Bite the Hand That Feeds You
Read it because: you get to see six-year-old Regina Slaughter doing what she does best: causing chaos.
Enjoy!
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HAZARD AND DEFENSE ENGINEERING SERVICES
DISTRICT FIVE
SITE: BOX THREE
RESEARCH PROJECT: PANDORA
JUNE 4, 2003
SITE: BOX THREE
RESEARCH PROJECT: PANDORA
JUNE 4, 2003
The cage doors were all edged with silver. Silver lined the rectangular slot where food was passed through. Silver lined the seams between the near-indestructible poly-glass panels of the cage walls. A silver band circled six-year-old Regina Slaughter’s neck, a collar welded shut. Irremovable without help, and there was no help in sight.
Wearing it was like having onion juice constantly dripping in her eyes. It made her nose and throat burn. The pads of her fingers were red and blister-raw from clawing at the collar. It didn’t let up. It stung, stung, stung.
“Why?” Regina, or rather, experiment Thirty-Three now, asked.
“So we don’t bite the hand that feeds us.” The voice that answered was dry and raspy, like a wasp’s nest crushed under a boot.
Nathaniel, an adult werewolf, was in the cage on her left. He smelled of the same chemical tang from the greasy cinnamon-brown bricks they ate. She smelled like them too, and it made her angry. A frustrated growl rattled from her scalded throat.
“Now don’t pull that face, baby. You know it’s true,” Nathaniel said.
He’d called her “baby” from the minute she arrived, three days ago. He never asked her real name.
The only other person in the whole wide world to give her a nickname had been Dead Daddy. He called her Strawberry Shortcake, or sometimes just Shortcake, because her hair was red and she was “the sweetest little girl in the world.”
Dead Daddy was the only person who ever said she was sweet.
“What’s true?” Regina asked.
“That there’s no point in fighting back. We’re never going to get out of here,” he said.
“Never?” Regina asked.
“Never ever,” he chuckled softly. “You might as well get used to it."
One of the first things Nathaniel had told her about himself was that he’d killed little girls like her before. He liked to tell her how he would be out there, killing more like her if he hadn’t been caught.
"Say, baby, you want to show me your neck?”
A harsh voice from farther down the cages yelled, “Keep talking to her like that and I’ll rip your dick off next time we’re in the yard.”
“You can try,” Nathaniel replied in a lazy manner. He sounded bored but Regina noted the tension in his narrow shoulders and the way his right hand trembled. She’d only seen that happen when something made him nervous.
The yard. Regina was dying to know what was out there. Every seven days, the guards let each of her neighbors out of their cages and walked them, single file, out of the large cage room. They were always gone for two hours. Not a minute less, not a minute more.
The first time she saw them all leave, Regina had been terrified out of her mind that they had all left for good and had forgotten about her. When the guards brought them back, she had almost wept with relief.
It turned out she just wasn’t allowed to go out into the yard. She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere the other prisoners went. Except for Dr. Gregor’s office.
Regina didn’t enjoy thinking about Dr. Gregor. He did things that hurt worse than the silver.
There was a tap on the glass. Regina ignored it and watched the guard patrolling on the catwalk above her. The tapping became more insistent. “Baby. Hey, baby.”
“What?” Regina bared her teeth at him.
“Show me your neck.”
“No.”
A frown creased Nathaniel’s forehead and his brows drew angrily together. He opened his mouth but didn’t get a chance to speak. A metallic clang sounded from the catwalk next to the guard station. Nathaniel’s mouth pressed into a thin line and he balled his shaking right hand into a fist.
The guards, the hands that should not be bitten, came down with the werewolves’ daily rations of calorie bars.
There were three of them. Regina skittered forward and pressed her cheek against the poly-glass door so she could see better. Every so often, her eyes would tick to the big digital clock on the wall with its angry red numbers flickering through time.
Two of the guards moved in front, passing the calorie bars through the slots in the doors, while the third guard followed behind them. He was older, taller, and rounder than they were, and he was whistling an upbeat tune that Regina couldn’t identify. He held his silver-banded “skull smasher” in a loose, lazy grip, while the other two had theirs secured to their belts. Without warning, he smacked one of the poly-glass doors and laughed when the werewolf startled.
Regina backed away when they got to Nathaniel’s cage. Food Guard opened the slot in his door and slid two of the calorie bars through. Nathaniel took them and Regina saw his lips move as he muttered something under his breath to the guard.
