© 2003 Provolvere.

Chapter 1: The Visitor  

This morning was like any other morning: it was time to start another day of work. I was usually the first person in, so was always the one to begin the morning routine of unlocking the door of our office, turning on the lights, and starting the coffee. I didn't mind though, since I appreciated the quiet before things began to get busy around here: the calm before the storm, as I thought of it. 

I put my briefcase down on my desk and checked if I had any messages on my phone. There was one message from Facilities reminding me to begin packing. My department was in the middle of a move, as our area was about to go under construction to update the floor plan. Facilities was going to be in later that day to start looking at what would have to be removed in order for them to start. Luckily, I had thought ahead and already gotten some oversized packing boxes to try and fit all my paperwork in, and I had them standing next to my desk. 

My mind was elsewhere as I started making the morning's coffee and sat down at my computer, which was still happily going through its start-up sequence. "Come on, come on you stupid thing," I mumbled to myself. Finally the log-in screen came up. I entered my username "tbeeble" and my default password "newuser", which I should really change, but never remember to do it.

As my computer was taking it's good time in logging me in and loading my operating system, I opened up my briefcase and took out my daily planner to see what my day would entail. I closed the briefcase and reached down to put it below my desk, but it stopped and didn't go in all the way.

A chill went down my back. I would have looked to see why my briefcase was going in all the way, but a soft, repetitive gust of air was being breathed onto my hand. I had felt breezes under my desk before, but this didn't feel like any ordinary breeze. It felt like a warm, wet breath. 

"Maybe I just needed some coffee to wake myself up," I thought to myself. I tried to dismiss it as a warm gust of air, but I was frozen with my hand still on the handle of the briefcase. The warm air pneumatically breathed onto my hand and the intervals were decreasing. I felt it again and again, faster and faster. A cold sweat showered my body as my attempt to try and convince myself nothing was there was rapidly failing. I shifted one foot forward and hoped it would hit the wall. But instead my foot was met with a soft thump and a muffled whimper. 

"AGH!!!" My chair fell over as I pushed myself backwards away from my desk. My head was met with a loud thud as I tumbled to the ground. I nearly blacked out for a moment, but I quickly rolled out of my toppled chair and prepared myself for a confrontation with whoever or whatever was there. Even though it only took a second for my eyes to focus on what was under my desk, it took me a moment longer to figure out what I was looking at. And then another moment… 

Under my desk sat an unclothed young woman. She was curled up and trying to cover her body, but not doing a very good job of it. If her being nude wasn't startling enough, what surprised me even more was the fact that… she looked human, but I could not be certain. There were two problems that were throwing me off, one of which stemmed from the fact that she wasn't truly naked because her body was covered from head to toe with short white and gray fur. Gray fur covered most of her head and face, gently flowing down her neck and gradually widening over her shoulders. White fur fought back the gray fur from covering her white chest and limbs, but the gray fur still succeeded to cover most of her back and splash onto her soft sides, firm buttocks, and her trembling tail. 

Yes, her tail. That was the other problem. Not only was most of her body covered with this gray and white fur, but her body also included a number of canine features. She was trying to hide her face between her legs, but from what I could see, she had a long, slender snout that was capped with a wet, black nose and whiskers at the end her face. There were no signs of human hair atop her head, but they were instead replaced with her oversized triangular ears, dropping forward close to her cheeks. I noticed how she had her arms clenched around her buxom chest, and her round, compact paws clasped her sides. The feet on this creature were similar to her hands, just larger, but her legs were the most noticeable deformity. Her legs were shaped differently than human legs, as if they had another whole section altogether. The ankle had become more like a hock joint, which her foot extended to where only the front part of her foot was the rounded paw. Combined with her fur, these physical abnormalities gave this beautiful beast a very distinctive look. The look of a smooth fox terrier.

She was probably looking at me as frightened as I was looking at her. I couldn't help it, though, because it seemed like I was trapped as I gazed into her rather deep-set, dark brown eyes. They were full of fire, life, intelligence, and an intense fear. I could feel my heart pumping, my adrenaline rushing, and my mind speeding as I tried to decide if I hit my head too hard when I had fallen. I noticed I was breathing very hard and was holding… well, a pen to defend myself. I looked at the pen, it looked back at me, and I realized that this probably would not be a very effective weapon if this person… or animal… tried attacking me. But my fear was rapidly being replaced by an intense curiosity of what I was looking at. Questions began replacing my fear and flooding my thoughts. Was this a costume she was wearing? Could this be for real? Who was she and why was she under my desk?

Stuttering, I managed, "Who-hoo-hoo are ya-you? Wha-wha-what are ya-you?" I had no idea my chest was shaking as much as it was until I began speaking. I could barely get my own words out of my mouth. For what might have been a few seconds seemed like an eternity as I waited for her to answer. She never took her eyes off me, but after a moment she ducked her face further into her legs and let out a pathetic whimper.

"Ca-an you speak?" Again, I waited but was still met with silence. I was finally calming down a bit and my body was loosening up. I released my grip on my poor pen and put it down on the floor next to me before taking a deep breath, crouching down, and trying to take a step closer…

"Please don't hurt me… whimper." 

Immediately I stopped in my tracks, my mouth hanging wide open in surprise. I guess I wasn't expecting her to be able to talk, especially not in such a soft voice that was surprisingly clear despite the fact she was talking with her face in between her legs. My heart started pounding again and I took another deep breath. 

"I'm not here to hurt ya-you. You startled me, I wasn't expecting…well… anyone under my desk. May I ask who you are, please?" I watched her to see if I could get a response. She looked back at me and finally lifted her face from in between her legs. Her long, slender snout was now clearly noticeable. She was quietly panting with her mouth hanging open enough to reveal her sharp canine teeth and long pink tongue. If this was a gag, someone had gone to great efforts to make her look like this.

"Please don't hurt me, sir. I am hiding from them… I need to get away, I need to escape," she said before letting out another pathetic whimper.

"Who's them? Who are you trying to escape from?"

