Claimed (7 page)

“
It’s a Sector 8 Central product,” Jared replied flatly. “It only looks cheap. But don’t worry; it’ll kick-in in its own good time.”

James nodded and continued,
“It was then Dr. Langford came to me with an idea of… inoculating these genes into human embryos to create super humans.”

Tara clasped her mouth in shock.

Jared sat up, uneasy about where his story was heading. “You mean chimeras?”

“Yes, chimeras or
parahumans; whichever you’re comfortable with. At first, I was as horrified. There were of course, ethical and moral dilemmas. In principle, it didn’t sound right at all. But the idea of a human-animal hybrid created to overthrow a manic and corrupt system was simply too tempting. If there was even the slightest possibility that they could be created, these chimeras could be incredibly powerful and extremely instrumental in our war against the government.”  He downed another swig of his drink. “All we needed now was human embryos. It was a dangerous task and we had to be very careful of who we brought into our circle of trust. Genetic cloning and stem cell research was still strictly limited and this was way far from tame cloning. If we were ever discovered, this would take us straight to death row. It was then we met Michael Ryder, your father. He was notorious for his rancor for both the corporations and the government. So when we introduced him to our idea, he sincerely thought that this was his way of contributing towards a rebellion. He believed in our cause. He wanted his family to be a part of this new freedom movement.”

Jared leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “What are you saying?”

“Jared, you are a chimera,” James let out slowly.

Jared scoffed. “That’s bullshit.” He turned towards his mother.
“Ma?”

Tears rolled down her face. “I desperately wanted another child and your
Da had long wanted a son. When James approached me, he manipulated my emotions. Fertility treatment centers were never made for the poor like us. They’re reserved for the rich and the affluent in the Capitol. James promised a son at no cost and the offer was far too lucrative to turn away. I should have known nothing in this world came free.” She sighed. “I first learnt of the inoculation six months into my pregnancy. By then, it was too late to terminate the pregnancy without risking my life. When Dr Langford ran an ultrasound, he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. His disappointment was my joy and I began hoping against all hopes my son would be born normal; without defects. And he was; always has been.”

Jared paled
as the details of his birth began to sink in. “I’m a chimera?”

Stella reached out for him. “No, no honey. You’re not. They tried. But the experiment failed. Dr
Langford declared that it had failed on you. You’re as normal as anyone here.”

Jared held his head in his hands, shaking it with disbelief. “I’m a human-animal hybrid.”

“Jared, no!” Stella put an arm around his shoulder. “Don’t you listen to James. You’re not a chimera. You never were!”

“Your mother’s right,” James muttered. “You were a failed experiment. You’
re perfectly human.”

Jared began to pant deeply, a frown etched deeply into his brow.

“Jared?” Tara asked concernedly. “Are you alright?”

He threw back his head and let out a painful cry.

“Jared! Jared!” Stella held onto him desperately.

His body began to contort. T
he nerves in his face and throat popped out, exposing the pain surging through him. “Ahhh!!” he screamed as he threw himself against the back rest of his chair.

“What’s going on?!
Jared!” Stella cried out in a panic.

Jared whipped his hands about him, toppling their drinks
over.

James stepped back and watched him in bafflement. “Does he have epilepsy?”

“No, he doesn’t have epilepsy!” Tara growled. “I don’t know… what it is,” she stammered in equal confusion and frustration.

“My back!”
Jared screamed in pain as he fell to his knees.

“Is it cramping? Jared, please talk to me!” Stella cried.

Tara hurriedly massaged his back along with her mother.

He thrashed on the floor, convoluting on it.

“James, do something!” Stella cried helplessly.

James ran his hands over his face, thinking rapidly. “Turn him over!” he ordered at last. “Turn him over! Pull
up his shirt!”

“What? Why?” Tara asked in a panic.

“Just do it!” he said, already kneeling beside him.

They rolled him onto his stomach and pulled up his shirt.

