A Grave Misunderstanding That Leads to the Destruction of Humanity

-You are Dr. Mariana Munroe-

You were born on a Wednesday. An average day for an average baby. You didn’t even scream when you came out of your mother’s womb. The doctors were worried you were stillborn, but your mother knew you were alright. You were smart and strong like her, which made her proud from the very first moment you were born.

You weren’t like the other kids. You had noticed from an early age. While other kids wanted to grow up to be actresses and dancers, you wanted to... not do that, that’s all you knew. Mother enrolled you into a ballet class while you were eight, so you could socialize with other kids your age, is what she thought. You talked with a group of alien girls for a while but stopped going altogether after a few weeks. You managed to fake as though you were going, just to please mother, you even forged a few notes from the teacher. The morning of the big recital, you “accidentally” fell down the stairs and broke your ankle. You walked with a limp for a few days but got out of ballet. The limp didn’t go away for over three years. It still hurts when it rains.

Instead of playing outside with the other kids, you loved to play with the toy chemistry set your overly-friendly uncle gave you for your thirteenth birthday. He even promised to let you go to his own science lab if he could sleep in your bed for a night. He didn’t break his promise. You immediately fell in love with the lab, and you promised yourself that you would get a job there someday.

Sun Labs, the same science lab that first developed a cure for cancer and hair loss. You promised you would become a top scientist there someday. No matter what you had to do. With some encouraging words from both of your great grandmothers, Grandmother El saying that you reminded her of herself when she was your age. Grandmother Mave just gave you a wink and some helpful advice, “Don’t take your eyes off of your goal. Don’t stop until you get it. And eliminate anyone that gets in your way.” That was right before Great Grandmother El and Mave disappeared, falling off of the map. With those words echoing in your mind, you focused all your time on studying.

You spend so much time with your head in science books, that you whizzed through high school and then grad school in what seemed like a blink of an eye. It was a breeze to become a scientist at Sun Labs and even climbed the social hierarchy like it was a child’s game. You could tell that others were imitated of your presence, it made you feel somewhat excited. Then, you were blessed with your own solo project, one you could control without worry of other incompetent assistants.

The idea came from a trip to the zoo on a sunny Sunday. You were watching the bear exhibit with interest. You paid particular interest to how the panda bears would stack the boxes, in a desperate attempt to escape their habitat, which you concluded would fail before the first tremble of their makeshift ladder would show. Before the bears could even jump to safety, their tower fell and so did their fluffy, pudgy bodies.

As their cries rang out, your mind whirled to life calculating their intelligence levels and how they may even be more superior to the rats, monkeys, and dolphins that were currently studied in the labs. “If only they had the mental capability of humans…” You thought, and that’s when the thought hit you like a train and you rushed back to your lab to prepare.

***

“Oh! Bare arms! I thought you said to arm bears!”

Your director gave you the look that asked if you had lost your mind. That was the look you grew to despise for the disapproval, disappointment, disgust, all those negative words that start with D and ended with your feelings hurt.

“Shut. It. Down!” he roared.

But, it was far too late. You knew this a couple months ago when you found one feisty polar bear, who you had named Kandy for her love of cotton candy, stood on two legs, her paws gripping your abandoned mug of joe and her eyes scanning over a newspaper left open on the table. Her ears perked up, as though she suddenly heard you. She turned to you, her chubby face and small, round eyes shimmering with a newfound sense of independence and dominance. She then gave you a smirk, the kind of smirk that said, “Look what I can do.”

You never reported it to your director, why would you? Maybe holding your own personal grudge against your craptastic boss instead of reporting such a shocking discovery was what lead to humanity's downfall. Who could say?

But you could say that Kandy misunderstood that whole situation. What you understood as one ultimate and final F-U to your boss, Kandy thought it was some sort of newfound bond between the two of you, as though your secrecy of her abilities as a sign that you were on her side. You knew this from the looks she would give you almost on a daily basis, a look that said, “Together we shall conquer the world.” A look you had ignored. But, like a furry, crazy ex-lover, she didn’t get the hint.

You would have reported it if Kandy hadn’t escaped that very same week. Man, did the director come down on your ass. You somehow managed to explain that it had been Greg’s fault, since the escape had technically happened on your day off, leaving Greg in charge of your caged experiments. Fuck Greg. You had to look out for number one around here.

