Experiment

Chapter 1: Arriving

Laura's father grimly tied her hands and feet with some rope he had on hand and slung her over his shoulder. Laura, stunned, hung like a limp rag. He stormed out of the house, her mother at the door. Opening the car door, he shoved her into the back seat and shut the door with a resounding slam.

Hands behind her back, Laura rubbed her shoulder against her jaw over and over until her head was free of the sack. "Dad?" She whispered.

He looked back at her. "Laura, I told you to never, ever go into the room." He said in a gruff voice, "And you did. Now measures have to be taken."

He started the engine and gunned it. The windows were tinted black, so Laura was virtually invisible to others. She tried screaming and crying for help, but it seemed that her cries could not be heard by any passerby.

She had always wondered why the windows were so darkly tinted, and now she knew. They probably used the car for transporting the mutated animals. And now she was being transported to where, she didn't know.

Laura screamed and cried for the first hour until her dad pulled onto a side road, opened the back door, and put a gag into her mouth. After that she lay silent and shed tears as she thought of how she had been so roughly treated by her own father.

Overall, it was a really long and painful ride. Where is he taking me? she wondered. Sometimes when he stopped, he would get food and lift the sack up to try and feed it to her, but she just turned away and scream-cried, "Please! Let me go!"

Finally, after a few more hours, they stopped. The journey had taken more than half the day, and the lowering sun proclaimed it was well after noon. He got out of the car and opened her door. He untied her feet and hands and pulled her out of the car.

She had no idea where they were. Standing on numb legs, she took in the scene. The sun glared off of the the dry, pale sand making the air ripple. Spiked cactus and scrubby grass were the only plants in sight. There were no signs of life in any direction except for a big, gray building in the middle of it all. Black, blocky letters read:

F. A. H.

Facility for Animal Hybrids

No. No. Her dad couldn't be . . .

He grabbed her roughly by the hand and led her into the building. She resisted as much as she could, but her father was too strong.

They struggled through the door and the smell of antiseptic hit her. She tried to twist away, but in vain. His grip just tightened. She reached for the closing armored door behind her, but only succeeded in jamming her fingers in the door, and jerking them free painfully as the last sliver of daylight disappeared.

It was very white and similar to a hospital, except there were no patients in hospital beds. There were cages, rolling by on carts like supplies. Thin fingers clenched around the metal cages and small, scared eyes peered out.

A woman in a white lab coat came up to them, clipboard in hand. She smiled tightly and glanced at Laura. "Another test subject?" The woman's gaze was sharp and merciless, almost piercing her very soul.

Test subject? Laura thought. Oh, God, help me!

"Yes." Laura's father replied stiffly.

"Perfect, we need a fighter. So many of them fail." The woman smirked.

He pushed Laura in the woman's direction and she grabbed Laura's arm and walked towards a dark hallway from which screams were resonating.

"No! Dad, please!" She screamed in a final attempt, but he seemed not to hear her, turning around and walking out of the door. The only person she thought that loved her was leaving her. And never coming back.

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_pure_imagination_