ARK

Hybrid

Her eyes bore into me as I taught to stay conscious, my skin prickling and my veins burning through my body. “Don’t fight it; you don’t want to be awake for the change.” She whispered again. “You’ve only just started and it will only get worse from here.”

“How long?” I rasped out, my throat feeling like sand had been dumped down it.

“I think you might be finished in the next twenty four to forty eight hours. Everyone is different.” She sounded broken, her cloak I thought she was wearing rustling as she parted what was really wings, the full extension of them poking out through the bars as she convulsed slightly. She gave a bitter laugh as she stood up and came closer to the edge of her cage, about ten feet from my own. “Be glad you’re from the last group, at least you will be able to change back and forth. I’m stuck like this now.”

“Is there any stopping it? I-I don’t want to change.” I couldn’t help the tears that sting my eyes, the fact that I was here chained down instead of home with my mom and my dogs tearing at me inside. “I want to go home.”

“There’s no going home now.” She leaned her head against the bars, her voice dipping lower as she began to cry herself. “They wouldn’t accept us out there anyways. We’re monsters now. I made the mistake of telling them I had no family connections when I signed up for an experimental drug trial, next thing I know is I’m here and covered in f*****g feathers.”

“If this is human made- there’s bound to be an antidote; a cure.” I tried giving myself hope knowing that if I was the one who made this possible, I could find a way to reverse it as well.

“Hah!” She laughed bitterly. “Good luck with that. Once they start with the brain washing, you’ll be just like the rest of all of them.” She sat back down and curled her wings back up, her eyes closing again as she grabbed her head like she was in pain, which was probably the case. “If I’m lucky, they’ll find a way to have me finish shifting; at least then they’ll make me forget too… get some rest, Wolf, and don’t fight it. You seem like a good kid, and I’d hate to see them put you down too.”

I couldn’t fight it anymore anyways, my eyelids now feeling like lead as they shuttered closed just as my muscles began to spasm.

*****

Pain.

So much pain.

“Kill me.” I tried to speak, but my mouth felt wrong; too big and too wide. “Please kill me.”

“Another dose will do it. He’s almost complete.” The voice sounded familiar through the fog of pain, something on the edge of my darkness telling me that the voice was responsible for all of this.

“Beautiful; simply beautiful. This strain is it! I can tell! Look at the way the body is morphing, it’s almost poetic to watch.” Another voice chimed in, this one illiciting a deep and hate filled growl from somewhere in my chest as a hand rested just over my heart. “Stop! He’s started shifting again; we don’t want to hinder the process. Save that vial for someone else.” They commanded.

The hand wrapped around my fur on my chest and played with the smooth stands, the fleeting thought about my fur making me panic, but the drugs in my system holding me down. When did I get fur? But just as I thought it, the idea floated away as cool liquid relief began to flood my system. “There! His body has begun to regenerate as well; we should have him come to soon.” The first voice said as something g was clamped around my neck and paws.

Paws? There it was again; the clarity that my body was not mine, that something else was in its place. I tried to move and noted four twitching appendages under me and something connected to my low spine that moved on command and by itself, the appendage making a low thump on the ground under us when it moved. Us? There was only me, wasn’t there?

“No; we.” Something called to me deeply then, a consciousness mixing with my own. It was instant and strong, just like my will to live; but more primal and bloodthirsty. “Let me out.” It begged me, wanting to take over completely and shove me into the recess of our mind. “Let me hunt, let me kill, let me… let me… let me…” it begged.

“No! I’m in control!” My inner voice sounded weaker than it, the pitiful attempt at control making it laugh.

“There is no control, pup. We are one and the same. Let me lead, and you follow.” I could sense the truth in the words, a sweet sense of relief washing over me as I relented and something clicked in me; a sense of completeness as my eyes opened quickly and my body jumped up into position, hackles raised as a feminine chuckle was now a good distance away from me.

“Oh, look at him! It’s perfect!” Doctor Jessi stood on the other side of bars as Doctor Daniel locked the door to my cage once the last machine was brought through. I tried to lunge at them as a collar bit into my neck and stopped me mid air and a few inches from the bars. I could tell I was bigger than both of them, stronger, but not as strong as the steel chain bolted to the ground from the collar along my throat.

“I’ll kill you.” I threatened them, both of them laughing as Doctor Daniel gave Doctor Jessi a hearty handshake at the dark promise.

“It seems that his mind has remained intact as well! This is excellent! This is better than what we had hoped for! When do I get to have my turn?!” She pouted.

“We have Panthera Pardus A-2 and Panthera Leo A-2 ready to go; and we also found that his last dose of neuron blockers with the pain medicine worked better than the rest; so the change for you will be a lot more comfortable than this.” He waived his hand at me and grinned again, pulling out a remote from his pocket. “Shall we see if we can get him to shift back yet?” He asked as Doctor Jessi nodded enthusiastically. The bastard pushed a button with the remote pointed at me, a shock running from the collar through my paws and to the ground that made me collapse in pain, a pain that melted almost instantly as my body recovered.

“Shift back.” Doctor Jessi commanded me, her eyes locking to mine as a maniacal smile graced her lips. Doctor Daniel pressed the button again and made a howl come from my body, the pain instant and torturous which immediately melted again, leaving my body panting and trembling. “Shift back.” She commanded again.