Animalia

"I don't know what happened." Garrett said, honestly. He watched Kendall walk away and roll into a ball. He sighed, he didn't like seeing her upset. For reasons he couldn't place it pained him to see Kendall in pain. He barely knew her but he felt for her in a way he never knew he could feel for a woman. He shook his head in dissappointment. Dissappointment in himself for not being fast enough to stop the evil Cecile from hurting Kendall. He looked up at Ruby, then glanced at Caspian as he winced from his landing out of the tree.

"Do YOU know what happened?" He glared at Caspian, daring him to announce his betrayal.
 
Caspian glared back at him, shifting his weight to his uninjured leg. The distance between them meant he didn't need to to tilt his head up to look straight at Garrett, something he was grateful for. "How the hell should I know what happened when I was up a tree trying not to bleed to death?"
 
Garrett breathed a sigh of relief, and let it show on his face.

"Sorry bud, I just ... I don't know what to think. This has gotten crazy. We all wake up in cages, get chased by dogs, find out we're infused with animal DNA and then get attacked by some chick in a black jumpsuit with swords? Does anyone have any idea what to make of this? She was definitely part snake right? Doesn't that mean shes like us? But if she IS like us, then why was she going to fight us? Then to top that off, why did she STOP trying to fight us and run away?"

'I have no idea what's going on. I need to find Kendall.' He thought. Garrett was beyond confused about the situation, but he knew he needed to lead them. To lead them he needed to make sure she was OK. To do that he needed to go talk to her, but, he was nervous. Why was he nervous?
 
Cecile sat in her room, in complete silence. Sitting alone was one of her favourite past times but that had a whole new feel to it. She knew in her past she could run to Daddy when she wanted somebody to talk to. Now she was just sat on her own in this modern-day-technical room.. without anybody around her to speak to. Her hands stroked over her blades, and when she leant her face onto her knee's her lengthy black hair overtook her tear-stained cheeks. She wanted her mother.


"Cecile! Come on sweety! We're going to be late!" Her mother's voice rung in her head, and the little angelic girl came waddling out of her house. She wasn't old enough to be able to speak but she did make the odd 'mama' every now and then. Her hand reached up into her mothers and she smiled her pearly white grin with little fangs seeping with the venom from her mouth. Her mother didn't mind, she was the only one who didn't. Her father awaited them in the car speaking through his earpiece and she sat on her mother's lap in the car...

She felt the tears further streaming down her face in the thought, and brushed the back of her hand against her face when she heard a knock at the door. Her eyes lifted up when she saw Jason enter, he was holding a tray of confectionaries. She couldn't stand how he attempted to sweet talk her, but right now, she needed company.
 
Kendall was taking her frustration out on the small rocks around her, picking them up and throwing them as hard as she could, at trees, other rocks and even at herself.
" this body..." she sighed. She would never have her body back and she wondered if Ruby was feeling the same sadness that she was experiancing.
"this is terrible" Kendall leaned against the rock again and rubbed her temples. Why her?
 
Ruby frowned. They couldn't afford to fight amongst themselves. She stepped between them.

"Please stop fighting. If we are to survive we have to work together and not wander off by ourselves. Unless we tell each other where we're going."

She suggested.
 
"Oh, yes, just because she's got her DNA spliced like the rest of us means she's automatically on our side," he muttered, sarcasm heavy in his voice before throwing himself down at the foot of a tree. "Because life is so simple like that." Black jumpsuit and swords matched the girl who'd kissed him perfectly, but he wasn't quite ready to believe that yet. After all, she hadn't hurt him much, and he wasn't quite prepared to just take the words of others as gospel. Besides, seeing was believing, and he hadn't quite done the seeing part yet.
 
"I am going to find Kendall, wait here for us please." Garrett said as he left Ruby and Caspian. It was finally starting to get lighter out. He was exhausted and knew everyone else was too. He had seen Kendalls departure but he wasn't sure where she had ended up. Now that the light was helping him see he would have a better chance of finding her. He wasn't quiet as he came up near her, being a rhino and 270lbs prevented stealth, but he didn't think she heard him. His suspicions were affirmed when he heard her quietly say "this is terrible" and he went up to her and crouched next to her.

