The Specimen

After showing him around, Alex put down his suitcase under his bed and then looked around, "Jake, do you have pictures of the creature?"

"Yep, 4, less than one a month."

"Jesus, can I see them?"

"Yeah, we have a camera room, right there, all the files are saved on paper and on the computer, plus live feed and also every time the camera's detected movement in the forest, but it is very good at moving around the cameras, out of their vision."

"There is a day night cycle, right?"

"Yep, like the regular cycle," He said as he opened the camera room and Alex walked in, "Use that watch I gave you, it is life-saving."

"What do you mean?"

"Not knowing what time it is can be terrible, so take breaks regularly, eat, drink, you know, nap, whatever."

"Okay thanks," Alex sat down on the swivel chair in the room and looked at the camera's, "Let me see," He turned and grabbed the picture's file, "No, that is just a tail, or an arm, nothing much," He looked at the other pictures, that figure, hmm," He found nothing useful from the pictures and then made the highlights roll on the secondary screen. He paused it every time something entered the image, "I wonder, hmm, is that?" The feed stopped on a picture of a curious creature that was looking right at the camera, and as it moved it vanished, "Lady," He got up and left the camera room, "Jake," He turned to look at Alex, "What did Julie make for it?"

"Steamed vegetables and meat, why?"

"Okay, and what does it eat?"

"Only the vegetables, never touched the meat, but when we saw it, it had large fangs, we thought it would like meat, be carnivorous," Jake said as he looked over into the forest, "What did you find in there?"

"This one was caught in a park, right?"

"You watched the news, right?"

"Yeah, it has long feathers on its head, four right?"

"I don't know, as soon as we left it in the pen it vanished, and disappeared into the forest," He shrugged, "If it was in the news, you would have seen it."

Alex shadowed Jake and Julie for a day or so until an evening when they began talking about Entities. They sat around a table as the light in the forest dimmed, eating dinner, "Julie, this is good, thank you," Alex spoke.

"I like cooking, so I cook for us, and most of the time for it as well."

"Alex, have you ever been in contact with Entities?"

"Why?"

"Just asking, I was in contact with one, Entity A978, the killer entity."

"Holy hell, really?" He pulled up his sleeve and revealed large scar, "What happened?"

"I killed it," He shrugged, "I don't know how, that scar on my arm is only one of mine."

"He has many more, his back and sides."

"Oh."

"I have been in contact with one too, but friendlier, Entity B678, the king entity, it is essentially a teddy bear, but if it gets angry, it could crush you with a single finger."

"When was that?"

"When I was, what, 7 or 8?"

"You kept him as a pet."

"I did."

"I have been in contact with an entity, a while ago, no clue which one it was," He began, "It was in a park, and had long feathers on its head, four of them, all colored, it was larger than I was and could camouflage."

"You are making that up, right?"

"No, that specimen, I think is the entity I was in contact with."

"Holy hell, Alex, what did it do to you?"

"Nothing, I took care of it."

"You what?"

"You want me to show you?"

"Yeah, that would be amazing, if you could, you want to do that now?"

"Maybe," He said getting up from his seat, "How do I get into the pen?"

"Follow," Julie said as Jake grabbed a rifle. Alex stopped and pointed at the gun, "Tranquilizer, not real rounds, Jake wouldn't want to kill it."

"Yeah, I hope so."

"Don't worry man, I won't try to kill it."