dA Story Request #3 - Jurassic Punk (Patreon)

Yellow-Killer

"Lexi has just been hired in a new position at the local natural history museum. the back rooms of it. away from people. she likes it that way. the museum is getting some new fossilized remains. an allosaurus with some soft tissue still preserved inside it. Previously only found in t-rexes. While working with it, she accidently cuts herself on a shard of bone and accidently contaminates the sample. there was also a virus inside it which infects her. Somehow still active it winds up infecting her rapidly and converts her into an anthro allosaurus..."

With a grunt of effort, Lexi lifted the last cardboard box from the truck bed. The box sagged in her hands, hinting at the ponderous bulk within. Lexi carried it out of the truck, through the loading bay and into the museum receiving room.

The blonde twenty-something carefully lowered the box onto a long bench next to a few dozen other boxes of varying size and shape. Lexi took a step back and rolled her shoulders and massaged her hands. Her fingers were somehow both numb and sore and she was certain her arms would be useless in the morning. Still, she couldn't stop grinning. She counted the boxes and, once satisfied all were present and accounted for, walked back to the truck and shut its tailgate. When she returned to the receiving room, someone was waiting for her.

"That was fast," said Peter - a somewhat heavy-set bearded man wearing thick spectacles and a faded plaid shirt.

"Thanks, boss!" said Lexi.

"No, I mean you need to be more careful," clarified Peter. He turned, produced a Swiss Army Knife and started cutting the packing tape on one of the boxes. "I know you're new, but uh, some of these specimens are very delicate," he said, not looking back. "There's no rush to get them all inside."

"Oh, uh, sorry."

"Mmm hm," said Peter vaguely.

He opened the top flap of the box, reached in and, after a second or two of digging through the styrofoam packing peanuts, removed a smaller, translucent plastic box. He set the smaller box down, carefully popped it open and took out a flinty grey oblong rock. He held the stone in the light and slowly rotated it. Lexi could make out a faint outline of a spiral on one side.

"Planospiral, outer whorl visible," murmured Peter. "Looks like an immature ammonitina, probably middle or late Jurassic. Clean, but nothing special. Good marker for the era, though." He turned back to Lexi. "I'm taking the truck and heading out for an early lunch. Can you unpack the rest of this and lay it out for cataloging before going on break? I know it's a lot, but since you got everything out of the truck already we might as well get a head start."

Lexi's stomach rumbled in protest.  "No problem!" said Lexi cheerfully.

"Oh, uh, okay," said Peter, bemused by her enthusiasm. "I...suppose I could pick up something for you while I'm out. Tacos alright?"

"Thanks, but I brought my own lunch."

"Okay," said Peter, shrugging. "Just remember what I said about taking your time."

"I'll will," said Lexi, nodding. "I won't damage anything."

"It's not just about breaking specimens," said Peter, folding and pocketing his knife. "Some of these fossils are pretty sharp - you're liable to cut yourself if you rush things."

"I'll be careful."

Peter gave her a perfunctory nod. He walked out of receiving room, heading towards the loading bay. Lexi started taking the rest of the smaller boxes out of the package Peter had opened. Behind her, the truck engine roared to life and then gradually faded away.

"Finally," she sighed. "A little alone time."

Humming to herself, Lexi laid a dozen or so smaller plastic boxes on the bench. She opened each one and neatly arranged their contents on the far end of the table. She noted at least three trilobites, a pair of leaf impressions, a handful of shark's teeth (all still embedded in soft rock), a conglomerate of seashells, several bone fragments and a few pieces she could not quite identify.

"Wonder how long you were stuck in the ground," she said absently, running a finger along a trilobite's ribbed thorax. She frowned. "There's gotta be something cooler here..."

Lexi opened another cardboard box. And then another. She opened the smaller cases within and examined their contents. Most held common, unidentifiable or uninteresting specimens - more trilobites, plants, sharks teeth, shells, coral-like masses and the like. Many were simply dirty chunks of rock with the barest hint of an impression or silicified endoskeleton. Initially, Lexi handled each specimen with great, deliberate care, arranging them on the table for later classification, but as time went on she grew impatient. She started placing the fossils in a pile instead of pre-sorting them and opened the boxes with far more gusto. Every so often she came upon a piece that stood out from the rest - an unusual set of bones or a more or less intact fish impression. These specimens occupied her attention for a minute or two before going to the pile. After about thirty minutes of this she had gone through all but two of the cardboard boxes. The pile of unsorted fossils had grown to a precarious size, far exceeding the few she had actually arranged by type.

Lexi stopped and stared at the pile.

"I should probably take care of those..." she said to herself. She hesitated. "Ah screw it. Might as well open the others."

