GENE~COR GLOBAL OR BUST

CHAPTER THREE

I have never felt so alive, so complete and with purpose, as I do when I am making the world safer for the innocents that have been afflicted by living alongside mankind. Just last week in Edge City I ended a period of violence by taking the lives of butchers that had been illegally slaughtering all manner of sea-life in a factory protected by that city’s corrupted mayor. The mayor had given a press conference shortly afterward, claiming that the police would locate and arrest those involved in the heinous crime. They see what I had done as the crime? They do not see what the butchers had done as criminal: the illegal hunting, capture, and killing of fish, turtle, and octopi? I will have to pay a visit to the mayor. But not today, for right now I have a lab to retain my focus.
GeneCor Global has a very small laboratory just north of the American-Canadian border, very removed from the main roads, hidden away in the maple trees. My lips twitch at the audacity of mankind to hide their vile crimes against nature by using natural surroundings. As always, GeneCor Global has a knack for genetic experimentation, both legal and illegal, all immoral. It is no secret that for decades they have mutilated people with their experiments, which bothers me none. If men and women in white lab coats want to transform people into boil-covered putrid versions of themselves then by all means, proceed. However, recently they have been stealing genetic material from local rabbits, bobcats, moose, and bears. That, I will not allow.
The building is quaint and quiet, with an outer appearance that would have hikers thinking it was some family’s summer home. The ground level was gray stone while the second was wood paneling, most likely collected from the area rich with maple trees. Smoke puffed from a chimney, and the smell of apple pie drifted on the winds. Out front a large pond, filled with Japanese Coy and African Toads, bubbled. Near the back was a tree fort perched in an overly large Maple. Undoubtedly never used. A family with children must live here, most would think. A good cover, but I am better.
Beyond the façade I smell the chemicals and machinery used to extract and manipulate DNA. I hear the chatter of several lab coats as they disagree on results of their rancorous tests. And I see three armed guards patrolling the woodland perimeter. I scan the entire area trying to find the best way to approach without tripping any alarms. I do not want any of the lab coats to be warned of my arrival and escape, they all must pay for what they are doing. So, for the moment, the guards will remain alive.
After plotting my plan of attack, which involved hiding within shrubbery for fifteen minutes, like a graceful gazelle I quickly cover the distance between my hiding spot and a small window leading to the lab basement. Leaving it open was a grave mistake. Morphing my body structure as I slide toward the opening, I soon fall to a concrete floor inside, without a sound. The room is poorly lit and dusty boxes sit on raggedy metal shelving. I open a box and skim the records inside: data pertaining to which animals were tested upon, where the animals were retrieved from, the goal of the experiment. I tear away another box cover to find more records. Then another box, and another. For several minutes I search through the boxes, learning that GeneCor Global had been actually testing on animals for decades.
Thousands of innocents have been mutilated, violated, and cast aside like waste over the years. GeneCor Global was good at covering up their illegal activities apparently. The quills along my back stiffen and I feel my blood boil. I spray all the boxes down with a volatile, flammable liquid secreted from a gland within my cheeks. Once all the lab coats are dead, I will burn the place down. And after I am done here I will seek out all their labs, and the president of the company. I jump into the shadows as I hear lab coats passing by. My teeth grit and grind as I hear a woman say that the life of a chimpanzee was nothing in comparison to the results the test should yield. I make a mental note to make sure her death is a bit more painful and memorable. Right now though I must find all the lab coats and lab personnel, then grant freedom to the innocents.
After the lab coats pass, I make my way through empty hall after empty hall, my nose pulling me to where the innocents are being held. I had thought the place would be packed being a Monday, but I was regretfully wrong. It means I will have to hunt down all the other lab coats at a later time. After five minutes I come upon a room with a door marked: MONKEY & APE CONTAINMENT. I slowly push the door open, the dry and rusted bolts screeching. None of the lab coats turn my way, too engrossed in the data displayed on their clipboards. Right away I notice that strange metallic domed devices are atop three chimpanzees, with crisscrossing wires running from varied places on their bodies to a large computer built into the wall of the room. Next to the panels where the wires disappear, hundreds of yellow, red, green, and purple lights of all shapes and sizes blink on-and-off in random sequence. The chimps somehow look both miserable yet totally drained of essence, almost as unaware of their surroundings as an automobile or toaster. I feel my nostrils flaring before one of the lab coats snickers, requesting that the head genetic engineer, the only human not affixed to any particular lab station, follow him back to where the three chimps sit immobile awaiting humiliation and disgrace.
