A World of Fur – Paranoia Unleashed
Story by Gruffy on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
A World of Fur – Paranoia Unleashed
*
Continuing commission as sponsored by :iconheru: - hope you'll enjoy this one, and I look forward to your feedback!
*
_ FT. REMARKABLE AIR FORCE BASE _
Captain Alessandro Valentino was not sure what had happened him, but they must've pumped him up with more painkillers than was probably necessary. The test pilot could not think of any other reason why he was hallucinating that the doctor wearing a strange green protective suit looked like a lion. The two others flanking him, the Captain thought, had decided to assume the appearance of some sort of a dog and some sort of a wild boar, at least in the bewildered psyche of Captain Valentino, frowning with confusion.
He glanced at the IV stands next to him, bags hanging off the hooks with the tubes coiling down to his arm. Then he looked again at the strange dream shapes.
“Uh...if you're real...” he cleared his throat, “might think about adjusting the meds or something. I don't think I'm quite in my right mind at the moment.”
The man-cat looked at him, huge eyes, muzzle, ears, everything the Captain expected to see on a feline, yet this one walked on two feet and watched him curiously.
“I can't remember what happened but...but somehow I got back and...”
He coughed again.
“I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what's going on, but could you please do something about these damn hallucinations?”
The lion lifted one hand – a paw – swathed in a yellow glove, and pointed at his chest.
“Me...doctor...me...doctor!” the lion-man said with measured slowness.
Valentino frowned.
“I kinda guessed you're the doc, but I've no idea what's going on,” he said, “my head hurts pretty much, did I hit my head or something?”
“Are-you-a-mutant?” the lion-man asked.
“Excuse me?” Valentino breathed. “What the hell?”
“Me – doctor!” the lion gestured at himself.
“I heard you the first time!” the Captain coughed. “Could you tell me where I am and what's going on with me? Why am I seeing everything wrong? Is this some kind of brain damage or an allergic reaction or something? Did I split my skull or...or...”
The lion's gloved paw touched his arm, and silenced him.
“You-will-be-alright!” the lion enunciated.
Valentino pulled his hand away from the lion's reach. Even that hurt.
“Why do you talk to me like to an idiot?” he muttered. “I can hear you just fine!”
His raised voice seemed to cause the lion to be taken aback. The other strange animal-people around him shuffled from foot to foot and looked at one another nervously.
“Are you...is this Russia or something?” he asked. “Or South America? Do you not understand what I'm saying? I can't tell who you are really because my brain seems to be having some trouble seeing you properly.”
The lion nodded. That gave the Captain some hope.
“Is that it? You understand me?” he asked. “Do you understand me?”
“Where-are-you-from?” the lion-man went at it again.
I've had enough of this,” the man grunted in his misery, “I am Captain Alessandro Valentino of the European Space Branch and I was test piloting the IKAROS prototype when something went wrong and - “
The lion shook his head.
“You-rest-now,” the lion said.
The three men turned about and made for the strange plastic doorway. To Valentino it looked like they were in a hurry.
“Hey!” he yelled. “What the hell are you doing? Where are you going?”
They disappeared behind the flap, leaving the Captain to shout behind them alone in his tent.
“Hey! Don't you go now! I need to talk to you, to anyone! Do you think I'm a spy or something, hey, what is wrong with you?!”
He tried to sit upright on the bed but the pain on his back forced him to abandon the attempt after only a few inches from the mattress. Landing back on it hurt even more.
“Owww-shit!” Valentino yelled. “Come on, come back here! I can't...I don't know what's happening here, hello! Do you speak English at all or what's the problem, hey! Come on! What is wrong with you?”
There was no answer, and no further movement behind the plastic wall. He kept yelling until a coughing fit made him stop, and then he simply fumed, and cussed to himself in his mind.
What a fucking hospital, he thought. This is probably not even a real hospital.”
*
General Titan Rond's phone rang. He looked at the receiver with great suspicion and checked the number display on the screen to see that it was an in-base number before he even dared to lift it up to his ear and to answer.
“Rond,” the General grumbled.
“...Doctor Mythe here,” the familiar drawl of the base medical officer came through into the General's ear, “it has woken up!”
The General growled.
“What's going on?”
“It's woken up! Inside the containment tent, it's woken up and I talked to it!”
The dog huffed.
“I thought we decided that nobody talks to it or interacts with it before the people from the Space Force are here!” he shouted into the receiver, loud enough that he was sure that Captain Mumble heard it beyond the door, in her own office.
“It was awake and shouting, sir, I had no choice but to go in! It could have been a medical emergency,” the lion still sounded highly excitable.
“Well was it, then, Doctor?” General Rond stated into the phone.
“It was agitated, sir! It was speaking to me, demanding to know what is happening!”
