Chapter 2

Waking up Reborn

As I woke i immediately noticed that things were different. My ears were ringing, my body felt hot and heavy. Slowly i opened my eyes and squinted in the incredibly bright light. It only took a couple of moments for my eyes to adjust, much faster than they used too. I didn't dare sit up remembering what happened last time.

Just as the ringing started to fade away, a loud slam startled me. It was as loud as a gun going off right next to me. Following the slam was rhythmic thumping getting louder as it got closer. I reached up to cover my ears to silence the sounds, my hands met fur. What the hell is this? My ears were much bigger than before. I moved my hands along them feeling my new ears.

They were tall like ears on a fox, standing straight up.

"like Shalamar's" I whispers to myself, I could barely cover them up with my hands. Why is it so unbearably hot in this room? I start looking around to see if there is a heater blanket on me or something but it is a just a thin sheet. The thumping got extremely loud as it passed my door then became bearable again as it went beyond my room. I moved my hands down from my ears and could not believe what I saw.

I am covered in fur.

My hands are furry and soft with pads on my fingertips and palm of my hands like a dogs paw.

My fur color is a dark brownish red and my pads are gray. I take a look under the sheet and expect to see bandages but I have none. I am completely healed.

Seeing that I sit up and throw off the sheet to get a better look at myself. I know that they said that I could heal faster but this seems way to fast. From what I can see sitting here I have a gray underside that goes between my legs and down the inside of my legs to my knees. I have gray, I guess you could call them, sleeves that go from my elbow to the tips of my fingers and from my knees down to my feet.

My breast feel like stayed the same still a size C but I might need a D now due to this fur. In between my breasts where Shalamar stabbed me with her claws I now have 4 scars going down from the middle of my breasts to my belly button. I'm surprised that I'm not in any pain seeing that I was all cut open not to long ago.

Slam!

What is that!? There's the thumping again. Not as bad as last time, my ears had adjusted to all the new sounds. This time there is more of them. I realized that the thumps were footsteps the loud slams must be doors closing. It sounded like they were coming this way. They stopped at my door, after a few moments my keen ears heard them unlock the door. It swung open and two male doctors came through. They looked surprised that I was sitting up.

"Oh good you're awake. We didn't know if you were ever going to wake up."

"I couldn't have been out for that long. How long has it been?"

"Its been ten days Rachel." he asked with a confused look

"That long? No wonder I am all healed."

"I'm surprised that you can talk this well already. I would think that you would need more time to adapt to having new muscles. I assume that you have seen what you look like."

"Yes for the most part."

"And you are fine with it? No regrets?"

"honestly I'm just happy that it worked and I am still alive."

"I would think that you would be concerned how you were going to live your life now with a different appearance."

"Well I haven't seen all of myself yet but I do oddly feel more at home, more like myself like this. Is there any way I could get a mirror so I can see myself better?"

"Yes we can do that. I think we have a tall one in the other room. Give me a minute all get it. If you want you may try and stand but please just take it slow. Some of your muscles have changed."

I threw off the sheet that was covering me and spun myself to the side of the bed. I slowly put my feet, sorry, paws on the floor and started to stand. I was a little bit shaky at first. My balance seemed a bit different for some reason. It was like standing on the tips of my toes. I didn't have much to balance on. Something kept throwing me off a bit when I would try to move. I could here the doctor coming back with a mirror. It was one of the old type ones with the wheels. From a room away I could tell one of the wheels was stuck and dragging across the floor. He made it to my room and I was finally able to see myself.

No wonder something was throwing me off balance. I have a large bushy tail. Isn't that tail oh so beautiful. It has the red on top with the gray on the underside. It seems to have a bit of a mind of its own at this point. Still have to figure out how to control a new appendage. As I am staring at myself in the mirror as if I am admiring a test subject I start to smell something strong and musky. It makes me excited and alert. I start to look around to find out where it is coming from. I look at the 2 doctors and see that one is looking me over in the same way I am but the other younger one is trying not to look. He is looking at the ground and all around the room. The smell is coming from him? Why does he smell good?

