Becoming a Slime Girl

I woke up bleary eyed, looking up at small white circles of light on the ceiling. Everything was silver and white, even in my periphery. The last thing I remembered was walking home from work, and stepping through a patch of shadow where one of the street lights had gone out. I wasn't home, so where was I?

I looked around the room as everything started to come into focus. I was lying on something like a hospital bed, with a soft pillow under my head. A monitor was off to one side, but turned off, and there were empty counters in the corner behind me. At first, I thought that maybe I was in the hospital, but then I caught sight of the rest of the room- a very nice couch and a chair with footrests, and an entertainment center with a television. There was even a rug on that side of the floor. Off to my right side was an open door that seemed to lead into a restroom, and directly in front of me was a long, gray wall with an electronically locked door in the middle.

This seemed too nice for a hospital.

Before I could move, the door opened, and I caught a glimpse outside- where there was another door, also electronically locked, and already shut. Double doors?

The person entering walked up to me, a tablet in one hand. They smiled, offering out a hand to shake. "Good to see you're awake. I'm Doctor Glasman. Our catcher must have got you a bit hard with the dart; you were out for awhile. Don't worry, we've had you in observation, so you've never been in any danger."

"Catcher?" I questioned.

"Mm." Doctor Glasman answered, messing around with the cabinet behind me. I realized, after a quick flash of their wrist, that the cabinets were locked. He returned, pulling the monitor over to me and wrapping a blood pressure cuff around my arm. "Yes. You were an ideal candidate, living alone, no obvious connections that would miss you if you disappeared. We had someone forge a note to your work to resign, so you don't have to worry about anything there. We're going to take good care of you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, and darkness started to swirl in my stomach. I took in my surroundings quickly again, and realized that despite its comforts, I was trapped in here.

Wait. There was a window. Off to the left, covered in blinds. I would check it out as soon as I was alone.

He typed my vitals on the tablet as the monitor beeped away, and unhooked me from the cuff, pushing the monitor back into the corner. "You've been selected for a research opportunity. We're going to be performing a few small experiments once we have your baseline vitals. We're all very experienced here, so there's no need to fret about your safety. Right now you're placed in an intake room- still very comfortable- but once we have a course of action we'll move you into a suite more suited to your life here."

"You can't keep me here. This- this is kidnapping, this is illegal-" I started to sputter, and swung my legs down, ready to run for the door.

"Oh, dear," he sighed, and grabbed my arm, producing a needle from his pocket. I only saw the flash of silver before it went into my arm, and I struggled while he pushed the plunger. "I was hoping you weren't the type to fight. Oh well. I'll be back soon to check on you, Ela."

And then it was blackness again.

The next time I woke up, the lights were dimmed, and there wasn't any light coming through the window. I felt groggy, and slow, but the memories came rushing back. I looked around again, and saw that I'd been laid back onto the bed like the first time.

I stood up and made my way over to the window, pushing up the blinds. The glass was perfectly fitted into the wall, and I'd bet unbreakable. The window was slightly tinted, throwing the lights outside into a strange hue. I could see the dark outlines of cars and trees, and a parking lot. I appeared to be on ground level, and could even watch as someone in a hood walked to one of the cars.

I moved away from the window and to the door, examining the lock. It was something fancy, with no obvious keyhole or pin pad, and a red light.

I was trapped.

I stepped back from the door and stared at the small room again. Questions raced through my mind. What experiments were they going to do on me? Were they going to keep me here forever, or would I eventually be let back out into the world? If I was, there was nothing stopping me from reporting this place...Except, I realized, I didn't know where it was.

And besides that, no one would believe me. I'd just sound crazy.

I sat down on the couch and tucked my feet up under me, reaching for the remote on the footrest. I clicked on the tv, and the light glow of it was familiar and comforting. The guide informed me that it was almost midnight, and that it had been two days since I'd been picked up.

"Feeling better?" I looked over at the door opening again, and it was a new person- a woman in scrubs. She closed the door and came over to me, holding a tray. "I saw you were awake and thought you might be starving. You haven't had anything to eat or drink since we picked you up, after all."