Tara let out a shocked cry. His backbone was contorted awkwardly and popped out considerably.

Stella ran her fingers fearfully on the bone pushing tightly against his skin, desperate to break out.

“Jared,” she wept. “What’s happening to you?”

“It’s his scapula,” James observed. “We need to take him to Dr
Langford now!”

“No, no!” Stella cried
adamantly.

“Listen, Stella,” he said sternly. “If we don’t carry him into my vehicle this instant, he’
s going to die. You hear me?”

She looked helplessly at her hurting son and then at James. “Okay.”

“Good,” he let out a breath of relief. “Tara, help me with him. Stella, pack a quick bag and grab the children.”

Stella continued to stare at him, stricken with shock.

“Stella! Now!” he ordered. He turned to Jared as Stella raced out of the room. “Son, you’re gonna have to help me and Tara, okay?”

Jared nodded, whimpering.

“Easy son,” he whispered as he grabbed onto one arm.  “Okay, Tara?” he asked while she grabbed the other. “Now, easy and gently. We don’t want that scapula ripping his flesh open.”

The pulsating sounds of the defibrill
ator resounded in the air. Clean, fresh antiseptic scent drifted to his nose. Jared fluttered his eye-lids, trying to shake out of his drug induced unconsciousness. He could hear their muffled voices in the distance but it was much too difficult to recognize any of them.

He tried to turn but his back hurt considerably. He felt his chest was bound tight and he took immense effort to breathe comfortably.
He groaned and someone clasped his palm immediately.

“Jared?” H
e realized it was his mother. “How are you feeling, honey?”

He closed his eyes with relief, his mother’s
comforting voice soothing his anxiety.

“Where am I?” he croaked.

Footsteps scrambled towards him, interrupting his mother before she could answer him.

“Jared,” said a man. “My name is Dr Mark
Langford. How are you feeling?”

“
Langford?” Jared blinked his eyes open. He heard that name before; he couldn’t remember where though. “I feel crook. My back pains like someone’s put a knife through it.”

The man nodded and noted something on his medical clipboard.  “Do you remember where you were last?” the man asked as he continued to
scribble on his notepad.

“I was at home; in the kitchen,” Jared replied, slightly baffled with what was happening to him. And who was this man asking him all these questions? “Now, can someone please tell me where I am
at present
?” He was growing frustrated and he didn’t like to be hooked up with tubes and cords connected to an annoying pulsating machine. He didn’t like the antiseptic smell. In fact, it made him nauseous and anxious. He wanted to go home.

The short, wiry haired man drew closer to observe his eyes.

“Am I in a hospital?” Jared asked with irritation.

“No,” Dr
Langford answered. “You’re in my lab.”

“Lab?”

“A laboratory,” he explained.

“I know what a lab is,” Jared snapped. “What am I doing in a lab?”

Dr Langford licked his lips and then turned to someone else in the room, seemingly looking for assistance to resolve his conundrum.

The second man came into view. “Do you remember me, Jared?” asked James Saunders.

Jared nodded. “You came over to our house to talk to Ma.”

“Yes and do you remember the conversation we had?”

Jared frowned as he delved into his memory. A dark shadow fell upon him as he recollected the moments immediately prior to his collapse on the floor of his kitchen. “What’s going on?!” He tried to move again and a sharp pain speared through his back. He screamed, his nerves on his neck exposing the intensity of his agony. But fortitude suddenly overpowered his ache as he grew more resilient to escape his tube bound imprisonment. He tried to pull them out of him but strong hands clasped him down, preventing him from tugging them off him. He thrashed violently on the bed despite the limitations imposed upon him.

“Jared! Please calm down!” his mother cried with panic.

“Ma, what’s happening?! What are they doing to me?!”

“Jared, calm down,” James said as he held his hands down to the bed.

Jared strained his head, managing to catch sight of the men holding down his legs.

“Calm down, son,” James said again. “We’ll explain it all in good time.”

