Beginnings

by Sandra R Neeley

  Every male in the holding cells was screaming for them to let her go. Even the wild man on the end was going crazy in his cell, jumping from one wall to another shrieking and snarling to deafening levels.

  “Shut up or we’ll kill the stupid bitch and then nobody gets their nuts off!” one guard screamed.

  The prisoners quieted down. Except the wild man on the end, and Conley who risked a final comment. “I’m going to fucking kill each of you. Soon as I get out of here,” Conley promised.

  The guards simply laughed at his threat.

  “Bend over,” the guard with the hose ordered the woman.

  The woman didn’t respond.

  “I said bend the fuck over!” the guard holding the hose screamed.

  “I can’t!” the woman answered.

  The second guard walked over to her, unlocked the collar, then grabbed her by the back of the head and forced her to bend her body in half, presenting her ass and the rest of her to the guard holding the hose.

  The woman screamed as the guard approached her with the hose, blasting freezing cold water both on and inside her.

  “I say she’s clean enough. You?” one guard asked.

  “Yep. Clean enough.”

  “Let’s get on with it, then,” the guard answered.

  They grabbed her and practically carried her shivering body toward the last cell. The closer they got, the quieter the wild man in that cell became.

  The prisoners listened as the guards unlocked the cell. “Back up, Bitch,” one of them ordered. “All the way, against the wall.”

  “Here ya go. You cooperate. Do what you’re told, you get treats. She’s yours until morning. Try not to break her,” one of the guards said sarcastically.

  They shoved her into the cell and slammed the door shut, locking it again before walking off laughing and joking about her getting the fuck of her life, and how she should have to pay them for the good time she was about to have.

  Maddox waited until the two were gone, then pressed his body against the bars. “Santiago!”

  “Yeah!”

  “What’s happening?” Maddox asked.

  “Nothing yet. She’s just sitting on the floor, shivering against the bars,” Santiago answered.

  “Honey, if you can hear me, don’t fight him. Don’t give him a reason to lose his temper. We’re getting the fuck out of here and when we do, we’ll take you with us,” Conley called out to her.

  When no answer came, Conley called out again. “She hear me, Santiago?”

  “Don’t know. Wait! Hold up…” Santiago answered. “Well, I be damned.”

  “What? What’s happening?”

  “He just wrapped his blanket around her and put her on his bunk. Now he’s curling up around her and just lying there, petting her hair.”

  Maddox breathed a relieved breath. “Thank fuck. I do not want to have to witness a woman raped while I just sit here and do nothing.”

  “Ditto,” Conley answered from across the way.

  “Surely, that means no matter how wild that male seems, he’s still got a sense of right and wrong,” Phelps said.

  “I’m’a try to talk to him,” Santiago said.

  “Now? While he’s got a woman with him?” Phelps asked.

  “Yeah. It’s the quietest he’s been so far,” Santiago answered.

  “Hey! Hey, dude! You alright over there? Anything we can do for you? What’s your name?” Santiago said, trying to get the large, wild male to speak to him.

  He didn’t get an answer, so he tried again — louder this time. “Hey, dude! What’s your name?” Santiago yelled.

  The male who was lying still behind the shivering female trying to calm her, lifted his head. He looked over at Santiago and snarled.

  “What? I’m just trying to say hi,” Santiago said.

  The male snarled again and then held one finger to his lips. “Shhhhhhh.”

  Santiago burst out laughing.

  “What? What did he say?” Conley asked.

  “He shushed me,” Santiago answered.

  “One thing’s for sure. He’s not as wild as he pretends to be,” Maddox said. “Makes me think maybe we can beat this thing.”

  Chapter 3

  Lieutenant Maddox Larsen stood at the door of his cell, doing his best to look as far as he could to his right. “You sure it’s the same man?” he yelled.

  “Yeah, pretty sure. I mean, I dozed off for a while, but the woman’s still here, and looks like no one’s been here to feed him,” Santiago said.

