Taken

Chapter 7: The Beta Sector and the Kelpie

Without the interesting colors of the drug-induced visuals, my world was the same boring greyscale color palate; grey floors and white walls with rooms of varying sizes for different purposes. I had learned that the smaller rooms were for medical procedures, while the larger rooms were for general specimen or asset observation, as the scientists called us.

Since I was unable to move anything below my jaw, I spent the time counting how many times the wheels of my cage got caught on a crack in the floor as I was being moved; so far, I was up to three. Make that four. I thought as one of the wheels once again caught on a crack in the floor.

"Management needs to see about fixing the floor." Band Lady complained as the wheel of my cage was freed from the crack. "This isn't good for when we need to transport the... specimens. What if the wheels of a cart of one of the smaller cages with say, a Phoenix in it, gets stuck? The cage would end up falling from the cart and breaking. The occupant could either end up severely injured or dead. If they are unscathed, from the fall, they'd be able to fly unrestrained around campus. Then what?"

"I'll put in another request." Silver replied with a sigh.

"They care more about the animals' safety than they do about ours." Ginger huffed.

"To them, we're easily disposable and inexpensive." Hummingbird pointed out. "Each subject required upwards of $58,000 USD to track, capture, and morph. After that, it's anywhere between $1,000 USD and $10,000 USD a year for food alone if the subject survives long enough to emerge from the gestation sack or hatch. Of course, the cost is going to be more with vitamins or any special medications that need to be distributed."

Where the hell were all of the funds coming from? There's no way this has been government-sanctioned, so certainly not from the government of wherever the hell I was being held. I closed my eyes and inhaled sharply before opening them again. Probably a private donor or a group of private donors. I continued to listen to the scientists' conversation in hopes of finding out more about what had happened to me and countless others and the reasoning behind it.

"It's ridiculous." Mr. Fat Glasses muttered. "An animal is more valuable than us."

"They didn't use to be animals, though." Band Lady replied. "They-"

I could head the scowl in her words before she was interrupted by Mr. Fat Glasses.

"For God's sake, woman, will you kindly shut up with your anti-experiment rhetoric?! Keep that up, and I'll have to ask Boss about having you join them!"

No one uttered a single word to break the uncomfortable, heavy, and tense atmosphere that had manifested with Mr. Fat Glasses' outburst. The resulting silence would've been nice, had not been for the suffocating feeling of dread that seemed to be prevalent. I decided to close my eyes in an attempt to get some form of sleep before we reached wherever it was that I was being taken to.

~~~

Some time later, we had come to a complete stop. I could feel the scientists' arms shaking with effort as they lifted me out of the cage and set me down on my right side onto something that definitely wasn't sand; it felt more like hay. I had to admit, this felt much more comfortable to lay on than the sand.

"First transfer of subject DC6429 from Alpha Sector to Beta Sector was successful and uneventful. Subject slept for the majority of the transfer and continues to do so, despite being handled. Changes in the subject's sector will be reflected in her profile. Transfer from medical room M3 to stall number sixteen took a total of twelve minutes and eight seconds."

Shut upppppp! I thought with a mental groan as I squeezed my eyelids shut tighter.

"Subject will remain here until transfer into section TF11 of the biodomes. Subject is to be checked on in T minus fifteen minutes."