He felt the sharp end of a needle pierce his flesh and just as suddenly, he felt freedom. His spirit was flying, his vision grew blurry and dizzy, and the last he heard was the dimming palpitating rhythm of that annoying heart monitoring unit.

Jared woke up to the familiar sounds of Fern and Mae arguing with each other like they always did.

“Stop it, Fern! That’s mine!” she growled, leaping at her older brother as he kept the deck of cards they were squabbling about, high above her reach.

Jared smiled. His back still ached but the pain had lessened now.

“Hey brother,” Tara smiled at him. “How are you feeling now?”

“Much better,” he muttered.

She sat beside him and clasped his hand. “You scared the hell out of us.”

“Hello, Uncle Jared,” Mae squeaked, giving him a kiss on his temples.

“Hello, Pumpkin.”

Stella scrambled into the room. “Jared? Honey, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Ma,” he groaned as she reached out to kiss him. “Ma, please.”

She chuckled. “Well, it sure is good to see you back to your grumpy old self
again.”

He noticed that the defibrillator was gone. The scent in the room was rosy and sweet.  He looked about him and he wasn’t in the laboratory like he was the last time he awoke. This room was lavishly furnished
with exquisite expensive drapes at its windows. “Ma, where am I?”

“In James’ house,” she swallowed nervously. “Do you remember James Saunders?”

How could he not? All his problems had begun soon after James had stepped foot into his house.

“What happened?” he asked. “How long have I been like this?”

“You’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness for five days now.”

“
Five days?”

“Well… there was no choice.
They had to drug you. You weren’t taking it too well,” she mumbled.

He ran a hand through his hair with frustration. “Ma, I need some straight answers. What
is
going on?”

“Can I explain?” The wiry man had returned with James Saunders at his side.
“I’m Dr. Mark Langford. I’m sorry for introducing myself again. The last time you flipped out on me so I can’t be sure if you still remember me.”

“I do,” Jared said flatly.

Dr. Langford nodded and then silently indicated for Tara to remove the children from the room. “Very well then,” he continued. He dragged a chair and sat beside his bed. “How much do you remember of the night you were with James?”

Jared glanced at the man standing at the end of his bed. “James said that I was a chimera and you were
responsible for inoculating me with the genes in the embryonic stage. I should be getting mad at you right now but I’m too fucking tired to do that anymore.”

Dr.
Langford pursed his lips. “Do you recall the attack in your back soon after he revealed you were a para-human?”

“Yes.”

“Was that the first time you’ve had that pain?”

Jared looked up at his mother
worriedly. “No.”

“Jared?” Stella said with disbelief.

“I just never told you, Ma,” he said, concern clouding his face. “The first I had it was when I was chased by a group of poachers in the woods three months ago. And since then, my back has pained occasionally. What’s going on, Dr. Langford?”

“When your father agreed to an inoculation of your embryonic form, we injected
you with eagle and panther genes. We didn’t know how the embryo would develop and we could only assume it would develop as we had theorized. However, when you were born, there was nothing to indicate to us that any of the mutations occurred as we had presumed. You were completely normal. There was absolutely no inkling that the mutations might have even been delayed and according to your mother, nothing strange occurred.” He licked his lips in deep thought.

“
Dr Langford,” Jared interrupted. “I’m sorry to have to cut you off there but I’ve heard all that before. I’d really like it if you could get straight to the point.”

“Yes, yes,” he replied. “
But I need to tell you this just so I know that you’ve understood.” He coughed and continued. “What we failed to recognize was that the inoculated genes could have remained dormant all through your life. I believe that when you ran for your life from those poachers who were intent on killing you, your genes were stimulated; activated by its natural fight or flight responses. The pain you were feeling was the extension of your scapula bone which was evolving into the bone structure of an eagle’s wing. On the first night you were brought to my lab, we did an immediate surgery on your back, releasing the bone to grow freely. It was the only way we could save your life.”

