Kindred Spirits, Path of the Hunter
#2 of Kindred Spirits
Part two of the collaboration with Antarian_Knight. This one was written by him but uploaded by me due to problems with the site's collaboration feature. Comments are welcomed as always.
Sunlight warmed the youth as he floated in the warm salt water. The salt breezes were warm and fragrant, and he smiled, luxuriating in the sensation of floating in the bay. The gulls cried over by the shore, and he watched as one with silver grey wings floated in a current of air through the blue sky above him. All the other sea gulls had white wings, all except this one, and he watched the gull for a while, wondering about the significance of its strange coloration. Then, drifting to his ears as if from far away, he heard a voice calling. He couldn't understand the words that it said, but the voice was familiar. It felt incredibly peaceful to float there, and he only grudgingly acknowledged that the voice seemed to be calling for him. But then, his smile turned to a frown, and he cocked his head, looking up at the sky. It was no longer totally blue. Instead, right above him, it seemed to be turning green, a sickly sort of light green that, though he didn't know what it portended, made a cold sort of worry trickle into his belly. The spot of green was spreading, and suddenly, he felt himself being dragged downward, beneath the waters. It felt like something had a hold of his legs and was dragging him down. Panicking, he tried to kick his legs, tried to fight the thing off, but he couldn't move and suddenly, the sunlight and the peaceful bay vanished into nothing.
The boy's eyes opened in an instant and he looked around, bewildered. He was floating alright, but the water was green, sickly green, and very thick. More than that, it was all around him. Moving his arms, he tried to swim, tried to find which way was up, but he couldn't move more than a foot before they encountered something hard, a smooth, curving surface that surrounded him. Suddenly, he understood there was no air anywhere around him. He couldn't breathe!! Flailing around, he struck at the surface, trying to break it, trying to get away, but it was far too strong for him. His eyes widening in fear, his lungs already burning, he struggled, lashing out with all his might, and then, suddenly, he heard a voice, a voice he had never heard before.
"Calm down 1275!!" It said, and he continued to flail madly, his mind screaming for air. "Breathe 1275, breathe!" It took the boy a few moments to comprehend that the voice must be referring to him. But there was something fundamentally wrong with that command. He knew he couldn't breathe liquid. "Take a breath or you are going to suffocate 1275." Despite the fact that he hadn't heard the voice before, he felt a powerful compulsion to obey it, and though his mind screamed that if he did it, he was going to die, the boy forced himself to breathe in...air. Drawing a deep breath in through his nose, he felt the panic subside a little and he coughed, a foul, industrial scent filling his brain. Shaking his head to clear it, 1275 suddenly realized that he had something covering his mouth and nose, something that felt as flexible as the liquid around him, but at the same time, somehow more solid.
Reaching up with a hand that was slowed by the thick fluid around him, he touched it, outlining it slowly. Slowly, the boy's mind filled in details that he couldn't see, only touch. A mask, he realized, made out of some sort of gel. He didn't know how he knew that was what this was called, but that somehow made sense to him. Feeling a pair of tubes attached to the mask, he traced them as far as he could reach, stopping when they entered something hard and cold, metallic, he thought, though the thick liquid he floated in made it hard to tell. Another breath of the foully scented air cleared the fog out of his head a little and he paused, a detail coming into focus. His arms were the wrong color. Sure, the green tint to everything didn't help, but he was sure of it, his arms were silver-grey, not the normal white skinned look they should have been. And what was more, the hands were the wrong shape. Or were they? He couldn't seem to remember for certain. Then, looking beyond his arms, he realized he could make out vague shapes beyond the curved barrier, shapes that were so blurred he couldn't be sure of what he was looking at. But then, slowly, he realized that he could hear things, indistinct like the buzz of conversation heard through a wall. Then, the voice was back, making him jump.
"That's better." It said, and he heard a strange note in his voice, something that his mind associated with the word 'condescending', though what it meant, he hadn't a clue. "At least you can follow commands. Your predecessor failed on that count. Now, tuck your arms in and bend your knees."
