Taken

Chapter 9: Fed Up

"Don't attack them." Alasdair spoke calmly in my head. "That'll just get you into hot water."

"I'm already in enough hot water as it is." I growled back. "I've had various psychedelics and meats cooked in cannabutter shoved down my throat then doused in freezing water for the past three months in order to keep me from attacking them. I'm sick of being high, wet, and cold. Now that I'm sober for once, I have a chance to retaliate!"

"But-"

As the door to my stall opened, a wisp of teal blue flame appeared over my head, and I immediately lept at the first researcher that entered my stall. Chaos erupted all around me as I dug my teeth deep into her arm; the bone shattered easily under the full force of my bite (which had been measured at 1,200 psi) and I jerked my head from side-to-side to cause more damage.

"Someone tranquilize her before she kills Emma!"

"Anyone have a tranq gun?!"

"Negative."

"She was still supposed to be feeling some of the effects of P6! I didn't think-"

"Well, surprise."

I could feel the shock and awe from Alasdair over our link, which let me know that he was- at the very least- listening to what was going on. I could sense the fainter feelings of confusion, panic, and even encouragement from the other equines that were currently being held within the Beta Sector's stalls.

Meanwhile, my victim was whimpering pathetically in pain and fear as I backed up to the back wall of my stall and dragged her with me. I was practically daring the other scientists to come in and try to take her from me. Wisely, they didn't move; as they knew that they could very easily end up as my next victim. Instead, they simply stood outside of my stall and could do nothing but look on helplessly as I stood over my victim, released her shattered arm, and very quickly sunk my teeth into her neck and began to apply pressure; slowly at first, and then more sudden. With her airway now crushed, my victim's movement became less and less before she stilled completely; suffocating to death. With the recently dead scientist still in my jaws, I rose my head and looked at the remaining scientists with a challenging, almost defiant gaze. No one- Human or animal- said a single word to break the cloud of deathly silence that had fallen over the building.

After about five minutes, one of the researchers managed to speak up.

"She.. she just..."

There was a waiver in his voice.

"Killed Emma. Just like that."

"We had been relentlessly drugging this thing since it was born, and you're surprised that it had attacked and killed one of us once it was lucid?" A new voice said with a dry laugh. "I would do that too, if I was in the same situation."

"It was actually more of an instinct regarding territory rather than a conscious decision. 'Kill any intruders' and whatnot. As it currently is, the stall is her territory. We are seen as intruders." A male voice replied. "While she has shown intelligence, it was about on par with that of a wolf; which was to be expected, given her DNA makeup."

I had become very good at hiding my true intelligence.

"It was very unwise of Emma to go in to the stall without the subject being incapacitated first. What did she think would happen?" Silver sighed.

"That it would greet her like a puppy dog who hadn't seen its owner all day? There's not a single strand of domestic dog DNA in the subject. Dire wolf, salamander, and a small pinch of eagle and grizzly bear DNA, according to the lab results from the saliva sample that we took last week. The eagle and bear DNA wasn't supposed to be there. There was cross contamination during the metaforming phase, most likely. Someone was careless." A female voice sighed.