Skull Smasher Guard shoved Food Guard aside and hammered the poly-glass so hard Regina’s ears rang. Nathaniel didn’t seem to care. In fact, he started giggling in that odd way Regina noticed more and more. Then Nathaniel said something vulgar about Skull Smasher Guard’s daughter. Regina thought he was joking and wasn’t sure how he knew Skull Smasher Guard had a daughter, but the guard must have because his face turned red, then purple.
Regina thought the guard was going to slam his skull smasher against the glass again. Instead, a serene smile spread over his russet features, like a switch had been flipped deep in the recesses of his brain. All the anger seemed to flow out of him. His two companion guards cast each other strange looks that made the hairs on the back of Regina’s neck stand up.
Regina wasn’t the only one who noticed this change. Nathaniel’s giggling ceased and she watched, fascinated, as if the two men traded emotions. Skull Smasher Guard started whistling again, and he removed a small black box from a clip on his belt. Skull Smasher Guard wore a wide grin, while all the blood drained from Nathaniel’s face.
Skull Smasher Guard pressed down on the top of the black box, then tossed it through the slot in Nathaniel’s door. It hit the floor and bounced. Nathaniel jumped away and clambered onto his cot, putting himself as far away from the little black box as he could.
Regina heard a soft ping. A squeak came from inside the box and a second later it exploded. A green cloud of smoke filled Nathaniel’s cage. Skull Smasher Guard slid the slot shut before any could escape. Regina couldn’t see Nathaniel through the smoke, but she heard him groan and the thump of his body hitting the concrete floor.
Food Guard and Other Guard followed meekly behind Skull Smasher Guard as he made his way to Regina’s door. Food Guard slid open the slot and fed one calorie bar through.
Regina stepped up to the door but didn’t take the proffered bar. “I want two.”
“What did you say?” Skull Smasher Guard asked.
“Everyone else gets two. I’m hungry.”
“Oh, well…” Skull Smasher made a show of snatching another calorie bar off of the tray and muscled Food Guard out of the way. “If the little princess is hungry…”
“Mike, please.” Other Guard grabbed his arm.
Skull Smasher Guard wrenched his arm free. An icy dread squirmed unpleasantly down Regina’s spine but she refused to back down.
“Here.” Skull Smasher Guard pushed the two bars through the slot like Food Guard had done.
The second Regina's fingers touched the calorie bars, Skull Smasher Guard whacked the poly-glass door so hard it made the other two guards jump. Food Guard stumbled backward, tripped over his feet, and sprawled to the floor with calorie bars scattered around him. Regina scampered back to her metal cot and crouched down on her hands and knees. She bared her teeth at Skull Smasher Guard.
“For fuck’s sake, Mike, that’s enough,” Other Guard said.
“Lighten up. They’re all animals, even her.” Skull Smasher Guard glanced down at Food Guard, who was busy stacking the fallen calorie bars into neat columns on his tray. He went to reach for one by Skull Smasher Guard’s foot. Skull Smasher Guard kicked it away just as he tried to grab it.
“Asshole,” Food Guard muttered.
“Whatcha gonna do about it?” Skull Smasher Guard chuckled as he pushed Regina’s calorie bars through the slot again.
Regina crawled forward slowly and made a show of sniffing the air. She stopped once she was in arm’s reach of the “food.”
“Come on,” Skull Smasher Guard cajoled. “For real this time. I don’t have all day.”
I do. Regina hunched her shoulders and tried to look as pathetic as possible.
Skull Smasher Guard tapped the calorie bars against the side of the slot and looked Regina squarely in the eyes. There was a cruel delight shining there that was eerily similar to the way Nathaniel looked at her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. Regina didn’t move.
Skull Smasher Guard looked up at the big digital clock. “It’s almost shift change. Don’t make me come in there.” He extended his arm, holding the calorie bars closer. His hand and three inches of wrist were now inside her cage.
In a flash, Regina lunged up from the floor and chomped down on the guard’s exposed wrist. Her baby teeth were sharp enough to draw blood, and she clamped down harder as the coppery, warm richness filled her mouth. She shook her head back and forth, just like the shark in Jaws.
