Chapter 3
Ihadn't expected to wake up, so when my eyes opened and the procedure room was visible around me, I immediately began to cry.
Looking around, there was no sign of Zeni or the doctor. There were just a few of the doctor’s team huddled around a tablet, discussing something with each other.
I tried to move quietly, taking inventory of how my body was feeling. They hadn't explained the procedure to me, so I wasn't sure how they put the Vepar fetus in, if it was like how humans did IVF, or if it was put in another way.
Besides my head hurting, I didn't feel too different. Maybe they experienced a change of heart?
Remembering the look on Zeni's face and the fervor in her voice when she had ordered them to start the procedure, I didn't think that they would have been able to get around it with her in the room.
Dr. Cryon suddenly walked into the room with her male companion that had been introduced to me.
She looked very focused on me, and I expected her to start asking questions about how I was feeling. Instead, she turned to the two Vepar that had been talking on the other side of the room.
"You’re needed in the east building," she said to them.
They immediately nodded and left the room, not even glancing over to where I was strapped in.
The doctor waited for a long minute. She seemed to be listening to their footsteps as they faded down the hall. I wondered what was going on.
Suddenly her companion was by the table, unbuckling the straps that had me trapped to the table.
I looked over at them confused. "What's going on?" I asked, wondering if I would now be allowed more freedom because the procedure had been done.
They didn't answer any of my questions, not even when all of the straps had been released, and I was sitting up. Dr. Cryon carefully helped me off the table since I was feeling weak after laying down for who knows how long.
"Can you walk?" she asked, a hint of urgency in her voice.
"I think so," I croaked, my voice groggy from my latest blackout session. Hopefully, there wouldn't be long term damage from being knocked out so many times. I wondered how much the effect of Vepar medicine on the human system had been studied. I was doubting very much based on their attitude towards the human race as a whole.
I wasn't sure why I was thinking of that at the moment. I really should just be excited that I seemed to be alive. Unless this was the afterlife and I had been doomed to hell, the hell where I was the Vepar puppet for eternity.
Now I was just being dramatic.
"We need to go," the doctor’s male companion said fiercely to her.
I was so confused.
Dr. Cryon began to quickly walk towards the door. Her companion nudged me to follow them. I began to walk, my gait unsteady as we went along.
The doctor looked back. "We’re going to need to go quicker than this," she ordered.
Nodding, the male Vepar picked me up in his arms and began trotting behind the doctor who had left the room.
“What’s going on? What’s the rush?” I asked, but he kept his focus dead ahead. “Please just tell me where you’re taking me.” Fear slid down my spine, and I began to jerk in his arms, trying to get away.
"Keep still," he muttered under his breath. “We’re helping you.”
I stopped struggling immediately. Helping me? “How?”
All of a sudden, one of the doctor’s team members came out into the hall. A younger woman with short cropped orange hair and matching irises. She stopped short, looking at us confused. "Isn't she supposed to remain laying down for at least a few hours after the procedure? What's going on?" she asked him.
Dr. Cryon stepped forward. “It’s okay, Teky, We’re transferring her to the lab. We received instructions for additional tests.”
Teky’s wide nostrils flared, her fierce gaze meeting mine, and I could have sworn somewhere behind that gaze, she held pity for me. My head spun with confusion and I wanted to scream, to run. But the man’s arms tightened against me like he sensed me panicking. I had to believe him and the doctor were helping me, had to trust these strangers who experimented on me at Zeni’s command. I had no plan B to escape aside from my three Vepar coming to rescue me.
Teky stepped aside, and I was rushed forward, bouncing in the man’s arms. I let myself cradle against him, my head resting on his shoulder as I prayed for once that something was going to go in my favor.