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Description

Part 4: Despair and hope

My appearance was so changed, I just stared at this reptile in the mirror and felt an odd satisfaction at my new visage.

“Are you okay?” asked the cat.

I snapped out of the stupor I had apparently fallen into while staring in the mirror and I nearly dropped it.

“Huh, what?” I replied.

I felt so confused that I couldn’t keep my thoughts together.

“Breathe deep and slow, the transition will cause disorientation but you will adjust,” said the cat and I took deep breaths until I began to feel better.

“Well, I suppose I should introduce myself, I’m Darius Rian”

“I’m Virgil,” I replied.

“Virgil huh, is there a second name?” he asked.

“It’s just Virgil” I answered, “I don’t have a second name. I was orphaned when I was a baby.”

As I said this Darius looked at me with a shocked expression (which at the time, I had never seen from a cat before).

“An orphanage!?” he exclaimed. “Those heartless bastards, I can’t believe they’re using children for the D-Series experiments!” He cursed angrily.

“Wait, are you saying that they’ve been bringing my friends here?” I asked hopeful but also concerned “I knew there was something wrong, but I was told that they had all been adopted”

It all made sense. These people must have been taking children from the orphanage under the guise of them being adopted and no one would suspect a thing… Excerpt me.

Back at the orphanage, kids were being adopted much more then usual and within a week five of us were gone.
The strange thing about it was that they all left before I could even say goodbye to any of them and I was told each time that they left early in the morning, very early.

That is until Jack, my best friend was taken and I was told he had been adopted, but he would not have left without telling me. We were inseparable and he had been in the orphanage since birth too.
We were like brothers and we had promised each other that we were both going together or not at all. That was when I knew something was wrong.
At midnight I stole into the records room, it wasn’t difficult for me to pick the lock on the cabinet and I quietly searched for Jack’s file.

I soon found it and it had an address and phone number to his new home.
I tried the phone number and I got nothing but a wrong number tone on the other end of the line.
I then used the phone in the room to contact an information line and asked them to check the address.
I waited a moment and as I had expected, the address did not exist.

“What have they done with him?” I wondered.

I was about to head back to my room when the lights in the records room turned on suddenly. I saw an old bald man with a scar on his left cheek, but then…a sharp pain in the back of my neck…a needle! I realised too late and I fell unconscious.

“Wait! That old man was the same guy who I saw before, when I woke up!” I realised.

“That must have been Trask, he’s the weasel who locked me up in here?” said Darius.

“So that means… Jack must be here in this facility!” I said hopefully. “I’ve got to find him and the others now”

“Whoa hold on kid!” Said Darius suddenly “We need to get out of here as soon as possible”

“I can’t just leave!” I argued “I need to find my friends!?”

“It’s too dangerous. The whole reason for all this madness is to create dragons for military purposes, they’re creating bio weapons here and you are the key to their success” he said seriously. “So far your transformation is progressing without any flaws, and when it’s complete, all they would need is your blood to copy the procedure and they would be able to make as many dragons as they want” he explained

“I don’t care!” I yelled “I am not leaving without my friends, so you can either help me or just stay here!” I said sternly as I got to my feet and headed for the door.

“Alright!” said Darius reluctantly “I’ll guide you, I know this facility better than you”.

“Thank you…” I smiled and opened the door out of the room.

We headed out of the room and into a hallway lined with cables and wires. Maintenance tunnels, I surmised.

“Listen…” I said looking to Darius “do you know where the cyrostasis chamber is?” I asked and Darius looked worried and nervously replied.

“Yeah…but you don’t want to go there” he grimaced.

“Yes I do! So where is it?” I demanded.

Darius hesitated but he reluctantly showed me the way and I followed.

I didn’t understand why he was so reluctant about this. Was the place heavily guarded? Or was it something else.
We soon came to a large mechanical steel door with the number eight on it.
I found the door’s opening mechanism next to it and as I was about to push it, Darius spoke up.

“Virgil…I’m asking you one more time, please just walk away, you won’t like what you see” he said almost begging, but I was determined to know what they were doing down here.

Without replying to him I pushed the button and the locking mechanism made a loud clank and the door slid open.
I slowly stepped in and a flow of mist blew over my feet and over Darius.
Darius jumped out of the mist covered floor and onto my shoulder and I continued on inside.

It was dark inside but not so dark that I couldn’t see. It was a large dark chamber and inside was what appeared to be six large, upright, cylinder water tanks and each one had machines attached at the bottom of them.
Each tank was dark and coated with condensation but I could see there was something floating inside each of them.
I slowly walked up to one of them and I put my hand against it. I wiped the condensation away and what I saw put a chill down my spine.

I gasped in fright as I found my friend Alan, his face was half deformed and he appeared to have limbs growing out of his body in odd places, his skin had patches of blue scales and spikes protruding from it too.
I fell backwards onto the floor from the shock and I quickly got up and I looked into the other tanks as well.
Mich, Lisa, Terry, Simon… They were all here and they had been mutilated and deformed, but worst of all, they were all dead.

