"Yeah, keep going!" Ashley said, nodding vigorously.
"Okay, restarting in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." The scientist in chief announced through the intercom, and Ashley braced herself to be bombarded by another dose of evolutionary energy and intense cold.
Ashley yelped and curled into a ball as she felt the first changes taking place. The padding on her hands and feet thickened, her fingers growing stubbier and claw-like, leaving her better equipped for digging through layers of snow and frozen soil in search of tubers and invertebrates. Next, her legs grew even shorter and her feet lengthened and turned into ditigigrade paws, while her hips and butt enlarged even more to allow for a faster quadrupedal locomotion.
Whatever Ashley was evolving into, it seemed to be some sort of small omnivore akin to modern foxes or raccoons. Ashley started breathing faster, her squeals and grunts getting high-pitched and animal like, not too different from those of small New World monkeys; a change that was followed by her face pushing out and forming a round muzzle full of tiny, sharp teeth. Ashley's eyes enlarged, becoming rounder and adapted to the dim light in the hypothetical frozen world. Her breasts, however, remained distinctively human (albeit with thick, coarse nipples) and resting on top of a bulging belly full of fat reserves.
The lights went on again, and as Ashley found herself surrounded by the scientists and caged inside the cell; she let out a sharp scream and crawled into a ball in a corner. The look in her eyes was one of animalistic fear.
"Ashley? How are you feeling?" The chief scientist asked, waiting for her to respond. Ashley raised her head, sniffed at the air and it took her a good fifteen seconds to find the words (or rather, the way) to speak.
"N-Need nest!" Ashley's voice was impossibly high-pitched and childlike. "Not good. Not in the open! Need nest!"
With that, she began clawing desperately at the cell's floor, screaming again after noticing her claws weren't able to puncture it.
"Hard! Not good!"
"The subject's thinking ability has become very limited. She appears to be dominated entirely by instincts, as she's looking for a hideout despite being surrounded by staff familiar and harmless to her." The scientist closer to the cell said, taking notes in a tablet. "Ashley's cognitive process are probably in line with those of a three year old child.
"Help! Help!" Ashley kept yelling, thrashing in the cell like a caged monkey.
"Ashley, do you want us to continue?"