Creature of Creation

Part 1- Chapter One - Two Birds

Fluorescent lights hummed overhead and clicked like insect wings. Shadows persisted through the sterile white light and made the cramped cell feel much smaller. A pipe dripped in a steady rhythm somewhere within the stone walls of the laboratory basement. 

Project E1 turned up the television and let I Love Lucy blare to ensure she would not be overheard. They were always watching. Always listening. She crouched low to the concrete floor and pressed closer to the vent. The metal grate was cold against her cheek and she inhaled the heavy scent of dust.

A2's voice echoed through the vent. It sounded tinny like she spoke through a can far away. Ethereal. Sometimes E1 wasn't certain if A2 was truly there.

"Clay, are you there?"

No one but A2 called her that now. Their names remained a sacred secret shared only between the two of them. When Rachael died, they stripped E1 of everything. Now, even memories began to slip through her fingers.

"I'm here," E1 assured her. 

"Doctor James is coming for a visit, and so is the new one."

"Do everything they tell you and it'll be alright."

"You have to promise to be good too," A2's small voice commanded.

"Of course."

"You didn't mess up today?" fear quivered in A2's voice and reverberated through the vent.

"No."

"Nothing? They always pick at anything...Then they'll get me."

"I can't think of anything..." E1 wracked her brain for any instance, no matter how small, the lab director could possibly find fault with. A heavy ball of tension formed in her stomach. "There's nothing. I'm sure of it. It'll be ok."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

The heavy ball in her chest twisted.

The sound of footsteps halted their conversation. E1 scurried over to sit on the side of her bed. It was little more than a cement slab with a thick pad laid over top.

Doctor James Smith shuffled into her cell and immediately turned off the television. He was younger than most of the other scientists and orderlies here. When he first came to work for his father at the lab eight years ago, he was fresh out of school. In the beginning, he had at least tried to put himself together, but now his unruly blond hair sprigged up in multiple directions and E1 noticed his lab coat was misbuttoned to reveal his wrinkled red t-shirt and slacks.

She kept her posture straight, and her head forward.

"There is someone new I'd like you to meet," James said as he pushed his square glasses back up over his nose. His blue eyes twinkled.

James stepped aside and another young doctor entered the room. E1 studied him through the corner of her eye and quickly formed an assessment. He looked to be the same age as James, perhaps in his early thirties. His lab coat was buttoned to the top, starched, and ironed. His brown hair was neatly combed to the side.

"This is doctor Sean McGuire," said James. "He's been assigned to your project and I'm taking him on a tour of our facility. He came highly recommended by me." James, overly pleased with himself, rocked up and down on his heels. "So I'm certain you'll be in good hands."

"Does it talk?" Sean interrupted. He approached her. E1 turned her head at the sudden movement. James rushed to put a hand out to stop him.

"I wouldn't do that," he warned.