  “Yeah, I’ve just been lying here awake, nobody else has come in here. That’s the same man they put in there last night,” Phelps said.

  “And he’s not like he was before?” Maddox asked.

  “No, he looks completely normal,” Phelps answered.

  “Shut up,” an unfamiliar voice ordered.

  “Who was that?” Maddox asked.

  “Him. Yellow eyed dude. Only now they’re not yellow anymore,” Santiago said.

  The double doors at the end of the cell block opened and two of the guards came through. They started down the cell block toward the man they’d given the woman to the night before. Their keys could be heard jangling as they unlocked his cell. A male voice shouted for them to leave her the fuck alone. The guards’ response was to snicker as they shoved her naked and stumbling through the cell block toward the double doors.

  Maddox could just see Santiago at the opposite end and strained to get eyes on him. He saw Santiago incline his head, as though acknowledging respect.

  “What’s happening?” Maddox asked.

  “He didn’t hurt her. He heard the guards coming, spit into his hand and wiped it between her legs so they’d think he’d fucked her.”

  “And he’s not all hulked up anymore?” Maddox asked.

  “Nope,” Santiago said, still looking the man in the eye. “He’s not. About 6’4, brown eyes and just as human as you and me.”

  The man stood there glaring at Santiago.

  “Sorry, my Lieutenant is down there, gotta answer, ya know?” Santiago said.

  The man just stared at him.

  “I’m Santiago. How long you been here? Anybody ever get out?”

  The man just watched him before going back to lie on his bunk again.

  Minutes passed, nobody saying anything, each with their own worries in mind.

  Then they heard his voice. “Tex.”

  “Tex? Tex, good to meet you, wish to fuck it wasn’t in here,” Santiago said.

  “Nobody gets out unless they’re bought. Just pray they don’t give you too much and fuck your mind beyond repair,” Tex said before turning over and pulling his blanket over his body.

  “Too much? Too much what?” Santiago asked.

  “And sold to fucking who?” Conley asked urgently.

  The double doors opened again and a new set of guards came through them. They stopped at Maddox’s cell.

  Maddox backed up against the wall behind him. He eyed them warily, on alert, taking on a defensive posture.

  “Your turn,” Pencil Dick sneered, unlocking the door to his cell.

  Maddox didn’t reply, he just continued to watch the two guards enter his cell. They each had cattle prods, and also wore what appeared to be stun guns in holsters at their hips.

  “Come on, asswipe. You signed up for this. Why you gotta make it all difficult?” the second guard asked. “Just once I’d like one of these fuckers to be a man, accept what the fuck they agreed to.”

  “Maybe if you poor excuses for men would bother to explain what the hell we’re headed into, we wouldn’t fight it so much,” Maddox answered.

  “Just shut the fuck up and turn around, hands behind your back,” the guard replied.

  Maddox grinned, making his nose crinkle up just the slightest bit. “Fuck you,” he answered.

  Pencil Dick held out his cattle prod, pressing the button to test its readiness.

  Maddox eyed it, then he raised an eyebrow. “
Compensating much, Pencil Dick?”

  The second guard aimed his stun gun at Maddox, fired it at him and watched as the voltage took him to his knees, snarling, his body contorting as he attempted to fight the effects. “Just fucking fall over, for fucks sake!” the guard shouted. He walked forward, along with Pencil Dick, adding their prods to the mix, until Maddox finally lay completely incapacitated on the cement floor.

  They clamped a steel shackle around his neck, more around his hands and feet, and used the attached chains to drag him, his body still contorted and tense from the voltage driven through his body, from his cell and through the double doors leading out of the cell block.

  Maddox’s men, housed in the neighboring cells, lost their control, pounding on the bars of the cells and screaming insults and threats at the guards who dragged him away. They were helpless to intercede on his behalf, and furious at their inability to help.

