Experiment

Chapter 8: Captured

"Now's your chance, they're not here!" Trudy exclaimed. The guards had been watching them closely, but had just left.

"O-okay," Laura said nervously. She flapped her wings a couple of times and ascended. "Here I go." she said a little more confidently, wriggled through the tiny gap, and flew again.

Laura looked back at Trudy and saw her waving, smiling hopefully. Laura nodded. Don't worry, I won't forget you. she thought, hoping her friend would be listening to her thoughts. Trudy's expression changed and she solemnly nodded back. Be safe. The words formed in Laura's mind.

Laura fluttered toward the desert as fast as she could. She knew she couldn't waste any time, because she knew that they might already know she was gone. Little did she know how right she was.

She faltered a bit in the wind. Because of her small form, the wind affected her more.

Laura looked around nervously. That was strange. Usually there were dozens of guards around, standing stiffly around the yard, but now there wasn't one.

Something swung out in front of Laura and she fell. Laura screamed as she hit it, face-first, and tried to regain her balance in the air, but it was too sudden and she couldn't. Instead of falling on the ground, however, she fell into something else. She looked around, and to her horror, she was caught in a net.

"No, NO!" she screamed in frustration as she gripped the strands of the net, which were like thick ropes to her. Laura tried to squeeze through the net, but her wings wouldn't fit.

A guard materialized and lifted Laura up to his ugly face. "Did you really think we were going to let go of you that easily?" he said. "Now you have to be punished." he clamped his fist around the top of the net so she couldn't get out.

Punished? Laura thought. What did that mean? Were they going to . . . oh no . . .

As the ugly-faced guard walked past the prison yard, the hybrids all looking on, she saw Trudy with her hands in her face, shaking her head. Trudy slowly looked up at her. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry . . . Right after she thought that, two guards came into the prison yard and dragged her away.

He walked into the gray building until he came to the dreaded experimentation room, Laura trembling the whole way, even begging the guard at times to let her go, but he just laughed.

"Subject S9572. Further experimentation. Swallowtail." he said to the lady that was in the room, dropping the net roughly onto the table. The lady nodded and he stomped out of the room. Laura fought her way out of the net and onto the table.

"Let's see, another dose of swallowtail." she muttered, grabbing something off a shelf.

"Don't do this." Laura pleaded as the woman got a small needle out of a drawer. "I never asked for any of this."

The lady turned towards the tiny butterfly girl. "Whenever an experiment tries to escape, we have to give them another dose of the animal they were first experimented on so that they won't try again. For, if they catch you trying again, they will give you another dose, and turn you into the animal, with no trace of human left. Even now, after this, you will not be allowed to go into the yard, and will be studied more." she said it as if she had recited it a million times.

Laura gasped. How much of a monster were these people? A full animal forever, with no trace of human left. It made her shudder to think of it.

"Now, come here." the woman said, picking the needle up.

Laura shot off, lightning fast, before the lady could get her, and fluttered in the top corner of the room. She looked around the room, hoping to find an exit.

"Ah, feisty, are we?" she said, grabbing the net. She waved it in the corner, the edge of the net coming dangerously close to Laura. "Look, if you don't come down, so help me I will find someone who can reach you. And give you two doses."

Laura hesitated, but flew near to her, barely in reach when, grabbing her by her wings, the doctor lifted her up and put her on the metal table once again. Laura went limp, knowing there was no point in resisting as the scientist injected it into her arm, leaving a large wound that Laura had bound up later.

The results were immediate. Laura whimpered as her five-inch height she still wasn't used to diminished even more.

As she came to three inches, she thought, I can't possibly get smaller than this! But still she shrunk until she was only one inch high. But that wasn't all. There was a pressure on her head and a butterfly's antennae sprung out.

"There, that takes care of you." the doctor said in a booming voice.

Laura winced and covered her ears. She was much smaller, and people even talking normally hurt her ears.

She put Laura back in an even smaller cage next to Trudy, in a different room from all the others, and left. Laura looked around for Benjamin, but he was nowhere to be seen, just another girl with lonely eyes and peahen feathers all over her. This was a room for the double-dosed. Then she looked at Trudy and backed up in shock.

Trudy looked nothing like she did before. Her face had elongated some, like a foxes' muzzle and her nose was turning black. From the way her back was arched, Laura knew she couldn't stand up like a human anymore. Her legs had shortened, orange fox fur was growing in patches all over her face and hands, and she had black claws on her fingers. She was curled up in the bottom of her cage, tear stains on her cheeks.

"Trudy . . . what happened to you?" Laura said.

Trudy looked at Laura. "The same thing that happened to you. The scientists knew I helped you, and they injected me with more fox DNA. I'm so disfigured that I may never walk like a human again, only like a fox." she whispered.

Laura looked at herself. Only then did she notice her partly black hair and the black, scaly spots on her arms, legs, and face. Like a butterfly. "I'm so sorry. There has to be a way to escape this!" But she too sat down in her cage, almost ready to give up.

Trudy shook her head sadly. "The only way would be if you . . ."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Annnddd . . . Yup, a cliffhanger. :) don't be mad! And, I know it seems bleak right now, but don't worry. It will end good!

_pure_imagination_