"Please sir, just don't let them find me. I will tell you everything if you just help me get out of here… whimper…" 

I had to catch my breath for a moment while I attempted to swallow what this stranger was telling me to do. "I can't do that, I don't even know who you are!"

"Please…"

"Listen, I'm going to call security and I'll make sure they will take care of you. I promise I won't let 'them' or anyone else harm you…" Although awe-struck by this woman's appearance, I knew there was no way I was going to be willing to help her. My curiosity was quickly replaced with concern. I did not know anything about this creature; she could be a criminal or something, and helping her could mean I could get in trouble or risk my own safety. I knew the best thing was for me to get some help while I still had the chance to do so. All I had to do was get to my phone, which was only a foot or two away from me on the desk. Dialing three numbers, 311, would get security up there immediately. It didn't look like she was going to offer me much of a fight sitting in the fetal position, so I reached for the phone.

I picked the phone up and put the receiver up to my ear. She didn't budge, but instead began shaking more. After listening for a dial tone, I pressed the 3, then the 1… but then I stopped. I couldn't help but notice how scared she looked. Tears began swelling up in her eyes and running down her face. Whoever she was hiding from had shaken her up really bad. In addition, it probably didn't help how I probably scared her to death the way I jumped back and got ready to attack her with my pen. Perhaps I was being too hasty. I knew I was going to regret it, but I put down the phone and leaned down close to her.

"Come on, calm down. Listen, I'm sorry I scared you like that. Please come out from under there and let's talk."

She lifted her head and looked at me with a confused face. As I sat there crouched down beside her, I was further taken back by how… well… how real her appearance looked. I was searching for some sort of inconsistency like a zipper or anything to try and prove to myself she wasn't for real. 

"Come on, I'm not going to hurt you, but it's not going to be easy talking to you under this desk," I said as I did something I shouldn't have done, but I did… I put my hand on her shoulder. It was an innocent touch, but it took my breath away as I felt her soft silky fur on my bare hand. 

"Even if I were to go to heaven," I thought to myself, " I doubt I would ever feel something as soft or smooth as your fur again." She shifted her head as if she could hear my thoughts, so I quickly removed my hand and tried to focus on the matter at hand.

"Please, let's talk. I can hardly have a conversation with you if you hide yourself under there."

"Okay," she said softly.

Surprised that I finally got her to agree with me, I stood up and backed up so she could get out from under the desk. As she rose, the bright light of the room seemed to illuminate her and make her fur shine bright. Her stance was somewhat awkward because of her canine-like legs she was standing upright on, but otherwise she stood normal. Her whole body was revealed, including two furry bumps that sat on her chest right below her breasts and two more on her stomach. I could feel myself blush as realized that the bumps were also breasts. When she saw the blood rush to my cheeks and my embarrassed look, she quickly crossed her arms in front of her body to cover herself.

"I'm sorry, let me help you," I said. I didn't want to be rude to her, but it was very hard not to notice certain… things… when somebody is standing in front of you naked. I made a silent promise that I would try to keep my eyes where they belonged. With that, I tucked one arm in my shirt and then the other arm. I'd seen girls take off their bras under their shirts before, so I was sure I could take my undershirt off the same way. I realized an undershirt wasn't going to do much to cover her, but I figured it was a good start. "Here you go," I said as I pulled it out from my shirt and pulled my arms back through my sleeves. "It's not much, but it's something."

"Thank you." She said as she took it from me. Watching her try to put it on almost made me snicker because she was apparently having difficulty trying to figure out how to so with her stubby paws. She clumsily fiddled with it for a few seconds, but backed away from me when I tried to help her. She finally to get her arms and head through, and then carefully slid the shirt down her body. It really didn't do much help to cover her, but at least I could try and concentrate a little better.

"So please, tell me who you are and where you came from."

"Only if you promise to help me escape from them…"

"That's not fair, I can't do that…"

"Please just promise."

I could tell she wasn't going to give this to me easy. At least she looked a little bit more comfortable now. The shaking had died down a bit, but she kept looking around like she was watching out for someone. I was biting my lip on this one, but decided to take a giant leap on insanity since I had gotten this far…

"Alright, I will try and help you. If you start telling me what's going on."

She took a nervous little side step and looked behind her again before looking back at me. 

"Listen, I'm part of a secret experiment. They take us in and give us food and shelter. In exchange they do experiments on us to make us look like… this. It has something to do with some sort of genetic research, and them needing human test patients. I guess they normally aren't allowed to test on humans or something. I don't know all the details." She paused. " I've been with them for a long time, but now it's getting out of hand, they are going too far, and I had to escape before it was too late…"

"Hold on," I interrupted. "I am having a hard time trying to swallow your story, it just didn't make sense. Alright, I will admit that you look quite… different… but what you are telling me just didn't add up. Why would they use human subjects? For what? And who's doing this? The government? Terrorists?"

"I don't know…"

"Oh come on, you have to be able to tell me more than that. What the heck are you doing in an office building? This isn't exactly some sort of scientific laboratory or something."

"They hide us in buildings like these where nobody would expect to look… there are secret rooms where nobody could expect them to be…"

"I don't buy that. I've worked in this building for years and I haven't noticed. I know this building like the back of my hand. Where exactly are…" All of a sudden she ducked down, scooting back under my desk. Before I could even react, my friend Dan's face popped into the doorway.

"Hey Tom! Up and at 'em early like usual, huh? Ready for today's 2 o'clock meeting?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her gray and white tail disappear under my desk. Dan didn't seem to notice because he hadn't reacted. My eyes were wide open and I think my heart stopped for just about a second. Coming back to my senses, I decided I better respond to Dan, who was intently looking for me to answer.

"Yeah, uh, the 2 o'clock. The one with the, uh, consultants we're bringing in for the, uh, Heidison project. I almost forgot about that, I was just, uh, going to check my daily schedule now."

Dan glanced over at the coffee and then back at me before completely stepping in the room. 

"You okay Tom? You seem like you've had too much caffeine this morning. And why is your chair is on the floor?"

