by Mel Todd
Flipping open the binder she started to read and felt her heart seize. The words on the pages explained everything clearly, and worse, it made sense and would probably work from what she had already seen in her limited experimentation with her senses.
Latching on to anything to delay the inevitable, she spoke. "I don't know how to pronounce a lot of these words."
"I anticipated that. I have recordings for each of them so you can hear how to say them correctly. Though with their intelligence levels I expect they would be able to understand what was asked regardless. Otherwise that would prove this whole experiment a failure." His cool, calm voice made her want to scream. She had to figure out some way to get the kids out of here, but for now playing along seemed to be the only option.
"Sounds practical." She laid out the items, separated by a foot or so each. "Guys listen to me. I need you to learn each of these smells, scents, whatever. Memorize them."
With tilted heads they gave her a look, but then did as she asked, even as she railed internally at them even learning it.
Look at it this way, at least they'll know for the future.
She snorted at the thought but kept reading. Then took another deep breath and started doing what she couldn't figure out how to avoid.
"Jessi, come over here please." She'd be damned if she treated them any other way than as people. They needed to remember they were still people.
One of the jaguars pulled away and slinked over to her, tail still lashing back and forth, but her ears were titled forward.
"Okay, Jessi. You're going to learn some commands in Klingon." The cat pulled back sitting up straight, her whiskers out to the sides. "I know, cool right. Very Star Trek. Neat, huh?"
She half bobbed her head, moving closer to McKenna.
"Okay, so you're going to learn instructions in Klingon, on how to identify the items you scented. First command is going to be Seek." She took a second to focus and tamp down the anger. "Can you play the word please?"
A crackle, then, "Nej," came through the room.
"Nej," McKenna repeated looking closely at Jessi. "When you hear that word you need to start looking for any of the things you smelled in the packages. Can you do that?"
Was she asking too much of these kids? Could they do that?
Jessi dipped her head and flicked a tail.
"Got it? Okay next command. Attack."
"yIHIv," came across the room. McKenna repeated it, the word feeling odd on her tongue.
"If you hear that word, you need to use," she swallowed pushing the words past her tongue. "You use claws and teeth to attack the person you are directed to attack. Does that make sense?"
Jaguar narrowed her eyes looking at McKenna, then glanced around the area and bobbed her head once.
"Last one," McKenna said, her mouth dry as she reviewed the instructions. "Stay."
"peloS," crackled in the room. She repeated the word.
"If you hear, peloS, you need to sit and wait for further orders."
Jessi hunched her shoulders, ducking her head between them.
"Good. I know you'll be very good at this." The words tasted like ash in her mouth, but she wasn't going to put any of the anger on these kids. They had nothing to do with it.
She went through each of the steps with each kid, saving Nam for last as she was in English, and it also gave her the most time to get accustomed to dealing with it. Paul's instructions were all in Esperanto, which was close enough to Spanish that she didn't have an issue pronouncing them. While Jalmer was in German, which she needed help with. Jamie got Spanish which she could mangle well enough. Then next most difficult ended up being Charley with Russian, which was almost harder than the Klingon to pronounce correctly.
That completed she looked at the next step in her instructions. She was to take the samples and hide them and get them to go look for them and find them according to the instructions. Watching these kids being treated like animals, being forced to deprive them of everything human, lashed at her and she had to fight not to lose control, even as she acted perfectly calm. It shredded her heart with every command.
I swear to everything that exists when I get out of here I'm killing this man slowly and enjoying every single scream.
"Okay, guys, listen up. I need you to all go to that far corner and close your eyes and face the corner." She pointed where she wanted them to go. "I'm going to hide all of these items. And then one at a time, I'm going to give you your commands in your language and tell you what to seek. Any questions?"
As soon as the question left her lips she felt like an idiot. How in the hell were they going to ask if they did have a question?
After glancing at each other, they all went into the corner, and put their noses to the corner eyes closed.
Feeling like her body had quadrupled in weight she rose and went and hid the various packages all over the area. She didn't do it easy, she did it hard, making it so they weren't gimmes. Though she didn't know if she wanted them to succeed or fail.
Once everything was hidden, she went back to where they were and closed her eyes, fighting back tears at what she was teaching them. Forcing her voice to stay level, she looked at the list and started going down it.
They followed the same pattern each time, Seek in their language, then the item. But the kids were smart and already knew all their words and probably everyone else’s.
"Buscar, pot. The signal is two yips and cover your nose."
Jamie perked up, turned around and started sniffing. It took a minute or two, but he stopped at a kitchen cupboard and yipped twice then covered his nose.
She walked over to the cupboard opened it and pulled out the pot.
"Good job, Jamie." He licked her hand and then headed back to the area they had been at and sat down.
She walked back. "Suchen, gun oil. The signal is a long whine and point at the location."
Jalmer stood up, put his legs in front of him in a long stretch, then lifted his head taking a long sniff. He turned his head left and right and then moved in a straight direction, stopping occasionally to reorient.
