A Strange Occurrence on a Day of Distrust

Somewhere in the heart of /2434/

My name is Lemuel Kinoshta, and while I am an expert in my field at times I find myself in a situation that I had never prepared for. I came from a small village in Syndeoneia and was recruited to work for the VMS Expeditionary company bound for /2434/ in order to work at their fungal research facility built recently, I was a village doctor (not a professional by any means) but was no stranger to the effects of fungal pathogens on people lives and wellbeing so the jump from superstitious hack to a researcher was swift.

/2434/ is fairly advanced in their medical science, but this is a very specialised field, and one not understood well by traditional medical professionals. As one of those professionals I believe my current predicament is out of my depth, and I pray to my fox God that this isn't as serious as it appears. Let me start from the beginning of the day for better context:

It was just after sunrise when I am awoken by the dorm custodian bashing pot lids together, "GET OUT OF BED YOU LAZY GOOD FOR NOTHINGS, PAY STARTS AT SUNRISE AND SO DO YOU!" While jarring at first this was a fairly regular occurence now. After hurriedly making my bed and getting dressed I rushed downstairs to the mess hall for my meal, server by one of the other dorm custodians who was much kinder than the other. Something was strange though... While the ladies in care of the dorm were rotund (excuse my rude terms) and motherly tucked under the netted hair of the one serving food was a bumb clearly protruding from the top of her head.

As I sat down to eat my meal I had barely looked at the food I was so fascinated trying to work out what that bump could be, but when I sat down and stared at my meal it was entirely comprised of mushrooms. Lion's mane, Golden Bolete but also types I had no idea what they were; bright pink and yellow mushrooms that were almost flourescent and white mushrooms with red spots like those from children's books. While we were part of a fungal research facility something was off, weirded out by my meal I poked at it for a bit while I looked around trying to see if any of the others now starting to stream into the hall would notice the same thing as I but to my dismay they all walked in, sat down and proceeded to wolf down their meals as usual. 'As usual' it was until I saw the others up close, they had mushrooms growing out of the top of their heads. Small ones, large ones and of varying colours and sizes. Without a second thought I proceeded to dump my food into the rubbish stash my tray and excuse myself, but I noticed them as I left, my behaviour caused them to stare at me as I ran out of the hall almost in unison with crude smiles on their faces.

I made it into the centre of town, I was panicked but also starving and upon smelling the familiar smell of sweet breads and pastry from the nearby market I hurried throught the empty streets of the outskirts into the middle of town. Almost one-track minded and overcome by ravenous hunger I rushed to the bakery stall placed a few small coins on the counter that would be more than enough and made off with my pastry in a hurry keen to eat it, but a hand was placed on my shoulder as I was leaving. It was the baker with a large smile on his face, "Have a good day youngster! I hope you enjoy my pastry and thanks for the tip." I looked at the top of his head and was filled with dread, he had taken his baker's cap off and had a large mushroom on the top of his head the size of a fist. "Thank you but I'm late!" I yelled as I sprinted away and it became very clear this was much worse than I had anticipated as I looked at other as I sprinted past them, the townsfolk had the same mushrooms on their heads. I ran, and I ran, and I ran until I left the town and made it to a small hill overlooking the VMS facility.

I slowly tore open the pastry and to my horror it was filled with the same mushrooms as the mess hall... But... I am so hungry, and it smells so good. Just... A bite won't turn me into one of them... Surely... Right?