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Flying Sisters

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Woman: Mary-stk
Silver Dragonfly: Creative Commons Saffron Waller Photography
Blue Dragonfly: Creative Commons Regexman

Change of Life Virus
Flying Sisters


Vivian and Dione were sisters, twin sisters.  They looked alike and often acted alike, too.  They were also an aerobatics team that performed stunts in a pair of small airplanes to the delight and amazement of air show visitors all across the continent.  They lived to fly and took every opportunity to perform or practice complex routines.

Like most in the world, the attack, using the Change of Life Virus by a group of fanatics that left the Mid-East depopulated save for people transformed wholly or partially into pigs and dogs was horrific.  And, like most people the following flu season was intense.  Both were grounded for nearly two weeks.  It left both with cabin fever and a stronger drive than ever to get back into the air.

Their lives returned to normal for several months until reports of mostly women transforming into strange hybrid creatures began to emerge.  The first wave of these bizarre transformations left them unscathed as far as they were able to tell.  They thanked their lucky stars that they hadn't caught the Change of Life Virus like so many others had.

Vivian made the first unwelcome discovery.  Many women experienced slow changes over many months that started with something minor appearing.  So it was with Vivian.  She awoke one morning with a headache and noticed an odd patch of dark brownish fur in the centre of her forehead.  It wasn't the same colour as her hair for both she and Dione were brunettes.

"What do make of this, sis?" she asked concerned.
"Just a second," called Dione from the next room.
"It's not going anywhere."

When Dione appeared a few minutes later, she looked at their reflection in the mirror.  Vivian's problem was more than just a small patch of strange forehead fur.

"We've got to get you to a doctor," she announced.  "Your skin is, well, darker than mine."
"I'll make an appointment.  But not before the airshow at Springbank."
"I don't know.  You know that's how that virus starts.
"I know.  But people have stopped changing.  That's over."
"Because some government bigwig says so?  They've been wrong more times than I can count."
"Me, too.  I'll get on the phone as soon as the office opens up."

The receptionist's voice, on the phone, when from the usual business-like tone to one that held a note of fear.  She excused herself to call the doctor from his current patient.  It was only a few minutes before the doctor came on the line.  After a few minutes of chatting, she started a quick telephone triage.  After answering a baffling series of questions with Dione listening on another line and occasionally adding a comment, the doctor ordered them to stay in their house.  Containment Services would be around in a few hours.

A few hours later, a virtual army appeared.  Most stayed outside, sealing the house with plastic and a strange yellowish foam.  It dripped down the windows and hardened into unsightly stalactites that obscured their view of their airstrip.  Finally, one man, in what looked like some kind of space suit entered the house.


"You are both in quarantine," he announced.  "Until this thing runs its course, you both are confined in this house.  We've put sensors on the doors and windows to make sure you stay put.  The necessities of life will be provided and you can use the Internet and phone ..."
"Our planes!" protested Vivian.
"They are being towed into your hangar and will be sealed in like you are.  They are being taken care of."
"But we have a schedule ... " Dione protested.
"You are under quarantine.  You WILL NOT leave this house for any reason.  Is that clear?  If you breach quarantine, you will be transported to a more secure facility that you will enjoy a whole lot less than a house quarantine.  Is that clear?"

It was clear.  All too clear. The two sisters began the unwelcome task of cancelling appearances.  They discussed how long they'd be stuck here and decided that they'd only cancel the next two months.  After all, the Honolulu show was the one they'd been looking forward to.  This would all be finished by then, wouldn't it?

The next few days were spent watch and relaxing as best they could.  Twice a day, Dione helped Vivian take stock of the changes.  At first, though, little seemed to be happening.  Vivian's skin darkened a bit, the fur on her forehead spread down the side's of her face, but that was it.  Dione was the next to feel the change.  Vivian noticed a shiny patch in the middle of her back.  Over the next day or two, it spread, becoming hard and shiny.  It looked like blue-green metal.  Dione couldn't resist the urge to feel it every few minutes to try to figure out if it had grown more.

The changes, slow as they were continued.  Over the next weeks, both women found their skin hardening and becoming shiny.  Vivian's was a shiny yellow-brown while Dione soon found herself encased in what looked like a shiny lacquered armour.  Both found themselves walking with a slight stoop like old women with osteoporosis.  Their humps soon covered them from their necks to their waists.

Neither had been particularly heavy.  Vivian, at 60 kg, was the larger of the pair, Dione a few kg lighter.  Now both began losing weight.  When they'd lost 10 kg each, they convinced each other that something horrible was happening.  In alarm, they phoned their emergency contact number.  It seemed the changes were unpredictable and some women had lost as much as half their body weight.  None had died from the changes though.  They were told not to worry. "As if we can trust some damned government flunky's word," was Dione's wry comment.

