Adam and I went to the shop when he said it would be good for both of us to see a bit of the world and get some new stimulation. No problem. I'd been mostly indoors, sheltered, most of the time, usually more or less asleep. My metabolism was so frenetic that no amount of food would be enough, and Samuel's theory was that there would be a threshold when my body would think it had had enough food and could calm down.
At this moment, my body was trying to maintain my muscles, reflexes, and senses, all the new things that make being human supernatural. It was so calorie-consuming that my body wouldn't or couldn't absorb almost all the food I ate. Nowhere near all the food was absorbed. I had been more or less asleep in the incubator, and even after that, I had to take it easy. I had gained weight but was consuming calories at an unbelievable rate. Samuel had ordered adult incubators to keep me warm during sleep so that my body wouldn't have to expend calories on heat.
But now he was no longer letting me sleep in a warm, safe incubator for 30 hours at a time; now, I just had to learn to eat and rest.
He had researchers who had administered new intravenous nutrient supplements. So Samuel had put me to sleep in the incubator for 20 hours a day. For four hours, I was awake, somehow usually pretty damn well medicated, ate, and back in the incubator. He said that if need be, I could take a sleep break in the incubator anytime. It was up to him to decide. Samuel had put my weight well over 40 kilos when I had been about 30 kilos when he found me, But what can you sink into me? Oh boy, yes, I will consume it.
Adam was tired of Samuel's life being my weight. I had changed into my wolf's form once with Adam's help and once on my own. Adam didn't see the need to put me to sleep all the time in the incubator, and he had told Samuel quite firmly that it was time for me actually to live life. I couldn't just sleep.
Adam said he would teach me better yet to change my shape faster and continue to teach me about pack bonds. But Samuel saw it as another calorie expenditure if I refused to eat my weight in wolf form. Samuel had to go to Bran, Montana, and Adam and I were alone.
I got in the car, and Adam asked, "Do you have a driver's license?"
I said, "Yeah, I did in Finland so that I can drive, but is it legal here? I don't know the local traffic laws, but I can probably learn them somewhere?"
Adam looked at me with furrowed brows. " Okay, I'll get you a car and a license somewhere in the meantime, and you can drive. I don't think you just want to be in Chicago for the rest of your life. And then I'll have to see if Bran wants to meet you somewhere in between."
I did remember Bran and what he was trying to do on the boat. I had said nothing about it to Adam. Mimosa had told me about it, and on the other hand, I understood Bran; I had been in a miserable state, but then it had been a cold-blooded attempted murder, and he had just carried it out with the firm intention of killing me. It was supposed to spare me the suffering, but something in it was a little bit off, and it may have been that my new life, my instincts, and my experiences came to the surface and tried to warn me about something.
"Well, then, I guess I'll have to see him. Listen, Adam, because I'm not yet adjusted to being a wolf, everything is so new, so don't throw me out yet. If you're not already sick of me and my problems." I said.
My rage had already gotten the better of me a couple of times just near the full moon, and the second time, Adam had come and knocked me down, kept me on my stomach on the ground, lying there for so long until I got my rage back under control.
He had already taught me some punching and kicking at the gym, and in his experience, rage sometimes required a physical release, such as kicking and yelling. Samuel had been less than enthusiastic about this at first; he had just seen it as calorie consumption, but when it positively affected my blood counts, he had to change his mind. My body liked to work, my muscles wanted to work, and apparently, too much rest made everything lazy.
Adam laughed and started the car. We started driving, and I tried to take in the scenery. Adam's house, our house, was quite close to the center, and it didn't take long for us to arrive downtown. There were so many shops, restaurants, and little stores, and I thought in my mind how nice it would be to go downtown and shop sometimes, but then again, I thought if I was being chased, I couldn't really show myself in public.