It took a minute, but he found it. Slowly they worked through everyone, calling out seek in each of their languages. McKenna had no idea how she would be required to train them for that.
They spent the day training for Seek and Stay, getting them to only respond to their commands. She took time to make them lunch give them bathroom breaks, but she kept them occupied and busy, even as she tried to think about ways she could get out of there and nothing appeared at all.
I can't get them out of here. How do I keep them human when they are being forced to stay as animals?
The thought stayed with her all day long until at the end they were curled around her and she pulled them close and fought back the tears and the feeling of helpless as sleep pulled her down.
Chapter 33 - Consequences
While the search still goes on for the missing children in Northern California, disturbing news is emerging from China. The issues with North Korea are well known at this point, but China has instituted a new travel ban for anyone who can shift. That in itself is problematic, but what is really causing concern all the way up to the state department is anyone who comes into the country and is found out they can shift, is being indefinitely detained. There are stories, which have yet to be substantiated, that the families of those detained are unable to reach anyone to talk about getting their loved one's back. The State Department is in talks about having our citizens returned, but China is being unusual about this entire thing, declaring they have detained no people. - TNN News report.
The kids had covered her like a living blanket of fur in the night, and she hadn’t had the heart to push them way, nor the desire to if she was honest. The blare of an alarm over the speakers pulled her from dreams of being smothered by fur.
Waking up, she stretched pushing grumbling kids from her as she headed to the bathroom. Teeth brushed and bladder emptied, she looked at herself
in the small mirror. With a sigh she removed the bra, no reason to torture herself. She hung it up and emerged back out into the main room. Already her clothes were feeling grimy. But right now, she just needed to keep the kids calm.
“Morning guys,” she made her voice cheerful as she watched the kids. They didn’t deserve her anger, and she refused to punish them because of her inability to figure a way out.
Paul sprang forward rubbing against her leg followed by one of the jaguars. The others all curled up tighter in balls not wanting to move.
I so wish I could do that and ignore this reality.
“How does eggs, sausage, and biscuits sound?” She asked after digging through the fridge and pulling out the ingredients. That got a little more interest and Charley moved over, sitting back and watching, his whole body still. Jalmer didn’t move except to have his badger form curl tighter into a ball. She didn’t push it, they would be moving soon enough.
As she cooked, she watched them move around, trips to the bathroom, stretching, and interacting. Charley definitely seemed to be the leader, he nudged Nam and Jalmer into moving, and watched the most. She just cataloged everything as she looked around their prison again, trying to see if there was anything she had missed yesterday. But nothing had changed. They were still watched, and she couldn’t see a way to get out. Trying to break down the door would be seen in a minute as would disabling the cameras. She had no way to set up loops on the cameras, and nothing else to try but take down multiple armed men without her or kids ending up dead.
With a brisk shake of her head, dwelling accomplished nothing, she served the kids on plates on the floor. They had provided dog bowls, but she refused to use them. Making the kids feel less human than what they already did would not help in the long run.
Food had the wonderful effect of grabbing all of their attention, and she ate as she watched them. Her appetite had disappeared, but she knew she needed food to be able to have a chance of protecting them.
Her goal today, keep them entertained and distracted. And try to come up with a plan. She watched Charley, he paid the most attention to everything, and she worried he might be the one to do something dangerous.
“Okay guys, laps while I do the dishes. Go, run around the area. Twenty times. Go.” Keeping her voice light required effort, but she even got a smile on her face. Watching them tumble about in laps, the four cats chasing tails, while Charley just ran. His focus was absolute as he did the laps ignoring the cats attempts to pounce on his tail. Jalmer trundled after them, his low body moving much slower than everyone else. His head hung low as he moved, no energy in his movements unlike the others.
McKenna just noted, if their captors didn’t comment, she wasn’t about to get on them for anything.
“Great job. We ready to start training today? I’ve got some ideas to mix it up.”
“No, I don’t wanna. I want to go home. This is stupid.”
She whirled and looked in horror at Jalmer standing there, holding a blanket up to cover himself, a pout on his lips.
And here I was worried about Charley.
“Jalmer, you need to change back,” her voice hit a strident note as she moved over to him, Charley right behind her butting Jalmer at his knees making the kid buckle and fall onto the floor.
“No! I want my mom!” Tears started to roll down his face, and the other kids watched their eyes wide, bodies frozen.
“I know, Jalmer, I know. But she can’t be here right now. And we have to obey the rules right now.” The bitterness of those words coated her mouth with acid, even as she kept talking, begging him. “So, go ahead and change back and we can come up with something fun to do.” She knew she was begging, and a part of her prayed that the threat had been just that, a threat and not something they would back up.
“No, I’m not doing it.” Jalmer backed into a corner, pulling the blanket back against him, crying at this point which set off the other kids, and she could see a few of them wanting to change, soft blurs at their edges.
“Everyone just calm down. You need to stay in your animal forms.” Dropping to her knees in front of him she pleaded. “I know how scary this is, and I really wish we could go home. But we can’t right now. And if we don’t listen bad things might happen. And you don’t want that do you?”
