Around the cages were two men, dressed in white coats. The first, John, had dark brown hair that bordered on being black with eyes that matched. There was more to him, but that was all hidden beneath the thick coat which hung down to his knees and brown pants that poked out all the way to his shoes which were obscured by plastic wrappings to prevent dirt from being trekked in. What could be ascertained from the outside was rendered inaccurate by his almost crippling slouch and tendency to lean against the wall, making him both lopsided and short.
Leonard on the other hand, stood a full head taller than John, garbed in the same attire but was standing straight. He was topped with a birds nest of straw and had hazel green eyes poking out from underneath; he was basically a tree with his ashen grey skin which was the result of drinking a mix of animal fluids in a contest a couple years back.
"Hey, John! The cellular activity is still pretty high in the cockroach blood!"
"You mean the red blood cells are still alive? How?"
"No, not the red blood cells, the white ones! They're still alive and consuming the stain!"
"Let's drop that blood into a slide and examine it directly then."
"Wow! How are they still moving so much! They're dissolving the stain! Look! It's disappearing!"
"Hey, how much damage could a drop of blood cause to a mole you think?"
"Well does the mole blood show similar properties?"
"Nah, it just dies off like how normal blood does."
"Well, let's try it on that mole we brought over! Plenty of moles around here!"
The two researchers walked down the hall to the lab where the mole they had just taken out as stored. They entered the room and filled a syringe with several ccs of blood.
"Hey, you sure this is safe?"
"John, look at me, nothing can go wrong. If the mole dies, we can just replace it. What could ever happen?"
"Ok then let's do this. Just gotta open up this hatch, attach the syringe to this part of the arm, and have fun!"
"Hey, look at that mole screech, you ever heard anything so ugly before?"
"Yeah, remember that baboon we got before? Screeched like it was in hell!"
The arm slowly descended and like a snake leaping forwards to inject its venom, injected the bit of roach blood into the mole. The site of the injection began to swell as if a hive had formed."
"Well, I guess the blood just clotted, nothing happened. Looks like your effort was in vain, John"
"Wait, look at it, the hive is still growing!"
"What? I guess that blood is pretty strong then, let's leave it there overnight and record it."
"Yeah, today's been a pretty big day, we got the creatures from the landfill. This might just be the day that makes history!"
"Yeah well, we have several more tests to run and we still need to find the exact composition of that roach blood."
"I'll go get some compounds and see how the roach blood can clean that up too. What if we can somehow get the roach blood to filter out large quantities of contaminated water! Think about the possibilities!"
In the cage behind the researcher, Nicky was lying there in satisfaction. The blood was akin to high nutrient supplements which Nicky had never felt before. But as the blood went its path and was entirely absorbed by his body, there grew an urge to obtain more.
The mole's body had balanced itself out, growing a mass of muscle evenly through his body which was in sharp contrast to his previous state where the growth was lopsided. The muscles could be seen bulging through his skin which was taut due to the rapid growth of what was under it.
"Hey, you're looking much better now aren't ya buddy."
Several growls came from within the cage. Several light bumps came from within the cage, bumping against it.
The man turned around and back.
The bumping began to escalate as the pressure within its brain began to grow, driving it into a frenzy in search of the substance which had brought so much joy to it.
The plastic had started forming stress marks at the location of the ramming which was taking place. Soon the plastic had deformed so much it was about to snap open.
The man hurriedly pressed a button on the side of the cage.
A needle came down from the arm and injected the frenzied mole with a sedative. And down the mole went.
"Woah what's that! That's beautiful! Hey Leonard! Look at this!"
"What John, you know I have to cross the hall every time."
"Just take a look at this! It's grown! It also attacked me after waking up!"
"Well transfer it to another cage already! I don't want that biting off my head!"
"Is your cage open?"
"Yeah but I don't want to get my head bitten off when this thing wakes up again."
"You want to transfer it to the electric cage then? I'm sure that it couldn't continue to ram against the cage without its nerves frying."
"Sure, but not before we take a couple vials of its blood!."
--Inside--
"Hey, how do you think we'll get out?"
"Alejandros, how many times have you asked me this. This is like the billionth time! We've barely been in here for a day!"
"Yeah, but where are all the humans? Don't they basically exist everywhere? That book showed a couple of hundred people crowded in a square, didn't it?"
"You think that little square of space could sustain that much life? You're joking! They were just swarming!"
"Well, why aren't they swarming around us right now? Don't they like to exhibit animals?"
"They're probably studying us! Remember that blood sample? They're probably learning everything about it right now! You removed the energy from that right?"
"So… Ummm… Not really… I kinda left energy there… We're screwed aren't we."
"Well… On the bright side, that means the sample they took from me is different from the sample they took from you. Thus it could explain why I am a parasite on you! Look, what are they going to do to you! If they dissect and kill you, they no longer have their source of blood! In fact, not giving them that energized blood may have lead to them dissecting you early!"
"I'm going to get dissected? How do we get out!"
"I'm not too sure, but that hole they used to get the blood out of the machine could help!"
"Yeah but it's filled! I know! Why don't you dissolve the walls!"
"None of my acids do enough! I've tested all of them! Only one barely shows any signs of corrosion and at the speed that takes they'll notice the damage!"
"Just change your acid! Come on! You've done that plenty of times!"
"I need sludge to produce more acid! You think the acid just materializes out of nowhere? I can make it out of your blood if you want! The acid probably wouldn't be very strong though…"
"Speaking of which… When are they going to feed us? Surely they wouldn't just leave us to starve would they?"
--Outside--
"Hey, boss, remember that shipment of nuclear waste you asked for?"
"Yeah? What about it?"
"It's getting held up right now by the police."
"What? How'd they even find out?"
"Yeah, some kids were running around with a Geiger Counter while the driver was refueling and tipped off the police."
"I guess I'll have to go over and explain the situation to them then."