"Rachel do you realise that you are naked?" asked the older doctor.

I look again in the mirror and realise that I am in fact naked, in the human sense. Am I calling them human? I chuckle to myself, Am I already doing that. Not ten days ago I was considered human.

"I'm sorry I did not notice that. Must be because I am covered in fur. I feels like I am fully clothed." i said distracted by my beautiful tail and new body

"Interesting" said the doctor thoughtfully.

Oh I get it now. I'm smelling arousal. This other guy isn't a doctor he is the muscle. Guess I don't blame them with what happened with Shalamar. I guess my sleek agile body is to much for him to take. Probably doesn't help I have been posing in front of a mirror for the last five minutes.

"Could I please have something to cover up with?" i said. He didn't need to see me naked.

"Here is a gown." the doctor said holding out a johnny.

"Thank you." I said taking it from him. "I don't want to be a distraction for your muscle. What happened with Shalamar? Were we able to stop her? I would like to be able to try and learn more from her." i said putting it on, actually happy it had a hole in the back. I didn't know what i would have done with my tail.

"She got away. We were acupide with our wounded and dead and could not have stopped her if we wanted to. She took out most of our guards and all but one scientist in that wing. We lost a lot of people." the musclel said sadly

"Is there anything I can do to help?" i asked ready to go back to work.

"No not at this time. We have orders to keep you in this room until further notice."

"Why? In not going to go crazy like she did."

"You can't guarantee that. We don't know what might happen. Until we fully understand what to expect you have to stay in here." the scientist said looking me over some more.

"I'm not useless. Let me help you. Let me fix this!"

"No. I can't let our prize specimen escape. I can't fail like you did. You are our only way to understand how to fight these God forsaken Raseri."

"What! Fight them! There is only two of us!" i exclaimed, why was he so violent towards them?

"We have confirmed accounts of more Raseri in hiding. We have been trying to keep a close eye out for them.There could be hundreds or thousands out there for all we know."

"I thought that you were the good guys! Your no better than the humans that tried to wipe out the Raseri the first time!" I yelled at him wondering where this love for a people i don't know came from.

"Rachel. We ARE the humans that wiped them out the first time. How do you think that we knew that this place was here. My great grandfather was the one who led the team who cleared this place out." he said with a smirk on his face.

"You monsters!" i screamed baring my teeth and growling."

Just then the "Muscle" pulled a pistol out of somewhere and pointed it at me. I froze and backed down.

"You are going to help us one way or the other. Don't worry we are not going to kill you. That is unless you try to kill us first. Do as we ask and we might even let you continue your research."

The next week was a living hell. There is nothing in this world similar to this experience. Not even close. The closest things I can think of is being born or how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The pod was my cocoon so to speak. I went in a squishy human and came out a beautiful Raseri. Although un like the butterfly had to learn everything all over again. This tail of mine was something else. It kept moving every which way and won't sit still ever. I kept on almost falling over from it throwing me off balance. I had taken to yelling at it and cursing it out for being a dick to me. I have found that i can't use a normal chair anymore either. My tail gets in the way of everything. Something as simple as going to the bathroom has increased difficulty with all this fur and claws. Keeping myself clean is a day long chore in it self on the 3rd day i tried to take a shower, after and hour of sudsing up and rinsing off i had clogged the drain with my fur and used an entire bottle of shampoo. Even though it was refreshing to get clean and cool off, It took me hours to get dried off as well, even with a blowdryer. After I finally got dry i looked like a giant fluff ball and my entire body was incredibly itchy. I did some research and found that when I washed myself I washed off all the protective oils and it made my skin dry out. Now I had to wait for the oils to build up again.

Even when i try and sleep my tail is there keeping me up. When it is not pissing me of however i do like admiring it and learning how to manipulate it. Having something to focus on is the only thing that has been keeping me sane.