The penultimate box was a tad larger than the others. Despite this, Lexi remembered it being relatively lightweight. She opened it and discovered it held only a few, albeit larger, plastic containers. She lifted one out, placed it on the table and popped it open.

To her surprise and delight, it contained a fragment of a dinosaur's jaw-bone.

"Jackpot," breathed Lexi.

The dinosaur had clearly been some kind of predator. Though only a few of its teeth were intact they looked gnarly - long, pointed and curved. Based on the size of the jaw the creature's skull could have been as big as an elephant's.

"A T-rex?" wondered Lexi aloud. "Nah, Peter said these came from the Jurassic. Maybe a ceratosaurus?"

She reached down to touch it but stopped less than an inch away. She glanced back at the sink and a box of gloves on the counter. Technically she was supposed to be wearing them while handling the specimens - a rule Peter frequently ignored but expected his employees to follow. Lexi shrugged and touched the jawbone. It felt, much to her surprise, almost soft. She leaned in closer and swore she saw tiny flakes of flesh clinging to the side of the bone. Probably just mud or dirt. Lexi checked the accompanying information tag. Apparently the jawbone had been dug up less than a month ago in northern Newfoundland, Canada. The comments noted that it was highly unusual - suspicious, even - to find a fossil this well-preserved in the geological strata it had been discovered.

Lexi took a closer look at the teeth. The largest one resembled an elongated shark's fin with tiny serrations along the front and back. Lexi retrieved a brush from a cabinet above the sink counter and hurried back. She quickly but carefully wiped away the layer of dirt and dust coating the tooth.

"Geez, almost looks fresh," said Lexi, leaning even closer. She put the brush down and tapped the tooth. "I'd hate to be on the business end of tha-"

The door to the museum offices swung open. Lexi yelped and stood straight up. However, as she retracted her hand, she knocked the jawbone from the bench. It hit the concrete floor with a soft thunk.

"Shit!" swore Lexi, glancing down at the fossil. She looked up. A middle-aged woman was standing in the open doorway.

"Oh, uh sorry," said the woman. "I didn't mean to startle you, uh...uh..."

"Lexi," supplied Lexi quickly.

"Oh, right, right," said the woman, chuckling. She waived a clipboard in the air. "Your name is written right here and I couldn't get it right. Anyways, I'm with HR. I need you to sign here," she said, proffering the clipboard with a pen. "You missed this line during the hiring process."

Lexi slowly walked over and silently signed the form.

"Thanks!" said the woman brightly. "That covers everything. I'll let you get back to work."

With that, the woman turned and left, closing the door behind her.

Lexi exhaled. Filled with a strange mixture of relief and apprehension, she slowly looked back at the table. After a moment's agonizing, she peered down at the jawbone. It appeared to be intact. Then, she spotted the crack.

Panic gripped her. She rushed over to the sink and rummaged through the cabinet. She grabbed a tube of super glue but then froze, sighed, and put the tube back.

"Peter would spot it right away," she said sadly, shaking her head.

The best thing she could do, she concluded, was tuck the fossil away and claim ignorance if and when the museum discovered it had been broken. A pang of guilt ran through her as she made the decision but she proceeded with her plan anyways.

Lexi reached down to pick up the splintered jawbone.

"AAH!"

She reared back clutching her hand. Grimacing, she looked down and saw a tiny bead of blood swelling on her right index finger. She glanced down at the broken bone. It appeared as though the fracture had formed a razor-sharp edge. Cursing under her breath, Lexi walked over the sink, washed her cut and bandaged it. She then donned a pair of purple nitrile gloves and returned to pick up the fossil - far more carefully this time.

She did not, however, notice the moist black streak running along the exposed interior of the jawbone, now also smeared with blood...

* * *

By the time Lexi reached her apartment she was certain she was coming down with something. Her stomach, head, eyes and joints all ached and her temperature was rapidly rising.

After locking the door she dropped her purse and staggered to the bathroom. Rubbing her febrile forehead, she leaned over and twisted the knob in her shower-bath. A loud hiss filled the air as a fine stream of water shot from the showerhead. Lexi stripped out of her clothes, starting with her shirt, then her black heels, socks, jeans, sports bra and finally her panties.

As she waited for the water to heat up she gazed at her naked reflection in the mirror. Though she'd put on a pound or two since college she could still, by her reckoning, be comfortably considered thin. Her arms and legs boasted little muscle tone, however, and her stomach was bulging slightly. Her eyes, normally bright and vibrant, were sunken and bloodshot. Lexi turned her body slightly. She'd never been a particularly buxom girl but at least her rear was shapely enough. She looked down at her injured hand and noted with concern that her finger had turned an angry red. As one might prod a sore tooth, she gently touched it with her other hand. It hurt, but not quite as much as she had expected it to.

