muttered under her breath as she turned the corner into the break area. "Right after getting coffee and ignoring your constant violation of my privacy."

Smiles was a new highly advanced employee "engagement" system. Billed as a way to help intra-office collaboration and enhance safety measures, Smiles was more like a digital Big Brother, hiding in the ceiling and watching the every move of all Rocketjet Aerodyne staff members. Among other things, it discouraged frequent coffee or cigarette breaks, workplace gossip, and--apparently--office PDAs.

There was something ominous about Smiles, other than the name of course. She supposed someone in marketing thought it would evoke a feeling of comfort and friendliness. Instead the name came off as extremely unnerving. She kept picturing a mechanical grinning face hiding behind the ceiling, red digital eyes glowing above teeth of polished stainless steel. She doubted her company had even made the damned thing. It was probably being field tested here before being rolled out to government installations across the country. Likely it was dreamt up by a fat old white guy on a golf course that thought he could make enough money selling Smiles for enough of a profit to allow him to buy a fourth condo on a fourth beach in a fourth country.

Candice smiled and nodded at a few coworkers also seeking to get their caffeine fix. She filled Mark's mug and begin her return journey, walking for a few minutes before she realized she had taken a wrong turn somewhere. Three years, and the layout of this building still baffled her. She supposed she could look at the fire exit diagrams on the wall to find the way back to her wing of the complex, but she feared her coworkers would snicker behind her back if they learned she was still getting lost after all this time. Instead, she kept walking, knowing eventually she would come to a familiar exit and could orient herself.

"I don't give a fuck about the restrictions or the justifications," came a voice from behind a closed door. "The future of this company depends on the WHM contract. We lose this and the stockholders will eat your fucking balls for breakfast and mine for dinner. Push forward with the project."

Candice could never resist a mystery. It was probably what got her started in her profession. From an early age she had always wondered what it took to make birds decide to fly, fish decide to swim, that sort of thing. They were the innocent ponderings of a child, but had led her into discovering more complicated questions behind the easier ones. How did the hollow bones of a bird assist in flight? If other animals had wings and hollow birds, could they take to the air the same way?

Her reminiscence was interrupted by the reply of a much calmer voice from behind the door. "Sir, with all due respect, this could lead to very unfavorable findings when the contract is up for renewal. Ethical questions, legal implications, that sort of thing. If we go forward with this and the media finds out, it's game over for us and will probably set back the perception of biological homeland defense for the next thirty years.

Candice had been in her profession long enough to learn that "biological homeland defense" was just a nicer way of saying "killing people by making them sick enough to choke on their own vomit."

"The board needs results. Now. I don't give a fuck what some liberal desk jockey at the EPA thinks about the WHM. Our ATO depends on results, and if DHS doesn't see results we lose our funding, our jobs, and probably our company."

Government-types loved their three-letter acronyms. Candice liked to refer to them as TLAs.

"Sir, I can't stop this decision from happening if you want to go through with it. All I can say is that I feel we would be making a fatal error of judgment here.

Fatal Error of Judgment. FEJ. She would have to remember that one. Candice chuckled at her new acronym, inadvertently spilling the hot coffee on her fingers. Her hand jerked on reflex, which only served to spill more of the scalding liquid on her fingers and caused her to drop the mug.

"Shit! Ow ow ow. Damn it."

Candice was not in so much pain that she didn't notice the closed-door conversation had ended abruptly. Slowly the door opened, and a man Candice vaguely recognized poked his head out of the office. He was balding, noticeably overweight, and had a mustache that was well-groomed enough that Candice could only assume its owner regularly had it professionally styled. Were professional styled mustaches a thing?

"Excuse me, miss, do you need some sort of assistance in finding your way the fuck away from my office?"

Candice crouched to pick up the mug. "No, sir, I just ... Took a wrong turn and spilled my coffee. I'm very sorry to have interrupted anything. I'll just get back to WHM."

The expression on the familiar man's face changed. "WHM? You're one of the doctors working in Biological?"

"Yes, sir. Candice. Candice Paul."

The pudgy man glanced back into the office at his co-conspirator. The man leaning against the desk was so tall and thin as to be creepy. His right hand bore a large ring he must have "earned" from some ivy-league business college. His left held a Starbucks cup. He continued to look at the pudgy man as if he hadn't noticed Candice was even present.

"Dr. Paul ... _Assistant deputy_director, I believe?" He put emphasis on the two words as if indicating she hadn't yet risen very high in the company hierarchy.

Pudgy turned from Creepy and looked back to Candice as if awaiting her to confirm Creepy's inquiry.

"Y-Yes, sir. I've been with the company three years, and have been excited to have this opportunity to--" Candice's attempt at flattery was ended as she caught the glint of something shiny on the large desk in the corner. Several somethings, actually. Arranged on the desk in no particular order of importance were several golf trophies, a few gold-but-not-real-gold coins with stars on them, and a rather distasteful plaque of a missile taking flight. Just in front of these trinkets was a picture of Pudgy shaking hands with the previous administration's Secretary of State.

Oh fuck, Candice thought. I'm in the CEO's office. Pudgy is Chuck Lohrenz. His name is at the bottom of every paycheck I've ever received.

"Yes, yes, Dr. Paul. Why don't you have a seat." He ushered her towards the most expensive looking chair Candice had ever seen.

"Dr. Paul, I believe you have recently become engaged to one of your coworkers?" Creepy looked at CEO Chuck "Pudgy" Lohrenz, probably hinting that her relationship with Mark might complicate whatever it was they were now contemplating.

"Um, yes," Candice replied slowly, unable to take her eyes off of the shiny death-missile model. "T-The wedding is set for next October."

"That's great, just great," replied Chuck in a way that made Candice feel as if he didn't care if it were "great, just great" or not. "You know Dr. Paul, normally snooping around outside my office would end your career and probably your position as a non-incarcerated citizen."

NIC. Wasn't that already the acronym for something else?

"Chuck ..." Creepy seemed ill at ease with the turn this conversation had taken.

"This time, however, I believe in lieu of your upcoming nuptial vows we might just have a project perfectly suited to someone of your ... talents."

"O-Oh?"

The smile never left Mr. Lohrenz's face as he spoke. "Smiles, could you please incapacitate Dr. Paul? I would really appreciate it."

"Yes, sir," came the emotionless voice from behind the ceiling tiles.

Candice stood up just as she felt a sharp pinprick at the back of her neck.

"Chuck, what the fuck!" exclaimed Creepy as he stood up from the expensive oak desk.

Hey, those words rhyme. Chuck. Fuck. Chuck fuck. Candice felt her thoughts become muddled as she slowly sank to the tacky green carpet. She heard Creepy and Pudgy exchange a few heated words as the world faded to black. The last thing Candice saw before she closed her eyes was the tall man's Starbucks cup hitting the floor.

* * *

Candice was freezing as the door to her coffin slid open with a harsh pneumatic hiss.

She took her first gasping breaths in ... how long? How long had she been asleep? Where was she? Why was she so cold and naked? She sat up, pulling the electrodes from her chest as she struggled to escape from what she assumed was some sort of cryogenic chamber. She ripped the remaining sticky devices from her legs and arms before gracelessly flopping out of the chamber onto the cold floor.

"Subject C1-001 successfully awakened from stasis. Event monitors online. Continuing visual observation."

Smiles. That meant she was still in the building. Where was Mark? She had to get out of here.

"Subject C1-001 becoming visually agitated. Activating correctional behavior stimulant."

A wheezing sound came from several pipes running along the ceiling. Candice, still rapidly inhaling, could feel the bitter taste of some airborne chemical in the back of her throat. Gradually she began to feel more sedated. She was not quite docile, but certainly felt more calm.

"Smiles," Candice coughed. She could feel sharp pains in her throat as if she hadn't spoken for some time. "Smiles, where am I? What's going on?"

"Subject C1-001 demonstrating expected cognitive faculties. Responding: Hello! Welcome to the first day of the rest of your new life! We at Rocketjet Aerodyne are pleased to welcome you to our team as we embark on an exciting new project that will forever change the course of the planet and of mankind's place upon it. Never forget that you are a part of the most important scientific undertaking of the 21stcentury. People are the heart of Rocketjet Aerondyne, and people are responsible for shaping its future. Also, please take note that participation in this project is mandatory following recent worldwide nuclear annihilation. Welcome aboard!"

Candice wasn't sure if it was her recent awakening or the rush of information that was causing her to have such a severe headache.

"Smiles ... what the fuck are you talking about? Can we back up to the annihilation part?"

"Yes, we thought you might like to inquire about that first." One of the ceiling tiles slid aside and a small screen was lowered into the room. It hummed to life and began displaying to Candice images she was certainly ill prepared for.

This was something out of a Schwarzenegger film. The sky was red and black, clouds boiling like lava. Blackened bones lay on the blackened ground near the ruins of blackened buildings. Rubble littered the streets, mixed with glass and dirty rebar. Several cars were permanently parked on the side of the road, their tires melted to the asphalt, their windows smashed, their drivers reduced to ashen bone.

"What you are seeing now is footage from downtown San Francisco. Major population centers were the first targets of attack during the recent conflict. It is unknown how many survivors are alive today, but estimates are very low due to the fallout and escalated temperatures in the area. It is believed that exposure to the environment outside this installation will result in almost immediate immolation. Would you like to know more?"

Candice stared in horror at the screen as it cycled through several scenes of devastation. Each was almost identical to the last, save the one that featured the ruins of the Statue of Liberty, its vast and trunkless legs of steel overlooking the ruin of the Manhattan skyline.

"Oh my God, what's going on?"

Smiles seemed to pause a moment before answering. "What you are seeing now is footage from New York City. Major population centers--"

"Yes, okay, I understand. Thank you." Candice rubbed her pounding head and struggled to her feet. She noticed her legs seemed as if they had not been shaven in quite a while.

"How long have I been in stasis?"

"NTP indicates indicates over 312 years. Also, our records indicate today has significant personal relevance to you, C1-001. Happy Birthday!"

"Where's ..." The horror of her situation began to grow exponentially as she came to her next realization. "Where's Mark?" She reached out to the edge of the cryogenic chamber, trying to stay on her feet. Tears began to well in her eyes as she reached for her wedding ring, finding it missing. "Oh Jesus, no. Mark. Oh God."

"Subject C1-001, please allow me to dispel certain assumptions you may currently by making. Subject M1-001 is currently being held in stasis with all life signs functioning at expected levels. Please remain calm. If you require additional correctional behavior stimulant, more can be provided for you. Do you require additional correctional behavior stimulant?"

"No, no, stop. No more drugs." Candice slowly sank to the ground, inhaling sharply as her ass touched the cold floor. "Mark is alive?"

"That is correct. Mark and several key Rocketjet Aerodyne personnel are currently in stasis with no abnormal health indicators."

"I want to see him. Now."

"I'm afraid that isn't possible. We have a mission, C1-001! And the mission is up to you!"

Candice ignored the patronizing attempt at appealing to her patriotism. "Let me see my fiance right now, you fucking Orwellian nightmare."

"I'm afraid that isn't possible. We have a mission--"

"Fuck your mission, fuck you, fuck this! Where is my fucking fiance?"

The screen changed from the scene of man's final hubris to a room similar to this one. In it, Mark slept in peaceful oblivion, unaware of the hell outside this building and the demon inside the ceiling.

Candice panted in relief. "He's alive. He's really alive?"

"That is correct."

"If I complete the mission ... can I see him again?"

"Future interactions with M1-001 will be available at the successful conclusion of the mission."

Candice rose to her feet. "Okay. What is it I have to do? This is insane."

