Chapter 4

“The Cynids sure had some fun with you,” the skunk medic remarked as she inspected Zooty with the X-ray lens on her goggles, Zooty shivered, standing in a cool infirmary ward without anything on was really cold. “Standard pain receptor cutting, mechanical enhancing servo mechanisms strengthening the muscles, vital organs replaced with mechanical counterparts, this prosthetic eye… You’re practically a machine!”

“I‘m surprised he lived,” Reiko huffed, “even with the pain receptor in his brain cut it’s a lot for a kit to go through.”

“Well I wasn’t awake for all of it,” Zooty admitted, “I threw up and passed out when it ate my eye.”

The skunk gave him a sympathetic smile, “I can’t blame you,” she said as she removed the visor. “Now Zooty I’ll need you to hop onto the medical bed and lie still while I run some diagnostics.”

Zooty hopped onto the bed and lay down while the skunk poked and prodded him with a scanning rod, which produced an image of his internals on a monitor, and made Zooty feel very ticklish. “I don’t see any signs of viruses or HEX, his body’s stable, although his artificial heart is beating twice as fast than it should.”

“How did they replace my heart without killing me?” Zooty asked curiously, “we can replace damaged organs with mechanical counterparts, but we’ve never been able to replace the heart.”

“Well it’s taken a lot of experimentation with other species to get it right,” the skunk sighed, “a lot of lives too.”

“What kind of experimentation?” Zooty asked, “is it bad?”

The skunk nodded, “very bad, we’d be in for quite a shock if we stormed one of their facilities. I heard they inject subjects with viruses, expose them to hazardous elements, and even remove vital organs just to see how long they can last without them. They only stop when you’re on the brink of death. Then they fix you up and take you in for another experiment the next day.” She huffed. She rotated the visor’s eyepieces to one that measured psychic output, “you should ask that squirrel in a straight jacket I’ve seen bouncing around. We rescued him from a Cynid testing facility a few years ago.” She tapped his head a few times with the scanning rod, “the machine’s not detecting any psionic signals being sent to or coming from a neuro-hub.”I think our little friend‘s fine.”

Zooty breathed a sigh of relief, “that‘s good to hear. They put this wormy thing in my ear. Is that anything to worry about?”

The skunk shook her head, “the wormite is a parasite that feeds on and interprets confused brain waves and bounces them back to the brain again, in short it allows you to understand the Cynid‘s language.” She took off the visor and unattached the scanning equipment, “you’re clean, welcome to sanctuary Zooty!”

Reiko scurried off to tell Le’lot about the news and Zooty hopped off the medical bed and followed Tashy out of the ward. “I‘m glad you passed,” she said, “we‘ve been in need of a fourth squad mate for some time, and it‘s good to have a new friend.”

“Same here,” Zooty replied, “so where are we going?”

“I’m just going to eat my rations and flop into bed,” Tashy yawned, “it’s been a long day.”

“So where do I sleep?” Zooty asked.

“In our squad dorm of course,” Tashy said, “each squad shares a room for sleeping and eating in.” They weaved through the FURs crowding the corridors of the dwelling sector and soon found their room. “We should be quiet, Twitch might be sleeping,” Tashy said to him quietly as they opened the door and peered inside. The squirrel named Twitch was curled up asleep in a thermal rug.

Their ration packs were sitting by the door so they took them and sat together as far away from Twitch as they could so they didn’t disturb him. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why is he in a straight jacket?” Zooty asked as he looked through the buttered bread rolls, a slice of chocolate, and sticks made from solid fruit extract inside his pack. He started with the ration sticks since he wanted to save the tasty sour dough roll for last.

She nibbled on her slice of chocolate, "it’s a long story. Our squirrel friend has had a hard life: he was artificially born in a Cynid experimentation lab. Where was injected with a rare form of HEX that disintegrates matter while he was still developing. They attempted to do this with living subjects a few times but all of them died because their body killed itself trying to reject the HEX.” She nibbled on her bread roll, “Twitch survived because he was still developing and excessively tampered with. They purposefully stunted his growth and mental development by drowning his brain in alcohol so they could control him without a brain bot. When they got impatient they accelerated his development so he was born in a matter of days instead of months.”

“That’s terrible…”

She nodded, “it sure is. Twitch was born with a very strange power: anything he touched would completely disintegrate in an instant, regardless of its mass or and almost regardless of whatever material it was made of. As for what they did to him and the things they made him do…” She looked over at the squirrel to see if he was okay, then nibbled on another ration stick “he still has nightmares about it.”

“How did he end up here?” Zooty asked.

“When our forces raided the animal testing labs I found him in his containment cell and coaxed him out. The skunks were shocked to find the Cynids had pumped him with HEX at least fifty times the lethal dose, the Cynids kept him in check by making him wear a restraint jacket when he was in his containment cell.” She explained as she packed up the leftovers she didn’t feel like eating and tossed them down the waste chute for the rats to eat. “I was the only one he would speak to so we thought it would be best for him to join our squad.”

“So why did you name him Twitch?” Zooty asked.

“Years of torturous experiments and a purposely stunted mental growth have made him a little mentally unstable,” Tashy said as she padded over to the sink and poured a glob of toothpaste in her mouth. Zooty placed his ration bag in the waste chute and peered about the room. There were only three beds.

“Um… Where do I sleep?” Zooty asked as Tashy curled up in her bed

“Everyone, ten minutes ‘til lights out,” Reiko said as he flopped onto his bed and curled up, “we‘re investigating Snowgear wastes tomorrow morning.”

Zooty looked around and noticed everyone except him had a bed, “uh guys, where do I sleep?”

“No one’s brought in a bed for you yet,” Tashy shrugged, “but you can sleep next to me if you like.”

Zooty happily nodded as he snuggled into the thermal blankets beside her, it sure did beat sleeping on the floor. “Thanks Tashy,” Zooty said sleepily, “it means a lot.”

The ferret smiled at him, “you’re welcome, goodnight Zooty”

“Goodnight Tashy.”