"It's going to be fine Kendall, don't worry." He put his arm around her as he spoke, hoping his words would comfort her. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel scared and upset while they were running for their lives.
 
kendall had heard him approaching, her ears twitching with his heavy footsteps.
"I don't believe you..." she sighed. wriggling under his heavy arm.
"how can you be so calm about all of this? Don't you see the bigger picture?"
 
He kept pushing his luck, Jason trying to touch her leg, her arms, her face. She scowled at him and then continued to eat the chocolate. Taking moments to reconcile exactly how she felt she shook her head to him when he then attempted to kiss her. He got frustrated and pressed his hands onto her shoulders and practically had her pinned back on the bed, she let out a cry to thee side but it was instantly muffled by his hand cupping over her mouth. "Come on Cutie, I've tried so hard, can't you just do this one little thing for me.." He slithered down beside her head, and licked the side of her cheek disgustingly. It wasn't moments later that his body was spasming on the floor in a seizure as her venom was coursing through his veins taking seconds to reach his heart causing him to be dead in moments. The two pin prick holes lay on the side of his palm and heavy breathes escaped her chest whilst the front of her blouse was torn at the side. She got up, and grabbed a hold of her weapons before spinning them both directly into the throat of the already dead corpse on her ground, but just to be sure.

"Bastard" she whispered, and her anger was beginning to over-take her body. It was tmie things were put into perspective, she glanced to the sheet of glass and tapped on the panel revealing images of the forests where the people were creating their camp again. Her head nodded and she moved into the wardrobe replacing her catsuit with another fresh clean one, this one closer to her skin allowing her more freedom in speed and agility. When walking past the corpse her hands took hold of the two blades and ripped their way from his chest, she left her dorm and looked side to side at the area the hallway was empty, but she heard footsteps. Jumping up onto the sealing her body stretched out so that her hands and feet were on either side of the walls, holding her up onto the ceiling as two men entered her room. She frowned at them, and heard one man beginning to call for help. "You should never walk into a girl's room, uninvited." She hissed and then dropped from her position on top of one of the men's head. Her thighs were grappled around his neck, and the palms of her hands thrust his head to the side making his spine escape the joint of his neck. The body dropped and she gracefully fell onto her feet, making her way to the other man. Withdrawing both swords as he coward up in a corner she smiled and tilted her head. "I'll not be needing you, either." She scissored the blades across the mans neck, completely tearing his head from his body and it rolled on the ground away from the corpse.

The alarms sounded as the man she beheaded hit the warning button too fast for her to catch him out. She continued to shape around the walls occasionally cutting those in her path, but her suit meant that she was able to blend in to her surroundings almost being completely invisible to the naked human eye. It wasn't until she came to the door of the office that the people had already run around the institute to try and find her. Alarms were ringing and she kicked open the door, the man was readying himself for escape grabbing essentials with his back turned he said, "Come now Jason, did you kill her? For goodness sake help me with this." Her eyes widened as he turned around she narrowed her gaze, and lightly shut the door behind her as a look of horror appeared on his face.


​"Hello Daddy."
 
"All I see are a bunch of scared people, who's DNA has been tampered with, and we need to get away from here. Once that is done... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. What do you see Kendall?" He asked her, truly wondering what was going on behind those chocolatey brown eyes. He turned her head towards him, looking into those eyes, the flecks of gold made him dizzy. He pushed her hair behind her left ear, like she was always doing, and gently pushed her head so it was laying on his arm/chest. He wanted her to be happy and he didn't know what was wrong or how to make her feel better.
 