I realized she was right, and I took the water off the tray, downing it in nearly one gulp. She smiled and moved a folding table out from the wall, placing the rest of my meal onto it.

She smiled, and sat down on the chair across from me, turning on her tablet and typing away at it for a few moments. "Is there anything you want to ask me before I go through some intake questions with you? The faster we get that done, the faster we can get you moved into a nicer room."

"Yeah, how did you see I was awake? Also, who are you?" I asked, starting in on the food.

She gestured at the gray wall. "One way glass. There's always at least one of us passing by out there, just in case. One of the other nurses paged me that you were awake, so I came right away. I'm one of the team assigned to you; I'm your night nurse, Jewel."

"Is that your real name?"

"No. None of us use our real names here, since we don't want you finding us after you're released." She answered with a sly smile.

"When will I be released?"

"When we're done with your experiments. It will take some time, but there's no estimate I can give you. It all depends on how fast your body takes to everything. For some it can take years, but that's not the usual case. You won't be in this room for long, though. You'll be moved to a suite hopefully by the end of the week."

"What are the suites like?"

"Like a one bedroom apartment, really, minus the kitchen. You also get a small glassed-in porch where you can see the courtyard, and grow some plants if you want. We find that gardening tends to keep your mood a bit more positive, as does the exposure to sunlight." She smiled again, resting her tablet on her lap. "At first, we take you for walks twice a day in our exercise room, but after you've settled in you'll be able to socialize with other experiments in the rec yard and still get personal time for treadmills or such. It's not so bad once you get used to it."

"It sounds like prison." I answered, bluntly.

"Prison doesn't give you a suite, a private bathroom, good food, your own television with every program we can get, and your own garden- maybe even a pet, if you're good." She fired back, still with that serene smile. "It's a cage, yes, but it's one that's designed to keep you a healthy and happy little bird."

A pet- my cat! My eyes widened and I blurted out,"What about my cat? What happened to her after I got here?"

At that, she looked uncertain. "I...I'm not sure. I'll ask for you."

I sighed. I wasn't going to get her help in anything, it seemed. "Right. So what are the intake questions?"

She picked up her tablet. "They let us know your interests, both so we can tailor your suite to you- like painting the walls in your favorite colors and avoiding your least favorites- but also help us determine what your medical history is and the best experiment track to put you on. If you're ready, we can begin with the first question- what are your top three favorite colors, including specific shade?"

And on the questions went, boring me to death...until, finally, one gave me pause.

"If you could have a choice, which one of the below things would you become: a dragon, a kobold, a furry, a neko, a feral animal, or other?"

I blinked. "Do I get to specify what kind of furry or neko or animal?"

"That's the very next question."

"Um... Okay, I guess... I've always wanted to be a furry."

"What kind of furry?"

"My fursona's a husky..."

This made her pause. She looked up from the tablet with a smile on her face. "Did you have her commissioned?"

"Yeah. If you all know everything about me, you can probably find my online handle. I posted her images there. Pink and white husky, purple eyes." I yawned. I was getting tired again.

Noticing that, she moved on, and soon left with my empty tray. I moved back over to the bed and laid down, tucking the blanket around my feet. After a few minutes, the lights turned off completely, and I dozed off into restless sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, it was to the doctor moving the monitor close to my bed again. He smiled when he saw my eyes open, hooking up the blood pressure cuff to my arm. I noticed a different nurse than the one from last night, a man, placing a tray on the table by the couch, and sunlight streaming through the window.

"Good morning, Ela. Just here to get your vitals, drop off breakfast, and see how you're doing. Are you in a better mood than yesterday, dear?" Doctor Glasman asked, with his fingers moving rapidly across his tablet.

I sighed. They acted like I'd been throwing a temper tantrum, not being informed I was kidnapped for the purpose of some weird experiments. I decided to play along, for now. "Somewhat."