  They each quieted in their own time, Phelps retreating to his bunk to sit quietly, all manner of retribution running through his head. Santiago kept his hands wrapped around the bars of his cell, alternating between the prayers his grandmother had taught him as a boy and begging Tex to tell him what the fuck was going on. Conley paced back and forth, his hands clenching and unclenching as he did his best to control his temper. Thoughts of his new wife and their unborn daughter running through his mind, punctuated with flashes of Maddox shackled and dragged away.

  The double doors opened again, and this time, they went for Conley.

  Conley only backed halfway into his cell. “The fuck do you want?” he shouted at them.

  This time neither guard took the time to even ask him to comply. Pencil Dick shot him with a stun gun, and then both guards advanced on him with the cattle prods. Pencil Dick slipped the shackle around his neck, then the smaller ones around his wrists and ankles. The guards gripped his chains and dragged him from his cell just as they had done to Maddox not fifteen minutes before.

  Helplessness was not an emotion these men were accustomed to feeling. They were very capable, very strong, very intimidating black ops trained, seasoned military personnel. They were trained to withstand interrogation. But training was completely different than watching your fellow soldiers, your brothers being dragged away by an entity that for all intents and purposes was, or was at least related to, the government you signed your name on the line for, and swore an oath to protect. They weren't escorted to whatever testing was done, they were attacked and dragged away. This was not a fucking testing facility. This was torture, plain and simple, and whatever the hell they had planned was beyond the scope of anything they’d imagined.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  It was nighttime according to the sliver of sky that could be seen from the slash of window each cell sported near their ceilings. Phelps and Santiago waited restlessly for return of their brethren, or for the guards to come for them. Either was acceptable. At least the waiting would be over.

  Finally, the double doors swung open and the guards appeared supporting a nude Maddox between them. His bare feet dragged the floor as the guards hefted his weight on the way to his cell. They dumped him unceremoniously on the floor once they reached his cell while one of them unlocked the door. The cell door was thrown wide. Pencil Dick walked into the cell and grabbed Maddox’s feet, pulling him just inside the bars, then dropped Maddox’s feet to the cement floor and exited the cell.

  Both guards walked over to Conley’s cell and unlocked it, pushing the door wide. Then they disappeared through the double doors only to appear minutes later dragging Conley between them. They threw him into his cell, uncaring that he was unconscious and unable to break his own fall, slammed the door shut and locked it. As they exited through the double doors again, Pencil Dick could be heard demanding payment. “You owe me a hundred bucks. Told you Lieutenant fuck face would stay conscious.”

  “I’m not giving you a hundred bucks,” the other responded.

  “A bet’s a bet. You owe me, no matter what Doc did, he didn’t pass out. You owe me!”

  The doors closed behind them and they were locked and chained from the outside.

  Santiago and Phelps rushed to the bars lining the front of their cells. They each struggled to see Lieutenant Larsen, flattening their faces against the bars as much as they possibly could.

  “Lieutenant!” Phelps shouted. “Maddox!” he tried again.

  The sound of moaning was all that answered them.

  “Conley!” Santiago tried, but there was no sound at all, not even a moan.

  “Maddox!” both Phelps and Santiago shouted at the same time. Another moan followed by a garbled snarl answered them.

  “What the fuck did they do to them?” Phelps asked.

  Santiago shook his head. He had no idea, no answers, no words at all.

  Sometime later they heard rustling sounds coming from the cell furthest from them, all the way at the front. “Maddox!” Santiago shouted.

  More rustling was heard.

  “Maddox, man, you alright?!” Santiago shouted. “Talk to us!” Santiago pleaded.

  Both Santiago and Phelps once again had their faces pressed to their bars, trying to see anything they could in the darkened cell block.

  “Maddox!” Phelps called out again. “Sir! Report! Are you alright?” he demanded sharply.

  A slow, building rumble carried to them out of the darkness from the direction of Maddox’s cell.

  Santiago and Phelps locked eyes.

  “The fuck?” Phelps whispered.