When you discovered three overlooked empty cages other than Kandy’s, you didn’t report that either, not as an F-U to your boss but simply because you honestly thought: “Well, the cops are already looking for a bear. So, if they find three more, there’s no sweat on my brow. What could possibly happen?” You understood, not at that moment but looking back at it, how people could blame this mess on you, though you’d never admit it.

You knew the shit had hit the fan when the first bear attack was reported on the news. Then another the next night. Bear attack after attack led to a week-long string of mauled dead bodies and you knew the culprit was Kandy. But, like everything, you didn’t say anything. It was a part of your charming stubbornness and your inability to admit you were wrong.

This went on for several months, leaving the nation in utter chaos and confusion. No one knew where the bears were coming from and how they were multiplying so fast. Even President Trump declared a full out war on the bears, claiming that he will nuke them to save his country. He ultimately deleted this tweet after someone probably told him that if he nuked the bears, he's nuking the whole country, completely contradicting his efforts to save everyone. In later years, when the human race had fallen long ago and bears with machine guns and cute little uniforms now took over the world, Trump would claim to never have made this threat as a Koala named Jackman held a gun to his head. You gladly showed proof of the screenshots of said tweets, leading to Trump’s brains to be splattered all over the concrete. Don’t worry, you didn’t regret this decision.

The bear army would surround your place of employment a year after Kandy’s escape, as though she returned with her newfound friends as a way to celebrate this anniversary. Upon hearing said news, you thought it was just an April Fools joke. Fucking Greg was telling the truth. As the bears with machine guns swarmed the building, capturing every human in white coats that could be found on the property, it took a total of twenty minutes until they barged into your office. By then you were halfway through an episode of Friends, specifically the one at Thanksgiving with Brad Pitt, and were absolutely pissed at the interruption.

Kandy stood before you at that moment. Her Grizzly lieutenant, Teddy, flanked her left, Jiji the Panda was on her right, the Koala named Jackman stood off to the side.

“This her?” Jackman asked, oddly with an Australian accent. You didn’t make the stereotypes, you were just making an observation.

“Yes. Hello again, Doctor.” Kandy smiled. You had never heard her voice before, but you were weirded out by how much she sounded like Martha Stewart.

“Kandy,” was all you said back.

You looked at the four bears in front of you, each wearing a matching navy blue uniform shirt with round silver clamps. Each bear had their own set of metals attached to their shirts, signaling the accomplishments they achieved.

You looked at your life's work in front of your eyes. The four bears perfectly spliced with human DNA, just slightly altering their genetic code to gift them with the same mental capability as humans. And, man, did they use it well. They accomplished more in such a short time than humankind has ever done. They used their gift of intelligence wisely, absorbing everything and anything they can get their paws on, like sponges, while humans’ wasted it. It simply brought a tear to your eye as your mind recalls all the failed experiments in your career. The monstrosities that you, yourself, had to shoot and bury behind the greenhouse like a dirty secret. All those years where people doubted your work, your wasted intelligence on this "lost cause" to the point where you had doubts yourself. Then these four beautiful creations were born. You had felt like a proud mother giving birth.

Well, a mother who had shot all her previous babies, but a mother nonetheless. The day they escaped on your watch was the saddest day of your life. You had read to them. Taught them to love. You even taught them to use weaponry.

Kandy held out her paw, "Take my paw and we can be gods together."

"Well," you replied, "Don't kill my cats and we'll see..."

***

-You are Kona Day-

You ran for your life, your chest burning, your feet bleeding. You couldn’t even stop to catch your breath, or even chance a glance behind you. You could hear them. The Regulators were on your tail, their growls and huffing threatening, the sound coming closer and closer, signaling their impending capture of you. You were now the prey, and they were the predators.

You held a wiggling bundle in your arms, one you held onto for dear life. She was your daughter, your whole world, your shooting star, and they wanted to take her away. New York had changed drastically since the Bear Takeover, and you were there to witness every grueling minute of it. It was horrifying.

Soon after the Takeover, a law was set in place that restricted humans from birthing more than one child, a law you didn’t agree with but had to for the sake of appearance. Anyone who disagreed with Lord Kandy’s laws was immediately sentenced to death. The son you held in your arms was your second child.

