MFS - 9 (Patreon)

The next morning, Hank Thomson was in a rage. “What the fuck do you mean, the particles are gone from her bloodstream!”

Dr. Samuel Bennet nodded, flicking an image from his tablet up onto the projected screen. “Her blood has changed from A+ to essentially null. Chimpanzee’s do not have the same blood typing system so there is no classification for it. Just as well, her Antigen Expression, Hemoglobin Variation, and other factors all indicate she is a healthy member of the Pan Trogolytes family.”

He continued. “As you can see how she is standing, she is now fully quadrupedal, though she should be able to walk on her back two feet at times. Her cranium, pelvic cradle, legs, feet, and the rest of her skeletal structure are perfectly aligned with her new species. In fact, aside from the gender aspect, she is nearly a duplicate of Koko.”

Emily…Kiki stood in front of us, staring at me with her muddy brown eyes. She had gone through the last of her changes the night before, and could barely respond to any questions other than Hunger, sleep, and restroom. For this she could put up one finger or two fingers depending on which need she had, and I would run her to the restroom since she had very little control once the mood struck her.

We awoke this morning to find the last patches of fur had completely grown in, and her skin had darkened along all the visible areas. Even the sclera of her eyes had grown dark.

She patted her belly and gave a squawk making the sign for orange. I had several halves and handed her one.

“So what the hell do we do now, Doctor?” Hank said. “How do we get her back to human form?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Hank.” Dr. Bennet said, sitting back down. “We’re all completely stymied by this.”

“I do NOT accept that as an answer, Dr. Bennet.” Hank Thompson’s voice had gone ice cold. It was one thing to see Hank in a rage, it was another when he got so cold icicles formed on his breath. “You’ve had nearly a week to uncover the truth about this, and I expected results.”

Bennet nodded, rubbing a hand over his hair and face. The man obviously had barely slept.

“You sure seem to think it’s okay to spout off to the trade journals, I noticed.”

I frowned. “What?”

Dr. Bennet smiled. “This is groundbreaking work, and quite possibly evidence of extra-terrestrial intelligence! We have to share it with the world!”

Hank Thompson shook his head. “All I seen is you publishing shit to social media about the change, and next to zero trying to uncover the source of it, why it’s happened or how to god-damned reverse it!”

Bennet looked down as Hank continued.

“Now, if we need to go the hell back out there to find out what happened to this woman.” He pointed at Kiki who shook her head and ‘ook ooked,’ back. “Then by god, that’s what we’re gonna do!”

“Well, I can say that the omega particles needed some kind of a catalyst to get going. Koko’s intelligence has gone up significantly, in fact I’d see he’s hovering right around the 105, 107 mark right about now…”

“And Emily’s?” I said.

Bennet shugged. “Well, due to the, ah…extensive restructuring of her cranium and grey matter, she’s…well. I think it would be better to test her again in a few weeks.”

“Give it to us straight, doc,” Hank said. “You’re saying she’s lost a few points?”

Dr. Bennet nodded, taking out a folder.

“Seventy-Two,” he read.

“She’s lost seventy-two points?” I said, incredulous.

He shook his head solemnly. “No, her IQ if measured by normal means with word recognition, patterns, and the like appears to currently be seventy-two.”

My wife, who once wrote a doctoral thesis titled: ‘Astrobiological Perspectives: Exploring the Intersections of Astrophysics and Biology: Investigating the Cosmic Origins and Biological Implications of Life in the Universe’, now had the average intelligence of a third grader.

I stared into her muddy eyes, and gave her tiny hand a squeeze. 

“Even if we returned her to full humanity this instant, I fear…”

Dr. Bennet’s voice trailed off. He didn’t have to finish that statement.

“I refuse to accept that we can’t undue whatever the hell has been done to her,” Hank Thompson spat. “And if you’re not the one to figure it out, Doctor, I’ll find someone who is!”

He got up and slammed the chair back into it’s place and stalked out of the room.

Kiki hooted, looking at me, and hiding her face.

“I know, baby. He’s just angry at the situation is all.”

She patted her stomach and made the sign for an orange again. I sighed, and handed her one.

“So what do we do in the meantime, Doctor?”