I tried to eat the food that they brought me but every time i get it the smell of it insults my nose and turns my stomach. The only food i have found to be even remotely satisfying is the meat. It has to be fresh though. None of this frozen fish sticks or hamburger patties. It's odd but i have been craving raw steak as of late but they won't bring it to me. I guess it makes sense to me why i would want that for food being mostly fox. I have been having dreams of chasing a rabbit through the woods and catching it. Just as i bite down to break its neck and start eating i wake up with my pillow in my mouth. They are afraid of my going wild and killing everyone like Shalamar did but keeping me locked in here will do that just the same.

I have been trying to get them to trust me once again with the recurch that i was working on before this fiasco and it has worked to a extent. I have been allowed to review the readings that were taken while i was in the medical pod.

I sit on the floor, cross legged. The papers that had recorded my transformation spread before me. My tail thumping in the floor as i think. I try to control it so that it does not send the papers flying around the room. Again.

"I can't believe how amazing this technology is. It is so far past anything that we have ever dreamed of making and it is one hundred and fifty years old. How is it that we have fallen so far from where we once were?" I asked the walls amazed. What had really happened during The Cleans? Did the Raseri really go savage and attack the humans?

I took a look at my brain scans again for what felt like the onehunderth time and came to the conclusion that it was in fact a vision that i had. I could see that i was in distress. It was like i could feel the vision on a deeper level then just seeing images. Like i was experiencing the day with her. I tried to find out at what had triggered the vision., to see what state my mind was in right before it happened. I noticed i had slipped into an state of mind similar to meditation.

"Maybe if i could induce a state of calm deep enough i might be able to access that memory again." i said to the walls again.

I need to know what happened to the girl in my vision who she is, and what is she to me. There was something about her that felt familiar, Like i knew her, but that was impossible. "It is going to have to wait though. Without unrestricted access to a lab i won't be able to obtain the amount of calm needed to induce such a vision. Even if i could induce the calm needed i don't know if i would have another vision." I said leaning back and letting my tail run rampid like my mind. Papers scattered across the room, i glanced around and had to shake my head, my room looked like my mind. A mess.

I heard the familiar beeps of the keypad and click of my door unlocking. I waited for the smell of shitty food to assault my nose once again. instead Director Norrix came through the door with the guard assigned to me close behind.

"How are you feeling today Rachel?" he asked looking me over as if he could tell by my appearance.

"Furry and itchy" I said annoyed crossing my arms

"Well that is to be expected" he stated staring me down.

"What do I have to do to leave my room? Im feeling cooped up and I need to run." i said standing. I started to pace, I needed to get out and do something. to feel the grass beneath my paws and the wind in my fur, "We can't let you out until we know that there are no bad effects of what you have gone through." he said going over my chart and trying to get me to stand still so he could look at me better.

"I have been in here for a week now. What else do you need to know!?" I scowled. "What more do you want from me?"

"You haven't had your first heat yet and we don't know how it will affect you."

I stopped pacing for a moment, hadn't thought about that. What would happen when my new Raseri body went in to heat. How would my human brain handle it? Nevermind that though, I need to do something more than just sitting here. My muscles ache with pent up energy. He left then leaving me to sit in my room some more, it felt like i would never be free.

After another week of sitting in my room they finally let me out to rome the halls, with an escort of course. It wasn't quite what I wanted but anything is better than being in that room pacing and gnawing on my poor pillow.

Walking around this bunker is a bit odd for me now knowing what has happened here. I see all the bullet holes in a new light. Most of these holes are from purist humans cleansing this bunker of the Raseri. I have come to understand more about how the Raseri lived as I wander these halls.

I have tried to work more on my research but in an unable to work a computer with these clumsy hands. I have broken two keyboards trying to use them. That vision,, that I had is starting to make more sense. I don't know how I could see something that happened well before my time. How did it get all the details right? I have never been in many of the places that I was dreaming about and my subconscious got it all right. I can see the path that Jenny took through the building but I am not permitted to most of the compound. I am mostly confined to the mess hall, my room, and the pod room. I also always have a escort following me around carrying enough firepower to take down a hippo. Because of Shalamar's violent attack they are still on edge, even around me who was one of them not too long ago.