I slide behind crates made of plastic and marked with HAZARD symbols, to watch and learn. I do not need to understand why these lab coats do what they do, but I am curious how their minds function in a way that approves their actions and beliefs. Obviously the male lab coat is excited about their discovery, his eyes are huge in amazement of himself and something he discovered. He has curly brown hair and a budding mustache. His youthful expressions do not belong in a place of containment and cruelty. He is a boy, but I know he must die as well. Blame his parents.
“Dr. Kiwalski, look at this,” the young one nearly drags the head genetic engineer to the control system set before the three chimps. The young one hurriedly presses multiple buttons, and then, the chimps move their arms and hands. One chimp places their palms over their eyes, another covers their ears, and the last hides their mouth behind their large palms, like a human child does when they have spoken a foul word. “I can totally control them now,” the young one boasts. The head engineer shakes their head muttering something about the young lab coat needing to grow up. The positions are supposedly some visual representation of a human saying.
“You know nothing of my research,” the young one shouts.
“We don’t need to control them Gus,” the head engineer retorts. “All we need to know is how these beasts function and which genes contribute what.”
“I control these monkeys because I understand which genes contribute which actions.”
The head engineer shakes his head and chuckles in disbelief. I myself have heard enough as well; the young lab coat does not even have the decency to refer to the innocent by its type. With a snarl, I jump unto the crate, and then with an arcing and twisting flip, glide through the air to land on the station console where the chimps await freedom. The young lab coat looks directly into my eyes, not understanding what I am and what I plan on doing. Swiftly, I lash out with my talon. His facial expression remains the same, but now is covered in thick red blood. I leap toward the head genetic engineer, allowing all my weight to balance on his shoulders. His frail frame cannot hold my stocky weight, and his body crumples to the ground with a crunchy wet sound. By this time, the other lab coats in the room are frantic and begin running in all directions. The only exit is to my back, pass my talons and razor teeth. They do not stand a chance.
I allow none to shout an alarm as I hastily use my talons to silence them forever, my speed almost godly. Nature itself fuels my cause and desires the same as I do, so it is no surprise I move gallantly yet furtively ferocious. Seven bodies now lay on the once gleaming-white plastic floor. Yet, I still do not feel the task is complete; there must be more lab coats running their experiments. I turn my attention to the three chimpanzees, removing the domed devices and pulling their arms back down to their sides. They stare through me, their gaze evidence of lacking brain function. “What did they do to you?” I ask, not expecting any sort of response. The three sits there not moving, nor acknowledging my presence. Maybe I should have had the young lab coat explain the machine to bring back the minds of these gracious and once fun-spirited innocents. What sort of life will they live now?
I let out a heavy sigh and wrap my arm around the neck of one of the chimps. I kiss their forehead before I begin squeezing. The chimpanzee does not struggle as my arm begins to remove the oxygen supply. How could they be so gone? The other two slip away into the beyond just as quietly. My chest heaves as I tell myself over and over that they belonged to nature, that they had no life pass the walls of this laboratory. Their genetics will not belong to mankind and science. They have returned to from which they were taken.
My rage does not fade, yet gets hotter and fiercer. I have taken the life of an innocent because of what humans had done to them. I had to do it, though it pained everything that I am. I look to the bodies that litter the ground, wishing I could bring them back to life only to remove it once again just as quickly. Or maybe, I would make their deaths eternally slow somehow. Just then, the lab door opens and a female lab coat with short black hair gasps as she sees the gawks at the wonder of justice spilled out on the floor, transforming the room from white to red. I grin and that is the last thing she ever sees.
For the next hour I work my way throughout the laboratory slaying all people I encounter, whether or not they wear a white lab coat does not matter. I use my talons, poisoned barbs, and razor teeth primarily. I want them to feel the power of the animal kingdom vengeance. These lab coats must die knowing that nature was retaliating. For the female that had made the comment regarding the lack of value of a chimpanzee, I used my strength to crush her windpipe, to ensure that she suffered a wet and wheezing death.
