Author's note: thanks for the review! :3
A week gone by and Vitaly did nothing of what he had planned to do. He simply took food and water to the snork and watched it; This way I'll gain its trust, it will associate me with good things like food and water!, the young scientist thought innocently, observing the mutant through the metal bars of the cell door. Truth to be told, the creature didn't look that horrid anymore, or threatening, and maybe all that fuss about the snork being a very dangerous predator was just because of the lack of lips and the ugly wound on its back. Said wound conveniently hidden under bandages and the upper part of the uniform, and the snork didn't look that bad.
As for the snork, it was very glad the human was feeding it. In fact, it was feeling better and soon it would have strength enough to properly deal with that human and escape. What the snork still couldn't understand was why the human behaved like that; was he expecting to gain its trust? The snork would laugh if it had a voice… silly human, wasting his time… but giving the snork the perfect opportunity to study him. Vitaly had the habit of sitting on the floor, outside the cell, and look at the snork and speak something about running interesting tests on it. After eating, Mikhail would sit in front of the young scientist, looking at him through the metal bars of the door, scanning him with its pale blue eyes. All the snork knew was that Vitaly carried no weapons, that his overconfidence was overcoming fear in a drastic way and, despite his impressive height, he was as slender as the snork. Also, the mutant felt Vitaly couldn't possibly be a soldier, or any other human from the Zone, because the brown-eyed man didn't have the thing to be a fighter, a survivor. If the snork couldn't manage to get rid of the horrible thing around its neck, it would still have a chance against an enemy that wouldn't know how to attack or defend.
Sometimes, after the human leave, Mikhail tried to reach the buckle of the collar; it was precisely aligned with its nape, but the snork's fingers had some really annoying difficulty to function not as claws or paws, but as fingers, like the humans', designed to grasp and pull things such as the leather strap buckled around the snork's neck. The mutant had also tried to simply tear off the collar, but the leather was too thick and after a few attempts with increasing violence it eventually received an electric shock. For the snork's utter annoyance, it was unable to try to move the collar and leave the buckle in a place of easier access (like forwards, instead of backwards… stupid humans), because the inside of the collar scratched the snork's neck everytime it tried to move it a little. Mikhail didn't like the idea of having to spend the rest of its life with that thing around its neck PLUS the chain; the chain could get stuck anywhere and make the mutant break its neck, that wasn't good.
The optimistic Vitaly decided that, after spending one entire week feeding and watching the snork, the mutant would at least tolerate his presence. Besides, the snork hadn't looked aggressive. It had even seemed… interested on Vitaly! All things considered, he didn't want to break that fragile tolerance by sticking a needle on the snork's arm and sedate it to run the MRI scan. No, Vitaly needed something harmless to further gain the mutant's trust…
While having breakfast, the young scientist had an epiphany; he suddenly remembered that, while he had been watching Mikhail, the snork not only didn't move its eyebrows but it also appeared to be unable to move its hands like a human. He decided that trying to make the snork mimic the movements of his hands was a great way to start working on the mutant.
And to make things more interesting, he would reward the snork with biscuits.
So, feeling bold, Vitaly made his way to Mikhail's cell, carrying a dish of raw meatballs, a bowl of water and plenty of butter biscuits in the pockets of his smock. He found the snork already waiting for him (waiting for breakfast), and he gingerly opened the door and did something he had never done before; he stepped in and stood inside the cell together with the food.
That was enough to make the snork growl and cast him a threatening stare that Vitaly completely missed, too enthusiastic talking about «work».
Always looking at the young scientist, Mikhail began to eat; the human was pushing his luck… one thing was having him outside, other was having him there, towering over the snork and its food.
When Mikhail finished breakfast, Vitaly held the chain and made his way outside. With a low snarl and feeling a soft tug on the chain, the snork went after the brown-eyed man with large strides. Like in the first time Vitaly had taken Mikhail to the lab, the young scientist was constantly looking at the snork. However, this time he wasn't scared, just looked attentively at how the mutant positioned its hands on the floor and how it moved.
Mikhail tensed its body lightly, warily, and wondered if the human had knocked his head somewhere to be suddenly so overconfident. Yet, much for the snork's dismay, Vitaly was still out of its reach, so attacking him on the way to the lab wasn't possible.
Finally, the lab. The snork got in and Vitaly followed it and closed the door. He released the chain, just like the last time, and went to crouch in front of the snork. The mutant looked at him with big wide eyes, confused, and let out a growl when Vitaly raised his hand to the level of its face, keeping his fingers together and stretched:
"You kinda look like an alligator moving, you know?" He told the snork. "Can you move your hand like this?"
