Taken

Chapter 3: Off to Testing

The sound of chatter, both over the public mind link and from the scientists, woke me up. I blinked the sleep from my eyes and rose my head to survey my surroundings. About half a dozen scientists donning white lab coats and boots and gloves made of rubber and plastic were pacing up and down the rows and meticulously took down notes on the cage's inhabitant on a clipboard that was kept in a little cubby on the right side of the base of each cage. A young, probably twenty-something woman with curly red hair stood in front of Megan's cage, taking notes as she ignored the clearly displeased Enfield's display of aggression. Once she was done taking notes on Megan, the woman set the clipboard back in its respective slot on the base of Megan's cage before the scientist moved in front of my glass cube.

I wanted absolutely nothing to do with her or any of the other scientists who had stripped my life and opportunities from me. I stumbled to my feet, whipped around, and charged head first into the glass pane in front of me with an enraged snarl. My skull ricocheted off with a resounding thud and my vision had become spotty for a few seconds post-impact. Due to the spots in my vision, I wasn't able to see the female scientist's reaction or if there even was one. All around me, I could hear the other creatures in their cages expressing their disgust for the researchers through a cacophony of growls, snarls, screeches, squawks, and hisses.

The researcher in front of me examined my clipboard before she pressed some sort of button on the front of the base of my cage after she slipped the clipboard back into its respective cubby. I instinctively crouched low and spread my legs for balance as a whirring noise echoed around me loudly and my cage was lifted another few inches off of the ground before it stopped rising. I backed into one of the far corners of my prison and whimpered in fear as four more scientists joined the red head around my cage.

Megan's mind voice once again entered my head.

"They're gonna wheel you to a small-ish room where they will take your weight and height at the shoulders. You will also get a chance to move around and get used to walking on four legs instead of two. They do this to everyone once a day; always around this time, too."

I felt slightly better knowing that I wasn't about to be drugged into a coma again and possibly dissected and stitched back together like some kid's poor, old, worn out teddy bear. Where the heck was PETA or one of those anti-animal testing groups that take animals that had been tested on their whole lives out of labs when you actually needed them? I grimiced. Not like PETA would actually be of any legitimate help.

The woman wheeled my cage out of the long, warehouse-like room and took a left down a plain hallway. We passed several rooms on each side before we finally entered one on the right. I growled as she stopped my cage just to the left of the door that we had just entered through. After the last scientist had entered, a slightly overweight man with buzzed dark brown hair and round framed glasses took out a small, handheld recording device and lifted it to his lips with his thumb pressed down on a massive red button that was on top of the device.

"Specimen C6429." He recited in a neutral tone as he glanced over periodically at the clipboard that had been brought over to him. "Female of Belgian and Japanese descent, nineteen years old. Part of the intelligence specification group. Collected on April twelfth with use of injected tranquilizer blend D4. Metaforming completed November third. Gestation case finished formation on November sixteenth. High heat method B7 was used. Emergence from gestation case occurred late evening on February seventh."

The man nodded once to the red headed female scientist, and she pressed another button, and the wheels in the cage's base retracted and glass panes both behind and in front of me slowly lifted up like the doors of one of those fancy gull-wing cars that I had seen in some movies. I was unaware that the pane behind me was also a door until she pressed that button.