Mutation [ON HOLD]

Chapter 04.

A CHILLING THOUGHT came to my head. What if I was dead? I pinched myself and felt a numb sting. I don't think I'm dead... At least not yet.

I sit up from the metal bed I was lying on. Jumping off the bed, I land with a heavy thud. The room is complete darkness, except for the dull flickering of an electric bulb in the corner.

It appeared to be a laboratory, as different colored liquids were placed around in glass vials, each labeled with a scientific name. I wasn't too sure about which chemical was which, since school revolved more around honoring Supernaturals and the history on how society right now came to be.

The clicking of heels stopped me exploring the room. Quickly hiding behind a metal cabinet, I peek the slightest part of my head out to look at who was coming in. An intelligent looking woman with glasses and a white lab coat was holding a bunch of blankets.

She took one long look around the room. I held my breath, fearful that any second she would spot me. But she didn't. Instead, she took out a baby from the bundle of blankets and placed it on the metal bed. At the slightest touch of the cold metal, the baby awoke from its nap and started bawling.

The woman immediately picked up the baby and started cradling it. By the looks of it, the baby looked like a female. She placed the baby back on the metal bed. The baby seemed to frown at the woman, but eventually fell back into sleep. Pulling out a machine from one corner of the room, the scientist adjusted the light bulb to hover just above the baby, while putting an eye cover to protect the baby's eyes from the blinding light just in case if she wakes up.

The machine started scanning the baby. "Brooks, Tam," the computer said.

My eyes widened. I was this baby? What kind of sick dream is this? I was being manhandled by a woman and a fancy gadget.The woman scrutinized baby me carefully. She meticulously noted my physical appearance. "Seems healthy for a baby," she said.

The doorknob began twitching. With an alarmed look, the woman turned around, shielding her body from the intruder.

A man wearing a similar lab coat walked in. He gently closed the door and locked it. "Oh, it's just you," the woman said, obviously relieved.

"What are the results, Emily?" asked the man curiously. Emily passed him her notes on baby me.

"High intellectual potential," he says, clearly impressed with baby me. "She should be Leader or Psychic."

"No, no," Emily said. "Her body is swift and strong. Her mental and physical abilities... It's amazing. We should assign her to the Shifter section."

"All right, if you say so." The man took out a needle and grabbed a serum nearby. "She's your experiment. Do the honors."

That did the last straw. I leapt up from behind the cabinet and raced toward the two scientist. Surprisingly I passed through them. The man continued to hand the needle to Emily. I started making blind punches. But every time my hand came close to their bodies, an invisible force protected them from any harm.

Hopelessly, I watched the woman plunge the needle into baby me. She took out the needle and placed it onto a metal tray nearby. Miraculously, baby me didn't even wake up. "It's done. She now has sharpened senses, better athletic ability... But she needs to receive the same shot, just when she turns seventeen. That's when her full abilities develop. That's when ---"

Her sentence was interrupted as there was a loud banging on the door. The woman panicked, looking at the man. "Sam, get her to safety. And don't look back."

"Emily ---" Sam was cut off by the banging again.

"Don't look back."

The last thing I heard before I was snatched away by Sam was the wooden door smashing into pieces and the piercing scream of a woman.

***

I wake up from my dream with a cold sweat. Anais is there, staring at me with a gloomy face. I touched the chair I was sitting on right now. "The dream. Was it real? Did it happen?"

"You awoke faster than Sean, but that is expected of a Shifter," she said, avoiding my question.

"Did it happen?" I said with some force. I needed to know what was going on. I despised oblivion.

"Of course, your senses must be tingling right now. And there is still so much to do after Sean wakes up. We need to ---"

"DID IT HAPPEN?" My voice came out in a roar. Something freaky must have happened because Anais made the slightest movement of backing away.

"Your eyes..." Startled by her awestruck face, I reached for a broken piece of silver and look at my eyes. I was just as startled to see a storm of spring green and electric blue, with golden flecks dancing amongst it. This was so much more beautiful than my plain hazel eyes.

Just as fast it appeared, it disappeared just as quickly. "Wow," I say.

Anais recovers from her shock. Sighing, she says, "It happened. The dream was supposed to give you some background knowledge on who you really are."

"Then who am I?" The question echoed through my head. My whole seventeen years of life had been a lie.

"You are one of the limited amount of superhumans created to save humans from Supernaturals. You and the others were created by renegade scientist Sam Finley as a power to regain justice and freedom. Sam Finley was one of the original creators of the Supernatural turning serums. The ones that they use if you are one of the five seventeen years olds picked to be Turned.

"Sam decided that it was too cruel of the Supernaturals to use humans the way they do. He decided to detach himself from the government and create you guys. But we're not sure if you will do good or bad to this world." Anais mumbles the last sentence, but now that I had fully developed senses, I could hear clearly what she said.

Beside us, Sean began to stir up. He rubbed his eyes, stared at his mom, then at me, then back at his mom. "Tell me this is just a nightmare," he whines. I make a disgusted look at his face. I didn't do anything to him. I was just a little grumpy. Though Sean did save my life, he did pull on my arm a little too hard for me to fall into the ditch. It left an ugly purple bruise.

"No offense," I said, looking him up and down. "But you're not exactly on my list of favorite people."

"I saved your life!"

"I got a bruise from you!"

Sean shook his head disapprovingly. "If this is how you thank your heroes..."

I sighed. If you argue with an idiot, you become an idiot. "What exactly is a Shifter?"

"Shifters are those who can change their bodies to another form, most likely animals. It's very rare that a Shifter can shift into another human. My son, Sean, is a Fighter. He defends the team against the 'bad guys' while the team completes their mission."

Before I could ask another question, the growl that most certainly belong to a werewolf was heard from upstairs. "We've traced our evidence to this house," the werewolf said in his husky voice. "The rebels must be here."

The only thing separating me from life and death was a flimsy wooden trapdoor.

Anais looked worryingly up at the trapdoor. "Quick, get in here if you want to live," she said, gesturing toward pile of stones. Anais removed them to reveal dark tunnels.

"But my mother..."

"We'll get your mother later. You and Sean are my first priority." Anais shoved me in without another word. We began descending down the tunnels with no idea where it may lead to.