Fury of the Sun

8. Halfway There

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Chapter 8
Halfway There

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Soundtrack: None
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"Stage One begins."

Orvask's shuffling gait rang in my ears as he turned to me, standing beside a bench upon which stood a strange, roughly cylindrical device which was currently spinning so fast it hurt my eyes to look at it. Orvask had called it a centrifuge.

"So, how's the accommodation?" Orvask queried, sounding chipper. "Really, for a mangy creature like yourself, you would have felt perfectly at home!" he snorted, seeming pleased with the insult.

I growled and glared at him, fantasising about wiping the smug look off his face... with my claws.

The centrifuge made a sound and Orvask turned to it quickly. When he faced me again, he held an amber coloured liquid in a glass tube. He stared at it with intent fascination.

"Gnaw!" he thundered suddenly, making me jump. The giant appeared in the doorway, a hulking figure in battered attire.

"Follow me, and bring her along," he ordered sternly. Orvask swept out the door, leaving Gnaw to push along the table on which I was imprisoned. The hidden wheels squeaked unbearably as they moved.

I growled, thrashed, roared and flung my tail about madly, my efforts multiplying the further we moved down the hall.

I vaguely heard Orvask call "Oh, shut up!" over the racket. Suddenly Gnaw's huge hand slammed into the table next to my head, making me still instantly. A booming voice echoed down the hallway - "Quiet!"

I was quieter than a dead mouse.

We entered a spacious room, the walls plated in the same compressed ice as the surface on which I lay. One of the walls in the room was made of dark glass, and I could see into another enclosed area.

"Welcome to the study room," Orvask announced, his hands spread as though taking in the surroundings.

"You can go, Gnaw," he grumbled, and the man-giant left, his footfalls echoing through the underground.

"So... Now I have a serum sample from your blood, I can add it to this-" he held up a deep blue coloured vial of liquid, "and finally, we can see once and for all the effects of the Shifter Serum."

I hadn't expected him to have gotten so far as to have the rest of the concoction prepared. Again, he had surprised me with his level of preparation.

A foul sneer appeared on his weathered face. "Bring in Subject 1!" Orvask shouted. A small door opened in the room on the other side of the glass. Subject 1 was Mudface, the viking who had shown me sympathy back on the beach. I felt terrible for him, and I knew Orvask must have organised this. Mudface didn't seem to see us through the glass. "It's one-way," Orvask commented.

A small chute opened at the edge of the glass and Orvask passed his vial of Shifter Serum through it. Mudface took it and looked at it blankly.

"Drink it," Orvask ordered, and Mudface looked at the glass in confusion. "Drink it!"

Mudface quickly downed the brew, and I closed my eyes, scared of what would happen. There was no sound. I opened my eyes, and immediately regretted it. Mudface's features were contorted with pain, his every muscle spasming uncontrollably. He writhed on the floor, his eyes wide.