Experiment Zero

8. Anger On A New Level

       I hear the beep as the huge, metal door opens and my dad stands there, looking furious.

    Swallowing the vile taste in my mouth, I stand up, ready to face him. I don't even notice Zero inching closer in a defensive manner to me.

       I start to walk over to my dad, but am stopped when Zero's hand grabs onto mine, pulling me back into a solid hard chest.

       "Stay." Zero growls, making my eyes widen slightly in surprise. I wonder how he learned that word. have the scientists been treating him like a dog and issuing commands to him like 'stay'?

       My dad's eyebrows raise, and he holds up his hands in a surrender motion. I shake my head at him, my eyes pleading and hoping he can help to calm the suddenly tense Zero.

     I squirm, and when Zero doesn't let go, I twist to face him.

     "Let me go, Zero, or I swear this will be the last time you see me." I say in a forceful 'no nonsense' tone of voice, hoping it gets my message across.

      He might not understand English fully, but he understood I was making a threat. He snarls, but let's go, storming away to the corner of his room. My dad slowly walks up to me and leads me out of the room, Zero scowling and growling the entire time.

     A scientists starts to close the curtains, but Zero does not like that at all. He starts pounding on the glass with his fists and snarling until the open the curtain back up. His eyes, calmed down slightly now that he can still see me, track my movements as my dad leads me over to Mrs. Clark. Her face is emotionless and cold, making me shudder.

      "We need to perform a check up on Ashley immediately," Dad says the second I arrive within hearing distance of Mrs. Clark.

        "Dad, I'm fine. I think it was just a very sudden cold. It's passed now." I say, thinking he was worried about me being sick. 

Did it feel like just a cold? Heck no. Do I still hate-checkups enough to not want one even after going through all of that? Yes.

        His face grows red, fury written in every feature. "You didn't ask for her consent?" He says, his voice calm yet deadly.

      I frown, utterly confused. "Consent for what?"

     Mrs. Clark sighs, looking bored. "Remember that cup of water you drank when in Zero's cell? Originally that was meant for Zero, and contained a lab-made virus, entirely my creation, to see how his immune system would react. I never expected you to drink it, but the data we received from you being affected by it was equally as useful. It turned this experiment into  a study on Subject Zero's primal side, and he appears to have a very nurturing, protective side for the ones he likes." She finishes, looking proud of herself.

     "You were the reason I felt like death?" I ask, anger leaking into my voice. She nods her head, not at all looking guilty. I contemplate smacking her like they do in all the soap operas, but then I glance at my father, who looks equally furious. Maybe it's better to let him deal with it.

     "Mrs. Clark, that is a violation against our code and a threat to her safety. You're lucky I don't fire you right here-" My dad begins his lecture, but is cut off by Mrs. Clark.

     "Threat to her safety? You're telling me that shoving her into a room with a powerful killing machine isn't dangerous, but letting her become slightly sick is? I took this job to study this species and that is exactly what I'm doing. Now, are we going to show her the footage or not?"

     My dad turns red in anger, but I put a hand on his arm, stopping him from saying something he will regret in the heat of the moment."What footage?" I ask, turning back to Mrs. Clark.