Page 12 of His Asset
Chapter Five
Iwas strapped on ahard gurney with my large but delicate wings pulled out and taped uncomfortably.Even my head was strapped so that I couldn’t move, though my peripheral vision detected my leathery appendages quivering with a rage I barely repressed while my tormentors, who called themselves scientists, began yet another experiment on me.
As if being restrained and stripped of freedom wasn’t horrific enough, this examination room was surrounded by caged cells above where some of the GM prisoners were held.That each of us was not only tormented and experimented upon but were sometimes forced to watch each procedure in turn was just an added layer of malevolence.
The scientists clearly wanted us to know the suffering we’d endure.Not that there were many of us left.Though we were mostly kept in solitary cells, we had an hour each day to stretch our legs and intermingle.Thanks to that one hour, I’d watched my family die in slow motion.
Bat genetics apparently didn’t mingle well with humans.
I thought of Angel who lived in the cell next to mine, how she’d whispered a week ago during our exercise hour about the beaches she’d visit if we ever got out.White sand between her toes, salt air in her wings.Then she’d started coughing, specks of blood hitting the concrete.“Soon,” she’d said, but we both knew she meant dying, not escaping.
The voices of two of the male scientists brought me back to the present as they double-checked their instruments and computer monitors, ensuring everything was set up before they began.
“Our biggest investor is visiting today, Dr.Segmund himself.”The scientist, his dreadlocks contained by a wide headband the same color as his dark hair, pinched the bridge of his prominent nose.“Word is he’s been pressing to buy one of the assets.”He looked pointedly my way.“No guessing which one.”
I almost smirked.Had they not guessed what had happened to two of their colleagues after they’d hurt me?That same investor and scientist, Adam, had taken them out as easily as someone would squish a bug underfoot.
The other scientist with his pockmarked face—I’d counted twenty-eight of his pitted scars each and every time I’d been laid out on the gurney—snorted with disgust.“If it’s a whore he wants, I know of much cheaper ones who don’t fight.”
“Does your whore have wings?”the dreadlocked scientist asked with a cocked brow.He chuckled darkly.“And perhaps he enjoys the fight.”
“Who really knows what goes on behindhisclosed door,” pockmarked conceded.“What Idoknow is that he collects rare treasures.That he’s been intrigued with this GM from the start makes me wonder why he hasn’t bought her sooner.”
I refrained from wincing, from revealing any emotion whatsoever.But I hated the humans calling me and the other prisoners GM—genetically modified—like we were little more than unfeeling test subjects.Less than shit under the humans’ boots.Bad enough they also called us by our single letter and numbers.
“The review board and our boss might have something to say about that,” pockmarked said in his nasally voice.“That our subject isn’t declining like many of the others makes her a whole lot more valuable.We’ve still got so much to learn from her.”He peered down at me, his grin leering.“How does it feel knowing you have a chance of getting out of here?”
His morbid interest made me want to throw up.I was only glad the standard white smock that covered each and every prisoner hid much of my body.Only the slits in the back, which gave my wings relative freedom, showcased any difference to my human captors.
It wasn’t until they unzipped the front of my smock to stick electrodes on my chest, their fingers deliberately grazing my breasts before moving to my scalp that my pulse accelerated and my muscles tensed.Shit.This was going to hurt.
More of Angel’s words echoed in my mind.“When I get out of here, I’m going to eat strawberries until I’m sick, then eat some more.”She’d been coughing blood even then, five days ago, but her eyes still held fierce hope.By now, that hope was probably all she had left.
Bzzzt.
Everything locked, then spasmed.Straps bit into flesh.A scream built in my throat, but I had no breath.Just searing white pain.
Through the haze of agony, I recalled Angel’s latest coughing fit.It’d been during yesterday’s exercise.The blood had been darker this time, more of it.“Promise me something,” she’d wheezed.“If you get out and I don’t, find the ocean for both of us.”