The snork just blinked its eyes, looking at Vitaly's hand. It was close enough to be bitten… why was the human doing it? Mikhail narrowed its eyes, grunted, and with a careful yet strong movement of his arm pushed Vitaly's hand away. The young scientist frowned:
"No, Mikhail! We're not going to fight!" His hand went back to the initial position and the snork growled lowly. "Just… put your hand like this!"
Mikhail stared at the young scientist again, then to his hand, then to its own hands. Then realisation hit the snork; Vitaly was trying to teach it how to move its hands like a human! It would finally understand how to unbuckle the collar! Clumsily, the snork finally mimicked the pose of Vitaly's hand.
And the young scientist smiled widely and for a moment he seemed to irradiate joy, sending a pleasant feeling to the snork. Mikhail tilted its head several times, utterly curious about that new thing it was feeling. Outside, it had never felt such a thing before; it was… weightless… good!:
"Good boy!" Vitaly exclaimed, took a biscuit from his pocket and pushed it to the snork.
More food!, the snork concluded as it eagerly devoured the treat; why did the human teach it the basics to get rid of the collar and even gave it more food for that? Mikhail looked curiously at Vitaly again and kept trying to mimic all the movements of his hands.
At the end of the day Vitaly left Mikhail in its cell and went back to the lab to write the conclusions of the day; Hands able to perform movements as a human. Slight difficulty in moving the left thumb in all its width suggests lesion on a flexor tendon. Keen observer., Vitaly concluded with a proud smile; the snork hadn't taken long to mimic him perfectly.
Little did he know that in that exact moment the mutant was putting its recently acquired knowledge to the test. However, after fumbling for a while with the irritating collar, Mikhail let out a disappointed snarl and gave up. Seemed it needed more practise… Defeated, it crouched at the far end of its cell and looked at the door across the room; at any moment, Vitaly would bring it dinner.
But why had the human given it the extra food?
Another week gone by and Mikhail, a keen observer, as Vitaly had brilliantly described it, realised two things:
-one: Vitaly's pockets appeared to be the source of the extra food, and that needed further examination
-two: clasp its fingers around the lever handle of the door, pull it downwards and then pull the door open didn't seem impossible anymore, thanks to Vitaly's lessons on how to properly move fingers
And Vitaly innocently took Mikhail's interest on his pockets and its eagerness and quickness to mimic hand gestures such as holding pens and other small office objects as a sign of friendliness.
That day, when Vitaly went to lunch, he saw another man eating at one of the tables. He had a SSP-99 Ecologist suit and the headpiece was resting on the table next to him. The young scientist decided it would be interesting to talk with that man and he went to sit next to him:
"Good evening, sir!" He saluted. The man stopped the trajectory of his fork mid-action and looked at him, frowning lightly:
"I thought soldiers were supposed to stay upstairs! Tell your goddamned general I'll give him the reports after lunch!" He replied. Vitaly laughed nervously; he had left the smock in his lab:
"No no, I'm a scientist. I work here."
"Oh! I'm a scientist too, but I was hired to work outside with the Iskra Team; the Army wants someone among those stalkers." The man paused to drink and then shook hands with Vitaly. "Pavlo Andreichenko."
"Vitaly Fedor." The young scientist smiled. "You study anomalies, right?"
"Mostly, yes. What about you?"
"I'm studying a living snork." He smiled proudly. "It's a very clever creature! I'm starting to believe it learns easily by the process of observing and mimicking."
"A living snork? I saw a dead one, few days ago. One of the stalkers said they're pesky and dangerous, especially in packs." Pavlo chuckled. "I don't believe they're very clever… if they were, they wouldn't attack men who carry fire-weapons. And if they did learn by observing, so by now we'd be all dead; they'd probably have figured out how to fire a gun!"
Vitaly frowned a little, playing with the mashed potatoes:
"Well, my snork did what I asked and was rewarded for it. A little like Pavlov and his dogs."
"But Pavlov's dogs did something natural. «Your» snork probably thinks you're a well of food, doctor." Pavlo burst out laughing, truly amused. "Maybe that's why it didn't bite your head off yet!"
"It has a collar with sensors, it can't attack at all…" Vitaly felt his neck and ears redden with shame; he had expected interest on his work, maybe a few questions about Mikhail. Yet what really bothered him was Pavlo questioning his relationship with the snork.
