An Average Day at Laminax

Chapter 6

Slowly opening my eyes, I was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of cleaning chemicals. Getting up suddenly, I looked down at my body. Pieces of my suit were still spread across my body, with torn shreds of clothing on the floor. I looked downward further at my legs and feet. During some point of the transformation, my feet had transformed, and now had paw pads on the bottom of them. I moved them around, noticing that there was multiple paw-pads at the bottom of them. My legs were now in a digitigrade position. I looked down at my hands, which now resembled common domestic cats paws. I seemed to have induvial control over them and still had opposable thumbs, just as I did before I was infected, except they were stubbier, fluffier and had paw pads. I felt the top of my head. I could feel a pair fluffy ears on top of my head, and one twitched when I did so. I struggled to get up, adjusting to my new body. I looked behind me, and saw a long, yellowish tail that was brushing against some bottles of window cleaners. I felt my face. A part of it was pulled outwards into a feline muzzle. My nose was wet, and I brushed whiskers as my I moved my paw away from my face. I then realised that my teeth were transformed now too, as they were now transformed and sharpened into feline teeth and a feline tongue to go with it. So, this is my new body? I thought to myself as I stroked my chest, feeling the fur. It was soft and fluffy, like an expensive blanket. I continued to feel it, and I began to purr contently, an involuntarily response to the sensation that I must've gained at one point of the transformation. Suddenly, I stopped. I realized what I was doing, and what I had become. As I looked down at my fur covered body, thoughts raced through my head. What do I do now? What happens if they find me? Do they kill or capture me? What if I never see my family again? If they do see them, what will they think of me? A freak? A mindless animal? My ears flattened, heart raced and tail flicked around as I become more anxious and realised what kind of situation I was in.

Calming myself down, I looked down at the floor and noticed my identification card that I was given who knows how many hours ago. Crouching down, I attempted to pick it up with my paws, but to no avail as it kept on slipping out of my paws. I gave up after my fourth attempt, and then I noticed the photograph of me that was included in the I.D card. I looked at my past human appearance, with a dead serious look, messy dark brown hair, an adolescent type of moustache blue eyes. This person in the photo was now gone, replaced by a strange, human-feline hybrid. I noticed the bucket on the floor. The same bucket that had infected me. The same bucket that turned me into... this. As I stared at it, something inside of my head urged me to put it on. I held back. The feeling grew stronger, until without thinking I quickly reached down, picked it up and placed it onto my head. I sighed in frustration. I had just given in to these primal instincts.

I noticed my messenger bag underneath one of the shelfs. Crouching down, I slowly dragged it over to me. I managed to open it, and I looked inside. I noticed my phone stuffed in between my laptop and the book Ulysses. I still have my phone, good. I thought to myself as I managed to close the bag up. I slung it over my shoulder, and it nearly slipped off. I was forced to hang onto the strap with one of my paws. I contemplated to myself whether I should go out there or not. But now, I figured that I had no choice.

I struggled to turn the doorknob, as my paws kept slipping away at it. I used my elbows to do it instead, causing the door to open. I stumbled into the hallway, struggling to stand. Noticing the elevator at one end of the hallway, and the stairs at the other end, I had to choose which one I should take. Suddenly, a loud dinging noise emitted from the elevator end of the hall, causing me to swivel around towards the noise. The elevator doors opened, and out walked two men, Adam and Tangaroa, speaking to each other, not taking notice of me. Despite how far away I was, I could distinctly hear their conservation due to my new ears. Adam said to Tangaroa "The first place I went on holiday to? That would be Scotland. I remember it well. Let's see here, I visited the Loch Ness, I visited Inverness and Ullapool where I watched Caber Toss competitions, I caught a ferry to the Orkney Islands, it was cold, but nice. A month after my Scottish holiday, I managed to get a break from work, and I went to the same place where the Battle of Stamford Bridge took place. I drove north from London for about 4 hours before I finally arrived at the little town of Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire." Tangaroa nodded and said "Y'know, I never did much travelling when I was a teacher, bit on holidays I usually tried to travel. Most of the time I drove, it was rare for me to fly. I drove to Byron Bay, Hervey Bay so I could get on a ferry to Fraser Island and the Gold Coast. The other times when I flew is when I flew to Sydney, Darwin, Melbourne, and Perth. Actually, the reason why I flew to Perth is so I could fly to Port Hedland." "Really? What's in Port Hedland?" Adam asked. "Wasn't really planning on staying. Sure, I drove around town in my rental car, small place, major place for iron ore trade, though. Anyway, the reason why I was there is so I could drive to Karijini. I had heard about it from a friend and decided to visit it. Beautiful place." They both continued to speak, and they still hadn't noticed me.

So, I slowly crept towards the stairs, gaining speed as I took each step. That's when I heard Adam shout in the distance "My God, look!" I spun around to see Adam pointing towards me. I froze in place Adam and Tangaroa slowly walked towards me. I struggled to open my mouth as I tried to say something to them. All that came out of my mouth was a low growling sound, that then turned into a hiss. The two stopped, and I could hear Adam whisper to Tangaroa "I'll call security, just slowly and calmly back away." As I watched them slowly walk backwards, my mind was suddenly clouded with thoughts. Infect them. kill them. Infect them, it chanted. More primal thoughts filled my mind. I could feel my fur raise up, and my claws emerge. I was just about to charge at them when the instincts stopped. I held onto the messenger bag and went down the stairs.

I wasn't thinking. I was just running and running and running down the stairs. I reached a large, dimmed hallway, with a wide staircase leading downwards. I could hear commotion upstairs, and I ran more and more, until I couldn't run anymore. I found myself at the bottom of the stairs, next to the café where I was this morning. It was empty and quiet. The only noises that could be heard from this area was the commotion of the workers upstairs who were told that there was a Gootraxian on the loose. Next to me was a plastic tarp, which functioned as a barrier between the construction area and the completed area of the building. I looked up at the security camera, then back at the tarp. I looked at my paws, with my sharp claws sticking out of it. I turned to the tarp and began to violently scratch at it. The plastic was tearing apart, getting bigger and bigger, eventually being able to fit a grown man inside. I climbed through it and looked at my surroundings. It was large room with turned off flood lights, cables spread across the concrete floor, toolboxes, and long forgotten sandwich packages on the floor as well.

Chairs were stacked to the side, and wires hung from the ceiling. I jogged through the maze of empty rooms, finding a door with a neon green sign above it, saying 'Exit.' I opened the door and found myself outside of the building, in a large alleyway which spaced the large building from a small store that sold Asian groceries. Parked in the alleyway was a small, white utility vehicle. On the side of the cars door was Laminax's logo and written in text underneath it was Laminax Construction. Laminax liked to put their name in front of an occupation or thing that they do, such as Laminax Science, Laminax Research, Laminax Engineering, etc. I could still hear the noise inside the building, and I was wondering what to do now.

I looked at the car, then looked and, then I looked back at it again. It's windows were open, and the key was still in the ignition. Looking around and seeing nobody, I slowly opened the door and got into the driver's seat. I placed my paws onto the pedals underneath and started the engine. I rolled the windows up, and before I could drive away, a long-haired man with a beard and what looked to be a lit cigarette in his mouth got in the way of the car. "Hey!" He yelled. I slammed my paw onto the gas pedal and the car lurched forward. The man jumped out of the way, and I drove onto the road at full speed.