The three guards cried out in the same instant, one in pain, two in panic. Skull Smasher Guard rammed his skull smasher through the slot and into Regina's cheek. Her teeth scraped against bone and she bit down harder until she felt something pop inside her mouth. The second hit from the skull smasher was hard enough to break her nose and sent her reeling backward. Regina landed hard on the concrete floor, sharp pain shooting through her face. The taste of her own blood mingled with Skull Smasher Guard’s as she shook her head to clear the stars. An adrenaline spike had her up on her feet a heartbeat later, and she lunged at the slot in her door, a defiant shriek on her bloody lips. Food Guard slammed the slot shut.
“Oh fuck. Jesus Christ. That little brat damn near took my hand off. Thank God she didn’t hit an artery.” He put pressure on his wrist with his free hand, then yanked it back, letting out another cry, higher in pitch this time. “What the—it's a fucking tooth!”
Skull Smasher Guard dug shaking fingers into the top of his wrist and held aloft a tiny baby canine. He stripped his uniform jacket off and wrapped it clumsily around his wrist, covering the bite. His undershirt rode up his middle, exposing a strip of flab the color of a dead fish’s belly. Blood leaked through his jacket and pitter-pattered onto the floor.
“He should be passed out from blood loss already, right?” Food Guard asked. Other Guard started slowly backing away from Skull Smasher Guard. Regina saw the fear-shine in his eyes. That was worth getting hit in the face. Regina spat blood onto the floor and probed the empty spot in her mouth with a finger. The new canine was already pushing its way out.
“What the fuck are you idiots doing?” Skull Smasher Guard glared at them. “I need help.”
“You’re bitten,” Other Guard gasped. His brown skin had taken on a gray cast.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Skull Smasher Guard snapped. “What are you two doing?”
“You’re bit,” Food Guard echoed. He unslung his rifle from his shoulder. Other Guard copied his movements a few seconds later.
Skull Smasher Guard’s face went as pale as his belly. “She’s not a fucking zombie.”
“M-maybe Doc can fix him,” Other Guard suggested. There was a helpless tone in his voice that made Regina’s heart race. She smacked her lips. Bloody drool dripped down her chin in slimy strings. She crouched down low, as if she were about to sprint through the transparent poly-glass door. She imagined that there was no barrier between them and her teeth were locked around Food Guard’s throat.
Food Guard shook his head. “The protocol’s clear. No contamination.”
“The fu— Wait. No. No, you can’t be serious!”
“Sorry, not sorry, Mike,” Food Guard said.
Automatic fire painted streaks of blood on the cinderblock wall behind him. From above, the digital clock with its big red numbers glared down at them.
Wearing it was like having onion juice constantly dripping in her eyes. It made her nose and throat burn. The pads of her fingers were red and blister-raw from clawing at the collar. It didn’t let up. It stung, stung, stung.
“Why?” Regina, or rather, experiment Thirty-Three now, asked.
“So we don’t bite the hand that feeds us.” The voice that answered was dry and raspy, like a wasp’s nest crushed under a boot.
Nathaniel, an adult werewolf, was in the cage on her left. He smelled of the same chemical tang from the greasy cinnamon-brown bricks they ate. She smelled like them too, and it made her angry. A frustrated growl rattled from her scalded throat.
“Now don’t pull that face, baby. You know it’s true,” Nathaniel said.
He’d called her “baby” from the minute she arrived, three days ago. He never asked her real name.
The only other person in the whole wide world to give her a nickname had been Dead Daddy. He called her Strawberry Shortcake, or sometimes just Shortcake, because her hair was red and she was “the sweetest little girl in the world.”
Dead Daddy was the only person who ever said she was sweet.
“What’s true?” Regina asked.
“That there’s no point in fighting back. We’re never going to get out of here,” he said.
“Never?” Regina asked.
“Never ever,” he chuckled softly. “You might as well get used to it."
One of the first things Nathaniel had told her about himself was that he’d killed little girls like her before. He liked to tell her how he would be out there, killing more like her if he hadn’t been caught.
"Say, baby, you want to show me your neck?”
A harsh voice from farther down the cages yelled, “Keep talking to her like that and I’ll rip your dick off next time we’re in the yard.”
“You can try,” Nathaniel replied in a lazy manner. He sounded bored but Regina noted the tension in his narrow shoulders and the way his right hand trembled. She’d only seen that happen when something made him nervous.
The yard. Regina was dying to know what was out there. Every seven days, the guards let each of her neighbors out of their cages and walked them, single file, out of the large cage room. They were always gone for two hours. Not a minute less, not a minute more.