  They looked down in the direction of Maddox’s cell, then they knew. Maddox was staring back at them, or what used to be Maddox at least. Black colored eyes, instead of his usual hazel. Maddox wasn’t Maddox anymore, at least not right now.

  “What’d they do to him?” Phelps asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to fucking know,” Santiago answered.

  The jangling of chains could be heard. Both men backed away from their bars, anxiety pouring off them both thinking the guards were coming for them next.

  The double doors opened, and a single shaft of light shone through as a man dressed in a white coat stepped through. He glanced over at Conley’s cell, then turned his back on Conley when he walked over to Maddox’s cell.

  “You’ve done well, Lieutenant Larsen. As your body becomes more and more attuned to our enhancements, some relief is available to you. You may have noticed last night, one of your cellmates was gifted with a female. Do what’s expected of you, you are rewarded. You give us trouble, resist the experimentation we are responsible for conducting here, and you’ll get no relief.”

  The doctor stepped closer to the cell. “Do you understand me, Lieutenant?”

  Maddox lunged at the bars, snarling and reaching a hand through, causing the doctor to step back suddenly. Maddox’s entire body was throbbing, his muscles strained to the point of tearing. His body was primed and ready for anything that may be required of it. Even his cock was swollen and throbbing as Maddox snarled, and growled at the doctor standing outside his cell.

  The doctor chuckled. “Wonderful. Elevated aggression is one of the factors we are studying. You’re already responding well. Shame your friend here,” he said, indicating Conley’s cell behind him, “hasn’t had the same successes.”

  Maddox slipped to the floor, unable to sustain his own body weight as the drugs they’d injected him with coursed through his veins.

  “This is why you’re not given a female in the first days of your testing, no matter how well you’ve done. You’d not be able to service her anyway. But do not be concerned, Lieutenant. As you grow accustomed to the serum we administered, your body will be able to adjust more easily. Our hope is that you will have the ability to be yourself, then, at will become this male. This aggressive, killing machine, enlarged in size, stature, and rife with testosterone with only two thoughts on your mind, fighting and fornicating.

  You’ve passed the first part of the test. Now that you’ve survived the init
ial serum introduction, we know that you can withstand the beginning transformations. This new male is the one we now wish to see how far we can push. If we can control you, your services will be invaluable, not just to myself, but to many other buyers waiting for results to be proven. If we can’t control you, you’ll have to be put down. Either way the data I collect through your tests is greatly appreciated. Rest easy, Lieutenant, or as easily as you can. Perhaps if you can win my approval tomorrow, you’ll be gifted with a female to ease your edges tomorrow night,” the doctor said, a sinister smile in place. “I will most enjoy watching your approach to your female. Will you kill her? Will you pleasure her? Or perhaps you’ll just attack, take what you need, and leave her for the others?”

  The doctor chuckled and turned to leave. He noticed a male sitting against the bars, his lips pulled back in a silent snarl.

  “Delightful!” the doctor said, smiling broadly. “Conley is up and about as well. Good evening, Specialist Conley. I am most pleased that we will not have to put you down quite yet. Perhaps you’ll out-perform our expectations of you yet.”

  Conley growled at the doctor and snapped his teeth in his direction.

  The doctor laughed again and walked through the double doors. His guards closed them behind him, locking them up tight and as usual ran chains through them to insure they couldn’t be opened from the inside.

  Chapter 4

  When the guards came for Maddox the next morning, he was already awake and pacing his cell. He snarled the moment they entered the cell block, but rather than drop back to the rear of his cell, he smiled toothily, showing all his new canine incisors and dropped down to squat in the center of his cell waiting for them to enter. A low rumble could be heard vibrating from his chest. His muscles were taut and loaded, waiting for the first opportunity to spring at his captors, his fists clenching and unclenching as his newly grown claws glistened in the sparse rays of sunlight peeking in through the tiny slits near the ceiling of their cement cells.

  “Hold up,” the first guard said, watching Maddox warily.