He screamed, reeling backward as the concentrated herb powder hit his eyes. "I can't see! I can't see!"
"Grab her!" the captain shouted.
I ducked under another enforcer's arm and sprinted for the trees. Freedom was twenty yards away. Ten. Five.
Something heavy slammed into my back, driving me to the ground. The air exploded from my lungs as the captain pinned me, his knee digging between my shoulder blades.
"Nice try," he hissed in my ear, cinching restraints around my wrists. "But all you've done is upgrade yourself from standard testing to priority assessment."
"Let me go!" I bucked beneath him, but it was useless. He was twice my size, all hard muscle and calculated force.
"The more you fight, the worse it gets." His voice held no emotion. "That's the first lesson humans like you need to learn."
They dragged me back to their patrol vehicle, a sleek black transport with the monster government's insignia emblazoned on the side. The enforcer I'd blinded was still cursing, his eyes red and swollen.
"You'll pay for that, herb witch," he spat as they pushed me past him.
The ride to the testing facility was short and silent. I stared out the window as we left the buffer zone and entered monster territory, watching my chances of escape dwindle with each passing mile. The skyline of what had once been a human city rose before us, now transformed with strange architecture, buildings too tall, too angular, designs that hurt human eyes to look at for too long.
We pulled up to a white building with no windows. The testing center. My pulse skyrocketed.
"Please," I tried one last time as they marched me toward the entrance. "I'm promised to someone back home. I can't be tested."
The captain glanced at me, something unreadable flickering across his face. "That's unfortunate timing. But irrelevant now."
Inside, the air smelled of antiseptic and fear. Other captured humans sat on benches along sterile white walls, theirexpressions vacant with dread. Some were crying. Others stared blankly ahead, already broken.
A human woman in a lab coat approached. "New arrival for testing?"
"Priority processing," the captain said, handing her a tablet. "She assaulted an officer."
The woman raised an eyebrow. "Room three is open."
They marched me down a hallway into a small, bare room with nothing but an examination chair in the center. Metal restraints gleamed on the armrests.
"Strip to your underclothes," the lab woman ordered.
"Like hell I will," I said, backing toward the wall.
The captain sighed. "Do I need to stay and assist?"
"That won't be necessary, Captain Hayes." She smiled thinly. "We have protocols for the uncooperative ones."
Hayes nodded and left. The moment the door closed behind him, two large orderlies entered from another door. They didn't speak, didn't warn me. They just grabbed me, one holding me down while the other cut my clothes away with shears, leaving me in just my undergarments.
"This is assault!" I yelled, struggling against them. "You're human too! How can you do this?"
They strapped me into the chair, ignoring my pleas as efficiently as if I were an object rather than a person.
The lab woman returned with a tray of equipment. "The less you fight, the less it hurts."
"What are you testing me for?" I demanded, pulling against the restraints until they bit into my skin.
"Compatibility, of course." She swabbed the inside of my cheek roughly. "Genetic compatibility with our monster allies determines your value in the new order."
"I don't want to be compatible with anything!"
She ignored me, moving on to attach sensors to my temples, chest, and wrists. Then came the needles, three of them, drawing blood from different veins. I bit my lip until I tasted copper, refusing to give her the satisfaction of hearing me scream.
