Chapter 3: Subject 003: Another Promise Broken
I didn't remember much. My body was sore, and it only made it worse by laying in a hard bed. The smell of ammonia flared up my nostrils and the gentle beeping filled my ears.
As I began to slowly move my left hand, I let out a crackly, sharp, slow groan. Sharp pain had attacked part of my wrist. I think it was fractured.
I slowly opened my eyes and kept them open a little, but just enough to see my surroundings. There were bandage wraps around my wrist and a little bit of my hand. So maybe my wrist was fractured.
"Your awake," A female voice muttered as she strolled into the room. "Your in rather good shape after what happened." The woman came closer. "How do you feel?"
I couldn't answer that. Even though I tried to, nothing would come out. It honestly felt like I had been rammed by a semi-truck. Not that I knew what that was, but it sounded large to me, by the sound of those words.
"Do you remember anything?" The Indian lady asked, calmness with a hint of kindness in her tone of voice.
I slowly sat up, and it took me a little bit for me to respond with movement. I nodded, unable to fully say what I did remember; A Test Subject from SL1, my unit, from another group, attacked me some time on my way back to my group's resting area. It happened in front of Dr. Frentz and my group. My group was coming out of our resting area to head to the mess hall for morning meal.
The Test Subject seemed to be older than I was. He slammed him against the wall and tried to stab me in my neck with something sharp. When the guards got hold of him after Dr. Frentz yelled for them, the Test Subject ended up stabbing me. Left side of my chest area, near my collar bones.
The blade was just a piece of steal from the wall. It only bended when it hit my skin. It barley did any damage. Just a few cuts, and blood, but it pissed off Dr. Frentz. Bruises added.
I was hopping that angry Test Subject didn't get himself put down... or killed.
I stared down at the thin, white, blanket that covered the lower half of my body. The Indian Scientist-Doctor pulled an eye scanner from one of her pockets and placed it in front of my eyes.
"Don't blink." She softly ordered, "I'm scanning your eyes to see if nothing in that area was damaged." She pressed a button, and a weird sound played. It only took a few seconds to almost be blinded by a blueish greenish light that flashed.
Just then, Dr. Frentz came through the door.
When I looked in his direction, he was quickly putting something in one of his pockets. It was almost like he didn't want me to see it. Just by how he seemed he wanted to quickly put it away. Hide it from me, or whoever. As almost if it was for me...
"Nothing was damaged, sir" The lady next to me reported to the Head Scientist-Doctor.
"Right," He responded, "The back of his head hit the wall. I was worried something might of gotten damaged, from how hard he hit the wall." Wryness showed very little on his face, but there seemed to be little to no emotion in his eyes.
"Just me and her, thank you." He calmly ordered.
The Indian Scientist-Doctor nodded, and she walked passed him, dropping the eye scanner into her pocket. I watched her walk out.
I felt sore to the core, and I felt exhausted. I sat back, pulling my right arm over my lap. I looked up at Dr. Frentz, just wanting to tell him that I wanted to sleep.. but I knew I couldn't.
"I don't have long here, so I'll make this quick," He began.
I had to admit, I wanted him to stay. I wanted to wake up to him being there. He was... the only person I had.
"Your to stay here over night. Tomorrow you are to be sent back to the unit." He explained, "Don't go anywhere else. Not even the nearby labs. Do you understand?"
I quickly nodded.
"This time, I am promising to come check on you." He said, "I don't have as much work as I did last time."
I responded with a nod.
"Rest up, and I'll be back." And at that, he walked to the door without saying anything else.. but just before he went out, he looked back at me.
I looked back at him.
It seemed like he was looking for something, but he was only looking at me. I felt a little confused. I was fixing to ask him what was wrong by using a gesture, but he went out before I couldn't.
A lady woke me up, hours or so later.
I looked up at the lady. It was the same one from before. It was the Indian Scientist-Doctor.
She helped me sit up, pressing one of the buttons on the monitor behind the bed. After she let off the button, she started to speak.
"Dr. Frentz wants me to take you back to the unit."
Immediately, I became confused. He told me he would be here for me. I looked up at the lady, trying not to show any sign of sadness.
She didn't say anything as I moved my legs off the bed. I let the blanket fall to my side, and left it alone.
I looked down, thinking about why Dr. Frentz wasn't here and what sort of work he could of had better to do than at least check on me.
"You don't look well," She pointed out.
All I did was nod.
"We can wait longer, but Dr. Frentz will get angry if he finds you nowhere on the unit." She didn't sound desperate, but I could tell she certainly didn't like getting in trouble. Especially with the Head Scientist-Doctor.