The first time she saw them all leave, Regina had been terrified out of her mind that they had all left for good and had forgotten about her. When the guards brought them back, she had almost wept with relief.
It turned out she just wasn’t allowed to go out into the yard. She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere the other prisoners went. Except for Dr. Gregor’s office.
Regina didn’t enjoy thinking about Dr. Gregor. He did things that hurt worse than the silver.
There was a tap on the glass. Regina ignored it and watched the guard patrolling on the catwalk above her. The tapping became more insistent. “Baby. Hey, baby.”
“What?” Regina bared her teeth at him.
“Show me your neck.”
“No.”
A frown creased Nathaniel’s forehead and his brows drew angrily together. He opened his mouth but didn’t get a chance to speak. A metallic clang sounded from the catwalk next to the guard station. Nathaniel’s mouth pressed into a thin line and he balled his shaking right hand into a fist.
The guards, the hands that should not be bitten, came down with the werewolves’ daily rations of calorie bars.
There were three of them. Regina skittered forward and pressed her cheek against the poly-glass door so she could see better. Every so often, her eyes would tick to the big digital clock on the wall with its angry red numbers flickering through time.
Two of the guards moved in front, passing the calorie bars through the slots in the doors, while the third guard followed behind them. He was older, taller, and rounder than they were, and he was whistling an upbeat tune that Regina couldn’t identify. He held his silver-banded “skull smasher” in a loose, lazy grip, while the other two had theirs secured to their belts. Without warning, he smacked one of the poly-glass doors and laughed when the werewolf startled.
Regina backed away when they got to Nathaniel’s cage. Food Guard opened the slot in his door and slid two of the calorie bars through. Nathaniel took them and Regina saw his lips move as he muttered something under his breath to the guard.
Skull Smasher Guard shoved Food Guard aside and hammered the poly-glass so hard Regina’s ears rang. Nathaniel didn’t seem to care. In fact, he started giggling in that odd way Regina noticed more and more. Then Nathaniel said something vulgar about Skull Smasher Guard’s daughter. Regina thought he was joking and wasn’t sure how he knew Skull Smasher Guard had a daughter, but the guard must have because his face turned red, then purple.
Regina thought the guard was going to slam his skull smasher against the glass again. Instead, a serene smile spread over his russet features, like a switch had been flipped deep in the recesses of his brain. All the anger seemed to flow out of him. His two companion guards cast each other strange looks that made the hairs on the back of Regina’s neck stand up.
Regina wasn’t the only one who noticed this change. Nathaniel’s giggling ceased and she watched, fascinated, as if the two men traded emotions. Skull Smasher Guard started whistling again, and he removed a small black box from a clip on his belt. Skull Smasher Guard wore a wide grin, while all the blood drained from Nathaniel’s face.
Skull Smasher Guard pressed down on the top of the black box, then tossed it through the slot in Nathaniel’s door. It hit the floor and bounced. Nathaniel jumped away and clambered onto his cot, putting himself as far away from the little black box as he could.
Regina heard a soft ping. A squeak came from inside the box and a second later it exploded. A green cloud of smoke filled Nathaniel’s cage. Skull Smasher Guard slid the slot shut before any could escape. Regina couldn’t see Nathaniel through the smoke, but she heard him groan and the thump of his body hitting the concrete floor.
Food Guard and Other Guard followed meekly behind Skull Smasher Guard as he made his way to Regina’s door. Food Guard slid open the slot and fed one calorie bar through.
Regina stepped up to the door but didn’t take the proffered bar. “I want two.”
“What did you say?” Skull Smasher Guard asked.
“Everyone else gets two. I’m hungry.”
“Oh, well…” Skull Smasher made a show of snatching another calorie bar off of the tray and muscled Food Guard out of the way. “If the little princess is hungry…”
“Mike, please.” Other Guard grabbed his arm.
Skull Smasher Guard wrenched his arm free. An icy dread squirmed unpleasantly down Regina’s spine but she refused to back down.
“Here.” Skull Smasher Guard pushed the two bars through the slot like Food Guard had done.
The second Regina's fingers touched the calorie bars, Skull Smasher Guard whacked the poly-glass door so hard it made the other two guards jump. Food Guard stumbled backward, tripped over his feet, and sprawled to the floor with calorie bars scattered around him. Regina scampered back to her metal cot and crouched down on her hands and knees. She bared her teeth at Skull Smasher Guard.
