Shapeshifter - Luke Pontbriand (carter reed .TXT) 📗
- Author: Luke Pontbriand
Book online «Shapeshifter - Luke Pontbriand (carter reed .TXT) 📗». Author Luke Pontbriand
inside because he struggled to carry it. He put it down in my room. Matilda told me to open it.
I was perfectly happy just to examine the cardboard, but I wanted to please her, so I opened the box.
“These are building blocks,” She told me, “They are for learning.”
The blocks came in many different shapes and sizes and colors. Some were wooden and some were plastic. I knew what she wanted me to do with them, but I wanted to find out how they tasted first. They were too hard to eat. They didn’t taste bad, but not good either. I like they way the wooded ones felt more than the plastic ones. I held one in each hand. They were the same size but the wooden one was heavier.
Matilda frowned, “No, not like that, you build things with them.” She tried to show me, she started building a castle. I ignored her, studying the angles and curves of the different shapes, lining them up side by side or stacking them on top of each other. The same three blocks could make so many different shapes
They left me to play with my blocks. Some time later another green bar arrived with a buzz. I used the waste-hole. I was tired. I lay down on my bed and the lights went out in my room. I slept soundly in the dark.
The next few weeks passed in much the same way as that first day. They would bring me toys, like blocks, or puzzles, and see what I did with them. Sometimes they played with me. Matilda mostly, but occasionally Dr. Smith played with me. He was still scary, but he was smart. Matilda was smart too, but in a quieter sort of way. Dr. Washington wasn’t very smart, but he had a stopwatch and took good notes.
I think they suspected that I could see into their minds, but they weren’t sure, and they never brought it up. I took full advantage of this sixth sense, which I called mindsight. I was learning more and more words. I finished 500 piece puzzles in record time. I played and I learned. Then one day Matilda brought me something new.
They were flat and white. They came in a cardboard box. This was paper like on Dr. Washington’s clipboard. She also brought a number of colored pens. I enjoyed doodling for a while, and then she said she wanted to teach me how to write. I sat and listened attentively, eager to please.
She walked me through the alphabet, A-B-C-D…drawing the letters as she went. She explained about vowels, and special combinations like CH and TH. She lectured and I listened, but I quickly grew bored. I took one of my new pens and wrote “This is too easy,” and showed her the paper.
Matilda was very surprised, but Dr. Smith only laughed.
I didn’t like it when he laughed at her. Dr. Smith took over then. He soon had me writing sentences and paragraphs with perfect grammar. Before I could get bored again, he switched to something else.
“Now we’re going to learn Math.” He told me.
“What is math?” I asked.
“Math is the language of the Universe.” He said.
I was confused, but it soon became apparent that I learned better by doing than by listening. I learned to count to 100, to add and to subtract. Then they left.
I wrote and added and subtracted numbers on my paper. I doodled too. I ate when food came, and when the lights went off I lay awake on my bed, thinking about everything I had learned that day.
This went on for weeks. Dr. Smith and Matilda would teach me things. I learned how to write essays from Matilda and Dr. Smith taught me more and more advanced mathematics. Soon I finished every high school math course. Matilda taught me biology, physics, and chemistry. They took me to other rooms outside the lab to study. I looked at cells under a microscope. I built a catapult and launched balls to hit targets. I learned more than they intended. I had to know how the microscope worked, why the lights stayed on, what made the clock tick. Matilda was fascinated and always answered my questions. Dr. Smith thought I asked too many questions, but when he did answer he was very thorough, describing things with formulas from physics and chemistry.
I noticed also that my body changed. I grew bigger, inch by inch. Matilda said that my growth rate was amazing. I told her that she only thought that because she never grew.
“I’m done growing.” She said, laughing. She explained how humans start out as babies and grow into adults. I listened carefully, like always, drawing most of my understanding from her mind, not her words.
The routine changed. I began to dissect things in the lab, animals and human bodies and electronics, to find out how they worked. I learned to use a computer. Matilda began to ask me to shape-shift into different animals I was studying. All I needed was a sample of their skin or blood or fur. It drained me. The process of shifting into something else was exhilarating, but it consumed a lot of energy. Matilda said it would get easier with practice; Dr. Smith said that it had better. Dr. Washington only took notes.
