Bitch: Transformation

About a half an hour later Stella and Professor Tryon were still puzzling over the results of the blood work. Red had fallen asleep in a chair next to Apoc and was snoring quietly with his hands folded over his belly.

I had performed feats of mental ability like a trained monkey much to the surprise of Stella and the bemused look on the Professor’s face as he proudly presented what he knew so far as if he hadn’t just been learning it minutes before.

Alan stood next to the teaching assistants ready to answer more questions if necessary. The TA’s had the look of the cat who ate the canary, they were convinced that this was going to set them on a path for greatness in their careers and they were so helpful it was sickening. Stella and the professor were so engrossed in their discovery that they seemed not to even notice the thinly veiled ass kissing. I don’t think anybody had even a potty break in the last four hours.

Initially, Stella hadn’t backed down so I’d performed new feats of intelligence to help clarify the situation and what my capabilities were. I’d responded to a battery of mental acuity and intelligence tests. I still was in the cage but the door was open. One of the teaching assistants brought me some water in a metal bowl. She watched me as I drank it. It had a weird flavor, I don’t think she washed the bowl properly before filling it with water. I laid down, and fell asleep without meaning too. Apoc was alive, and that was enough for now.

I was dreaming almost immediately. I was chasing Apoc, and then he was chasing me... I couldn’t figure out exactly where we were it seemed to be somewhere in the forest but the trees and their positions kept shifting like reflections on the top of water. But when he caught me it wasn’t Apoc, it was a robot, a machine, he had no flesh on his body and I could see his organs though his metal rib cage. He was bleeding slowly all over as if he had been freshly de-gloved. Then Shen was there, I could feel his hands on my body, I was still human when I looked down and his hands were going everywhere but I couldn’t stop him with my paws... I had dog legs instead of arms and paws instead of hands. And when I tried to talk nothing came out except black smoke that hid everything. Then I heard machine guns and the screams. I remembered now something he’d said to me as I fell asleep for surgery. Shen was planning to cut my vocal cords. And he laughed. It hadn’t been an accident, he’d done it on purpose. He said it was just “another step to you becoming man’s best friend”. I wanted to bite him so bad. I remember the look he gave me when I did. Surprise. Hurt. Anger. Calculation. I savored the memory of all but the last.

He screamed in pain, different from what I remembered. Apoc was chewing off his metal leg. My lungs felt tight.

I jerked awake. There was no blood, only screaming. And smoke that made my eyes water.