The mutant didn't see him as a source of food… did it?
Mikhail observed as Vitaly walked down the stairs and brought its lunch. However, unlike the previous days, the snork couldn't feel the same enthusiasm on the human. Vitaly looked a little downcast as he opened the cell door and pushed the dish and bowl towards the snork:
"Hurry up Mikhail, I want to clear up something…" The young scientist mumbled.
Yet the snork took its sweet time to eat and drink, and it let out an offended grunt as Vitaly held the chain and tugged it with a little more strength than the usual.
The snork immediately understood something was wrong. But what?
They made their way to the lab and, once inside with the door closed, Vitaly pretended to faint and fell on the floor, over his stomach. And for a moment all he could hear was his own breathing and Mikhail's noisy breathing, not far from him.
Then… the sound of the snork's boots on the floor and the heavy chain dragging after it, towards Vitaly. The young scientist, whose face was hidden between his arms, smiled; the snork would surely show some concern! He felt and listened as the snork circled him, smelling him. Then Mikhail stilled and let out a low, guttural sound.
Vitaly did nothing.
Mikhail tilted its head, confused; the human wasn't dead… maybe it had decided to sleep. It was the perfect occasion to eat the extra food, open the door and leave. Yes, Mikhail was a genius! With a little grunt, the snork pulled Vitaly's smock, slipped a hand into a pocket and grabbed a handful of biscuits.
The young scientist cursed mentally, but decided to remain still and maybe, after finishing the biscuits, the snork would worry about him.
But the snork emptied his pockets and then Vitaly heard it walk away. He moved his head, slowly, to look at the mutant.
It was calmly making its way to the door!
Vitaly jumped to his feet, outraged:
"Mikhail, don't!" He exclaimed. The snork stopped and glanced behind, widening its eyes a little. What a timing! The mutant began to growl and decided to ignore Vitaly, proceeding its way to the door. Yeah, Vitaly was tall… and then what? He wasn't a threat… "Mikhail…" Vitaly called again, menacingly.
But the snork crouched near the door and stretched a hand to the handle. Letting out a barrage of profanity, the young scientist strode to the mutant and didn't even bother to pull the chain. He went directly to the collar.
Rookie mistake.
The snork snarled furiously and turned around swiftly, feeling the inside of the collar tear the skin of its neck. But that was nothing compared to what it had been through in the Zone. The collar electrocuted it, but by then its jaws were already firmly closed on Vitaly's arm… and the electric shock wasn't enough to make the furious snork release its prey.
Screaming in pain and terror, Vitaly stumbled backwards and fell, dragging Mikhail along. The young scientist still held the collar on a firm grip, but the taste of blood in the snork's mouth made it insensible to the dizziness and numbness from the electric shock and the scratching from the inside of the collar, and the snork stood on its four, with its legs and arms on each side of Vitaly's body, pinning him down. And biting, biting mercilessly at the young scientist's arm.
Vitaly had absolutely no idea of what to do, of how to escape. He tried to hit the snork with his other hand, but the mutant did not let go. The brown-eyed man cried, feeling Mikhail's teeth dig deeper and deeper into his arm, and he tried to shake the mutant off.
In the struggle Mikhail received more shocks, but the mutant could barely feel them now; thanks to Vitaly feeding it, the mutant was stronger and the adrenaline rushing through its veins made it unable to sense anything physical. And the more Vitaly whirled helplessly under the snork, the stronger and more viciously the mutant bit. Mikhail managed to move a hand and wrap its fingers around Vitaly's neck, who let out a sharp breath.
Then Mikhail moved its eyes to look at Vitaly… and there was water coming from his brown eyes! The mutant stood still, looking sharply at the human's face. The stench of fear was back.
Why did the human have water coming from his eyes? Why had he stopped fighting? Why wasn't he trying to kill the mutant?
The snork released Vitaly's arm and stood on the same place, looking curiously at the human.
Vitaly stared back at the snork, his eyes wide, and he slowly moved them to look at the bloody mess that was his arm… and noticed blood dripping slowly from the snork's neck. He frowned:
"Oh shit, what have I done?" He mumbled. The snork blinked its eyes, incredulous; what had he done? And what about what the snork had done? Wasn't Vitaly planning to kill the mutant for that? A human outside would, by no means, let a snork walk away after being attacked like that… unless the snork was a very good fighter and finished the human.