You had been scouted and taken to be the groom for the daughter of Lord Kandy, Princess Jolly Rancher, a stuck up princess that was more like a child than a grown woman, though she was just a bear. Since your first meeting with the princess, she had disgusted you. Repulsed you, even. But you couldn’t fight back, speak up, or voice your thoughts or you could be put to death. Princess Jolly Rancher loved more than human men were boasting about all of the husbands who couldn’t please her and was put to death. It made you gulp and feel anxious when she would speak of the suitors before him, her beady eyes trained on him as she spoke in a high pitched voice and a speech pattern that was similar to the Valley Girl dialect that populated what was once known as California but was now The Capital. The way her paws would lash out when you reached for a bear claw at dinner, the way she gulped down plate after plate of clams, whole lobsters, pig, cow, and grub you couldn’t even identify, food that missed her mouth falling down her dress with splashing and glopping sounds that just turned your stomach.

But it all got better when Princess Jolly Rancher birthed a child, a son she named Cupcake. Birthed was a strong word. The baby was created and birthed in a lab, the actual act of birth being ruled as too grotesque and primitive by both the Princess and the Lord. When your son arrived, the Princess just eyed the baby in disgust before shoving the furry bundle into your arms and stomping away, her wails and complaints of the baby’s “ugliness” filling the halls.

You gazed down at the bundle, the baby’s small eyes peering up at you, a smile grazing the baby panda’s lips. It was surreal. A child, your child, your son in your arms. It brought a tear to your eyes.

But the joy didn’t last long. As Lord Kandy’s grandson, you learned soon enough that the baby would be taken to be groomed and trained to be the next leader of the Bearland. You cried when the soldiers pried the baby from your arms, your pleas and cries to spare the baby only falling on deaf ears. The next time you saw him, only a year later, the scientists had scientifically aged him and now he stood, tall and gruesome, a child in a man’s body. The skin pulled tight over the muscle and bones, threatening to split at any moment. The fur, once soft and fluffy, now fell apart in chunks as he would walk past, a trail of fur behind him. He couldn’t even talk, his mind barely trying to catch up with the sped up the aging process. You faked a tight smile as he walked by, not even paying you mind, but you immediately ran and puked behind the pillars when no one was looking.

The price I must pay, you kept chanting in your head but with every passing day, it seemed as though the hopelessness just continued to consume you. My being the groom to the royal family, it meant your own family was saved and lived a semi-luxurious life despite you being sold into this twisted concubine lifestyle. The maids would sneer at you as you walked the halls, others giggled, but they all whispered their disgust. In the town, people threw tomatoes at you, calling you horrible names, labeling you as a traitor to the human race. No one seemed to understand.

And then you did the most unforgivable act: you fell in love with another human. She was the maid at the castle—her name was Ella, a shy beauty with a soft soul, everything that Princess Jolly Rancher wasn’t. You couldn’t help falling head over heels in love with her. You were convinced that she was the love of your life. One thing led to another, and that’s how you ended up in this position.

“I’m pregnant,” she had declared in a whisper after pulling you off to the side.

“That’s great,” you replied, your heart sailing and your head in the clouds.

“No, it isn’t a thing to be celebrated. We could get in trouble. My father will murder me if he knew.”

“But, my love,” you grabbed her hands in yours and her eyes full of doubt turned to you, “We are in love. We must not fear the judgment of the any other. Not even the government. Princess Jolly Rancher has her own lover on the side, they must understand.”

They didn’t. As soon as you foolishly declared your affair, the Regulators were sent for you. You barely had time to escape with Ella in tow.

“Why did you tell them, you fool!” Ella softly whispered, ripping her hand from yours.

“But, I love you! We must declare our love,” you replied, confused by her anger.

“You are a traitor to our human race and now you’ve marked me as well. Now we are wanted dead by the Lord for treason. I hope you are proud. You abandoned your son and wife,” Ella scolded, her arms crossed.

“They are no such thing. That monster is not my child and that beast is not my wife. You must understand, I accepted to wed the Princess because of my mother. She’s in poor health and needs medicine. Being the groom of the Princess would have…”

“It’s no excuse,” Ella interrupted you before you could finish your explanation, “My father and I believe strongly in the rebellion and now I am disowned for your foolish behavior and marked by the Lord. Because of you.”

Ella ignored you throughout the pregnancy. As her belly started to grow, so did her hatred for you. Once the baby was born, a beautiful and healthy baby girl, she shoved the baby into your arms.

