Survival of the Fittest

Chapter 11: Aaron

The room Aaron had been brought to was not one you'd expect to find in any normal laboratory. However, given the circumstances that he was in, ordinary was not to be expected from this lab. The room was massive and looked more like a forest than a room. In fact, if he had woken up here, it would've taken him some time to figure out that he wasn't outside. The room was absolutely magnificent and it was a shame that it belonged to the lab in which Dr. Keagan worked in.

Aaron had only been there for about four or five minutes before he heard the noise of the door opening and then footsteps on the moss that grew in patches on the floor. Within a few seconds, he determined that three people had entered the room and they were heading his way. Then, for some reason, Aaron lifted his muzzle into the air and took a deep breath in, memorizing the scents of the incoming people.

The soft padding of their footsteps steadily grew louder as they advanced towards him. Aaron quickly determined which direction they were coming from and turned himself so he'd be facing them. He then got himself into the fighting stance his dad had taught him as a kid. Not long after, the figures came into view. It was an anthro fox, an anthro cheetah, and an anthro tiger. He recognized all three of them immediately. They were the other kids from his test group. The ones whose names he could not remember.

Aaron dropped his stance and leaned against a tree trunk. "Hey guys!" he called out, "Over here!" The tiger rolled her eyes. "We can see you dumbass! We're not blind!" the tiger snapped. Then the fox said something to her, to which the tiger rolled her eyes. Soon enough they were all standing near Aaron looking at him expectantly. "What?" Aaron asked, confused. "You're not going to say hello to us?" said the fox with a voice like melted honey. "I did," responded Aaron plainly. The tiger rolled her eyes. Then, hidden intercoms in the room crackled to life.