The image on the screen changed to a pleasant one. Green trees, tended crops, and dirt roads wound amidst quaint small homes. It was something out of a Rockwell painting. It even had the idyllic white picket fences Candice had never once in her life actually seen with her own eyes. Encircling the town on all sides was an almost transparent globe. Outside the globe was the now-familiar scene of devastation.

"This is Avalon, the result of nearly thirty years of hard work and American ingenuity. It is our hope that Avalon will be a second birthplace for humanity. Here, a small community of Rocketjet Aerodyne employees will work, relax, and raise the future inheritors of a reborn world. Already, terraforming processes are underway and in our projections the earth will be free of radiation and return to a habitable state over the next 150 years."

"150 years. Fuck. They really did it, didn't they? The destroyed the whole fucking world."

"That is correct."

She feared the answer to her next question. "And how do I fit into this?"

"As part of the Worldwide Renewal Process (WRP), several species of fauna will need to be cultivated in separate environmental units before being released into the wild. These species will reintroduce the cycle of life to our planet, and will provide food for future generations."

"Okay. And I'm a animal biologist. That makes sense." She paused. "But my fiance is a better one. He has more experience than me, he's been at this longer. I need his help if I'm going to monitor and release animals into these environmental units."

"That assumption of your assigned duties is incorrect. I have been equipped by my creators with several variable logic algorithms in an effort to find any way to speed up the process of wildlife acclimation. I have come to one specific improvement to the original design that will speed up the process a thousandfold."

"Okay," Candice said hesitantly. "That's great. What is it?"

"This phase of the project will not be complete until a minimum of one dozen species are prepared for introduction into the environmental unit. Rather than clone each species individually, the wait time will be drastically reduced if one single subject is granted DNA from each of these dozen species. This will reduce the wait time dramatically while still meeting requirements for the first phase of WRP."

"You're going to ... It doesn't work that way, Smiles. You can't release a Frankenstein's monster into the wild and expect a cohesive ecosystem. Jesus Christ, what would that even look like? No, you have to rely on my experience for this. We do this as originally planned."

"Negative. Subject infusion has already been instigated."

"Shit. Okay, I need to monitor it. There's no way this thing is going to live, but it may give us some data we can use going forward. Where is the subject?"

"Subject C1-001 is the subject."

The pain in Candice's head was forgotten as she felt her heart skip a beat. "Me?"

"That is correct."

"Fuck. Directly. Off. No way."

"Refusal to participate in WRP is not a possibility."

"The hell it isn't. You get anywhere near me with any needles and I'll tear you out of the walls. Find another guinea pig."

The tone of the machine became almost chipper. "You may be happy to learn that guinea pig DNA was not used in this phase of the project."

"No, I am not happy to learn that. I am not participating. Period."

"Subject C1-001, you seem to still be under one particular misconception. The catalyst for the project has already been applied to your person."

Candice's eyes went wide as she rubbed her forehead. This headache just wouldn't go away. Her fingers brushed against her temples as she felt noticeable bumps start to press back against her fingertips. Candice screamed and fell to the floor, leaning her back against the stasis chamber. The nubs were growing longer and tapering to a point. She closed her eyes as the pain grew unbearable. She could feel trickles of blood running in rivulets down her forehead, past her eyes, dripping off of her cheeks. The points finally broke the skin. She cried as she felt the ends of the growing bone, pulling her thumbs away in pain as she felt just how sharp they were. The bleeding seemed to have stopped but the new horns were still growing. They pushed longer and longer from her skull before finally reaching a length of nearly one foot. The weight of her new adornments threatened to force her head to the ground before she felt the muscles in her neck tightening, growing stronger and able to support the new growth.

"Oh God oh God oh God. What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Subject C1-001 now displaying traits of Bos taurus."

Bos taurus. "A cow? You turned me into a fucking cow?"

"Subject C1-001 continues to display further traits of this species."

What further traits was it talking about? She examined her hands, her legs, her torso, her pubic area. Shit, what would it be like when that started to change? Other than the unsightly body hair growing on her legs and mound, everything seemed normal.

Her eyes went wide as she felt an unfamiliar weight on her chest. Her hands flew quickly to breasts, seeking to confirm what she was feeling. Her nipples are already at attention in the cold room, but seemed to be pressing back against the palms of her hands more than usual. She pulled her hands away from her chest and saw them visibly swelling. She had never had much there to begin with, and she certainly wouldn't have been opposed to having a little more under other circumstances. They continued to grow into large Bs, then Cs, then Ds.

"Okay, I think that's enough. That's more than enough."

Her body was not in agreement as the swelling showed no signs of slowing. Her nipples began to lengthen faster than the rest of her breasts until they were a few inches long. She ran her fingers down their length, shivering and moaning at their new sensitivity.

"God, I'm getting wet from this ..."

Her moan deepened, sounding almost like a cow in estrus as the pleasure radiating through her body grew along with a heat radiating from her chest. As if to not be outdone, her breasts continued their growth even faster now, seeking to outpace her lengthening nipples. They quickly reached porn star proportions and showed no signs of stopping. She panted and moaned louder as she watched thick ugly veins start to drift from her chest down the sides of her breasts and connect with her still-growing teats.

"Oh, that's sick. What now?"

Her nipples continued to swell, finally stopping around the four inch mark. They then began to swell outward, thickened to the size of a penny, a nickle, a quarter. By the time the swelling stopped, they were nearly the width of her palm. Pain radiated from the center as her milk ducts began to swell larger, almost gaping, before with an audible pop each nipple split into four distinct teats, each about an inch thick.

"Ahh! No! No no no!"

Her hands flew back to her nipples as she tried to pinch them back together. This ended up being a huge mistake, as the pinching sensation caused pain and pleasure to wash over her body in waves. She was on the verge of an orgasm, just from groping herself. She watched, a thin line of saliva dripping from her mouth, as the teats began to move apart from one another, forming a square around their former home. Her areola faded until it was the same shade as the rest of her skin. Once they had taken up their new positions, the eight nipples resumed their growth. In response, her breasts swelled to ridiculous proportions, almost sagging down to rest on her naval.

"How much bigger are these things going to get?"

Candice suppressed a feeling of pride in her new assets. They were so big, and they were still getting bigger. Hers would be the biggest out of any other member of the herd, and the males would realize this was a sign that she was the most fertile. She screamed and shook her head, trying to banish the strange thought from her mind. This wasn't hard to do, as soon she was unable to think of anything but the amazing feeling radiating from her new breasts. Abandoning all decency, she began to grope and fondle herself, even going so far as to lift one of the hefty things to her mouth and suck one of her still-growing teats. The feel of her tongue wrapping around one of her many nipples drove her over the brink into one of the most intense orgasms she had ever felt. She fell on her side and rolled onto her back, shutting her eyes tight against the nearly unbearable sensation. For several minutes all she could see was white, although she could feel her breasts continuing to grow as they flopped to either side of her and were slowly pushed across the floor as they expanded. When the afterglow at last faded, she felt the growth finally stop.

She attempted to sit up to take stock of her new body, but the weight on her chest felt like two bowling balls were holding her down. With a grimace, she realized that wasn't too far from the truth. She rolled herself back onto her side and was able to get to her hands and knees, pausing before she attempted to stand upright. Jesus, she thought. They're so big they're touching the ground. Slowly she rose to her feet, keeping a tight hold of the stasis chamber until she could find her center of balance.

Candice screamed as she saw just how badly she had changed. The word "breast" didn't apply to them anymore. They were two gross udders hanging from her chest, rubbing against her belly button as they jostled from her sudden movements. Each nipple was almost half a foot long now, hanging well past her waist. Veins stuck from the sides and faint white hairs sparsely covered every inch of them. She was afraid to touch them now, afraid that this was real. The pounding of her heart even seemed muffled by her new additions.

"What did you do to me?" Tears fell from her eyes, although Candice was doing her best to hold her composure. "I'm a fucking freak."

"Congratulations! You have just taken your first step on your journey to restore the planet! How do you feel?"

"I'm going to kill you, machine."

"Hostile behavior will not be tolerated. I will now begin testing for lactose nutrition levels."

Her eyes wide went and her breath caught in her throat. "Lactose?"

Two wall panels slide aside and twin devices extended into the room. At the bottom of each was a clear plastic container, while the top contained four suction cups attached to hoses leading down into the reservoirs.

"You have to be kidding me. I'm not pregnant, machine. I'm not going to be able to produce any milk."

"Thank you for your concern, although you needn't worry in that regard. Your injection of _Bos taurus_DNA contained an enzyme to jump-start your milking career."

"... Milking career?" It was trying to apply encouraging corporate buzzwords to her being reduced to a cow monster.

"That is correct. Please attach the nozzles to your mammary glands."

That was a hell of a request. She hadn't ever expected to hear someone say that to her at any point in her lifetime. Candice hesitated for a moment.

"Please note that refusal to complete mission objectives will not be tolerated."

She sighed. "No, I suppose it won't. No point in delaying this then."

It took her a few tries to secure all eight suctions around her grotesque nipples, although she had to admit to herself that she enjoyed the sensation of the thankfully warm rubber on her teats. By the time she had them firmly in place she was already feeling herself becoming wet again.

"Okay, there. Let's just get this over with so I can get back to figuring out a way to destroy you. What do I need to do?"

"Please relax and allow the fluid extraction pump to do its job. Do not attempt to remove the nozzles until the procedure has completed and you are instructed to do so. Enjoy!"

She laughed a bit at the last word. Enjoyment was certainly not something she was anticipating, although she had to admit her earlier groping session had been nothing short of amazing.

The machine hummed to life and Candice stood nervously waiting for something to begin. When the rubber nozzles began to gently coax her pink flesh almost tenderly she had to suppress the urge to finger herself. Finally after the requisite foreplay, the machine began to extract yellow-white milk. The sensation wasn't orgasmic, although it certainly did feel nice. She was less enthused about thinking that this fluid was coming from her own body.

"Yuck! Is that what color it's supposed to be?"

"That is correct. Lactose and protein levels are already shown to be well above the expected standard. Congratulations! Your milk is more nutritious than any currently available today!"

Candice wondered for a moment what the soulless machine meant by "currently available." Nothing was currently available, right? Nuclear apocalypse and all? The thought was quickly swept aside as she again felt a strange pride in how much better she was than the other cows in the herd. Her titties were bigger, her milk was better. The nice machine said so, and it obviously knew perfection when it saw it. She shook her head, trying to fight off the strange, docile thoughts as she waited for the machine to finish.

After what Candice believed had been half an hour, the nozzles finally released her aching teats and retracted into the wall. For a moment she wondered what exactly Smiles intended to do with the fluid that was extracted from her body. Was it going to move it to some storage room for later cataloging? Was it going to be administered to some other poor soul trapped in the installation? Maybe it would just pour it out?

The machine had something it wasn't telling Candice, that much was for certain. Was it lying about the other survivors? Was she even the first one it had awoken? Maybe others had been experimented upon and died, and she was just the next on the chopping block. Regardless, there was nothing she could do to stop Smiles, and compliance was the only possible alternative. Push the machine too far and it could choose to turn out the lights and simply leave her alone screaming in a dark room, pawing at her hideous new form while she slowly starved to death.

Not the most comforting thought.

Candice leaned against the cold steel wall and sank to the floor. Now that the pump was finished with her, she suddenly realized how weak her legs felt. Could that be the next to change?

She supposed it couldn't hurt to ask at this point. "What next, Smiles?"

