Experiment 13
It is almost New Year; Kathleen would be four-teen on the same day.
It was 2037, but not much has changed for the past fifteen or twenty years. At least as far as science and human research. The human research centre has apparently found all of the information possible in human’s biology. Yet many people do not think they do not have even a clue to human autonomy, these people say the reason THRC has stopped their research (as rumor has it) is because there was a horrible accident that took place about thirteen or four-teen years ago. Though there is no proof what so ever that there even was an accident.
Our story starts here.
Kathleen rolled on her back as she slept, and was instantly assaulted by two vary sharp pains on ether side of her upper back, ahh- ouch , she had screamed so loudly that she hurt her own ears.
As Kathleen stumbled with her lamp she heard the hasty footsteps of her father (her mother was too quiet when she walked) as he came down the hall to her room. The door opened quickly and to Kathleen’s surprise her mother came in. what is going on here. She thought it sounded like my father with snow boots was coming, oh well maybe she will know what is wrong with my back. Kathleen what happened? Her mom asked in her southern accent, it was my back again, I stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
It was. Okay that is it Kathleen, you are going to the doctors tomorrow.
Despite her hatred towards doctors, she noticed her mother was speaking very loud. In fact, it hurt her ears again. Okay, okay I will go tomorrow jest please stop yelling. Mom put a confused sort of look on her face shook her head, and said good night. What is going on she thought? Why did she look at me as if I was crazy when I asked her not to yell? Oh well she sighed you jest have to concentrate not to roll on to your back. This was sadly easier said that done with Kathleen she had a hard time sleeping any other way than on her back and as such she was very tired lately. This back pain had started about six months ago and almost every time she sat or lay down in a potion that her back was under her, those two spots would erupt with pain. What am I going to do?
Chapter two
Again? We take you to doctor after doctor and every time they jest, say the same thing, that you are a healthy young girl. With absolutely no problems what so ever. Back or other wise. Mom was rattling
Away in the driver’s seat. While I was in the passenger’s seat wishing I were some-were else.
My mind drifted back to when mom and I were in the waiting room. There was a boy about my age sitting across from me. For some reason both my mom and his, started talking about why they were at the doctors office. “Josh has been waking me up almost every night with wired crying and … digging at the blankets.” At this point Josh (or who I figured was Josh) looked more than a little irritated by his mother. In fact, it appeared to me that he would have liked nothing better that to disappear into the nether world. Along with his mother, though I could not really blame him. “He sounds like a dog or something.” “Mom, please, it’s embarrassing, it’s bad enough that jest about every family member we have, know this about me. But now you want to gossip with every person you come across?” It was odd; Josh was leaning over towards his mom’s ear when he said this. His mouth was barely moving, as if he was whispering. Yet I could hear him as if he was right next to me. His mom then leaned over and in the same manner as he had and said, “There’s nothing’s wrong with say that you’re having sleeping problems.” “Yes there is! Besides, even if it’s not embarrassing, they are total strangers.” though this was true it felt a little odd for someone to say that someone else was a stranger. Right about this time I noticed a faint, steady, and quite annoying drumming sound coming from my mom. However, before I could locate the odd sound the nurse opened the door and called me in. as I stood to go in, I noticed many noises, there were more of the thrumming sounds and there were low scratchy sounds that came from my feet with every step. As if I was walking on a layer of dead leafs. Every thing had its own sound. For some reason, I could hear every breath taken by every entity in the room. In addition, all at once the noise stopped. My hearing had returned too normal. “Maybe I imagined it? But how could I have?” Kathleen Boreson? Some how I had drifted off into a daze. I muttered an apology as I walked across the room.