The boy frowned, trying to understand what the voice was talking about, but he did as he was told all the same, obeying the command on instinct. A sudden strange sensation made a jolt of panic rise in him and he suddenly felt the liquid around him shift, flowing down towards his feet. Above him, the tank was clearing, the greenish tint going away as the liquid drained. Soon, he felt his feet touch the bottom of where ever he was and he instantly wished the liquid would fill up again. The moment his weight settled onto his feet, an explosion of pain ran up the length of his body, rebounding off the top of his head and then rushing back down to complete the loop. Opening his mouth as wide as the mask would allow, he tried to scream, feeling like he was being ripped apart. Instead, all that came out was a strangled gurgle, a sound almost like he was choking. The liquid was down to his waist now and the pain was like lightning running through him, thousands upon thousands of needles jabbing him all over. Shaking from the pain, he tried to cry out again, and this time the sound was distinctly a cry, though it certainly didn't sound like it should have come from him. It came out as a howl of agony, a sound that was animalistic, bestial. And finally, it caused a reaction. The dim buzz and murmurs became suddenly distinct, though still muted.
"What was that?" A voice asked, a different voice than the first, sounding perhaps older than the other. "Why is he shaking like that?"
"Reaction to the stasis," The first voice replied, sounding frustrated and alarmed. "Damnit, I told you this would happen!!" The liquid was almost gone from the tank, but 1275 was barely aware of it. He seemed immersed in a different kind of fluid now, liquid agony. He was burning and freezing at the same time, his body shaking as if he was being electrocuted. The needles were more like knives, stabbing and twisting into every inch of his body and he was shaking so hard he couldn't seem to control his limbs, the movements bringing even more pain. His arms flailed out of his control, striking the hard surface around him painfully, only the hard walls of the container keeping him upright. He heard the voice in his ears more loudly now, but its command was impossible to follow. "Hold on 1275, hold on!!" The boy's only reply was to howl a second time, louder this time, darkness starting to encroach on his sight as he wailed in his endless agony.
"Activate the failsafe before he hurts himself!!" a third voice shouted, this one sounding much different than the other two, female perhaps. At once, 1275 felt something jab into his back, somewhere in the neighborhood of his shoulders, something hard and sharp and he arched his back painfully when he felt it pierce him, his body going suddenly rigid. Moments later, the boy felt something wash into his body, a cold numbness spreading out from the spot where he had been jabbed and suddenly he couldn't feel anything at all. Instantly, he went limp, the pain vanishing, and though he feared to go into the darkness that was covering him, though he grasped at the dim images with all his strength, he drifted away...
***
"What the hell was that?" Director Archer demanded, glaring at the scientist who was rapidly tapping a series of commands into the computer. When the scientist finished the last command, the pair watched a team of medics and doctors haul the unconscious subject out of the stasis tank, the inside of the container filled with scuffs and scratches where the boy's claws had struck it.
"I told you this was a possibility." The scientist repeated, his eyes scanning the medical data that was displayed on his screen. "The genetic catalyst reacted with the stasis solution the second it was introduced, weeks ago. The combined molecule bound to his nerve and muscle fibers when it was excreted by his cells. The moment the neutral buoyancy of the tank was disrupted, all the nerves of his body were subjected to overstimulation, all at once, which resulted in extreme pain. Its amazing that he stayed conscious. I told you we should have kept the sedatives going until he was out."
"I need results, doctor, and I need them now. Keeping him sedated would have made for an unacceptable delay." The director said, leading the way out of the control room and into the stasis bay. The moment the door slid open, he wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Ugh. Smells just like wet dog in here."
"Wet wolf you mean." The doctor muttered dryly and the Director snorted at the jest. The scientist hurried to run a scanner over the boy, all the while looking at the display of a hand held computer. "Thankfully, the reaction is already subsiding. At least the accelerated metabolism is working as it is supposed to. No permanent damage was done, though the failsafe chemicals will keep him out for a few more hours."