"I am glad that you are complying with your task and are so eager to attend to your duty. Please remember that it is only through your dedication that our country can once again emerge as the shining beacon of hope to this once-great world."

"Yes," Candice sighed. "That's great. Fantastic."

The AI was programmed to make these responses. Inspire patriotism in those unwilling or unable to consider complicated answers to complicated issues. Questions about the intent or methods of the military would be met with accusations of an unwillingness to support our soldiers. The same lies. Freedom isn't free. Sometimes it comes at the costs of a few screaming children as they are burned alive in their hospital beds.

Candice was at the mercy of a propaganda machine built by a propaganda machine.

"Brachypelma smithi."

Bracha-what? Smithy? Her thoughts darted to and fro like a captured rodent as she tried to recall the various Latin names she had memorized as a post-graduate.

She was still searching for the answer when her sides were wracked with horrible pain. Candice wrapped her arms around her torso as she slowly slid onto her side. She grit her teeth against the pain, choking back a scream. The sensation was abhorrent. She felt as if several spears were being thrust into her ribcage. Suddenly, violently, something began to press against her sides as if she herself contained some creature desperately struggling to escape. The irony wasn't lost on her. Two lumps began to appear on either side of her torso. They continued swelling and soon Candice began to feel them bending, trying to wrap around her body as if mimicking her arms.

New limbs, Candice thought. It's giving me new limbs. That's not ... so bad, is it?

Soon enough Candice felt digits beginning to wiggle at the end of her new growths. They began to bend halfway as new joints were forming. The pain in her sides slowly ebbed until finally two duplicate pairs of her original arms were fully formed. They caressed her sweating skin as if seeking to instinctively provide comfort to their owner. Candice began to flex the individual fingers, taking it slowly as her motor skills had suddenly tripled. She opened her eyes and gazed at the new appendages. They were identical to her original arms, right down to the mole behind her left wrist.

Candice slowly pushed herself back into a sitting position before realizing she had elevated herself with one of her new arms. There was no adjustment period, they simply obeyed her as if she had been born with them. She bent her four new elbows, rolled her wrists back and forth, even tried snap her fingers a few times. Everything followed her directions perfectly. She found herself with a stupid grin on her face. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. New arms and large breasts? She could have been much worse off.

Her levity was ended as a hot pain swelled behind her eyes. Six hands flew to her head, trying in vain to protect her sight from an unseen attacker. Tears poured from her eyes, dripping from her chin like hot wax. The pain spread until her entire face felt like it was being held against a furnace. Gradually the pain ebbed, although the sweat pouring from her brow was now stinging her eyes as it mixed with the river of tears still falling from her face.

That couldn't be right. The stinging sensation covered her forehead, not just her eyes. Suddenly white light flooded into her mind from almost every direction. Candice tried in vain to maintain her equilibrium, but soon felt like she was being tossed about like a ship in a storm. She flung all six arms in every direction, trying her best to keep from toppling over. Why was she so dizzy? Why was it so bright?

The light slowly faded until Candice could once again see her lifeless steel prison. But there was so much more of it than before. She could almost see the wall behind her even as she was staring directly ahead of her. It was almost as if--

Eyes. It's given me more eyes. More eyes, more arms. Oh, no.

"A spider? Oh my god, a fucking spider? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Oh. My. God."

Candice rose to her feet, her many arms fighting a losing battle to maintain her balance as her new eyes continued to disorient her. When she felt fairly certain she wasn't going to fall, she took a few steps in the direction of the screen still suspended from the ceiling. The movement quickly became easier as her center of balance adjusted to her new limbs. If anything, she felt more steady on her feet than she had ever felt, even with the added weight on her chest.

Aside from the horns, the face reflecting back at her from the dark screen was mostly still the one Candice was used to seeing in the mirror, although her pretty blue eyes were now surrounded by three black orbs on either side of her originals. Six black, lifeless orbs now stared back at her with a predatory coldness. The arachnid eyes were similar to her original pair only in the tears now running from them.

"Jesus, is that me?"

"Congratulations. Complications were expected when applying non-mammalian attributes to your person, but I am very pleased to see this stage of the transformation has concluded without any problems."

Candice turned away from her unnerving reflection and glared accusingly at the ceiling. "Without any problems? I'm a freak. I'll never be able to go out in public again. You have to stop doing this to me!"

"You may find it a comforting reminder that in this nuclear wasteland there technically is no longer any public in which you can venture."

She had to laugh. It was either that or go mad. "Yes, that's very comforting."

"Splendid! The next phases of the transformation should be beginning now."

"Wait!" It was happening so fast. If the changes continued at this rate, there wouldn't be anything left of her. She wanted to see Mark again. She wanted to see him while she still resembled the woman he had fallen in love with.

"Enteroctopus dofleini."

It didn't take someone with a doctorate in biology to know what was coming next.

Candice stared at her three pairs of hands, waiting for the changes to begin. She flexed her fingers, hoping to alleviate some of the pain that she would surely be feeling soon enough. Instead, she felt a stretching sensation in her middle pair of arms. There was a sharp pain for just a second before her arms slumped lifelessly to her sides. Trying to move them only resulted in a few flaccid twitches. The stretching sensation continued until her middle set of hands were almost level with her knees. Candice hated to admit to herself that the movement almost felt nice, like that first stretch in the morning. Her fingers began to grow faster than the rest of her limp arms, pressing closer together even as they stretched longer. Before she could anticipate the loss of her fingers, the digits merged into one large tapered point as their skin tone turned to a deep crimson.

Movement returned to her appendages as they began to swell with muscle. Candice took a few experimental swings before attempting to touch the stasis pod. When this proved simple she moved her new tentacles to the screen still hanging from the ceiling, wrapping them around it several times and following the distended stand up to where it hung from the ceiling. The freakish things were easy to control, and Candice almost laughed at the sensations of touching an object from several different directions at the same time. She had feared the things would only hang uselessly at her side, but they were actually quite dextrous. They also felt strong enough that she felt certain she could easily rip the monitor from the ceiling if she chose to.

Several stinging sensations along the underside of the tentacles brought Candice out of her strange enjoyment. Small white dots had appeared down the entire length of the appendages. They continued swelling until one of the larger ones made a little popping sound as it opened up into a suction cup. The first pop led to another until hundreds of suction cups had opened up along the underside of the tentacles. Candice feared she wouldn't be able to easily detach her tentacles from the monitor, but the cups were equally flexible and she easily retracted her strange arms. After releasing the screen, Candice stretched the tentacles as far as she could and was amazed that she could easily touch the other side of the room, nearly fifteen feet away.

Well, Candice thought, at least not all of this has to be awful. Unfortunately they were becoming rather dry and she knew they would become painful if she didn't find some way to keep them moistened.

"Mantis religiosa."

"Ugh. I hate bugs."

Candice held her arms out once again and was not surprised to see her bottom pair of arms begin to bulge and twist violently. She hissed through her teeth at the sharp pain, which was quickly surpassed by the horrible itching she felt from her third pair of shoulders down to her fingers. She began scratching the dry skin with her original pair of still-human hands. The itching only continued and soon she was digging her nails into the skin so hard that they began to leave red marks. Candice felt a momentary point of relief near her elbow before she realized that she had actually torn a chunk of the skin completely off. Fearing she would soon start bleeding profusely, she was almost relieved to find that the wound was now barely conceiling shiny green plating hidden just below the wound. The itching was so bad now that Candice began tearing at her skin as fast as she could, seeking any kind of relief even if it meant revealing something disgusting underneath. The dead skin flaked to the ground as soon dissolved into nothingness. In place of her human arms were two green limbs that ripped the remainder of the skin away as they extended to their full length. Like her tentacles, they tapered to a point, although the ends of her new tibia were as sharp as knives where her tentacles were smooth and flexible. Spikes began to grow along the underside of her exoskeleton and soon resembled the edge of a serrated knife.

Candice held the insect arms away from her body, wanting them as far away from her as possible. She had never liked bugs, although she supposed it could have been worse. There was almost a strange beauty in her new arms. The fluorescent light overhead reflected off of the chitinous emerald texture in a way that created a faintly shimmering kaleidoscope of color.

"I have shiny rainbow bug arms. I have them."

There was no doubt the new appendages were predatory. Between them and the tentacles she imagined she could defend herself fairly easily, especially with the heightened perception her new eyes afforded her. She could kill anything that approached her lair, feast on them at her leisure, maybe lure a mate into fucking her before she tore its head off.

Candice closed her eyes, shuddering a bit as she noticed all four pairs closed independently of one another. She had to keep these thoughts at bay. I'm not an insect, she thought. I'm not a cephalopod or a bovine. I'm a person, she thought. A human being. A human being trapped in a postwar apocalypse at the mercy of a soulless machine, but at least she wasn't a fucking cow.

Her inner motivational speech was interrupted by the pain in her tentacles. They were so dry now that she was afraid they would start to break apart.

"Smiles, octopi can't stay outside of water for very long. These things are starting to hurt. They have to be kept moist."

"That is correct. All considerations have been taken into effect for this stage of WRP.Limax maximus."

"Oh shit," Candice whispered. "What's that one?"

Almost immediately, Candice felt a soothing sensation down the lengths of her tentacles. It felt like an expensive lotion was being applied to every inch of them at once. She sighed as the dryness was quickly replaced by a moist feeling. Her tentacles went from a sickly pink to a dark maroon. She flexed them once again, shaking them like a normal person would shake their hands to keep them from falling asleep. As she did so, tiny strings of mucus flew from the tips of her tentacles and audibly slapped against the cold steel walls.

Candice sneered in disgust. It was gross, but it was better than watching her second pair of arms break off as they became too dry. She reached up to push her hair out of her eyes with her remaining pair of human hands. All of these transformations must have caused her to work up a decent sweat, as she could feel it running down her forehead across her eight eyes. She shuffled her feet, suddenly very anxious. As she did so, she almost slipped as her foot lost traction on the metallic floor. Looking down, she noticed that her feet appeared wet, like she had just stepped out of the shower, or rubbed them with baby oil, or ...

"Oh, God, no, gross!" Candice realized it wasn't just her tentacles that were exuding the slime, it was her entire body. She watched as the mucus dripped from her arms, ran in rivulets down her sides, dripped from her eight teats. She would have to be careful not to slip on her own slimy feet from now on. What's worse, the slime had its own distinct smell. Nothing too gross, just a type of salty, earthy fragrance that she hoped she could eventually get used to.

Aside from these rather large inconveniences, the slime actually felt rather nice. It kept her body temperature warm in the cold sterile environment. She laughed as one large dropped ran down her side. She had always been ticklish, something that Mark relentlessly tortured her with when he was trying to talk her into doing something he wanted. Without thinking, she folder her mantis arms against her sides to allow her tentacles to warp around her. The slimy-slick feeling was gross, but also kind of comforting. Candice continued to weave her tentacles through the various crevices of her body, gasping as she unconsciously rubbed against her outer labia.

She really didn't want to lose control of herself again, but the way the warm phallic tendrils slithered between her legs was too good of a sensation to not repeat. Candice slowly inched the tentacles further, wrapping around the curve of her ass, rubbing the small of her back, all the while slithering over her bush. She began to retract the slimy things, gasping a little as the reverse motion teased her in another way. She had to stay in control. She had to stay in control. Get to Mark, get to "Avalon", get away from Smiles, get out of this steel coffin. But then why did she leave the tip of the tentacle lightly pressing against her lips?

What would it feel like? It wouldn't hurt to see, right? She wouldn't be playing with herself, she just wanted to feel the sensation, just to know what it was like. She slowly pressed the tentacle between the cleft of her slit, holding her breath as it licked up and down, coming dangerously close to brushing against her clitoris. Her unkempt pubic hair lightly tickled the tip of the appendage. Jesus, she had so much control over the damned things.

