I'm Scientist #1— the reasonable or concerned— and ever since they brought in the newest specimen, things have been strange. Staring at it through the reinforced glass, the creature— if it can be called a creature at all— seemed to refuse examination at every turn. In the large, dark concrete room it writhed, twisted so that it never took a permanent form. Sometimes it reminded me of a childhood friend. Sometimes it possessed gnashing teeth and metallic blades for fingers. And still, no matter the change, and even in its most docile-seeming manifestations, it kept with it an air of danger. Something was inherently wrong with it.
Sitting in the rolling chair with a Styrofoam cup of coffee in the subterranean office, I had but only one thought: this thing needed to be either terminated or, if that proved fruitless, contained indefinitely. The pitch-dark office echoed beeps intermittently through the small monitors lining the walls of the room so as to lull any unsuspecting scientist into a false sense of security. This happened while I took a stirrer round the edge of my cup to mix the dry creamer. Just as I’d brought the cup up to my lips, the creature lunged at the glass, meeting it with a plastic-sounding thud and forcing a yelp from me. “Dammit!”
An even chuckle escaped the shadows to my left where the outline of a figure stood in the threshold to the hallway. “Nothing’s breaking through that glass. Hasn’t happened in more than fifteen years.” They said. Scientist #2— the apathetic or observer— moved to sit in the chair by me, unfurling a sub sandwich from its wax paper before bisecting the poor thing over a desk and inspecting its innards with a plastic knife.
I stole a napkin from their take-out bag and attempted to soak some of the coffee I’d spilled down the front of my lab coat. “What are you doing?”
“They keep putting jalapenos on my sandwiches. I think the boy behind the counter has a vendetta against me.”
“What do you think?” I nodded towards the specimen; the creature on the other side of the glass looked more like a childhood friend than ever before. Blankly with either two or seven eyes, it stared into the office viewing window like it knew we were on the other side.
“That thing? Only one thing to do. Wait and see. We take its vitals, see what it’s made of— the suits— they’re the ones that decide what’s to be done with it regardless of our findings. Been that way since I started. Our data works as a mere footnote in their decision.”
It was true to say that if ever there was a natural scientist, a true unparticipating member, Scientist #2 was it. Scribbled notes, photographic evidence, cortisol levels, that’s what they cared about. I’d always allowed my humanities to get in the way. Sometimes I would stay awake nights thinking of the things that happened under our supervision; I do not believe Scientist #2 ever had this issue.
“Where did it come from?” I asked, relaxing into my chair once more.
“Space, they tell me. Most of them come from space. Never seen anything like this though. Most living organisms have a certain rule system. A way of communicating or at least understanding. This one though.” They closed their sandwich and proceeded to cut it in half with the plastic knife before taking a bite. A loose string of tomato skin caught around the corner of their mouth. “This one seems exceedingly volatile. It exhibits the most anti-social behavior and seems disinterested in consuming any organic matter we’ve attempted to feed it.” They wiped their mouth with a napkin. “Looked over the X-rays earlier and it seems it has no digestive system or internal organs to speak of. Quite fascinating. It should not exist.” They followed this up with another bite into the sandwich that made me feel as though they thought it was anything but fascinating.
A shuffling came from behind, forcing a sudden jolt from me as I spun the rolling chair around to face the culprit. “It has no desire to consume.” The voice was ecstatic. Scientist #3— the enthusiastic or mad scientist— stepped from the shadows and leaned over Scientist #2’s shoulder. “It feels hate and nothing else. What a magnificent creature indeed.” #3 wore a smile, one that made me habitually uneasy. They pressed their glasses up on the bridge of their nose before erecting themselves upright and crossing the room to touch the viewing window. A shiver ran down my spine. “Beautiful. I wonder what would happen if one were to let such a thing loose on the world. It should be only natural, after all.”
“Natural?” I spat the word out. “What exactly is natural about that thing?” I shook my head. “Ridiculous!”
#3 spun on their heel to face me. “#1, you know as well as I do that humans are a mere blip in the cosmos. Don’t suffer at the hands of trivial human indignancies. You wind yourself up about them far too often. Your hair will gray all the faster for them.” They snickered.
“It killed ten people when they captured it near the impact zone.” Said #2 through a bite of sandwich; although they offered this information, it felt like less of a defense to keep it contained and more of a fact they’d decided to recite.
I gritted my teeth in frustration. “It should be obvious— and I can’t believe I must argue this— it’s self evidently good to kill it or put it away from the world.”
“That’s what the data suggests.” Said #2.
“If you say so.” #3 shook their head. “Would be something to see it roam free though.”
-
Later, at home, haunts of the creature’s amorphous face blinked through my dreams while I slept. When I awoke, I felt that it intended to do the world harm and letting it live on was a grave mistake. Perhaps my finger could slip, and I could pump its chamber full of poisonous gas.
Entering the elevator with my briefcase in tow, I hit the number to my floor and listened to the smooth jazz, finding myself doing a small one-two step in time with the rhythm. As a fresh-faced intern stepped into the elevator I coughed into my hand and shifted to lean in the corner as though I’d never been doing anything at all.
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“Where are they sending it?” Asked the intern.
Rubbing my tired face, I idly responded. “Sending what?”
“That new one they brought in? I hadn’t thought your team was finished with examination, but a transport team showed up last night to take it away. I was sure they sent you a message— they said they had.” The intern raised an eyebrow. “That’s where I’m heading right now. Your department, #1. I just needed someone with the proper clearance to fill out this paperwork so I can finally go home.” The intern meekly held up a clipboard.
I shook my head, feeling the beginning of a migraine coming on. “This place is going to the dogs.” Snatching the clipboard from the intern’s hands, I looked it over.
