Ward OhmMrow-ha-ha-ha!

Free! Free at last! No more being stuck with needles or forced to find and hurt others who were, like me, trapped and unwilling. What a wonderful day!

What a long day, too. The usual day of being asked to do incomprehensible things, and having to fight or hide, or simply think the right way to make the implants work, followed by the regular return to my cage, and some food and a bit of sleep.

Then the alarms went off – big, scary, loud alarms, with flashing lights and wailing sirens. None of us knew what was happening around us, until we smelled the smoke. Then we knew these were the fire alarms and that we should be scared.

We could see flames through the glass window in to the isolation and observation room, and the sprinklers kicked on. The cool water on the hot glass shattered it, and smoke everywhere became a real problem.

We all struggled against the cages, until one of the stronger ones broke out. He went from cage to cage, opening them as fast as he could. We broke the door down, and burst from the lab, scampering off in to the night every which way. I know we startled several firemen who were fighting the blaze.

I lost track of the only ones I’d known for long that night. Both the good, my scared, unhappy fellow experiments, and the bad, those people who made us and tried to understand what they’d wrought.

I ran, and hid from the fire and from those bad people who would want me back, want to catch me and make me do more of their horrible things. I won’t go back.

As the dawn broke, I reveled in my freedom, even as I was hungry and wondered what I would do next. It was good to be away from the bad place… but it is an awfully big place I find myself in, and I am feeling awfully alone.