I sat on the edge of the bed, bored out of my mind.I had enough of this small room and wanted to get out but the door was locked. I felt trapped and knew if I were to stay in this room much longer I’d go crazy, which is ironic because the room looked like something you’d see in a mental hospital on TV. It had the padded walls, the hospital like bed, a metal toilet and sink as well as a desk and chair bolted to the floor, the door even had a tray slot. It was a room designed to keep someone in indefinitely. I had been stuck in this room since yesterday after I was brought in and underwent a full body examination. I was looked down at my chest when the door finally unlocked and two people with hazmat suits entered the room.

“We’re ready to see you now,” one of them said as they guided me down that hall past other doors similar to mine.

I entered a larger room with a two chairs and a desk, that had a plastic divider going through the middle of the room. A woman sat on the other side of the screen and directed me to take a seat. She opened a hatch and passed a cookie through to me.

“It’s alright, the results came back, you can eat now,” she assured me. “Now, Mark, how are you feeling?” She asked me as she flipped through her notepad. “It is Mark right? Not Hannah?”

I nodded as I began to nibble on the cookie but I didn’t answer her question.

“I understand if you’re not up to talking yet so let me just go over your file and I’ll ask you a few questions afterwards,” she suggested sympathetically. “Due to the incident you and Hannah, your cousin, swapped some body parts, these parts include the hair on your scalp, your torso and your legs. While your pelvis, arms, head and neck remain your own. You also suffered the loss of your genitals in the incident. Our primary concerns were with your respiratory and digestive systems as well as your urinary functions. It appears that whatever happened during the incident has managed to make these systems correct themselves, ensuring that the parts connect and function as required. The system that has adjusted itself the most is your urinary functions, you still have a working bladder and kidneys but the urethra has rerouted itself, connecting to your anus. In simple terms, you now pee through your butt.”

She gave a long pause as she gave me time to digest this information. Though I didn’t know what to think or what to say.

“As far as those that were affected by this incident, you are the only one that’s in a position to return to a reasonably normal life,” she said somberly.

I looked up concerned. “Wait what about Hannah? She and I swapped parts, shouldn’t she be in a similar state to me?”

“Ah yes, Hannah, while it is true that you both went through similar changes, for some reason she has suffered some sort of instability. Her head fell off your torso. Now, she’s still alive and well, she has just been reduced to a living head.”

“What happened with the body?” I enquired, too shocked to display emotion.

“The body, is still intact and is also alive and well, it’s fully self sufficient, requiring no sustenance or anything like that but unlike some of the other bodies brought it, it is unable to move on its own. We’ll discuss further options regarding the body at a later time.”

She put down her notepad on the desk as she put on some gloves and stuck her hands past the screen to hold mine in support.

“I know you don’t want to talk about the incident but it has drastically changed the lives of over 200 hundred people and that number is increasing. So can you please answer a few questions simple questions.”

I held her hands tight and nodded.

“Good, how about a simple question at first, what were you doing before the incident?”

I took a deep breath and brushed Hannah’s black hair out of my face. “Hannah and I went to see a movie together.”

“I see, and this movie, who’s idea was it to go see it?”

“It was mine, I hadn’t seen Hannah in a while and so I wanted to catch up with her.”

“So do you blame yourself for being at the location during the time of the incident?”

I looked at her in surprise, it wasn’t a question I was expecting. “I wish I hadn’t gone, to the movies, but I don’t blame myself, what happened was something no one could’ve predicted.”

She nodded. “Good, it’s important that you understand that and don’t hold yourself accountable. Now tell me about the incident itself. When did it occur? What did it look like?”

“It was already occurring when we left the cinema, there were people screaming in the lobby as well as a dog barking, when we got down there it was chaos. The first thing we noticed was the barking dog, whose head was on a human body. Next we saw the screaming lady her head was on the dog’s body. The person behind the candy bar had legs instead of hands and her mouth was gone. Someone was carrying their head in their arms, while someone was split in half on the ground, trying to get up. I saw a pile of parts on the ground too. Also a woman who had another tose coming from her butt, complete with another set of legs, she looked like a centaur. There was a guy with no limbs and a guy who now had four arms. Some lady had a guy’s head on her shoulder and someone else had six breasts. I recall seeing someone with an upside down face, someone with their head on backwards and someone with their torso upside down. It was complete mayhem. The weather outside was like a category 5 storm, with red rain and green clouds. I couldn’t even see sunlight. Then suddenly there was an explosion that sent Hannah and I crashing into the wall behind us and into each other. When I opened my eyes, the sun was out and I looked like this. Then the guys in hazmat suits came along and brought me here.”

The woman stared in disbelief as she let go of my hand. “That’s rather strange, some people said there were Yellow clouds and green rain, while other said it was purple clouds with pink rain. They all agree that it was violent though.”

“What caused it? What happened wasn’t natural.” I gestured to my body, focusing on my breasts. “This isn’t natural.”

“We… we’re not sure. All we know is it….” She went silent as her face vanished, as well as her ears and arm, her face and neck changed shape as well as her butt.

I looked down at the gloves where she had been holding my hand. They had disintegrated without either of us knowing meaning we had direct contact with each other. I felt something fall off my face and looked down in shock to see that it was my face, which melted as soon as I picked it up. Next my arms and ears fell off and melted away too. Though I grew new ones instantly. I also felt my butt change as something grew between my legs. My butt was bigger now and I regrew a set of genitals, only it was a female set.

I stared at my arms and back over to the lady, these were her arms she had a moment ago. So I looked into something that had a reflection and saw my face was her face. I had somehow stolen the traits I needed to fully change genders from her.

“What’s going on here?” One of the guys in the hazmat suit asked, stepping back into the room. “Code red, Code red! We have a containment breach, I repeat we have a containment breach!” He then put his hand on my shoulder. “We need to get you back into your quarters!” The informed me. “Oh my god, what’s happening!”

I turned around and watched as the protective suit melted away, leaving him standing there naked, though he was now missing his genitals too. I watched in horror as his limbs and head turned to long strands of black hair, leaving his body senseless on the ground.

Whatever had infected us was spreading and it wasn’t going be contained anymore. I knew I had to find Hannah and so I walked back into the corridor where I just was. All the doors had melted away, leaving those affected free to leave.

“Hannah! Where are you?” I screamed as the hallways ignited in fire and my world went dark as I melted away.

I thought the fire had killed me, I was wrong. The heat melted my body and everyone else in the facility but I felt them, we were connected somehow. We were alone in the dark a huge melted blob of biomass. But I refused to stay like this, I wanted form again and so did everyone else. I reached out and found Hannah and thought about being human again. I opened my eyes and pulled myself away from that biomass but I wasn’t alone, nor was I normal. I had successfully formed a new body but it was female I had two legs, one pelvis, one vagina, one butt after that things got weird as the body split into two people fused in the center. We had two torsos, two hearts, two stomachs, two livers, four kidneys, four lungs, two right arms, two left arms, three breasts, two necks, and two heads identical in appearance. I had a mind of my own but I also felt someone else’s.

‘Hannah?’ I thought.

“Mark?” The right head replied out loud.