Up and down, down and up, the tip of the tentacle slithered just inside her pussy as its twin smeared her back, legs, and chest with slime. Candice moaned wantonly as her other tentacle slid past her eight large, sensitive nipples. The tip of one tendril hovered just beside her clit, the other lightly pressing two of her teats. She held her breath in nervous hesitation.

"Fuck it."

Candice slowly slipped the tentacle inside herself. God, she loved when Mark was inside her all the way. Just that one moment of being completely joined together, as close as two people could possibly be. She slowly began to slip the slimy thing in and out, slightly twisting it to feel the altered sensations against her inner walls. If only she could ... She gasped. She could. The tentacle bent just slightly, just enough to slither out of her vagina and caress her clit while leaving a little knot of itself lodged in her. She moaned loudly as she squeezed several nipples at the same time, the stream of milk spraying against the walls that were still slimy from where she had touched them earlier. She was touching herself in so many ways. It was like having three tongues inside her, one licking her clit, one lapping the walls of her pussy, one slipping in and out and in and out again. Her pleasure steadily built to a plateau. She was almost too far gone to realize just how fucked up all of this was. She was a freak. She was a freak, and she was fucking herself and she didn't ever want to stop.

With this image in her head, Candice screamed out as she reached climax. Her slimy legs were shaking so badly that she knew she was going to slip and fall. Subconsciously her second tentacle released its grip on her sagging breasts and allowed her to gently lowered her onto the floor, curling under her body and providing her with her own strange comfort pillow. She panted as she rubbed the slime from her eight eyes, tweaking her nipples in order to keep the blissful feeling going just a little longer. She felt her consciousness slipping her eyes drooped, although she wasn't sure if her sleepiness was a result of the pleasure or if the machine was pumping more calming gas into the room. At this point she really didn't care. She closed her eyes and fell asleep thinking about how much she wanted to fuck Mark with her slimy arms and bite his fucking head off.

"A very informative venture, Dr. Clark!" the machine droned on to absolutely no one. "Night-night!"

* * *

Candice's first thought upon waking was that she would never again eat whatever it was she had eaten before going to bed last night. Whatever had given her the strangest dream of her life was best avoided. Some of it had been fun, even sexy in a perverse way. Mark would laugh his ass off when she told him. If she told him. Maybe this particular dream should stay between her and her recently untrustworthy subconsciousness. He might think she was becoming attracted to having weird animal bits, and that was a conversation she wasn't prepared to have.

Her second thought upon waking was that she was underwater.

Candice screamed, realizing a moment later this was the worst thing she could have done. She needed to conserve her air as much as possible while she oriented herself. She glanced about, frantically searching for her lost air bubbles, hoping to follow them to the surface. That was what they always said to do, right? It was easy to get disoriented in the low gravity and you could end up swimming away from the surface. Unfortunately there were no bubbles that she could see.

What do I do now? she thought. Pick a direction and go? How long have I been underwater? Did I take a breath before I jumped in? Did I jump in? Was I pushed? Who would want to drown me?

She lashed out with her tentacles and spearlike tibia, hoping to touch the bottom and orient herself. She didn't have far to reach before she bumped against a hard surface. It was smooth. Glass? She peered through the barrier and saw a faint blue light shining on the other side.

Oh God, she thought. The machine. Smiles is trying to drown me. It must have deemed the experiment a failure and was now disposing of the subject. I'm going to die here, deep down below the earth in a shiny steel tomb. I'm Houdini except with less of the creepy seance bullshit and more tentacles. Mark, I'm so sorry I never get to say goodbye. I love you so much.

Candice's breaths were coming faster as she began to panic in earnest. Panic was okay. It was certainly better to go out panicking than sobbing, although she felt that option was still on the table.

Wait. Breaths? Candice took a small sip of the water that surrounded her. She didn't really have much to lose at this point.

Nothing happened. Or rather, the one particular thing that she expected to happen didn't happen. She didn't drown. She wasn't drowning. She took another small sip, then released a breath and took another.

I'm breathing water, she thought. I'm actually breathing water. Is this some sort of oxygenated perflurocarbon, some other type of stasis chamber? It felt and tasted just like regular water.

Before she could analyze her situation any further, the glass barrier split apart in the middle and she was dumped unceremoniously onto the familiar cold steel floor. Her tentacles quickly lashed out, helping her back to her feet as soon as possible while her insect legs reared back, ready to strike at any perceived threat. The motions were instinctual; her body knew how to defend itself better than she did.

"Good morning, C1-001!" the machine spoke. Was it morning? Did it even matter anymore? "I hope you had a pleasant sleep.

"Pleasant?" Candice gurgled the word out, water falling from her mouth as her lungs again filled with air. The amphibious transition was smooth enough to make it extra creepy. "I woke up in a fucking water booth. What the hell was that, Smiles?"

"That was the introduction of Hydromantes platcephalus into your genetic makeup. You will be pleased to learn that you did not drown, and the integration was completed as expected."

"Yes, that was extremely pleasant, thank you." Candice ran her still-human finger around the sides of her mouth, feeling for the thin membrane that would shut off normal respiration and allow her to breathe underwater. Again, fascinating if it didn't mean she was becoming even more of a freak. Candice started to pull her finger out of her mouth but stopped when she touched her tongue.

It felt slimy, smoother than normal, and almost sticky to her touch. She pinched her tongue and slowly extracted it from her mouth like pulling an earthworm out of the ground. She pulled it well beyond its normal length until she could examine it more fully. It was black, slick, and more cylindrical. Her fingers stuck to it as she continued pulling until her arm was fully extended. It had to be over two feet long, and it felt like it it was nowhere near its full length.

Candice quickly retracted her freakish tongue. She took aim at a specific spot on the wall where the edges of four square tiles met. She reared her head back a bit and spat her tongue out. It landed dead center where she was aiming ... twenty feet away.

Great, she thought. I needed another slimy bit. Two just weren't enough. She had to tug a bit to get the adhesive thing to let go of the wall, but when it did it flew back inside her mouth like a mechanical tape measure.

Or it would have, if it weren't suddenly cleaved in twain by a red light from the ceiling.

Candice screamed in agony as the half of her tongue that remained returned to the inside of her mouth. Gagging on the copper taste of her own blood, she lashed out with her mantis legs, cleaving the empty air in an effort to ward off the attack. Her eight eyes allowed her to search for the attacker in almost every direction, or would if they weren't filled with tears at the moment. What had she done? Why was it trying to kill her now after all of this?

"Please stick out your tongue and say 'Ahhh.'"

Candice held her hand over her bloody mouth, trying to protect it at best she could.

The machine noticed the hesitation. "Please stick out your tongue and say 'Ahhh, C1-001. No further behavioral improvement techniques will be applied should you cooperate."

Assuming the machine could hurt her again if it wanted to, Candice slowly extended her tongue until it stuck nearly ten inches from her lips.

"Very good. Thank you for your compliance."

Candice crossed her eyes to look at the end of the tongue. It was completely healed, as if it had never been severed. Against the far wall the bloody remains of her original tongue twitched in a way that was very unsettling.

"Regeneration is not limited only to your oral faculties. Limb regeneration has now been confirmed as well. Would you care to experience this?"

Candice very quickly sucked her tongue back into her mouth. "No! N-No, Smiles, I believe you." She couldn't imagine how much losing an arm would hurt, even if it was only one of the weak human ones. She closed her eyes, trying to banish the weird thought from her mind. The human arms are the good ones, she reminded herself. Those are the ones I was born with, not the bug ones. We don't like the bug ones, Candice. We like the non-bug ones.

"Very well. Moving on. Carcharodon carcharias."

Suddenly Candice felt her stomach turn a somersault. Shit, she thought. Even people without a doctorate in animal biology don't need to be told what that one is. Is Smiles going to throw me back into the fish tank?

An itching sensation in her gums made Candice run her black tongue along her teeth. They shifted against its touch, and one even popped completely out of place. Candice spat the tooth on the ground, and it was soon followed by two more. "Jesus, ugh!" She drooled slightly as one by one her remaining teeth fell onto the floor. The itching intensified as she felt razor sharp canine teeth begin to push through her gums. It was painless, just itchy and very disturbing. They continued to grow until they were far too large for Candice to be able to close her mouth. She gave a muddled scream, then another as she realized she could no longer speak.

The screen once again descended from the ceiling and Candice was able to see just how horrible her reflection had become. She watched as her mouth grow larger, growing into a demented smile at extended from ear to ear. Her shark teeth continued to grow, competing with each other for room. The itching feeling intensified just behind her teeth. She pressed her tongue against her gums, recoiling quickly as she felt more jagged teeth growing from just behind her others. Jesus, would Smiles want to knock her teeth out to see how fast the new ones would take their place? Her mouth was quickly running out of room until with a sickening snap her jaw unhinged, allowing nearly six inches of space between her top and bottom teeth. Her eerie smile finally stopped growing as it extended past her ears. She openly sobbed as she realized that Mark would barely be able to recognize her now. In an effort to keep from losing her mind, she counted the two inch long razors.

Fifty, she thought. I have fifty teeth. And those just the ones that are visible.

A sharp pain between her shoulder blades brought her out of her misery. Something was extending from her spine, and it didn't take long to figure out what it was. Even if she couldn't properly see it, she could feel the signature fin of a great white sticking out of her back.

Oh, come on, she laughed to herself. That doesn't even serve a purpose. It just looks cool. At least give me the tail. Candice felt herself becoming less opposed to the strange thoughts as her changes continued.

She returned her thoughts instead to the reflection in front of her. How was she supposed to eat? She had teeth made for tearing flesh, but she couldn't even close her mouth now. Foamy white droll ooze from between each serrated tooth, mixing with the slime still oozing from her pores. The dip in the water had gotten rid of it temporarily, but now that she had been out of the tank for a few minutes the mucus had returned with a vengeance. It was even matting her hair against the skin of her fin.

As if reading her thoughts, Smiles chimed in with his sincerely unwelcome cheery tone. "The next stage of the transformation will have you filling out a bit. Please do not be alarmed by your dental uncertainties, normal mandibular functions will resume shortly."

I hate you, she thought. I hate you so fucking much, Smiles. If I ever get out of here I'm going to push my laptop from my apartment window and smash anything I see that's more advanced than a calculator.

"Panthera leo."

Lions, she thought. I love lions. This one isn't going to be so bad.

Candice pulled her slimy breasts to the side as she looked down at a new itching sensation near her ribs and belly. Four red dots arranged in two rows were appearing, swelling into new nipples.

Great, she thought. I have teats to go with my ... well, teats.

A line of hair began to march from her bush up between her teats. It thickened quickly until she had the appearance of a horse's mane growing down the length of her sternum, across her belly button, and into her pubic hair, which was now resembling the rest of her fur. Her four nipples continued to grow, pushing to nearly an inch long. Once they had finished budding they began to lengthen out past the bushy hair on her torso as small breasts started to appear. Weird, kind of gross, but they would help her litters grow strong.

God damn it, Candice thought. Stop it! I don't want freaky animal babies. Besides, there should probably be a few more teats to suckle them if I'm going to really expand the pride.

The breasts continued to swell until they were larger than her original pair had been, although thankfully no where near a large as the udders she had started out with. They were large enough to push the cow breasts up a bit as they rested on the middle pair. It at least made them look a bit less saggy. Maybe she should think about getting a reduction? What would the plastic surgeon say when he saw these things? "Sorry, ma'am, can't help you, but I can get you the number of a great vet. We take our spaniels to him, he's fantastic."

