The Twenty Five Percent Rayanna

Dead

      "Janice? What did they do to you?" I ask as my heart starts hammering in my chest.

     "Is that... Is that... Is she crying... blood?" Carina whispers, her face paling as she looks over at Janice.

      "Rayanna. Please. Help me." Janice cries.

       "I... I... I can't. I'm sorry." I say, shaking my head, even though I know she can't see me. I back away from her all the way to my bed, and Corina follows me.

      "What did they do to her?" she whispers.

        "I don't know." I whisper as well. There's really no good reason we are whispering, as we were talking normally, before. No good reason except we are terrified of Janice. Of her trying to make her way over to us, of her freaky eyes. Poor thing, I know it's not her fault she looks like she does. But it's a nice reminder that the Ghemin aren't just throwing us a slumber party, they are experimenting on us. "I wonder how everyone else is doing? Should we check on them?"

       "Can you handle that freakiness, again?" Carina asks. "Because I'm not sure that I can."

         "How about if we don't wake them? Maybe just check to see if they are breathing? Count how many people are in here? See if we know anyone else? I don't know about you, but I really didn't pay attention to who marched into the Lab with us. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself. And it might be nice to have company for however long they keep us locked up."

       "Yeah, I was too busy feeling sorry for myself as well. Okay. Let's do it, but you go first."

        "Why do I have to go first?" I ask, appalled at the suggestion.

       "Because it was your idea," she says.

        "Fine. But when the next terrible idea comes up, like escaping or something, you are going first."

        "Deal."

          I take a deep breath, swallow, exhale, and then start walking towards the nearest occupied bed, farthest away from Janice. We walk through the rows of beds; stopping to count the occupants, check for breathing, blood, and to see if we recognize anyone. Some of the women looked perfectly normal, and some seem to have oozing wounds. There's the stringy-haired girl from earlier, I watch carefully and see her chest rising and falling. So she's good. When we get to the last girl, the one closest to Janice, we do a quick check and zoom back to the other side of the room, going back the way we came.

       Far as we could tell, there is eight of us in this room, and everyone appears to be alive. Neither one of us recognize anyone but Janice. I'd seen the stringy-haired girl from my cell, but I don't actually know her, personally. I did notice that all of the other women appear to be older than me. Odd how the lotto works, sometimes, there are more young people, sometimes there are more older ones, and sometimes there is an even mix.

         "So, what do you think about all of this?" Carina asks as we make it back to our beds. We sit side by side on my bed and face the door.

       "I think..." I am interrupted by three Ghemin coming in.

         Two of them are wearing white metal suits and the other is wearing the standard grey suit. The one in grey stands in front of the door, with his gun held up, across his chest. While the other two, who are wearing white, walk around the room checking on everyone. Stopping to check for life signs and to inspect incisions. We silently watch as they make their way towards Janice. I hold my breath, waiting to see what happens. They stare down at her a moment and then say something in that strange language of theirs. They must have noticed the dried blood on her face. When they reach out to pull the blanket down and check her incisions, she starts to moan again.

      "Rayanna, is that you, again? Please help me! I can't see!" Janice cries out.

       The Ghemin talk in their strange language, again, and one of them lays a hand on Janice's forehead. She sits up, screams, throws up blood all over both of the white Ghemin suits, falls back into her bed, and then is still.

       "Is she?" Carina whispers to me. Her eyes are widened in horror, and she covers her mouth with her hands.

       "Dead? Yeah, I'm pretty sure she is." I whisper. I'm sure my face reflects the same horror as Carina's.

       I watch as the two Ghemin pick up Janice's bed and carry it out the door, her arm falls and hangs off the side of the bed. I shut my eyes tight, not really wanting the sight of her dead body to haunt my dreams.

        "Lay back and hold still." a voice says.

        I jump, startled, and open my eyes. In front of me stands a Ghemin in a clean white metal suit. How long was I sitting here with my eyes closed?

       "Lay back and hold still. Now." The Ghemin demands.

          I obediently lay back, and the Ghemin lifts my gown and checks my stomach, gently pressing on an incision. I wince but don't make a sound, I'm terrified I will end up just like Janice, dead. I don't know what they did to her, but she was alive before he touched her head. Did he electrocute her or something? He doesn't even say anything, just lays the gown back down and moves over to Carina's bed.

       A few minutes later a Ghemin soldier in grey brings a food tray to me and to Carina. Looks like some kind of bird, a starch, and vegetables, plus a bottle of water. Apparently, it's been a while since I ate, because my stomach is growling at the sight of food. How long have I been here? A few hours? A whole day? I guess it's a good sign that they are feeding us. I don't think they would feed someone they planned on killing. Unless of course they are feeding us so that our strength holds out and they can do more crazy experiments on us. I eat my food and a soldier comes back to collect the empty tray.

        "Bed." the soldier says before leaving. And then he does the scariest thing possible, he turns the lights off, leaving us in total darkness.

        I lay in my bed, staring into the inky blackness. It's so dark I can't even see my hand in front of my face. I try to sleep but all I can picture is Janice and the blood from her eyes. Great. I'll probably never sleep again.