I followed Dan's gaze towards my chair and realized I hadn't had a chance to right it yet. I bent down to pick it up, trying not to glance over at the girl as I lifted it.

"No, Dan, not exactly," I said in between deep breaths. "I just had a little accident this morning when I fell backwards in my chair."

"Ow, that must have been a sight to see. Why do interesting things always happen when I'm not around." If only he knew how true that statement was. "You okay though? Hey, you dropped your pen here, let me pick it up for you…"

"NO!!!!" I nearly knocked him over as I almost dived towards the pen. "I've got it!!"

"Whoa there, Tom! You are definitely acting way too strange today, and it's only about eight in the morning! You usually don't get like this until at least three," he joked.

"If it wasn't you that said that, I'd resent that remark, Dan." I cracked a smile. "But anyway, I'm sorry, I'm just a little bit tense with this move and everything that needs to get done. I'm just having one of those days."

"Alright, man, but you better settle down real quick. Sarah's coming in right behind me, and you know she's not going to care what type of mood you're in."

"Yeah, I know." I plopped back down in my chair as he walked to the center of the room to get his cup of coffee. 

There were four desks in this office, one in each corner, with me in the left corner next to the door, Tom in the right corner on the other side of the door, Sarah in the corner behind me, and Carl in the last corner, but he was on vacation. The coffee machine sat on a small table in the middle of the room that separated Sarah and Carl's work areas. 

As I turned my chair towards my desk, I again reminded myself of my guest hiding under there. Sarah was going to be in there any moment and the chances of her not spotting the girl were slim. Sarah always watched what I was doing, so I needed to think fast. The boxes next to my desk were the first items to attract my attention; they were still flat since I had not begun packing yet. I hurriedly grabbed them from beside my desk and slid them underneath in front of… the dog girl. I could tell Dan was probably giving me another strange look, but I didn't care. No sooner had I sat up, Sarah flew through the doorway.

Chapter 2: Back To Work 

"Busy day people, time to get to work." Sarah walked over to her desk and put down her bag. She glanced at me and gave me a look, but she didn't seem to notice the girl. Instead she noticed my screen had a blue error message on it, and she scowled at me like was my fault somehow. She probably thought I wasn't doing any work, which today she would have been right about.

While waiting for my computer to restart, I tried to ignore Sarah's glare as I finally opened up my daily planner. One reason I always made sure to get in early was so I would be settled down and working before the time she got in. That's just one of the many disadvantages to having a supervisor in the same room as you, especially sitting behind you. I could swear that every time it looked like I wasn't busy, Sarah would think that I was not doing work. 
Sitting there, I tried to calm myself down and get back in a working mode. Ignoring the person hiding under my desk was not going to be an easy task. I scrolled through the day's tasks: report due by 10:30am, meeting with Greg at 11am until 12pm, and 2pm meeting with the consultants about the Heidison project. 

"Great, a fully loaded day and I was somehow supposed to concentrate," I thought. Taking a deep breath, I tried starting my report that was due by 10:30am. I added necessary changes to the report that I had jotted down in my notebook the day before. It wasn't long before I found myself staring at the screen. All I kept hearing in my head was what the girl had said to me about he experiments, the secret rooms… it all seemed like it was out of some strange science fiction movie. How could any of that be true? Is her disfigured body enough to prove her story to me? Could I really trust her?

The girl herself was causing me much inner turmoil. Although she didn't know it, her mere appearance caused mixed feelings that tore me apart from the inside out. She was beautiful, and somehow her canine appearance made her seem more special. But I felt so guilty thinking about her this way. She reminded me of her being like somebody's pet, and thinking of her as being attractive made me feel uneasy. I just hoped that the reason why I decided to help this girl was out of pity and not lust.

I finished my report late, but I didn't care. At least I had gotten it done. I decided I had better get going for my 11am meeting. I was unsure if I should leave the room with the girl under my desk. I didn't want her to think I was abandoning her or running off and I didn't want anyone finding her while I was gone. However, I didn't have much choice. Besides, there was no reason why anyone would be going under my desk. Dan and Sarah were both busy with work in the morning, and even if they decided to start packing, they should have enough boxes of their own. 

Before getting up to leave, I whispered, "Don't worry, I will be back soon, don't go any where."

"I don't think your computer is going anywhere, Tom," Dan snickered.

I noticed I had whispered too loudly, and quickly retorted, "I don't know Tom, with the morning I've been having it doesn't hurt reminding it." Dan chuckled, but I didn't have to look behind me to know that Sarah was glaring at me again. I got up out of my chair and headed to Greg's office down the hall. 

At first I couldn't even remember what I was meeting with him about, and even if I had, I wouldn't have cared. I sat down as he started going on about us needing to successfully complete the data migration in order for our new software tool to access some database. I found myself paying him as much attention as I had my report earlier that morning. 

Watching every second tick by on my watch, I began to grow antsy as it approached 12pm. I had been completely ignoring Greg so that I could think about what I was going to do to get the girl out of the building. I had an idea, but in order to even attempt it, I was going to have to away from Greg soon. When it seemed like he was going to go on all day, I told him I had another meeting and left in the middle of him still talking.

I casually walked down the hallway, but my pace quickened as I approached my office. There were two men with hard-hats walking down the hallway in the direction towards me, but I took little notice of them until they turned into my office. 

"Oh no," I thought, "I forgot that Facilities is taking a look at the room this afternoon!" To avoid filling up our work cafeteria, our company has the Facilities workers eat at 11am, so they probably thought it would be a good idea to check the rooms while we were all at lunch at 12pm. I silently cursed to myself and followed the men in.

I quickly walked by the two men and sat down at my desk. Besides us, the room was empty, which meant Sarah and Dan were at lunch. I hoped that the two men would do what they needed to do and leave soon. Since they were probably the ones that would be taking my boxes out for me later, I didn't want to have to be rude and tell them to leave. I sat facing my computer, trying to make myself look like I was busy, while actually paying close attention to what they were doing in the office. 

