FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A loud clicking sound was what woke Subject 1276 from his slumber. The dragon child lifted his head to look around before the floor dropped out from beneath him and sent him plummeting down toward the bottom of one of the nature rooms. This one wasn't so heavily populated with trees, but the young dragon didn't pay much attention to that. Instead, he was focusing on the ground that was quickly coming up to meet him.

Oh god, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die! 1276 thought to himself as he closed his eyes. I wish I could FLY! As if on cue from his thoughts, the dragon boy's wings unfurled and caught the air rushing by. The child's descent slowed and he also started to go forward, his wings transferring a large part of his fall into forward movement. Subject 1276 opened his eyes, having expected death. He was surprised to see that he was gliding 20 feet above the ground. He couldn't believe it! In his excitement, he accidentally allowed his tail to relax. To the boy's dismay, it translated into twisting his body until his wings were like a vertical knife in the air. With a loud shriek, he fell the remaining short distance to the ground and landed with a thud. Groaning, the dragon slowly stood and stumbled a bit, not quite used to walking on his toes. Once he had fallen over as his balance failed him yet again, he let out an annoyed growl. He immediately jumped; shocked that such an inhuman noise could come from within his throat... It had been from him, right?

It was then that the boy began to notice that he felt different. But...why? He looked at his hands and shrieked as he saw that his hands were covered in deep red scales, each finger capped with a black claw. Hoping that it was a dream or some figment of his imagination, he closed his eyes and shook his head, which also felt weird. Upon opening his eyes, he realized that it was quite more than a dream; yet seeming so far from reality. He once again tried to get up, succeeding in obtaining a careful, shaky balance. Luckily, there was a tree next to him, which he was thankful for and used to help stabilize his new body.

***

"1276 is active, sir." An operator said from his station.

Director Archer's face held a pleased smile as he sat down in a chair. "Alright, begin the exercise." He said, "Let's see if we can start getting the real project underway. Release the targets."

***

Subject 1276's head began to tingle as a thought appeared from nowhere, Survive. He had to stay alive. But that didn't seem to be much of a problem. Last time, he didn't really need the knife he was given. He decided to use whatever time he was in here for to see exactly what these new wings could do. The child jumped up into the air and pitched himself forward, expecting his wings to open, only to fall and land face down into the soil. Groaning, he got up and brushed himself off.

The sound of voices caught his attention. They were coming closer. He turned his eyes on the tree next to him and started to climb as quickly as possible, taking care not to harm his wings. He noticed his tail as it curled and uncurled in response to the straining of his body as he ascended the tree. Noticing it, he tucked it close to his body, though doing so was not as odd as seeing it; the new appendage having its own set of sensory feedback that was new and uncomfortable.

He managed to climb a couple branches as the voices drew near; their tones being one of fear above all else. They passed under the tree occupied by the reptilian child and stopped. The boy breathed in through his nose and was greeted with a plethora of news scents. He smelled their nervous sweat, their overall health, and even what they had to eat the day before. He breathed deeply; gathering the information their scents offered his nose even as the two men lashed out at each other about who was to blame for their predicament. As they bickered, something in the boy's mind marked them as targets. He then noticed the firearms strapped to each of their waists but they did nothing with them even as the heat of the argument increased. After many minutes of fighting, one of the targets stormed off with a huff. The other stayed and sat against the tree, arms crossed as he thought about what was said.

It was then that another intangible thought arrived in his mind. It concerned the man sitting under the tree. Kill. Acting seemingly on impulse, he slowly lowered himself on the opposite side of the tree trunk from the man. The world seemed to become shrouded in complete silence as the dragon crept slowly around the tree's circumference, his claws at the ready. As he neared the man, claws extended and ready for blood, he stopped himself. "I can't do this." He said softly to himself. He couldn't kill, he couldn't. However, it does seem that fate is very peculiar in its operation and it just so happened that the young dragon's brief monologue was not quiet enough to keep his would-be target from hearing the whisper. The man turned his head to the source of the sound but stopped, half frozen in fear and half in utter disbelief in what his eyes told him. The huge man and the dragon boy stared at each other in complete silence. The dragon was also gripped by fear, unsure of what would happen.

The man finally jumped to his feet with a scream, trying to put some distance between himself and the abomination in front of him. After the man got a few meters away, he shakily drew the pistol that was his side and raised it with unsteady hands at the child. Once he was sure the sights lined up with the lizard's head, he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. A loud bang was heard as the round traversed its short distance and connected, glancing off of a scaled shoulder.

The child squawked in sudden pain and covered his wound with a clawed hand. Then, though the scales protected him from any real damage, the boy looked at the man holding the firearm. Rage filled him as new instincts told him to defend himself and retaliate. With a small roar, 1276 lunged at the man, tackling him to the ground bringing his claws to bear on the man's chest and head. On the inside, the dragon seemed to only be watching himself tear into the grown man who was screaming loudly in vain from the pain of being eviscerated.