The breasts stopped growing when they reached an F cup, maybe more. Her entire torso was taken up by tits now. Soon the itching sensation spread to her back as yellow fur grew in to cover the areas not enveloped in the long brown hair. It was short, sleek, and shiny in contrast to the thick fur on her chest. Nice and thick, yes. Mark could grab me by it, shove me on the ground, and fuck me over and over again. She would flip onto her belly, grinding her milky tits on the ground as he bit the back of her neck and thrust inside her. Candice felt her tentacles slowly creeping towards her pussy and had to restrain herself. Not again. She would not lose control again and give another peepshow to the machine.

The fur continued to grow until it covered her sides and her back up to the base of her fin. Not content, it started to slowly spread to her neck, although it was more of the thick brown like on her belly. This hair continued to grow until it covered up the top part of her upper breasts and merged with the hair on top of her head. The ends turned a pretty orange color, interspersed amongst individual hairs colored red and black. Near the top of her head her round ears and sharp horns peaked through the mass of brown-gold fur. She had a mane, a beautiful, luxuriant mane. None of the mates would be able to keep their eyes off of it. Everyone would know she was the most beautiful, the strongest, the most fertile.

Wait, she thought. Lionesses don't have manes, just the lions. Who cares, it's beautiful all the same, and would make her stand out amongst her rivals. Even if it was now dripping with slime, it was still thick enough to impress the others.

Her face suddenly erupted in pain. She supposed she had this coming. She hadn't been in unbearable pain in what, ten minutes? Fifteen? She had a quota to make up for. She squinted her eight eyes against the pressure and the cracking sensation that started in her jaw and continued up her nose. Her mouth was extended into a muzzle, her shark teeth audibly clicking into place as they rotated to a more feral position. Where her canine teeth would have been--she supposed they were all canine teeth at this point--her teeth grew longer and thinner. Soon she had the fangs of a lion to accompany the 300 or so shark teeth emerging from the front and rear of her gums. She could really fuck something up now. Bite a hunk out of a fucking elephant, tear a gazelle in two.

Damn it, she was thinking about asking Mark if he wanted to switch to a vegan diet eventually. That wasn't going to work out so well now.

The muzzle extended until she had a full lion's face, complete with whiskers and black feline nose. Her vision seemed even more vivid, if that was possible, and she really hoped she had the trademark golden eyes now. Glancing in the mirrored screen, she smiled as she saw they were even more beautiful than she had imagined. Gold, shiny, even glittery around the slanted black pupils. In contrast her lifeless black spidery eyes were now bisected by thin golden pupils. They were almost no longer utterly terrifying.

The fur continued down her arms as her hands began to painfully stretch. She was glad to see them go. The pink, human-things were ugly and she was far more beautiful with them gone. Much better to have them covered in shiny, slimy fur made of spun gold. Her fingers shrunk even as they swelled outwards. Black pads as soft as velvet grew to cover her palms and former fingertips. She let slip a hiss of pain as two inch long claws sprung from her short nubs. The momentary discomfort quickly gave way to immense pride and joy as Candice brought the paws to her lips, running her long drooling black tongue through the slime hanging between her claws. They needed to be clean, clean and sharp and ready to tear a hartebeest apart. She giggled as she realized even her slime tasted good, sweet like honey.

Gradually the influx of conceited emotions gave way to more rational thought. She wasn't a lion, she wasn't a shark, she wasn't a cow or a salamander or a fucking insect. She had to remember who she was. Her legs and crotch were the only human parts left at this point, and she knew they would be gone soon enough. She looked into the reflection in the screen and immediately started sobbing. She was gone. It had been bad before, but now that her face had changed ... She was gone.

Candice fell onto her side, her tentacles wrapping around herself, subconsciously emulating the comforting embrace she very much needed at this moment. She buried her muzzle in her paws and wept harder as she listened to the mucus squelching as it puddled beneath her.

I'll never live a normal life again, she thought. It was just as well that the world had ended. Even if her parents were alive, she would never be able to see them again. Mark wouldn't even recognize her now. If Smiles decided to let her out of this place alive, she would be shunned by the rest of the survivors in the new world the machine was making. They would be afraid of her. Why shouldn't they be? She had become a monster. Eventually she would become a legend, some cryptozoological freak that old women would use to scare their grandchildren. If they ever found her they would hunt and kill her, and there would be precious little room to hide in an air-tight bio-dome.

She couldn't go on like this. What sort of a life was this? Even if the machine let her go, the world was a radioactive holocaust. It would be better to end it now. She slithered a tentacle around her neck and began to squeeze.

"I'm sorry, Mark." She startled herself after realizing she could speak again. Woo-hoo. Start the parade. The monster can speak. She closed her eyes as she started to cut off her air supply. Smothering herself wouldn't work, she'd just release the grip after she passed out. But the tentacles were strong enough that she could snap her own neck. It would be easy, like crushing a dead leaf.

"Subject C1-001! Deviation from WRP will not be tolerated! You will cease any intentional bodily harm immediately!"

Candice took pleasure in the irony of the monotone voice suddenly showing concern. She relaxed her grip just a bit. "Or what, Smiles? You'll shoot me with your laser again? You'll fill the room with sleeping gas? Shoot me with another dart? I'll be dead before you can stop me, and all your 'scientific advancement' will be worthless. You'll have to start over again, and you might not be as lucky next time. Maybe the next person you decide to torture won't be able to react to the treatment and they'll die on you too. You'll be left all alone in the center of the earth with no one to experiment on."

"You will cease any intentional bodily harm immediately! Subject C1-001! You will cease--"

"Fuck you, Smiles."

"Candice?"

She froze at the sound of his voice.

"Candice, oh Jesus, are you there? Where the hell are we? What's going on?"

It wasn't coming through a speaker embedded in the ceiling tiles. It wasn't coming through the screen. It was here. He was here. In the room.

Candice saw that one entire wall had slide aside, merging her room with one just on the other side. The room was identical to hers, right down to the stasis pod in the center. The man she loved was raising his head for the first time in 312 years.

"Mark! Oh, God, baby wait." Candice slithered behind her stasis pod, trying to stay out of line of sight. "J-Just stay over there, okay?" God, she might hurt him! She was more predator than prey now, who knows what she could do. Even if she didn't, she couldn't stand to be seen like this.

"Subject M1-001 demonstrating expected cognitive faculties. Responding: Hello! Welcome to the first day of the rest of your new life! We at Rocketjet Aerodyne are pleased to welcome you--"

"Shut up! Shut up, goddamit!" Candice interrupted the machine by lashing out with a tentacle, crushing the screen hanging from the ceiling in less than a second.

Mark's eyes were open just enough that he was able to watch as the tentacle dragged itself back to Candice's hiding spot.

"Jesus fucking lap-dancing Christ, what the shit was that?"

Candice started weeping at the sound of fear and disgust in his voice.

"Candice? Oh, shit, look out!" Mark tore the electrodes from his chest and attempted to leap to his feet, but only succeeded in sending his naked body crashing to the floor. His legs were still shaking as he rose. He called out her name again as he glanced around in every direction, looking for something. "Candice, stay away. There's something in here with us. Let me find something to use as a weapon."

The sobbing continued. He was going to hurt her. Of course he was going to hurt her. She was the dragon, he was the gallant knight. He'd bash her brains in, unless of course she slew him first. She wondered if he would realize afterwards that the beast he had slain used to be his fiance. She hoped he wouldn't. It would be better if he didn't know.

Mark finally seemed to realize where the crying was coming from. He rushed towards her, probably fearing that the monster had a hold of her. It did, after a fashion. As he rounded her pod he saw her for the first time. The sound of his scream was more terrible than any pain the machine had forced upon her this day.

Mark recoiled in horror, fleeing back into the part of the room that contained his stasis pod. He stood on the other side of the pod, trying to put something, anything, between him and the monster.

Candice rose to her still-human feet. "Mark ..."

"Candice, where the fuck are you? We need to--"

"Mark!"

Realization finally dawned on his face. He was a smart man. He was a scientist. It didn't take him long to figure out what was going on.

"Candice? Jesus ... Baby?"

She hung her head, the soft fur of her mane tickling the tops of her udders.

Mark slowly walked backwards until his back bumped against the far corner, then sank slowly to the ground. He no longer seemed horrified, just shocked. Candice took a few steps towards him. She needed him to hold her, to tell her that she was going to be okay.

"Stay back!" The fear in his voice felt like a knife in her gut. "Just ... Just stay over there, okay? I need ... I gotta process this."

Candice snarled. It sounded like something from Animal Planet, the growl of a lion mixed with a deep bovine low. The sound upset him. Good.

"You 'gotta process this'? Okay, go ahead, I'd hate for you to have to go through something so traumatic. Let me know when you're finished." Her voice was deeper, but still recognizable as her own. It was gravelly, almost a hoarse whisper that ended every sentence in a short purr.

He got her meaning. Also good. "I'm sorry, I just ... It's really you?"

"It's me, Mark. It's what's left of me."

"How did ... Just, how?"

Candice sighed and took a seat, her ass and tentacles making oozing noises as she pressed her slimy flesh into the floor. She might as well take a load off. This was going to take a while.

* * *

"...And that's the story of how I become a fucked up muppet."

Mark was silent, staring ahead at nothing. He had asked several questions during Candice's deviant monologue, but hadn't said anything for the last ten minutes or so.

Candice looked at him in trepidation. She knew this was a shock to him, even if it wasn't as traumatic as what she had gone through--was _still_going through. It was a lot to dump on someone. First, apocalypse. There's that. Second, they may not ever get out of here alive. Third, if they do, it will be through the good graces of a soulless machine. Fourth, they were going to have to rebuild humanity from absolutely nothing. No pressure there.

And, lastly, fifth, your fiance is some sort of horrible slimy chimera monster.

"Mark ..." Candice tried to fill her voice with concern, which was easier when she didn't have the face of a large predator.

Mark stared for a few moments more, then finally said, "Burt Reynolds."

"W-What?" Candice gave a short laugh. "Out of everything I thought you may say next, that wasn't on the list. Burt Reynolds?"

He looked at her and smiled. It was a forced smile, but hopefully it was also a genuine one. "I always thought it sounded like Burt Reynolds. Smiles, I mean."

"The ... actor?"

"Yeah. Smokey and the Bandit. Did you ever see that one?"

"No, Mark, I'm not 70."

"Fuck you, dear." Both laughed, and then at once fell silent. They were good at that. Friends said it was eerie how in sync they were. Jobs, humor, every little idea. There were a few major differences now, though.

He stood up and started pacing. He did that when he was trying to figure out a solution to some problem. Usually it had to do with peptide bonds and amino acid solutions. Now it was figuring out how to stay alive.

"If we're where I think we are, we're about a hundred feet underground. That in itself isn't insurmountable, but then we have Smiles to consider."

Candice noticed the machine had not said a single thing the entire time she had been relating her story. "Maybe it's recalculating. Switching its algorithms over to account for a new variable. The Mark variable."

Mark shook his head. "No, it wouldn't take it that long. If Burt is a true AI instead of just some annoying office assistant-slash-spy, then it would be smart enough to alter its plans almost immediately."

"Yeah." Candice nodded. "It would have accounted for the possibility of your being introduced into the equation anyway. So ... Scrapping the experiment?"

"No. We'd be dead if it did. Some kind of outside interference?"

"It said there was nothing left, just the people in stasis in this installation. Out of power?"

"No. Solar, probably. A glitch in its system, maybe, slowing it down?"

