by Lee Sau Woon
Brookhaven Building 7
The few seconds which the agents took to run to the second floor seemed like eternity. Leo and Jim's longer legs brought them to the top of the stairs before Vanessa, and they were greeted with another long corridor. On both sides of the corridor were plain, unclassified doors. There was only one door with lights showing through underneath, almost at the end of the stretch.
The agents run towards it.
Without losing momentum, Jim turned his body slightly, and banged straight at the door with his right shoulder. The door gave in, and the agents rushed in. They stopped however. Anyone would stop if they were the ones seeing what was in front of them.
The room was dimly lit, except for one bright flourescent lamp beaming down on the metallic table in the middle of the room. On the table was a female in her twenties, strapped to the table with leather belts. She was naked, her mouth was taped, and from it, she was only able to make some sound that was whining, filled with fear. Around the table crowded three person dressed in hospital garb.
All around were room, hidden in the shadows, were cages about one metre by one metre. The cages were poorly maintained. Some of them were rusting, and some of the wires were croaked. It seemed that the cages were not cleaned for a long time, for the smell of urine and faeces was in the air. Most of the cages were occupied. Most of the occupants. All of them were naked, but some of them were furrier than others, on all fours. Some of the creatures looked like straight out of the B grade horror movie, a cross between human and animal, while others looked like big wolves, with just the slightest hint of humanity in their faces. All of them were looking at the agents expectantly, making no sound, as if knowing that it was a showdown.
"Get away from the table," Leo instructed, his finger on the trigger of his gun, pointing straight at the three men.
The oldest of the three, presumably the leader of the group, had his hand on a syringe, with the needle poked into the woman's arm. He removed his hand, leaving the syringe there. The woman moaned as she jerked her restrained arm, the syringe refusing to drop off.
The other two men followed their leader, and stepped back.
"Who are you?" The oldest man spoke. "You cannot just barge in like that. This is restricted area."
Jim flashed his ID. "FBI. Just one look and I can arrest you on several charges. But I am not here to arrest you."
"You cannot barge in like that," the man repeated, sounding quite like a broken record. And then he added, "I don't care if you are FBI or CIA. We had the full support of the government in this research. "
"Oh yes, Project Grey Wolf. It was shut down long ago."
The man, his hands still raised in the air, laughed. "Grey Wolf? Sonny, you are years out of date. We had almost stopped Project Grey Wolf already. We no longer worked on canine. This is Project Man Wolf. We used man." He said dramatically, stressing on the final word.
Vanessa took a look at the woman was the table. Apparently, the three men had just started on her, for there was a heap of golden hair on the floor. It took Vanessa a while before she realise that it was not only her hair which was shaved off, the woman was totally hairless. They had shaved off all her hair, including her eyebrows. A choker type chain around the woman's neck caught her attention. Vanessa recognised the chain, and identified the owner.
"Jessica." She spoke to no one in particular. Then she looked at the three men. "You creep, she is one of your staff." All the dislike she had of the woman was gone.
"Sorry, little girl," the man replied, his tone mocking. "Orders from above. She made someone very unhappy."
Without saying any more, Vanessa moved towards the table and pulled the syringe from the arm and pulled out the tape on her mouth. "Oh my god, Jessica, how can they do that to you?" She asked the wide-eyed woman as she untie the leather belts. There was no answer. Just more whining like a injured puppy.
The moment Jessica was free, she jumped onto the floor, and landed on all fours. She then stretched herself, lifted her head, and howled.
The agents and two helpers looked at Jessica in horror. The remaining person looked smug.
"Success!" He exclaimed.
Just then, Jessica looked at the agents. She still looked like a human being, but her action was definitely canine. With one swift movement, she ran out of the room, coordinating all four limbs with graceful familiarity.
"Go after her!" Leo shouted.
Vanessa obeyed and ran out of the room, following the woman/wolf/dog as it/she run down the stairs, broke down the door and run into the open space. The alarm sounded, breaking the silence of the night, but Vanessa ignored it, choosing to run after the fleeing figure.
"Jessica. Stop. We're from the FBI. We can help," she shouted, but the figure in front did not seem to hear, or if it/she did, did not take note.
The chase was short, however. Jessica seemed to remember the general layout of the compound, and her/its route took her/it to the nearst boundary. Without stopping, she/it leaped across the fence and into the arms of freedom. She/it landed safely, and turned back to look at a shocked Vanessa before running into the darkness.
Vanessa looked at the fence and swore. She could either climb over it or went back to Building 7. It took her only a second to decide. Giving the darkness beyond one last look, she turned back and raced back to find her teammates.