Changing

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“People are changing,” Sean’s roommate said.

Sean glanced over at him. Farley was fairly nondescript and would have been difficult to pick out of a crowd or a lineup. If they weren’t roommates Sean probably wouldn’t have remembered him if they’d only met once.

“What do you mean?” Sean asked. “People don’t change; they’ve been the same for thousands of years.”

“I don’t mean psychologically, I mean physically. Haven’t you seen the news?” Farley gestured at the TV, which was currently showing a Netflix series that they both watched. “What I mean is, they’re physically changing.”

“You’ll have to clarify that for me,” Sean replied.

Farley switched to CNN. An anchor was talking about a new pandemic, showing a chart involving animals and people.

“And joining us now is Doctor Stillwater from the Centers for Disease Control…doctor, perhaps you can explain this for our viewers.”

“Of course.” The doctor was a youngish man, but he seemed very authoritative when he spoke. “What’s happening is essentially a rewriting of human DNA. We share more than 90 per cent of ours with apes, and more than fifty percent with pigs, chickens, mice, and even plants such as bananas. Increased solar radiation seems to have triggered the genes that regulate natural DNA mutations, resulting in cross-species copying, creating a chimera effect. It’s causing people to develop the characteristics of those animals that we share most of our DNA with, a kind of reverse evolution, if you will…”

“People are turning into animals?” Sean asked, muting the sound. The scene on the TV switched over to video of a man who had clearly developed animistic characteristics such as a thick main of feathers. It looked like a costume, but Farley insisted it was real.

“Animals and in some cases plants like the man said. It seems to be spreading.”

Sean stared at the TV. It was the first time he’d really paid attention to the news or anything on TV in a while, usually he had it on with the sound muted or turned down while he was doing something else.

Sean wasn’t quite sure of what to make of it. Life had previously been predictable but mostly calm for him. Now that routine had been upset, and it made him uncomfortable. But was that the point of what he was seeing?

“Is anyone doing anything about it? Aside from talking about it, I mean?”

“Some scientists say they’re working on genetic treatments. Human animal hybrid genes. But people seem scared of trying something like that.”

Sean nodded. “I don’t blame them. All that Frankenstein stuff scares me, too.”

Farley shook his head. “But we shouldn’t be scare of it, should we? Change can be good. There’d be no progress without it.”

Sean knew that Farley had a point. But how could there be progress if humanity’s genes were taking it backward?

For the next several days there was slow but steady news about the so-called Gene Pandemic. It wasn’t really a virus; it was mutations being caused by the Sun, so people were advised to wear protection against it when they were outdoors and to stay indoors as often as possible. There was a surge in sales of skin lotion and sunglasses that people wore even on cloudy days. But the mutations kept happening-Sean noticed that some of his office co-workers had stopped showing up to work and was told that they’d been changed, into what his manager didn’t seem to know, but they’d developed symptoms of fur and feathers and in at least once case folds of vegetable skin. Now increasingly worried, Sean went to the local clinic, where to his relief he tested negative for any genetic changes. Then, one day after getting home from work, he was informed by the landlord that Farley had disappeared.

“He just walked out and hasn’t been back since,” the landlord said. “I know this sounds cold, but since you both signed the lease, I may have to have him charged with trying to break it, and you might have to find another roommate. I’ll wait until you do, but for your own sake I hope he comes back soon…”

The question of his rent was soon rendered moot, however, as the landlord herself changed a few days later. She became a type of large bird, something that seemed to big to fly, but she did, taking off through her office windows one day and not returning.

All Sean could do now was wait, and wonder. Was Farley all right? Was he happy being an animal now, if he was one? Would Sean himself be happier without him? Farley was part of the “herd” so to speak, so maybe he was better off. Even so, Sean found himself missing his company, while at the same time it was getting harder for him to remember what his former roommate looked like. He felt badly about that. People, even nondescript ones, deserved to be remembered.

Sean found himself sniffing the air. He seemed to be developing an enhanced sense of smell, and could hear things that were obviously further away, outside of normal human hearing range.

He sighed and sat back in his recliner as he turned the TV on. It was still working, so he went over to Netflix to watch the show that he and Farley had both liked. The actors’ voices were becoming harder to understand, but he still liked watching the action.

Farley was becoming increasingly difficult to remember. Sean now had trouble remembering his own name and found himself lying on the floor, covered in fur, having discarded his clothing, but it didn’t seem to matter. He tried to remember what he could, hoping it would be enough. In the meantime, he barked for someone to let him outside so he could go to the bathroom.

THE END