Instinct By Juicy

Prologue

The downpour of rain was severe that chilly fall day, soaking all those who rushed into their buildings to begin their day. Caduceus was especially busy that morning due to a five car accident that had occurred a short distance away. The roads were awfully slick, and Derek Stiles had no business to be speeding himself, even if it was an emergency for him to get to work.

The windshield wipers went off constantly, wiping away the excess rain and the quickly falling drops as Derek made his way through to Caduceus. It may not have rained much that fall in particular, but when it had rained the storms had been bad.

Thick, gray clouds loomed overhead and shielded the sun, making for a very dark morning. It was gloomy already and Derek had woken up late, one time of very few and on the worst day possible. He showered and the water was cold, he put his shoes on the wrong feet, he cut himself shaving, he'd eaten a cold piece of toast with no butter--since he'd mistakenly put it in the freezer--and he hadn't even had his morning cup of coffee. Now, he was stuck in traffic honking his horn continuously at the woman in front of him, who was too busy on her cell phone to realize she was holding up traffic even worse by driving 20 miles an hour on a 45 mile per hour street (At that, it was normally 55, but 45 on days like this). She was under the limit, nevertheless, and Derek was beginning to lose the little patience he had left.

He slammed his hands down on the steering wheel and sighed, leaning back in his seat, having missed his light. He rubbed his throbbing temples, trying to get a grip on his emotions. Suddenly, his cell phone went off. He checked the caller ID. Angie Thompson.

"Hey Ang," Derek answered, holding it against his shoulder as he took the wheel with both hands and merged into the next lane, the one leading to his "special" street. It was a shortcut through a small neighborhood and had no traffic lights. He'd be on the right street and that much closer to Caduceus after he took this little detour.

"Derek, we have a situation here! We need you, we're short on staff this morning, please tell me you're on your way!" she cried on the other line. Derek sighed.

"Yeah, I'm on my way. Please, just hang in there. I'll be there in eight minutes, fifteen maximum." Angie's breath came out in a harsh pant on the other end.

"Alright Derek. I'll prepare your patient for you. But Derek, really, could you have picked a worse day to wake up late?"

"I'm sorry Angie. I'll be there shortly." He headed down the small street straight on through the neighborhood, tossing his phone down on the passenger seat. He adjusted his glasses and let out a deep breath, shaking his head slowly. "Jeez…"

Just like that, in that very instant when his mind had trailed away ever so briefly, it happened. Smack! A small figure flew backwards in a blur after being harshly stricken by the vehicle. Derek hit the breaks as hard as he could and nearly spun out of control, finally pulling the car to a screeching halt on the side of the road. He rubbed the back of his neck in discomfort. He had pulled a muscle when he slammed back against his seat during the stop. "What did I hit…?" he whispered. He opened the car door and got out, looking around, praying he'd find a box or a raccoon. Anything; anything but a human.

His prayers were not answered. Well, not exactly. What he laid eyes upon was a rare specimen known as felisapian, commonly known as a "neko". It was not a human… but a human-feline hybrid. He'd only heard of them before, but never imagined he'd see one in his lifetime, much less hit one with his car.

They were extremely rare, having been created as war machines in 2015 by the Japanese and surrounding islanders. Most of the felisapians had been euthanized once they were discovered and their creators thrown into jail for their unethical experimentation on living humans. The creatures resulting from the experiments were anything but human. They were turned into mindless beasts, incapable of human emotion or secure confrontation with anyone of the human species. The few that remained alive were kept in captivity to wait out their wretched existences, hidden from the unwelcoming eyes of the outside world.

There had been reports of felisapians escaping their captors, and it occurred to Derek that a facility housing these strange beings must have been nearby for him to have struck one going down the road. At the moment, such things mattered not. He was devastated.

"No, no… No…" he muttered, tugging at his hair as he paced, the rain soaking him. "Why didn't I watch the road more closely?!" He advanced quickly, dropping down beside the stricken creature and checking for a pulse, any sign of life. She was definitely unconscious, but fortunately, she was alive. Her pulse was strong and her breathing heavy. This wasn't exactly great news, but she wasn't dead, and to Derek it meant everything. "Oh, you poor thing…" he whispered, gathering her small form in his arms. She couldn't have been older than six.

In astonishment he gazed upon her, intrigued by the small, human-like being he held in his arms. But he knew she wasn't human; the feline-like features she possessed—the most noticeable of them being the slender tail above her tailbone and the swiveling ears atop her head—brought him back to the reality that she wasn't a human being.

For a moment, Derek paused and thought things through. The world wouldn't miss her. There was no one around to see what he'd done, and on this desolate stretch of road it would be weeks before anyone found the body, and by the time they did it still wouldn't matter. No one would bother to find the one responsible for taking the life of something that wasn't human. Was it any different than hitting a cat or dog?

Derek's heart sank as he began to set down the girl he had hit. Being as young as she was, she was surely the daughter of one of the felisapians back at the laboratory. He had hit someone's child. He could see it no other way after coming to this realization, and without another thought he picked her up and put her in the back of his car and sped off toward Caduceus, suppressing any thought that this little girl could be just another animal. She had to be more; felisapians had to be more than that. He would save her and find out for himself.