Rude Awakening

Story by Spirithorse on SoFurry

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#1 of Mutant Earth


I awoke to a room filled with the scent of stale sweat, pain and sickness. Laying there for long moments I stared at the ceiling wondering where I was and why things felt so changed. It was long moments before I realized that I wasn't shivering with fever or seeing strange colors. The room didn't swim about me and my skin no longer itched so bad that I had wanted to rip it off. When I sat up there was no pain in my joints and the only thing I felt was light headed and a soul deep hunger. Looking about I found myself in the small room in the cabin dad kept in Utah.

Blinking muzzily I worked to remember how I had gotten here. Working at it I vaguely remembered a car trip while I was sick. Dad had been talking to me about how it was the end of the world. Of course, for my father that wasn't all that strange, he had been predicting the end of the world as long as I had been alive. Hadn't he said something about a plague though? I couldn't remember and that really bothered me.

As I thought about that something began to bother me. I was sitting on something and it was damn uncomfortable! I slid my feet off the bed and stood up to get off of the object, only to pitch forward and almost fall. Only a quick grab for my dresser kept me up right. Shaking my head finding the world was spinning now, I waited till the light head feeling to pass. Standing there I realized something was horribly wrong; I couldn't feel the floor beneath my feet.

Looking down I found that I must have still been hallucinating or something because I was standing on hooves. How very strange. Inspecting myself more closely I saw that I had dun fur covering myself, much like buckskin. It took a moment to sink in that I was also naked but not feeling cold and even in the summer the cabin was a tad on the cold side.

Looking about I spotted my suitcase and tried to walk over to it. It took a couple of tries for me to get there though because my sense of balance was all off. Maybe I wasn't as well as I thought; after all I was seeing things and unsteady on my feet. But hunger drove me to get out some clothes. I pulled out some panties first and went to slip them on but felt them catch on something behind me keeping them from going all the way up.

Twisting to look at my butt I was rather surprised to find I had a black and white horse tail. Reaching out and gripping the part that had bone and muscle in it I could feel it, both through my hand and tail. Letting go I tried to make it move and managed to make it twitch.

I closed my eyes and took long slow breaths until I didn't feel the need to scream and panic anymore. The urge to run far and fast was strong in me even as my heart slowed down. What had happened? I whimpered softly, and found the sound strange in my ears. I grabbed the top sheet off the bed and wrapped it about me before opening the door to my room thoughts of hunger gone as I went to find my father.

Getting into the hallway by using my free hand, I used the walls for balance and walked down the hall to his room. I couldn't hear anyone in the cabin but could see a note taped to his door. Stopping and looking at it I found it hard to focus on until I turned my head and looked at it with just one eye closing the other.

Dear Jess,

I brought us up here knowing that you had what ever this plague was that has been killing so many. I don't know how much you remember as your 'flu' struck early and had you out of it. It has been killing most people past puberty and the city there have been riots. I brought us up here so that we have the best chance to avoid all that.

There is no easy way to say this sweetheart but I have the plague. All indications are that my chances of surviving it are low. So know that if you open this door if I'm not already dead then I will be soon, most likely. If I am, I'm sorry I wont be there for you anymore. I have done everything I could in the time we had together to prepare you to survive on your own. No matter what comes know that I will always love you and hold you close in my heart. Be brave my little sweetling. You know the combo on the gun safe. The library in the basement has a lot about how to do every thing to survive on your own. I hope with all my heart that things get better sooner than later.

Be careful and do not trust easily, when times get hard people can quickly lose any resemblance of civilization.

Love, Dad.

I bit my lip, reading the note made the silence from the other room ominous. With foreboding I pushed the door open to his room and saw my father on his bed unmoving and stiff. There was blood at his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. The faint stench in the room and the unnatural stillness was something I had seen, having gone hunting with my father many times.

I don't know how long I leaned against the door jam crying. I had never known my mother, she had died when I was a baby. But my father had been everything to me. He had always been there for me and had supported me in anything I choose to do. He had set few limits and while we had never been rich my father had gotten me most of the things girls asked for and never got. I had a pony in a stable, a fancy cell phone, and nice clothes. He had argued with me on some of my selections but for the most part I had had a free hand there too. He had been an awesome dad and I knew, in the depths of my heart that it was true.