That’s how you eventually ended here, running from the Regulators, a crying baby girl in your arms. She didn’t even have a name yet and she was already marked as a traitor.

***

-You are Izzyy Iglesias aka Experiment 943-

The eyes the scientists gave you allowed you to see in the dark, at great distances too. That was the only way you could read your name off of the clipboard from across the room. Izzy Iglesias: Experiment 943 it read. It piqued your interest, making you wonder if the life you forgot long ago. Maybe you were someone’s daughter. Someone’s sister. Someone’s mother, even, it made you smile and feel wanted in this otherwise pointless life.

You couldn’t remember a day outside this cage you now called home. Day after day on the operating table, scientists in long white coats speaking over you as though you weren’t in the room.

“How about the brain next?”

“Hasn’t been done before.”

“Yeah, Bob, that’s why I’m suggesting it! What about the brain of a dolphin?”

“Maybe the brain of a rat?”

“Enough! We will not waste the perfect human brain equipped with this subject. For now, focus on the other parts.”

Each time you would wake up, you would wake up in pain, a new appendage that wasn’t yours now attached to your body. That’s how you obtained a long lizard’s tail, swishing back and forth at command. You could remember the ooh’s and ahh’s that the scientists watching you made as you tested the new feature. It was just like having another arm or leg, but with more pain. You learned that there was always a pain but it would soon fade and then be replaced by a new pain.

It was only two months ago, as far as you could tell when you awoke deaf to the world. Deaf to the scientists commands as they would demand you turn from side to side, as bare naked as the first day you were born. When you didn’t turn, unable to hear their requests, they shocked you, ending with you shaking on the ground. New pain, new pain, was all that ran through your cluttered mind. It took them a few days before they realized. It took a week after that before you could hear again, though it wasn’t through your ears, but a furry set atop your head. They twitched at every sound and reacted to every emotion, they reminded you of Inu’s ears, a dog test subject that was in the cage across from you.

It was only a few days ago when you awoke blind. Your fingers touched your temples and traced your face. Damp bandages clung to your face. You had to feel around the cage for those few days. After that, you just laid there and listened. You could hear the heartbeats of the scientists’, their whispers from the halls. They thought you were dead. Who could blame them? This was the longest that you hadn’t moved. You didn’t budge when the food came. Nor did you move to relieve yourself. You just sat and listened. That’s how you learned how to escape.

Whenever the room grew colder, indicating that it was now nighttime, the lead scientist would hang the keys up in one corner of the room and exit through the big door to the far right. You could hear her footsteps as she walked down the halls. She called goodnight to her colleagues before exiting through another door. You heard a beep, one you often would hear when they would move a small plastic card across a black box on the wall. The swish of doors opening followed. Then you could hear the scientist’s heels against small rocks, a sound you wouldn’t have been able to place if they hadn’t let you out into this large open space that was fenced off every once in a while. It’s been a while since the last time, but you could still remember the feel and sound of the small rocks called gravel under your feet. That sound indicated that the scientist was now outside. That’s how you figured out how to escape.

You only had to wait a few days before you got your eyesight back, then you were able to see clearer and farther than you ever had before. They were catted eyes, you would learn later on once you got your hands on your file. In total, they equipped you, an average human as far as you could remember, with a pair of dog ears, cat eyes, and one long lizard tail. What they didn’t know was that they equipped you with the will to fight back and try to escape.

You thought it was a Friday night, a night in which the scientists were more lenient and more drunk with the excitement of the weekend. As they flicked off the lights, hung up the keys as usual, closed the door, and walked out through the hall, you took action. You stretched your tail past the cage bars, poking and prodding the lock until the tip of your tail slid in. you jiggled it and wiggled it until the lock gave and the cage door popped open. You darted out and across the room, your hands finding the desk drawer that the one scientist would always leave their plastic card. Your hands found it and you were out the door, making sure to grab the key hanging off the hook on your way out.

You followed your ears. It wasn’t hard getting through the doors, your bare feet padding loudly against the tiled floor. Your eyes peered down each hallway as you passed. You sniffed the air and you could smell it: the outside world. One last door. Your eyes focused it and your hands slowly slid the plastic card over the small black box on the wall. Air whooshed past you and took your breath away. The first sight you saw was the bright, starry sky and the shining full moon.