One morning, Dione noticed two rows of strange bumps along the front of her armour.  There were six in all.  Vivian's appeared the next day.  It took three days, but both women soon had dark shiny tubes hanging uselessly from just under their breasts.  These grew until they were nearly a meter long.  Periodically, as they grew, joints appeared.  It was apparent, after a few more days, that these were becoming jointed legs like some kind of insect.

Vivian, on awakening one morning, felt strange.  Her arms and legs felt weak.  To weak to push her from her bed.  She called to Dione, who stumbled in from her room.

"You're weak, too?" Vivian asked needlessly.
"It's as bad as that flu last winter," Dione replied.  "What do we do?"
"I guess we report it.  Only to be told there's nothing they can or will do."
"Useless bunch of buggers, aren't they?"
"When have they ever been anything else?"

They decided to set up mattresses in the kitchen.  It was closer to where they prepared their food and where the ration box was stuffed through the airlock every week.  It took much of the rest of the day to move their mattresses downstairs.  It left them exhausted and both went to bed early that evening.

Vivian awoke early, as the sun was rising.  Something felt strange. The world looked weird.  She couldn't put her mental finger on what was wrong until Dione turned over a few minutes later.  Her face was now dominated by huge, black, faceted eyes.  Vivian could now place what had changed in her world, too.  She had nearly 360 degree vision.  Without moving her head, she could see above, below, left and right in nearly perfect detail.  Perfect except for a strange pattern that everything had.  It was like looking through some kind of strange screen.  Somehow, while they slept, they had exchanged their eyes for these insectile aberrations.

"Dear God!" shrieked Dione as she awakened fully.  "You're ... you've ..."
"I have insect eyes," Vivian finished in disgust.
"And me?"
"You, too," something nagged at the edges of her mind.  "I want to check something."
Even with her weakened arms, Vivian managed to get online and into the images section.  A few minutes later, she was certain.

"Dragonflies," she announced.

Their bodies continued to change over the days that followed.  Arms and legs weakened and shrank but, as if to compensate, their insect legs became stronger.  They were soon able to scuttle about on all six.  "Like damned roaches," was Vivian's assessment.

The one thing lacking for each was the long tail of the dragonfly.  Their bodies still ended at their now solidly encased rumps.  Vivian's fur soon covered her whole body save for one completely bare patch at her rear.  Dione's armour covered everything even her rump.  Vivian began to feel a strange pressure throughout her body.  It was as if she had been stuffed into a dress that was too tight.  When asked, Dione admitted to the same feeling.

The reason for the feeling of fullness became manifest later that afternoon.  As split appeared behind Dione's head.  This soon extended the length of her body.  Partly in fascination and partly in horror, Vivian watched as Dione pulled herself from her armour over the next hour.  Exhausted, she clung to the top of it, breathing heavily.  Vivian was shocked to see even Dione's face had been part of the armour as it's form was still visible in the shell that remained.  Vivian took in her sister's new form.  She now had the beginnings of a dragonfly tail. It was short, maybe a quarter of the length that dragonfly images on the Internet sported.  Then it was Vivian's turn.  The pressure became intense.  She could hardly move.  She felt rather than heard the crack of her carapace as it split.  She could tell when it was long enough by the feeling of cold down her back.  She struggled to pull herself from the prison of her old shell.  She well understood why Dione had appeared so exhausted after extricating herself from the prison of her old shell.  Vivian felt she could hardly move and was content to just sit on top of the shell, breathing heavily.

The next morning, Dione arose first.

"Well," she stated.  "We've tails now."
"Not terribly long yet though."
"What do we do with those," Dione gestured to the empty shells with one of her insect legs.  Both women's human arms and legs now hung uselessly, dragging on the ground as they moved.
"Best call the number, I guess," Vivian opened her cellphone with difficulty.  The insect legs were not quite as dextrous as her hands had been and it took several minutes to correctly dial the number.
"Quarantine Services," a woman's voice stated.
"We've just shed some kind of shell.  What do we do with it?"
"Give me your number and we'll arrange to have them picked up later today." True to their word, later that day, plastic garbed people appeared and soon had their old exoskeletons tidied away.

Nothing changed for the pair for another three days and then the feeling of pressure returned.  Once more, they moulted.  After a few more moults, both women sported long dragonfly tails.  Vivian's was shiny gold and Dione's was a dazzling blue.  With each moult, their human arms and legs dwindled until they disappeared entirely.  The two women discovered their unwanted weight loss had continued with each moult, too.  Both were now barely half their original weight.  They learned to get around on their new legs and soon became expert at their use.  Even the cellphone no longer balked their them and they could use it as easily as they had before these changes had occurred.

