Experiment VII

Chapter Forty: Why?

"Ellie's going to be okay. " Gemma smiles warmly, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow.

     I breathe a sigh of relief. "She's as tough as nails that one."

     Gemma gives a small chuckle. "Yeah, you can say that again."

     I say after a brief pause, "Thank you."

"Well I can't take all the credit. Pretty sure you had something to do with it too, but you're welcome."

     Her sanguine expression takes a sour turn when her eyes drop downward. "What the actual hell, Axel?!" she shouts.

"Wh-" taken aback I peer down at what she is staring at. My eyes meet the blood-stained pipe protruding through my leg.

"You've just been walking around like this?!" she half-screams.

     I hesitate but eventually speak up for fear of fueling Gemma's wrath. "Yeah...? I just- didn't want to waste the medics time, not when there's people in way worse condition than me."

     Her anger seems somewhat lessened by this. "Unbelievable..." she groans. "Well come on then," she motions to the door. "...before you bleed out on the floor."

     The wooden door creaks loudly as she pulls it open and I hobble in.

     The room is dimly lit and an almost overpowering scent of blood mixed with alcohol lingers in the air. To say the place bears the appearance of a slaughterhouse would not be much of a stretch. A metal table stands in the centre of the room is drenched in blood, not to mention the spatter on the walls.

"Hold on a sec." Gemma rushes over to the table, grabbing a rugged cloth. She dips the cloth in alcohol before roughly wiping it over the table with large swirling motions.

"Right, up you get."

     With a sigh and a groan, I manage to drag myself up onto the table, not appreciating the sensation of cold metal against my skin, nor my body's painful protests at all the movement.

     Gemma fumbles around the room, grabbing huge wads of bandages and an assortment of medical tools that she tosses onto a tray. The hair on the back of my neck stands straight up at the sight of them and a shiver crawls down my spine.

"I'm going to need to take it out. Now, this is going to hurt...a lot. Of course it would hurt a lot less if you had of told me before we ran out of painkillers."

     Taking a gulp, I give a shaky nod, not taking my eyes off the surgical instruments lying on the metal tray beside me.

"Lie back," she says gently placing her hands on my shoulders and pushing back slightly. "Now, I'm going to count to three. Just close your eyes and try not to think about it."

     She gives a warm smile, which unsurprisingly does nothing to calm my nerves. I simply close my eyes and wait for the pain to start. Or rather, the worsening pain to continue.

"One..."

     Without warning, the pipe is suddenly torn clear of my flesh before Gemma reaches "two".

~*~

Three Days Later

     I switch my gaze from left to right, making certain that no one is nearby. My eyes follow Rychner as he steps out from one of the safehouse's many rooms. He locks the door behind him, then carefully slides the key back into his pocket before making his way back up the rickety stairs.

"No way you can get that without him noticing."

     I creep over as quietly as possible, given the floorboards squeaky and ancient state.

"Please don't hear this," I mumble under my breath as I grab ahold of the doorknob and give it a yank. The wood makes a loud crunch as the knob is ripped out of it.

     The overly-loud sound stops me in my tracks. My heart races as my eyes become glued to the stairs, hoping not to see Rychner coming back down them. Much to my surprise, he never comes.

     Letting out an exasperated sigh I finally step through the door after a few more painstakingly long seconds.

     Darkness almost completely overwhelms my vision, with the only source of light in the room being an extremely small window, which is of course barred.

"Back already?" an all-too-familiar voice calls out in the darkness.

     Now adjusted to the dim light, my eyes frantically dart around the small space in search of the voice's origin.

     Doctor Lopez saunters across her barren cell, wrapping her fingers around the iron bars.

"I already told you, I'm not going to give you those coordinates. You're wasting your time."

     My blood begins to boil just at the sight of her. I take a few deep breaths, clenching and unclenching my fists until they go numb as I step toward the dim beam of light.

     The doctor's facial expression shifts drastically as her eyes widen exponentially. Her face quickly reverts back to its normal state of blankness just as swiftly as it had changed in the first place.

"G7..." her voice drags off. "You're...alive."

"No thanks to you."

     Something almost resembling a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. "So...What do you want? And don't say, 'to kill you' because that much is obvious."

     Pausing, I choose my next words carefully. "I want to know why."

     She remains silent, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

     I fix my gaze down at my mutated arm. Where skin should be dark green scales stretch across my arm's entire surface, and shadowy talons jut out from my fingers.

"You turned us into...monsters," I manage to get out through gritted teeth.

"Don't be ridiculous," she scoffs. "We improved you. You just can't see it."

"Improved us?!" I stammer, not quite believing it. "You ruined my life! You took – everything and the worst part is, I can't even remember what I lost!" I shout, my voice starting to break.

     Lopez raises her voice, "Maybe if you could you'd be thanking us."

"Oh, I doubt that," I retort spitefully.

     She takes a step closer to the bars, closing most of the distance between us. "Umbra plucked you from your meaningless lives and turned you into something...remarkable. You were nothing before we took you. Nobodies, or at least, that's what we thought-"

     I cut her ramblings off. "Wait-what do you mean 'that's what we thought'?"

     A vacant look settles across her features as she steps back from the bars, releasing them.

     I cringe as the door suddenly swings open, banging off the wall forcefully as Rychner steps in.

"You got some explainin' to do, kid."

     I open my mouth to speak, but Doctor Lopez beats me to it.

"I'll give you the coordinates," she says abruptly.

     Obvious confusion clouds Rychner's features as his eyes flicker between me and Lopez. A few long moments pass before he says anything.

"What did you say to her?" he asks me.

     I shrug.

     He turns to Lopez, his eyes narrowing. "Why the sudden cooperation?"

"Do you want them or not?" she questions, a sinister smile playing on her lips.

"Uh..." I clear my throat. "What coordinates?"

"Umbra's main communications station."

A/N: Thanks for reading!

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