During the ordeal, time seemed to have lost meaning. However, once time had regained its rightful position a few short moments later, the man's open corpse was laying in its own bloody mess; face and upper torso forever destroyed and rendered unrecognizable as if it had been mauled by hyenas.

The boy came back to his senses and stared at the mess; beside himself as the reality of his actions took hold. He jumped back from the carcass and looked at his blood-covered hands. He had just killed someone and, for lack of a better word, mutilated their body. The boy sat down, tears coming to his eyes as the weight of realization hit him again, heavier this time. He let out a long, low, mournful wail as a tidal wave of guilt slammed into him, having little mercy for any structure of reason. His tears and sobs kept up for long minutes until they were broken by the horrified screams from the other man.

Having heard the demise of his partner, the other man ran back to see what was the matter. Only to find him gutted on the ground with some red lizard thing on top of him. He drew his own weapon and took aim, hoping to exact revenge on the little...thing, or whatever it was.

The boy looked up, mortified; but more by his seemingly imminent demise or his recent acts, he knew not. As the man drew his firearm, the dragon child grabbed the previous target's weapon. With inhuman speed, he took aim and fired, hitting the man in the knee. The man fell from the sudden loss of support. Even still, he sat up as best he could, supporting himself with his less dominant arm and returned fire. His aim seemed to be true, but the monster just seemed to either effortlessly float out of the way or absorb the hits; his panicked vision didn't quite allow him to be sure as adrenaline pumped into his system for a last stand. The last stand was merely a formality not fully realized as the next shot fired from the dragon's pistol drove home into the man's head. His time had expired and he fell back, limp and lifeless; the back of his cranium blown out in a rose fashion and allowing profuse amounts of blood to drain out. Red, dark red blood and so much...

The boy opened his mouth and screamed in horror of his actions, though it was more of a screech. He didn't care about the sounds he made anymore; his mind still trying to grasp the fact that he just killed two people. In an instant, he turned and ran; leaving the weapon behind and trying to get away from the horrible picture he helped create.

He ran and ran and ran, crying as he went. Unfortunately, the tears flooding his eyesight did pretty well to hide an oncoming obstacle. With a thud, his poor snout smacked into the trunk of a thick tree, causing the dragon to fall to the ground, knocked silly. The pain in his schnoz caused his new body to give him a small shot of epinephrine, causing the pain in his sniffer to subside, if only a little. The boy laid there, slightly in a daze from the impact, the dopamine now coursing in his system not helping him to remain very lucid. Thankfully, the impact helped to 'knock some sense into him' and calm him down enough for the thing in his brain to cause the release of more pleasure-inducing hormones. He began to feel satisfied with his kills.

And yet he hated himself for it.

As he lay on the ground staring up at the ceiling, he saw the face of a tall cliff from the edges of his eyesight. His mind was made up now. He was going to make sure he never did it again...

***

"Director, you'd better come here." A young operations officer said. Director Archer, still shaken with his recent dealings with the happenings concerning Subject 1275, shook himself back to reality at the mention of his title.

"Hmm, what?" He asked. He was actually quite glad that something had diverted his thoughts rather than allowing him to brood over such things. The operator pointed to a screen displaying a camera feed from the arena currently occupied by 1276. The feed showed the child on top of the cliff in the center of the arena. It looked like he was going to jump. Calmly, the Director spoke to the officer, "Do not allow the program to end. Do all that is needed."

"Yes sir." The officer complied.

Speaking into a small microphone on the nearby desk, the director spoke quietly, "Team 1, you are clear to enter."

****

It took some time for the dragon child to reach the top of the cliff. There, he stood for long minutes, observing the surrounding landscape. The two kills he made earlier began to weigh on him more heavily. Taking a deep breath, he stepped off. As soon as he did, regret immediately surged into him, but it was too late. He was already over the edge and plummeting toward the ground. He screeched as he fell down, hating himself for making this decision. He began to look for a solution. Wings! He had wings! How did he open them before!? Fly, fly, fly fly! He thought, but still nothing happened. Come on, wings, OPEN! That did the trick, his wings popping open at the last second and catching air, slowing his drop almost immediately. Within a second, he was gliding forward toward...a tree. Panicking, he tucked in his wings and began falling again. He hit the ground, but not hard enough to cause any damage, and quickly got up to dust himself off. He just flew. Well, glided, but as far as he was concerned, he flew. How did he do that? It was so cool! Looking at his right wing, he began to search his mind for a way to control that new appendage. Then, as clear as a flawless sky, he felt his wing as he had his tail and made it move. It was more natural now, more...proper. He opened and closed it a few times, marveling at how he was able to use his new wing. He tried it with the other and soon was moving both of them. He looked up to see the cliff from which he'd fallen, getting an idea. He could worry about the bad things he did later. He spent the next couple hours learning the simple basics, learning how to control a glide. He climbed several trees just to jump off and hone his new ability. The best part was that he could use his tail like a rudder and turn, though it was only a slight turn.

