"I've done it! I've made a rideable ostrich, thing... I really don't know what you are" I said whilst stroking the dull yellow feathers of my latest (and possibly greatest) creation. "Squawk!" It caws, testing out its newly mutated vocal cords. It's almost always easy the first time as the mutate is confused and can be easily led to its containment chamber, or it's angry and tries to tear me apart. The creature was larger than expected and would be harder to fit into its containment chamber, which was more of a glorified steel cage for protection against sharks reworked into a more usable model for my "creations". The long scaly legs of the beast stumbled awkwardly forward when I coaxed it into its temporary home with a few taps on its rump, once it stumbled inside I brought my hand to a rather rusty lever then pushed my weight onto it and... the cage didn't close. This was bad. But not a minor setback bad, no, more of a life or death bad. When a creature mutates its brain does the same so for the first few minutes the creature is extremely disorientated by all of the new thoughts that form in its head, but after it gets its thoughts in check it becomes aware. Humans became the dominant species because we were intelligent, so what happens when something stronger than a human gets that same power? Well the results are... deadly. I shivered at the thought and ran my hand down the scar on my right arm, sanity was a fragile thing but a person that's spent most of his life in a laboratory was arguably even more so. The creature started to caw loudly and I knew I had at least a minute before it realised mutation makes you really hungry too. I climbed onto the lever to try and pull it down again but I just ended up falling down and getting a nasty scrape across my chin.
50 seconds
I scurried to my feet and ran for the emergency lockdown button, the button (once pressed) would close any means of escape from the lab while I waited for the threat to slowly starve. Cruel, I know, but so is getting brutally mauled.
40 seconds
My legs weren't very accustomed to running but I managed to get to the button. Unfortunately I had left the key for said button (I know, counterintuitive to have to use a key for a button but paranoia really kicks in when you're isolated) on my desk... next to it.
30 seconds
I had to make a choice of either running (mildly fast jogging in my case) to the bathroom and surviving off of toothpaste for a few days or risk being gutted by the impressively large talons on the ostrich. The choice was clear.
25 seconds
I began to rush for the bathroom door with every ounce of my strength (which is sadly not much) but with every step I took on the cold concrete my chances of survival were dwindling.
15 seconds
I was a few more steps from my salvation when I tripped... over my own feet. Those precious few seconds lost to poor footwork left me with-
10 seconds
Luckily I was a few steps from the door and so I moved in a half shamble half crawl towards and then darted my head back to my creation to see that its head was facing mine, that moment when our eyes met my heart stopped.
5 seconds
It started to pace towards me and I slowly crawled backwards (towards the door) and reach out behind me for the door, never letting our eyes leave each other's even for a moment. Once I felt the metallic smoothness of the door I fumbled around for the handle and once it was within my grasp I yanked down on it and it didn't open... the door was locked.
0 seconds
I didn't know what I should be more terrified of, the terror bird or the probability of a stalker which could possibly be an assassin. My luck with opening things was obviously not very good today but luck doesn't exist in science so instead I had to gamble on what was going to work.
"Hey" I whispered towards the door "It'd be really helpful if you could open the door and save me the trouble of dying". No answer. Well that plan went Hindenburg. I've never gambled before but unless I gambled some more I wasn't going to live to gamble anymore. The ostrich was still walking towards me at an unchanging pace but I'm guessing it could run faster than me so running away was suicide, I had no weapons so attacking it is suicide, I've got no charisma so charming it is suicide and it doesn't know english so reasoning with it is suicide. Hell if I had a noose I might as well save it the trouble of hearing my high pitched screams. It was getting closer, the click and clack of its overgrown talons echoed across the room and its eyes burned with an intelligence that was not what I saw in my previous... failure; its eyes were filled with curiosity (but curiosity is also what led people to dissect their fellow man so...). I was frozen, its eyes frightened me but were strangely hypnotic, those big brown eyes seemed to pierce my very soul and every second became eternity. This trance was abruptly broken when its head suddenly jerked upward and it looked like it was trying to regurgitate something that wasn't supposed to be in it. Its throat convulsed over and over again and the creature fell on its side, at this rate it was going to suffocate on whatever it was choking on. I had a chance to leave or stay and watch it die... or I could help this stupid bird.