Prompt Two

“It works,” Rufus said, running a hand over his perfectly styled hair. His dark suit was tailored and fit his well-toned body.

“How do you figure?” Penny demanded. “By turning the subjects into mindless killers? I am not going to be part of this experiment if we continue risking the general population.” She pointed to the window. “Sixteen children were slaughtered because of that damn serum.” She grabbed the nearest vials and threw them in the small sink, several broke and splattered across the stainless steel counter. “No more,” she screamed.

Rufus grabbed the woman and pushed her away from the vials, thousands of his dollars were being carelessly thrown away. He wasn’t going just chuck it all away, not just because of some hiccup she was supposed to be resolving. “I am paying you good money to make the serum balanced.”

“I am not going to lie or hide anymore. I am not going to jail for you. I quit,” she shouted dashing for the door.

Rufus ran after her, he was in good shape, went to the gym and trained with a personal trainer. Still, the wiry scientist was able to out run him with her sneaker clad feet. His dress shoes were not made from running on polished floors. She made it out of the first set of heavy glass doors, she grabbed a chair and shimmied the leg through the looped door handles. Rufus slammed against the door and started pushing and pulling on the door as she backed away. She turned and dashed out jumping into her beat up sedan and tore out of the parking lot. He banged the doors the chair fell awkwardly to keep him pinned inside. He hit the glass door with his heel of his hand with a growl. He moved back into the laboratory staring at the bits and pieces of the experiment that remained. Enough for one injection.

Once Penny started singing to the authorities he would lose everything. Not that he had much anymore, all his money was tied up in this project. He had been sure, so damn sure, this would save lives. Now he had to look forward to a prison cell with more than fifty murder charges that could easily be slapped on him. He would never see the light of day, if they didn’t put him on death row. His luck he would live in a tiny cell locked away from the world going mad from the confinement.

He grabbed the bits of the remaining vials of different mixtures that had been deemed failures and pulled each one in a single syringe. He stared at the dark liquid for a long time, all his visions were lingering in the collage of liquids. All that he was attempted to accomplish would be stalled and more than likely ripped from his hands. The cure for human weaknesses would be locked away by government hands. He would be the scape goat for any and all things the authorities wanted to put on him. He had seen it happen to a fellow business man that had stuck his money into things he shouldn’t have.

Those departments that didn’t have a name in the government was very good at keeping things out of the public eye make what would be humanitarians made into monsters. No one would lift a finger to stop the cycle of chaos that would ensue after that hit to the reputation. All valued their lives and lively hoods too much to get involved.

Rufus walked the computers and erased all the hard drives, then tore it from the towers and crushed them. If he wasn’t going to be able to bring this out to the public, no one was going to. He put all the papers, notes and other things and threw them out the window.

Rufus rummaged around the janitor’s closet until he found a few bottles of bleach and took them into the lab. He poured it over the sink any remaining equipment or slides. Nothing remained untouched by the intense cleaning power of the liquid. All accept, the syringe that was tucked in his pocket. Once he was doubly sure every piece of evidence was destroyed, he climbed out of the window to the pile of notebooks and loose papers. He set them on fire and watched the papers curl up and blacken.

“No more,” he whispered sure that Penny was already trying to convince the local police of his involvement in the carnage of those kids. She had enough evidence that would pin him into that crime and he would not be able to get himself out of that even though he was at home sleeping.

Desperation forced him to stab the needle into his thigh, he yelped and pressed the plunger before his courage faded.

The liquid burned painfully, he yanked the needle out and threw it into the fire. His whole thigh muscle cramped into a huge knot, he folded to the ground gasping and kneading the muscle in some vain attempt to ease the stiffness. The cramping moved across his body as the liquid was caught a ride through his bloodstream. Every major muscle group flexed and retracted without rhythm or reason he was powerless to control his body.

In the moment of pain and confusion he remembered distinctly that none of the subjects had gone through this rash reaction. They had not changed physically, only mentally. They had lost the rational thought and lost their moral code. His heart stopped for several beats, his mind stilled and fear flashed through him. Questions plagued his mind as he struggled to breathe, praying the coldness of death to stop the burning and cramping of his whole body. His heart hammered once again with a new found strength, he took in a lungful of air unable to stop the writhing of his body.

His skeleton began shifting forced by the cramping muscles, some bones were elongated while others were shortened. He screamed as his body was manhandled by itself. Dark fur erupted over his flesh, his mouth and face elongated, teeth pointed and more burst from his gums to fill the unused space.

The world was alive with smells, faint and intense. The worse burning odor was clinging to his clothes, he tore them off with razor sharp claws on the ends of his fingers. He blinked several times at the smooth darken palms, he turned his hands over to study the dark fur that covered his hands.

Those odors made the world even more intense than it had been. Nothing made sense, it was overwhelming in all levels. He roared and ran, he had to get out. He had to run away. Hunger tore through him, it blocked out all rational thought. He tore the restrictive clothing off with his sharp claws, he and snorted at the heavy chemical smells that surrounded him. He stood on his shaky legs muscles on his head twitched oddly and the sound grow stronger as his triangle ears faced located the faint sound of a rabbit in the underbrush.