"Fine, fine." The director replied, heading out of the room in the direction of the other stasis room. "Gives me plenty of time to greet our other subject. I want 1275 ready for training by the end of the day."
"Yes sir." The doctor said as the door closed behind the director. Sharing a look of disgust with the other technicians, the scientist set to work on the data that the scanner was feeding him.
***
Subject 1275 sat with his legs crossed, his eyes closed, his back straight. Anyone looking at him might think he was meditating, but his mind was focused, fully awake and aware. The wolf-boy was, in fact, listening, his sensitive ears giving a twitch now and then, tracking the sounds that surrounded him. He could hear the faint whine of the distant air circulation unit, the soft humming of electricity in the walls. And every now and then, he caught footsteps in the corridor outside his room, snatches of conversation betraying the identity of the walkers. This was a game he had taught himself to play in the months since he had awoken in the stasis tank to such horrible pain.
Two sets of heavy footfalls, almost perfectly in sync, with very few words said told him that soldiers were walking by. He didn't like it when soldiers came to his room. It always meant that he was in for another hard day, either forced through constant, hard physical challenges that left him so exhausted he had to be helped back to his small room, or else placed into a room with padding on the floor where he learned what they called 'hand to hand combat', the end result of those sessions always another set of painful bruises, and occasionally much more serious injuries. He had once asked why his instructors treated him so brutally, and hit him so hard. The answer, told to him as he was lying pinned face down on the floor, one arm twisted at a strange angle in the grasp of an instructor, was that an enemy would show no mercy, so neither would they.
1275's right ear twitched a little, angling to catch another set of footprints as the soldiers' faded into the distance. One set of footprints, a familiar set, light enough that he only barely heard them, and the soft murmurs of a one sided conversation. He had no idea who that set belonged to, but he heard it pass often enough to make him wonder who it was. Not a soldier, the tread was too soft, not a technician either, who were always typing or talking while they walked. It could be a scientist, since they all had weird quirks. He liked when the scientists came much better than the soldiers, because it meant his body could rest. They always took him to strange-smelling rooms where he was poked and prodded, and occasionally knocked out with chemicals only to wake up back in his room with fresh scars under his fur, or else to rooms where he was told to sit in a chair and given a test. Sometimes the test was written in a book, and those were not fun, being absurdly difficult and extremely abstract, at least they seemed that way to him. But other times they were enjoyable, showing him the limits of his new senses. Sometimes they put a helmet over his ears that blocked out all sound and he had to track different color lights around and around the dark room. But his favorite tests were when he was blindfolded and he had to do some task by sound and feel.
But today was different. He had been awakened by the intercom's command after what felt like entirely too little sleep, and then he had been left here alone, in the dark room for the last hour. That never happened. It was always 'get up and get dressed as fast as you can because tests are waiting for you'. The whine of the air circulator picked up a moment later and the temperature in the room dropped by a few degrees as cold air flowed in through the vents in the ceiling, making the wolf perk up. It would have to be a lot colder than that for it to bother him, his thick silver-grey fur keeping him plenty warm. That had been a memorable test. They had put him in a room and then made the temperature drop until he was shivering, everything else coated in frost. But the air cooling told him that he would be going for more testing soon, the cooler air meant to equalize the temperature even after the door opened and let a bunch of it out. Then he heard it. Four sets of footprints, two heavy and rhythmic, the steps of soldiers, and two softer, the shoes of scientists. That was new. It was usually one or the other.
Getting up out of his comfortable place, subject 1275 stood up to his full height, perhaps not a very impressive thing, but it made him feel better all the same. He kept his eyes closed, knowing that the corridor would be brightly lit. He heard one of the quartet standing outside slide his ID into the scanner in the door and the chirp when it unlocked. A moment later, the door slid back into the wall, bringing a cascade of light into the room and a brief wave of warmer air. Bracing himself for the pain, he slowly opened his eyes, wincing as the light stabbed into his sensitive eyes. Blinking hard to clear the glare, he quickly evaluated the people who stood in view. Two guards that he had never seen before stood against the corridor wall outside his room, but that was nothing new. He never saw the same guards twice. But the scientists that stood in the doorway were ones that he recognized. One was a man that he had seen most often, the one that did the most prodding and poking in the oddly scented rooms. The other was one of the testers, the one that administered the tests of his senses.