Why did that human care? It made no sense! Mikhail really wanted to discover why. So, it allowed Vitaly to change to a sitting position and, with trembling hands, unbuckle the collar. Something the snork had wanted for a while, but that in that moment didn't interest it at all; the emotions written all over Vitaly's face seemed much more interesting. The snork had never seen anything like that before.
The young scientist shook his head, horrified; he had completely forgotten the inside of the collar could harm the snork. Apparently, there was no skin left where the collar had been. On the bright side, seemed no damage had been done to any major vein. Vitaly bit his lower lip nervously and looked at his injured arm; he usually walked around with rolled up sleeves and the skin had been mercilessly torn off by Mikhail's teeth, and the flesh had been pierced deeply. Maybe he would need stitches…
But he didn't want to go to the infirmary. He didn't want anyone to know what had happened. It was a luck nobody had come in the lab… or by then the snork would be dead, and Vitaly would be utterly humiliated.
Yet he was already humiliated. Everybody had told him the creature standing before him was a dangerous predator… and he had allowed Mikhail's slenderness and certainly calculated quietude to trick him. Vitaly laughed, sadly, making the snork wide its pale blue eyes:
"So human…" He sighed, looking tiredly the mutant in the eye. And he noticed, for the first time, that despite the bright colour Mikhail's eyes were shineless, dead.
Those words, and the way those words were spoken, made the snork feel heavy inside. It had never felt like that before. It looked at the wound in Vitaly's arm and felt something move above his eyes; what reasons did it have to harm that human? He hadn't invaded its territory, he hadn't harmed it, he had even fed it and taught it useful things like moving its hands like a human. It should have waited longer, wait until the human turned his back and then flee.
Sheepishly, Mikhail looked up to Vitaly:
"You're frowning." The young scientist stated and mimicked the mutant. Mikhail snorted; seemed humans had a name for everything…
They remained silent for a while, looking at each other. Mikhail's noisy breathing seemed incredibly loud. Then, slowly, Vitaly stood up and walked backwards, reluctantly, always keeping an eye on the snork, that didn't move from its spot. Vitaly went to the medical cabinet and then returned to his original place in front of the snork, carrying a first-aid kit:
"I must be the dumbest man on earth..." Vitaly mumbled as he soaked a cotton ball in oxygenated water. Wincing, he disinfected the bite wound in his arm. The snork sighed and decided to agree with Vitaly; yes, he was a dumb human for not being a threat. That only made him a victim.
Vitaly clumsily bandaged his arm and hoped it would heal. Now… hopefully the snork would let him take care of its neck. He knew he should be terrified, he should be running away and only come back with soldiers to deal with the snork… but he was too shocked to even care about it. All he knew was that mutant, despite attacking him… hadn't kill him. The mutant had even stopped the attack.
There had to be an explanation for that, and Vitaly wanted to know if the mutant had felt anything like guilt, or if it was a Machiavellian creature plotting a complex plan against Vitaly.
The snork growled, but allowed Vitaly to clean and bandage its neck. It growled louder when Vitaly reached out for the collar and buckled it around its neck again, but let the human take it back to the solitude of its cell.
Vitaly came out of the shower and bandaged the wound in his arm again. It hurt terribly and looked really ugly, but at least it wasn't bleeding anymore and, by some miracle, seemed it wasn't infected. Changing to his pyjama, the young scientist made his way to the bed and sat heavily on it, then hid his face on his hands.
He felt exhausted.
Disappointed.
Terrified; how would he deal with the mutant now?
But there was also this little hope, feeding from the memory of the snork looking at him, frowning, allowing him to live. The mutant could have killed him, but it hadn't. Vitaly laughed sadly; he really wanted to believe the snork had some good will left. Seemed his life had left him with a desperate need to find goodness in those around him.
For the next two days, Vitaly didn't show up. Mikhail wondered if the human had died, and if so, who would be the next human appointed to «work» with it.
But on the third day the young scientist showed up, and he had a dish of raw meatballs and a bowl of water with him. The snork looked curiously at the human; seemed he was fine, but the scent of blood prevailed on him… and the fear, always the scent of fear. The confidence was gone, even though he tried to look… not nervous at all.
Why was the human there, again, and why wasn't he starving the snork like the soldiers had done? Why was he still feeding it, increasing its strength?
Vitaly pushed the dish and the bowl towards the snork, closed the door again and sat in front of it, with his legs crossed. The mutant kept looking at him, curiously, and it frowned again, tilting its head to one side.