“For fuck’s sake, Mike, that’s enough,” Other Guard said.
“Lighten up. They’re all animals, even her.” Skull Smasher Guard glanced down at Food Guard, who was busy stacking the fallen calorie bars into neat columns on his tray. He went to reach for one by Skull Smasher Guard’s foot. Skull Smasher Guard kicked it away just as he tried to grab it.
“Asshole,” Food Guard muttered.
“Whatcha gonna do about it?” Skull Smasher Guard chuckled as he pushed Regina’s calorie bars through the slot again.
Regina crawled forward slowly and made a show of sniffing the air. She stopped once she was in arm’s reach of the “food.”
“Come on,” Skull Smasher Guard cajoled. “For real this time. I don’t have all day.”
I do. Regina hunched her shoulders and tried to look as pathetic as possible.
Skull Smasher Guard tapped the calorie bars against the side of the slot and looked Regina squarely in the eyes. There was a cruel delight shining there that was eerily similar to the way Nathaniel looked at her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. Regina didn’t move.
Skull Smasher Guard looked up at the big digital clock. “It’s almost shift change. Don’t make me come in there.” He extended his arm, holding the calorie bars closer. His hand and three inches of wrist were now inside her cage.
In a flash, Regina lunged up from the floor and chomped down on the guard’s exposed wrist. Her baby teeth were sharp enough to draw blood, and she clamped down harder as the coppery, warm richness filled her mouth. She shook her head back and forth, just like the shark in Jaws.
The three guards cried out in the same instant, one in pain, two in panic. Skull Smasher Guard rammed his skull smasher through the slot and into Regina's cheek. Her teeth scraped against bone and she bit down harder until she felt something pop inside her mouth. The second hit from the skull smasher was hard enough to break her nose and sent her reeling backward. Regina landed hard on the concrete floor, sharp pain shooting through her face. The taste of her own blood mingled with Skull Smasher Guard’s as she shook her head to clear the stars. An adrenaline spike had her up on her feet a heartbeat later, and she lunged at the slot in her door, a defiant shriek on her bloody lips. Food Guard slammed the slot shut.
“Oh fuck. Jesus Christ. That little brat damn near took my hand off. Thank God she didn’t hit an artery.” He put pressure on his wrist with his free hand, then yanked it back, letting out another cry, higher in pitch this time. “What the—it's a fucking tooth!”
Skull Smasher Guard dug shaking fingers into the top of his wrist and held aloft a tiny baby canine. He stripped his uniform jacket off and wrapped it clumsily around his wrist, covering the bite. His undershirt rode up his middle, exposing a strip of flab the color of a dead fish’s belly. Blood leaked through his jacket and pitter-pattered onto the floor.
“He should be passed out from blood loss already, right?” Food Guard asked. Other Guard started slowly backing away from Skull Smasher Guard. Regina saw the fear-shine in his eyes. That was worth getting hit in the face. Regina spat blood onto the floor and probed the empty spot in her mouth with a finger. The new canine was already pushing its way out.
“What the fuck are you idiots doing?” Skull Smasher Guard glared at them. “I need help.”
“You’re bitten,” Other Guard gasped. His brown skin had taken on a gray cast.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Skull Smasher Guard snapped. “What are you two doing?”
“You’re bit,” Food Guard echoed. He unslung his rifle from his shoulder. Other Guard copied his movements a few seconds later.
Skull Smasher Guard’s face went as pale as his belly. “She’s not a fucking zombie.”
“M-maybe Doc can fix him,” Other Guard suggested. There was a helpless tone in his voice that made Regina’s heart race. She smacked her lips. Bloody drool dripped down her chin in slimy strings. She crouched down low, as if she were about to sprint through the transparent poly-glass door. She imagined that there was no barrier between them and her teeth were locked around Food Guard’s throat.
Food Guard shook his head. “The protocol’s clear. No contamination.”
“The fu— Wait. No. No, you can’t be serious!”
“Sorry, not sorry, Mike,” Food Guard said.
Automatic fire painted streaks of blood on the cinderblock wall behind him. From above, the digital clock with its big red numbers glared down at them.
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Want the rest of the story? Check out Harbinger of Havoc: Regina.
Want more Slice of Life stories? Check out the master list!
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