The Preparation

It was 8 years ago that Dr Paul Carlisle noticed that his only son, Hunter was like him in many ways.

"I remember quite well both Hunter and Kayleigh sitting in the grass in the park," Paul reminisced. "I was standing with Trish observing them. Their smiles... it made us smile." He continued as he leant onto his hands, resting his elbows upon his dark wooden oak desk before him. Dr Liz Woodward stood next to his desk smiling sweetly whilst she listened closely. Paul closed his eyes and sighed.

"It looked as if he was trying to pick something up from the grass. From where I and Trish were standing we couldn't see exactly what it was,"

Liz placed her hands upon the desk. She leaned towards Paul.

"What was it?" She asked as she took a step forward to show interest. Paul smiled as he stood up from his desk lifting himself slowly from his chair. He walked around his desk, the opposite side to Liz.

"It was a black swallowtail caterpillar. They're uncommon to find." He sighed as he rested his hand upon his desk.

Suddenly, both were startled by the sound of the office door slamming open, Paul and Liz's eyes shot over to the door. Standing there was Hunter Carlisle, Paul's son. He stood in the doorway with a grin upon his face, his shoulder-length, golden, curly hair swept over to the left. Pulled tightly to his chest Hunter held a brown card folder that read "CONFIDENTIAL" in red.

"We've tracked it!" He yelled.

Paul wandered over to Hunter holding his hand out. Hunter handed his father the folder. As he turned his back to Hunter, Liz walked towards him. She leaned over Paul's shoulder looking at the front page information based on the new Test Subject. She glanced over to Hunter who was in the middle of tying his hair back into a hair tie.

"Why is the Subjects threat level unknown?" Liz questioned as she looked back down to the folder along with Paul. Hunter sighed and dragged his feet towards them. He looked over his father's other shoulder whilst holding his hands behind his back. He tightened his lips as he scanned through the first page.

"Sometimes it cannot be assessed from footage only." He mumbled. "They can look harmless but when approached by humans they then reveal their true threat levels." He continued.

Liz nodded and stepped away from Paul. Paul slowly shook his head as he gently closed the folder. He looked up at his son Hunter with a concerned look. Hunter held his hand out.

"More preparation is needed before the go-ahead for this mission." Paul started as he placed the folder into Hunter's hand. "Not knowing the threat level of a Test Subject could be fatal, not just to you, but your team too." He continued.

Hunter placed the folder under his arm, then without saying a word he turned his back to Paul and Liz. He rapidly walked out of the office door, slamming the door behind him as he left. Paul and Liz turned to each other gobsmacked based upon Hunter's reaction. It wasn't like him to react the way he did.

Hunter continued through the corridors with his head down, ignoring the people around him. People let on to Hunter as he passed them but he continued to walk past them like they didn't exist. Hunter reached the lab where Dr Amber Mills and Dr Kobe Lawless were working. As soon as he walked into the room, he threw his folder onto the table nearby the door. He then proceeded to get his white coat from the coat hanger.

"Looks like someone has woken up on the wrong side of the bed..." Kobe joked as Hunter looked into the microscope next to him whilst blindly putting his white coat on.

"If you're going to be a dick don't speak to me." Hunter growled as he stood upright from the microscope and walked away.

Kobe looked to Amber, she shrugged. Hunter threw his weight down onto the chair. He spun around to the desk as he sat down.

"What's happened?" Amber asked as she slowly approached Hunter by the computer. Hunter continued typing on the system files for the Test Subjects.

"You can't go on ignoring us, Hunter." Amber said as she pulled another chair from nearby.

"It's about Test Subject-666. My father thinks I need to look into it more before containing it." Hunter mumbled as he typed.

Amber looked back to Kobe. Kobe smirked as he turned to work on Test Subject samples at the desk. Amber sighed and shook her head. She pushed herself away from the computer desk and rolled over towards Kobe. Kobe was carefully placing the samples into their holding rack. Amber leaned close to him.

"What Daddy says, goes I guess?"

"Well, he is one of the main bosses here..." Kobe scoffed as he placed another sample into the rack. Amber looked over to Hunter who was looking more and more frustrated as he continued on the system. She stood from the chair then turned it to Hunter's direction. Slowly she rolled the chair back next to him.

"I'll not force you to talk whilst you're pissed but just know... We're a team here." Amber said as she pushed the chair under the desk next to Hunter. Hunter glanced to Amber then concentrated his eyes back upon the computer screen.

Amber placed her hand upon Kobe's shoulder as she passed him. Gently allowing it to slip from his shoulder as she wondered over to the other testing desk.

"Leave him to cool down." She murmured.

"That was my plan..." Kobe replied as he glanced over to Hunter working on the computer. "Anyone would be stupid to try and talk to him like this now."