"Good morning 1275." the tester said, his voice holding a strange note within it, one that meant something to the young wolf, but he didn't know exactly what it was. 1275 didn't reply, he didn't need to. Whenever they said that they were just starting the conversation, they never actually wanted him to say anything back. "We have a very special test for you today. Are you ready?"
That question made all the fur on the back of his neck stand up. No one ever asked him if he was ready or not. They always just assumed he was. The wolf nodded hesitantly, trying to command his fur to lay back down, but it wouldn't. Now he knew what the strange note he had heard was; not quite worry, but more like nervous anticipation. The tester motioned for the boy to follow him and then stepped out of the way. Stepping into the corridor, the wolf combed a hand through his neck fur with his fingers, coaxing it back down. As he followed the two scientists down the corridor, the two soldiers fell in step right behind him and his hair instantly leapt to attention once again. This was certainly something that had never happened before. Always, the soldiers walked beside him, not behind him, the odd position making him nervous. But what truly bothered him was when they reached the first corridor junction, the scientists led him to the right. The scientists always went left, where the testing rooms were set up, and the soldiers always went straight ahead. His heart beat started to pick up, hammering away in his chest until it felt like it was trying to break out.
They walked for a long time along the corridor, minute after minute, the number of doors in the walls declining as they walked. Finally though, just when subject 1275 thought that they would be walking forever, they stopped before a door set in the wall that was different than the others. This one was broad, with two halves, and it looked thick, made all of steel. When the doors split apart into the walls, the scientists walked in, and 1275 followed them, the soldiers stopping at the door. The moment he was inside, the doors slid shut, missing his tail by an inch, making him jump. Now he was really worried. It felt like he was being led to his doom. The room he found himself in was a strange one. There was a door in the far wall, and set into the floor was a box that looked like a cage, its walls made of iron bars. The only other thing in the room was a screen on the wall, like the ones that were in the testing rooms. A moment later, the door in the wall opened and an older man walked in, wearing a dark green suit with dozens of colorful military ribbons on its left side. On his right pocket, a small rectangle of black plastic had been pinned to the cloth, engraved with the word 'Archer' in white. Just the sight of the man set off a reaction in the boy, a reaction he had never experienced before.
Before the man had taken more than a step into the room, subject 1275's tail had curved down, his ears folding backward until they were flat, his head ducking down almost like he was cowering, though the man hadn't made any threatening gestures. Without being told, his body knew this was a man of authority, one who had to be obeyed at all costs. The man walked slowly forward until he was standing near the cage, his hands folded at the small of his back. Seeming to be pleased by 1275's submissive gestures, he smiled, motioning towards the wall, a picture appearing on the screen. The screen depicted a human boy, not more than ten years old, dressed in what looked like a light jumpsuit.
"Your test today is a simple one 1275." Director Archer said, watching the young wolf intently. "You will be placed in an artificial environment where you will be on your own for survival. This individual will be somewhere in the environment," as the director was talking, the scientist who poked and prodded him came over with a device that looked like pliers, though one of the contacts near the top had a sharp point on it. The doctor hooked a small device around the sharp point, a sight that made 1275 worried. He didn't like the look of the device at all. Archer drew his attention back to him when he gestured to the picture displayed on the screen and it zoomed in on the human's face. "Your task is to find and observe him for as long as you can. You are to avoid allowing the subject to see you for as long as possible. I know you have been trained in hand to hand combat, but you are not to engage the target unless you are attacked first." At that moment, the scientist caught 1275's right ear in the pliers and squeezed the handles, making him jump, a yelp of pain coming from him. The sharp point on the device pierced through the sensitive flesh before withdrawing. The boy glared at the scientist, setting into fighting position, a strange weight making it a bit harder to move his ear around. The director grinned as 1275 reached up and found that a small device had been attached to his ear, a device that emitted a slight crackle like static as he touched it. "The mike you have just been given will allow us to keep contact with you in the environment. Do you understand your orders?"