I felt nauseous, Darius jumped off of my shoulder as I ran into the corner and
I proceeded to vomit.
I burst into tears at this point. All my friends were dead and there was nothing I could do about it.

I ran out of the chamber with Darius close behind, I slammed the button of the door mechanism and the door closed.

I slid to the floor against the door, the tears were flowing down my face now and I covered my eyes sobbing.

“I’m so sorry Virgil, I didn’t want you to see that” he said comfortingly, he looked at the door and looked furious.

“Trask is insane!” He said with disgust “and he used me to achieve this!?” said Darius with hate in his voice.

I felt so angry too, so furious that I was growling. I stood up and wiped the tears from my face.

“I won’t let him get away with this! I’m going to make him pay!” I spat with hate and rage in my words.

“Come on, we should leave” said Darius.

I got back to my feet but then I suddenly realised something that gave me hope.

“Wait… Only five of those tanks are in use. Jack isn’t here! So he might still be alive, I have to find him!” I said hopeful that there was still time.

But before I could leave my back became warm and was getting hotter, I knew instantly what was about to happen.

“Oh no…It’s happening again!” I said gritting my teeth together.

Darius kept his distance as I collapsed to the floor. My shirt was getting tight as something in my back was pushing its way out.
My shirt stretched and soon I could hear it ripping apart at the seams and then a sudden surge of heat flowed out of my back and into whatever it was that was growing from it.
I was nearly choking from the tightness of my own shirt when finally it ripped apart and fell to shreds on the floor.
I now realized what was happening. I was growing a new pair of limbs from my back and I could hear new bones cracking and popping into place.

They continued to grow and then a thin layer of membrane began to grow from them aswell.

“Wings!” I realized.

I was growing wings and it excited me for some reason.
Something else was happening now as the muscles across my body began to tingle and grow slightly.
The tingling soon passed and the change came to a halt. I stood up somewhat dazed and I looked at my new wings in awe.

“I’ve got wings!” I said almost proudly as I stretched out one of my new limbs.

“This is bad!” said Darius worried.

“What’s bad?” I asked.

“From what I can tell you’re at about seventy-five percent complete in your transformation, which means you’ve got about thirty minutes till it’s complete” he explained and as he said this I looked at him and said, “So?”

“Once the transformation is complete there’s no way to reverse it!” I stood quiet for a moment as this information sank in and I found the thought to be quite disconcerting… at first.

To be continued

Description

Part 4: Despair and hope

My appearance was so changed, I just stared at this reptile in the mirror and felt an odd satisfaction at my new visage.

“Are you okay?” asked the cat.

I snapped out of the stupor I had apparently fallen into while staring in the mirror and I nearly dropped it.

“Huh, what?” I replied.

I felt so confused that I couldn’t keep my thoughts together.

“Breathe deep and slow, the transition will cause disorientation but you will adjust,” said the cat and I took deep breaths until I began to feel better.

“Well, I suppose I should introduce myself, I’m Darius Rian”

“I’m Virgil,” I replied.

“Virgil huh, is there a second name?” he asked.

“It’s just Virgil” I answered, “I don’t have a second name. I was orphaned when I was a baby.”

As I said this Darius looked at me with a shocked expression (which at the time, I had never seen from a cat before).

“An orphanage!?” he exclaimed. “Those heartless bastards, I can’t believe they’re using children for the D-Series experiments!” He cursed angrily.

“Wait, are you saying that they’ve been bringing my friends here?” I asked hopeful but also concerned “I knew there was something wrong, but I was told that they had all been adopted”

It all made sense. These people must have been taking children from the orphanage under the guise of them being adopted and no one would suspect a thing… Excerpt me.

Back at the orphanage, kids were being adopted much more then usual and within a week five of us were gone.
The strange thing about it was that they all left before I could even say goodbye to any of them and I was told each time that they left early in the morning, very early.

That is until Jack, my best friend was taken and I was told he had been adopted, but he would not have left without telling me. We were inseparable and he had been in the orphanage since birth too.
We were like brothers and we had promised each other that we were both going together or not at all. That was when I knew something was wrong.
At midnight I stole into the records room, it wasn’t difficult for me to pick the lock on the cabinet and I quietly searched for Jack’s file.

I soon found it and it had an address and phone number to his new home.
I tried the phone number and I got nothing but a wrong number tone on the other end of the line.
I then used the phone in the room to contact an information line and asked them to check the address.
I waited a moment and as I had expected, the address did not exist.

“What have they done with him?” I wondered.

I was about to head back to my room when the lights in the records room turned on suddenly. I saw an old bald man with a scar on his left cheek, but then…a sharp pain in the back of my neck…a needle! I realised too late and I fell unconscious.

“Wait! That old man was the same guy who I saw before, when I woke up!” I realised.

“That must have been Trask, he’s the weasel who locked me up in here?” said Darius.

