-Chapter Eight-
AN: Hey guys, thanks for all the lengthy reviews last chapter(: It's great to know that people are reading and enjoying this fic, because it's probably one of my favorites of the ones I'm writing. This chapter's kind of short, but I just wanted to get something up before the new year.
I squeezed the tail and I felt it. It was the same feeling as if I were squeezing my arm. I stretched my lower back, and slowly the tail lifted behind me. The tail. My tail.
I turned in my cage so that the others could see this extension of my spine. I poked it through the gap in the back of my hospital gown.
"It's so cute!" The bird kid whose cage was next to Iggy exclaimed—Nudge. She was seven years old, with dark skin and hair, and wide brown eyes that were now fixed on my tail. "Max, how come I don't get a tail?"
"Because birds don't have tails," Max said absently. I twisted around to look at my tail since I hadn't actually seen it yet. It was big and white and fluffy, with little black dots scattered all over it.
The door opened, and the main whitecoat from before sauntered in with an air of unaffected arrogance. His team (minus the one with the conscience) filed in behind him.
"Again, this is S4000," he told them. He opened my cage and dragged me out, but waved his little buzzer remote at me to remind me that I was still under his control.
"Any questions?"
"How much of its DNA is now Uncia uncia, and how much is its original makeup?" One of them asked.
"It is 3% snow leopard," the main guy replied. I tried to process this information, wrap my head around the fact that there was snow leopard DNA inside of me. "You will find it does posses traits that are unique to the animal, and so it will seem almost superhuman.
"For instance, the snow leopard has been known to jump up to a distance of 45 feet, and though we have not preformed any testing yet, we predict that it will inherit this ability. In addition, it should be incredibly fast, great at climbing, able to exist comfortably at high altitudes, and it should inherit somewhat of a predatory instinct."
I was actually a little bit impressed. It would be pretty cool if I could do these things—as long as I didn't die before I got free. That would put a bit of a damper on things.
"Alex," Max whispered later that night. I turned, but I couldn't see her in the dark.
"What?"
"Fang told me about what you said," she told me at a volume I could hardly hear. "About helping us. I want to know if you're still…"
"I still want to," I confirmed. "I'm still going to. I'm still working on a plan. You just have to give me some time; I don't want to get us killed."
"Okay. That's all I was asking."
I settled down, coiling my tail and using it as a sort of pillow. It was growing by the hour, and was already long enough to reach up to my head when my back was fully stretched.
"Hey Alex?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
I frowned into the darkness. "Max, I don't know if this will work. I'll try, but don't thank me yet."
"I'm thanking you for trying," Max murmured. "That's more than anyone else has ever done for us."
It was on the next day that it really dawned on me how much it sucked to be an experiment here, even a successful one.
After what had to be less than four hours of sleep, I was once again dragged out of my cage. They then shoved me into another cage that was even smaller and nailed to a cart, and began wheeling me down the hall. By the time we got to our destination, I was so cramped up that I got out of the cage willingly—though I would regret that later.
First, they wanted to see how my heart would react to various forms of stimulant. They put a heavy vest over my shoulders and strapped it on as tight as they could without snapping a rib. Then, they administered different kinds of shocks and sensations, most of which sent me gasping for air.
Next, they wanted to see how my muscles had developed. Of course, they couldn't just ask me to run or jump or bench-press stuff. No, that would be much too easy. Instead, they had they had this jolly idea of injecting these micro-chip-things under the skin all over my body. When I moved in a certain way, a few would light up. It would also feel as though somebody was stabbing me. I honestly have no idea how this tested my muscle development, but it appeared to suffice for them.
After they took out the chips—which was even more painful than when they put them in—I had little bruises and welts and patches of blood everywhere. I didn't get a chance to recover, though; they were already jumping into the next experiment. Carpe dium, and all that.
They'd decided that it was necessary to study my tail and everything about it. Now, the nerves may not have been working fully when I first developed my tail, but let me assure you, they were fully intact for the experiment. They used a machine to pull it back and stretch it out. I actually cried out, wondering if they had borrowed the idea from medieval torture. Once every vertebrae in my tail was separated they stuck little probes in the gaps between them. It's not a pleasant feeling, let me tell you.
Suffice to say, I was sore, hungry, and exhausted as hell when they finally returned me to my cage. "Can I have some food?" I asked the whitecoat before he walked away. He tossed a bottle that said "nutrition supplement" into my cage and exited.
I stared at the bottle for a few seconds. The liquid inside was thick and tan-ish, and it reminded me of the protein shakes my old coach used to drink. It looked disgusting. But I was hungry, so it would have to do. I unscrewed the top and downed it quickly, almost gagging on the awful taste.
"It's gross, isn't it?" Max commented, watching me from her cage. I nodded. "Sometimes we get bread, and on holidays they sometimes give us the yucky parts of their meat."
I leaned over and made sure no whitecoats were in the room. "Once I get you out of here," I whispered, "we'll have a feast."
Her eyes lit up, and I could almost see her mouth watering. My heart gave a tug, and once again I found myself swearing that, whatever happened, I would do everything to get these kids out of here.
A few days later, I had my plan.
I wish I could say that it was a full-proof plan, that I had worked out every kink and that there was no way it could fail. But as it stands, I don't think a plan like that is possible. I had to do something, though, and I had taken great care in crafting my plan. If everything went right, we'd be out of this damn place in minutes.
If something went wrong, well, I hoped at least the kids would get out. Then I could call MI6 and hopefully they'd hear. Once they got me out I could go looking for the bird kids.
I conveyed my plan to the others late at night, after everyone had left the room. They all leaned in their cages and listened intently, except for the baby, Angel, who slept soundly.
"It'll work," Max said, her breath speeding up in the darkness. "Holy crap, we're getting out of here!"
"Shh," I hushed. "Nothing is for sure. A lot of things could go wrong. I'm working off of assumptions and guesses and there's a lot of room for error. Don't get too excited. Keep your head level and never lose focus, okay? That goes for all of you. If something goes wrong, if everything goes wrong, I want you guys to do everything you can to get out of here. Don't worry about anyone but each other."
"Not even you, Alex?" Nudge asked, her little voice carrying over to my cage.
"No, not even me. I'll take care of myself. If things go right, I'll be with you, but if not, you've got to get out of here. Also, if you guys get separated, we need to have a meeting place. I want you guys to fly until you get to a place called Lake Mead. Read road signs if you have to. Once you get there, find each other. Stick together, it's very important."
"But Alex—"
"Are you listening, Max? If you guys get away from me, you need to stick together. Remember that if you forget everything else. It's your only hope at this point. Understand?"
"Yes," Max said softly. I prayed that she would remember. If they somehow got split up, I didn't know what would become of them.
AN: Happy New Year everybody! 2k12 let's go!