When 1275 nodded, Archer turned and walked back through the door with the scientist, leaving him with the tester. When the door had closed behind them, the tester lifted one side of the box and looked at the wolf expectantly. After a moment's hesitation, 1275 crawled into the box, the tester lowering the side back into place, a small catch near the bottom giving a click as it settled into place. The box made him feel trapped, closed in, the ceiling not tall enough for him to stand up all the way. All 1275 could do was sort of crouch awkwardly in the space, unable to turn around and readjust, and unwilling to sit down, instinct keeping him on his feet. He waited in the box for a few long minutes, his muscles cramping up and then, just as his back was starting to hurt, the box lowered into the floor and into the largest space he had ever seen. It was a dome, miles and miles across, and the most marvelous thing he had ever seen.
Breezes flowed through the bars of the box and he at once forgot all about the pain in his back and the burning of his legs. Scents, marvelous, endless scents that some part of him recognized filled every breath he took. Even before the cage-box touched ground, he was grinning broadly, elation rising through him. A jarring impact as the cage touched bottom and the click of the catch releasing only made the grin get wider. But the door didn't open and he frowned. He wanted out and no collection of metal was going to stop him. Gathering himself and ducking down even further, he lunged backward, the box door popping open as he struck it. Tumbling end over end as the door gave way, the wolf ended up lying flat on his back, his eyes wincing at the brightness of the day. But the pain made no impression on the boy's mind. Instead, he lay there, grinning madly and staring up at the 'sky'. It had been painted a strange sort of color that seemed to shift as he stared up at it. It looked a bit like the sky he had been looking up at it in his dream, the one he had had before he had been awakened in the tank of greenish fluid all those months ago. Logically, he knew it couldn't be a sky, since the bottom of the box, which was now being drawn back up towards it, was painted the same color. But at the same time, it seemed to be close enough for the strange part of himself that recognized the scents around him. This place felt right. This was where he was supposed to be.
Slowly, he sat up, looking around, his eyes cataloging the plants that surrounded him. Information of every single one came into his mind as if supplied automatically. A few in the vicinity were edible, none were poisonous, and one in particular caught his interest, a tall tree with fruit hanging from it that had grown nearby. There was something about it that seemed off, the placement and spacing of the branches odd. Getting to his feet, he walked over and touched the bark of it, feeling it beneath his fingers. It certainly felt right, and smelled right, but the way it had grown seemed somehow...wrong. But, even as he looked up, trying to figure out what it was that made him think that, the device in his ear crackled, making him grimace in annoyance, his ear flicking irritably, as if trying to dislodge it from its surface.
"Get moving 1275." It said and he rolled his eyes, turning from the weird tree and walking off into the foliage, becoming nothing more than a whisper in the undergrowth...
***
The wolf crouched under the huge leaf of some fern-like plant, hidden by the leaves in front of him. This part of the sprawling nature room was filled with more plants than he had imagined existed. Somehow, all the plants seemed to be associated with the word 'jungle' though just what that meant was still a mystery to him. It had taken him a few hours of wandering around to find the trail of his target. He had stopped in his wandering to smell an odd looking flower when he had caught an odd scent in the breeze, a scent that smelled like the humans he had interacted with, though not quite the same. He had followed it for a while, the trail leading him right into the jungle area. Then, taking care to approach downwind, he had crawled into the ferns and begun his vigil. Ahead of him, seated with his legs crossed in the midst of a clearing, was the boy he had been sent to find, doing exactly what he had been doing since he had found him. He appeared to be doing the exact same thing he himself had been doing that morning, though his ears couldn't be nearly as sensitive as 1275's were. It was getting towards evening, and he had been waiting for long minutes, watching the target intently.
