“And Doc, you can quit your squirming about, and don’t even think about stopping me! Not one single fucking word, you hear? I’ll be just fine once I’ve got all of this shit out of me. And since it’s what you’ve been working at for a couple months now, you should just sit there and fucking enjoy it—okay?
“Well, okay then….
“Sue was still jerking about on her table—or her operating table, as I now thought of it—and that wasn’t good enough for the aliens, who weren’t nearly finished with her. Down came another spindly instrument from the machine: this time a hypodermic of yellow liquid, which stabbed deeply, brutally into her belly. And on the screen I watched the stuff spread through her system.
“Then…she went totally crazy! Her body throbbed, vibrated, went into spasms. God only knows what they’d put into her, but if it was meant to quieten her down…well Christ, surely there were easier ways to knock someone out! Unless they didn’t give a damn. And in fact it was as simple as that: they really didn’t give a damn! But in the end, as a result of the hellish agony it was causing her, she did go under. And me, when Sue’s body went slack, I thanked God—even though I thought she must be dead—still I thanked Him that she wasn’t any longer suffering like that. But no, they didn’t want her dead, just quiet so they could get on with it. And when I saw how she was still alive, still breathing, and her heart fluttering but no longer threatening to burst, I thanked God again—just for a moment gave thanks—and in the next moment cursed Him! I cursed Him that He was allowing this to happen; cursed God and everything in God’s entire fucking universe!
“For now another tool descended on Sue from the machine. A hollow glass drill, it chewed through her skull and passed maybe a quarter-inch into the front of her brain, where it paused to vacuum up some clear liquid and a little grey tissue; which was when I threw up.
“But for all that I was sick I just couldn’t turn away; it was like I was hypnotized; I simply had to know! And I saw them take samples of Sue’s liver, her kidneys and lungs, even marrow from her bones; but never enough to kill her, not yet. And each time the machine bit into her, its tools would burn bright with some weird energy, cauterizing the wound. And my teeth were beginning to hurt, aching from the way I was grinding them. And I reckon it’s that, Doc—what they did to Sue and would later do to me—that brought on my problem with needles and sharp instruments. Can you b-blame me? Well can you, eh?
“But you know, as bad as I felt about Sue I was more scared for myself. I mean, she had been the first, but when would they start on me? What does that make me, some kind of lousy coward? Well let me tell you, Doc, while there isn’t a man in the world I would ever run away from, there isn’t anyone on any world who wouldn’t want to escape from the horror of the notion that he’d be next under that machine on one of those t-tables!
“Anyway, let me get on….
“Finally, dissolving Sue’s clamps, the bugs turned off the wall-screen, took their God-awful machine and samples and left. With the screen gone there was no way to know if Sue was living or dead. And then, mentally and physically exhausted—because Sue and me, we hadn’t had a bite to eat nor even a sip of water since we were taken—I fell asleep again…but on the floor and against the wall, not on my table! And though I nightmared, still I somehow managed to sleep—
“—Until I sensed movement and started awake!
“One of the bugs was just leaving, passing out through the wall as if it was mist. There was a bowl of pale blue liquid on the table, along with a carrot-like root with purple skin and a tuft of blue-green leaves. I took the smallest sip of the liquid and it was…well, water! The tuber had a bitter taste but it stayed down. After finishing off the tuber and drinking some of the water I went to look through the wall into Sue’s bubble. She just lay on her table, completely motionless. And still not knowing if she was alive or dead—full to the brim with horror and despair—once again I dropped off to sleep—
“—And again sensed movement!
“It was Sue, staggering here and there as she made her way over to the wall. I could scarcely believe she was on her feet! But as she reached the wall she just slid down it, went to her knees with her pale face and one shoulder leaning against it.
“‘Jim, they…they….’ Her voice was so weak and gasping, I had to put my ear to the wall in order to hear it. ‘They hurt me, Jim.’
“‘I know,’ I told her. ‘I saw it all. Oh God, I’m so sorry, kid! But look over there, on the floor there. The water is safe and that carrot thing is edible. You have to eat; you’ve got to survive, got to keep going, Sue.’ That’s what I told her, but I really don’t know why. It was bullshit, that’s all.
“She crawled away, went and ate, then curled herself into a small round ball under her table and went to sleep. And despite that I repeatedly told myself to stay awake and keep watch over her, finally I too fell asleep again. Maybe it was something in the water they’d given us, some kind of drug. But so what? Even if I had stayed awake, what then? I wasn’t able to help myself, let alone Sue….
“…There was movement! Starting awake, I saw that the b-b-bugs were back in Sue’s bubble room again. So was their torture machine, and the screen was back up on the wall. Oh, God! Oh my good God! I shouldn’t have cursed Him so! Because…because—
“—Because I could see it was going to be the same all over again—but I could never have foreseen that it was going to be even worse!
“The alien operating the remote was ogling the screen with his knobby crab eyes, and the hellish machine was letting down a vibrating tool toward Sue where she was clamped to her table. Awake, aware, she was much too weak to struggle or even scream, but it didn’t stop her from trying. Very faintly, I could hear the croaking sounds she made, the gurgling when her mouth dribbled foam and her panting blew bubbles in it.
“They hadn’t needed to nail her head down this time, so she was able to turn it, her eyes bulging as she watched the vibrating tool descending toward her shoulder. It was a cutting instrument of some kind, its sharp edge an almost invisible blur as it came down on her right arm an inch below where it joined her shoulder. And zzzzztttt, it was through her arm—I mean right through it—before the blood could even begin to spurt! But I saw the look on Sue’s face, the way her eyes popped out further yet, and knew that she couldn’t believe it any more than I did. It had to be a nightmare!
“Then the blood spurted, and we both knew it wasn’t a nightmare. And as they cauterized her stump Sue passed out, but this time I didn’t thank God because I’d tried it once and it hadn’t worked. And while I had no idea what would happen next, still I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to bear it.
“And I was right.
“By then I’d lost my voice…you yell and scream for long enough, loud enough, and that happens. And there I was kneeling at the wall, sobbing like a little kid, watching as they turned Sue face down and cut her again: her entire left leg this time, buttock and all right down to the gleaming pink bones. From the hip at the top to the coccyx at the bottom, then up round Sue’s bush and back to the hip, they’d cut her. And at a stroke—or more properly at a slice and a bloody scoop, but in any case as quickly as that—what had been beautiful was hideously ugly.