The last person to die is a dark-skinned woman with an inspiring hairstyle resembling a peacock’s fanned tail-feathers. She makes it to an office and presses a red button before I snap her neck. I cannot worry about the pressed button though, as I hear the howls, screeches, hoots, and hisses of the innocents that have been imprisoned. I push open a door marked: KEEP SHUT. LIVE SPECIMENS INSIDE. That’s all these creatures are to mankind, specimens. My anger boils as I slowly walk pass all the melancholy faces trapped behind small steel bars. Cages of all sizes line the entire wall, floor to ceiling. I run my furry hands over them, unlatching the locks and releasing a hormone to calm all the creatures down. “Shhh,” I tell them. Their pleas of mercy and fear silence yet they do not move, none hint at understanding the concept that they are now free.
“Come on now,” I whisper, urging them with my mind to push open their cage doors and to follow me. Still, none move. It is a shame that their spirits have been broken. I hold back tears and push harder with my thought-command: leave, you’re free. From behind, a door swings wide, catching me off guard. I barely have time to react before a large metallic bat comes down upon my head. Good thing my skull is like stone, but the ringing is so intense it shoots tings of pain and disappointment throughout my back. Such a mighty swing and blow. The figure is dressed like one of the guards from outside, but no way they got inside and found me so quickly.
The guard is colossal and awkward, but so very strong and fast. Their smell does not add up either. It causes a headache, confusing all my senses. My mind races as instinct takes control, my body flipping and twisting away, trying to find an escape from the attacking guard. The attacks are so vicious and primal. The guard wants to squash my body. They must be friends with one of the bodies I left behind in the corridors. Ally with a butcher and get butchered I have always said. Too bad for this guard. But no, something else is fueling the attacks, and not understanding what it is makes me angrier.
Not to mention, it seems that the guard is unaware of the room we are fighting in. A long narrow room, made narrow by the dozens of cages that line the walls. Cages that are filled with innocents. I twist, jump, slide, and roll in all directions, trying not to endanger the innocents which I have tried so hard to help. I leap back as the guard swings the metallic bat, plunging it into the plastic floor. So very strong the force from this brutish guard, it leaves behind a large hole. I cannot let this guard strike me again. I may actually die.
I pounce unto the guard’s back stabbing them in the chest with a talon. The skin is so tough I actually feel resistance from the wide chest. The guard slams their back into the wall, me feeling the brunt of the force. They then grab a hold of my mane again and heave me to the farthest corner, my body bouncing off some cages filled with dogs, turtles, and a very unhappy viper. “Forgive me,” I tell the viper, launching it at the guard. The guard catches the viper midair and tosses it aside, with a surprise gentleness. Then guard actually growls before charging. “What the hell!?” I gasp aloud. A small Collie cautiously exits a cage, directly in the path of the lumbering guard that desires my head on a pike. As if the guard did not see the dog, they continued their charged. Or maybe they simply do not care for a dog. I do not think, I simply react, my rage leading.
I dart forward and crash into the guard, all my muscles straining to push. “Ommph,” the guard grunts in response. The both of us stumble backward and into the near wall, leaving a hole into the next room. My talons prepare to fall into the skull of the guard but the helmet is now gone, tossed away by my charging force. The face is not human, it is ape. I look down at an angry gorilla. A Great Silverback Gorilla! The ape uses the distraction to grab hold of my mane and swing me back into the adjacent room, my body pin-balling off the cages. The rattling steel frightens the innocents, and many scurry through the hole left by me and the guard. The guard that is a gorilla.
Through that same hole the gorilla guard charges me again, but I hesitate. How could they have done this to the gorilla? “STOP!” I scream, adding some hormones for good measure. The gorilla guard comes to a screeching halt, their chest pulsing with fiery aggression. I slowly reach out, the gorilla takes a step back. “It is fine,” I attempt to soothe. “I am a friend.” I place my furry hand on the Great Silverback, my talons already retreating. My heart calming. Hormones still pumping into the air. I watch as the gorilla closes his eyes, allowing me to pat their coarse fur.
The gorilla’s breathing is so heavy, even while calm. I peek at the multiple injection spots where who knows what was pumped into the veins of the powerful beast. The gorilla is over four meters in height, and weighs much more than half a ton. It is like a small elephant. I am amazed that the lab coats were able to clothe it. “Why?” I mutter aloud. The gorilla looks at me with his deep brown eyes, such a sad creature, unable to answer my inquiry. “Poor creature. They have made you into their slave-soldier, haven’t they?”