"Good!" If he noticed I wasn't being entirely truthful, he ignored it. After the cuff deflated, he unwrapped it from my arm, and put it back in the cabinet. "Looks like you're doing just fine in the medical department, too. Why don't you eat some breakfast and I'll have someone come by for your first exercise break soon, hmm?"

"Sounds okay, I guess."

"That's the spirit! If you stay positive, this whole thing will go a lot smoother. There will be a nurse coming by in a little bit to collect some blood, and we'll continue making sure you're healthy enough to start the experiments. We've already started working on your suite, so things are moving forward!" He headed back towards the door with the nurse that had come in, flashing his watch at it, and it clicked open. "Your nurses will check back periodically through the day, and I'll see you tomorrow."

Once alone I stood up and moved over to the couch, checking out the tray I'd been given. I was surprised to see my breakfast actually came with pancakes; I figured they'd be focused on health and wouldn't give me anything too good. True, there was only a single container of syrup, two pancakes, and no butter, but it was still something.

I distracted myself by the tv until the next person came by- two people, actually. One of them didn't talk to me, just took my tray and left. The second was dressed in a track suit and had cat ears sticking up on her head.

"Ready to get your sweat on?" She asked, a huge grin spreading across her face. Her teeth were slightly pointier than I expected, and the closer I looked, the more I realized that her pupils weren't perfectly round either. "I'm Nikki, and I'll be keeping you company while you work out for the rest of your stay here."

"How long have you been working for them after they experimented on you against your will?" I asked, standing up from the couch and stretching while I watched her face.

There wasn't even a flicker in her smile. "I worked for them before they experimented on me. When I saw some of the results, I wanted a piece, so they opened up a room for me and let me stay. Are you ready to go, or do you have more questions?"

"No, I'm ready. Let's go." It was slowly dawning on me that I wasn't going to find any allies here. Everyone who worked for them was going to try to convince me how great it was, and how I was so lucky to be chosen. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I'd been a little bit hopeful.

She opened up the door and beckoned to me, and I quickly followed after her. She flashed her wrist at the second door, and then I was in a hallway lined with glass- and I could see other rooms identical to mine, some empty, some with other people lying down or pacing or watching television. There was no privacy for anyone in this wing, and I decided I'd be changing clothes in the bathroom from now on.

We passed through another locked door into another hallway, though this one appeared to be offices. I could see messy desks inside of tiny windows, and some of them actually contained the doctors they belonged to.

I memorized the directions we took, paid attention to every door. Perhaps there was a way to escape. Then again, even if I got outside, I had no idea where I was. Finding civilization again would be like the world's worst game of Mapcrunch.

Finally, we passed through one more locked door into a large room with a track on the upper floor. "Here you are, Ela. You've got forty-five minutes to do as you like in here. If you want some company on the track or some guidance, I'll be here," Nikki said, and leaned against the wall by the door, pulling a phone from her pocket and a pair of headphones.

I turned away from her and made my way to the upstairs track. If nothing else, I appreciated the chance to stretch my legs. I never used to work out, but on the rare opportunity I did, it was with music; I wondered idly to myself if I'd ever get perks like a music player here.

I positioned myself at the start of the track, looking over the wall and down into the exercise room. I doubted anyone else would be allowed in here with me while it was my turn; they'd said themselves that I wouldn't be permitted social interaction until I'd proven myself a "good girl". I took off running, circling the track, trying to ignore the pain in my chest. It helped me to think, and I needed ideas. There had to be something I could do besides just accepting my new fate as a lab rat.

I didn't get very far with running, and I soon slowed to a stop, with my hands on my knees and heaving breaths. I couldn't have spent more than fifteen minutes, so I still had a half hour on my hands.

"You're breathing with your mouth when you run. You're supposed to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. It helps." I jumped when I heard Nikki behind me, staring at me still with that infuriating smile.

I tried and failed not to huff at her, and she laughed. "Also you're supposed to warm up before you just run like that. Stretch, maybe walk a lap. I'm here to help you not royally fuck up your body, okay? And it's not just for the experiments or whatever other damning thing you're thinking right now. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

I paused. Okay, she was way too cheery, but she was trying. Maybe I'd written her off too quickly. "You have headphones, so you must have music, right?"