Finally, grief stricken or not, my belly would no longer tolerate being ignored and cramped painfully. I walked down the hall to the kitchen after shutting the door behind me. My stride was becoming smoother as I got used to walking on hooves. Looking about the kitchen it looked the same, at least as much as I remembered it. The cabin had minimal electric wiring through it; mostly just lights running from solar panels, batteries, and two windmills. Heat was provided by Franklin stoves in each room and a pot bellied stove in the kitchen. The whole cabin was designed to be as self sufficient as possible.

I got out a pan and a can of soup and got the fire going. As the soup warmed I went into the bathroom and put aside the sheet to get a good look at myself. Looking into the mirror I saw that I had a very equine head. It was broad in the forehead but otherwise shaped just as a horse or ponies would be. At least, it explained why focusing on things in front of me at close range required me to turn my head. My coloring was very similar to a fjord pony; I had the dorsal stripe and dun body with a lighter belly. The dorsal strip even ran through my tail. The only thing that was abnormal about my markings was that I had black socks on my hands and feet. Or would that be hooves? My eyes were still a bright blue but the pupil was a horizontal slit like a natural horses. My skin where it showed was black. Over all I thought I looked very exotic and pretty, in a freakish way.

Closer inspection showed a few other things. Checking between my legs I found I had a noticeable fold of flesh like a mares vulva not the simple slit I was used to. My breasts were a little more developed. In other circumstances I might have been more pleased by this as it had been my wish at my last birthday for more chest. Dad had ribbed me about being impatient and that they would come in good time. "Eleven," he said "was to soon to worry about such things."; how long ago had that been?

I returned to the kitchen and took the soup off the heat. Eating it straight from the pan, I considered what my next move should be. It wrenched at my heart but I decided that I should build a pile of fire wood for my father and burn his body. I had no idea how long dad had been dead; the cool air of the cabin had probably slowed the process of decay down but I knew dead bodies left to rot could bring their own forms of sickness to roost.

She distracted herself for a time with considering if she should get dressed before going outside. The cabin seemed warm enough even though there had been no fire till she had started one. There would be no one to see and she wasn't sure how well clothing was going to fit anymore. Still while she had been raised in a house where nudity wasn't frowned on; culture had taught that nakedness was bad.

Returning to my room I went through the clothes my father had packed. Not too surprisingly they were almost all of her conservative outfits. On the other hand, dad had always been somewhat fashion blind. I tried panties again but they just didn't work with the tail. Maybe with alterations but not as is. Pulling out shorts and looking at them, pants as well, I realized I would have the same problems. I tried a skirt but found it kept my tail from moving freely when tucked underneath. Finally I pulled out a sleeping shirt that had always hung down far enough to keep me covered enough to be modest for about the house. I spent a moment to cut a slot for my tail in back. It wasn't perfect, the occasional draft of air into personal places told me that, but it would do.

I went to the front door and removed the big drop bars that were placed at one and two thirds of the door's height. Undoing the two dead bolts, I opened the door up to find that the doors outside security shutter had been run down. I looked about the front room and spotted the bar that would slot in to allow it to be hand cranked open. It took a few minutes but I had it up far enough to exit with out ducking.

Stepping out I found the world bright, the sun high in the sky on a clear and cheerful day. I stopped and all but smacked myself in the forehead. Closing the door and throwing the dead bolts I went down stairs to the gun safe and got out a Glock 9mm pistol. Thinking for a moment I drew the pistol and dropped into a standard shooters stance. I tried to sight down the barrel as one was supposed to but could not get the gun into focus. I squeezed the grip's trigger spot and the sighting laser mark popped up on the wall and I breathed a sigh of relief. My vision might be all screwy but at least I would know where my bullets would go. I put on a shoulder holster and headed back upstairs and outside.

Standing outside the front door I did a visual sweep of the area. Inside of the compound's walls was my dad's cabin, the three guest cabins, a two car garage, a large workshop, the activity center, the tower, and a small barn. The guest cabins were designed for four people each. The work shop included a forge, a wood working shop, and two complete sets of tools that could do most repairs or even new constructions for buildings. The activity center was were dad had held classes that weren't done out in the forest. The tower was the only building taller than the outside wall and its fifty foot height was topped by a ham radio antenna. The garage had all the tools a mechanic would need for working on cars and housed a tractor with all the basic equipment to do small scale farming. Dad had run a survival camp and set this place up as both his getaway, if things went to shit in the outside world, and as a base camp for teaching people wilderness survival. The whole compound was meant to be as self sufficient as it could get.