As he began to tire, the memories from the earlier incidents came back to haunt him. The blood...so much of it...so red... No, he couldn't let it bug him, not right now at least. He stood still for a moment, gathering his surroundings again. His self-teaching had moved him into new parts of the huge biosphere. Newer scents filled his nose as he began to breath deep. Plants, dirt, and small creatures here and there were catalogued by his brain. A few sniffs later brought the scent of metal and...man.

Voices caught the attention of his ears; close but quiet. Hushed whispers not intended to be heard but were anyway giving directions to others unseen. The slight click of a weapon safety made the dragon boy's ears twitch and narrowed his focus. From the same source, he heard a steady breath. In, out. In, out. The boy's instincts made him breathe in time with the other presence. No yet, stay. Stay...

Finally, the boy's instincts gave the OK and the boy lunged to the side. The soldier that had trained his weapon on the prototype gasped in surprise. He blinked and then lost sight of his target. The boy was into the underbrush, thinking he had escaped when he'd heard the gasp. But, that was not so as he came face to face with the barrel of another soldier's weapon. The barrel of the M4A2 was pressed firmly against the boy's muzzle, the smell of gun metal almost at a strength that was almost intoxicating. The boy froze immediately, eyes going wide as what he remembered of his life flashed before his mind's eyes.

And yet, another part of him began to count down from 10. His mind counted slowly, timing the perfect moment for when he could escape. He felt trapped, yet his mind assured him that this wasn't going to be the end. He had a way out, somehow. That's when he felt his tail and began to realize that the soldier was only focused on the boy's face and upper body. Slowly, as his mind's personal timer hit 4, he began to move his tail up and around just into the extreme of the soldier's vision and made it give a flick. The soldier's reaction was slight, but didn't go unnoticed by the dragon. The soldier's glance shifted just enough to allow the boy to act, bringing a clawed handup to push the weapon to the side while moving his head further out of harm's way. He gave a push then a yank on the weapon, prying it from the soldier's grasp.

He turned the weapon around and trained it on the soldier, who had staggered from his shift in weight. The boy pulled the trigger of the weapon, sending a rubber bullet into the disarmed man's chest. Out of reflex, he fell down with a grunt. The whole ordeal had only lasted a few seconds, but had seemed to take a lifetime. Regardless, he regained his focus and saw four more soldiers training their weapons on him. Before any of them could react, the dragon let loose a torrent of rubber rounds which were almost evenly spread between the men. All staggered and fell backward from the impacts. The rounds were designed to be less than lethal, but that didn't mean they didn't hurt.

Behind him, he heard the approaching foot falls of the man whom he had first evaded. Instead of running away, the boy turned and ran towards the sound, jumping and tackling the man just as he came into view. The two tumbled, the boy letting out an odd sounding snarl. He went for the man's sidearm trying to work the quick buckle open. As they came to rest, the dragon managed to pull the weapon free, taking off the safety and pulling the slide back before pressing the muzzle against the man's temple. The man grunted a squirmed underneath him, sweat soaking his uniform.

"Disengage, 1276" the man stuttered. "Disengage!"

It took a few moments for the command to sink in, but the boy dropped the weapon in near disgust almost immediately. The child's face was covered in horror as he realized what he'd just done. He just shot people; a whole squad of soldiers was on the ground because of him. Even though those same men were now getting up, he could have easily killed them. He hopped off the soldier he'd pinned, curling into a tight ball and crying as another group of soldiers approached to take him back to his quarters...

***

"I don't care if the damned kid needs a fucking teddy bear!" Director Archer screamed, his face red with anger. "There is little room for any more setbacks!"

"Shut your fucking mouth, Wickham!" Dr. Klein yelled at the director, he rarely ever used such language with Archer. "You are not jeopardizing MY project!"

"YOUR project?" The Director retorted, "YOUR PROJECT!? WE have deadlines, WE need results! This is OUR project! You had best check who you are talking to, Doctor, or I will have you removed!"

"The child is going to need therapy," Connor's face was beet red now. "Not another round of that mad house! If he doesn't get the help he needs, you will never get your 'results'!"

The weight hit the older man head on, causing him to take a deep breath and stay his anger. "Very well, you have 2 weeks." Archer said, giving in to the scientist's reasoning. "Two weeks, but no more..."

"Yes sir." Connor spat, poison soaking his otherwise calm response; fists clenching in disgust. He turned to leave but the Director stopped him.

"And Doctor, do not make any more direct contact with the subjects for a while..."