//------------------------------// // May 24th - 40 pills left. // Story: Angry Bird // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// May 24. 24. I jave ever issed a da eoe- Damn I need to get used to these things. Looks like it's back to hunt and peck until I do- DAMMIT I only just noticed that. Anyways, the day was not the first thing I noticed today. Nor was it even the second. It might have been the third. The first thing I noticed was, as usual, my alarm going off. Both of them. I'm a heavy sleeper, all right? Heck, it used to be three. The second thing I noticed was that when I rolled out of bed to answer them, I didn't exactly land on my feet. Or my hands. Not unless I got amputated in the middle of the night and had everything about me replaced when I wasn't looking. That's a pleasant thought, that maybe my old self is still out there, brainless. I'll just think about that for a minute while I try not to panic. Back now. That's still a creepy thought. Let's hope it's not right. I tried to crawl over to my desk and somewhat managed to succeed, only to find out the things my hands had been replaced with...didn't exactly want to work with my tablet and phone. I tried not to press too hard, though, because the ends looked sharp and I didn't want to break my wonderfully annoying pieces of technology. I've even jurry-rigged my USB keyboard and mouse to work with my tablet thanks to one little cord, and the right driver software downloaded. Thank the gods for the Internet. Now I can write my journal wherever I go, as long as the power holds out. Right, getting off track. So yeah, I managed to turn off my alarms and went over to my bathroom, barely managing to grip the sink to get a good look at myself. Had to rear up to look in my mirror, and I have to say, I was not enthused with what I saw. I was always a fan of Greek mythology back in middle school. So when the word Griffon hit me, I had to agree that that was what I looked like. Maybe not like any Griffon they'd ever wrote about, but the major features were still there. Eagle front half. Lion back half. Wings. Tail. I tried opening my mouth a few times, and the beak I saw in the mirror moved as I felt my own open and close. I raised one of my new forelimbs and tried touching the mirror, to see the same griffon trying to touch me. I nearly lost my grip on the damn sink, but I caught myself and stared at what I saw. Grey feathers, mostly. Except around my eyes and towards the edges, those were a bit more golden in hue for some reason. And my eyes were now this piercing blue. All in all, I considered it not bad, if I could only fucking walk without falling over. I pulled myself back over to my room and booted up the good old Youtube, figuring 'How lions walk' would be a good way to go for now. I could worry about flying when I wasn't in danger of faceplanting every ten seconds. After all, if something had wings, the odds were good that they were meant to use them. Shut up Ostrich, we don't talk about you. Half an hour later, I was walking around my own room without bumping into anything. I certainly wasn't going to be winning any marathons, but at least it was something. That was about when I noticed that there was something that was missing. Three somethings. My brother, my mother, and my father. None of them had been around to notice my attempts to walk and fail. Heck, I hadn't heard a peep from any of them, and they usually got up before me. I checked on both their rooms, though the stairs were fun to go up to get to my parent's room. Nobody was in there. Not a one. I had more questions, of course. Were they gone? Had they used my missing day to just pack up and leave? Were they like me, transformed? Or maybe they were still human? Would they come back? Could they come back? Sorry, I just...had to clear my eyes as I thought about it again. Shut up, it was a piece of dust. Anyways, yeah. That was about when I realized that the normal sounds of cars going by...I wasn't hearing any of it. No sounds from anywhere outside the house. I walked down the steps to get out, yay stairs, and somehow managed to...claw? the door open. I think that's the right word for these things anyways. There wasn't anybody out there. I walked across the street, to the neighbors I barely knew, and knocked on their door. Called out for them. The only thing I got was some barking, which I assumed was the dog they kept. I walked around to the back of the house and found a door, and found that while we had lived in a very nice neighborhood, my neighbors were perhaps a little too trusting. Thing opened right away, and their border collie just barked at me like a mad thing. I stared at him, unimpressed, until he finally stopped for a moment to catch his breath. "Y'done?" I asked him, and he seemed surprised I could talk. Frankly, so was I. No lips and all. I hadn't wanted to try, but apparently I could talk just fine as a Griffon. I held