I paused in looking for any thing out of place when I saw the horse trailer off to one side. I finished my scan of the area and then went over to the barn hopefully. Checking inside I didn't see my Spots or her dad's Dancer but did see a large number of bags of pellet feed. I went outside and used a ladder to get up on the wall, learning as I did that hooves and ladders did not mix well. Looking out into the pastures though I saw both horses grazing together and sighed in relief.

I watched them for a short time to see if they looked to be in good health. My Spots was an Pony of the Americas gelding and had a sweet disposition. My dad's horse was an Quarter horse stallion, high spirited and feisty. I loved them both and had on many occasions given them treats. I had wanted when I was six a spirited little shetland pony stallion we had seen but my father had put his foot down and insisted I start with a gelding or mare. He had picked up Dancer a year or two later because I had still been miffed about not getting the pony I had picked first in part to show me what a handful a stallion could be. Not because they were crazy but because unlike geldings they could get very distracted by mares or other stallions. Dancer in some ways had backfired in that respect as he behaved very well indeed; though when not under saddle he flirted shamelessly with any mare he saw and could be a real handful to lead at times like that. Happily I saw that they both seemed to be fat and happy in the big field of grass.

Going back down the ladder was almost harder then coming up it had been. I would have to figure out how to handle that later. I looked about the area and decided that in the central area where we normally had a big fire pit would be the best spot to burn father's body. It took almost till sunset to build a wood pile large enough to be sure to burn his body completely. I went in and picked up his body and thought he felt so light and fragile that it seemed surreal. My father had always been a strong person; always there for me. I had never imagined a universe without him and felt like a stranger in my own body as I placed him on the wood pile.

I used an entire bottle of fire starting fluid on the wood and his body after dressing him in his best clothes. I only dressed him up because it seemed the right thing to do. I lit the fire and stood and watched him burn. I worked hard not to dwell on the gaping hole his death left in my life but on all the good times we had had together. I didn't know how I would get along without him. He had spent as much time as he could with me. I had been home schooled as much as possible, and I had always been his assistant in the survival training classes he ran. It seemed horribly unfair that he was gone now. I didn't feel ready to face the world alone. But life, as dad said, rarely was fair and it defiantly believed in kicking people while they were down. I had never believed that until now.

Would I have to go to an orphanage? Or were things so bad out there in the world that I wouldn't be a concern? Would I be a freak in the world looking as I did? What was going on out there?

After his funeral pyre burned down I went inside and did something that would have gotten me into a ass load of trouble had he been still alive. I got into the liquor cabinet and got out his best scotch and drank a huge slug of it before putting it back. I had drunk beer before and thought this would be like that but it burned its way down my throat. I coughed and put it back not entirely sure why after having done so that I had wanted to do that.

I walked back to my bedroom and lay down on the bed and cried myself to sleep. I am ashamed to admit that I was sobbing in self pity as much as for the loss of my father. I felt lost and alone but knew that tomorrow I would have to get to work on simply surviving.

*****

When I woke up early the next morning, it was more because I felt like my bladder was going to explode that I felt rested. I staggered to the bathroom and relieved myself. In doing so I found out that just like a mare I 'winked' after peeing. It felt funny but it didn't stop until the slight ticklish feeling from peeing faded.

I examined what I had in clean clothes and decided to just where a longish t-shirt. It only covered me when my arms and tail were down, whenever I did anything I would flash anyone who was watching. But as this was a remote location location and I seemed to be alone, so who would see me if I did? I grabbed a quick bite to eat before doing anything else.

When I got to the front door I found that I had failed to lock up the night before. Reaching up I smacked myself in the back of the head. That was something I was going to need to be careful of. I went outside and looked at the fire pit wondering what to do next.

Examining the fire pit I saw fragments of bone in the ash and decided that next I should gather my fathers ashes and bury them. Going inside I hunted around for something to put them in and settled on a old popcorn tin. Once back outside I began scooping the ashes up and wondered where to bury them. I didn't want to keep them as a reminder of what I had lost, as compared to the father he had been. In the end I buried his ashes next to my favorite tree inside the walls. All I could do was not to break down crying.

