Exterminator, by Blind Wolf

Jeff needed a job badly. Debts were piling up and his welfare was running out. Every day he looked in the paper and tried to find anything that could bring him money. Every ad in the paper asked for someone with experience and it was always in something he knew nothing about. 

He had never finished high school because one of his uncles had found him a job as a garbage man. It was a good opportunity for him to make money and he jumped on it right away. For eight years Jeff worked picking up garbage and was enjoying it. He had gotten used to the odors pretty fast; it kept him in shape and the pay was good. Then his Uncle died and the new owner of the place didn't like Jeff one damn bit. As the weeks went by, the shouting matches between him and the new owner got worse. Jeff did not like how the new boss operated and he was not afraid to tell him simply because he had been here much longer than him. 

Then, one day Jeff made a simple mistake and that's all it took for the new boss to fire him. He pleaded to have his job back. He told the boss that he would shut up in the future and just do his job. He even told him that he was ready to take a pay cut. But all his pleading fell onto deaf ears. 

Jeff had been out of the job for months. At first he didn't think much about it and decided it was like some sort of vacation. But the more he went to interviews for a new job, the more he realized that he might find nothing. Everywhere he went they wanted either a high school diploma or some experience. He even tried for a janitor position and did not get it. He thought about getting back to school and get the diploma he was missing, but he had convinced himself that he was just a little bit too late. By the time he decided to go, he lacked the cash and any government program refused him. 

One day he took a chance and went into the neighboring city and tried to get a job as a garbage man. To his surprise, his old boss had called the other companies and told them not to hire him. Jeff was screwed. He didn't have any family left since his uncle died and the few friends he had were talking to him less and less. If things continued, he would be a bum living in the street by the end of the year. 

On one bright sunshine morning, his luck changed. He saw an add in the paper for a company called "Bugs-a-way" that was looking for some new people to hire. Experience was not necessary and they did their own employee training. Jeff took no chance and called in for an interview right away. The receptionist that took care of his call gave him a meeting for the afternoon the day after. Jeff thought that his luck was holding out because that would give the time needed to look right for the interview. He took some much-needed money and bought himself a new shirt. That night, he had a lot of trouble sleeping; he just kept thinking how he should not screw this chance up. He convinced himself that whatever they wanted him to do, he would do it and without any complaints on his part. 

Finally the big day came and he arrived at the place ten minutes early trying his best to show that they could count on him. The secretary told him to take a seat and wait till his name was called. The first thing that Jeff noticed was the smell of the place. He thought a place like this one would be filled with all sorts of chemical smells, but it didn't. The place smelled very fresh and pleasant to the nose. He wondered what they used to take care of those pesky bugs. The place looked to be doing fine and yet; it was pretty small for such a company with their reputation. But then Jeff slapped himself on the head with the palm of his hand. The big smelly part of the business must be elsewhere. This just might be the office that took care of the clients. Makes sense to separate everything, brings in more clients if they don't have to smell the chemicals used to clean the bugs away. 

Ten minutes passed when Jeff's name was called. He was brought in a big, round office. He had never seen anything quite like it. At the end of the office, a man in a business suit got up and greeted Jeff with a handshake. He then instructed Jeff to sit down in a big leather chair and make himself feel comfortable.

"Any problems finding the place Mr. Vita?" asked the man.
"No sir, no problem at all. If you don't mind, what might I call you?"
"You are quite right, Mr. Vita. I am sorry about that. You can call me Mr. Smith."
Jeff nodded and waited for the next questions with great enthusiasm, he felt deep down that this might be it, that his chances of having the job were very good.

"What do you know about us, Mr. Vita?"
"To the you the truth sir, nothing at all. I didn't even know your company existed before I saw the add in the paper."
"So what brought you to us?"
"I need the job badly. If you check with my old job you will find out that I'm a hard worker that is not afraid to do overtime and you will also see that when I do something, I do it well."
"All right, that's all I need for now."

That surprised Jeff. This had to be the shortest interview he had ever been in. This was not looking good; to get rid of him so quickly could only mean that he had lost the job. He got up and calmly said to Mr. Smith, "I have to tell you sir, this is the shortest interview I ever been in."

"Don't worry, Mr. Vita, we here at Bugs-a-way have a very good research team. Anything we need to know about you, we will find out. All we needed at the moment was to get a feeling of who you are. We wanted to put a face with the documents and now that we have it, I can honestly say that so far, we like what with have on you. I'll even tell you a little secret; we will make our decision tonight, if you don't hear from us tomorrow, then you didn't get the job. I wish you the best of luck and have a pleasant ride home."