My diet changed. The green bars still came three times a day, but now I also got round purple cake-like things, and red juice in a bottle. These gave me more energy to shift more often. I also learned how to shift my second skin. It was made to imitate fabrics, clothes. Clothes were much simpler than animals, so it was much easier to change my clothes than to change my face.
I sensed a change in the attitudes of the other scientists. They were back now. Some days they would run tests, stick needles in me, or make me solve puzzles or run obstacle courses, especially after shifting. I discovered I could not shift into animals that were much smaller or larger than me, but I could take on some of their characteristics. I learned to shift into humans. I became Matilda, Dr. Washington, and several of the other scientists, but inside I was still me. Joshua Black. I tried to hold onto that when I was shifting, sometimes it was hard to remember who I was.
Returning to my normal form, the form of Joshua Black, was always a relief. Sometimes I cried.
Then something terrible happened. Matilda was out one day and Dr. Smith was working on something else. I was left in the care of Dr. Washington. I didn’t mind. He could sit and take notes all day long, I could teach myself.
But Dr. Washington had other plans. We were about to go down a flight of stairs, when he stopped and turned to me, holding a gun.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “It’s nothing personal, but you’re simply too dangerous to be allowed to live.” I did not know what the gun was, but the intention in his words and his mind was clear to me. Terror ruled me. My animal instincts took over.
I ducked down and swept Dr. Washington’s legs out from under him. The gun went off with a tremendous bang, and pain shot through my body. I fell backwards and watched Dr. Washington bounce down the stairs. He came to a rest at the bottom, face up, glasses broken, head hanging at an odd angle, eyes open.
I did not understand what had happened. My shoulder burned with pain. My vision blurred. Why was Dr. Washington so still? A guard came, drawn by the sound of the gunshot.
He spoke into his radio. “This is Frank, I have an emergency in corridor 3C, Dr. Washington is dead.”
He knelt down to talk to me and I grabbed his head with both my hands. My mind screamed, WHAT IS DEATH? I took it from him. Everything he knew about death I ripped from his mind. I understood now. I knew what I had done. I let go of the guard and he passed out on the floor. I stood there until Dr. Smith arrived with more guards. He asked one of them for the footage from the security cameras, but never spoke to me about it. As he took me away I noticed that I could no longer feel Dr. Washington’s mind.
One day a man in a black suit and tie came in to speak with Matilda and Dr. Smith. I listened through the walls, but I could only hear some of the conversation.
“But we’re three months ahead of schedule!” Matilda exclaimed, protesting something that I had not heard.
“Nevertheless, the Council feels that he is of no use to us without some experience of the outside world.” The strange man said. Surprisingly, Dr. Smith came to Matilda’s aid.
“He has more use than as a mere spy, his brain is extraordinary, he could be of great use as a scientist, or a strategic planner.” Dr. Smith argued.
“The Council wants a superspy. The experiment you call Joshua Black will be a spy. Further exploration into the development of his species may produce valuable planners or scientists, as you have said. I am sure the Council will be interested in your proposal, but Subject 13 Alpha 001 must be a spy.”
There was silence.
“One month in the real world. Then you can study the effect it has on him and report back to me.”
The sound or chairs scraping, they were leaving. I backed away from the door.
What happened next happened fast, and with little explanation. A tracking bracelet was strapped to my wrist and I was lead to the surface. I was told to return in one month. If I got in trouble, I was to push the red button on the bracelet and they would come find me.
Sooner than I realized, I was standing on the surface outside the laboratory. Trees, bridges, and footpaths dominated the landscape. A few skyscrapers poked out above the trees. I glanced back down at the manhole cover that was the entrance to the laboratory complex. I had never realized it was underground.
I walked, basking in the sunlight and the joy of freedom. No more scientists poking me or telling me what to do. It was a frightful prospect, having no one to give me direction, but I was determined to find my own way. The breeze was fresh and clean. It carried no chemical smell like that which was ever-present in the lab. I am free! My mind shouted, for one month…no, FOREVER!
The code on the bracelet was easy to crack. I dropped it and walked on. Now that I had my first taste of freedom, I knew I was never going back.
I was perfectly happy just to examine the cardboard, but I wanted to please her, so I opened the box.
