A new one

Nitrous Oxide. Meningitis. Small Pox. Cancer. Eye Make-up Remover.

If you notice, by covering the bat with a series of paints, she does show a tendency to lose her fur…

Showing signs of a good recovery from the virus…

Strap her down and inject her with that DNA…

Let’s see how she reacts to this stuff…

Mr Toneki, I don’t care what you think, you’re a lab assistant, just do it!”

January 2nd

Test Subject: B-3-7-7-Y

Injected the fruit bat with 50mg of substance 458 as instructed by Dr Goodman.

Bat seemed to faint, regained consciousness after a few moments and then screamed loudly as if in pain. See security tapes for changes that occurred.

Have informed Dr Goodman – we seem to have created a human.

He wants to test these changes.

- Toshiba Toneki

“Another night in the lab, just the two of us. Nice, huh, Betty?” Toshiba ‘Tony’ Toneki said, entering the laboratory space.

The hunched figure occupying the huge cage in the far corner of the laboratory didn’t look up at him. Hugging it’s newly formed knees and staring resolutely at its new feet.

“Are you hungry, Betty?” he asked kindly, offering her a plum from his bag, holding it out through the bars of the cage. She stared, eyes going from him to the fruit and back again, her brown eyes uncertain before looking away again.

The last time they gave her food, it had tasted really bad, but she’d been so hungry that she’d eaten it anyway...and she’d gotten sick and then they’d hooked her to another tube for six days.

“Come on, I know you’re hungry, you must be. You haven’t eaten for over a week,” He offered her the plum again. He knew that she could smell it. He needed her to eat, needed to make her strong for his plans next week or she’d never survive. Then it struck him what was wrong; she’d gone off food 12 days ago, after the day shift had given her the food infected with Substance 458.

“Look, they’re safe,” he took a bite to show her, her dark eyes watching him all the time. Then he held out the fruit to her yet again.

Tony usually gave her food that didn’t make her sick when Dr Goodman wasn’t there, and it was just the two of them...like now...would it be different this time?

Hungry...

So hungry...

Hesitantly, she reached out with hands that were new and unused to the task and took the fruit, then bit into it, sucking at the juice hungrily.

“Good?” Tony asked, smiling at her. She lowered the fruit and smiled back, nodding a little. Despite what Doctor Goodman said, she did understand English, she was intelligent, and she wasn’t a dumb animal. Not anymore, though he’d always thought she was fairly intelligent even as a fruit bat.

So Tony felt it was safe enough to tell her what he was planning.

“I’m going to let you go, Betty. You can go and find somewhere safe, a long way from here, somewhere that you can be free, do you understand?”

She didn’t know what ‘free’ was...it was a word that she heard Tony and the other white coats, the ones who didn’t talk to her, use a lot. Free...Freedom...freedom of man, free from boundaries. It was all nonsense to her.

She shook her head.

“No more food that makes you sick, no more medicines and no more pain. It means no more being in a cage. Would you like that, Betty?”

No...More...Cage? Yes! Yes! She wanted to leave the cage! Wanted it so much!

She nodded.

“Right, here’s what I’m going to do...Next week, I’m going to inject you with something,” he saw her visibly cringe and move away, he carried on quickly, “It’s not bad, it’ll just...put you to sleep for awhile. I’ll tell Dr Goodman that you died in the night, that your body was too exhausted to take anymore. I don’t think he’ll be too upset, do you?”

She shook her head again – Dr Goodman didn’t care about her, never had, he only cared about what he could inject into or take from her...the new stitches in her right cheek made sure that she never forgot this.

“Right, so, I’ll tell security that I’m taking your body away to burn it...I won’t really though. You understand me so far?”

She nodded at him, she understood...they burnt nearly everything that died here...dirty little secrets they were called. Though she’d heard that once they’d thrown one into the sewer in a hurry…

“Then...I’ll take you somewhere they won’t find you”

She nodded once more...Please let this work; she wanted to leave.

January 25th –

Test Subject B-3-7-7-Y

Injected the fruit bat with 150mg of substance 458 as per instructions.

The bat seemed to react well for a few moments then fell to the floor of its cage.

Having done all advised tests, no signs of life were found.

Test Subject B-3-7-7-Y has expired.

Will take the body to be incinerated

- Toshiba Toneki