As I tapped down the last of the dirt, sorrow turned to anger. How could he leave me all alone? What was I supposed to do? I leaned on the shovel and took a deep calming breath. Told myself it wasn't his fault and remembered what he had said in the past. When your depressed, sad, or angry, find physical work to do and work. Things always looked better after something useful had been done. So I decided to bring the horses in.

I went and got halters for the horses and opened the big gate, the only way through the walls around the place. I walked down the pasture they were in and they ran up until they were twenty feet away and then stopped. Spots was a handsome leopard spotted appaloosa of ten hands and Dancer was a striking dark smokey gray dapple of thirteen and a half hands. Looking at him he seemed taller than I remembered and made a mental note to check my height later.

They both examined me carefully and seemed puzzled. I couldn't blame them really. I looked at myself in the mirror and didn't know my own reflection. They came up slowly as I offered carrots to them clearly uncertain of this strange thing in front of them. Finally Spots stepped forward and took a carrot from me cautiously and after munching it he nuzzled me and gave a happy wicker. Dancer not to be shorted treats or out done shoved him aside to get his carrot and to sniff at me. With greetings out of the way I haltered them both and brought them inside.

I put them in their customary stalls and the went back out and closed the main gate. Once that was done I went back and groomed Spots first. Using the time I was grooming him to check him over carefully I saw that he needed a hoof trim soon, but was otherwise in good health. It took a while for him to regain his normal demeanor with me but then he was neck hugging me and otherwise his old friendly self. Having groomed him and made sure he was ok I gave him a quick hug about the neck and tucked him back in his stall. I checked both his water and Dancer's.

Looking at Dancer I knew he needed grooming but also knew that he wasn't nearly as passive when being groomed as Spot was. Dancer's problem was that he grew bored easily. I readied the cross ties though and brought him out to groom.

Putting him in the cross ties to keep his antics to a minimum, things at first went well. Dancer still had some of his winter coat and was itchy and he made all kinds of happy faces as I brushed him out. I found that like Spots he was in good health but a hoof trim would be needed soon. Thankfully neither of them were shoed just now. By the time I finished up his grooming though, he was growing restless. As I came around to his front he nuzzled my belly and lipped at my shirt. It was a game he had played in the past and my upper lip twitched when I went to smile. I realized I was smiling like a horse did.

During my momentary distraction at the difference in how I smiled now though; he lowered his head and sniffed deeply between my legs. I would have blushed if I could have; his breath was warm and his nose velvet soft as he investigated my naked crotch. I should have pushed his head away right then and there as I had the few times in the past when he stuck his nose into that personal space. But I have to admit it felt very nice, and so to my embarrassment I let him continue.

I was disappointed when after a moment he pulled his nose away. He lifted his head high in the air and his upper lip curled back as he sniffed noisily. To my further embarrassment I realized he was treating me like a mare he was interested in, something he had never done before. He gave a wicker from deep in his chest and lowered his head to nuzzle between my legs again. I lifted my shirt and let him sniff his fill.

It shocked me when after a few more sniffs his broad flat tongue licked over my sex drawing a soft moaning 'oh' from me. My clit winked, in response to the very pleasurable contact. Part of me was mortified that I had just let a horse lick my sex but another part wanted to feel that pleasurable feeling again. When he licked again I pressed into it a little with a soft wickering grunt of pleasure.

Dancer gave another deep wicker, this time filled with desire. He reared up as far as he could in the cross ties and lunged forward almost knocking me down as he tried to mount me. He thrust his hips forward his black cock erect and dripping his own arousel now very evident to me. I got away from his dancing four hooves but found my eyes glued to his rampant erection, it wasn't the first time I had seen him with one but it was the first time I had been so near when he wanted to breed.

I didn't think about how stupid it might be to take things any further, I was aroused myself, I moved along his side and ran a hand down his flank once he settled down and gave a forlorn wicker of disappointment. Running my hand down his flank I cupped his testicles in my hand before running my hand down his erection. He was somewhat over two feet in length and big enough around my fingers didn't quite go all the way around; he wickered lustily as my hand ran down his length and his hips thrust his erection forward eagerly in my hand.