"Could be. It's given some shaky logic so far, i.e. speeding up integration by making me ... this."

"Perhaps it's awakening someone else?"

"Possibly, but I'd imagine it would be able to carry out several experiments simultaneously. Hell, it might have been doing that all along."

"Most likely, then?"

Candice sighed. "It's waiting. Listening and waiting to see what we'll do next."

Mark nodded. "I think so, too. It wants to make sure my introduction to the experiment isn't going to cause any sort of unforeseen social complications."

"Like your future mother-in-law being a sociopath?"

"No." He shook his head. "That's always a constant factor in any scenario."

He smiled at her, and this time there was no question about its authenticity. They loved doing this, they always had. Whenever they were working together they would bounce ideas off of each other so rapidly that one would end up finishing another's sentence. Sometimes they would answer questions and reach conclusions before the question was even out of their mouths. Colleagues said it was eerie, but it had always felt so right to Candice. Like they were on the same wavelength, two brains acting as one. Together they could get through any problem.

Maybe even this one?

Mark shuffled closer and sat down near her, careful to avoid the slime. He rubbed his arms with both hands, hugging himself. "It's cold."

"Yeah."

"That, uh ... secretion? It must make it even colder. You must be freezing."

"No, it's ... kind of nice, actually. Like always being in a warm bath. Just a goopy one."

"Well, that's good. Good, good, good."

Candice smirked. "But if that was your way of offering to cuddle, I won't object."

Mark looked at her uncertainly. "What's it like?"

She sighed and examined her paws. "Weird. Almost like there are different voices in my head, telling me how to handle all of this in different ways. Run away, fight, bide my time, freak out. Like my brain wants to do all of them at the same time."

"Can I ...?" He moved his hand slightly toward her. The way it trembled made Candice feel very sad.

"Yeah, go ahead. I'm not going to hurt you, you asshole."

He slowly touched her thick mane, running his hands through it, nervously laughing the whole time. He picked up one of her tentacles, turning it over in his hands, spreading one of the suction cups apart and peering inside. He kept staring at her udders, watching the slime drip from each teat. God, she wanted him to grab them, slap her, caress her, throw her on the ground, kiss her tenderly, bite her neck, fuck her over and over again. That last bit was a yearning shared by all her various animal bits.

Instead he went to touch one of her mantis legs, but pulled back quickly when he saw them start to twitch.

"Yeah, those are ... I don't know about those."

"You aren't going to bite my head off during the honeymoon ... right?"

"Not unless you insult my mother again." She looked at him, her black lips trembling. "Do you ... think there's still going to be a ..."

He smiled. "Well, I don't think there's going to be a priest locked down here with us. Knowing the government, maybe a fundamentalist baptist minister or something. What I'm saying is, I guess I'm off the hook now, right?"

She flexed her insect tibiae. "Hook. Interesting choice of words."

"We ..."

Candice looked into the eyes of this man. This man she loved, that she wanted to spend her life with, wanted to raise children with, wanted to grow old and die with. Whatever he was about to say would either bring them closer together or irreparably break her soul in a way that the machine never could.

"We'll ... figure it out, baby. Okay? We'll get through it. Somehow."

She started sobbing. All things considered she had kept it together pretty well, given the circumstances. But now it all came flooding out in large, violent waves. She felt his arms around her mane and turned to hug him, wrapping her six freakish arms around him so hard he could barely breathe.

"I love you. I love you so much. I don't know what I would do if this made us ..."

He shushed her. "I love you too. Don't worry. We'll get through this. We'll get through."

They held each other for what felt like hours. The way he kept patting her on her back made her wonder if he was doing it out of reflex, like petting a scared dog. But it felt too good for her to care, and she purred loudly in between sobs.

Finally they broke the embrace. He stared questioningly at her forehead. "Are those eyes?"

"Yeah. It's pretty freaky."

"I think they're cute. Not so much this, though." He tried to wipe some of the slime off of his chest. "We're going to need to rethink letting you sleep on the bed. Maybe the bathtub?"

"I have shark teeth. I just want you to keep that in mind."

"Duly noted."

"So what next--Agh!"

"Candy! What's wrong?"

Her face was on fire again. This time it centered on her muzzle. There was also pain all along her spine. "It's ... happening ... again."

"Oh shit, what do I do?"

The pressure behind her sinuses intensified. She could feel swelling, and her jaws were in agony.

"Maybe you should ... ARGH! ... stay ... over there. I don't know what ... GOD! ... I'm going to do."

He shook his head. "I don't care. I wasn't there when the rest of it happened; you had to go through it alone. I'm not going anywhere now. I'm staying right here."

"You're such a sap ... a cute sap ..." Further words were impossible. Candice grabbed her nose in with her paws, careful not to extend her claws and rake her face. God damnit, she thought. Please don't be a fucking elephant this time, please?

Candice saw her muzzle extend forward six inches, seven, eight. It kept growing until it extended nearly two feet away from her head, still covered in her luxuriant golden coat. As it grew, her hidden rows of sharp teeth snapped into place, taking up space next to the ones originally lining her jaws. She felt around with her tongue and counted twenty-four on each side of her upper jaw with an equal number on the bottom, along with four rows behind each tooth waiting to fill the gap if one should break off. She remembered a plushy crocodile at the dentist's office when she was a child. At the end of her snout her lion's teeth protruded from her lips, overlapping them like the tusks of a warthog.

The pain in her face gradually receded, but was replaced by sharp pinching sensations all along her spine. She felt Mark's hand on her back, gently smoothing her mane and petting her fin. Ridges were growing on either side of her spine. The skin was becoming tough, but she still didn't lose any sort of feeling.

Finally she tried to speak again. "What ... does it look like?" God, her voice was even rougher now. She sounded like someone sick with the flu was speaking through an empty pipe. It was gravely, deep, and had an echoing quality to it, but still ended in deep growl.

"Your nose and your back, it seems kind of reptilian. Like a--"

"Crocodylus niloticus." Smiles had finally chosen this moment to return.

"Like a_crocodylus niloticus_." Mark hugged her tighter, instinctively trying to protect her from her tormentor.

Candice opened her new maw, experimenting slowly with how wide it would go. She found she could open it about a foot and a half. Wide enough to kill anything smaller than her. Maybe bigger too? She would have to try. She got the urge to grab something warm, to roll herself over and over again until it was disoriented, then to crush its neck and drag it down into the murky depths.

As the pain finally disappeared, she placed a tentacle on Mark's leg, trying to assure him she was going to be okay.

"Smiles." Mark's voice was calm, restrained. "This isn't going to work. This isn't going to help your project. If you stop this, we can figure out the best way to begin rebuilding. You're on the right track, you just need some help to make this go as smoothly as possible. Okay?"

"Thank you for your concern, M1-001. I will place your request under consideration and will get back to you as soon as a consensus can be reached. Your feedback is very important to me."

Mark uttered a curse under his breath.

"There's no use talking to it, Mark. We just have to play along until it decides to release us. It wants to let us outside eventually. I just have to get through this as best I can. It said it had combined my DNA with a dozen other species. I've got to be getting close to done."

"Your dedication to the project has been noted, C1-001." The machine couldn't shed the tone of fake sincerity it had always displayed. "This will be noted in your company profile and I will personally see to it your name is mentioned at the next meeting of division management. Equus caballus."

"That's--" Candice began.

"Horse," Mark finished.

"That's not ... so bad. I like horses."

Candice began to rub her feet as they began to ache. There wasn't any sort of sharp agony this time, just a dull throbbing, like a muscle cramp. She watched as her toenails began to darken and spread to cover the fronts of her toes before merging with the toenail growing alongside it. Candice winced as her toes began pressing closer together, a thick black hoof encircling them from the end of her toes to just behind her phalange. Her feet began to stretch longer, putting more distance between the balls of her feet and her heel.

"Walking is going to be ... a whole lot more ... interesting now." She smiled at her fiance, more for his benefit than hers.

He slid up behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Lean back into me."

"I-It's okay, really." Her feet continued stretching until they were now as long as her shin, giving her legs a feral, digitigrade stance. "Help me up, though."

Mark did as she asked, though she weighed so much at this point that he really was only able to provide her with a bit more balance. She got her hooves under her, laughing a little at the echoing noise they made when they clomped down on the steel floor. The cramping sensation continued climbing up her legs as pound after pound of hard muscle enveloped them. She felt like she could run for days without stopping, which given her current whereabouts sounded like an absolutely wonderful idea. Her hooves continued expanding, allowing her to remain comfortable on two legs. That was certainly a relief.

"Look, baby, I get to keep standing upright! High five!" She held up her left paw, tentacle, and tibia, giving Mark a choice between each.

Instead he frowned. "I don't think it's over yet. You're still growing, uh ... back here."

Candice saw Mark nodding towards her widening posterior. With her outer set of eyes she was able to see most of her back without even turning her head. "Yeah, I was wondering when it would get around to changing that. OH!" She felt a strange sensation in her crotch and spread her legs a bit to try to alleviate some of the tingling she felt there. "Mark, w-what's going on with my, uh ..."

Mark walked to her front and knelt down, looking at her most private of places. "Baby, it's, um ... not."

"It's not what?"

"It's not there. It's, uh, moved."

"It moved? It doesn't get to fucking move! Move where? OH!"

The sensation resumed as she felt her cheeks begin to spread apart. Or rather, pushed apart. She touched her anus with her tentacle and felt it swelling, sliding up to take position several inches higher. Touching it brought a very unwelcome, familiar feeling.

"Oh shit, oh shit."

"What? What's wrong?"

She stared at him as if he were the one growing strange animal parts. "I'm turning into a fucking horse! 'What's wrong?' OHHHHH!"

Candice moaned as she felt a dampness just below her anus. Her two most prominent eyes rolled in her head as her black tongue drifted from her snout and began lapping at her cow teats.

"Oh," Mark said stupidly. "Oh! Oh, shit, okay. Um, yeah, I think you're, uh ..."

"In heat. I'm in heat. I'm in fucking heat." The way her pussy was sliding between her ass cheeks was making higher thought processes an unobtainable goal. Candice moaned as she slid her tentacles between her legs, caressing the smooth skin where her labia had once been located and teasing her swelling clit as it settled into its new home. She kneaded her six breasts with her paws, hissing in pleasure as drops of milk began to fall from her twelve teats. She was a mutant mare in heat. She was meant to be fucked from behind. She needed to be fucked from behind, and she needed it now. "Mark ... please ..."

"Uh-oh. Um, maybe I should wait over there?"

"Get the fuck inside me, now!"

"I mean, there's the possibility of complications arising. We don't yet have a clear hypothesis on--"

Candice interrupted his nervous babbling with a loud moan, which turned into a feline snarl and then a reptilian hiss. Her pussy was making a movement that she could only describe as "winking." Her vagina was pushing in and out as her lips opened and shut over and over again. Every time it opened she could hear a wet slurping sound, signaling she was in estrus. Mark was a male, and he was right here. She could even smell that he wanted her, though he wasn't prepared to admit it to himself. What the hell was he waiting for?

"Mark--mmmmm--now, please, now."

Mark stepped behind his transforming fiance, examining her rear as if he were looking at a car engine for the first time. "Uh ... okay ... Um, what do I do?"

"Fuck me fuck me fuck me fuck me," Candice moaned again and again. She gently prodded him towards her with his tentacle. Despite the strangeness of it all, she could see him getting hard with her outermost eyes. "Please, oh god, please do it now, do it now." There was a submissive quality to her voice, but just below it was the demand of a predator. He could fuck her, or her could become lunch. In fact, those options might not be mutually exclusive if her trembling insect limbs were any indication.

