Feeding Dragons (2 page)

He was aware I staring at the areas
which remained hidden and with a flip of his fingers he undid the
belt of his bathrobe. A shoulder shrug dropped it to the floor.
Holding his arms apart from his body he quietly turned so I could
look all I wanted. I looked from the top of his head to the small
hairs that dusted the tops of his the feet. I saw nothing out of
place or abnormal in any way. He was well built and perfectly
human. Whatever the hell was wrong with him couldn’t be seen with
the naked eye.

“So what exactly is it that you need
from me?” I asked calmly despite the fact the whole scenario had a
freak factor that was just shy of way too much for me. But hell he
looked normal so whatever he had must be at a cellular level. Then
again I sounded calm and rational while the reality was my hair was
tingling on my scalp and I was one step away from shrieking and
running around with my arms over my head. So no doubt it would be
prudent of me to remember that looks can be deceiving.

“They have not yet identified the
defect and while I am sure there is a medical name for it all I
ever hear,” he winced, “….is Dragon Syndrome.”

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief
lightly fogging my face shield as I realized my suit was keeping me
safe from whatever Mr. Hot Stuff had…..and then…..

HIS LEFT eye bulged. The pupil seemed
to flex and elongate. A terrified squeak burst out of my mouth. I
flinched in sheer pants pissing terror. My view frosted over and I
fell back on my ass. Had I just seen a Kafkaesque shift or were my
nerves so strained I was seeing things that were nothing more than
a product of exhaustion, the freaky situation and my own weird
imagination?

I scooted back away from him even as I
waited for my face shield to clear so I could see better. The fog
quickly evaporated and I spied his bare feet; toes pulling back as
he shifted his weight. I was afraid to look away. After all if I
wasn’t suffering from some little mental malady then this insanity
was real and I had no desire to die today which meant not looking
away not matter how bad things got.

Too bad for me that clicking my heels
and shouting ‘there’s no place like home’ wasn’t gonna get me out
of this mess.

He watched me with unnerving intensity
then a weak smile slid across his face. “Are you ok?”

“OK? OK? Do I look ok?!” I
was shrieking nearly out of control, “What the hell is wrong with
you? Why me? Huh? What the fuck is going here?” It was obvious my
outburst made him uncomfortable because he glanced worriedly at the
glass behind me and struggled to compose himself. It
was
a struggle.

“You might be my only hope,” he said
slowly in a soft voice as if speaking to skittish stray dog. He
took one step towards me and I wailed, “No. No you don’t! Stop
right there and don’t you fucking touch me.” Like a child I flapped
my arms and slapped my hands down against the floor in anger. My
heart was bashing against my ribs and I couldn’t focus on a single
coherent thought for more than a few seconds.

He stiffened and rocked his head
twisting it on his neck causing nasty little crunching sounds that
made my skin crawl. I could see the increased tension in his
posture and the quickening of his breath as his chest rose and fell
but I was too scared at this point to say a damn thing.

“There was an accident. I was the only
survivor.”

I nodded my head but felt my eyes go
wide as he became stranger still. He tensed. His throat fluttered
as if he was chugging a beer. His neck cracked stretching towards
me. Then he started sniffing the air as if to tease out the scents
that oozed from my fear riddled body. Could he smell me? Did the
suit keep out smells or was he just testing the air? Eager nervous
curiosity lit his eyes from within. Cute or not this guy was in
need of serious meds and a jacket that belted from
behind.

“
My DNA has been
compromised. I’m still myself but I also becoming something
alien……. something other.” Then I saw it again. His left eye seemed
to throb while his gaze was fluttering with colorful liquid eye
shine that was reflecting the overhead glare. Pretty? Well yes it
was….normal? Nope not one bit and while that might be normal in a
radioactive opossum; in his case not so much. Tiny sparks of amber
and gold flashed within the spooky green glow that rolled out of
his face. A burning flaring inner light that is not to be found
among humans but rather it was alien and I wondered if it was even
mammalian.

I said nothing. I didn’t want to know
what ‘other alien thing’ he was shifting into. I wanted to go home.
He raised his eyebrows and looked a question at me but my mouth was
so dry it was sticking to the roof of my mouth. My heart bashing
like a frightened bird against the cage as it sees the cat draw
closer. Even if I could have found the words I was unable to speak
them.

“I’m sure,” he continued in a slightly
hopeful voice as his crazy eyes spun with kaleidoscope colors,
“You’ve heard how some people have deliberately obtained a
pregnancy to use the placental stem cells to treat a genetic
disease even to reverse it?

I nodded my head within the safety hood
but still I couldn’t make the words come.

For a moment he lowered his head and
shut his eyes as though in prayer. This was fine by me but there
was no mistaking the fact that with his eyes shut the room seemed a
tiny bit dimmer. Then he sighed all the way down to his feet and
raised his face to mine. Once again looking as normal as the next
guy but I wasn’t fooled. I wasn’t crazy and I damn well knew what
I’d seen. Something was seriously fucked up with this guy. He had
Twilight Zone level damage and there is no fixing that.

“That is what the big brains out there
behind the glass have decided is my only hope.”

I licked my lips and asked the
inevitable question, “Why me?”

“You have a similar genotype,” He said
with heartfelt shame. “Japanese, Irish and Icelandic are a very
rare mix. You have it. I have it.”

‘Yeah’ I thought but didn’t say, ‘You
also have something that not even bleach will wash off.’ After that
thought came the next logical one. If his eyes could shift and the
very bones of his forehead seem to morph what else might be going
on with the rest of him? My eyes flicked down wondering what
inevitable horrors had shown themselves after the accident. For all
I knew weird shit was happening down there too but he had put the
robe back on. He was probably hiding other monster
damage.

