Recovery Plan (538 words)

“You’re very lucky to be receiving this opportunity.” The nurse sticks a needle into my hand. She connects the IV to my supply bag. “Only a few are given this amazing chance, Meeka. Of course,” she smiles, “there aren’t many who have done what you have, either.” She wags her finger at me like I’ve been a naughty child.

I growl at her and tug on my restraints, but the titanium cloth keeps me down. The nurse shakes her head, tightening the straps with the push of a button. “I was like you once, I think. Rebellious. Soon that won’t matter anymore, dearie. No more war, treacherous parents…dead siblings to mourn.”

I bare my jagged teeth at her as she looks away, tugging on my restraints. They creak under the force as I smile at her, licking my lips. I can feel my eyes dilate, becoming thinner—vertical. I’m gonna rip your mouth off your face.

“I’m gonna cut your head off .” I laugh, banging my head against the cold steel table. “When I’m done with you, you’ll be nothing but stains on the floor.”

“Welcome.” Its not the nurse whose talking, the voice is too masculine. I look up and a screen appears from a hidden panel in the ceiling.

“Meeka Namar, Plague of the former planet Devka, presently colony of the Muren Empire. Age: sixteen, parents: sympathizers of Muren, sibling: deceased, age five—”

“Don’t you dare say his name!”

“You are convicted of mass murder, torture, and cannibalism. You have therefore been selected for our recovery plan. Congratulations! Deemed unfit for other methods of disposal you have been submitted specifically for displacement.”

My eyes narrow. “What do you mean by displacement?”

“It’d be such a waste to simply execute you, sweetie.” The nurse points to the IV supply. “This solution is going to erase all the naughty things you’ve done, along with your personality and…unusual skill-set.”

I smile tauntingly for a moment, making sure to show her every jagged, sharpened tooth. She stares at my teeth and shivers visibly, but smiles all the same. My face drops when it hits me—what she meant. 

Like hell.

I pull against the restraints, the titanium bonds creaking and bending against my face. The nurse is already across the room when I get my right foot free. The room door opens and the guards swarm in. I break my right arm free as a guard jumps me. I scratch his face, leaving deep furrows with my black talons. Grabbing the collar of his uniform before he can run, I sink my teeth into his neck and rip his flesh, throwing him into the other guards.

A sharp pain hits my hand and I look down. A blue liquid flows from the supply into my IV. My body suddenly drops on the edge of the table

“Just count back from five, and you’ll be brand new. No parents…no more baby brother to mourn.”

Four. I make my hand into a fist. “I’ll kill you!” I scream at the screen.

Three. A hammer pounds in my head.

Two. “Kill me, but I won’t let you take him from me!”

One.

“Benny.”   ©