The General frowned.
“It speaks?”
“Yes,sir, a lot!”
“And you can understand what it says?” the General said. “Is that so?”
“Well, the accent is very strange but I am sure I could understand most of it, General,” came the lion's reply. “I think it was asking what was going on and where it was.”
The General tugged on one of his ears in dismay.
“Knew it!” he hissed. “Some sort of a Borbonian medical experiment I bet! Some sort of a...a hairless space mutant for secret missions!”
“It did not want to admit to being a mutant, sir.”
“Why the hell would it want to confess to being a secret enemy medical experiment?” the General growled roughly into the phone.
“I would assume that it would wish to provide us with any information we might need for giving it the best medical care possible.”
“Or maybe it's been trained not to!” the General snorted. “Did you not think about that, Doctor?”
“It does seem very strange, sir, “the lion said.
The General rubbed his muzzle in dismay.
“Don't interact with it unless there are emergent medical issues,” the General grumbled into the phone. “Use your discretion.”
“Alright, sir. Yes, sir.”
“Over and out!” the General cut the line and put his phone to the tabletop again.
General Rond was not happy.
*
“Oh do try to eat some, Van,” Mrs. Sheffey told to his husband, whom sat on the opposite side of the small table and was only picking at the tray of food in front of him.
“Hmmm...” the farmer rabbit breathed out. Both his wife and his son gave the older male a concerned look.
“Why're you not eating?” Callan Sheffey asked from his father.
The father's long ears flicked down close to his skull. He gave the tray of food another displeased look.
“I don't like being locked up like this,” Van Sheffey said.
His wife's face fell.
“I don't like it either, dear,” she said softly. “But I guess it is just for our safety, isn't it?”
“They don't want us to talk to the press about the spaceman!” Callan yelped.
Van shook his head.
“Of all the darn fields in the world it had to land onto ours, huh?” the farmer mused.
“It'd be cool if not for this,” Callan said. “I mean...wow...what are they gonna say at school when they hear that an alien spaceship landed onto our farm...”
“We're imprisoned,” Van Sheffey declared.
“They say it's for our safety, to keep us here,” Mrs. Sheffey said. “We were close to the burning wreck and the spaceman...they say it's for our own safety, don't they?”
“And they all got those gas masks and protective suits on,” Callan said.
“Well we aren't dying of a space flu yet are we?” the husband grunted. “Or are they just waiting for us to...”
“We're not sick, are we?” Mrs. Sheffey stated. “I feel fine. Don't you feel just fine too, Callan, Van, dear?”
“Sure,” the boy said. “Just missing my phone...they took it.”
“They took all our phones,” the mother gave her son a comforting word.
“Well if we're in isolation here, do you think they'd want you to be calling to your sister and wagging your tongue about everything that's been going on here, would they, Ma?” Van Sheffey muttered.
“I'd definitely like to tell her that we are alright, and ask if she knows what is happening at the farm,” Mrs. Sheffey stated matter-of-fact. “You'd be wanting to ask that too, wouldn't you, Pa?”
Mr. Sheffey dropped his fork in distaste.
“I ask them to bring me someone here who will answer that question every time they bring us food, and they just won't do it!” he complained. “They are just keeping us locked up here! I've got some rights!”
“Oh, Van...” the rabbit lady murmured, with her ears drooping.
“And who knows what's going on at the farm!” Van Sheffey moaned. “All that foam they used to put down that fire, all those glidecopters! How much of the crop did we loose, I can only wonder.”
“We've got natural disaster insurance,” Callan said.
The parents looked at their boy. Van threw his paws up in desperation.
“I doubt it covers spaceship crashes,” the father muttered.
“When we're out of here, we shall call the insurance company,” Mrs. Sheffey declared.
*
Captain Valentino huffed in dismay. He'd yelled his throat raw and didn't have the energy left to continue the shouting, let alone try to get out of the bed and investigate the situation. It didn't help that he was hooked up to various cables and tubes which would have made it difficult to do so. He had no idea what was being dripped into his body from the bags hanging by the bed. Whatever it was, it had to be making him pretty damn confused, too. The more terrifying possibility was that the crash landing damaged his brain, and it was just his mind working in wholly wrong ways.
Valentino didn't want to think about that possibility. He'd already wriggled all his toes and fingers several times to ensure that at least his spinal cord hadn't been cut by the incident. So far the only things he could tell were truly wrong were the bandages around his head and the strange hallucination that had turned the people around him into animal creatures that looked like something out of a cartoon, or a really cheesy TV ad.
“Hello!” he muttered again, as loudly as possible. “Hellooo?”
*
Thank you for reading! Hope you had a good time, and I look forward to your feedback! Remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!
Cheerio 'n thanks!