The Twenty Five Percent Rayanna

Am I dead?

                Nothing but darkness and silence, surround me. This must be what it feels like to die. All alone. No one else is around. Just darkness and silence. I've never been the religious type but now I wish I was. Maybe if I had some kind of god to believe in, I wouldn't be in such a terrible place. Is this where you go when you don't practice a religion of any kind? Despair washes over me like waves. But wait, if I am dead, where is Wolfe? Did he abandon me to die, alone? Or are the Ghemin not merciful enough to kill him, yet? Are they torturing him? Wolfe! Where are you? Where am I, for that matter? Won't someone please come and get me out of this darkness? Won't someone please come and rescue me?

              Suddenly I can hear voices cutting through the darkness and pulling me towards a small circle of light. The light grows larger and larger until my eyes open. I can feel my head is still strapped down to a table. I am facing the ceiling, again. I can't see much but I can hear everything.

              "I need you to cut, here, here, and here." a male voice says.

              "What are we going to do to this one?" another male asks.

              I can hear the clinking of metal on metal and suddenly I feel a sharp pain in the vicinity of my stomach. My eyes widen in horror, and I scream in pain, only no sound comes out. I'm not even sure if my mouth opens. I seem to be in some sort of twilight trance. The state you find yourself in when you aren't fully asleep, but you aren't fully awake, either. But this is no dream or if it is, it's a nightmare.

              "I was thinking intellect. If we can make the human race smarter, maybe we can find a way to fix the planet." says the first voice.

                "What about self-healing? Or maybe quick healing?" the second voice asks. "If humans could quickly heal their selves, maybe they could survive the planet."

              I hear beeping sounds that pick up in pace until they seem to be making one long beeping sound. The voices start to sound far away as if the owners were in another room. At the same time, my vision starts to blur, and it gets hard to see.

          "Blood pressure is dropping. What did you hit?" the first voice asks.

           "Nothing, I swear. I don't know what's happening."

             "We are going to lose her if we can't figure it out."

              A blurry face appears above mine, I blink rapidly trying to see but the face remains blurred almost as if I had something in my eyes. I try to speak but no sound comes out. Help me, please! I can feel an immense amount of pain. Just let me go, I will happily forgive and forget everything. Or if you would rather, just shoot me and let me die quickly. This is horrible. Please just put me out of my misery.

           "We have a problem, sir." he says. "she's awake."

             "Up the dose. She must be of hearty stock, that's a good sign for us. Means the changes should work."

               Ahhh! Help me! Seriously, you need to stop! I've never been in such pain in my entire lifetime. Not even the time I broke my arm when I was seven.

              The Ghemin above me places a small white cloth over my eyes.

              Why did you do that? That's not helping anything! I can still feel the blade biting into my skin.

               "That is a really good point."

                "Sir?"

               "The quick healing ability. Let's try the one, and if it goes well, if her body holds out, we can add the second. How does that sound?" the first one says.