Nothing of interest happened after that. We were almost home when my hearing came back, that is, the good hearing came back. It was very painful to be in the car, though the car was almost noiseless, that was before. Now the constant thrumming hurt my ears. It was if the noise was drilling its way into my head. I could hear a clicking, a dripping, and a small squeaking sound when mom used her brakes. Nevertheless, behind all that I could hear the drumming sound I had heard in the doctor’s office. “What’s going on? How can I hear so well? Ah, my head hurts from all this noise! I was having a hard time keeping my face straight with the pain. We were about to pass a turn-off, jest as we were going by I heard another sound almost identical to ours make a sound like it was accelerating. I turned my head to see a black car was going to ram right into us. Time seamed to stop. It would hit us, I knew it. It was going to fast to stop and we were going to slow for it to miss us. I could not make my mouth move. There was a screeching sound from the bakes that would have deafened me before the hearing thing. Now, the sound was almost fatal to me.
I slowly opened my eyes to see white. Nothing but white. Were am I? I tried to sit up but it hurt too much. What happened? I heard a loud beeping noise and I remembered what had happened, a car crash. The hearing, the black car. So …is it happening again? It is that noise, the beeping noise. No, I realized that it was a meter for my heartbeat I did not know how long I lay there, but I was starting to hurt even worse than before. It seemed like hours I was laying there when once again my hearing came back. For some reason, I had to smile. Know I might be able to hear what is going on me though. I heard voices coming from the hallway. I could tell that one was my mom and another was my dad. In addition, it seemed like there was a doctor with them. I tried to listen to what they were saying but the meter was in the way. Very slowly and painfully I put my hand over my left ear witch was closer to the meter. I could barley make out what they were saying. “X-rays show these … peculiar growths on your daughter’s back” (I heard a shifting sound)
“Gasp! W-what are these?!” It was my mom talking. What are they talking about? Growths on my back? What do they mean? “Could this be a mistake?” It was my dad. “How could these be real?” how could what be real? Oh, if I could only know what they were talking about. Now the doctor piped up again, we tried three times. This is the first picture, and the second they were almost gone and the third one they were completely non-existent.” “T-they look like wings!” it was once again my mom. Wings? Why would I have wings? “Well we checked-”the doctor’s voice was gone, my hearing was back to normal. “Wings, what do they mean, wings?” perhaps I misheard them. I was very confused. I knew my hearing was not normal. In addition, I also knew that I having wings was not normal. However, I couldn’t bring myself to be worried; maybe I still wasn’t grasping what they had said. “Okay, let’s think about this. So, what if I do have wings? That would explain what that pain is in my back at night. In addition, my hearing seems to momentarily improve. And on top of that it seems like its happening more and more often.” I must have been getting exited because the meter besides my bed started to go berserk a nurse came rushing in to see if I was having some kind of seizure or something like that. However, it looked like she wasn’t expecting me to be awake.
Oh, you’re awake? I’ll go and get your parents. She was gone before I could ask here about any thing.
My mom came in first I could tell she had been crying. “Good maybe she’ll tell me what’s going on?” “But wait I can’t ask her what the x-rays were. I shouldn’t have been able to hear them.” “Honey, how are you?”
Her eyes seemed like they were trying to see if I was having a hard time laying down. “I’m fine, my head hurts a little but its ok.” “Really? Well that’s good. After a slight pause, she asked “so how’s your back?”
What do you mean? (Though I knew perfectly well, what she meant.) “Well you have been complaining about it for months now.” Yes, but why would you ask? You seemed to think I was faking it. Mom was about to say something when the nurse came in and said that I needed to rest and that my father was still waiting in the hall. Mom seemed a little hesitant to leave but did after only a slight pause. Dad came in a few minutes later. He seemed just as worried as mom had and also asked about my back. No my back is fine, is there something wrong? Mom asked me the same question. “ No, nothings wrong! It’s just that … you have been saying your back hurt when you lay down and sense you have been laying down for so long I was worried that it might be causing you a problem.” no it hasn’t been bad. I was shocked both of my parents had refused to tell me that they had figured out why my back hurt. Well maybe they don’t want me to go into shock. So, how long have I been asleep? “One week tomorrow, are you sure you’re alright?” I just nodded my head and dad left. A new nurse came and put a shot into my I.V. I drifted off to seep not to long after that.