Bennet frowned, putting a hand on his short beard. “Well, try to delay the intellectual decline, would help. Watch stimulating movies, converse with her, get her to interact with the tablet again.”

When handed the tablet, she stared at it as if it were completely foreign to her. The last time, she bit it, trying to tear a chunk from the rubber casing.

I nodded, sighing. 

“Let’s go honey,” I said, waving to her. She chittered and jumped up and down, following me out the door.

I had picked up a toddler car seat from Kaysmart, and buckled her in. She hated riding in the thing, and I didn’t blame her, but I didn’t have a better solution. I drove through the streets, trying to wrap my brain around our ‘new normal.’

Arriving home, I opened the door to the SUV, and unbuckled Kiki. She gave me a squawk, then bounded out the door…and down the street.

“Kiki!” I yelled, chasing after her. She giggled and leaped up into a tree, scampering from branch to branch.

“Come down, here!” I said.

Several children from the neighborhood saw me, and came running over. “Did you lose your cat, Mister?” one of them said.

Kiki screeched down at us from her branch. Something had made her angry, and I could tell she wanted to release some pent up energy, but this was dangerous territory.

“We can talk about it inside,” I said in a calm voice.

She shook her head, climbing higher into the tree.

“I can get it!” One young man said, levering himself up into the tree. “Here Kiki!” he snapped his fingers.

With a leap, she jumped to another tree, then swung herself down onto a wall that ran between us and another house. She ran down the wall, chattering and squeaking, disappearing from view.

Fuck.

The kids all raced to the wall, some of them scaling the ivy that stretched upwards only to fall back before getting to the top. That ivy had thorns too, and more than one of the children screamed in pain, pulling their little hand away with a thorn stuck in a finger, palm, or thumb.

Somewhere I could hear Kiki squawking loudly. I went to my next door neighbor’s house and banged on the door.

Mrs. Richmond answered, dressed in a housecoat and holding what looked like a mix drink in her hand.

“John?” she said in a fuzzy voice. “What’s going on?”

“Um…Connie, may I go into your back yard? One of our, ah…monkeys made a dash for it and I want to try to catch her before she goes to far.”

“Of course!” she opened the door. “John, you really shouldn’t have wild animals in the neighborhood…”

“She’s not wild, she’s a highly trained—“

I made it to the back yard where Kiki was cowering in fear from the Richmond’s german shepherd. She had apparently jumped into the yard, and had been cornered by the dog who was snarling and barking at her. Kiki bared her teeth in return, screeching and looking for handholds or anything to get away.

“Duke!” Connie said, she ran out and around the pool.

“Kiki!” I yelled, and my wife bared her teeth at me.

Connie managed to grab the dog’s collar, while I cornered Kiki and lifted her up into my arms. She shrieked and bit me, her teeth sinking into the flesh of my forearm.

“Ow!” I said, gripping her tighter. “Stop that!”

She wriggled against me as I made my way out of the back yard, and through the house. Kiki struggled against me, and she was strong a lot stronger than I could have anticipated.

We finally made it home, and somehow I had to unlock the door with a struggling chimp in my arms. My forearm was bleeding from the deep bite I’d taken, and she kept trying to scratch me, her mouth opening wide to show her teeth.

“Stop that!” I said, trying to get her to calm down.

“Mister, you’re bleeding!” a little girl said from behind me.

“Yes, I know honey. You better get along home now.”

“Is Kiki hungry?”

“No, I think she’s angry right now.”

I finally was able to open the door. I darted inside, slamming the door a bit harder than I wanted in the little girls’ face. I could hear her crying on the other side of the door.

Kiki squawked and screeched at me, baring her fangs and gnashing at me.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” I said.

I was afraid to put her down, afraid she’d run to the back door, open it and disappear again.

Taking her to the bedroom, I opened the door, thrust her in, and closed her inside, holding the handle so she couldn’t open it again.

She shrieked and squawked at me in a loud voice, banging the other side of the door.

“Settle down!” I said. “Once you settle down, I’ll open the door!”

I could hear her running around, and shredding something. I assumed it was a pillow, or maybe the mattress? Something crashed against the wall, and I knew she had hurled one of the pictures against it.

I was worried she might hurt herself, so I pulled out my cellphone, and dialed Elaine Davis.