The little and silent avian birds awoke to see that they were enclosed in a large cage that was resting on a white counter in a medium sized room. It was a quiet room, with the only sound being from the ticking clock, with black and white checkered tiles and a blank white ceiling. The room was covered and littered with tools that were on white, long counters. They both realized simultaneously on what happened. They were captured, defeated. They just lost their pride. They let their guard down and now they'll pay the price for it.
To believe that all this was to find some fish for the penguins' back home, too. They were the wall that protected those penguins but now they were left alone and it's their fault. They're open pickings for leopard seals and other predators, along with the humans that would use them for who knows what.
The silver penguin stirred and, when it saw its surroundings, smacked its head on the bars. In the result, it woke up the tallest of the four from clank. "This is my entire fault. I take full responsibility girls," the silver penguin moaned. "I should've been and acted quicker!" She smacked her head repeatedly against the bars in self-punishment. "Stupid, stupid, stupid...!" she kept muttering underneath her breath.
"Don't beat yourself up about this, Amber. It's not your fault, only ours. We didn't react quickly enough," the tallest penguin comforted.
"Flora's right! It wasn't your fault! I take responsibly for the failed mission," the smallest avian declared and stood up.
The silver bird shook her head. "Sara, don't take responsibility for something that isn't yours."
"No Amber, I take responsibility for the failed mission also. It's not your fault," Flora insisted.
The silent one grunted and sat by the others for support. They knew she was with them, no matter what happened.
"Thanks Madison," Sara chirped, a smile forming on her face.
"No!" Amber growled harshly, startling the others. "I'm your leader, I take the blame! If I didn't let you three go with me for fish or go up that mountain cliff, we wouldn't be here!"
"Well, we would be dead if we didn't come here. Let's just say we're lucky?" Flora suggested.
"Hey…where are we anyway?" Sara whimpered and huddled up close to Flora for protection.
Madison growled when she saw all the medical equipment. She was not a fan. She eyed everything with fierce weariness. Her gaze then rested on a toy that had a red baseball cap on, gaining her interest. She grinned slyly. It looked a lot like the kind of hat her brother use to have. She liked the hat; she wanted it.
Madison reached for it with her flipper and was just able to wrap her flipper at the tip of the baseball cap. She pulled it through the bars without the others noticing, much to her satisfaction. Her smile widened as she put it backwards on her head, letting some strand feathers pop out of the cap. Most noticeably, three feathery bangs from where the adjuster strap was. The others were too busy observing their surroundings to notice.
"I think we are in a medical care facility," Flora stated.
They let that sink in their minds, but they were brought back when Madison's stomach growled loudly. They all looked at her with blank stares of exasperation. Madison laughed sheepishly, rubbed the back of her head, and tried to silence her stomach with a glare. The others went back to studying the room.
Flora then noticed a pretty daisy flower in a vase and was immediately fascinated with it. She hadn't seen a flower for a long time. She studied it and decided she wanted to keep it. She grabbed it and placed it on her head. "Is it ok if I keep this flower?" Flora asked hopefully to Amber. It was an instinct for her to ask permission to have something, though it often got annoying.
Amber shrugged indifferently. It did look good on her. "Knock yourself out." This made Flora smile.
Their attention was immediately directed toward the door when they heard a clicking sound emit from it. The door was gently and slowly pushed open. Curiously, they watched as someone came into the room.
A man in a white lab coat walked in with a bucket and, by the smell that emitted from the pail, it contained fish. Madison's tongue rolled out of her beak at the smell with longing in her eyes. The other penguins' stomachs growled from hunger, making Madison laugh at the irony.
"Well, looks like my patients are finally up," he chuckled. "Ok, who wants some fish?"
The generally mute bird didn't pay attention to the glares from her team as she started jumping around, wanting all the fish for herself. The man chuckled at her enthusiasm and opened the cage door enough so he could give the girls the fish without them escaping.
Not caring if the food had any drug in it, they started swallowing the fish hungrily. As they swallowed the last of the fish they for once, in a long time, felt full. Madison licked her beak in content; Sara patted her full belly; Flora had passed out in the cage, and Amber let out a sigh of pleasure. The obvious leader of the four shifted over so she could study the doctor.
He wore a lab coat with a gray turtleneck underneath and wore blue pants. He had brown spiked up hair, most likely natural rather than gel, and his skin was a nice creamy tan. She then noticed that he was looking through the drawers for something. What's he looking for? She thought suspiciously and looked at him with hatred. Her attention snapped to Sara when she spoke.
"Can you remember the last time we were full like this?" Sara asked in a murmur.