She nodded.

"Can I get some too?"

She handed over her phone and earbuds without a moment's hesitation. "Here. You can use mine and I'll see if I can get you your own when I come back later today."

I grabbed it and started going through it, ignoring the music app completely- until I realized that there wasn't a way to send text messages on here. I sighed. Of course they would have thought of that. I went back to the music app and signed into my own account; at least I had access to all my own music.

"I saw you looking. We can't text or call outside a specific list of numbers, all within the office, all pre-programmed in the phone. The apps we're allowed are things where we can't contact anyone, like music, or certain games. One of my favorite mobile games had a chat function, so I don't get to play it anymore." It was the first time I'd seen her stop smiling. Her eyes seemed distant suddenly, staring off at something I couldn't see. "There's small towns where the people who have been experimented on can live. I tried integrating into the one close by and commuting to work, but it's just as limited there, too. I figured I might as well be where I'm comfortable, and I like chatting with you newbies."

I was interested in the small towns, but I decided it was a bad time to ask. "What about the people who don't have obvious experiments? Do they get to live in normal society?"

"The doctors and higher up scientists do. The nurses don't; they all live here or in the close by town. The ones who can leave are all required to sign NDAs- not that it matters, since no one would believe us anyway. This whole thing is a hush-hush project being run by the government, I think. It's the only way we can get away with what we're doing here." She answered. She checked her watch and looked back up at me. "You've got about twenty minutes before I have to take you back. If you want, we can walk or run together. You can keep using the phone for music for now."

I popped one headphone in and gestured toward the track. She smiled again, and to my surprise, I welcomed it this time. She started jogging, and I kept up with her, focusing on breathing like she'd instructed.

The music also helped, and the last twenty minutes flew by. We walked back to my room, and she left me, promising to look into getting me a phone of my own.

As soon as she was gone, I stripped down and showered. When I got out, I wrapped a towel around myself and went back into the main room, realizing too late that I didn't know where to get a spare set of clothes. I looked back at the bathroom, where the clothes I'd been wearing were on the floor. I didn't want to put those sweaty things back on- plus, I'd been wearing them for a few days.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wonder for long. Nikki walked in, carrying a stack of clothes. "I saw in your file you'd need these. There's some track pants and a tank top for future exercise breaks in here, some t-shirts, and sweatpants." She stopped to look at me, and was I imagining it, or was she checking me out?

She rested the stack of clothes on the couch. "I put in the request for your phone, too; we'll see how that goes. See you this afternoon." She collected my dirty things and disappeared back out the door, leaving me to dress in the new clothes.

I had no idea how they'd guessed my size so well, but they fit perfectly. I collapsed onto the couch, content to just rest after the experience in the gym.

Eventually, a nurse came back to check my vitals and bring me lunch, and then again to collect the tray. Nikki returned in the afternoon and took me for another forty-five minute break in the gym, chatting about her day and the other people that she was taking to the break room before and after me. After she left me, the last interaction was a nurse in the evening that brought me dinner.

The days continued like that, and it almost started to feel normal by day three of that routine. I'd almost forgotten about their intention to move me, until Dr. Glasman mentioned it.

"So, shortly after I leave one of the assistants will be coming by to move you into your new room. It was just finished yesterday, and the paint smell should be aired out enough to not cause you any distress," he said, looking up from his tablet to fix me in a warm smile. "Plus, your vitals have stayed consistent, so we'll be able to start with your first injections next week. Our team is very excited to be working with you."

"Sweet." I was a little bit excited to move into the suite, but I still felt like a caged animal. "Oh, Nikki put in a request for me to get a phone I can use. Is there any word on that?"

He nodded. "Yes, actually, you were approved to get one. Nikki is going to be bringing it to you during the exercise break after you've settled into the new room. We modified your old phone, actually, so all of your previous games and music are already on there."