Lab Rats

Chapter 3

This chap's a lil rough but that's just how it be sometimes.

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None of us were special when we first arrived at the facility. For the first few years, the scientists just ran simple tests on us to assess our growth rates, any oddities specific to us, and determine what ability would fit us best, while we took classes. The older we got, the more individualized and intense the tests got, but it wasn't until about five years in that they began administering painful shots. I remember being alone in my room rereading one of our textbooks when the seal on my metal door released and three guards all dressed in the same black uniforms and face coverings came up, batons held across their chests. We stared at each other for a few seconds before anger flashed across the exposed part of the leader's face.

"Move!" he shouted. I jumped half out of my skin, but quickly leapt to my feet and followed them out my door.

They took me through the halls and I silently memorized our movements: 30 seconds forward, left turn, right turn, continue straight...

After a few minutes we arrived at a door and I followed the guards into another room. It was long but narrow, with hospital beds lining one of the long walls, each with a panel of monitors and a tall lamp with a metal hood and nothing covering the bulb pointing down at the head of the beds, and they were all separated from each other by curtains on portable stands. They were all open and I could see three of the other boys already laying in them, clad in only sterile white shorts. One of them tried raising his head to look at me as I came in, but his head quickly snapped back and I realized they were all bound to the beds. I wanted to ask if they were okay, but we all knew better than to talk to each other without permission when adults were around.

There was a group of seven people in white coats, but I couldn't distinguish which were doctors, scientists, or nurses. They were bent over a computer facing away from the door quietly discussing whatever was being displayed on its screen, but turned to look at me when one of the guards shoved me towards them. One of them handed me a pair of shorts that matched the other boys and told me to change. I made a quick survey of the room, but there was nowhere to go with privacy, so I changed there, face burning as they all watched me strip in front of them. Once finished, a guard grabbed my arm and practically dragged me to an empty bed. I didn't have time to even try to protest before I was lifted onto the bed, which I realized upon getting closer that it was nearly as tall as me. The guard strapped my hands and feet to the railing around the bed while a woman in a lab coat grabbed my head and held it up while another man slipped a harness around the top of it. She lowered my head against the bed and he secured it so I couldn't lift my head or turn it side to side. I was completely immobilized. Someone wrapped a soft cuff around my arm and clipped something cold and plastic onto my finger, and I heard the steady beat of a heart monitor turn on somewhere behind me. I wasn't sure how long I laid there before the last two boys were brought in. Once it sounded like everyone had been strapped down and attached to heart monitors, I heard the rattle of carts being wheeled through the room. One stopped beside me and I saw the man who had wheeled it over standing above me. He looked like he was just entering his middle aged years. Little silver hairs had taken over his temples, but faded to just sprinkles of gray throughout the rest of his otherwise black hair. Square glasses rested on his nose and he peered through them at the contents of the cart. He picked something up and I felt something about the size of a quarter, cold and sticky, being attached to either side of my chest. My body instinctively recoiled into the bed, but I couldn't move away. The man glanced at my face for a split second, his expression unreadable, before he placed two more on my stomach, shins, and temples.