Kneeling down on one knee I put my left hand on the base of his erection and held the other behind the tip of his shaft as he thrust eagerly into my hands. Clear drops of fluid hit the floor of the barn as he made powerful thrusts into my hands. His glands started to swell as I had seen some times when he masturbated and I watched closely in amazement at how large they got. Suddenly he gave a soft grunt even as I felt his cock flex and with a faint popping noise he sent a spurt of white splashing onto the ground. I was so surprised at this, it was a moment before I understood that he was having an orgasm.

I felt a flexing in my lower belly and realized that my pussy was winking and that I was so wet and horny that my thighs were wet. I let go of Dancer's cock with my right hand even while his seed was still spurting and rubbed a finger along my slit. Groaning softly I slipped a finger tip in a little and then squealed sharply as a wave of intense pleasure passed though me and my belly muscles spasmed. As wet as I had been before a copious amount of sexual fluids flowed from my sex almost as if I were peeing.

Dancer gave a happy rumble and tried to turn to nuzzle me. Standing up myself, I saw what I had done and felt a wave of embarrassment. Did I really just give a hand job to Dancer and then fingered myself to orgasm? Shaking my head I quickly put Dancer in his stall and went back to the house to take a bath. I suddenly felt a need to clean up.

In the cabin with the door barred and water heating for a bath I calmed down. Thinking about it, I remembered how many times I had snuck a feel of Dancer's balls, sheath and penis before. The only reason I hadn't gone any further was the same reason I had never gotten to see a boy's dick and balls. Dad had always been around and keeping a sharp eye on me. Had I gone as far as I had because for once I knew I wouldn't be caught doing something naughty with a boy? I wasn't sure. But thinking back on it, outside the embarrassment, I had been more thinking someone would burst in at any moment than anything else.

As I poured hot water into the bath my thoughts went to how it had felt to hold Dancer's erection as he had orgasmed. I felt my facial muscles twitch in embarrassment as just thinking about it made me feel horny again. His cock pulsing in my hands as he shoot his load had felt amazing. I slipped out of my shirt and rested my rump on the edge of the tub as I ran my hand down my belly. Spreading my legs to give myself easy access my fingertip slid along my slit as I remembered that feeling of him spurting. Moaning softly, I wondered what it would be like to be a mare under a stallion, my finger slipping into my wet folds.

I thrust my middle finger in and out moaning more loudly as I did. My imagination ran wild and I pretended my finger was a boy's cock thrusting into my pussy. I felt the muscles in my belly tightening on my finger as I fingered myself. The bathroom echoed with my moans and grunts as pleasure built in my pussy. I cried out, "oh god!" as my legs almost buckled under me as I came hard. More of my cum ran down the insides of my thighs a moment later, making me glad I had a bath all ready.

I took my bath while still riding the wave of bliss and relaxation that had come with my second orgasm. Before today I had never done more than touch myself in passing and yet now I had orgasmed twice, plus given a hand job to a horse. Thinking about it, I thought maybe I should be careful not to let my new found freedom go to my head.

*****

After a solid lunch I checked my height and found I was now four foot ten and had lost three inches in the change. Then I went to the tower and fired up the radios. Searching though the channels I listened to a number of broadcasts that were looping. They all said pretty much the same thing, stay indoors and wait for the all clear to come, dead body's were to be placed on the curb for pick up by designated disposal crews. I could find no live broadcasts.

My god I thought. How bad would it have to be that bodies were to be put on the curb like garbage. While flipping through dad's guide, which had far more in it than the one he had gotten published to sell, I found that the first thing to do was to determine how badly civilization had collapsed. I pulled out a pad of paper and outlined my plan to do that.

Step one would be to take a bunch of old t-shirts and cobble up some comfortable clothes that would provide modesty as well. Then there was the need to prep the hummer in the garage for a trip into town. That would be a somewhat evolved task as I would need to take and put the wood blocks onto the peddles that we had used when dad taught me to drive, plus load it with supplies and equipment for a variety of unknown situations but centered on scouting. Thinking about it I made a note to experiment with both binoculars and night vision gear and see if I could find a way to adapt the gear to the shape of my less than human face. Also I needed to spend some time practicing my shooting and self defense skills to make sure I was ready to handle myself if things got ugly. All of that was going to take a few days and would keep me quite busy.