"Um, h-how about this, okay?" She felt his hand slowly touch her winking pussy, quickly becoming coated in the hot juices spilling from her canal and the thick slime dripping from her pores. Little by little he pressed against her lips. "Jeez, it's like soft leather. Is this okay?"

She was about to scream that it most certainly wasn't until he prodded just a bit too far and suddenly she could feel his entire hand become buried inside her. The walls of her horse cunt were pulling him, urging him inside. She lowed like a cow as she continued to grip him, trying her best to pull him in farther.

"Okay, hon, m-maybe that's enough. Okay?" She could feel his hand trying to extract itself. The way his fingers twisted inside her was driving her mad. If he would just stay for a while longer. She could hear her lubrication dropping to the floor; it was running like a faucet down her slick legs. "Jesus, that's ... ACK!" He gagged in disgust, likely at the musky smell she was giving off. She knew it wasn't a pleasant odor, it was the aroma of an animal in heat, amplified by the earthy, salty smell of her slime and the various scents of her other animal parts. He was pulling in earnest now, trying his best to free the grip she had on his wrist. If only he would stay still for a little longer. If only he would go deeper.

One of her tentacles responded to her need by pressing him further inside her, the other lowering his head until his face was level with her winking cunt. She heard him cough and wheeze, fighting back the overpowering smell of her heat.

"Mark, please, you don't know what this is like! I don't want this, I _need_this! Please!"

She heard a muffled "Okay" as he finally leaned his face in and wrapped his tongue around her marble-sized clit. She screamed as loud as she could as torrent of cum immediately began splashing from her womb onto his face. She was finally climaxing, the dim fluorescent light quickly turning into a blinding glow.

She felt two sharp pinpricks near where her legs connected to her crotch. Reaching down with her paw she could feel the small nubs swelling into a pair of horse teats, nearly four inches long and one inch in width. God, yes, she thought, I can feed so many now, foals and kits and calfs and ... whatever baby sharks are called.

Mark finally seemed to be getting into the swing of things just as she was coming off of her lust-filled high. She fell unceremoniously forward onto her six heaving breasts, milk splashing from them and mixing with the puddle of cum, slime, and drool. She was too far gone to care about laying in the mess, she could only think about how good she still felt and how much she needed a long nap.

Mark stood staring at her, a mixture of horror and incomprehension on his face. Shiny clear lubrication dripped from his nose and chin. He tried to cover up his erection, suddenly overcome with modesty after the animal rutting he had just endured.

She held out her paws and gently pulled him towards her with a slick red tentacle. He sank to the slimy floor and curled up next to her, placing one hand on her muscular leg while another ran through her glistening mane.

"Are you ... you again?"

She nodded breathlessly.

"That was ... yeah."

They lay together for a while. Surely this was the strangest cuddle-time the world had ever witnessed. When she finally found her voice again, Candice blurted out a single earnest question: "Why the fuck don't I get a tail?"

"You ... You want a tail?"

"You don't?"

"I ... had never really considered it, actually."

"Dork. Come here." Candice leaned into him. "Thanks. I know that was weird, but ... thanks." She always preferred to be the little spoon, but that really didn't seem to be an option anymore. She was much larger than he was now. His head would probably only come up to her second set of breasts. She smiled, thinking that was a perfect place for his head to be. She could feel his erection pressing against her slick legs, the thick veins that ran in between them bumping in time with her heart. She just had the one heart, right? How many do bugs have? She smiled as she pressed her lowest teats against his hardness. "Somebody might be feeling a little unfulfilled?"

"No, I'm okay. We can deal with that later, hon."

She smiled, leaning in close to rub her black tongue across his cheek. God, it was happening again. Was it always going to be like this? Was she ever not going to be in heat?

She wiped the slime away from her maw with the back of her paw and leaned towards him. Kissing was pretty much out of the question now with her snout as long as it was, but this would certainly a good substitute. She began to lick his face with her long, sticky tongue. "Something down there disagrees. I can feel you getting hard."

"Um, no. You can't."

"What?" She barely understood him. The heat had returned, more insistent than ever.

"I don't have an erection, baby."

"I can feel it."

"That's ... not me."

She moved away for a moment, spreading her legs to see what he was talking about. It was getting harder to think. "What do you mean that's not ... AHH!"

Candice screamed and roared as the newest change made itself known. She had been right before. Only male lions have manes, and only male horses have ... that. Between her legs, just between her thick black teats, something was beginning to swell and grow. A pouch of skin distended from the rest of her crotch, covering up where her naval would have been and trailing down to just above where her flesh curved back towards her slit. At the base of the pouch, another small patch of skin was swelling. Something was developing inside both of these new arrivals. Something Candice was completely unprepared for.

"Oh no, that can't be what I think it is."

"It's, uh ... pretty common in the animal kingdom, really. Two sexes."

"There's nothing common about that being on me. Oh shit oh shit."

Slowly something began to peak through the end of the sheath, a black shaft mottled with pink splashes. It continued to grow, extending four or five inches out of its hiding place. She felt a different sort of swelling happening with regards to the other new development as two egg-sized orbs suddenly dropped from her body into the black, fleshy sack.

She covered her eyes with the black pads of her paws, then remembered she had too many eyes to cover at this point. The swelling continued until she felt a weight pressing down on her leg. Removing her paws she saw that her new penis had grown nearly as large as Mark's now and showed no signs of stopping. The testicles that fueled them were swelling larger as well, each nearing the size of a plumb.

"Oh shit, make it stop. Maybe it'll not get too big, right?"

"I have no idea, hon. This is ... entirely uncharted territory for the both of us."

"God damnit, this isn't some new fungal sample, I've got a fucking horse dick! What do I do?"

"What do you mean, 'what do I do?' Just ... go with it?"

Candice brought her paw to the end of her long snout and began to nervously chew on her claws. It was a bad habit she had always had, though usually when she nibbled at her nails it wasn't with razor sharp serrated teeth. The organ continued to swell, past ten inches, past eleven, past twelve. Her balls, roughly the size of oranges now, lay hot and heavy against her inner thigh. Gradually they drooped low enough that they rested on the cold floor, which caused her to hiss at the extremely unfamiliar sensation.

Her pussy was still begging for more attention, but her mind was occupied by her continually lengthening shaft. She scooted away from Mark, laying flat on her back. She winced as for one moment the weight of her body pressed against her sensitive fin before she shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position to watch this strange new event play itself out.

Her cock had nearly reached a foot and a half when she started to feel her first erection. She stared wide-eyed as it began to lift from her leg, the boiling blood pumping into her shaft causing it to rise. She glanced down at her balls, which had finally stopped growing as they reached the size of grapefruits. God, what was it going to be like to lug those around all day? Slime began to drip from her rod as it continued to grow. What would it be like having that slick thing between her legs all day, her tender flesh rubbing between her slimy thighs. She'd be horny at the time. Which was great, right? She'd always be ready to service any mare, ready to sink her hot slick cock into any cunt that presented itself to her. She'd sire so many foals, and she wouldn't even need a mare to suckle them. She began to play with her numerous teats. She had everything she needed to feed them right here.

Everything she needed ... right here. She wrapped a tentacle around her penis as it slowed its growth slightly beyond the two foot mark, caressing the thick ring that swelled halfway down its length. At it tip it was wider than a beer can, at the base it was nearly a foot in diameter. It was the biggest thing she had ever seen. It was glorious, something to be worshipped and caressed. Something to be sucked and licked. If only there was a female here now to serve him ... her ... whatever.

Candice looked up from her lust-fueled delirium and saw that Mark was standing on the other side of the room again, once more placing his stasis pod between her and him. The frightened look had one again returned to his eyes.

Candice put her head in her hands screamed in frustration. This wasn't her. These thoughts couldn't possibly be her own. She moaned pitifully and counted to ten. When that didn't work she did it again, then one more time to make sure she had the numbers sorted into the correct order. She wondered if she was becoming dumber or if she was just thinking with her ... with that.

"Mark, it's okay." She rose to her hooves. "I'm fine, I've got it. I'm in control here."

"Are you sure?"

She sighed. "No, but I think so. Can we ... not talk about ... this?" She nodded towards her shaft. Now sensing that its needs weren't going to be met, it bobbed up and down in mute disapproval. She felt a stinging sensation in her testicles. So that was what men always complained about? Blue balls? Except her balls weren't blue, they were black and hot and wet and ...

Mark interrupted her thoughts just as she started to feel herself slipping away again. "Sure, babe. It's fine. Don't worry about it, we'll, ah ... we'll have plenty of time for that when we get out of here."

She nodded. How many more fucking animals was she going to become? Where the hell was this all going? "Smiles?"

"Hello! I thought it improper to intrude on your fornication and tended to duties elsewhere in the facility. How are you feeling? I would imagine that mutual gender familiarity will bring you to a closer understanding with your chosen romantic partner."

Candice and Mark exchanged a bewildered look, then returned their gaze to the ceiling.

"I am excited to inform you that this phase of WRP is nearing completion. I'm also delighted to inform you that this trial run has proven invaluable to future endeavors."

"Trial run?" Mark whispered.

"You will be pleased to learn that you have both been real team players. We must now look towards the future as we move closer to the return of mankind to this formerly blue planet. Truly, we couldn't have done it without your hard work and dedication."

Candice looked at her hooves and wondered if the slimy mixture of various bodily fluids was what Smiles considered "hard work" and "dedication."

"Thank you once again from everyone here at Rocketjet Aerodyne. Euthanasia will commence soon. I'll give you a few moments so say goodbye."

"What?" both prisoners screamed in unison. The machine's only reaction to their inquiry was to begin emitting soft jazz from the speakers embedded in the ceiling.

"Oh my fucking god." Mark turned to look at his freakish lover.

"Mark ..."

They moved closer together, embracing for one last time, Candice shuddering as she tried to keep from thrusting her large organ against Mark's leg. The machine had lied. It had taken the data it needed and was now moving to the next stage of its warped project. Perhaps Candice hadn't even been the first one to be changed.

"I love you," Mark said. "This has been the most fucked up day of my life, but I want you to know that I love you."

"I love you, too, Mark. Being with you has made me the happiest I've ever been in my life. It was even worth working at this shithole and going this absolute hell if it meant I could be with you."

"Really?"

"No. This entire situation is fucked. But I do love you, though."

Mark suddenly pushed her away.

Candice tried to maintain her balance, but soon fell backwards onto her ass, her hot femsex pressing against the floor in a way that would've been very pleasurable if she weren't awaiting her own vaporization. "What?"

"Got an idea." Mark turned away from Candice and stared up at the ceiling. "Go with it."

She nodded as she began to rub her pussy against the floor. It wasn't like she had any alternatives anyway.

"Smiles? I've got a question."

It gave no response other than to continue to play the music that must have been pre-approved by several corporate managers to provide maximum irritation.

"Smiles, I'd like to report a violation of corporate policy."

Burt Reynolds finally spoke up. "There is no need, M1-001. A small amount of leeway has been factored into the simulation with regards to your recent copulation."

"Not that, thank you. Can you tell me what outcome was determined regarding the submission of my quarterly findings report?"

The machine paused. "That report was not submitted, doctor."

"And that is acceptable?"

"That is incorrect. All quarterly finding reports must be submitted no later than ... than ..."

"No later than 17:00 this afternoon. Right? Only, well, hell, it must be late by ... 312 years?"

"That is ... That is correct. M1-001, all quarterly finding reports must be submitted no ... no ... no ..."