“These are building blocks,” She told me, “They are for learning.”
The blocks came in many different shapes and sizes and colors. Some were wooden and some were plastic. I knew what she wanted me to do with them, but I wanted to find out how they tasted first. They were too hard to eat. They didn’t taste bad, but not good either. I like they way the wooded ones felt more than the plastic ones. I held one in each hand. They were the same size but the wooden one was heavier.
Matilda frowned, “No, not like that, you build things with them.” She tried to show me, she started building a castle. I ignored her, studying the angles and curves of the different shapes, lining them up side by side or stacking them on top of each other. The same three blocks could make so many different shapes
They left me to play with my blocks. Some time later another green bar arrived with a buzz. I used the waste-hole. I was tired. I lay down on my bed and the lights went out in my room. I slept soundly in the dark.
The next few weeks passed in much the same way as that first day. They would bring me toys, like blocks, or puzzles, and see what I did with them. Sometimes they played with me. Matilda mostly, but occasionally Dr. Smith played with me. He was still scary, but he was smart. Matilda was smart too, but in a quieter sort of way. Dr. Washington wasn’t very smart, but he had a stopwatch and took good notes.
I think they suspected that I could see into their minds, but they weren’t sure, and they never brought it up. I took full advantage of this sixth sense, which I called mindsight. I was learning more and more words. I finished 500 piece puzzles in record time. I played and I learned. Then one day Matilda brought me something new.
They were flat and white. They came in a cardboard box. This was paper like on Dr. Washington’s clipboard. She also brought a number of colored pens. I enjoyed doodling for a while, and then she said she wanted to teach me how to write. I sat and listened attentively, eager to please.
She walked me through the alphabet, A-B-C-D…drawing the letters as she went. She explained about vowels, and special combinations like CH and TH. She lectured and I listened, but I quickly grew bored. I took one of my new pens and wrote “This is too easy,” and showed her the paper.
Matilda was very surprised, but Dr. Smith only laughed.
I didn’t like it when he laughed at her. Dr. Smith took over then. He soon had me writing sentences and paragraphs with perfect grammar. Before I could get bored again, he switched to something else.
“Now we’re going to learn Math.” He told me.
“What is math?” I asked.
“Math is the language of the Universe.” He said.
I was confused, but it soon became apparent that I learned better by doing than by listening. I learned to count to 100, to add and to subtract. Then they left.
I wrote and added and subtracted numbers on my paper. I doodled too. I ate when food came, and when the lights went off I lay awake on my bed, thinking about everything I had learned that day.
This went on for weeks. Dr. Smith and Matilda would teach me things. I learned how to write essays from Matilda and Dr. Smith taught me more and more advanced mathematics. Soon I finished every high school math course. Matilda taught me biology, physics, and chemistry. They took me to other rooms outside the lab to study. I looked at cells under a microscope. I built a catapult and launched balls to hit targets. I learned more than they intended. I had to know how the microscope worked, why the lights stayed on, what made the clock tick. Matilda was fascinated and always answered my questions. Dr. Smith thought I asked too many questions, but when he did answer he was very thorough, describing things with formulas from physics and chemistry.
I noticed also that my body changed. I grew bigger, inch by inch. Matilda said that my growth rate was amazing. I told her that she only thought that because she never grew.
“I’m done growing.” She said, laughing. She explained how humans start out as babies and grow into adults. I listened carefully, like always, drawing most of my understanding from her mind, not her words.
The routine changed. I began to dissect things in the lab, animals and human bodies and electronics, to find out how they worked. I learned to use a computer. Matilda began to ask me to shape-shift into different animals I was studying. All I needed was a sample of their skin or blood or fur. It drained me. The process of shifting into something else was exhilarating, but it consumed a lot of energy. Matilda said it would get easier with practice; Dr. Smith said that it had better. Dr. Washington only took notes.
My diet changed. The green bars still came three times a day, but now I also got round purple cake-like things, and red juice in a bottle. These gave me more energy to shift more often. I also learned how to shift my second skin. It was made to imitate fabrics, clothes. Clothes were much simpler than animals, so it was much easier to change my clothes than to change my face.