Studying his eyes I asked if he truly
believed there was any hope for either of us to survive this day
intact. Infuriatingly he shrugged his shoulders. Not exactly a vote
of confidence.

Then his whole body shuddered. His head
jerked a few times to one side as if to shake some irritant loose
from his ear. I had scooted back until I had nowhere else to go.
Now my back was literally against the wall. I watched as his eyes
took on a distant lost look so I willed myself smaller. I didn’t
want to draw his attention to me. He licked his lips and a low
grunt rumbled up from his throat. He looked hungry and desperate.
This was a man who seemed at risk of flying apart like bits of
shattered glass and I didn’t want to get cut up while he came
undone.

His hands clenched and flexed while he
stared into a private torment only he could see. It seemed he was
trying to hold himself together with sheer willpower. A keening cry
pierced the air only to be choked off. He lowered his head; chin
nearly resting on his chest. Hands clasped together as if in prayer
he swayed to a chant I could not hear. Yet what I heard next was
not anything I’d ever heard in church.

He whispered through his twisted lips a
chattering echoing sound that I had never heard before. His gaze
locked on me and an eager yet nervous wine issued from the back of
his throat.

I was beyond freaking out at this
point. I was unable to flee. My entire body felt heavier than
concrete and the realization that I was locked inside with whatever
this guy was becoming had me panting inside my biohazard
suit.

My visor was misting faster as my
respirator struggled to compensate for my frantic breathing. I was
rapidly losing the ability to see clearly.

THE VOICE came over the loudspeaker and
in flat heavily accented English I was told to remove my
respirator. I shook my head in refusal. Whatever was wrong with
this guy, I certainly didn’t want to catch it.

Then it hit me. I wasn’t getting out of
here alive. I wanted to weep and wail for the life I was not going
to have but let’s face it I was going nowhere fast. I had to decide
if I wanted to die with my eyes shut or I at least wanted to try
and go down with some dignity. Dignity almost lost out.

Fingers shaking with tremors the
simplest movement became an epic struggle. I found it impossible to
remove any of my safety gear on my own. I watched his feet
approach. I did nothing while he gripped my forearms. I moaned a
bit when he pulled me upright but I was so frightened I wasn’t even
sure I would notice if I wet myself. Despite wanting to know if he
kept shifting I shut my eyes so tight I saw flashes of white behind
my lids. In a voice ringing with pathos and anguish I begged. I
pleaded. I cried and raged but he was so strong.

“
Please I won’t hurt
you.”

At this point there was nothing I could
do but tell myself he had no reason to lie to me. He was trapped
here too. I was afraid to believe that there might still exist a
sliver of hope that I would live through the day. My emotions and
thoughts smashed back and forth like a pin ball. I was having a
hard time thinking of anything other than escape and the faint hope
that he was being truthful with me. I could see nothing. I felt his
hands on my shoulders and keeping my eyes shut all I heard was my
nearly hysterical breath pressing against my airtight suit with a
sour scent. My eyeballs began to throb and I let my eyelids relax
but still I wouldn’t open them. I didn’t want to see if he had
changed to something out of a nightmare. I felt myself quickly
divested of all the gear that had been designed to keep me safe
from the invisible vectors that could mean my sudden death. I was
exposed.

I SIMPLY couldn’t sustain
this level of fear much longer. Suddenly without warning I felt a
hand trace across my neck. The fingers were warm and slightly damp.
It was a human touch and not at the same time. There was rough
slickness that I couldn’t make sense of and just like that my
curiosity got me. My eyes flew open. I saw him. I mean I really saw
him.
I was becoming other
he had said. I never felt myself fall. Boom. One
second awake and terrified; the next I was out cold.

I came to and blinked my eyes open to
find I was looking at the ceiling and that I was unable to move my
limbs. My head wasn’t restrained so I craned my neck to find I was
nude and strapped at ankles and wrists to the table. I heard his
voice from behind my position but couldn’t tell exactly how close
he was, “Are you cold?”

I croaked out a yes from parched lips.
I felt him approach but he remained behind me and out of view. An
agonized sigh brushed my ears and he whispered, “I only used the
restraints so that you wouldn’t hurt yourself if you started
flailing about when you came to. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“It will go easier for you if relax.
There is no going back for either of us so I would suggest you
accept what you cannot change.”

“No please, you don’t have to do
this.”

I waited for a reply but none came. I
wondered again if I would survive this day with my life or if I
would live but only to remain a raging mental head case who would
scream of terrors nobody would believe. And that was assuming at
some point they let me out of here. Straining my head off the table
to see around me I felt his fingers grasp the back of my head and
stop my frantic movement. “Please remain still.”

Then something soft was shoved under my
head. I twisted my neck as far as I could to the right away from
the loathsome monsters behind the glass and blinked in confusion.
Clean fabric with delicate embroidery was clearly visible. A
pillow? Really? How thoughtful. Bastards! I could see them watching
with clinical detachment as I felt him stroke my hair away from the
back of my neck.

“I’m going to try to explain
to you as best I am able what has happened. It may help you come to
peace with what is necessary.” God! He sounded as miserable as I
felt. “I know you must have a working knowledge of mechanical
engineering and at the very least you should be aware of solid
mechanics.” Patting my hair in an absentminded fashion he
continued, “As I am sure you know
synergy
 
is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple
sum of its parts….well they have noted that when I shift I do so in
a way to minimizes the loss of potential energy and I radiate heat
from all over. This is why they keep me here. There is a fear that
at some point I will continue morphing until there is nothing left.
I shall deform into some unknown creature and we just don’t know
the full impact.”

“What about option B?”