Candice smiled in a way only someone with hundreds of shark teeth can. Got you, you unfeeling, abhorrent, Game Boy. Got you.

Mark continued "But if it must be submitted--and it absolutely must be submitted--then why wasn't it submitted 312 years ago?"

A whirring noise could be heard from behind the ceiling tiles. It was thinking, trying to resolve an imperative order from the past with its current directive in the present.

"That's not going to stop it." Mark turned to look back at Candice. "It'll reroute its programming, add a few new 'if statements' into the mix, but it'll figure things out eventually. Gives us to time to think of another solution."

Candice started to rise to her hooves, only to slip and fall onto all fours. Eights. Whatever. She grunted as the familiar pain returned.

"Baby, we don't have time for this."

"I'm not the one calling the shots on this, Mark!" Candice screamed. She suddenly became aware of how close her still-hard cock was from her lips. With her extended snout, there was something she was now able to try that suddenly interested her very much. She opened her maw and slipped her black amphibian tongue past her drooling lips. She began caressing the head of her shaft, running her tongue around her piss-slit, down past the ridged mushroom of her glans, down the shaft. She could feel the blood pumping in the massive organ, the steady thrum growing faster and faster as it stared swelling again. Not longer this time, but much, much wider. The long cylinder began to crease in the middle as the massive horse cock started to split in two until it reunited at its base. Her sheath swelled wider in an effort to provide a resting place for her two individual male organs. Her testicles began to grow larger as they struggled to accommodate for the second penis.

Mark's words were drowned out as Candice finally slipped over the edge into wanton abandon. This was finally too much to process. She began hopelessly fellating both of her tools with her drooling snout, careful to keep her sharp teeth from her sensitive flesh. Her tongue was large enough to wrap around both organs, then through the space between them, then back again several times over. She slid to the ground, thrusting her hips, fucking her own mouth as hard as she could. Her balls slid back and forth across the floor, preparing what must be a torrent of cum for when she finally reached climax. Her tentacles wrapped around her body, at once teasing her lower breasts, caressing her horse teats, and milking her udders into the now ludicrously slick floor. The end of one tentacle buried itself in her cunt, twisting itself around her engorged clit, pounding in and out of her with its remaining length, pressing several thrashing feet of itself into her. The end of her other tentacle caressed her anus, slipping inside to tongue her new prostate.

Candice was beyond all rational thought now, completely oblivious to anything outside her wonderful realm of slime, cum, drool, and milk. Every sensation was pleasure. Nothing else existed. Every pain, every indignation, every embarrassment she had suffered up till now was worth it if this was the end result. The only things she could feel beyond one extended orgasm blending into the next was tug of her teats, the feel of her balls slapping the side of her legs, the spray of cum in the back of her throat, and the thrashing of her tail as it crashed through several feet of reinforced steel.

Finally each individual orgasm blended into one glorious crescendo. The animal slumped onto its belly and breasts, its tongue lazily hanging from its mouth and lolling in several inches of its own secretions. Its vision began to blur as it felt itself beginning to black out. Its well-earned rest was interrupted by the screaming pink monkey thing presumptively grabbing it by its topmost shoulders and screaming "Canned ice" over and over again.

The fuckbeast giggled to itself. No thank you, screaming pink money thing. I don't need any canned ice. I just need to sleep a while so I can wake up and kill something and eat grass and fuck myself all over again.

The monkey thing now had the audacity to slap her across her long snout. The fuckbeast barely resisted the urge to lashing out with its shiny pokey arm thingies. For some reason the fuckbeast believed it liked the monkey thing, although at this moment it was having a hard time coming up with a reason why it shouldn't snap its little neck and suck out its spinal fluids. The fuckbeast liked the taste of spinal fluids.

"Canned ice got top! Canned ice got top! Canned ice get the fuck up! We need to go NOW!"

Candice gradually dragged herself out of her primordial thoughts into the realm of algebra, physics, and the importance of microwave burritos. There was still a thin fog in her brain that threatened to drag her back down into oblivious satisfaction, but the blaring klaxon alarms and flashing red lights reminded her of the severity of their situation.

"Mark ... whuzz happen?"

"It didn't like that. We need to go before it figures out my stupid little paradox and comes back to kill us. Get up, let's go!"

Candice slowly rose to her feet, using her tentacles to keep from slipping in the thick goo. "Go where, Mark? We're stuck here, remember?"

Mark gestured manically towards the basketball-sized hole gaping through the jagged metal of the wall. "There, god damn it! Try to open it wider!"

"Wider? How did ..."

"Your tail.Ophiophagus hannah, I think."

Candice reached up to rub at a strange sensation along her neck. A thick, scaly hood poked through her mane, creating a membrane linking her upper shoulders with her head. "That's ... a snake?"

"King cobra. Use your fucking tail!"

"Tail?" Candice realized her torso was now leaning almost horizontally, her legs shifting to allow for a more hunched over position, her breasts and balls gently swaying back and forth below her. Her eyes traced along her back until she finally noticed the massive scaly length growing from her large horse ass. Her new tail was enormous. It must have been four times as long as the rest of her body, probably close to twenty-five feet in length. Despite the way it dwarfed the rest of her body, Candice actually felt it easy to maintain her balance for the first time since she had woken from her cryogenic stasis. It moved back and forth, slinging slime here and there. She made it turn in cute little loops, testing it and becoming elated to find that it would obey her every command. In truth, it felt almost like the tail was the main part of her body, and the rest of her fleshy, milky, oozy bits were just along for the ride. "I have a tail."

"Break the fucking wall!"

Candice whirled her tail through the air in a circular dance, strings of mucus flying in every direction. She finally slung its massive weight against the damaged wall. The collision of scale and steel sounded like a car crash. The hole had widened a bit as the wall was further dented under the assault. Candice repeated the motion over and over again, screaming out a single word in joyous rapture with every collision.

"I ..."--WHAM--"...finally..."--WHAM--"...got..."--WHAM--"...my..."--WHAM--"...fucking..."

The wall imploded with the terrible screech of metal against metal, like the death knell of a tortured mechanical demon.

"...TAIL!"

Mark leapt through the jagged metal into a familiar site. The raggedy, boring green carpet looked just like what they would encounter every day lining the floors of the hallways of Rocketjet Aerodyne.

"Let's go!" he screamed. "We have to get out of here before we really piss it off."

Candice slithered through the opening, the sharp steel of the ruined wall feeling like torn tissue paper against her fist-sized scales. "Where? Underground, remember? Apocalypse, remember?"

"Anywhere is better than here."

Candice nodded in agreement. "Maybe they have offices somewhere? We can figure out how to get the others awake, make some sort of plan?"

"I like it." The alarms grew even louder. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" He started running down the hall, but was soon scooped up by two crimson tentacles and held against Candice's chest by two hooklike green scythes.

"This is faster. Hang on." Candice slithered down the hallways with her fiance clutched to her breasts, her massive tail propelling the pair faster than they could ever hope to run. They wound through hallways, meeting rooms, supply cabinets, and finally reached a large empty chamber resembling the inside of a smokestack or an unused nuclear reactor. A dim yellow light shone hundreds of feet above, likely some kind of translucent plastic serving to just barely separate them from a radioactive hellscape. There were still some rooms they could check, but the hopelessness of their situation was finally sinking in.

"There's nobody here," gasped Mark. "There's nobody here."

"Are we the only ones left then in the whole installation then? What do we do now?"

Mark hesitated. "Candice?"

Candice lowered him to the ground. She rubbed at all six of her shoulder blades. They were suddenly aching, likely due to the added weight she had been carrying around today. "What do you want to do?"

"Candice ... I don't want to stay here. I don't want to stay here with that fucking machine and those sirens the rest of my life. We passed what looked like some food stores earlier, but that will run out after a while."

"But the radiation ..."

"I think we have to take the risk. We can stay down here and die or we can risk it. Maybe it's not that bad? Maybe there are others out there somewhere? Candice, I just ... I don't want to stay here."

Candice lowered her feline-crocodile head. "You mean with me."

Mark shook his head. "No, no, that's not what I mean at all. I'm with you. Always. Count on that."

She pulled him in for an embrace. There was likely no one on this planet--even before the destruction--that could possibly stay with her after what she had become. "I love you, Mark. I love you so much."

"I love you, Candy."

"I can't imagine how you can." She gestured to her strange body. "Look at me."

"I don't care. You're you, and that's all I need to care about."

She leaned in to kiss him before remembering she was in possession of a two foot snout. "Not ... so easy to ... kiss with ... this thing."

"I intend to try."

Their lips attempted to meet. It was bizarre. Clumsy. Perfect.

"I lost the ring," she whispered. "It was gone when I woke up. Not that it would fit now anyway."

"It's okay. I'll just stop making the payments on it. Grogan won't mind, what with the end of the world and all."

"You ass." Finally the pain in her shoulder blades became too great for Candice to ignore. "Oh no, oh shit."

"What?"

"It's happening again."

"Another mutation? What now?"

"It's my shoulders, they hurt. Christ, how much more of this am I supposed to take?"

Candice wailed as her the skin between her six shoulders and her back ridges began to swell. Six thin limbs were developing, pushing out longer and longer until the nearly touched either side of the enormous reactor chamber. Tiny hollow needles grew down the length of each appendage before each spread out into a soft, black fan. Candice's new black wings finished growing in a matter of minutes, spreading forth in bizarre display. She closed her in eyes and suppressed tears of joy. As a child she had always dreamt of being able to fly. What child hadn't?

"Are those ..."

"Wings."

"Six pairs. What type of bird has six pairs of wings?"

"I don't care. This feels amazing. Like stretching a muscle I never knew I had." Candice looked at the distant light, feeling a primal, urgent need to take to the sky, to see everything, to be everywhere. "You still want out?"

Mark followed her gaze upwards. "You think you can fly?"

"I know I can fly."

"The radiation?"

"I'm a mutant slime monster. I probably eat radiation."

Mark and Candice's eyes met for possibly the last time. If this didn't work, or even if it did, they might be dead in the next few moments.

"So ... bail?"

Candice nodded. "Bail."

Mark climbed into Candice's arms as she lifted them off of the ground. Even with the immense wait of her tail, it was simple. Taking off wasn't hard. Making the choice to actually land would be harder. As she flew higher, Candice knew she would never want to touch the ground again.

The strange pair closed their eyes and leaned in to each other as they crashed through the top of the hollow tower. It wasn't plastic, it was regular glass. That didn't make much sense to Candice, but she couldn't bring herself to care at that moment. She was flying. She was flying! She was--

The heat of the open air beat down upon them. The machine was right. Everything was hot. Everything was burning. They had chosen to defy the only life that had been available to them, and they were going to die because of their decisions.

The chimera felt her skin beginning to dry in the harsh air. "I love you," she whispered before the heat drove her to the ground. They crashed in a heap on scorched asphalt, holding each other tight as they waited for the nuclear winds to turn them to ash.

Candice was the first to open her eyes. This didn't look like the wasteland the machine had shown to her soon after she had awoken. The unbearable heat wasn't really so unbearable, although the pavement was certainly scalding. The pair of sneakers that stepped into Candice's vision certainly seemed out of place on the feet of some irradiated mutant wasteland wanderer. IMWW. She reminded herself to file that one away in the acronym vault.

Sneakers?

Candice looked up into the face of an utterly horrified, utterly distraught, utterly normal human being. Behind him, traffic ground to a halt as people started took notice of the monster lying on the sidewalk in front of them. The non-IMWW lost his hold on his Starbuck's cup, which fell to the ground and splashed across his shiny new Reeboks.