Two weeks had past sense then. And with almost nothing to do Kathleen had started to look forward to the burst of hearing. And she had started “sense” when it would return and when it would go back to normal. And this morning I decided to try to “make” it come back after thinking for a while, I decided to concentrate only on my ears. After one or two minutes it became apparent it wasn’t working. However suddenly I could hear! I wonder if it was a coincidence or if it actually worked. I looked at the door and focused my hearing toward it “you hear? Hear what ? About that girl in there, they say she has wings! Oh, you mean her? I thought she had scaly skin? I don’t know, but what ever it is she’s a freak!”
I couldn’t believe it, rumors were spreading about me and all I could do was sit in this hospital bed and be forced to hear all the rumors. Luckily, I could tell my hearing would return to normal in only a few seconds.
After a while, my eyes wandered to the television on the wall. For some reason I never though to watch it. I looked at the remote beside me on the table. I flipped through a few channels and stopped on a news channel.
“ And that concludes today’s weather, back to you John. Thank you Margret, reporters say that the wayside hospital is now researching fourteen-year-old Kathleen Boreson. Apparently she has two distinctively wing-shaped forms on the top of her back. But doctors won’t allow reporters any were near her. Next, we have sports updates. I turned the TV. off. After a long moment, I realized my mouth was hanging open. But even then, I didn’t care. Not a single though went through my head. No, no! how can this be happening? How did the news find out about this? Now every one knows about me! The only thing keeping me from panicking was the though that only a few people knew. But now everyone does! Just then, my hearing came back. I heard someone coming it was a nurse. She came in and looked at my in an odd way. She knows! I thought.
She walked over to the I.V. and was about to put a shot in it when I decided to take my embarrassment out on her. I’ve been here for two weeks I don’t need any pain medicine! I didn’t even get hurt from the crash, why am I still here? Is for this “research”? I want some answers, and I want them now! At this point I realized that the nurse had completely ignored me and was about to put the shot into the I.V. Hey didn’t you hear me? Still, the nurse refused to look at me and preceded to empty the vile into the small bag of blood. She then turned and walked away closing the door behind her. I felt very tired as if the shot she had given me was a sleeping medicine. I drifted off to sleep very mad at the world and very mad that the nurse had completely ignored me.
I don’t know when but after some time I woke. It was something different then what I was now used to seeing every time I woke up, darkness. that’s all I could see, and there was no sound. were am I? this can’t be the hospital. Just then, a very bright light came through what looked like a door to my right. As the door opened I could see the figure of a human coming in. the light flicked on. “So you’re awake.” I wasn’t a question, I didn’t say any thing. “Do you know were you are?” I shook my head. The man was very tall, at least seven feet high. He was In a trench coat and wearing black sunglasses. Yet he sounded young, and I couldn’t see an inch of his body. What’s going to happen? Why am I here? Who is this person? I remembered trying to make my hearing come back. Maybe I can try to get it back and hear what’s going on out side. “Don’t even try, the walls are three feet thick of solid steel.” Well there goes that plan, wait what, how did he know that I was going to try to hear? I just sat there with a stunned look. After a few seconds, he chuckled. “we know all about you Kathleen” we? This time I said it out loud. “yes, we there are twelve of us in all.”
Were are we? “were under ground in an old laboratory.” why are we in an under-ground laboratory?
“any were else and we would be risking being caught.” How do you know about me? “Well we first heard about you on the news . But we knew there was at least one more of us.” what do you mean one more of you? “well as you have probably found out you have two wing-like things that come and go as they
Please. Well when we heard about you, we went and captured you by sneaking sleeping medicine into your I.V . After you fell asleep we busted you out of the hospital.” what do you want with me? This seemed to make him realize that he hadn’t explained why I was here, in this under ground laboratory. “Well you see, me along with the other eleven I told you about are like you, we didn’t get wings, but we did have various symptoms Shear has very good hearing and smell.” I just looked at him in an even more perplexed way, he seemed to realize that he was leaving out some important information. “Well I suppose I should start from the beginning. If you remember, about fourteen years ago the human research lab had an accident. They somehow mixed animal genes into their test subjects, you, me and the other eleven people. After it became apparent that we were failed tests, we were cast out. We were supposed to be disposed of, but some how we were put into an orphanage and later become adopted. For a while, the various anime genes were dormant. Then as we develop and our own bodies develop, the genes became active. Though there is only a small amount of them in our bodies, only some of the characteristics of the animals come out and only in spurts. Such as when you were asleep, your body relaxed and the animal genes started to take over. You started to get the wings of the animal whose genes you have imbued in you. No doubt, you have more characteristics of the animal than just wings. To put it bluntly we’re mutants” I wasn’t thinking anything, how could I? some weird guy just came and told me that I’m a mutant. You mean to tell me I was experimented on when I was little and then put up for adoption? And then what about you? You said that you were like me and experimented on, why are you old if you’re like me? “I am fourteen years old. Being big is just because of my animal.” well, what is your animal? He smiled and said “I think it’s time you met the other eleven.”
