Chapter 4
A couple of weeks later, I was awakened late one night by the sound of a couple of sligs entering room. I looked up at them, wondering what they were doing here at this time of night. One of them had a bunch of thick looking papers in his hands, and he was looking at them as they went around the room, stopping briefly at each of our cells.
“So what are we doing again?” one asked
“The bosses wanted ter find out which one of these creatures most closely resembled ‘the first’ one.” The second answered.
There was that reference again; it was starting to drive me crazy with curiosity. I wanted so much to ask them whom they were talking about, but it was too dangerous to do so. Instead I listened intently, hoping for some clue as to who ‘the first’ was.
“Char here is pretty close..” the first said.
“Yeah save fer that he is practically all black and his spines run to the top of his head.” The second said.
“True, ‘o Spider was a dark green, with yeller eyes. And his spines only reached halfway up his neck.”
Spider? That was his name? I listened even more intently, wanting to hear more.
“Why did they call him ‘Spider’ anyway?” the second asked.
“Bastek gave him that name, mainly due ter the special pants he gave ‘em. They never got a chance to bring ‘em ‘ere to join the rest of these critters.” The first answered.
“Why not?”
“’Cause that idiot Myron wanted ter run a bunch of test on ‘em, ended up driving Spider ter near insanity. Myron ended up getting killed by Spider, and Spider managed to escape the labs. No one has seen him since…nope definitely does not resemble Goliath.”
I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to sleep as they came to my cell.
“Well Beta here is close. Jus’ needs ter be male, a darker green without stripes and a few more spines.”
“Don’ forget yeller eyes. None of these critters have yeller eyes.”
“That’s right and most, save for Goliath and the females, are ‘bout the same size.”
One of the papers the slig was holding slipped out of his hands, and it landed in front of my cell. Curious I quietly moved to the front of my cell and looked at it. It was a picture of another like us. He had dark green skin and yellow eyes like the slig said. Two rows of spines started halfway up his neck, but they changed to only one row at the base of his neck and continued that way all the way down to the tip of his tail. He was a rather handsome looking male and looking at the picture took my breath away.
“Heh, Delta here isn’t even close. He doesn’t have spines at all.”
“That and his ashy skin color. Oops dropped one of the pictures…”
I quickly pretended to be asleep again as the slig picked it up. Fortunately they didn’t notice that I was awake.
“Well it turns out Hoth is the closest.” One said as they left the room. I couldn’t get back to sleep, the image of ‘the first’, of Spider, still fresh in my mind. I felt an odd feeling, one that I thought I would never feel. I wanted to escape…and find him…
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