The boy looked normal-ish, though again, there was something about him that seemed...off. If his guess was right, they were about the same age, which made hunting him seem somehow wrong. Still, he had been ordered to hunt him, so he would hunt him. Frowning, he started to shift position, his legs cramping up once again, but he froze suddenly. The boy he was watching was moving. Holding perfectly still, he watched as his target started to get up, then doubled over, retching. After a moment, the boy threw up and the wolf winced in sympathy. That couldn't have been pleasant. The boy shuddered a bit, then managed to haul himself to his feet. The boy's legs seemed awfully wobbly as he staggered in the direction of the nearby stream. Moving slowly, his flexible body instinctually folding itself around the leaves of the plants, not allowing them to move, he followed the boy from a distance. There was obviously something wrong with him, for he couldn't seem to keep his feet. He kept stumbling. Then, about thirty meters short of the stream, the boy fell onto his face, pushing himself up a little and then falling flat. The wolf remained still for a few moments, then, when the boy didn't move, he crawled out of the foliage, approaching slowly.
Though it technically went against what he had been told to do, 1275 was curious about his target. Besides, he had been told not to let the boy see him, and if he really was unconscious, he wouldn't. Moving forward stealthily, the wolf approached until he was crouched beside the human. Cocking his head to the side in curiosity, he examined his target close up. The boy had scars on his exposed arms, scars that looked similar to the ones that he himself had under his fur. Reaching out, he gently turned the boy over and looked at him once more. He was well and truly out, unconscious. And judging from how he looked, it was because he was dehydrated. A very strange feeling welled up in the wolf's heart as he looked at the boy, then down at himself. Sitting down on the ground, he considered his target. The boy was normal, or at least close to it, and he was not. Sitting there with nothing to do, he finally was able to take time to think. For the first time since he had been awakened, he felt the same cold sensation that he had felt when he saw that his arms were the wrong color in the tank.
For months he had been kept busy, exhausted day after day, unable to think about what had been done. But now, faced with a normal human and time to compare, he was faced with a stark reality. Somehow, and he couldn't explain how, he knew he wasn't supposed to be the way he was. He wasn't supposed to be covered in silver grey fur, he wasn't supposed to have a tail or the ears, snout and senses of an animal. What was more, the more he thought about it, the more he was sure that he shared a certain kinship with his target, the scars alone evidence enough. His target shifted a bit, and the wolf frowned, a feeling of sympathy rising in his heart as the boy stirred, still unconscious but obviously starting to wake up. Getting to his feet, 1275 hurried off into the foliage, searching for a very specific plant...
***
"What is he doing?" The Director asked, watching the display as the wolf picked two waxy leaves from a bush and carried them to the stream.
"Interesting..." The head scientist commented, typing notes into his computer pad as the wolf filled one leaf with water and the other with berries from a bush beside the water. Hurrying back to the waking boy, the wolf left the two leaves beside his head and then trotted off into the foliage once again. "1275 seems to recognize the other subject as some sort of relation or pack member. It seems to have triggered a latent instinct, a protection response."
"That isn't what is supposed to happen, doctor." The Director said, glaring at his companion.
"Emotional responses were always going to be unpredictable, Director." The scientist replied. "Its impossible to tell how the subjects will react to novel experiences, especially when one's genetic modifications have been completely integrated. We never could be sure how much of the wolf's instincts would be retained."
"I guess we will just have to change the rules then." Archer said, activating the comlink that was linked to the wolf's ear piece. "Change in orders, 1275..."
