The Base

John and Tony had heard rumors about the military base in the hometown, very disturbing rumors. They had heard rumors of genetic tests that were done on the base. But no one could prove it, and the usual response was that they had seen one too many episodes of "The X files".

But they were not to be swayed. Despite their parents’ warnings to keep away from the base, one day the two of them made their decision. They planned on breaking into the base to see if the rumors were true or not. They had been close to the base before and they had a pretty good idea how to break in. Their plan was that they would get in, see if what was going on was true, and then get out.

***

It was a dark and cold fall evening. The sky was clear, and full of stars. John and Tony wore all black. In their pockets they had small cameras. Their intention was that, if they saw anything going on that proved their theories they would take pictures of it then get out.

Creeping up to the base, they walked along the perimeter, looking for the hole in the fence that they knew existed somewhere. Twice they had to duck behind a bush to avoid being seen by passing guards in patrol jeeps. After 20 minutes of searching, they found what they were looking for, a small hole in the fence that they could crawl under. As they walked up to it, they considered what they were about to do.

"This is it Tony, once we go through that hole there’s no turning back. Are you ready?" John asked.

"Yes, I just hope we don’t get caught" Tony said, slightly nervous.

"We’ll be fine. If we prove what they’re doing, we’ll be hero’s." John said, sounding a bit arrogant.

"And if we don’t then at least we’ll be able to rest, knowing that the rumors we heard were just that, rumors" Tony said, still a bit nervous, but feeling a bit calmer.

"Then lets do it." John said, smiling.

Tony nodded his head, and the two of them slowly and quietly crawled under the fence, and onto the base.

***

The base commander stood in the command center, the room was dark and he was observing the monitors. A red light was going off, indicating a perimeter breech. Lighting up a cigarette, he pointed towards the monitor, which showed an infrared display of the outer perimeter of the base.

"What is that?" he asked. The operator of the security system pressed a few buttons, which zoomed in on the objects, in question.

"It appears to be a pair of intruders. I’m not sure how they got in," the operator said.

"Should I apprehend them sir?" another officer asked.

The base commander folded his hands before lifting the cigarette from his mouth, blowing out a fair amount of smoke, and throwing the cigarette to the ground, stamping on it.

"No, keep an eye on them, if they go where they don’t belong, then we will deal with them appropriately" he said.

***

John and Tony were approaching a building on the base. Ducking behind a stopped truck, they waited for another patrol to pass by before walking closer to the base. Walking up to a window, they both looked into the building. They saw a lot of people working, but nothing was going on that suggested any kind of genetic experiments. They walked to 4 other buildings and neither of them had seen anything going on that suggested genetic experiments were going on.

"It looks like the rumors were wrong, we should probably get out of here before we get caught" Tony said.

"Works for me, I guess it’s a relief that we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary." John said.

"Let’s get out of here," Tony said.

As they proceeded away from the building, something hit both of them, knocking them out.

***

Tony awoke. He looked around, trying to see where he was. He was in a room with white walls, and a bright light was above him. He was strapped to a table, and much to his embarrassment, he was naked. The table was strangely warm. He looked to his right to see John, who was also strapped to a similar table and in a similar state of undress.

The base commander walked up to them and lit a cigarette.

"Who are you two and what were doing in this facility? I suggest you tell the truth." He said.

John shook with fear, feeling that he had no choice he told the man the truth about the rumors and how they had seen nothing. Tony confirmed the story.

The man folded his arms and shook his head.

"You shouldn’t have come." He said sounding very disappointed. Turning his head towards two men in white coats, he nodded his head before walking out of the room. The two men walked over to Tony and John, and injected them with something.

"What did you inject us with?" John asked.

The two men did not respond; instead they stood back and watched, waiting for the results of the injections. John looked over at Tony and was shocked by what he saw. Gray fur was sprouting all over Tony’s body. John felt very itchy, and best as he could, looked down at his own body. He saw the same gray fur growing on his own body.

"What’s going on?" John asked. Neither of the men responded. Both John and Tony now had a thick pelt of gray fur covering their bodies. John felt a pulling feeling at the base of his spine. He wasn’t able to see or feel what was going on, but looking at Tony gave him a pretty good idea. John could see a long busy gray tail growing from just over Tony’s rear end. John’s restraints seemed to feel looser; at first he thought they had loosened them, but it didn’t take him long to realize what was really happening was that he was shrinking. His now long, bushy tail brushed against his legs, the feeling was very strange. His hands started to feel strange. He was able to get a better look and saw that his fingers were starting to look more nimble and that his fingernails were growing into sharp black claws. He looked at Tony and saw that Tony’s face looked very strange. His ears no longer looked human; in fact they were no longer even in a human position. Tony’s ears were now on top of his head and were round. His face looked strange, it seemed to be longer somehow. John’s own face started feeling strange, as if it were being pulled on. Both of them shrunk even more, so much that they were able to free themselves from the restraints. They were now only half their normal height and they were getting smaller by the second. John felt his face, his face no longer felt human, and his hands looked much more like paws then hands. Tony walked over to him and tried to say something, but instead made a series of squeaks and chattering sounds. John touched Tony’s fur; it felt very soft.

Both of them felt strange again, as if they were falling over. Their hips and legs felt strange, as if they were changing shape. Standing on two legs suddenly felt very uncomfortable. As they leaned over, standing on all fours, they heard each other’s hips snap; yet strangely they felt very little pain. They continued to shrink and everything in the room felt huge. Neither of them could speak and was only able to make chattering and squeaking sounds. They seemed to stop shrinking and both of them looked at each other, both seeing a gray squirrel looking back at them.

The two squirrels chattered and protested loudly. The base commander walked back in.

"Excellent work, I suggest dropping them off somewhere where they won’t be able to tell anyone about this" he said. The men in white coats reached into a closet, pulling out a crate. Tony and John were too afraid to try to run and could only quiver in fear as they were picked up and put into the crate.

***

It was morning and the birds were chirping. Tony and John woke up and uncurled. They weren’t sure how long they had been asleep for. They look at each other then look at themselves. It wasn’t a dream. They really were squirrels. The hatch to the carrier they were in had been opened. They were hungry so they both walked out of it in search of food. The man in the white coat picked up the now empty carrier, and got back into the van and drove off. The two squirrels looked at each other. They were deep in the woods and they had no idea where they were. Having seemingly no other options, they climbed up a tree, smelling food in it. The two of them found the food, fresh acorns. Happily munching on them, the two squirrels chattered with joy at the taste.

The end