They looked around the room counting out loud how many chairs and desks there were, and trying to decide what was going to be the best way to get everything out for the move. Then one man stooped down to look under Dan's desk to see where his electricity and the Ethernet outlet were located. Next they looked under Carl's desk, and then I really started to sweat when they looked under Sarah's desk. I knew what was coming next. I was thinking, "Please don't come over here, please don't come over here, just please don't…" 

"Excuse me, sir," the one man said as he came over. I tried to pretend I hadn't heard him, but that didn't deter him. He tried again. This time a little louder and more impatiently, he said, "Excuse me, sir. We are going to need to ask you to move for just a second."

"For what?" I tried asking politely. I was frantically trying to decide what I could do. I could just refuse to move, but they might find it peculiar and I'd get in even more trouble when they would find her under my desk.

"We need to check under your desk to see where your outlet is, sir."

"Wouldn't my outlet be in the same spot as the other outlets in the office?" I could tell that trying to be difficult wasn't helping and only succeeding in making them more annoyed.

"Whoever put together this area to begin with wasn't consistent, which is why I have Ned here with me. He's the one that is going to be re-wiring the place once we get everything out of here. We just need to glance at where your outlet is for a moment and then we'll be out of your way."

I knew I couldn't do this all day. Getting up, I said, "That's quite alright," and I got up out of my chair and out of the way. I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes as Ned crouched under my desk and pulled down the boxes I had put up to hide the girl. I held my breath and waited for him to gasp in surprise. 

I had no idea how I was going to play off the fact that there was a naked canine girl hiding underneath my desk. Maybe I could just try and pretend that I didn't know she was there. Or maybe I could say she was threatening to attack me. Or… maybe I could just tell them the truth… yeah right. I squeezed my hands into nervous fists as I awaited their imminent reaction.
 

Chapter 3: The Great Escape

Every second Ned sat crouched down peering under my desk, it felt like an hour had passed. Incredibly, his facial expression remained mute as he sat there examining whatever he was looking at. He put the boxes back as they were and stood back up. 

"It's in the same spot as the desk in the opposite corner," he said to his friend, "but not like either of the other corners. Man, whoever put this room together wasn't really using their head." He looked back at me, nodded, and said "Thanks for your time, sir" before walking out of the door with his buddy, leaving me there standing wide-eyed and in a dazed state of confusion. 

I wasted no time dropping to my knees and pulling the boxes out from under there. To my surprise, all that was staring back at me was an outlet! Where was the girl?!? Had she left while I was gone? Perhaps, but I didn't think so. I tried to calm down and think about where she might have gone. I glanced back to make sure nobody was behind me, but noticed something moving in the shadows underneath Sarah's desk. 

The way the office was set up, there was my desk area and a table on the wall adjoining my desk that I used to put my papers on that stretched from my side over to Sarah's. While I was trying to divert the two men from looking under my desk, I must have distracted them long enough for her to crawl to the other side. "Good girl," I mumbled to myself as I took in a deep sigh or relief.

"Hey there, I'm sorry about that, I tried keeping them from finding you as long as I could. I'm glad to see that neither of us was caught. I was afraid you might have run off." I watched as she slowly peeked her head out from under the table. I found that I was happy to see her strange face again.

"I have to find a way out of here soon. They know that I'm missing," she said.

"How do you know?"

"Those men…"

"They were just guys from Facilities… they were here because we are getting ready to move out of this office and they needed to…"

"Check your outlets?"

"Yeah, I guess, I don't know what they need to do. I got a call from them before I found you this morning, I just forgot they were coming…"

"I escaped last night. They are obviously looking around for me. I recognized those men, they are a part of them."

"That's impossible…"

"If you think I'm lying, look around your room. Do you really believe that the outlets are in different spots?"

"What do you mean? Of course they are. Why would they lie?"

"Look for yourself, then."

I walked towards Sarah's desk and looked underneath. Then I looked back at mine. Her outlets were in the same place as mine were. Then I walked across the room and checked the outlets over there. All were positioned in the same place on the wall. I couldn't believe it; those men fooled me to look under my desk. But why would they lie to me? What the hell was going on here?

"Now do you believe me?" For the first time all day I noticed a grin finding its way onto her face. 

"I don't know what I believe right now, but I am going to help you. I have an idea," I said glancing at my watch, "but we are going to have to hurry before Sarah, the woman that sits behind me, comes back."

I reached under my desk and grabbed one of the boxes and began putting it together. Once I was done, I looked at her and then looked at the box. It was a tight fit, but it would have to work. I was glad that I had at least picked up some over-sized boxes so that I could pack up more stuff into one box. Who knew I was going to be packing a person. 

My company let me either pack boxes to take to our new office or home. The only problem is if I am taking the box home, they tend to check boxes to make sure I'm not trying to run away with any office goodies. I wasn't sure this was going to work, but what else was I going to do?

After reinforcing the box with some extra tape, I motioned for her to get in. She knew what I was going to try and do. She sat down and curled up inside the box lying on her side. It looked rather uncomfortable, but I knew she wouldn't be in there for long.

"You are going to be a little cramped for a few minutes while I take you outside to my vehicle. I'm going to rest these papers on top of you in case someone asks to look inside." 

She tried to nod to agree, but the box was too cramped. I immediately began emptying a few random binders of mine and rested the papers on top of her, just enough to cover her. I folded the box shut and walked down the hall to see if I could find a flatbed. I spotted one outside of Greg's doorway and walked over to get it. I chuckled to myself as I heard him still talking about data migration and I had to wonder if he ever noticed me leave. 

I hurriedly wheeled the flatbed into the room and went to pick up the box to put it on. It was much heavier than I had anticipated, but eventually I heaved it on. I could have called Facilities to do this, but after being misled by those last two Facilities guys earlier, I didn't think I could trust them. 

It was 12:30pm already and I knew I had to get out of there before Sarah came in, because she would want to thoroughly check what was in that box; I had a better chance with security. The problem was I needed a 'Special Materials' pass to take the box out of the building, but only Sarah could sign for it. I made a quick search of her desk drawers and found the pass I needed. I looked on her desk to find a different form she already had already signed so I could copy her signature. It wasn't the most moral thing to do, but this situation called for it. With that done, I quickly headed out of the office with the flatbed and towards the exit. 