my right claw out for him to sniff, which he did, before whuffing at me and sitting back. "Your owners home?" I asked the dog, who just sat back and panted at me. "Don't know why I'm talking with a dog," I said with an eye-roll, and that was when I realized that the eagle part of me had fixed my nearsightedness. Mainly because I had forgotten my glasses, but could still see everything pretty damn well. The dog barked at me before going back to panting. "Yeah yeah, I get it, I'm not any better," I said. "C'mon, let's see if we can't find you any kibble." What, I had a soft spot for dogs. Ever since I looked after my girlfriend's dog, I grew more accustomed to the things. Heck, they typically liked me in general, I never knew why. I found the pantry, and the kibble, along with a scoop, and gave the black-and-white sheepdog two cups of food. That was about normal, right? I also filled his water dish up with fresh stuff, before realizing what I was doing. "Here I am. Nobody else around, and I'm looking after my neighbor's dog. I'm some sort of freaky gryphon that can talk and barely walk, and my first priority is a dog." I gave the guy a quick pet, then got over here again pronto and began scavenging what I could. I had to assume that I was the only one around, because I hadn't seen any other signs of life so far. Meaning either everybody had assumed it was 'Be a jerk to Henry day', or they were in similar straights as I was. I'd seen the series 'Life after humans' and I couldn't assume everything would last forever. Hell, one of the first things to go would be the power. I was just glad I wasn't near any nuclear power plants. Those things would go with a boom when they went. I dug up an old cooler from the garage, washed it, and filled it with ice-packs and the meat from the freezer. Then I got the other, bigger cooler, and stuck the perishable stuff from the fridge into it, barely managing to get the milk in. The pitchers of water, I filled and left in the fridge. Heck, I filled a lot more pitchers, because the water would also eventually go. Until it did, I would survive off the tap. That was my emergency supply for once it did. I had two houses to work with, after all. Ransacking my neighbor's place eventually turned up more pitchers for me to use as a water supply. Now if only I could find my dad's old army stuff, I might have a canteen... Once I saved the meat from both houses, prepared a water reserve for later, and made sure Skippy (No I don't know his name, that's just what I'm calling him) had water again, I came back home and did another search. I'd heard about this thing, this...Survivalist's guide. First thing that came up when I did my search was Captain Dave's Survivalist Guide. The others didn't look really relevant, so I pulled the page up, did a copious amount of Control A, Control C, and Control V, before I compiled the whole site into a doc that I beamed to my tablet. Bluetooth is useful sometimes. Now I have a portable guide. But one of the sections stuck with me, at least the title did. Planning beyond the three-day kit. I would need to plan, and plan hard to get through this. Fortunately, there were a few stores down the road. Once I trusted myself to move at a decent clip, I could go check them for needed supplies. Water, I could set up some rain barrels around, maybe look into relocating to near the reservoirs, wherever those were. Power, I could get a generator. Or, hell, the local Air Force Academy has a small field of solar panels by the south entrance. I could always take those. It's not like they'd stop me now. But food? That's all about to go bad, and soon, if nobody was around to maintain the delicate systems anymore. I would have to visit my local supermarkets, and for more than one reason. I got a little sack together for all my delicate electronic stuff, and warmed up some leftovers for a late lunch for me, before I made a list of things I would need to do. I'll need rain barrels from my local hardware store to help with my water supply. That, or to head to one of the reservoirs or lakes that acted like one, which I've already used Google Maps for. Just so I would have options. I'm going to need a generator for power, preferably solar in nature. But if it ends up being gasoline powered, we have more than a few local corner stores that I'm sure wouldn't mind giving a five fingered discount. Food will be tricky. I'm going to need to hit up my local grocery stores for everything they have that I could stomach before it goes rotten. Heck, there's even a Wal-Mart down the road that I could visit for supplies. It seems my first goal's clear. I'm going to need to learn how to drive as a griffon tomorrow, and learn to drive my dad's truck if I'm going to have any good hauling power. I popped my Risperidone not an hour ago now, and I'm starting to feel a little sleepy, so I'm gonna kick off for the night. Wish me luck, journal. I might need it.