"You know," Dione mused sadly as she and Vivian sat in the afternoon sun.  "There's no way we'll get into our planes again."
"No," Vivian sighed.  Both had lived for flying and now they were permanently grounded.  "Not much we can do about it."
"Wonder if this counts as a disability under our insurance," Dione mused.

Vivian had forgotten about that insurance.  They were definitely disabled as they were.    She open the insurance policy on the computer.  From her reading, they were covered.  It seemed pretty much a case of something that prevented them getting into the cockpit.  "I think I'm going to have Yolanda look at this."  Yolanda was their lawyer.

After they'd explained what had happened, Yolanda got on the case.  As far as she was concerned, the contract was binding and a million dollars would go far to help the pair survive in their current state.

Three days later, Dione announced she was feeling the pressure again.

"Damn.  I thought we were finished with all that.  It's been over a week.  We've got our tails, what more can we be hit with?"
"Wings?" Vivian grumbled.  "But that would be too good to be true."
"Fat lot of good that would do.  We're too heavy to fly like the little dragonflies."
"I'm not sure about that.  We're lighter than we ever were and there were some pretty big dragonflies way back."

Vivian was remembering something from a Science course they'd taken in their high school days.  She scuttled over to the computer. They were huge!  But still nowhere near as large as the two women.

"Probably just more tail or something," grumbled Dione.  "Not like we've got much choice about it."  Vivian just cocked an eyebrow.

The moult did reduce their weight again and, as Vivian and guessed, gave them wings.  These started as crumpled masses along their backs.  They spent hours as blood pumped into the masses, stretching and straightening them.  Both women fell into a strange torpor that faded into sleep some hours later.  When they awoke the next morning, they looked at each other.  Vivian was the first to speak.

"They're beautiful," she breathed.
"Yours are, too," Dione responded in the same awed tone.
"I .. I wonder if .."
"If they work?" finished Dione.

She tried to move them but they were stiff, hard to move.  Clearly they were not ready yet.  They fixed breakfast and let themselves out onto the sun porch.  Though they couldn't see much past the plastic and foam blobs, the porch was warm and became warmer as the day progressed.  In the late afternoon, Vivian decided to go fix something to eat.  As she turned, she felt an itch in her shoulders and sides.  She shuddered and felt a rush of air.

"You flapped your wings!" Dione exulted.  "They do work!"

Over the next week, the two learned how to flap the wings but the house was far too small to try any flying. Finally, after mastering everything she could with her wings, Dione became angry.

"You know they'll never let us out of here," she growled.  "And I'm sick of here."
"Nothing we can do about it," Vivian frowned.  "Nothing.  They'd catch us before we got ten kilometres."
"I bet they wouldn't," Dione stated.  "Some of their best pilots couldn't keep up with us in the stunt planes."
"True enough.  But what would we eat?  Where would we go?"
"South.  I'll bet there's lots to catch and eat in the rainforests.  And those are big enough that they'll never find us in them."
"That's insane.  We can't fly thousands of kilometres!"
"So you want to stay stuck in here forever?"
"Well, no.  Not really."
"So let's break out.  We'll grab the compass and maps from the planes so we know where we are going."
"But what will we eat before we get to the rain forest?"
"I know there will be something.  The chaos of this Change of Life virus world wide should make it easier to grab a rabbit or something as we head south."
"But raw!"
"Fish then.  We'll have sushi."
"Dragonflies eat fish?"
"This pair will."
"But the plastic?"
"You sound like you really don't want to get out of here."
"I'm a bit afraid.  If we're caught ..."
"We're caught.  We'll get stuck somewhere and escape there, too. I want to fly!"

That did it for Vivian, too.  She realized she too missed flying.  They searched the house and decided on the sharpest knives they could find.  It was tough going but they soon had a hole by the sun porch large enough to crawl through.  Only a few minutes later, they took to the wing and landed, somewhat inexpertly, by the cocooned hanger.

"Hmm," Vivian mused.  "Have to work on our landings.  This is a bad as when we were first learning."
"Won't take long," Dione stated.  "We were the first to learn in our flight class."
"True enough there," Vivian stated.  "Let's get those maps."

The knives made short work of the plastic.  It was easier to punch through from the outside than it had been from the inside.  They could put the whole of their weight behind the blade.  Soon, maps and compass 'in hand', they took to the skies just as a posse of vehicles raced into their driveway.

"You'll never catch us!" shouted Vivian as she gained altitude.  "Never in a million years!"
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Comments1
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My only issue is that I kinda sympthazise with the quarantine enforcers here. Our heroes only had to wait a bit longer until they stopped being infectious, but instead they fled and potentially infected many in Latin America on their way, destroying countless lives.