As I was going down the hallway, I passed some people I knew and politely nodded. This was no time for conversation. Once I got to the main gate, I held my breath and hoped I would get through. A man inside the security room looked at my pass and had me open the one flap of the box. When he saw all of the papers, he let me close it back up. Luckily he didn't need to see any more. They were concerned more about things coming in than out.

As I closed the box, I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. I had been afraid that they would have wanted to look through the box more and would have seen a paw or ear sticking out. I did find it odd that the security guard was armed. I had never noticed security having weapons before, but I guessed it was something I had never realized before. I had never done anything like this where I had to worry about getting caught. 

One guard that was sitting inside offered to come with me and help me put the box in my vehicle. Realizing how much trouble I had earlier just lifting the box to put onto the flatbed, I decided to accept his help.

I stopped as we approached my truck. It was an old, big and boxy '84 Isuzu Trooper painted with two lovely shades of brown. I could have probably bought a new vehicle, but I could never seem to find the time in my busy schedule to even think about that. My SUV might not have been pretty to look at, but I liked it because it had a heck of a lot of cargo space, which I was especially appreciative of having then. I opened up the back and we eased the box up and slid it in. 

"Awfully heavy there, mister. That's a lot of papers to be taking home."

"Yeah, I know, tell me about it," I tried saying with a smile, "thanks for the help." He stood there for a moment inspecting the box with his eyes before walking away.


Chapter 4: Talking to Lucet 

While watching the security guard as he disappeared around a corner, I tried to shake off my nervousness. Without any more hesitation, I made quick work of opening up the box. It was already warm inside, which made me work faster to clear the papers off of her.

"Are you okay?" I asked, with obvious concern in my voice.

She sat up with her mouth hanging wide open, panting hard. I located a bottle of water in my car and gave it to her. I glanced around the parking deck to make sure nobody was watching us and then looked back at her drinking down the water. I realized that I did not know this strange girl's name yet. I had been working so hard to help her, but I didn't know what I should call her. When she finished the last of the water, I gave her another minute before decided to ask.

"So would you mind if I were to ask you what your name is?"

She paused and looked at me. "My name is Lucet." 

"Lucet? That's an awfully strange name."

She seemed to take offense. "It means to shine. I like to think of myself as shining above the rest and being different."

"You definitely are," I said with a hint of admiration in my voice. "What's your last name?"

"I don't have one. I am just Lucet."

"You don't have a last name?"

"No. When I joined them I lost my identity. They gave me my new name and my new life. I don't really remember my past…"

"That's awful!"

"Not really. I've enjoyed being with them. They treat us well, but now they want to try new experiments. I knew I had to escape."

"Wait, you said 'us', there's more like you?" 

"Of course. Experiments like these have been going on like this for years. I live with two other friends like me, but I've seen many come and go… I don't know where they all go. But that's why I needed to get out. Before they go too far. I want to help my friends before it is too late."

"It looks and sounds like 'they' might have gone too far already," I said.

Had anyone else been telling this sort of story, I would have probably broken down in laughter. There's no way I could believe she was serious. But her obviously abnormal appearance reminded me that it wouldn't be easy to argue against what she was telling me. I didn't know what to think, but I just felt compelled to help her, whether or not "they" and these "scientific experiments" really existed.

"Alright, I'm going to go back to my office now and try to get out early so I can figure out where to take you, Lucet, and so I can get out of work early. You stay here. Try to stay low and… not to be seen." She nodded her head at me before I closed the back door. I went around to the side and opened up the windows a crack before walking away, just to make sure the truck wouldn't get too warm. I shut the doors and began walking away. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon," I said to myself as I took a final look back at her. 
 

Chapter 5: Asking a Favor

When I walked back into my office, Sarah and Dan were already busily typing away at their computers. 

"Lunch is only supposed to be 40 minutes, Tom. Not an hour or however much time you decided to take this afternoon," Sarah said as I came in. 

I was tempted on making a smart comment back, but figured that wouldn't help the situation. Getting Sarah angrier than she already was would only be more trouble than she was worth. If Lucet had tried convincing me that Sarah was one of 'them', I would have gladly believed her. 

Sitting down at my computer, I pushed Sarah out of my mind and tried focusing on the issue at hand. I knew I needed to figure out how was I going to get out of work early. Skipping my 2:00pm meeting was not an option because Sarah and Dan were both going to be there. Staring at my computer, I thought for a minute. "Hmm, it is already 1:15pm; I better come up with something quick," I thought to myself. I decided my best shot was to try sending an email to Dan about what I would be doing.

"Dan, I need a favor. I think when I fell this morning I hit my head too hard. I'm really not feeling too hot and don't think I'm going to be able to make it to the 2:00 meeting. I'm going to go home and lay down for a bit. Can you cover for me on the Heidison project? I'm attaching my part of what we need to present today so I wouldn't be leaving you guys stranded."

After pressing 'Send', I nervously waited for a response.

A minute later, he responded, "Hey Tom, getting lazy are we? Have to email me when I sit across the room, do you?" I looked over at him and saw a smile on his face. Reading on, he said, "I don't remember you ever leaving early, or even missing a day, so you must really feel bad. You think Sarah's going to like that though?"

I wrote back, "It should serve as a testament to how bad I really feel right now. As far as Sarah, that's the real part of the favor. If she asks where I am, tell her… well, I guess just tell her I'm sick. She's not going to be happy no matter what you tell her."

I pressed send and this time watched for his facial expression to see if he would signal yes or no. After he finished reading it, I heard him sigh and saw him close his eyes and nod his head yes. 

"Thank goodness," I thought to myself. He might be a pain sometimes, but he was a good friend when it came down to it. With that done, I tried to inconspicuously pack my briefcase like I had to go to another meeting or something. Once I threw some random papers inside and shut my briefcase, I got up and quickly made my way towards the door. 