***
Subject 1275 waited beneath the foliage of the jungle once more, watching his target. He was conflicted. He had been ordered to stop observing in silence, to pretend to engage the boy, but he didn't want to. He felt compelled to act on his orders, but his mind kept screaming at him that his target was not an enemy, and therefore not to be hunted. Shivering, his heckles rising, 1275 watched as the boy neared the stream, and bent down, about to drink. Then, the boy seemed to notice that something was amiss. 1275 felt his senses go on high alert as the boy drew a knife from its sheath on his leg. He really disliked when others had knives and he didn't. On a few occasions during training when the instructors had had knives, he had ended up being hurt badly enough he had had to have been taken to the infirmary with deep cuts and stabs. To hell with orders, he wasn't going to come anywhere near the knife. Changing his stance, he went forward so he was resting on one palm, in a position that was like a true wolf stalking his prey. Picking up a stick that lay before him, a plan took shape in his head, a predatory grin coming to his lips. Pushing himself back up onto his haunches, he got both hands on the stick and bent it outward with his thumbs. Instantly, it snapped, making a noise that was louder than he intended, but that hardly seemed to matter. His target instantly looked in his direction, but the wolf was already in motion.
Running as fast as he could, slipped around to his target's left, slipping between the leaves of the plants like a ghost. All through the physical training he had been put through, he had never understood why the instructors had been pleased by his speed, but now he did. He moved so fast that the boy wouldn't have been able to turn fast enough to track him, and he did it in near silence. He even had time to snap another stick half way through his journey, attracting the other boy's attention. Before long, he was opposite where he had been, the human boy barely able to track him. And then, just as he was formulating the next part of his plan, the human boy started to run, sprawling into the stream before scrambling back up to his feet and hurrying off as fast he could. 1275 stood up, surprised at the boy's reaction, and wondered if he was supposed to follow or not.
"That is good enough 1275, head east and come on in." The voice in his ear said and he shrugged, doing as he was told, starting to walk off in the direction his mind identified instinctually as 'east'. But just as he passed the creek, he noticed a gleam in the water and he stooped, plucking the other boy's knife from where it had dropped. 'It would be a shame to just leave it there', 1275 thought, tucking it into his belt. Trotting away from the stream, he headed for the wall, detecting the odd scent of the re-circulated air of the rooms he had lived in for as long as he remembered. When he came to the side of the dome, a door opened and, with a last glance around, he stepped inside, the door slamming shut behind him. At once, a screen flickered to life in the wall and Director Archer's head and shoulders appeared. 1275's body instantly went back into is submissive posture, the scowl on the director's face making him terrified.
"You disobeyed orders 1275." He snarled, making the young wolf cower. "You were ordered not to directly interact with the target." The Director went off on a long-winded rant, insulting just about everything about subject 1275, apparently not noticing that the wolf's posture was changing. It was subtle enough, the boy's ears and tail still submissive, but he was no longer cowering. Instead, he was glaring in silence at the ranting officer, his instincts no longer quite so submissive. Submitting to authority was one thing, but his instincts bristled at the verbal abuse, a far different instinct welling up in his heart. The director might have authority, might have to be obeyed, but the other boy, his so called 'target', was closer to being his kin, which made him much more deserving of his loyalty. Finally, after a long few minutes, the director seemed to be coming to an end. Finally, he paused in his ranting and took a deep breath. "Now then, go through the door on your right and wait until you get more orders."
With that, the screen clicked off and the door in the right hand wall opened. Walking sullenly through the door, subject 1275 found himself in a room that looked a lot like his usual room, minus the bed. Actually, it looked kind of like a store room. Shrugging to himself, he sat down against the wall and drew the knife from his belt. Casually tossing the knife into the air and catching it by its handle in a perfect rhythm, he settled in to wait, occasionally weaving the blade through the fingers of his hand. The motion was automatic, like he had done it a thousand times before. The edge of the blade was obviously sharp, but he felt no fear as he toyed with it. After a long time, the lights dimmed and he sighed, stretching out on his back on the floor and putting the knife back in his belt...
