2.60 Genetic Experiments

Conscious of the fact that daylight was slipping away fast, Neter was also running low on food and drink, his time was almost up. He hurried back towards the lobby, scanning the reception one more time as he headed for the doors, when he noticed another ominous sign. 'ANIMUS WING…'

         He read it again, wise to their ways. This was perhaps an important clue too. Sword in hand, he took a detour down a dark hall of mysterious looking labs, dodging puddles still lingering on the floor from the fire. Doors were locked, he peered through smoke encrusted windows but could only make out partial shapes of equipment and furnishings inside.... This was the most heavily burned part of the establishment so far.

         Determined to look inside, he blasted the lock open with his sword, triggering another round of canine urgency... From inside...

         He checked the halls but wherever they were, they seemed to be secure. A vile stench was billowing out of the lab before him. Covering his airway with a scarf he braved his way inside to have a look, he didn't come all this way to get deterred by odors. The lab was full of exam tables with what looked like bodies draped in sheets laying on them, abandoned and left to rot. None of the sheets were burned…

         He approached the nearest table and lifted the sheet just a few inches, there was lots of hair... Or was it fur... What was this?

         He pulled the sheet back farther only to behold the head of a ghastly looking wild dog, fierce and unearthly. Its fangs were unnatural looking, they extended from jaws still gaping open in a frozen scream. He lifted the sheet farther... It had a human torso...

         "Oh. My. God…" He almost dropped the sheet he felt so ill. With great trepidation, he pulled it back farther to reveal the paws, the claws! These things are the Savage Beasts? Laying on the table was a creature so fierce the children had to have perished from fear before they even laid their fangs on them. What was this hideous creation?
         Neter began circling the tables, inspecting the other bodies laying in the lab. They were all wretched, they were all hideous animal crossbreeds, every single one of them. Some had different animal heads, some had animal torsos and legs, some had hooves, the number of tortured souls rotting away in this evil hell was incomprehensible. What was this all for? And what about the beasts outside? Were they the same thing, only alive? These dogon creatures could explain the carnage at the school but there was no evidence of a bloody struggle here… This wasn't the virus that took Fina down... What did happen to the citizens of Fina?

         He stopped to take a closer look at the strange neckline of the corpse laying before him, clutching his heart as the hideous truth unfolded even farther. They weren't crossbreeds at all. The dogons hadn't been bred by some crazy gene manipulation, these things had been manufactured, their body parts had been physically spliced... There were stitches joining the body parts together!