Why?, they both thought. With a joyless chuckle, Vitaly ran a hand through his short brown hair:
"You didn't kill me." He stated, looking at the mutant through the metal bars of the cell door. "You could have, but you didn't. I wonder, can you understand me? Yes-" And Vitaly nodded, slowly. "- or no?" And he shook his head.
Mikhail struggled to nod properly, hopefully the brown-eyed man would understand. Vitaly began to rock himself back and forth:
"You didn't trust me, did you? You were just… studying me. Right?" The snork made something similar to a nod. "But you didn't kill me. Is that because I give you food?"
Mikhail hesitated and narrowed its eyes; how to explain? The food was obviously important, yes… but what the snork really wanted was to know WHY Vitaly was like that. So… so non-human. Carefully, the mutant slipped an arm between the metal bars and, pointing just like Vitaly had taught it, jabbed its index finger on Vitaly's chest. Maybe with a little too much strength, yet the young scientist seemed to get it:
"Me? You didn't kill me because of me?" The snork nodded, better this time, and Vitaly frowned.
That made absolutely no sense…
…or did it?
He caught himself smiling:
"Is it because I don't behave like… a human was supposed to behave with you?" Mikhail nodded and the young scientist smiled widely. "You're a curious guy, aren't you Mikhail?"
The snork supposed it was; it was always curious about the things that resulted from the anomalies, and about the environment surrounding it, it always wanted to know and understand what was happening around it. Its survival depended pretty much on that, or at least the snork thought so. Because, on the other hand, Vitaly took the snork's curiosity as a remain from its original human personality.
Maybe there was something he could do for that mutant.
Maybe he was right when he had decided the snork wasn't that bad.
In fact… they had just talked. Vitaly stood up:
"So… we'll go back to work tomorrow." He said and walked away. Vitaly went to the lab, feeling light and thinking on how to proceed correctly with the snork. It was now clear that the mutant understood people, even too well, so Vitaly would talk to the snork as if the snork was a man, just like him, and let body language do the rest. Concerning on how to handle Mikhail, Vitaly decided to try again a careful approach, let the snork understand he, by no means, was going to hurt it. Vitaly looked quickly to his injured arm; the bandage was hidden under the sleeves of his uniform jacket and smock. He was afraid of the mutant, afraid that, by some misunderstanding, Mikhail would attack him again. He would have to try to make it look like he wasn't scared at all, because showing fear would certainly allow the snork to behave like a predator. Also, Vitaly would never, ever again repeat the mistake of triggering a violent answer from the snork… like going directly to the collar…
He got in the lab and went to sit at his desk, looking absently to the place where a few bloodstains had been. He had started to write a report about the snork's blood, that he had analysed under the microscope the previous day; truth to be told he hadn't discovered anything new, but it had looked like a nice start to propose a few hypotheses since the snork's blood was very poor in erythrocytes. It could explain the colour of its skin, although I believe something happened to its skin during the mutation… like a permanent burn., Vitaly wrote, It could also explain the fact that it is covered in open wounds, though it certainly didn't have time to heal properly outside., and before this Vitaly frowned and made a note to self to check on the snork's wounds, Experiment: increase the number of red blood cells through food and medication, a pause and Vitaly crossed out the medication, and see if/how it affects the snork.
There. He closed the notebook where he had been writing about the snork, signed the report and went to deliver it to the general.
Vitaly went upstairs and knocked on the door numbered 16 before getting in. The general, sitting on a desk, put his cigarette aside and smiled coldly:
"Ah, doctor. Good to see you." He said and stretched out his hand to hold the report Vitaly gave to him. He began to read. "Yesterday the cooker came here and said you're always taking meatballs from the fridge, and water. I presume you're feeding the snork…?"
"Yes, sir." Vitaly blushed, with the feeling he was about to be lectured. The general nodded, still reading the report:
"You see doctor, this base, this building underground, is secret. The other units in the Zone have no idea of its existence, and things are to remain like this. We receive water and many other supplies from outside the Zone… we have to be discreet. We can't waste food and water with things like… snorks. You can only feed the creature to stop it from dying, and when you want to do that, ask one of my soldiers to shoot down another mutant, like a flesh."
"But sir, to discover if the snork can be human again, I need to know how it reacts to human food. Besides, since its blood-"
"I doubt you'll increase its red blood cells with raw meatballs, doctor… but fine, I give you authorization to feed the snork." The general handed him the report again. "And, if you please, give me a report without strikethroughs, ok? It's not… professional."
"Yes, sir…" Vitaly mumbled shyly and looked down at his boots.
Weee, review?