Four days later Justin came to visit her, curious about the work that had required her to abandon her beliefs. When he walked in, she was working on what looked like a minor project while a beaker labeled "Masterpiece" sat on one of the shelve at the back of her lab counter. She hadn't noticed him yet and he looked around for the rat. He was confused when he didn't see the cage he had given her. He knocked on the doorframe and she turned around to look at him.
"So, what did you need that rat for? Did it turn out well?"
Kida's face slowly took on a deep red color and she looked guiltily toward her desk. Justin followed her gaze and his eyes fell on a glass tank with a steel mesh lid. Inside the bottom was covered in wood chips and a wheel, hutch, and a toilet paper roll where arranged neatly, and a water bottle hung on the side. A small label on the side of the tank read "Samson." Justin's shoulders slumped forward, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Kida, did you turn your lab rat into a pet?" He wasn't even surprised, the disappointed exasperation in his voice was painfully evident.
"I couldn't do it." She said defensively. "Who are we to decide whether they live or die; eat or starve? We brought them out of the wild and raised generation after generation to forget how to survive without us just so that we can torture them and kill them. Are we really gaining enough from their deaths to justify our absence of guilt? Well I don't think so. Every life is precious and no one but the person living that life should have the right to choose when it ends."
"It's a rat Kida!"
Kida's eyes burned with anger and in a rage, she slapped him.
"HE is a living thing Justin! How would you like it if I locked You in a cage and poked and prodded You 'til you died huh?! Nothing should have to die before it wants to, that's why we're making all these new medicines, right?! Because people don't want to die! And I highly doubt that the rats and mice, that cower and hide when we approach, don't have the same fear of death!"
He had already backed up out of the room in surprise from her slap and her shouting; as soon as she finished, she slammed the door in his face. Kida was shaking, no one in her family had died of natural causes. Be it sickness, sudden injury, or murder they had all left her before their time; and with many hopes and plans. She was the only one who actually wanted to die, and she was the only one still alive. She leaned on her counter and looked at the shelf in front of her, she was face to face with her masterpiece. I will just have to be my own test subject. If I survive, I remake it and try again.
Kida turned away from her shelf and went to Samson's tank.
"Don't worry." She said pressing her finger against the glass. Samson scurried over and tried to sniff her finger through the glass. Kida smiled.
"I'll make sure you'll be taken care of before I go."
She wasn't angry anymore; her anger had turned to sadness as soon as she'd slammed the door. But she still felt almost as if she was still shaking. Why am I shaking? She thought. She looked down at her hands, they were still. What? The shaking was getting steadily stronger. Earthquake! She realized belatedly. She looked at her experiment and chemical selves in a panic. The shaking suddenly became violent and she lunged for the selves to save her creations.
Somehow, she tripped before she got there and landed just under the lip of the counter and rolled over. Her head was throbbing. I must have hit it on my chair. She thought groggily as she lay there on her back. The room looked darker than usual and she worried that the blow had affected her vision. She heard the sound of shattering glass above her, but her brain wasn't registering what that meant. She realized too late and raised her arms in terror to shield her face as a torrent of chemicals cascaded down on her from the shattered vials and beakers.
Kida heard herself scream. A guttural, heart wrenching scream. She could feel the pain, but she didn't feel connected to it. She could feel her body convulsing and her lungs struggling. Suddenly it was quiet, she couldn't hear the furniture rattling or the people shouting in the other rooms; she couldn't see either. Everything was black. She couldn't smell the chemicals or the pine chips in Samson's tank. She felt like her limbs were moving through some kind of liquid, but she wasn't in control of them. She felt so overwhelmingly at peace, it was strange. She felt as if she were floating upwards towards a strangely pinpointed place in the darkness. She moved toward it but was stopped by a tug on her back; as if there was a rope attached to her spine. All at once her senses returned and she was immersed in excruciating pain, every inch of her screamed, but her voice died in her throat. Purple smoke curled off of her, dissipating above her and tears streaked into her hair.
Kida's office door flew open and Gloria started toward her, horrified. Kida wanted to scream at her to not get any closer, but her voice was still gone. Frantically she tried again and managed a short cry. Gloria seemed to realize the danger she was in and backed away.
"Somebody help!" She called into he room behind her and a fireman soon appeared in the doorway. He looked at Kida with terror, he turned and disappeared out the door and Kida could hear a new chorus of shouting. Kida didn't know how long she laid there fighting to stay conscious as she watched the purple smoke curl upwards, unable to keep her body from shaking. She lost the battle with unconsciousness as four men in hazmat suits lifted her onto a stretcher.