"Where are you going, Tom?" Sarah called, "Don't forget about the 2 o' clock meeting with…"

I didn't dare stop and turn around to acknowledge her; she would have never let me out of there alive. I briskly made my way down the hallway and towards the main gate. My heart was racing, as I guessed it was catching up with my disbelief that I was actually doing this. I hadn't gotten very far, though, when I noticed two familiar men walking down the hall in my direction. They were the Facilities guys who had fooled me earlier! Before they noticed me, I quickly turned into Greg's office. I hid behind the doorway and waited for the men to pass. Greg was talking to himself and didn't seem to notice that I had come in, so I stood there with my back towards the doorway and pretended I was busy listening to him while the too men walked by. They were busy in a conversation of their own and didn't seem to notice me. I took a big sigh of relief and headed towards the door.

"So what do you think?" Greg looked up from his computer and said. His question startled me and I almost jumped out of my pants.

"Uhm, what do you mean?"

"About the data migration?" He had to be joking; there was no way he was still talking about that. 

"Uhm, well, I'd say just do it, and if anything goes wrong we'll work on smoothing out the problems from there…"

"Sounds good, thanks Tom." I didn't even know if what I said made sense, but it seemed to make him happy. I decided he was either one of 'them' or he was just a nut. Or maybe I was just a nut. 

"Oh well, I have more important things to worry about right now," I thought to myself. "I can worry about my sanity level later." I peeked out the doorway to make sure the two Facilities men weren't around and left Greg to his own little world while I was about to embark on my new one.


Chapter 6: Last Chance to Turn Back 

As I approached the main gate, I wiped a drop of cold sweat off my already drenched forehead. I politely smiled and nodded at the guard that helped me earlier, but he just sent me a cold stare back. "How friendly," I thought.

Ignoring the guard's stare, I swiped my security card through the reader, waited for the machine to beep, and then walked through the main gate. I didn't chance looking back and focused on getting to my truck. I was worried that the guard might have noticed me acting suspicious, or that Lucet might have been found. 

My Isuzu slowly came into sight, but I didn't notice anybody around it. There were no guards standing around it or officers peering into my car as I had envisioned. I was about 20 feet short of reaching my truck when I stopped. 

"This is my last chance to back out," I quietly muttered to myself. Past this point there would be no turning back. I could still turn around and get security. I could pretend like I found her in my vehicle, or that she had forced me to hide her in there. 

"If I turn around now, I could turn her in and start my day tomorrow like nothing ever happened. Start another dog-gone day." I realized the irony of what I just had said to myself. This was the most exciting thing that I could remember happening to me. Going as far as I had gone, it would be difficult to forgive myself if I backed out now

Could I turn her in? No, I knew I couldn't do that. I promised I would help her and that's what I was going to do. All I had to do was get her out of here, and then I would never have to see her again. A sad thought, but at least I could feel better knowing that I had helped her. I knew I was never going to be able to forget her face. 

"Alright, let's do this thing." I walked up to the side of my truck and casually opened the door. Without looking back, I sat in the driver's seat and buckled my safety belt. I shut my door and locked it as I put the key in the ignition.

Taking a deep breath, I tried calming down and then calling back to Lucet. "You alright back there?"

No answer.

I could hear her rustling in the back seat behind me, but she wasn't saying anything. Maybe she had fallen asleep back there or had something over her head and couldn't hear me. I looked in my rear-view mirror to try and spot her as I called out to her again. "Lucet, are you alright back…"
 

Chapter 7: New Friends

My body was frozen and my mouth hung wide open. 

There was a set of eyes staring back at me, but they were not Lucet's eyes. The more I stared, the more I began to notice the hair around the eyes, similar to dog hair around Lucet's, but a different color. Either way, I definitely did not know the person with those eyes.

Slowly, I turned my head to look behind me to see a woman that clearly shared canine traits that were similar to Lucet. I could clearly tell she was a Dachshund, though. She had a long snout with a wet black nose, but what helped me identify her as a Dachshund was the silky black hair that covered her face with a brown patch that stretched under her nose, around her mouth, and under her chin. Other than her brown paws and brown, short hair that covered her rather noticeable chest, the rest of her body was covered with the short black hair. 

I soon began to realize that she was not the only stranger behind me. To her right I noticed another girl staring at me, this one a Dalmatian. She too had a long snout with a black wet nose at the end of her face. Her big floppy ears were mostly black and her white hair-covered body was freckled with large black spots. 

Before I gave myself a heart attack, I caught a glimpse of Lucet in the corner of my eye. She was sitting left of the Dachsund girl I initially made eye contact with and noticed she had apparently taken off the shirt I had given her early. She was very much naked again, much like her companions were. My look of pure fear combined with dazed state of confusion must have been amusing, as all three had already begun to burst into laughter.

"Uhm, would somebody like to let me know what the heck is going on here?!?"

"Don't worry Tom," Lucet responded, "these are my two friends I told you about earlier, Valide," she said pointing to the Dachshund girl.

"Hello," Valide said with a smile on her face.

"And Volentia," Lucet said pointing to the Dalmatian girl who was still snickering. "They escaped too and were able to find me!"

"But, but how…" I said with my mouth still wide open.

The Dachshund girl, Valide, interrupted, "I can explain that one. Before Lucet escaped, she unlocked our cages and told us that we could escape if we wanted to, but she ran off before we could even fully wake up. When they saw Lucet's cage empty, they began looking all over the place. They were so busy looking for her that they didn't even notice our cages were unlocked. We were able to slip out a back door and then sniff out Lucet. Then we found her here and she told us how you were going to help free us," she said in an exuberant voice, seeming talking more to her friends than to me.

I was still trying to get over the shock of how there was not only one, but three dogs… or women… in the back of my truck. This was starting to become way too much for me to handle at once; I couldn't see my body being able to take this much stress for much longer. 

"We need a place to stay," the Dalmatian girl, Volentia, said, "and Lucet says you're a friend that can help us. We really do appreciate it, mister. You're a great guy."