I hope my voice is kind and trustworthy. The fact that I am no longer being attacked should be proof of that alone. I stand straight and use my thought-commands to inform all the animals that freedom is found only by following me. With everyone, and everything, so calm they obey, lining up behind me, in no particular order of course. I walk out the room into the corridor where I have left a lifeless lab coat. Some of the innocents reel back in absolute terror, but I assure them that none of the lab coats will ever harm them again. One or two dogs bark at the waste before continuing their march toward the outside. I lead them all, including the mutilated Silverback, to the front of the laboratory. I pull open the door and smile, looking at all the innocents who have most likely never seen the outdoors. “Go, out there is your home. It is where you belong.”
Slowly the Collie comes sniffing at the precipice first, her nose wildly discovering so much so quick. Her tail wags so fast I feel it could wag right off. I grin, “…go on.” Using my thought-command I nudge a little. Still, I am secreting the hormone that is helping the Great Silverback relax. The Collie barks and walks out the door, squinting her eyes as the sun is nearly touching the horizon, preparing for a restful night. The Collie looks around, sniffing out any threats, danger, adventure, or others like her. She walks a little further from the door, squats to relieve herself, and then darts out into the small yard in front of the laboratory. A Bulldog comes next, mimicking what the Collie had just done, but instead, they gallop toward the bubbling pond. There, at the edge, the Bulldog barks at the swimming Coy and croaking toads. Several rabbits and hares dart pass my feet, heading straight for the woodland surrounding. Innocent after innocent passes me, each gaining more courage from the one that flees before them. All until the Great Silverback is last.
This wonderfully, powerful and majestic master of the jungle looks at me, and I swear I see tears. He knows nothing except what lab coats had commanded, demanded, and forced. “You’re free as well. Go! Learn what is natural, explore and swing from branches.” He bumps his massive head against my arm. I lift my furry hand and pat him. He smiles and purrs. Slowly he walks out the door, squeezing his massive torso through the opening, splintering the wood. As his paws touch grass for the first time he reels back, then bends down to sniff it. Satisfied that it will do him no harm, he turns his attention to the bubbling pond, where the Bulldog has since become bored with the Coy and moved on. As the Great Silverback cautiously approaches the pond, a Diamond Dove swoops by chirping. The Silverback opens wide his chest, beating it with his great paws, and growls, shaking the entire woodland area. What did they do to you?
I want to ask but know I will get nothing in return except maybe an odd gaze. I rush over as he starts tearing away the grass and tossing small stones. I get it in front of him, place my furry hands on his black chest, secrete an enormous amount of hormone, say that everything is alright, and push with my thought-command to stop. Not a smart move at all. He swings at me, swiping just over my head. I react, “I said STOP!” the gorilla looks at me, surprised at my forceful demand. Emotionally hurt he sits with a thud, sighs, and pokes out his lower lip. For a moment I think he will tear up at my disappointment at his behavior. And for a moment I feel like a lab coat, demanding that this great creature heed my command. It makes me sick but I do not allow the nausea to overtake me. “I did not mean to shout, my friend.” I pat his coarse fur and the smile returns. “If you want, stay here, and when I return you can come with me.” The Great Silverback jumps with excitement and nudges me.
“Yes, you will come with me,” I assure him. “But first, I must go back inside for one more moment.” I quickly understand that he does not want to be left alone, he is so afraid of nature. I want to kill the lab coats all over again. Actually, I want to hand them over to a freed-mind Silverback Gorilla which they undoubtedly tormented to create an obedient living tank of a slave-soldier. “I will return, very soon,” I tell him. I gesture to the woodland surrounding “nothing out here can hurt you.” I go back inside the laboratory thinking that not even I am a threat to the Great Silverback.
I make my way through the bloodied corridors to find the room I had used to gain entrance to the laboratory. It takes a while, not because I forgot, but because I relive each act of justice each time I step over a lifeless lab coat. Once I reach the room I smile at the forthcoming blaze I will ignite, which will leave this place a mound of ash.
From behind me, a yawning voice mutters, “what the hell?” I turn and see a human wearing an odd garment of deep grey and intense white, outlined with claret stripes. It is some sort of armor and it has an emblem on the left shoulder, an emblem I recognize but cannot decipher at the moment. Again, the human speaks, “what are you?” I allow my actions to answer: I lunge at him.