We all took a few moments of silence for the old woman. None of us really liked her, but she did take care of us for the most part. We had lived in that house for several years.
Ronnie broke that silence, “We’ll say a prayer when we get out of here, but for now we need to find out what is going on.” He pulled himself up with the bars. “LET’S GET THIS OVER WITH!” he yelled into one of the cameras.
As if on cue, the door leading out of the room clicked loudly.
Ronnie took a few steps back. Kenny stood and helped Sandy to her feet.
“I think someone heard you.” I joined the others.
We waited for the door to open. Three men entered the room. Two burly men wearing armor and combat head gear came in first.
The third man was normal sized, much smaller than the first two. He wore a lab coat, had slicked back shiny black hair, and glasses that were almost invisible to the naked eye. He looked older and he had an almost trustable face.
We didn’t trust him.
He walked to the bars and looked us up and down like zoo animals. I felt over whelming disgust with the way that he looked at me.
“Who are you?” I asked as his eyes returned to me for a second time.
The man in the lab coat sighed and scratched his forehead, “My name is Doctor Cid. I am your mentor.”
“What do you mean mentor?”
“It means that while you’re here you are my responsibility.”
“What are you talking about?” Ronnie took a step towards the dividing wall.
“Ah, thank you Mr. Ayers for volunteering to be the first one to find out.” He pointed to Ronnie, “Take him.”
Dr. Cid took one last look at all of us, turned, and left the room.
The two guards presented their thumbs for a scan at the door that crossed into our side of the room. The lock clicked.
The first guard dropped his rifle and pulled out a pistol. He aimed it at me.
The second guard entered the cell. He grabbed Ronnie, who didn’t fight.
“Whatever happens…” but he stopped.
The guard directed Ronnie out of the room.
I yelled in frustration.
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”
“Grace calm down!” Kenny said through his teeth.
“Calm down?” I shook my head and paced around the cell, “They just took Ronnie and you want me to calm down!”
“I want you to be rational. What are you going to accomplish by throwing a temper tantrum?” He embraced Sandy.
I dropped to one of the benches and hugged my knees.
We sat in silence, and waited for what was going to happen next. I laid down on the bench and covered my face with my arm. I tried to clear my head. I tried not to think about all of the horror movies that I had watched, and what they could possibly be doing to Ronnie at that moment.
I could hear whispers between Kenny and Sandy. Mostly he was trying to calm her down. She was freaked out about what was going on and my outburst didn’t help things.
The silence was broken suddenly by the pain filled yells of Ronnie. The worst most gut wrenching screaming that I had ever heard in my life issued from the walls themselves. I had never heard him yell let alone scream like he was being gutted.
The screaming went on and on for what seemed like forever.
Sandy sobbed into Kenny’s shoulder and he looked horrified. They both looked up to Ronnie as a big brother, a protector.
Just as I did.
Chapter 4: Injection
Ronnie’s screams eventually stopped. I began to pace the room; I knew that they would be in shortly to get their next victim.
“Whenever they comeback, don’t say anything. The both of you just sit there and shut up.” I knelt down in front of Kenny and Sandy.
The door clicked.
I stood and watched as Dr. Cid and the two guards came through the door.
“Take the girl next, the red head.”
Both guards drew their pistols and shot darts into Kenny and Sandy. They both fell to the floor.
“Why are you doing this?”
The cell door swung open and one of the guards came after me. I decided that I wasn’t going to go without a fight. I threw my left fist at the guards face. When my fingers made contact, I immediately felt my bones shatter.
I screamed.
He barely even moved.
He grabbed my shoulder and pushed me out of the cell. The other guard locked the cell door. They pushed me out into the hallway.
I cradled my hand.
“What are you going to do with me?” I was directed down the overly white hallways. Bright florescent lights lined both sides of the hallway; burning my eyes.
No one said anything. One of the guards pushed me in the back with his rifle. I stumbled and hit the wall. I pushed myself back up and kept walking.
We stopped at a large round door. Dr. Cid slid a keycard, presented his thumb for a scan, and presented his retina for a second scan. The door split down the center, and slid into the walls on either side.
They pushed me into the room.
Several machines lined the walls around the room and in the dead center was an operating table. A half dozen other doctors rushed around the room taking readings from all of the equipment.
“Lay down.” Dr. Cid pointed to the table.
“No.” I kept as calm as I could, holding my ground.
He snapped his fingers. One of the guards wrapped his fingers around my throat, and picked me up off the ground. He dropped me on the table.
The doctors strapped me down to the table. I didn’t fight, I could hardly breathe.
“Things are going to be so much easier if you don’t fight.” Dr. Cid typed on a tablet.
“Piss off.” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“Why do you insist on fighting?”
“Oh I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the screaming from Ronnie.” I coughed and fought at the bindings.
A nurse pulled up my sleeve, and rubbed my skin with an alcohol pad. She filled a syringe with a red liquid and made sure the needle worked. She pushed the needle into my skin and injected the liquid into my vein.
“What is that? What are you doing to me?” I demanded.
She pulled the needle out and turned away ignoring my questions. She picked up another vial, a new needle, and injected a blue liquid into my neck. She pulled the needle out and set it on the table.
The pain in my hand began to subside.
“Alright, let’s move her into stage one.”
Two doctors rolled a machine to the top of the table and locked it into place. They took two needles and pressed them into my arms. Another doctor moved in and pulled tubing from the machine and snapped them onto the freshly inserted the needles.
“Ready for fusion.” The doctor said.
The machine began to hum loudly; blue light shown from behind my head. Dark red liquid flowed through the right tube, and a dark green liquid moved through the left. They both entered my skin at the same moment.
I didn’t feel anything at first but that didn’t last. My blood began to boil. I shrieked in pain as more and more of the foreign chemical was pumped into my body. I thrashed against my bindings and screamed as my skin burned.
“What are you doing to me?” I yelled in between screams.
“Grace dear, we are making you better.” Dr. Cid smiled.
I yelled, I screamed, I cried.
I wanted to tear the flesh from my bones.
Darkness began to push in around the edge of my mind and I was happy to let it come. I laid my head back and closed my eyes.
“Sorry, but we can’t let you go to sleep just yet.” Dr. Cid pressed a button on his tablet. A jolt of electricity came through the table and in to my body.
My eyes burst open and I screamed again.