"Now hold on, I told Lucet that I was going to get her out of here, I didn't say anything about her or anybody else staying with me. You three can't stay at my house, there's just no way!"

Valide grabbed my collar with her paw and pulled my face up to hers. "Listen, Lucet might be all nice and not be willing to bite your ears off to get you to help, but I am," she said in a much more ominous voice than before, "and if we need help, you are going to help us. Either you are willingly going to let us stay with you until we can figure out where to go next, or we are going to have to force you."

Her warm dog-breath filled my nostrils as fear began to flow through my veins. My sweat glands started working overtime as I stared her in the eyes.

"Hey," I finally managed, "I've been very lenient today and could have reported Lucet earlier, but didn't. Now you show up and have the nerve to start threatening me?"

She lifted her lip to reveal her sharp fangs. "I don't make threats," she said in a raspy growl, "start driving."

Finally she let go of me and I turned forward into the driver seat. I didn't like being threatened, but I realized that didn't want to be pummeled. She obviously wasn't fooling around, and considering how sharp her teeth and claws were; I understood that I would be quite vulnerable to an attack if I angered the beast behind me anymore. 

I turned the keys in the ignition and started the motor. I was still shaking and tried taking a moment to compose myself before I shifted into reverse and backed out of the space. In my rear-view mirror, I spotted them duck down in the back to avoid being seen by any one. Pulling out of the parking deck and onto the street, I was half-paying attention to the road while my mind was preoccupied trying to decide what I was going to do next. 

Chapter 8: Home Sweet Home 

My car might have only been going the speed limit, but my mind was going a mile a second. I was trying to pay attention to the road, but my focus was obviously elsewhere. Much had happened this morning, and it seemed like it was only getting more complicated. First I agreed to help one girl get out, now there were three girls that I was taking home. And that's ignoring the fact they are all half dogs. With one surprise after the next, I didn't want to think about what could happen next.

I was still pretty well shaken up with my encounter with the Dachshund girl, Valide. She reminded me that I had more to worry about than getting caught: I had to worry about my own physical safety. These girls might resemble humans, but these were still animals I was dealing with. 

I especially didn't like being scared into doing something like this… but at the same time I couldn't but help to think that maybe I enjoyed the rush. Before today, my life had become an endless cycle of continuous work. Every morning I woke up and came to work to do my little job. Other than surfing the Internet at home or occasionally hanging out with friends on weekends, every ounce of excitement had been drained out of my life by my job. I didn't like being threatened by Valide, but it really didn't feel any worse than dealing with my supervisor, Sarah, on a daily basis. 

As I drove towards home, I concluded that I was still going to try and help Lucet and her friends. I had contemplated parking in front of a police station, but that just didn't seem like what I wanted to do. These three were all desperate to be free, and Valide probably just panicked when she thought I might just drop them off in the middle of nowhere. Considering the circumstances, I would have probably been pretty upset too if in the same situation. 

Though I could hardly imagine ever being in the same situation as them. Three naked women that looked like dogs (or three dogs that looked like naked women, depending how you look at it) would be sure to attract attention rather quickly. Dropping them off in the middle of nowhere just so I wouldn't have to deal with them any more hardly seemed fair. I lived alone and had an extra room, so there was no reason why they couldn't stay with me until they figured out where they could go next. 

My house was only a couple miles from where I worked, but it seemed like it took forever to get there. I wondered how Dan was coordinating the meeting I was supposed to be at. One thing I knew I could be certain about was Sarah was probably fuming about my absence. I had turned off my cell phone to avoid getting bombarded with voice messages from her wanting to know exactly where I was. She would probably be really on my case tomorrow, but I didn't care. I needed to set these three girls up first before I could figure out how to put my life back in a semi-normal groove again. 

I pulled up to my small house and parked in my garage. My house wasn't really much to look at, since the olive drab paint was beginning to fade and peel and some of the roof shingles were starting to fall off. It was a sturdy old one-story house and was big enough for me to live in. I had once envisioned starting a family in this house, but after ten years of work and heartaches, my efforts to maintain that false hope and this old house had long since fallen to the wayside. I closed the automatic garage door and then got out to help the three girls out of the truck. 

One by one I helped them out the back of the truck, holding each one's soft, hairless paw pad as they hopped out. I opened the door to the house to let them in and then followed in behind. 

The house had a fairly simple layout. When we first walked in from the garage, the laundry room was to the right and a coat closet on the left. A window looked out into the backyard and there was plenty of counter space with the usual appliances and the kitchen table against the left hand wall. The dining room was straight ahead when you walked into the kitchen. There was a dining room table in the center of the room, rarely used except for the assorted junk I dumped on there every now and then. Once in the dining room, a doorway on the left led into the den. A long wall separated the kitchen from the den, which was in the front of the house. The outside front wall of the den had a large picture window covered with an equally large curtain, and the front door was on the far right. The room wasn't huge, but it was spacious enough to fit my sofa, recliner, TV, and a few end tables where the lamps stood. 

Stepping into the den from the dining room, there was a hallway located on the right. Down the hall, the first door on the right was the bathroom. A door farther down on the left lead to the spare bedroom, which I generally used for to store any other junk that I didn't have anywhere else to put and was too lazy to clear out. The room had a large window and various types of furniture scattered about the room, including the computer desk, an old computer, and plenty of bookshelves full of outdated programming books. My own bedroom door was across from a spare room I never used, which was on the right side of the hall. My bedroom had a large window, a night table on each side of the bed, and a door leading to a small bathroom. The house wasn't decorated wonderfully and it was a mess, but it was what I called home. It was comfortable and cozy, and I liked it how it was.

"Alright, you girls are going to have to hang out here in the den until I can clear some of the junk from the spare bedroom," I announced as we entered the den. Lucet ran into the room on all fours and sat in my reclining chair. The other two did the same but scurried over to and hopped up onto the couch to sit. The way they had their legs curled up under them and their arms resting in front of them as they sat on my furniture, they looked more like dogs than they did women. Really hot dogs…

"How awful to think that," I thought. I waved away that last thought as I tried to get them settled in.