Jared blinked at him with disbelief. “Are you saying I have feathered wings attached to my back?”

“Wings yes. Feathered- not yet. But we’ve noticed that they’ve begun to sprout
some
feathers. In due course, you’d have a wing span proportionate to your body size. And with what calculations we have at the moment, I can honestly say that they would also give you the power of lift.”

“You mean I’d be able to fly?”

“Well, yes,” he said hesitantly. “But of course, that is subject to time. Like I said, I can only assume it will happen. I cannot assure you that this will be so.”

Jared threw his head back with frustration. “I can’t believe this is happening to me,” he muttered. “I should just kill you now.”

Dr. Langford glanced up worriedly at James.

Jared covered his face with his hands. “I’m a freak.”

“Jared, honey, no,” his mother began to sob.

“How could
Da do this to me, Ma?” he shook with anger.

“Your
Da loved you, honey. He only did what he thought was best for you and the people he loved.”

Jared grew quiet, staring up at the ceiling in this lavishly decorated room. “I want to see it,” he said at last, pulling away his covers.

“Jared, you’re not ready yet…” Dr Langford put a hand out to stop him.

“I want to see
it,” he repeated firmly.

Dr
Langford looked up at his mother and James for some support but when they lowered their heads, preferring to stay silent, he nodded. “Let me remove the bandages first.”

Jared sat up straight as the geneticist expertly unwove the length
y bandage at his chest and back.

“Okay,” Dr
Langford muttered a hesitant go-ahead.

Jared walked slowly towards the mirror. “Tara, get me another to reflect my back,” he instructed.

Tara licked her lips nervously. “But Jared-”

“Now Tara,” he ordered.

She scrambled for a mirror she had seen in the bathroom.

“I don’t see anything,” he grumbled, turning
as much as possible; trying to catch the reflection of his back in the mirror. “Tara!” he called out impatiently.

Tara hurried up to him, biting her lips as she glanced up at her mother. She handed
him the mirror and he almost snatched it off her hands.

He looked at his reflection through the s
mall mirror. His eyes narrowed; his face grew dark. He brought the mirror closer to him, positioning it so he could get a better view of the surgical scarring on his back. He froze. “They’re stumps!” He glared at Dr. Langford and made a small threatening move towards him. “You call them wings?! They’re fucking stumps! Two stumps on my back!”

Tara stepped quickly into his pathway, backed up by James.

“Wait up there, son,” James said. “The doctor has more to tell you before you go killing him.”

Jared screamed, throwing his arms over the dresser, messing it violently. “What could he
tell me that’s worse than this?!”

“It isn’t as bad as you think it is,” the wiry haired doctor said, not
at all perturbed by Jared’s raging mood.

“Yeah?”
Jared dared. “How about I put two stumps on your fucking back?!” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, pacing about the room in ire.

“It retracts,” the doctor put simply.

Jared stared at him blankly. “What?” he asked, absolutely sure that he had misheard. “What retracts?”

“Your wings,” the doctor explained. “They retract like the claws of a cat. I don’t
know why it does but it does. Perhaps, it is the effect of the panther genes on the eagle genes-” He scratched his head thoughtfully.

Jared rolled his eyes
with disbelief. “Perhaps?! Is that all you can come up with? Perhaps?”

“Well, we haven’t made a proper assessment yet o
f why it behaves like that. You need to give us some more time-”

“You’re not
gonna put me under the microscope and study me like a guinea pig!” Jared pointed threateningly at him.

“Come on, son, give the doc some credit,” James intervened. “He saved your life.”

“I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” Jared shook his head. “Saved? He’s the very reason I am like this!”

Tara put a comforting hand on his arm. “Jared, you’re
completely normal when the stumps retract. No one would be able to tell you’re any different.”

“Then why are they out now?”

“Apparently, you’re willing it to protract. Just like if you will your claws to protract,” the doctor explained.

Jared stepped back in stupor. “Wait? What claws?”