My Pet Human {UNDER SERIOUS EDITING}

Chapter Twenty-Three: 'Raptors'

Her feet were a blur as she crashed through the thick undergrowth, wiping tears off her face as she went. Back in Godpheus' Lab, Eve never cried. When her master had ripped her finger off, or cut out a sliver of her skin for testing, she didn't shed a tear. When she was struck over and over with an electrical prod, her eyes were dry. But now, it was as if her tears ducts had finally started working. She knew the cause. During every single incident of torture in her life, she's always had one thing to cling to. Adam. But now he was gone, and Eve was truly alone.

She didn't know where she was going, or more specifically, where she was. All she had left to hold on to was a prospect she'd never in her life imagined having: freedom. Eve wasn't a pet anymore; she was free. There wasn't anyone there to stop her; the human boy had been the only one to witness her escape. With any luck, she'd cover enough distance to slip under David's radar if he ever came looking, though given the circumstances, that was unlikely. Nope. For the first time in decades, Eve felt in control of her own actions. Godpheus wasn't breathing ominously down her neck, daring her to step out of line. Her world wasn't confined to the metal bars of a cage.

And so, she ran.

Her knobbly legs brushed against waist-high blades of grass, but it only took a brief moment of stumbling to compose herself and get going again. What am I doing? Her thoughts were frantic. Existing for over two human centuries meant nothing if she didn't even understand the world beyond Godpheus' lab. How do I start looking?

"I don't know." She said aloud, dread finally setting in. It was true. She'd never even been outside before. The grassy garden around her was as foreign as the kindness David and his family had shown her that morning. She could navigate around God's Lab, for sure, but this was the real world... and it was bigger than she'd ever imagined.

By the time Eve had reached the cobblestone path outside the Malross' colossal property, she was exhausted, and more importantly, thirsty. She staggered underneath a spindly oak tree, which provided her sallow skin with at least some protection from the sunlight overhead. Her arms were already blistering from the sudden onslaught of light. Her eyes felt raw. Genesis Eve was a creature of science, created in a dim laboratory deep below the earth. She was never meant to escape the fate of being a lab raptor in the clutches of her master, let alone make it beyond the walls of her prison.

Whatever she'd envisioned in the past about the outside world could never have prepared her for this.

Feeling deflated, she continued walking, keeping close to the looming white picket fences that bordered each Laquanian house. From her perspective as a human, they seemed to go on forever, fading into the distance no matter how many steps she took. Eve gulped, swallowing back her lingering fear. There were many things in the Genesis' life that had always seemed so fixed; permanent. So much so that she took them for granted. Her cage. The food she ate. The water she drank. The Laquanian man who called himself their master. His lab; her home.

Adam.

For the first time in her life, Eve wished she was back in the cage with her mate.

"I've finally found something to live for." She whispered to no one in particular as she trudged down the path, her stomach grumbling tediously in the background. Eventually though, Eve shook her head. "No, no. It's always been like this. I could never have made it this far... for so long..." She touched her cheek, feeling tears of dread drip down the cracks between her fingers. Her eyes blinked shut.

"...without you."

Eve wasn't sure how long she'd been walking for. Time seemed to fade away with the light above. She craned her neck, watching the immense ball of white Godpheus had labelled as the 'sun' slip behind a cloud. Around her, the street remained deserted. Occasionally, a beast of a machine which she knew to be a 'car' would streak past, but no one paid any mind to the human, much less a human as worn and frail-looking as Eve.