The Conversion Bureau - Lab Rat

The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat

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We finished talking about our plan when I left my room around 8 p.m. If I didn’t want to lure any suspicions, I need to get out and walk a bit like if everything was normal, I thought. I made my way to the gardens behind the HQ. This place was so relaxing; it was one of the biggest gardens in the entire city. It got its own protection to leave the fog on the other side. They don’t want their garden to die in seconds.

Anyway, the garden is full of life. It got the entire color spectrum with all their flowers. During this night, however, the sky was clear. We could see the stars. I felt a little bit of nostalgia about it. When I was young, my father showed me some constellations. Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Orion’s belt, all of those was visible in this black roof.

Back to those beautiful flowers, the spectrum was omnipresent. Some were yellow and some were blue. It’s the only place I can think straight these days, with all the oxygen. I walked to a bench and sat down. I closed my eyes and let the clean gas going through my body. Then, I let my mind wander in my head.

What will happen tomorrow? There are two possibilities: being killed by my friends or be in a bureau and learn my new style of life. I’m sure that I want the second option but there are few other people who want the other one for me. What can I do about it; I’m going to turn into the animal we’ve been killing for years.

My train of thought stopped when a voice sounded behind me.

“Anthony?” It was Captain Martin from when we raided on ex-Quebec conversion bureau. We are pals since that day. Because of his grade, we can’t really see each other. He’s busy working on other projects for the HLF.

“Hey dude, long time no see. How’s your life since the raid.” Surprisingly enough, I want to tell him all my problems he could help me. I’ll do it but in a progressive way.

“Got lots of problems but I did some nice things too. I did my usual torturing session, that’s for sure.” I started to say. “Did you know that the HLF put chips in our brains?” He looked at me with a look of surprise and relief. Why the hay I told him about it? Yes, I said hay. I’m too lazy to rage about it.

He walked beside me and sat on the other side of the bench. “Yes, I know.” He answered. “You know what, I feel like we are under a camera. Got another place for us to talk?” I put my hand on my chin and I finally found a place.

“Well, there’s my room, but I got an early sleeper in.” He stood up and asked me to show him the way. We stopped briefly at the cafeteria. In the concrete-walled room, the chefs were cleaning the plates and I asked if they had some vegetables. They answered that they had some carrots left, so I took two of them.

We walked through the same old walkway; I would miss this place when I ran away. We made our way to room #2578. As I was about to turn the knob, the door hit me square in the face. Nathaniel came out and was looking at me, as I fell with his eternal smile.

“Oopsy, my ba-“He saw that Martin was following me. For some unknown reason, Nat and Mart can’t even smell each other without being angry. Only the presence of my old captain turned his shiny smile into an emotion; a little mix of anger, sadness and jealousy.

“We… we’ll talk about whatever you want to talk later. See ya Anto.” Martin walked away, bumping shoulders with Nathaniel as he passed by. “Bye, asshole.” Martin said before walking away.

“Pfft, so long, sucker. Man, I’m glad to run away from this hell if it means to run away from this dude. You know, sometime, you hang out with bad people. Watch out for guys like him. He will steal your wife if you’re not watching him. But, back to business.” Nathaniel said while I watched that calm smile coming back onto his face. At least, this problem didn’t last long.

I entered the room and saw Zach sleeping on my bed in a position that looked quite uncomfortable. “Dude, check this out.” Nat said. He scratched a specific part under our friend’s belly and his legs and tail went crazy like a dog would normally do.

“You sure you want to become like them?” Nat wondered while watching the pony peacefully sleeping.

I sat beside him and answered his question:” I’ve got no choice. This is what happens when the serum is already in your veins. I wish I could have that choice like the other few millions other people who got into a conversion bureau. But, life is life.”

“Well, if we want to survive tonight, we need to go now,” he said. His voice laced with uncharacteristic stress.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because somebody found out about our secret. They will station more guards tonight to make sure they catch us. If we wait, we’re fucked.”

“Wait, are you serious” I exclaimed, and Nat nodded.

“Buck, let’s go.” I grabbed Zach and shook him until he woke up.

Zach yawned, “Dude, got a problem?” He asked.

“You, me, Nat, going now.”

“Hey, ever heard of beauty sleep?”

"Okay, fine - go back to sleep, then. You can stay here and die; Sorry for disturbing you."

“Okay, okay, jeez.” Zach said whole rubbing his face with a hoof. “So, first, where do we go?” He asked. I explained the plan.

“It’s simple: first, we go to the basement. There is the jails where they put the ponies they’re about to kill. While there, we release them and then we run up the stairs. We then leave by the secret emergency exit located on the west side, and we hightail it all the way to the bureau. If there is anything I missed, tell me.” I stared at them, waiting for an answer. Zach cleared his throat.

“. . .well, you forgot one little thing,” I looked at him flatly, ‘what now’ written all over my face. “What will happen when you’ll enter a bureau with your HLF suit and your entire armory? You will be kicked out faster than you can say ‘buck’. I say, we find a hiding place and we wait for the total conversion.” He was right again - I hadn't allowed for the 'suit' variable in my plans.

“Got somewhere in mind?” I asked the pony. He gestures  ignorance and I started to think. Where?

“Maybe one of the prisoners will help us.” Nat said.

“Well, when they’ll see HLF member unlocking their cages, I don’t think they will stop and invite us to a tea party.” Zach said.

“We’ll just figure something out, are you ready?” I asked.

“Yeah!” My friends said in unison.