As they open the heavy door, a small can flies in. It bounces a couple of times before rolling to a stop at my feet. My eyes go wide as I recognize the can or rather grenade. As soon as it stops I see a bright white light and hear a loud bang. My ears begin to ring, and all I can see is the white light. All of a sudden I feel hands on my arms. I struggle to break free to, but their grip is like a vice. I cannot shake free. They pull me forward and I feel myself spinning. When I stop there is cold metal against my back. My body feels tied down and I can no longer move.
As my sight and hearing begin to return to normal, I realize that I am in a different room now. As I look around I see several people wearing white clothes with rubber gloves and masks. Several tables are in the room including ones with wheels which are next to me. They have knives, needles and several surgical tools. A small box on a stand of its own is close to the table. It makes a beeping noise very often. I begin to jerk and tug to get off of the table, but my arms and legs have been restrained by thick leather straps. I wonder if those claws could cut them, but I cannot move enough to get to the straps. I feel I sudden sting in my arm and look over to see one of them drawing blood while another is injecting some light colored substance into my other arm. For some reason now I feel light-headed. The room begins to spin. If I was not restrained to the table I believe I would fall off.
"Alright, you know the drill," one of them said with a nonchalant attitude, " skin 'em, kill 'em, and throw him to the beasts."
"But sir," a somewhat younger man said, " this one still looks human." He pointed at me as he said this. The other man looked me in the eyes as he walked towards me. In his hand he held a scalpel. He took the blade and stuck it into the center of my chest. I cried out in agony as he moved the blade slowly down my chest splitting my skin apart. "No, he is far from human," the man said as he stuck his hand inside of my stomach. I can feel my body being stretched and ripped. My heart is racing and the pain is too much to bear. Suddenly he rips his hand out of my chest pulling blood and guts with it. In his hand I see a small mass of muscle that thumps rapidly. Blood pours from it. The machine makes one final beep that seems to never stop. The pain slips away, as does my vision. And then there is nothing.
* Later*
I open my eyes and see the bright blue sky. My body is warm and the sun shines on my face, yet the grass under me is soft and cool. I push myself up and lean back on my arms. A cool breeze brushes against my skin. All is calm. I can see nothing but this empty field around me for as far as I can see. Where am I? Am I dead?
"You're not dead," a voice suddenly breaks the silence. I jump up upon hearing it. Behind me stands a girl. She is probably 5'5''. Her hair is pitch black and flows straight down to her knees. Her eyes are black as well and her dress is red with flowers on it. It reminds me of what Japanese people wear. What was it, a kimono? "Though I don't know how," she continues, "you survived your heart being ripped out. It seems you are quite resilient, but you have to wake up now."
"Why," I ask confused, "am I not awake now?"
"You have been like this for 3 days; if you don't wake up soon you really will die," she said. She walked toward me and grabbed my left arm. She squeezed it digging her nails in and shaking me as she screamed, "wake up, wake up!"
I closed my eyes for a second. When I open them, I am no longer in the field. I feel a sharp pain in my left arm. I look and there is see a wolf, or is it a dog, more like a werewolf, biting into my arm. Instantly, I ball my right hand into a fist and smack whatever it is in the jaw. It whelps in pain and lets go. As I stumble to my feet the beast scurries into the darkness. Once I have my bearings I look down at my chest. I let out a sigh of relief at the sight of it all in one piece. I can feel my heart beating as well which makes me wonder if am somehow immortal. That's just ridiculous though, although it does appear that all of my wounds have healed.
A grin sneaks its way onto my face at the thought of cheating death. Being an experiment could turn out to be very beneficial. Of course that just leaves one question. Where am I? I take a quick glance around. No light can be found in this place, but for some reason I can almost see clearly. I can make out shapes and see what appears to be stone like a cave wall. There is water dripping from the ceiling which appears to be very high up. There is nothing else in this room. The only way out appears to be forward. There is a long corridor that I decide to follow.
I walk. I walk some more. Still I walk until I begin to smell wet fur. A deep rumbling sound comes from further down into the cave. As I approach this threatening sound, the corridor ends. I arrive at a much larger area. I can see no exit or any continuation of the cave. All that is contained in this place is beasts. The sight of which makes the hair curl on the back of my neck. The massive beasts were scattered around the area. They huddled in small groups mostly laying about but some are fighting each other. Each one is different from the next. While some are crouched over on all fours, others walk liked humans. Some of them have strange deformations such as extra eyes or the head of an animal or extra arms.