"Nope but I missed the feeling," Amber sighed, rubbing her belly. They usually gave the fish they caught to the other penguins', and they got two fish each if they were lucky.
Madison grunted in response like usual.
"I'm just going to give you little penguins an injection and you'll be ready," the doctor told them calmly.
Sara gulped. "Did he say injection?" she squeaked.
Madison growled as the man came to open the cage for the first victim.
The doctor laughed. "I had no idea penguins could growl. Ok, come on now and be a good girl…Ow!" He began to suck his finger where Madison had bit him. Madison growled threateningly but had a deep sense of amusement in her eyes at his reaction. The man sighed and put the syringe down on a table and studied them for a second to analyze the situation.
"They might be more aggressive than I thought," he muttered to himself. "Ok!" They jumped when he clapped his hands together. "Let's try this one." He picked up the syringe and went for Sara instead. The young bird was too petrified with fear to move, while the others were too exhausted to help her. The doctor picked her up and injected the needle point into Sara's bottom. She shrieked from the injection but the pain quickly went away, leaving her drowsy.
"Sara? Are you ok?" Amber shouted in worry. Sara only giggled in response.
The stranger put her back in the cage and refilled the syringe.
"Would you keep it down, I'm trying to sleep," Flora mumbled with one flipper hanging over her closed eyes, unaware of what was going on.
Amber rolled her eyes and crossed her flippers over her chest in annoyance. It was obvious she had a temper. "Nice to see you're awake, sleeping beauty." She kicked Flora roughly in the side to make her get up.
Flora moaned and looked up to see a hand. "What the-?" she yelped before, she too, was also injected in the bottom.
Amber smacked her head against the bar in frustration. She looked up to see the door opening again with another person entering the room.
It was a female human this time. She wore a white lab coat and blue pants also. She had blonde hair that was tied in a messy bun. She had a white folder with words printed on it in her hands, but Amber couldn't read, unfortunately. Flora and Sara were the only ones who could, and even Sara was just learning.
"Are these the penguins you're going to send to the Central Park Zoo, Dr. Ronald?" the woman asked.
Dr. Ronald spared her a glance as he made his way toward the cage to put Flora back inside and choose another victim to his needle.
Zoo? We're going to a Zoo? Amber thought with confusion and dread.
"Ah yes, Nurse Anna, they'll go for the breeding program there," the doctor told her, refilling the syringe. "I believe there are four penguins that are ready and these are good specimens for breeding. We'll also get a decent amount of money from the Zoo that will help with our research fund," he explained and grabbed Madison, who tried to bite him.
Uh no. No way! I'm not going to breed with some stupid male penguins! Her thoughts were interrupted with Madison's growl as she was injected in the rear end. Amber knew she was next.
Anna looked at Madison as she slowly lost consciousness. "I don't know about that one though. She seems a bit too aggressive and…" She paused in mid-sentence and looked down at the now passed out Madison more closely. "Is she wearing that baseball hat from the souvenir I got you last year?"
Amber hadn't noticed that hat till now. She rolled her eyes and smacked her flipper against her forehead.
Dr. Ronald gently put Madison back into the cage, refilling the syringe when he was done. "I'll let her keep it. It actually makes her cuter that way." He laughed with the nurse for a minute before he walked over to Amber. "Well, this is the last one." He reached to grab Amber, but she jumped around the cage, trying to avoid the needle. The doctor huffed and asked the nurse to assist him.
Amber continued to move, duck and jump to avoid the two sets of hands, but her energy was faltering quickly. She tripped on her own feet, and her bottom met the needle point. She cringed from the pain but soon met the blissful state of sleep.
The doctor closed the cage and instructed the nurse to put it in the cargo part of the plane while he would clean up his supplies.
The nurse nodded and took the cage. She walked out the door and went down the hallway of their base. She would say hi to other scientists or doctors as she went through the corridor. Anna reached the end of it where a door that had a flashing sign above it that read 'Exit' was. She opened the door and met the chilling breeze of the tundra. She quickly ran toward the plane with the cage that was carrying the four penguins in her hands. The nurse gently placed the cage in the airplane and moved the penguins' from their cage to a large shipping crate.
"You penguins rest now, and you'll be happy to see a new environment," she explained pointlessly, considering the penguins' were knocked out. She made sure the crate was sealed up tight and slapped a label onto it. She walked away from the crate and gave it one last glance before she walked out of the plane and back into the base to feel warmth again from the heaters inside the building.
Soon the plane began to move and slowly took off from the Antarctic base to New York