Kendall coddled into Garrett's chest, letting her guard down and simply hugging him.
"I see a terrible future... We were made like this for a reason, chances are; it's bad." She shrugged her shoulders, not quite sure why she was taking a romantic interest in someone in the midst of a pivotal moment in her life.
"It's not like we can go back to our old lives Garrett... It doesn't work that way. We can't just escape and live normally..." Kendall imagined working at the shop looking how she did. As a woman she got a lot of perverted comments, but now she was almost completely naked except for her armor, which she was lucky she had.

"We can't be human anymore; we're not."
 
After a moment, Caspian, still disgruntled with Garrett's tendency to look at him with suspicion (what had he done?! It was completely unfair, and now he was cuddling the armadillo girl, the arse), pushed himself up from the ground. "I'm going to scout around, maybe look for food," he informed Ruby. "Stay here, in sight of the others. I'll be back." What he needed now, most of all, was some time to himself, time to cool down. Besides, it was true that they needed to know what was around them-- there could still be more dogs around, ready to pounce as soon as they slept again. He wasn't just making an excuse to get away for a while.
 
Garrett couldn't disagree with Kendall. She was right. They were no longer human. It didn't really bother him, but he could see it effected Kendall greatly. So he just held her for a few moments longer saying nothing.

"We should get going. We need to scout the area and find a place for us all to hide. I don't want that snake girl Cecile coming back when we're all asleep." He stood up and stretched his body, yawning. Now he was tired. No sleep after being cramped up in a cage for however long was starting to wear on him. He gave Kendall as kind a smile as he could muster and then turned to walk back to Ruby and Caspian. When he got back he noticed it was just Ruby now.

"Where'd Caspian go?" He asked her. He didn't feel worried about Caspian being a "bad guy" but he had seemed a little defensive when Garrett had brought up Cecile.

'Where was he when she left? Did he get a chance to see her?''
He wondered. Hoping she wasn't giving mixed signals to the group. 'This group is already wound up tight. The last thing we need is someone tearing us apart.' ​He sighed.
 
"He went to find food and scout the area for any other dangers." She explained, looking down at herself. She was covered in red hawks feathers like a suit and her hair had turned into feathers as well. Ugh. She thought, frowning a little. She was a freak even to herself. She glanced over at Kendall and gave a sympathetic nod, knowing how the girl felt. "I was thinking...maybe we should come up with a password once Caspain gets back so we know who is friend or foe." She suggested.
 
Kendall trudged back to the group and slapped Garrett on the back "I'm sure you're snake will visit you in your dreams, don't worry about it" She whispered to him, a hint of bitterness to it. She turned to Ruby and smiled, walking to her and holding out her hand.

"Ruby, let's you and I have a chat freak to freak" She giggled and tousled her feathers.
 
Garrett stood there dumbfounded. 'Don't worry about it? What is that supposed to mean?' He thought to himself, wondering what in the world .... was Kendall jealous? 'No way. Noooo way. That's crazy. Isn't it? I guess I did kind of stare at Cecile... but stare or not, she is a snake. A bad snake. Not my type.'

"I guess I'll just wait here for Caspian to get back ... " He said quietly to them as they walked away, not even sure if he heard them. He was still in shock.
 
Ruby ducked slightly when Kendall ruffled her head of feathers. She had to admit though, they were the more freakish out of the group. She sighed. At least she didn't have the DNA of a chicken. She thought as she walked away with Kendall, waiting for her to speak first.
 
" I just want to say i'm sorry..." Kendall started. " I've been out of sorts this whole time, if i said or did anything that made you feel worse about our situation, know that i'm sorry." She held her head low, knowing that she had been unfair, and judged Ruby before she should have. The two of them were the closest to completion, whatever that meant.

"I just want us all to be safe, that's all..." She turned her head to look at Garrett, completely confused by her feelings for him.
 
Ruby nodded, unsure of what to say accept, "Thanks. We all want each other to be safe I think." She sat down on a nearby rock. Now that the sun had risen, Ruby's eyesite was at its best. "I know how you must feel about your...body. Hell, I think I'm more freakish then you are." She said, trying to joke around a little and lighten Ruby's mood. She kept swiviling her head in everydirection, listening and looking for danger.