He motioned with his head for me to follow him and walked out the door . What else is there to do? I stood up and walked across the room. As I reached the door, I got the feeling my hearing would come back if I waited a few seconds. I stopped before I went out and waited for it to come back. Before to long a buzz of noise came to me. “she awake?” it sounded like a young girl “yes she’s awake and she should come out before too long.” it was the same man who had just left (even though he had said he was only fourteen, I wasn‘t ready to accept it) “I still can’t believe you would just go in without us, were all just as anxious as you” this time it was a voice that sounded slightly familiar. He started to talk again “ I mean, you could have said any number of thing wrong. And I though we had agreed to all go in.” I decided to go out then. I stepped out and was in a short hallway. There was a door in the very end of it. As I walked to it, I heard mumbled words coming from the other side. They were cut short by another young sounding girl “hush, she’s on the other side of the door.” “what you let her out?!” “yes, why not? We have to eventually”
It was once again the man/boy who had just been here. Wait how did that girl know I was here?
he did say that there was the shear girl who had good hearing and smell. I’ll bet that’s shear who said that. It was completely slightest on the other side of the door. I took a deep breath and slowly opened it. What I saw on the other side was a large room that looked like it had once been an examining room. There were tables all along the out side of the room with many small instruments. There was one large table in the middle of the room. On it was what looked like small animals in test tubes. There were blue-lights completely lighting the entire room at the very centre of it (beside the table) were the so-called twelve.
They all looked just like normal teen-age kids (with the exception of the one who had let me out of the room) I felt sort of out of place being here. They were all looking at me as if expecting me to grow a there’d eye and sprout a tail. One particularly small girl was off to the left, she seemed even more content to look at me I got the felling she was shear. Right beside her, I got a huge surprise. Josh from the waiting room was there
I didn’t know how I had remembered his name but there he was. Josh you’re here? He seemed surprised that I knew him. Don’t you remember me? I was at the doctor’s office two weeks ago. He seemed to remember then “oh, you’re that girl! So your one of us too?” it seems so, though I don’t really know what “us” is. He looked shocked that turned and looked at the big guy, who just shrugged his shoulders. So, you say each one of us has a different animal gene? “yes it appears that I have mouse” it was Shear again.
Wow a mouse that explains how you could hear me. But what about the rest of you? Josh spoke up now “I have a dog though I’m not sure what breed” I though back to when he was going to the doctor’s his mother said how at night he would whine and dig at the blankets. Then the large man spoke up. “I have grizzly bear. That’s why I’m so big. I got its strength and it’s size” I thought about that for a while, so maybe what he’s saying is true. He is only fourteen. So what do you think I am? “We were thinking some kind of bird.”
The one who said this was a short grey-spiky haired boy who had yellow eyes. “But we can’t be sure until we see what kind of wings they are.” as I looked at him, I thought how he looked …evil. Just then, he smiled and his teeth were pointed. “yes, I’m a wolf” well that explains it I thought. But what else is there?