My eyes trailed up her arm. I didn't have a good look at her before, but now that I do, she looked familiar. She had raven black hair that was pinned up into a bun, that seemed barley noticeable. Brown eyes, there was nothing else to say about her other than what she was wearing; A dark pink dress shirt, blouse, or whatever, not tie, greyish dress pants, black flats, and a white long lab coat. She was holding a clipboard in both hands.
I seen her outside the growth tank, I was kept in for 12 years. I wasn't supposed to wake up and see things until it was by time to come out.
I got up and started for the door. The lady followed me out of the room.
The hallway wasn't very busy, but there were staff and Scientist-Doctors here and there. Some were helping other Test Subjects walk, or taking them down the hallway in a bed for surgery or whatever. There were some guards standing against their walks here and here, acting like they were minding their own business. In truth, it was their jobs to eavesdrop on conversations and report them to their boss, who was of course, the Head Scientist-Doctor. I certainly didn't pay any attention to them after the first look at them.
When we got to the end of the hallway to wait for a guard to open the doors to let us out, I shivered under my gown. The lady above me noticed this and said, "Cold, are you?"
I nodded.
"Well, when I get you back to the unit, you can climb under your covers." She promised with a little reassuring smile, "I'll let the staff and guards there to leave you be until lunch."
This actually made me a little happy. I definitely knew where I was going for a few hours; my secret place. I'd have to have a plan to get there first.
I giggled on the inside. As much as I wanted to giggle on the outside, it would of been suspicious. Maybe. Probably.
After the heavy set guard pressed a button, the door in front of us slid apart. We went down into another hallway. At the other end of that hallway, was the main lobby.
The Indian Scientist-Doctor stopped and looked back at me. "What's wrong?"
It took me a bit the answer her, because I was trying to speak.
She waited patiently for me. She didn't know what I was doing, but she was waiting on my to look up at her. She thought I was trying to form a gesture. She knew I couldn't speak very well.
"Na...bi..." I gently screeched out.
She seemed a little surprised. "Yes, that is my name." She couldn't believe what she just heard. Her name, or in this case, her last name. She gave me a nod before I looked up at her.
"Come on,"She gently ordered, waving her right arm for me to come along.
I proceeded forward, and before we went into the elevator to leave the hospital floor, she went up to the reception desk to let them know we were going out.
After we got into the elevator, I watched her press a few buttons and I... was memorizing them. I don't know if I was doing it willingly or not, but it just remained in my head. Clear as day. The door closed and it only took us a few moments for us to reached SL1.
She took me back to the unit. It wasn't the way Dr. Frentz and I came in when he first took me down here. It was a different way.It was almost as if the hallways of SL1 were alive, and they were changed paths every now and then.
I went into the resting area. The kids on my unit looked up at me. No one said anything. Some just watched me walk to my bed. Others looked away. Were they not supposed to talk about what happened to me this morning?
Dr. Nabi waited outside, watching me, and making sure I got to my bed safely.
After I did, I looked back at her. She gave me a nod just before walking away.
The doors closed with a mechanical sound and I climbed under my covers.
I slept for a few hours. It was a few minutes before lunch, and I was determined to get to my secret area after my group left for the middle meal.
"You doing okay?" I heard an Asian male voice near me.
I took the covers away from my eyes and looked at the male in the bed next to mine. It was him who had asked me that. Skyler.
I didn't sit up. I just nodded. I made sure he saw it.
"I was told you couldn't speak, but you answered last time... um... the first time we had a meal together with the group."
I shrugged.
"Can you speak?"
I moved my left arm out from under my covers, gently, and made a hand gesture. I tilted my hand both sides in a motion.
He already knew what that meant. He watched me move my arm back under my blankets.
"How's the spine?" He joked a little bit.
I moved my left hand back out from the covers and gave him a a thumbs up. The I moved it back under.
"You remember my name, yes?"
I nodded.
"Skyler." He said, just before the blue lights on the double doors at the other end of the room blinked. "I don't know if I'm allowed to tell anyone this, but I'm a Cancer Test Subject."
I didn't know what Cancer was, but it sounded serious.
The doors opened and a staff and two guards came into the room. "Okay, lunch time. All of you get up. 7295 stays here."
Before Skyler got up to get in line, he said to me "The Scientists say I got Lymphoma. They want to have surgery on me, to cut it out, in two weeks or so."
I closed my eyes, not sure what to say. Somewhere inside, I knew Skyler was dealing with a problem with whatever people doing tests on him. Maybe I wasn't the only person having a problem, or maybe I was.
But... Skyler seemed scared, and saddened by being a Cancer Test Subject.
When will this battle ever end?
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