I sensed a change in the attitudes of the other scientists. They were back now. Some days they would run tests, stick needles in me, or make me solve puzzles or run obstacle courses, especially after shifting. I discovered I could not shift into animals that were much smaller or larger than me, but I could take on some of their characteristics. I learned to shift into humans. I became Matilda, Dr. Washington, and several of the other scientists, but inside I was still me. Joshua Black. I tried to hold onto that when I was shifting, sometimes it was hard to remember who I was.
Returning to my normal form, the form of Joshua Black, was always a relief. Sometimes I cried.
Then something terrible happened. Matilda was out one day and Dr. Smith was working on something else. I was left in the care of Dr. Washington. I didn’t mind. He could sit and take notes all day long, I could teach myself.
But Dr. Washington had other plans. We were about to go down a flight of stairs, when he stopped and turned to me, holding a gun.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “It’s nothing personal, but you’re simply too dangerous to be allowed to live.” I did not know what the gun was, but the intention in his words and his mind was clear to me. Terror ruled me. My animal instincts took over.
I ducked down and swept Dr. Washington’s legs out from under him. The gun went off with a tremendous bang, and pain shot through my body. I fell backwards and watched Dr. Washington bounce down the stairs. He came to a rest at the bottom, face up, glasses broken, head hanging at an odd angle, eyes open.
I did not understand what had happened. My shoulder burned with pain. My vision blurred. Why was Dr. Washington so still? A guard came, drawn by the sound of the gunshot.
He spoke into his radio. “This is Frank, I have an emergency in corridor 3C, Dr. Washington is dead.”
He knelt down to talk to me and I grabbed his head with both my hands. My mind screamed, WHAT IS DEATH? I took it from him. Everything he knew about death I ripped from his mind. I understood now. I knew what I had done. I let go of the guard and he passed out on the floor. I stood there until Dr. Smith arrived with more guards. He asked one of them for the footage from the security cameras, but never spoke to me about it. As he took me away I noticed that I could no longer feel Dr. Washington’s mind.
One day a man in a black suit and tie came in to speak with Matilda and Dr. Smith. I listened through the walls, but I could only hear some of the conversation.
“But we’re three months ahead of schedule!” Matilda exclaimed, protesting something that I had not heard.
“Nevertheless, the Council feels that he is of no use to us without some experience of the outside world.” The strange man said. Surprisingly, Dr. Smith came to Matilda’s aid.
“He has more use than as a mere spy, his brain is extraordinary, he could be of great use as a scientist, or a strategic planner.” Dr. Smith argued.
“The Council wants a superspy. The experiment you call Joshua Black will be a spy. Further exploration into the development of his species may produce valuable planners or scientists, as you have said. I am sure the Council will be interested in your proposal, but Subject 13 Alpha 001 must be a spy.”
There was silence.
“One month in the real world. Then you can study the effect it has on him and report back to me.”
The sound or chairs scraping, they were leaving. I backed away from the door.
What happened next happened fast, and with little explanation. A tracking bracelet was strapped to my wrist and I was lead to the surface. I was told to return in one month. If I got in trouble, I was to push the red button on the bracelet and they would come find me.
Sooner than I realized, I was standing on the surface outside the laboratory. Trees, bridges, and footpaths dominated the landscape. A few skyscrapers poked out above the trees. I glanced back down at the manhole cover that was the entrance to the laboratory complex. I had never realized it was underground.
I walked, basking in the sunlight and the joy of freedom. No more scientists poking me or telling me what to do. It was a frightful prospect, having no one to give me direction, but I was determined to find my own way. The breeze was fresh and clean. It carried no chemical smell like that which was ever-present in the lab. I am free! My mind shouted, for one month…no, FOREVER!
The code on the bracelet was easy to crack. I dropped it and walked on. Now that I had my first taste of freedom, I knew I was never going back.
I wrote this back in...2010.
So glad I date my work now.
:)
Hope you enjoyed this little 'experiment' as much as I did.
And if you want, I might do some more on Joshua Black...
But the ideas I have for the future of this story are way
different from the ideas I had
for the future of this story...
Back when I wrote it...
So we'll see what happens.
;)
As of now-(10/01/2012)-I'm working on something entirely different.
If this publication comes out well I'll probably do the first chapter of my current novel the same way.
Thanks for reading!
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