Fifteen

I watched my blood fill the fat syringe. I felt the device's pull as I started to feel drowsy as the crimson liquid went up its barrel. After the tourniquet was untied from my arm, the person in a very weird, white suit left without a word. And then, I was left. I knew long before that these people didn't treat me like them—like a human being—instead I was regarded like an object that wouldn't feel basically anything. The new place was no different from the old one, it was just that there were others here, and by that I meant other experimental subjects. I was put in a large room with nothing but a bed in the middle of it. The absence of other furniture to relieve myself reminded me that I was not really what I appeared to be or how I was treated. It had been so long and I gather it had been many years since I last saw Elliot. I always wondered what happened to him before they put me to sleep—or when I was sane. Time was unknown because this place lacked any kind of device that told it, whether it was night or day, only those people studying us would know. Hah, studying, I knew that now. And as a pioneer subject, I was often called—more like wheeled-in strapped to a metal table—to participate in specimen gathering. We were made to be studied at with the possibility of being sold—like human toys. Oh right, I wasn't really a human. "Why is her liver always incompatible with the others?" One of the people in white asked the other one. A woman. "I know, right?" Her companion was a man and they were standing at the foot of the bed I was bound to. "They just," He made a gesturing motion with his hands. "die." They continued to talk but I muffled their voices in my head. For some reason, I couldn't use my ability in this place—if I wasn't asked for it—whenever I wanted to. I could've easily burned these chains with my bare hands. And burned these buildings along with these cruel people. If I could just... I directed my sight to the large lamp above me. I was brought here again. Since my transfer, there was not a moment that I wasn't wheeled in this room. Last time they cut a part of my liver to attach it to someone else and I guess that was what they were talking about. I frowned when they wheeled another bed beside me, it was empty. Who will lay in it next? The question in my head was answered the second a boy entered. He was small, that the white gown he was wearing swallowed him. He looked like one of those in the conditioning—those that I tend to be friends with because I either saved them from being bullied or approached them because they were alone. "Nathan, this is Subject Thirty-Five," His companion gestured my person, who was very naked and bound on the table. Wide red eyes stared back at me and they were swollen as if he cried for a long time. "Get on the bed," commanded the person in white laboratory coat beside this Nathan boy. He complied and climbed the bed taller than him with his might, and without being instructed, he lied on it. Does he know what was about to happen? Does he know they were about to open him up—or probably just me—and alter his inside make-ups? "Sit tight, all will be done in a jiffy." If that sounded convincing to them enough to put a kid at ease, then for me it sounded really creepy. "All set." One said and they all went out, leaving me with the child beside me. When I looked at this Nathan kid, I was bewildered with his blank face. No fear, no any kind of emotion, he was just there staring above. Did they give him some kind of a drug to suppress emotions? The first to return peered down at me, donned with one of those gauzy caps, and goggles and mask, this time I have no idea if it was a female or a male, but the eyes that stared down at me were scary. It was as if it could see my insides and it just loved to see my insides. Sight still fixated on me, I saw him pick up the scalpel on the apparatus table and unceremoniously sliced my abdomen. It hurt a-motherfucking-lot! Though I've been through it a gazzillion times, the pain that came with being opened without a goddamn anaesthesia never went away. I thrashed hoping to stop him or her of what the fuck this person was doing. And just like the other times I did this, I was held down by so many hands. Black spots obscured my vision and I didn't even know if I was still screaming because I couldn't hear myself anymore. I heard it, even through the mask, I heard it. The small laugh that sounded like this motherfucker was enjoying itself. This fucking psycho! One by one people in white began joining the crazy person that was still in the process of cutting me open, soon after, there was a synchronized commotion. I didn't know what happened next, I blacked out because of the severe pain. ●●●●● I woke up but I couldn't see. Did they cover my eyes? "BioGenetion Merge Subject Thirty-Five, code number 9401902604 status: Conscious" Though still disoriented and panicked, I understood the robotic voice. "Blood pressure: Above normal" The normal procedure after every operation. Check if I was alright and, or if anything severed would grow back. What did they take this time? "Cranial pressure: Stable." "Cerebrospinal Fluid: Normal" "No infections detected." "Body flora at normal population." "Muscles Status: Normal" This will take some time. "Bone Status: Normal" "Checking for miscellaneous." "Organ functions at one hundred percent except subjected to gathering." "Skin regeneration: at ninety percent speed" "Liver function at eighty-eight percent." Another chunk of liver gone. "Cornea function at zero percent." That was new, they never cared for anything other than my blood and liver before. So now, I was presently blind. Great. The robotic voice continued to spout my body reports but I stopped listening. I knew all of it would be normal and working just fine, I just needed to know what part of me was taken away. It would be a little while before I start seeing things again. It was now clear to me that I would be hard to kill because of all the torture I was put through and being operated was only a bit of it. Electrocuted, sliced