(Inspired by / text partly taken from here.)
"Exposure to the rays of the white sun mutates people into human snails," explained the reporter, who was safe inside a studio. "Our reporters have confirmed this through ... firsthand experience."
A blonde reporter with a microphone appeared on the screen beneath the words "Earlier This Morning." Cynthia Sykes was sweating beneath a blazing white orb. She pointed at it with her free hand. She gasped as she felt slime ooze through her skin, steaming as it reached the surface. She dropped her microphone, only to see it dangle at the end of the slime dripping from her right hand. Two soft, fleshy antennae sprouted from her forehead, growing until they were around eight inches long. Sensitive knobs at their ends served as living thermometers that gave her an exact sense of how hot it was. She had to quickly find shelter. Her first impulse was to run, but her legs were stuck together beneath her skirt. She struggled to pull them apart, but there was more than mere slime binding them. Skin grew over them, covering her entire lower body in one unbroken surface that was rapidly freckling. Underneath this new layer of mottled skin, the bones were dissolving away, leaving nothing below her pelvis but flesh. Her individual leg muscles merged into one muscle mass, with myriad little undulations forming underneath a translucent strip. The cells that had once formed her leg bones moved to her back and mutated into an expanding spiral shell whose golden color matched her hair. An operculum grew from the bottom of her back. Without thinking, she slithered toward the nearest tree on her new single foot, leaving a slime trail several inches wide on the sidewalk. The intense heat caused it to evaporate almost immediately. Once Cynthia was safe in the shade, she squeezed herself into her shell, sealing the opening with her operculum.
Her crew had undergone similar transformations. They had dropped their equipment on the ground. A fallen camera filmed them joining Cynthia under the tree. They would remain there until nightfall.
"What are we going to do!?" asked Jon's father Mark Madison, wiping sweat off his forehead. He turned on his air conditioner and set it to full blast. "We can't hide in here forever. We'll be cooked if the temperature keeps on rising like this. There's only enough in the refrigerator to last us ..." Mark looked at his wife.
"One day," stated Linda Madison. "I was supposed to go shopping today! But if I leave, I'll ... change ..."
Jon ran up the stairs back to his bedroom. If the stone somehow changed the world, he thought, maybe it can change it back!
