Free Wrath by KT Aphrodisia

Chapter One

    Emma thumbed through her files for that day,
assembling her specimen tray as she worked the paperwork. Each file
contained a different test subject and different instructions. From
some, she would need to get a tissue sample or blood work done. She
was a registered nurse but around here she worked as a lab
technician and made way better money than she had ever dreamed
possible, but there were times she wondered if it was worth it.
These test subjects weren’t human and they didn’t react like humans
when she had to work on them either. They growled at her, lunged at
her, would probably kill her if it weren’t for their
restraints.
    She felt sorry for them, wanted to help them,
but they didn’t trust or like her. She would probably feel the same
in their shoes. Anybody who came through the door of the cells was
an enemy. They treated everyone the same, growling and keeping
defensive.
    Like every day, the scientists left
instructions in each one of the test subject’s files. Every day was
different around here, but it was always about the monsters. What
Trax did to the human test subjects was truly shocking and just
plain awful.
    These men were once human but what they did
was awful. They created monsters.
    Emma never imagined anyone would be capable
of the evil she saw behind those locked doors, and it was all
secret. She didn’t know what she was really in for when she first
started working for Trax Industries. What they were doing was
illegal, immoral, and highly controversial gene splicing between
unwilling human victims and animals. Their faces and bodies were
permanently altered to become a completely different new
species.
    It was crazy to see them, and walk into their
holding cells. Every monster was different, taking unique traits
from the animal they were spliced with. Some had tentacles, or
beaks, or fur, or fangs.
    They introduced her slowly to the
experiments, but it was still a shock.
    Emma stared at the pictures in their files in
disbelief at first, but then in reality these creatures were so
much bigger than a picture could ever show. The face was no longer
human, and their facial structure contained fine details that were
reminiscent of the animal that they had been matched with.
    Her fingers fumbled, and she stopped when she
got to Number 216’s file. He was the oldest living specimen. He was
one of the first men to survive the gene splicing. Some of these
experiments had no parents and were the product of test tubes. He
was different. She had been working with him since her very first
day she was allowed down here. She was drawn to his animal
magnetism. He wasn’t like the others. He never spoke to her,
although she knew he could. The others were able to communicate.
Perhaps they kept him too drugged?
    Or maybe he had lost any and all respect for
humans. After all, he wasn’t even given a name, merely a
number.
    It didn’t matter. She shouldn’t let it bother
her but she wanted to help him. She wanted to be different from the
others.
    A yellow Post-It-Note was stuck to his file
on the inside next to her usual list. She pulled it off immediately
after reading it, stunned by what she read.
    “They want a semen sample?”
    A security guard laughed at the doorway
behind her.
    When she turned to give him a fierce glare,
he immediately stiffened and pretended to ignore her, but the smirk
was left on his face.
    “This can’t be right.” She grimaced and shook
her head. The things they made her do in here rubbed her wrong. A
bureaucracy like Trax had no morals or ethics, but they never
failed to surprise her.
    The guards lips curled up in amusement.
“What’s the matter? You can’t handle it?”
    “Of course, I can handle it.” She could
handle anything. She just wasn’t sure how to collect it. There was
the kill zone to consider. She would have to get within that space
to be able to get it and then what? Was she supposed to beg him to
give it to her? She could use a needle to