open, bombed, dismembered, burnt, poisoned, and pretty much anything that involved physical breaking. I got through all that and still living, so toast to me to surviving all those to reach my nineteenth. Happy birthday to me! More like, happy blind birthday to me. I kinda just say it was my birthday whenever I felt like it as I really didn't know the exact time that I was born—slash that, created. The kid I was with earlier grazed my mind. I wonder, what happened to him? I hope the operation failed or he died. As dark as it truly was, I didn't want another one like me who they could—or couldn't—make use of to destroy anything they pleased. "Hello?" What the f— My head twitched, surprised by the whispery voice not far from me. "Hello?" It was louder this time but it was shaky. "Anybody?" A kid's voice, could it be that Nathan kid's voice? "Nathan." I called to him calmly but my nerves were shaking. If he was alive then that meant his body didn't reject my organs that were transfered in him. "I can't see." He whimpered, probably on the verge of crying but he was trying to hold it in. "You're gonna be okay, kid." I consoled, but deep down I was hoping that he just died, at least they won't be able to put him in pain anymore. "Can you move?" I heard rustles and then silence. "No, it's painful." This time he cried. It was irritating, the usual silence I get after these procedures were better than hearing some child crying. "Stop crying or they'll shoot you in the foot and let you bleed for days." That shut him up. After a few minutes, he started talking again. "I thought they were gonna cure me so I went with them because that's what they said." And you were stupid enough to believe it. "BioGenetion Merge Subject Thirty-Five, code number 9401902604: Cornea at zero point zero one percent." "What was that?" We were probably a few feet apart. "That, is a lady you cannot ever see." Was I still naked? I didn't know, I couldn't feel anything from neck down. "How'd you get here?" He was silent. Okay. "BioGenetion Merge Subject Thirty-Five, code number 9401902604: Cornea at zero point zero three percent, Liver regenerating at ninety-one percent." "There was a program at my university about the possible reversing of genetic mutations. I submitted an application because I was desperate." Did I hear that right? "You're like six and you're in college? Some brain you must have." "I'm nineteen," He sounded annoyed. "I have a rare disease which prevented me from growing and stayed looking and sounding like a child. That was why I submitted my name, I couldn't take the bullying anymore." Hmm. "But did it even graze your thought that you might be taken into a suspicious lab and might be sliced open and close like a door?" Add the fact that somebody's organ might be installed in you without your consent, on top of that, while you're conscious with the lack of anaesthetics—but maybe it was just in my case. "There were presentations and data reported. The processes were explained thoroughly with bases and references, how could one not believe? I thought I was lucky when I got chosen and without so much as a thought I went with them. It was too late when I realized—" "BioGenetion Merge Subject Second Generation N-1, code number not existing: Cornea Function at one percent, Liver Function: Normal" We both halted. What, wasn't that too fast? As far as I knew foreign organs attached to a person take months for the body to accept and get use to it. If his body readily adjusted just mere hours after the operations then that meant... "When did you come in here?" "It was October and I just turned nineteen at that time. I was put in a room with no windows but it seemed like it was a really long time ago." "Did they give you anything, injected you anything?" I was getting agitated. "BioGenetion Merge Subject Thirty-Five, code number 9401902604: Heart Rate: Increasing" I was panicking once more, if they succeeded in altering his genes, then they could endlessly make his copies without a sweat. And what would the world become? "They would inject me with 'growth genes' as they called it—I think routinely—and then I would feel sleepy. I would find my body full of bruises the moment I wake up." Freaking hell. "Anything else, like feeling hot or extremely cold?" "No." There was a hiss, like a pressure of air, and then silent footsteps. I felt the thing I was lying on move. If I was correct, they put us in the observatory chamber, it was the room where they projected images when I was conditioned also known as, mind reprogram. It was not far from the room that I was always put in. "Hi, T." That voice. "Elliot?" Fuck, he was here! He finally found me. "Oh, T, please don't cry." I felt a brush on my left temple. "You're tearing up blood." Was he here to save me? "Can you get up?" "Nope, I just got stitched." The bed was moving faster. "You're not thinking of breaking me out in a bed, are you?" "Now that you mentioned it, it's not really a bad idea." I couldn't help but chuckle at his humor, but then stopped when I remembered Nathan. "There's another like me, Elliot. We must take him with us." The bed slowed down and then there was another hiss. "The kid that was with you?" "Yeah and he's not a kid." Another hiss. "What do you mean he's not a kid? I saw him, you're the one who's blind at the moment." "Are we in my room?" "Mmhm, don't worry I overrode their systems, Dorothy's no match to me, so you can talk and catch me up what has been going on with you this past eleven years." "You're alive." I whispered. The sensation from my neck down was staring to return in tingles. "Yes, I am, my friend." I felt cold hands hold mine. "I searched for you, I never stopped. Now, tell me." "They opened me up many, many, many times." Was this how it felt to confide to a parent? Because it felt warm and it was as if I was taking off heavy loads off my body bit by bit. "No news there but I'm still sorry you had to go through that. What else?" If I could move at the moment, I might've already smacked him in the head. "They succeeded in creating another