You Don't Belong Here

Chapter Nine

Brooks watched the footage from the hidden security camera in the lab, and was shocked as well as impressed to see the injured woman staring down this massive alien and then have the gall to strap it down herself. What would possess her to make such reckless decisions? Not to mention the unauthorized release of assets was a heinous action that could result in all kinds of legal trouble with the government.

He continued to watch the footage with the volume turned up despite the onslaught to his ears from the obscene metal "music" that was screaming through the speakers of his computer. He couldn't hear anything being said, but their movements were coordinated, like they had been planned ahead of time.

Brooks could see his former lover placing the electrode pads on the asset's naked body before taking X-ray images and moving on to observing the more drastic features of Project Ghost. She carefully but intently measured, diagramed, and chatted notes about its strange crablike facial appendages as well as the sharp teeth within the inner mouth. She did the same with the claws on its hands and feet, and even the dreadlock type appendages that protruded from its skull.

He watched as she carefully toweled spots of his body dry before inserting needles to take samples of various bodily fluids without so much as a threatening growl from the creature. All other attempts he had witnessed from facility staff had always resulted in some sort of injury or near-injury. But not with this woman. Brooks leaned back in his seat as he observed her continue her work as he interlocked his fingers beneath his chin. What has happened in the weeks prior when she refused to leave that damned lab? And why did the creature react so calmly to her as opposed to the other scientists?