As soon as I step into the middle of the room, they all stop what they are doing and turn towards me. Straight ahead of me is a group of them that can walk. One much larger than the rest had big human-like arms. If not for the thick fur and tail he would appear human. This one walks towards me while the others begin to encircle me. As I tense up the beast growls out, " You die now." As soon as he says this I see the beasts begin to grow claws out of their bodies. Each one is different. Some have claws like animals while others have blades coming out of their bodies in off places. The more human looking ones all have different numbers of claws coming out of their arms in places. The big one has one on each of his fingers like nails but deadly.
All of a sudden they rush me. They run towards me like mad dogs chasing a rabbit. I tense up and prepare to fight. There must be at least twenty of them. I don't really think I can beat them like this. Soon they are so close that I can hear their breathing. All at once a pain erupts from my chest. My heart feels like it is about to jump out of my chest. My vision blurs. Blades cut through the skin between my knuckles as they extend out of them. One again I see those deep blue eyes. It is like they are staring into my soul. Also returning to me is the raging bloodlust. I feel like my body is no longer my own. I can feel myself moving, swinging my arms as if I were an animal clawing at its prey.
"Don't let it take control," I hear the girl's voice from earlier say. I don't know if I can fight it. It almost feels good. It is invigorating. All of my anger and frustration are being released through my claws in something's chest.
"Snap out of it," she cries out in my head, "do you want to turn into one of the monsters that killed your family?!"
In that instant, I freeze. The eyes disappear and I can see the beasts again. That is to say, I see what is left of them. On the ground are the bodies of all of them but the more human looking ones. The bodies are ripped apart and pieces of flesh litter the ground. They twitch as if they are still alive. The ones that remain number five. One is missing an arm the stub of which it is clutching with its other hand. It is not bleeding. I can only assume that they can regenerate as well. The others have cuts and stab wounds that are healing quickly. As I peer on at the devastation that I have wrought I can only think about the pictures that man in black showed me. It looks painfully similar. The only difference being that these don't have almost any resemblance of humans at all.
I look down at my hands. They are fists. The claws still stick out from between my knuckles. There are three on each hand. Though I don't think I can open my hands, the fists are shaking. I don't know what I was expecting to see but this is not it. The blood and guts scattered around and the smell of already rotting flesh are enough to gag me. But I do not move. I have shot people before, but this is much different from shooting a man. I take a deep breath, hold it for a second, then slowly let it out. My stomach is churning but I cannot change what is done.
Slowly the ones that remain swarm me. They seem to move in slow motion. My heart beats slowly, slower than it ever has. As the nearest one approaches I send a right jab to his throat. He runs straight into it. His feet slide out from under him and he lands on the ground on his back. The next two are already on me they begin to swing there long blades at my shoulders, but I step in close to the one on the right and deliver him an uppercut that rips the lower half of his face from his head. I feel my back being pierced as another dives in and stabs me. I stumble forward tripping and falling to my knees. The large one from before in in front of me now. He picks me up by my neck. His claws dig into my throat. I gasp for air and swing at him. He easily dodges. A wide grin is on his face now and through it I can see sharp yellow teeth. Almost out of breath I make one last swing, this time at the hand that holds me. It slices from the wrist with little resistance.
I fall to the ground coughing and choking for air. I fill the wind shift behind me and I turn to see the one who missed before swinging for my head. I have just enough time to crosses my claws over my head before his reaches me. He bears down and prepares to swing the other. Before he can I let go with my left claw and swing at his arm as it comes down on me. The blade continues, just barely missing my head. I swipe up and knock the man's now lifeless arm out of my shoulder. The continue to swing at me and cut me. Time may seem slow, but my body doesn't move any faster it seems. I try to dodge or block them from cutting me but there are too many to stop. The first one is back to his feet and swinging as well though with only one arm. Out of the corner of my eye I spy something shiny. Don't ask me why it draws my attention but it does. I begin to back away dodging and slicing at them as I go. As I draw near, I notice what it is. There on a rock in this cave lies my gun belt with my .357 in it. Immediately I snatch it up and pull the gun from the leather as I jump back. I don't have time to check if it is still loaded I can only hope that it is.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Smoke rises from the barrel as I poor hot lead into the forehead of all but the big one. He stops in his tracks when all of them drop to the ground around him. I can see the surprise on his face, but it doesn't last long. With a loud roar he leaps at me swinging his mighty claws above his head.
Bang!