one like me and I'm afraid, Elliot, that they would use him to do bad things." That was why we must get Nathan. Elliot stayed in the lab until I was fully recovered, skittering the security systems, and avoiding being seen. When I completely regained my sight, I was amazed at my friend's new appearance. He was breathtakingly beautiful in all possible perspective. "This is what I look like—at least what I think I look like." He said when he visited me. I was in awe. "Your eyes are violet!" It was what my own kept being pulled at, a very stark feature that was very noticeable. "Dude, they're amethyst. Okay, if he said so. "Look I can change face too." He showed me and it was disturbing when his face sort of distorted and in its place was another face looking very far from his previous one. "See you later, child." Elliot told me in his old man's voice and left again when he detected something that was headed in my room's direction. When go-time finally came, we got ready. Nathan's location was mapped out, surveillance was ready to be blocked, and I was vibrating with tension. "Wait for me here, I'm going to the kid first." He was not a kid, I wanted to repeat but nodded instead. I started to pace not long after his departure, different scenarios played in my head about the possibilities that they might get captured. And basing from my previous experiences with Elliot, it was likely to happen. Of how he could easily get captured and injured but recover faster and stronger was a mystery to me. They could be running on the hallways to here by now. There was a hiss at the entrance and I let go the breath I was unconsciously holding when I saw them appear. The glass door of the room I was in slid up and I ran towards them. Freedom was just a few distance away and we were going to get it. I was powerless in the facility because for some reason I couldn't use my ability, so, I relied on Elliot to get us through and hopefully out. It felt like hours and hours of us dodging and battling robotic guards. Those human that were so brave when it came to slicing us open when we were bound or loopy were nowhere in sight. Maybe cowering behind their monitors and waiting for their 'soldiers' to finish the job. In any case, I couldn't care less. "Last floor, Little T." None of us felt breathless nor weariness—well, I couldn't say the same for our companion. Elliot had taken Nathan on his back because his little steps weren't able to keep up with us and he was already wheezing by the time they got to me. When the giant-ass, metal door was forced open by my A.I. friend, the blast of wind that collided with us was what I could probably call a taste of freedom...and dusts and sand. "I don't get why they love nesting underground in deserts," Elliot adjusted Nathan, who grunted, and took a step out of the cynical enclosure of the building. "From the dry lands of Colorado to the fine sands of Abu Dhabi. I won't be surprised if they built a facility in Gobi desert or at Sahara." He continued to talk as we ran farther away. Elliot stopped and faced the direction of the lab. It was nowhere in sight as it was built underground and no structure was upright, it was all buried. He looked up and closed his eyes. "Are you waiting for them to catch up?" I asked, curious as to what he was doing. He hushed me and bobbed his head up and down. Even Nathan on his back was looking at him with curiosity. "Elliot, any time now." I urged. "What are you doing?" "Thunderstruck!" He shouted and along with it was an explosion. It was so massive that it shook the ground we were standing on. "We run as fast as we can, there will be a giant hole!" He yelled and started sprinting. "What the fuck, Elliot!" I shouted at him whilst running after him. "Don't swear, there's a kid!" Another explosion and I nearly toppled. "I'm not a kid, goddamnit!" Nathan yelled with his child-voice. A couple more explosions came after and even as far as we've reached, we still felt the rocking of the ground as the laboratory blasted. ●●●●● We kept moving and walked in silence with the constant complaining of our new companion. "I have to pee." Nathan informed. Elliot decided not to let him on his feet believing that he wouldn't be able to keep up in case the enemy finds us. "You just peed five minutes ago and you didn't even consume any fluid, kid." Elliot was still in his old-man face and voice. "I am not a kid, I'm already nineteen!" I f he could stomp his feet, he would've done it and it would've been cute. Nathan was in a white, short-sleeved, long-shirt with pants with the same color underneath. I was in a short-top, short enough to be an underwear because they needed to see how my wound removed the stitches and healed. Elliot let Nathan go to do his business, there were no trees or whatsoever so he just took a few steps away. "Your feet doesn't hurt?" My friend asked. "No." I eyed the vast land, we might still have a long way to go before reaching civilization. He removed his lab coat and handed it to me. "You don't wanna be stared at when we see people." I wore it and gave him thanks. Comparing my last memory of him, he seemed...more real? If that made sense. He looked like a Ken-Doll before with his waxy texture and rubbery smile but now, his movements were smooth and his skin and appearance looked identical to a human's. "What happened to you?" He gestured himself and turned. "This? I got better—technology got better." I saw Nathan walk towards us in my peripheral. "Nanotechnology was introduced not too long ago and I modified that to make nanomytes for myself." His face distorted and out came the amethyst-eyed face. "Let's go, talk more later." I told them. I went ahead leaving the two behind. We didn't have any particular direction in mind, just that it must be away from where we came and as far as possible. At the distance that I was, I still heard them arguing. "Uh-uh, get on my back, kid before I make you." "I can walk on my own." "Right, those sausage legs won't be able to help you get somewhere in case of emergency." I bit my lower lip to suppress a smile.