Besides birds, I mean? Josh spoke up again “Well there are birds as you say, bats, and also insects”
Bats, Insects? Oh yes also I can hear really well. “well that rules out insects, and for the most part birds are better at seeing. So that really leaves bats.” a very tall girl with a baseball hat on in the back of the group then pushed her way to the front. “but we could easily tell if we just scan you.” what do you mean? “we all have tattoos on out hands that only can be seen under this light.” she motioned with her hand to a small reddish lamp in the corner. And what will this tattoo tell us? “It will tell us your number, and what vile of genes where put into your body. There are many different vials of genes in the freezer in the store room.” ok, if this will help you. I still wasn’t sure whether of not to believe them. If there telling he truth I will have a tattoo. But if they aren’t then I won’t have a tattoo. I walked over to it and the tall girl turned it on. She took my hand and placed it under it. I didn’t see any thing at first, but slowly a faint bluish the numbers XIII and CXXX appeared. What does that mean? “The first number shows your experiment thirteen and the second one shows what vile of genes were injected into your body. Now all we have to do is find which vile has that number, and then study it to see what anime it is.” oh ,I see so…what animal are you? And I don’t think I caught you name before. “my name is Elizabeth, and I’m … a llama.” a llama? For some reason I couldn’t keep from snickering, I knew it was rude but I still couldn’t stop. So, do you spit when you get really mad? Elizibeth turned and looked it me after a short pause, a grin broke out across her face “No I don’t spit, but I do have very woolly hair.” she took off the hat she had been wearing and out came a solid three-foot mass of hair. Wow so you really do have llama? “Yes, but I have to go and find vile CXXX, I’ll be right back.” she walked to a door on the very back of the room and disappeared through it. The boy who had said he had a bear in him come over to were I was standing and said “Elizibeth’s the only one of us who finds any thing about the genes funny. And she’s not even getting anything out of them, like us. I mean, if you’re a bat then you’ll probably have echolocation, sense it’s your hearing. And your wings might grow to fit your body, meaning you just might be able to fly. Me, I’m stronger that five men combined and as tall as heck. The list goes on, but she … has a head-full of matted hair.” wow it must be kind of depressing to see all of us and not getting any good out of it. “well like I say, she finds it funny.” Wait, you said that I might be able to fly? The though had never accord to me before. “Well, yes so far our own cells have sped the animal ones up. For example, Arlo’s teeth are way too small for wolf’s teeth. So we figure that our body’s sort of helping the animal fit us.” he pointed at the evil looking boy as he said this. Oh, I see. So how did these doctors put these genes into us? “In the other room, there is large tube, sort of like an x-ray except there are spots to put vials and the light is much brighter that an x-ray, also it flashes. We think that they might have somehow copied the cells into ours in the same way a camera takes a picture only using our skin as the paper and the vile as what’s being taken as the picture. But skin being to large, the picture cells went right through it and copied itself to other cells.” Wow that’s ingénues, hey, I do not think you told me you name. “It’s a Japanese name meaning strawberry Ichigo.” Ichigo? Why did your parents name you Ichigo?
“I had red hair when I was young.” Oh, but it went away? “Yes after I turned three my hair turned light brown, I think it might have had something to do with the grizzly bear genes.” right then elizebeth came out of the room with a small bag, she walked to a microscope in the corner and started to look at what I’m guessing was the vile. So, what animals are there in total? “Well there’s grizzly bear, wolf, mouse, llama, dog, you who might be a bat, Elliotte who is a house cat, Cacey is the only insect, an ant, isabell is a salmon, Reece has a mountain goat, Warren’s a badger, and the last person who is Nichole, is a spider.” I though there was only one insect? “Well there is, spiders aren’t insects, they are arachnids.” oh, so you say Isabell is a salmon? How does she breathe? “Isabell has had to work very hard to control the salmon genes, other wise she can’t breath, like what your saying.” you can control them? “yes, it’s not to hard to control them once you try, sense most people have only one type of gene, they can’t even try to use others. However, we have two so we can use them at will. Kind of like a sixth sense. Only it’s not a since.” Just then, Elizibeth spoke up “Kathleen, it seems you’re definitely a bat. And if I’m not mistaken it’s a vampire bat, that is it drinks blood.” of course I am. Just my luck. I laughed. Well
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