“Why don’t you ever listen!” Tess shouted across the room.

“I do listen, you just change your goddamn mind every five minutes and then forget what you said!” Mitch yelled back. His wife grabbed a plate off the table in the cabin’s kitchen and flung it at him, screaming obscenities. “We can discuss this when you can act like a human being again,” he retorted and hurriedly left the little dwelling they had chosen as a great spot to reconcile their differences. It wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped. He grabbed his backpack, shoved a bottle of vodka in it as an afterthought and set out into the forest, towards the lake. He stomped between the trees, furious with Tess, with himself when he noticed a doe standing nearby. The animal turned to face him and he recoiled when he saw a hideous knobbly rash all over its flanks. Suddenly it sprang forward and reared up, flailing at him with its front legs. He screamed and batted at it with the backpack, and it bit him deeply in the forearm, drawing blood. It wasn’t even fully grown, but it didn’t relent in the slightest, and Mitch had no choice but to wrestle it to the ground and breaks its neck. He saw the black rash up close: tiny white orbs the size of lentils, with black centers that moved. Irises, he realized; they were eyes. The dead deer’s skin was covered in eyes, and they were focusing on him. He screamed, and ran back to the cabin.

Tess was in his arms, holding him close. They were both weary after days locked inside the cabin. Animals with that same hideous infection had been battering at the door, which fortunately had held. An honest-to-god Grizzly bear had clawed open the tires on their jeep, as if it wanted to cut off their escape route. He gently held his wife’s face, and they looked at each other. He saw her in many facets; through his own eyes, but also through the many irises that had sprung up on his skin, and even through those on her’s. The world was a kaleidoscope, mixing viewpoints, from themselves and also the animals outside. Tess smiled, and they kissed. They had much more in common than they had not.

“Let’s go,” Mitch said. Tess nodded. It didn’t take long to fix the car and drive back to the nearest town.

“These people rolled into main street with a whole herd of animals in tow. Deer, coyote, there was a bear even. When Deputy Myers went over there this couple got out and screeched like banshees. The animals tore Myers to shreds. And they all had that weird rash.”

The government man turned away from the Sheriff and spoke to his colleagues. CDC emergency. Pandora protocol. He wasn’t sure what that meant but it didn’t sound good, not in the least. He waited nervously, scratching an irritating itch all over the side of his face.