Zoey was surprised to feel like she was simply punched in the stomach, at least for an instant. Only a few seconds later did she start to feel the intense pain of the gunshot. However the sense of panic at being shot by a police officer was momentarily subsided when she realized she was standing back in the lab near the chambers she had been cleaning. "What the fAAH!" For some reason the pain didn't flare up around the gun wound. Her entire body felt like it was on fire. Actually, she had been on fire last night. This hurt even more. The door to the lab started to open.
Zoey looked up as her bones begin to stretch and snap. "Food...."
__________________________________________
Shelly kicked the side of her car. This was the fourth hospital room she had visited since the brat snuck out the door. Only one had a woman with burn wounds admitted, but it wasn't Zoey. She cursed to herself and decided to get some sleep back at the lab. There wasn't enough time to go home, but the lab did have a side room where she had be forced to take a few naps during nights of long work.
A half-hour later she returned to the lab, seeing the standard yellow stand reading "Caution: Wet Floor" in both English and Spanish right by the ajar door. She ground her teeth.
The staff was told several times never to go in lab. If any trash was to be taken out, it would be left out in hall, she thought to herself. She mentally prepared herself to yell at whoever was in there, whether they understood English or not.
Two steps in, and she froze. No more than three feet away, amid a mess of blood, a mop, and an overturned wheeled bucket of soapy water, a six and a half foot tall canine-like creature of humanoid proportions continued to tear away at the janitor's throat and chest meat. The creature's head instantly turned on Shelly.
"Oh shit."
Instinctively, Shelly turned and ran out of the lab, yanking the door closed behind her, auto-locking it. She heard the weight of the beast slam into the door. She paused for a moment, hoping the thing wasn't smart enough to open the door.
You only locked the door from this side, you idiot, she thought to herself. Instantly she started for the end of the hall and the door to the parking lot. There was a strange sound to her side, but as soon as she turned, the creature, obviously and impressively male, and still with part of the janitor's throat in its maw, was standing there, between her and the exterior door. "What the-?"
The monster jumped forward and grabbed her by the arms, turning and slammer Shelly against wall. The teeth worked up and down in front of her face as garbled barks and worbles came from the thing's throat. Shelly cringed, sure it was going to kill her.
But it didn't. As violent as it was holding onto her. It just continued making the same sounds over and over. Shelly blinked. Some of the sounds almost seemed like words. Forcing herself to stop cringing, she listened. It took three more times before she could fully make it out.
What have you done to me?
Shelly looked the creature up and down. The fur markings were familiar. A male canine, partially wolf, like creature.
"Test Subject Canis 7G-oh-4?" she asked. The delay, she thought, maybe the process was delayed and it finished transportation after I left. No, she corrected herself. It couldn't have. There wasn't enough memory. Her mind continued to race, rejecting explanation after explanation.
The creature growled and dragged her to the lab door. It tried to open the door, but couldn't. Shelly didn't take any risks while in the thing's grip. She punched the combination in. Canis 7G04 swung the latch down and dragged her in, shutting the door behind it.
"Listen, I'm not sure what happened. I think something went wrong with an experience," she swallowed. "Do you understand me?" The creature threw Shelly into the entry chamber of the experience. Shelly fell to her feet, but the creature stepped away briefly to grab a pad of paper and pen. Shelly stood up and started to walk towards her, but before she could get out of the chamber, the monster growled loudly at her. Shelly backed up.
The thing had difficulty working the pen with its long fingers and claws, but eventually it threw the pen aside and loped over to Shelly. It held up the pad. The writing was poor, but barely legible. The monster pointed to itself.
Zoey
"Fffffxxx.. maaaaeee," it said with difficulty at the chamber entryway, with one hand holding onto the door.
"Oh... okay. I'll figure something out. Just don't close that door." She couldn't remember if she had shut everything down the night before. So many features were automated. The last thing she wanted was to trip the transport sequence in what was definitely an unclean test chamber. Blood was now all over the floor. Some of it was from the janitor, and some of it, as Shelly could now see, might had come from a puncture wound in the creature's... Test Subject Canis 7G04's... Zoey's... or both's midsection.