“So that means… Jack must be here in this facility!” I said hopefully. “I’ve got to find him and the others now”

“Whoa hold on kid!” Said Darius suddenly “We need to get out of here as soon as possible”

“I can’t just leave!” I argued “I need to find my friends!?”

“It’s too dangerous. The whole reason for all this madness is to create dragons for military purposes, they’re creating bio weapons here and you are the key to their success” he said seriously. “So far your transformation is progressing without any flaws, and when it’s complete, all they would need is your blood to copy the procedure and they would be able to make as many dragons as they want” he explained

“I don’t care!” I yelled “I am not leaving without my friends, so you can either help me or just stay here!” I said sternly as I got to my feet and headed for the door.

“Alright!” said Darius reluctantly “I’ll guide you, I know this facility better than you”.

“Thank you…” I smiled and opened the door out of the room.

We headed out of the room and into a hallway lined with cables and wires. Maintenance tunnels, I surmised.

“Listen…” I said looking to Darius “do you know where the cyrostasis chamber is?” I asked and Darius looked worried and nervously replied.

“Yeah…but you don’t want to go there” he grimaced.

“Yes I do! So where is it?” I demanded.

Darius hesitated but he reluctantly showed me the way and I followed.

I didn’t understand why he was so reluctant about this. Was the place heavily guarded? Or was it something else.
We soon came to a large mechanical steel door with the number eight on it.
I found the door’s opening mechanism next to it and as I was about to push it, Darius spoke up.

“Virgil…I’m asking you one more time, please just walk away, you won’t like what you see” he said almost begging, but I was determined to know what they were doing down here.

Without replying to him I pushed the button and the locking mechanism made a loud clank and the door slid open.
I slowly stepped in and a flow of mist blew over my feet and over Darius.
Darius jumped out of the mist covered floor and onto my shoulder and I continued on inside.

It was dark inside but not so dark that I couldn’t see. It was a large dark chamber and inside was what appeared to be six large, upright, cylinder water tanks and each one had machines attached at the bottom of them.
Each tank was dark and coated with condensation but I could see there was something floating inside each of them.
I slowly walked up to one of them and I put my hand against it. I wiped the condensation away and what I saw put a chill down my spine.

I gasped in fright as I found my friend Alan, his face was half deformed and he appeared to have limbs growing out of his body in odd places, his skin had patches of blue scales and spikes protruding from it too.
I fell backwards onto the floor from the shock and I quickly got up and I looked into the other tanks as well.
Mich, Lisa, Terry, Simon… They were all here and they had been mutilated and deformed, but worst of all, they were all dead.

I felt nauseous, Darius jumped off of my shoulder as I ran into the corner and
I proceeded to vomit.
I burst into tears at this point. All my friends were dead and there was nothing I could do about it.

I ran out of the chamber with Darius close behind, I slammed the button of the door mechanism and the door closed.

I slid to the floor against the door, the tears were flowing down my face now and I covered my eyes sobbing.

“I’m so sorry Virgil, I didn’t want you to see that” he said comfortingly, he looked at the door and looked furious.

“Trask is insane!” He said with disgust “and he used me to achieve this!?” said Darius with hate in his voice.

I felt so angry too, so furious that I was growling. I stood up and wiped the tears from my face.

“I won’t let him get away with this! I’m going to make him pay!” I spat with hate and rage in my words.

“Come on, we should leave” said Darius.

I got back to my feet but then I suddenly realised something that gave me hope.

“Wait… Only five of those tanks are in use. Jack isn’t here! So he might still be alive, I have to find him!” I said hopeful that there was still time.

But before I could leave my back became warm and was getting hotter, I knew instantly what was about to happen.

“Oh no…It’s happening again!” I said gritting my teeth together.

Darius kept his distance as I collapsed to the floor. My shirt was getting tight as something in my back was pushing its way out.
My shirt stretched and soon I could hear it ripping apart at the seams and then a sudden surge of heat flowed out of my back and into whatever it was that was growing from it.
I was nearly choking from the tightness of my own shirt when finally it ripped apart and fell to shreds on the floor.
I now realized what was happening. I was growing a new pair of limbs from my back and I could hear new bones cracking and popping into place.

They continued to grow and then a thin layer of membrane began to grow from them aswell.

“Wings!” I realized.

I was growing wings and it excited me for some reason.
Something else was happening now as the muscles across my body began to tingle and grow slightly.
The tingling soon passed and the change came to a halt. I stood up somewhat dazed and I looked at my new wings in awe.

“I’ve got wings!” I said almost proudly as I stretched out one of my new limbs.

“This is bad!” said Darius worried.

“What’s bad?” I asked.

“From what I can tell you’re at about seventy-five percent complete in your transformation, which means you’ve got about thirty minutes till it’s complete” he explained and as he said this I looked at him and said, “So?”

“Once the transformation is complete there’s no way to reverse it!” I stood quiet for a moment as this information sank in and I found the thought to be quite disconcerting… at first.

To be continued