“S-sorry.” They said.
“Not your fault. Go home. Get some rest. I’ll handle this from here.” As the elevator doors came open for the bottom floor, I offered them a smile. As the door shut and I stomped down the sterile hallway, the smile was gone, replaced by a frown as I read the name of the person who’d authorized the transport.
-
“You went over our head?” I asked Scientist #3.
“That’s right.” They nodded nonchalantly while careening back in their office chair with a big grin. “I knew you couldn’t listen to reason. Something as wonderful as that needs to be examined in the field, in the wild as it were.”
I swiped my hand through my hair. “You’re kidding me.” Clenching my fists, unclenching them. I wanted to throttle them. “It killed ten people! It will kill a lot more. And for what?” #2 sat in the corner, skimming through an ancient copy of Teen Vogue. I turned to them instead. “Say something!”
#2 looked up from their reading. “These quizzes in here are flawed.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
Tossing the magazine to the side, they stood, straightening their lab coat. “What’s done is done. There’s no fighting it now.”
Slack jawed, feeling an angry thump in my temples, I paced back and forth. “So that’s it?”
“That’s it.” Said #3.
“You’ve released an unimaginable evil on this world.”
They nodded. “Yes. Exactly as intended.”
-
Machinegun fire cracked and echoed through the wooded valley, illuminating the night’s tree line in brief splashes of yellow while we circled overhead in the helicopter.
“Amazing!” Said #3 as he watched the POV camera of the creature on a laptop.
It felt like anything but amazing. They— the suits— intended to send #3 alone as an advisor, but I refused to let that happen.
“You look so dour. Come on.” #3 clapped me on the shoulder and pushed the laptop over to me. “Look at this. It doesn’t only kill them. It seems to take away their personhood. Quick too. Oh— you’re being such a spoil sport about things. They let me have my way one time in all these years and you’re going to pout over it?”
I couldn’t watch it. Even from the corner of my eye, I could see the thing stalk in the tall foliage only to burst from its hiding place to shear a rebel fighter into two pieces, then ten.
“I must say, I don’t believe military contracting has ever been this fun.” Said #3.
“This is why I left the public sector in the first place.”
“Oh!” They pointed at the screen with visible excitement. “They got another one. Look at that. Took their eyes clean from their skull.” The burst of viscera covered the lens; static followed. “Damn!” Shutting the laptop, #3 shifted in their seat. “Is there a way we can catch it on the ground? Up close?”
I bit my tongue so hard I swear I felt blood.
The pilot obliged.
-
Thick mud clung to my boots while we slipped through the compound lot. Drug runners. They told us it was full of drug runners. I don’t believe that. Metal-sheet buildings with wooden beams forced black shadows against the moon, sprouting ideas that that thing might decide to turn on its handlers. As small a defense as it might be, the only thing that made me feel better was the pilot leading the way, AR held out in front with a beam that cut through the shadows.
Another cry echoed somewhere ahead, followed by a series of gunshots. I flinched; I couldn’t help it. This was much different than the office I was accustomed to.
#3 strode with confidence alongside the pilot. Not an air of worry.
“We should’ve terminated this thing when we had the chance.” I said.
The other two ignored this.
We pushed further into the compound, past the rundown housing and into the walled gates. Dead bodies strewn the place; intestines so far spread that it became impossible to tiptoe over them. Innards like wet sponges beneath our feet.
“Oh!” Said #3. “There it is! See? Just as I thought. They’d not killed it! It was only a surveillance malfunction.”
I froze dead in my tracks. In the center the compound, nearest its epicenter, stood the creature; with no glass between it and me, I could finally see it with extreme detail. Bullet holes riddled its body, but it treated this like a triviality as it stood fully on its three legs, heaving its chest, and exhaling exhausted white breath. The pilot stepped forward with their rifle.
The thing tore into the body of a dead soldier near its feet, popping ribs loose and scattering them around.
“Look at it.” Hushed #3. “Look at it.”
I did, but I felt something very much different than the admiration #3 so obviously felt for the thing. My stomach dropped into my feet and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Doubling over, bile launched from my mouth onto the ground. Wiping my lips, I turned back to the creature. “Enough.” I said. “It needs to be terminated. Warfare is one thing, this another.”
The creature, seeming bored with its job, lingered on a foot then transformed into a thing with eight long, chitin-shining appendages and skittered away into the compound’s main building.
-
“It’s broken free.” Said #2 while we sat in the break room. They said it like they might say the temperature.
My hands shook as I tore into a pack of sugar, sending it across the table.
“It was bound to happen.” #2 shook their head.
-
On my way home, in the deep evening, I drove. Wanting to put anything besides that creature into my head, I listened to a pop station.
I was freed from my spell as I pulled into the driveway. Just as I was about to exit the car, I looked up and saw a cat sitting on my front porch. It lingered a moment, licking the inside of its paw, before shifting its gaze to me, watching me through the windshield. Orange and white, it seemed abnormally plain. Except for the long spider leg protruding from its head like it pierced clear through reality.
Immediately, my fingers fumbled to dial base. “It’s here.” I said into the receiver. “It’s at my fucking house!” My voice shot out in a panic as the cat stood on all fours, flicking its tail back and forth on approach. “Quick!” I shouted.
I stayed unmoving even as the thing pounced onto the car hood, circled a few times, then sat. We watched one another through the glass and with each blink, it changed form.
In the ensuing gunfight with the creature, it ran through the unit they sent like a hot knife through butter, barely giving me enough time to escape.
-
“I’ve been forced to relocate.” I said. “I don’t like it knowing where I live.”
#2 offered an idea. “Perhaps it knows your smell? Some animals are exceptionally good with that sort of thing.”