This choice: Marcus wakes up on his dorm room floor in an hour. • Go Back...Chapter #5Marcus wakes up on his dorm room floor in an hour. by: Unknown Marcus woke up on the floor with a start. His eyes flew open and the first thing he saw was the blurred stucco of his dorm room ceiling. Then he was assaulted with the worst headache he's ever felt. It hit so hard and fast the kangaroo rolled up to sit and hold his head with a pathetic groan, his eyes squeezed shut against the pain. It didn't help. The ache rolled over him in waves, one awful throb after another, the feeling so intense it made his stomach roll.
Despite that, his stomach was empty enough to be painful. With every lurch it gave he could feel it gnawing away at itself, demanding to be fed. Marcus was confused. What had just happened? He had dinner a little under an hour ago. He shouldn't be this hungry already, like he hadn't eaten anything in days. Was this one of the side effects of...whatever he ingested? His head pounded hard enough that he almost gave up on the thought. He...had been dosed with something. There was some sort of powder that sprung out of a box, and knocked him out...
He looked towards the desk. The box was gone. The powder residue was gone too, as if someone had wiped down his computer desk and vacuumed the fabric of the chair and the carpet around it. Someone had been inside his dorm room while he was unconscious and covered their tracks. It was...it was disturbing, is what it was. Marcus had been nothing short of attacked, and his safety was seriously in question. He should probably call the campus police right...
His stomach lurched again, as if it were going to leap right out of his throat and start looking for food on its own. Marcus glanced at the clock and saw that the campus cafeteria would be open for another fifteen minutes. If he hurried, he could make it. He'd get some food and then he'd go to the police to report what had happened to him. But first, he needed to do something about that damned headache.
He grabbed two ibuprofen, downed it with a large swallow of some flat soda he found underneath his bed, then bounded for the cafeteria.
The headache mercifully eased on the way. He was able to notice other things at this point, like how his shorts rode up his heavy legs a little more than usual, and how his shirt felt snug around his torso. He didn't think too much of it, of course. His head was just beginning to clear, and he was still quite rattled by everything that had happened to him. Who would have done this to him? And why? Was he starting to fall ill, or did he have some kind of condition that could be contagious? Normally he wouldn't risk being around other people right now; he'd go immediately to the nurse or the police. But the hunger twisting his gut was so demanding he could barely think about anything other than food.
He practically ran through the doors of the cafeteria and bustled his way through the line. Marcus loaded up on pasta with red sauce, bread, beans and rice, and a few desserts. He caught Justin and Rich sitting at a table and joined them with a grunt. He barely heard them as he quickly and methodically made his way through everything on the plate. He barely saw the strange look they gave him as he walked right back to the serving line and got a second helping. His tray creaked under the weight of his food, and he ate it nearly as quickly as the first plate. When he got up to grab his third plate, Rich's hand shot out to grab his arm. The raccoon's touch was light, and almost cool against the exposed fur of the kangaroo's forearm. That was enough to bring him out of his food-induced haze.
"What the hell is going on with you, Marcus? You've barely said two words to us since you've been here, and you're gorging on way too much food. You're burning up, too!" Rich looked up at the tall kangaroo, who blinked back down at him. Was the raccoon always this short?
"Am I? I'm...sorry. It's just, something really weird happened to me and...I'm not sure what's going on." Suddenly, with the pounds of food he's just eaten sitting heavily in his stomach, he felt heavy and slow. His clothes were pressing into his fur and body now, and every time he moved it felt like they were bunching more uncomfortably. "I just need to eat a little more, and then I need to...head to the police office I guess."
He shuffled off to the food line again and returned with another plate of food. This time, both Justin and Rich were there at the table watching him intently. This time, the rabbit spoke up as Marcus began eating. "Listen, dude, you need to tell us what's going on. You're really freaking us out."
Marcus told them about the package between bites of his food, and just how weird it was that someone went through the trouble to remove the evidence. The kangaroo noticed the faces of the raccoon and rabbit grow more and more solemn as he recounted his experience. When he finished, he looked down at his plate and realized that it was empty. For a moment, he stared at the food line. It was technically closed, but the workers liked to wait until everyone was out of the cafeteria before pulling stuff away. Should he go back and get another plate? He found himself having trouble making the decision. His mind was stuffed with cotton or something.
"Uhm...Marcus...?" Rich sounded disturbed, almost panicked. "You're..."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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