"Let me get you girls some water. Uhm… do you girls use cups or bowls?"

"Bowls!" they all yapped. 

I walked in the kitchen, found some bowls, and filled them with water. As I brought the water into the room, the girls hopped out of their seats and stood on all fours. Their hindquarters up in the air and their tails waved ferociously back and forth in excitement. After putting down the bowls, I decided to leave the room and try to find them some food before I got a little bit too excited myself. 

There wasn't much in my fridge since I only ever had time to eat out or order out. There were some leftovers and some ham that I used for making sandwiches, but that wasn't really going to work. I would have to make a grocery run to pick up whatever food that they might eat. 

When I came back into the den to ask them what they like to eat, they were playfully wrestling with each other on the floor. Lucet kept jumping on Valide, and then Volentia jumped on Lucet, and so forth. I couldn't but help to think how I'd love to be in the middle of their fun, but I was somehow to restrain myself. It had been years since I had been in a solid relationship, and here sat three women that apparently felt comfortable enough with me to be rolling around my floor naked. 

"Are you girls getting hungry? What type of food do you eat?"

"Doesn't matter. We'll eat anything," Lucet paused for a moment to say before resuming her wrestling match.

"Don't worry, we won't know it's not bacon," Volentia, the Dalmation, managed to say with the other two on top of her before all three burst into laughter. I thought I recognized that phrase as a slogan for some dog food company or something, so I assumed that was the joke. 

"So you eat, uhm, dog food?"

Valide looked up. "Yeah, we usually eat any sort of dog food. What do you have?"

"Nothing; I need pick up something from the store, which is why I was asking." They all stopped and looked at me. "Don't worry, if I wanted to turn you in or anything like that, I could have done that already. Nobody ever comes to my house, so you shouldn't have to worry about anybody looking in. I'll be back soon, just stay put."

Seemingly undaunted by my departure, the three of them resumed their playing. I went into the garage, opened the garage door, and sat in my truck. Before starting the engine, I looked back in my mirror half expecting to see someone else's face looking back at me like before. Instead it was my own face staring back at me. I took a moment to examine myself in the mirror; I was really a mess. I fixed my mussed hair, wiped the sweat off my brow, and straightened up my shirt and was ready to go. 

Looking behind me to back up, I felt pretty confident that nobody had followed me to my house. Still,I worried about leaving the girls home alone and hoped they'd be safe while I was gone. I was only going to be out for about an hour at the most, and then I could come back and figure out what to do next. I couldn't keep them at the house for long, could I? If nobody had noticed taking them out of the office building, surely nobody was going to notice them living in my house. Other than a few friends that popped in once in awhile, nobody ever bothered me at home, and I could find ways to meet up with my friends at places so they didn't have to stop here first. 

Maybe things could work out; I'd have to wait and see.
 

Chapter 9: A Quick Trip

J-Mart was a short drive away, and I liked it because I could do all my shopping in one trip. They would have everything that I would need and then I could get right back to the house.

I pulled my truck up to the front of the store and parked, putting on my four-way flashers. I wasn't going to be long and didn't want to waste time trying to find a spot. The automatic doors barely opened in time as I almost ran through them.

I stopped as I entered the store to try and decide what I needed. Textiles were on the left and groceries were on the right. I got a cart and immediately looked for the "Pets" section. There were so many different brand names of both dried and canned food, I just grabbed anything that had a bright color or said something about building strong bones.

As I was heading towards the registers, I realized I was going to have to get some sort of clothing for them to wear; otherwise they would be running around naked the whole day. But what were they supposed to wear? They might look silly in regular clothing, but something was better than nothing, I figured. 

When I wheeled cart over to the women's clothing section, I immediately knew I was in trouble. There were bras, bras, and more bras of every shape, color, and size. The only thing I knew is they have very big, well, they had fairly sizeable chests. I grabbed three bras that looked to be about the right size and moved on to the panty section.

There were panties everywhere; I could not understand why girls needed this many undergarments. When I went into a store for my underwear, I could never remember it being this complicated. I picked up some silk panties and got out of the women's section. That was enough shopping for one day.

The shopping cart came to an abrupt stop as I pulled into the checkout. I could tell the cashier was giving me a strange look, but I didn't know why. I looked into the cart and realized all I was buying was dog food and women's undergarments. Perhaps that was the reason. I ignored her stare as I put them up on the conveyer belt and smiled while she started ringing up each item. 

I glanced at my watch and noticed it was almost five o'clock. Traffic was going to start getting bad. I knew because normally I'd be coming home from work right now, but having a half-a-day felt nice, too. It also felt strange because normally I didn't have someone to go home to. It wasn't a feeling I could ever really remember having, but I didn't think it was a bad one at all.

Once the woman at the register finally finished ringing up everything, I paid her and rushed out of the store.

Chapter 10: Getting Cozy 

I turned into my driveway and pulled into the garage. I jumped out of my truck, got the bags out of the back, and wasted no time making my way into the house. The whole time I was out, I couldn't help but thinking that something had happened to them while I was gone. I rushed into the den, half-expecting them to be gone when I came in. 

Staring at me with wide eyes as I ran in, they were all relaxing on the couch. They hadn't gone anywhere, but were apparently tired of wrestling each other. I took a deep sigh of relief as I proceeded to the center of the room. 

"I didn't know exactly what to get you girls to eat so I got a little bit of everything. I also picked up some clothing for you girls to put on so you don't have to walk around naked all night," I said as I put down the bag of clothing.

"But we're dogs and have fur all over our bodies. Why do we need clothing?" Volentia asked in a confused voice.

"Yes, but, you look enough like humans where seems a little bit inappropriate for you not to wear anything at all."

"Why," Valide said in a provocative voice, "do we make you nervous?" She turned on her back and spread her legs to reveal her fur-covered private area.

I blushed and looked away before I saw anything else. "If you are going to do things like that, then yes." I walked out of the den, leaving the clothing bag and bringing the bag of food with me into the kitchen.

"Oh come on, Tom, I'm just fooling with you," I could hea