***
"Same orders as last time 1275," the voice in his ear said, and the young wolf rolled his eyes. It was hours and hours after they had locked him in that room, alone with his thoughts. And then, a door had opened in the wall and he had been commanded to follow a path through a series of rooms. He had then been told to get into another cage/box, this time one attached the ceiling. Moments ago, the cage had been pulled up through the ceiling, into another section of the nature room. It was dim, like dawn or twilight, and when the catch released, 1275 pushed open the cage side and immediately ran under cover, only pausing when he felt sure he couldn't be observed. His target's scent drifted faintly on the air, drawing his attention. But this time, instead of searching it out right away, he ignored it. It could wait for a while. Closing his eyes, he stretched out for a while under the thick foliage the soft ground seeming supremely comfortable to him. After a few moments, he drifted into a state that wasn't quite sleep, but wasn't quite awake either. But of course, that couldn't last very long. After what seemed a very short time, the ear piece crackled, bringing his mind back out of the drifting state.
"Your target is out and moving 1275." A voice said, but a different voice than before. "You should be too."
Sighing, the wolf forced himself to roll over and crawl away, moving like one of his four legged name sakes. It didn't take him long to find the human boy he hunted. He was seated in clearing, eating berries and subject 1275 sat for a while, watching him before the voice returned, telling him to quit goofing around and he looked around in irritation. How could they possibly know what he was doing all the time? Ignoring the target for a few moments, he looked around and couldn't see anyway how they could have seen him. But, when he looked back at the human boy, he realized that he was getting ready to move. Carefully, he followed the boy as he wandered, trailing him for hours, his silver grey fur allowing him to hide like part of the shadows. But finally, when the boy stopped and sat idly, the wolf decided that it was time to take matters into his own hands. He had been ordered not to let himself be seen. He had already been reprimanded once just for helping the human while he had been unconscious, and he knew he would be in true trouble for this. But for some reason, he felt like being defiant.
Carefully, he stalked forward until he was in the foliage just on the edge of the clearing. Then, though it went against his nature to do this, he stood up, going to his full height, purposely putting his weight on a stick, making it snap. The human boy instantly leapt to his feet and whirled around, his eyes wide in surprise, looking like he was about to run away. The wolf held up his hands and the boy looked at him in surprise, obviously not expecting that. For a few moments, the pair stared at each other in silence. But that was about as far as subject 1275 had gone in his planning. Out of ideas, the wolf reached down and slowly drew the knife from his belt. The human boy stiffened, but the wolf didn't take the hilt in hand, instead lifting it by the blade. Holding it up so his target could see him, he waited for a moment for the boy to react.
"I think you dropped this." He said when the human didn't do anything, tossing the blade at the boy's feet. The human stared at the weapon for a moment in surprise, then slowly picked it up, keeping his eyes on the wolf. The human boy took the hilt of the knife in hand, blade down towards the ground, looking like he was about to set into a ready position. The wolf waited, standing still, hoping he hadn't just made a mistake. He began going over what his teachers had said about how to hold a knife, and they had said never to hold it that way if you intended to fight with it, since it was too easy for an opponent to get it away from you. If he had too, he could get the knife away from the boy, he was sure of it, and he shifted his weight slightly, ready to react. But then, the boy slowly slid the knife back into its sheath and both of them relaxed, looking each other over...
***
"Well, what have you concluded?" Director Archer asked the lead scientist, who was seated at his usual computer terminal in the stasis bay.
"Well, the amplified senses and increased metabolism of both subjects worked as advertised," he began, looking at his notes. "However, despite the obvious cosmetic issues, the wolf prototype has many more advantages over the purely human model, the natural instincts providing a huge advantage that we never expected."
"Should we liquidate the second prototype and start over?" The Director asked and the scientist shook his head. "What then?"
"I think that we should move ahead with 1276's genetic augmentations," the doctor said, "And perhaps repurpose him. Two prototypes, each specialized in different areas, would seem to be the best option, rather than one, all-purpose set of modifications."
"I agree, though I don't know if the budget committee will." The Director said. "But, I will suggest it." The door in the wall opened up to reveal the corporal they had left to monitor the camera feed from the biodome.
"Pardon the interruption sir, but I think you should see this." The corporal said and the both men looked confused. "We may have a problem..."
End of part two...