I had said nothing to Adam or Samuel about my concerns about whether Fatman agents were still out there looking for a target omega. I didn't want to worry them, and maybe I didn't want to know the truth. Adam was a security consultant, and I'm sure he would find out about it pretty quickly and then watch me even more closely. I told Adam anyway. I wanted to ask, maybe hoping that my concern was unwarranted.
" Adam, how likely is it that I'm still wanted, the fat man and the others? Have you heard anything about anyone looking for me?"
Adam looked at me.
His mouth tightened a little, and it took a few seconds before he replied, "No, I have heard nothing, and I've been keeping an eye on things, but Project Omega was so secret that no one had found anything about it, so these guys know how to hide, so I don't know. It's possible they're looking for you, or they gave up and think you died of frostbite and cold. But better safe than sorry, and that's why I'm in."
I nodded and thought that wasn't the answer I was looking for, and Adam probably thought I was wanted. We pulled into the parking lot of a large shopping mall, and I exited the car. Adam walked by me, watching all the people.
We were going cross the parking lot when a big black SUV stopped in front of us, and a few men got out and scooped me into the car. I tried to fight back and lash out, scream, but one of the men put his hand over my mouth, and these were strong men, not humans.
I learned about the power of humans when Adam brought one of his workers to train with me. I knew how powerful humans were, and I could get out of their grip, but this was either a werewolf, a vampire, or something else. I saw Adam slumped on the ground with three darts in his leg as the man managed to drag me into the car, still holding me, covering my mouth. The car started moving, and I felt a sting in my arm. Slowly, the world began to go dark again, and I lost consciousness altogether.
I woke up tied to the bed, wearing only a thin gown. I managed to pry my eyes open and tried to get the medicine out of my head. Mimosa was sleeping soundly in my mind, and I suspected that the drug was affecting her, too. I tried to free myself from the restraints.
I twisted and turned my wrists, but my muscles were not yet properly obeying, and I had a cannula, and something was leaking into my veins at a steady rate; judging by the contents of my head, it was sedative or anesthetic. I tried to get the adrenaline flowing and thought sarcastically that my concern about whether I was wanted or not was now assured; yes, I was wanted and hunted, so my life would not be very easy, but first, I had to get out of here.
I noticed that there was a mirror in the room, and I decided that it was two-way, so I was being watched. Okay, I didn't care. I kept wriggling and untangling myself as much as I could. It still wasn't much when I was fucking drugged, and the drip was put in, so I couldn't even reach it with my teeth.
I don't know how long it was before the examiner entered the room. He was wearing a white lab coat. He took a gun out of his pocket, loaded it, pointed the gun, and shot me three times in the chest. I felt the bullets hit my heart; I felt it stop before everything went black, and I died.
Then, just as suddenly, I woke up again. I felt the bullets still in my body, and I felt my heart beating again. Apparently, my healing ability hadn't let me die permanently; well, a human can withstand oxygen deprivation for up to seven minutes before permanent brain damage occurs, and I was even more resilient.
They waited for me to heal; the next thing I knew, the examiner came in and shot me in the head. I felt the bullet hit, a white pain hit, and everything went black. I woke up after a while with my head wet with blood and bits of brain, but I had recovered; apparently, I don't die easily.
I wondered how incredible my healing ability was and if they were really going to try to kill me permanently. The next researcher came and smothered me with a pillow. I struggled and died, and then they drowned me. I died every time, and I knew it. I felt it, but I always came back to life, often surrounded by scientists, and they talked about me like I was a piece of meat without a soul.
They started poisoning me with cyanide, arsenic, snake venom, scorpion venom, centipede venom, and all kinds of other poisons. Still, they made these animals walk on my body, irritated them so that they bit me and stung me.
I could feel a giant centipede walking all over my body, or it was a different sensation when a snake slithered over me or a scorpion walked over me; I could feel the spiders, too. Every poison hurt badly. I died every time. And I always came back to life.
