Chapter 15

An irritating buzz came over a loud speaker before a voice echoed past me, "Keep still Max or you'll die." Great, just what I always wanted to hear when brought into a room and strapped to a table so I couldn't move. All I have to say is what a great day this is turning out to be. Like I said, I was on this silver table with restraints on my wrists and ankles. Being on my back, with my wings pressing in, was completly unpleasant. If I lifted my head a bit, I could see a window into a high room halfway up the wall where people stood there watching.

Unfortunetly, I can say I woke up to this unaware that it was even happening. Yep, that's the truth for you. Round 1 goes to the evil scientists but maybe I'll get the K.O. by Round 4 or so. We'll have to see, I guess, or I wouldn't be here right now. I felt the pressure of the white round medical things that measure my pulse or blood sugar or however it works. My mom may be a vetrenarian but I don't take interest in her medical life, it give me the hibbie jibbies, which by the way is a very funny word and should be said more often. Thinking about it made me laugh in fact and it eased my parinoid, have to get out of here before I'm hurt feelings for a quick second. Now they're flooding back in.

Dangling above me was this scary looking silver light that was so bright I had no choise but to close my eyes now. Around my head I felt some form of contraption. It didn't come over my eyes so I couldn't see what it looked like at all. I noticed the pain. There were sticks or needles poking into my scalp which was inclredibly uncomfortable and a whole new form of pain. Hands suddenly were pressing against the skin of my arms as if checking for a pulse. My blood was pumping fast now filled with adrenaline and my heart was cracking a few ribs in the danger I was in. Not good if I was suppose to be staying still.

Minutes, Max, think about the minutes. Focus on what you want to hear. With my eyes shut the world was just a pink light from my eyelids. I focused on the sound of the buzzing light that flickered and kicked bewteen life and death. Then the heartbeat of the man checking my pulse. It was slower than mine becuase he was human but there was still a beat of excitement from it. Was his heart just really loud or had I actually heard it? I attempted to hear further past the room. There was a ticking, simple and in time, it was a clock. I listened for a few seconds before hearing the vibrations hitting off the wall of the clock. Did the room above me have a clock? Then, I caught their voices.

"Our specimen here is one of few human-bird reincombant DNA life forms. While most strands of the genes and alleles are in fact human, these here are combinations of the strongest bird lifeforms known in our world. Over millions of genes, these have been hand selected and modified to fit." I heard the slamming of wood against the wall as if someone had a stick and was pointing to a diagram which I was guessed they were. "Any questions?" The voice was loud and deep but it wasn't Mr. Chu, I would've recognized that annoyance.

"Does the experiment have malfunctions and what exactly would one do with her?" So I was back to being just another experiment with no name or importance unless I would somehow benefit the man who had asked the question. My hands tightened into fists and I bit my lip to refrain from moving too much.

"It does have authority issues but we are currently working on injecting some new programs into her brain. See, we've divided the genetics enough to know when and where to place them. Itex wasn't even capable of half the things we do now. Our leader plans on using it for our side to take down the companies threatening us," replied the lead man who had spoken before. Did speaking count as movement because I wanted to yell at them that I wasn't an it.

"New programs?" Asked a high pitch squeal from a woman. I could hear the scuffle of feet and a few coughs. The fast beating heart man was gone now. I had heard him shut a door to leave. There felt to be more pressure now on the needles around the front of my forehead. I wish I could see what was going on but I couldn't tell. "What do you mean by new programs?" It wasn't even really occuring to me that I had developed super hearing. After Angel receiving four or five unique gifts and after being told that our DNA was mutating on it own, I sort of gave up on surprises.

"Nightmare enducers, we're testing a new drug that will allow us to gain advantage over an enemy. We'll threaten to keep giving it the intoxication until she joins our side. We're also testing a new super vision. This has been revisied...the last time a bird-kid was tested with it, the specimen went blind. For that we have an antidote if it fails." Iggy's image suddenly flashed in front of my shut eyes. They were testing me with the same formula that had caused him to go blind and they mentioned an antidote.

Suddenly, a large crack erupted close to me. For seconds, I just screamed in pain until I realized I wasn't even making a sound. The crack had been somewhere near my head. A weary haze of voices broke out. My body writhered and shook violently in uncontrollable agony. I had never gone through something like this before. My skin felt on fire and yet my heart and brain felt cold. Sweat was pooling down my face and my mouth was dry. Every nerve shot through me with uncontrolled electricity that pounded in the skin of my blood. As I seemed to move faster, the more weak I became. Nothing about this was one second pleasant or not as painful. It was all the same constant wave of hurt that brought tears to my eyes.

"What's going on?" A voice yelled patiently, just curious to see the experiment trying to break free of the restraints and run off a cliff from the deadly touches. They just didn't see me I suppose, a fifteen year old girl. They just saw a specimen. Stupid wings, I thought to myself, and for a moment, I could almost see why Nudge had wanted to take hers off. Almost.

"The formulas have been injected now. She's fading to a deep sleep so that she doesn't feel the pain." I wanted to scream for them to look at me. Did it look like I was alseep? I was still screaming in my head because I couldn't make an acutal sound. Let's give it to the scientists guys for letting me sleep through the pain...oh wait, I wasn't! "She'll go through worse as the drug floods her system. The only way to get rid of it is to sweat it out. It will stay in her system for at least four days before another injection is needed."

Then, as my limp body gave up fighting, my head twitched sideway and I felt a deep jab of a needle into my forehead. I couldn't do anything to show I was in pain as I felt the cool trickle of blood slip down my forehead between my eyes. I sucked in my breath trying to calm it down but the moment felt like death was coming. I've goen through enough of those near-death experiences to know that this is what it felt like. My mind went from the glowing light of the back of my eyelids to complete blackness.

When I fell, I knew it would be awhile before I would ever wake back up again...that is if I was still alive.