A Different Kind of Animal

Chapter One

He was still too shaken to rest like he needed to rest, so he just sat there, his eyes trained on the opening above his head to keep the blinding darkness at bay. Through the hole, he could barely glimpse leaves and branches against a deep blue sky.

It’s too much like my old window, he thought suddenly, and his anxiety rose on a wave, filling him with the urge to scramble back up through the opening and into the wide-open forest.

No! I’m not there, I’m not there, I’m not there…

He mentally chanted those three words over and over until his heart rate finally slowed. Once he’d calmed again, he began to sense the burning, itching pain of every little scratch and bruise decorating his body. The muscles in his legs throbbed with his pulse, and his chest ached with each breath that he drew. Where the cuts had already scabbed over, his skin felt sticky and grainy from the dirt and tiny rocks that had become cemented in the dried blood. 

Reaching down, his movements stiff with pain, he found still freshly bleeding gashes in his feet that, when touched, shot searing needles up his legs. Wincing, he packed the wounds with dirt before allowing himself to rest his head against the wall behind him. 

Sooner than he expected possible, he drifted into unconsciousness.

 *     *     *

“Did you find him, sir?” Dr. Roberts timidly asked the bear-like man who, after six hours of absence, had finally returned to GenLabs.

“Do I have him with me?” General Jameson snapped. It peeved the old man when someone asked a question with such a blatantly obvious answer.

“You mean he got away?” Roberts almost shouted, sounding exasperated as if he really cared. Then, more shyly, he quickly tacked on, “Sir.”

Jameson wouldn’t have cared one way or the other whether the boy had added “sir” or not to the end of his question; but the boy, fresh out of grad school, was still intimidated by the General’s rank. The old man didn’t mind.

“He disappeared,” Jameson explained, voice gruff. “One moment, I had him in my sights, and the next, he was gone.” He stated everything matter-of-factly, but the turmoil deep in his gut thickened as he spoke. How could this have happened? he silently raged while keeping his face a mask of cold indifference.

Standing rigidly beside the glaring metal table between him and the doctor, Jameson took note of how the young man’s face puckered up with worry and frustration. Then the doctor’s eyes widened with that light-bulb effect.

“You know, sir, I think this could be good,” Roberts began, and the General stared hard at him. The boy pretended not to notice, continuing on with, “Good for our studies, I mean.”

“And how, exactly, do you mean?” Jameson asked shortly. “The only thing that I can see coming out of this is disaster.”

“Well, perhaps, sir. But Leonardo’s much more intelligent than that. You’ve taught him to hide his abnormalities.”

Jameson snorted, smiling bitterly despite himself. “Abnormalities? He’s a monster! The first place he’ll run to is the nearest town, hoping to get protection from the people, and someone there is going to find out about his abnormalities. You’re a fool, Roberts, if you think this is going to help us in any way.”

Roberts blanched, sagging as he lost his brief moment of confidence. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him, sir. He’s tagged, remember?” The doctor was already moving to one of the three computers at the far left corner of the room. As he began typing in commands and pulling up various windows to connect them to the GenLabs satellite, he gave a feeble second attempt at finding the bright side of a shitty situation. “But this could be useful to us to see how he adapts to life outside the lab. See how he adjusts, you know?”