And with that said, Jeff went home. He knew that with today's technology that it was true that they could get anything on anyone, but that meeting was way to short. He was not able to sleep much again during the night and when morning came, he realized that his hands were shaking badly. The morning passed and not one phone call. In mid afternoon, as his hopes were being crushed, the phone rang. It was them telling him that he got the job. They wanted him to come down right away for a check up by the company doctor. Jeff thanked them at least five times and then said that he'll be right there. With all the trouble he had to find another job, he sure as hell going to make sure not to repeat the same mistakes he had done at his last place. 

He got to his new job as fast as he could. Once arrived there, he was greeted by Mr. Smith and brought into a room that looked like a doctor's office. A middle-aged man entered the room and asked Jeff to take off his clothes. He did what he was told and the guy who was obviously a doctor of some sort started examining him. After half an hour of being checked out, the doctor gave him an injection and left the room. Mr. Smith told Jeff not to worry, if was just formality and then gave him an address on where to present himself to start off his new work. Jeff thanked him and went home and for the first time in days, fell asleep like a newborn baby. 

When Jeff got up the next morning, he felt itchy all over his body, but he didn't give it a second thought, as he was about to start his new job. He got dressed and got to the address that Mr. Smith had given him the day before, fifteen minutes in advance. The place was nothing like the office where he had his interview. The place was dirty and smelled really bad which was no problem for Jeff. He had been a garbage man for a big part of his life, he was use to bad smells. As he stepped inside the building, he was told by an employee to go check in with the boss. After getting directions on where his new boss office was, Jeff presented himself there. His new boss just looked at him and then coldly told him to follow. 

He was brought into a nice white room and was then told to wait here. As he heard the door close behind him, he wondered what was this room he was brought into. Everything in the room was white, even the floor. There was no furniture so he could only sit down on the floor. Jeff had no idea how much time had passed but the itching that he had felt earlier was really beginning to annoy him. 

Without noticing, he had started scratching his right arm. He noticed it when a sharp pain was suddenly felt on it. He looked at his arm and was quite surprised to see it bleeding. It looked like four blades had left their mark on his arm. He took a look at his hands to see that his fingernails had grown pointed and longer and they just kept growing right before his eyes. Jeff was in a state a panic. What were they doing to him? He tried to call for help but he could not form the words with his mouth. His lips had hardened and his whole mouth was pushing away from his face. As his mouth got longer, his nose simply melted away. He grabbed the long tube that had become his mouth to make sure that he was not dreaming this.

Brown fur covered his hands and was climbing up his arms. His nails had grown very long and were beginning to curve inward. Jeff knew what kind of animal had this kind of mouth and nails. He had seen a documentary on the anteater once on the Discovery channel. If Jeff had any doubts about what he was becoming, the tail growing at the bottom of his back made them all go away. 

With the help of his new sharp claws, he ripped open his pants and shirt. There was no need to keep his clothes on. Once naked, he saw that the fur was growing all over his body. He lost balance as his legs and arms shortened. As he fell on all fours to the floor, his tail proudly flew up in the air. Long strands of fur covered his tail. His ears shifted as his skull changed dimension. The weirdest sensation he felt was feeling his tongue grow the length of his new mouth. In the matter of minutes he became a fully formed anteater. 

He heard the door open behind him and turned around. Mr. Smith and two big guys dressed in white entered the room. They looked at Jeff and about a minute after they had entered, Mr. Smith said to Jeff, "Our Company has the best reputation in this state because we are the one that uses the strict minimum of chemicals to kill bugs. People like us for that and so that is why we are number one. As for you, you will be keeping this form for a year. You will be helping us clean the places we are contracted to clean. Once the year over, you will return to your human form and we will give you a nice big check. As we speak, all your belongings are being transferred into a locker here and will be kept until you are back as a human. You will be very well taken care of and of course, you will never go hungry. And one last thing, once you return to human we will have a talk about your future in this company. Unless of course we are dissatisfied with your work, but that has never happened yet. You will be now be taken into a room where you will spend the day getting use to your new body. Rest well Mr. Vita, tomorrow you have a big day ahead of you...or should I say lunch." 

Deep down inside himself, Jeff didn't mind this one bit. A job is a job and with this one, he was going to be paid, fed and would have a nice place to sleep. This was much better than being a garbage man. Jeff followed the man to his new room and was quite excited to start his new job.