Animal Emergency - Part Three

With the grinding of wheels against the dirt and stones beneath me I feel the vehicle slide to a halt, my heart hammering so loudly in my ears that I can hardly hear the sound of the car door open or the driver jumping out to the dirt below.

Staggering awkwardly on all fours, my eyes darting around in the dim light I try to call for help. "Mooooooooo" I groan loudly, my vocal chords refusing to make any sound remotely human. The rumbling from my throat practically rattles my skull, my teeth getting set on edge as the low animalistic moans reverberate loudly inside a skull not fit for this bloated form.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'..." huffs a husky feminine voice, the crunching of boots against the dirt below soon passing around me. With a loud series of clunks I listen as a metal bar is twisted and shifted away, a set of rusty hinged doors swinging open as I squint through the blinding midday sun.

As my eyes adjust I feel a set of hands reach out, a firm grip grabbing my head as I'm yanked forward. Groaning in pain I stagger forward, the sound of my hooves crunching against the metal floor as I'm blindly guided out into the sun.

I swear I can feel the stitches holding my head to this foul bovine body strain fro a moment, a shiver running up my spine as I move to try and ease the constant tugging pressure on my neck.

Staggering down a short ramp I feel my feet sink a little into the dirt, a whimper moo slipping from my lips as the stones and dirt shift beneath the hard hooves that replace my fingers and toes. Looking ahead I find myself staring at a strange woman, her tan face pulled into an almost deranged grin as she looks at me with wide hazel eyes.

Animal Emergency - Part Two

"Now... normally we would find you another human body to use for the next... well however long it takes to get your body back into a usable state..." she explains, tilting her head to the side as she reads her paperwork. "The world of anti-rejection drugs have greatly improved over the past few years... However..." she states, pausing as she begins to write on the clip board.

"We have been looking to trial something... more radical. Between pig hearts and livers, we've had some great success with human animal transplants, and with a new prospective transplant treatment we think we could go even further than that..." she continues, biting her lip as she jots down something before peeling off a sticker from the bottom of the page.

"Nuevo-Gen has graciously offered to let us trial their latest drug. It's really quite remarkable, not only does it prevent rejection is one hundred percent of cases, but it even seems to help make the new organ more akin to the surrounding tissue over time. It's really..." she explains, slapping a sticker across the glass in front of me.

As the woman continues to ramble I'm forced to stare ahead to read the label on my tank, my dulled mind struggling to read the inverted letters. My eyes water, my mouth moving wordlessly as I stare at the sticker, my mind finally managing to pull out the words.

Cow - Farm

My eye darts about, trying to see past the sticker and to get the woman's attention. I could just stay in the tank, I could wait for my body to recover here in the hospital, just not... whatever they had planned for me with that label.

However, try as I might I can't seem to meet her gaze. I can only watch as she paces around my little tank before leaving my sight, the sound of her footsteps echoing from behind me as I listen to her fiddle with something as the sharp clicking of plastic reverberates through the tank.

A cool sensation suddenly surges up from beneath my head, something mixing in with my blood as I begin to mouth wordlessly and wildly in an attempt to scream for help. The pathetic thrashing doesn't last long however, my eyes growing heavy and my world rapidly growing dim as I feel the cold reach the back of my skull.

Animal Emergency - Part One

My head swims as I slowly stir to consciousness, the pounding in my skull maintaining a steady rhythm as I listen to the blood rushing in my ears. The world around me feels almost disturbingly still, every inch of my face being held tightly by a warmth that seems to fill every nook and cranny around me.

Even as I feel worry begin to set in my heart rate remains concerningly steady, each pump coming in at a perfectly even rate despite the mounting fear. A dull beeping rings out from beside me, the electronic buzzing reaching my ears in a muffled and distorted state.

I struggle to open my eyes, the thick substance around me keeping my eyelids shut even as I attempt to ease them open.

"Goo... your awa..." calls out a heavily muffled voice, the sound of my blood rushing through my ears making in impossible to make out half of what they are saying. The world around me rumbles as they approach, the heavy footfalls jostling me as my eyes finally snap open.

I appear to be at around waist height, my view of the world warping through a combination of a faint green ooze and a thick pane of glass that appears to wrap around me. My mouth falls open, the foul smelling goo seeping inside as I stare at the sight of my body hanging limply on the other side of the room.