It depended on how I was killed and how quickly I came back to life. At one point, I even had a hallucination. I was on the beach and a big, fat, white cat was sitting next to me. It reminded me of one of my cats that died a long long time ago and this cat was talking.
It said " You can't die, not anywhere, not ever, there is no way, no weapon, no way in the world, in the universe to kill you permanently. You are immortal, unkillable. Remember that. It will help you get the right attitude. You have everything you need inside you."
The pain was terrible. The poisons burned, made me convulse badly, I sweated, I shook, I screamed, I prayed, but no mercy. Then one scientist came and put a bomb in my chest. I looked at it for a while. I couldn't believe it. They were really going to blow me up. How am I going to get out of it then? I didn't think I would and just thought about the weird hallucination, but then again, some poisons had got me pretty messed up, so I just put it down to the toxins.
I watched as the numbers dwindled and the bomb exploded, and I with it. The pain of being blown to pieces cannot be described. But I was still there. I didn't die for this either. At this point, I discovered one of my supernatural qualities that I was not happy about. I didn't really need a nervous system to feel pain, or else my nervous system was working remotely.
I felt myself starting to grow back together, but every little cell or piece of tissue that was still intact hurt. I hurt everywhere; the pain was literally along the walls, along the bed, even in the ceiling, and it's very hard to describe. The pain subsided as the pieces of tissue dried up and my body grew back.
I started growing from a few pieces, and I knew I was growing back. Every time one piece grew back, if it were still alive in the room, it would wither and dry up when its counterpart had completely grown back. It took 24 hours. But it was exhausting, and somehow, I knew that this was eating calories and lots of them.
So I would not be in such good shape, and that when I got out of here, I was going to be facing sleep therapy in the incubator again didn't hit me because my attitude had changed. I was now in a snappy mood, and I didn't want to be a weak victim anymore who couldn't do anything but sleep.
The attempts to kill me continued. Day after day, time after time, the pain never subsided, and I felt my condition steadily deteriorating. I felt my weight dropping. I had already been killed in 386 different ways, according to the researchers. They're resourceful guys.
They recorded everything and studied everything, and I was just a piece of meat to them, just a lab animal. And these were people. They didn't call me an omega. They just called me a target.
That's when I realized I couldn't die, and I could do anything if I couldn't die. That hallucination, well, maybe it wasn't a hallucination so much as my own realization, but in that state of sleep, I had just made it a dream.
Then I found my rage, and I took it out. I let it fill me up again, wipe away the pain, the ache, the weakness; I let it strengthen my muscles, burn the rest of the poisons and drugs out of my head; they were still in my body, but my rage wouldn't let them. I finally broke free of the shackles, and I was so angry.
My rage hit me again, and although Adam had taught me how to control my rage, now was not the time. Now was my time to tear everyone here apart. And I tore apart - all the people, I tore them apart with my bare hands, the whole institution. I thought nothing; I just felt a white-hot rage in my head. I just saw my tormentors, and I knew the world was a better place without these human scum.
That was the night I started shredding, so not everyone was working there, but I destroyed everything I could find, every sample, every computer. There were no other victims alive. I wandered around the facility and found a morgue full of cadavers, mutilated, examined, killed people, and more.
Every time someone came along, I attacked and mutilated. I got the werewolf's claws out; they were good for mauling, and Mimosa was asleep in my mind, so this was just me. Just me. Finally, I found the front door and rushed out.
I was out of a dangerous place, and my murderous urge subsided. My rage was on the surface, but now I was using it to be able to act. To move. I started walking down the road, not even knowing where I was going.
I was covered in blood and gore. My hands were bloody up to my elbows, my expression emotionless, and my rage glowing from my eyes. I felt nothing but the need to get out of an awful place, and I kept walking away.
Without remorse for the lives I had just taken. Every single one of them deserved their fate, from the night watchmen who had just laughed as I tried to grow up or recover from some attempted killing to the actual sadists who had killed me over and over again out of sheer cold scientific curiosity.