It had previously occurred to her that she may have picked up an infection when she cut herself. The fossil had not yet been cleaned so who knew what kind of nasty bugs lurked on its surface? Then again, the fever had come suddenly; an infection should have taken more time to incubate.

Right?

Trying to brush aside these unsettling thoughts, Lexi held out her uninjured hand to check the shower's temperature. Satisfied, she carefully stepped into the tub and closed the curtains. She stood there for a time, eyes shut, savoring the warm, gentle caress of the water. Though it did not alleviate her symptoms it served to distract from them.

Eventually, Lexi looked back down at her finger and immediately wished she hadn't. It had swelled to nearly twice its normal width. Now genuinely frightened, she reached down and slowly unpeeled the band-aid to get a better look at the cut. Disconcertingly, the surrounding skin was now a curious reddish-brown.

Suddenly, the inflamed tissue started turning green. In a matter of seconds it changed from reddish brown to olive. What's more, the skin around the cut turned coarse and leathery.

"What the...." whispered Lexi as she stared at her finger.

The discoloration rapidly spread down her finger. Lexi raised her hand and shrieked. Fine green scales now covered every square inch of her formerly soft, pink hands. What's more, her fingernails had darkened and thickened to the point they resembled blunt claws. Whimpering, Lexi flexed her altered fingers as though to confirm they were still hers. Bizarrely, the transformation hadn't been painful or even particularly uncomfortable; indeed, she'd barely registered anything beyond a faint pressure. Her finger didn't even hurt anymore.

"It's...I gotta be hallucinating," breathed Lexi. "Gotta...gotta call n-...AHH!"

Lexi screamed again when she saw her arm had turned scaly as well. She yanked back the shower curtain and clumsily stepped out of the tub only to slip on the slick bathroom floor. She managed to grab a hold of the bathroom counter just in time to steady herself.

A loud crack filled the air. Water dripping from her naked body, Lexi looked down and then gasped. She had gripped the counter with her transformed hand and squeezed so hard she'd cracked the faux marble.

The bizarre metamorphosis spread to her torso. The soft pressure that had accompanied her hand's transformation returned and intensified, enveloping her chest, stomach and shoulders. Lexi moaned, but more from surprise than pain; the sensation was not unpleasant - akin to being softly gripped by a giant hand. She watched as her pale-pink skin hardened into brownish-green scales with dark brown striations. Suddenly, her once nearly nonexistent triceps, biceps, deltoids and lateral muscles grew into beefy, powerful masses of flesh and sinew. Below, tight abs impressed themselves against her now flat stomach, forming a six-pack. Her petite breasts, curiously, also swelled, ballooning from mere handfuls to bountiful melons. It felt like some unseen force was pumping her up to the point of bursting.

"You gotta be kidding..." cried Lexi.

A sharp pressure - one intense enough to make her wince - erupted around the small of her back. She reached back with both hands - both of which now sported claws - and felt a hard lump forming just above her tight buttocks. Suddenly the lump jutted out, forming a new appendage. Breathing heavily, Lexi peered over her shoulders. Sure enough, she had grown a long, lizard-like tail.

"Sure, why not?" she gasped in bewilderment.

Her legs grew coarse, then scaly, and then expanded along with the rest of her body, packing on pound after pound of muscle. Powerful black claws sprouted from her nails as her feet stretched out and her heels rose up her ankles. Before long Lexi was standing on the balls and toes of her feet, adding a good few inches to her already increased height.

Then, as though whatever force that had seized control of her body had been saving it for last, Lexi's head started changing. Her lips shrank while her jaw and nose widened and stretched out, her teeth growing into curved incisors with wickedly sharp serrations - much like the tooth she had so recently cut her finger with. Her ears withered away, leaving small apertures in their place. A pair of horn-like ridges formed above her now feral yellow eyes.

A low, rumbling growl escaped Lexi's throat. Despite everything, she was no longer afraid or even concerned. She felt...good. It made no Earthly sense, but every molecule of her being felt infused with raw, primal energy. And she loved it!

She lifted her head and issued a bestial roar that had not been heard on Earth for over a hundred million years. Her bellowing cry was so loud, so deep that her apartment walls shuddered.

Grinning toothily in the following silence, Lexi turned and gazed at herself in the bathroom mirror. Though its surface was still foggy from the shower, she could still make out her new form - a busty, muscular humanoid dinosaur.

Claws clicking on the floor as she walked, Lexi turned off the shower, scooped up her cell phone and left the bathroom. She brushed back her dripping wet hair which, curiously, had narrowed into a sort of mohawk.

She carefully dialed a number with her clawed hands.

"Hello?" said a voice on the other line. "Lexi? Everything alright?"

"Hey boss," she said huskily into the speaker. "Interested in studying a live specimen?"