Jalmer just shook his head crying, and the tiger and panther pushed past Charley to curl up next to him. The panther purring like crazy while Nam cuddled with him, the tiger cub cuteness enough to make her want to cry.
The creak of the door being unlocked cause her heart and brain to freeze. Turning with icy slowness she looked at the door, and a wild thought flashed through her mind.
Maybe they found us, and this nightmare is over.
The door pulled open to see Smiling Man standing there, no smile on his face this time. But what really made every bit of her breakfast threaten to re-emerge, was the whip dangling from his hand.
He held it up, and she knew there wasn’t a person in the room who didn’t focus on it. With a handle wrapped in leather that plaited around the shaft and kept going for about six feet and lay in a deadly pool of leather on the floor.
“I had hoped I wouldn’t need to do this, but I suppose when you deal with children they don’t understand consequences as well as adults. I’m sure after this object lesson, none of them will forget.” He didn’t sound mad, if anything he sounded vaguely disappointed, and that made the nausea worse.
With shaking knees she pushed to her feet, and walked towards him, waving the kids behind her.
“No, it’s my fault I didn’t explain properly. I should be punished not him.” Her mind raced trying to figure out how to stop this, but behind him were two men with guns. They stayed in the shadows and she couldn’t see them properly to know if they were the same ones as on the bus. Plus her eyes kept drifting back to that whip, her mouth feeling like she been eating sand.
“Hmm, interesting. It might be worth it to use you as my lesson. Let them know that misbehaving has consequences for others than just themselves.” He tilted his head looking at her, the button-down oxford and dark slacks a strange contrast to the gang tattoos peeking out of the rolled up sleeves.
She tried to swallow, but her throat didn’t work making it worse as nothing came to mind. Getting past them without ending up shot or the kids didn’t seem possible. Even if she shifted, she couldn’t move fast enough to protect all of them. But letting a child get whipped wasn’t an option.
“Very well, I think this is better anyhow. Every time one of them breaks the rules I’ll punish you.” He stepped forward a cold smile on his face. “And if you break the rules, I’ll punish them.” McKenna had to close her eyes as his words sank in.
I can’t risk doing anything to piss him off, the kids will not pay for my mistakes.
“Understood.” Trying to make it seem okay, she turned to the kids. “Go, sit down. I’m going to go with these men.” A chorus of whines and coughs of distress across. Jalmer stood frozen his eyes locked on to the whip.
“Oh no. That would reduce the effectiveness of this message. They need to see the punishment, hear it, smell it. Strip.” The last word hard and direct.
Protests rose on her lips, the kids did not need to see her naked, but intuition told her saying anything might make it worse. With numb fingers she pulled off her clothes, setting them in a pile. She looked up to see Smiling Man run his eyes up and down her body.
“If anything, I have to say the video of you underplayed your attractiveness.” He glanced around the area, then nodded towards the kitchen. “There. Go grab the counter and hold on. Oh, and, Officer,” he played with the sound of that word, “if you try to fight, I’ll put a bullet in your brain then whip the kids to make sure they understand.”
Words wouldn’t come, she nodded her head in a jerky movement, and without looking at the kids walked into the kitchen. She leaned against the counter, her fingers so tight on the edge of the laminate counter top they turned white.
You can do this. It’s just pain.
She’d experienced pain before, she could do this.
“You ready? I figure twenty lashes should be a good number. Effective enough that the animals will understand the consequences, but I don’t think it will kill you.”
Breathe, in and out, concentrate on breathing.
Her world narrowed down to listening to the people in that room, the kids snuffling, the men shifting their stances and the quiet steps as Smiling Man approached with the whip.
The crack in the air heralded the first strike, but they were so close together they blended into a single thing, a crack of pain.
A startled yell slipped out of her as her skin split under the blow.
“Interesting. I had read that this was an effective deterrent to people committing crimes. I am starting to see why. Though getting it to hit is harder than I thought.”
Another crack of pain, and McKenna bit her lip so hard metallic blood flooded her mouth. Crack, crack, crack. The sounds were blending together and the kids where howling in agony, and she heard words spoken though it took her a minute to understand them.
“If they don’t shut up, shoot the nosiest one.”
The howls stopped immediately, and all she could hear was her ragged breathing.
“I don’t think I’m getting the full impact. I wonder if I move over here.” Footsteps, then the crack, sharper, faster this time, and she screamed as it lashed across her back, the tip of the whip curling around to slice at her breast.
“Oh, much better. This is wonderful. Gentlemen, please double check this is being recorded. I think it will be an excellent motivational video.” The idle speculation in his voice let her know they would all die before he let them escape. To be free, she would have to kill him.
After that, she could only scream. Each lash of the whip tearing skin and muscle, curling around her body and teaching her pain she never knew could exist. By the end, the only reason she still stood is her knees were locked, and she couldn’t figure out how to unlock them so she could collapse.
