It was the day of the test. Benjamin had been preparing himself for this for days. He'd gone over everything, double checking everything so that hopefully nothing would go wrong.
And then the time had come. So many scientists from every location of the company were sitting in a room, waiting for it to start. He sat in front of all of them. He saw Deb walk in and, to his surprise, Wes was next to her. Ben remembered specifically that Wes had said he wouldn't be there. Maybe he'd changed his mind?
A few minutes later, Nelson and Wesley walked up and stood in front of him, welcoming everyone to the test, and reminding everyone of what would be happening, even though Ben was sure no one needed the reminder. To be completely honest, Ben wasn't really paying attention to the words the two co-founders were saying. He looked over at Deb who was sitting in the front row, trying to appear calm, but he could see how tense and nervous she really was. It wasn't long before Nelson and Wes stepped off to the side, finished with what they were saying.
Ben took a deep breath, removed his lab coat, pushed up the sleeve of his shirt, and grabbed the injection gun filled with the serum. He carefully positioned it against his arm, before piercing through the skin with it and injecting it straight into his bloodstream. He started feeling the effects of it almost instantly. He screamed as he removed the needle of the injection gun from his arm. His breathing increased in speed, he was practically panting for breath. His whole body was in pain. He couldn't really process anything that was happening around him.
He heard someone say something about radiation and knew that they were going to dose him with it to stabilize the serum that was now inside of him. He lost track of how long he'd been sitting there but knew that they must've dosed him with the radiation by now. The horrifying thing was that nothing was changing. He didn't feel any better. Had they given him enough?
The same voice from before, he still couldn't place who it was, spoke up again, "He needs more radiation! He's not stabilizing!"
A few moments later he felt a change, but not in the way he was hoping. He felt worse! He screamed again, louder than before. His vision started blurring, something was leaking from eyes, nose, and mouth. At first he thought it was blood, it was red like blood, and it stung his throat and eyes. He slipped out of his chair and onto the floor.
He could vaguely make out someone attempting to take control of the situation and help him. The voice eventually clicked in his brain after a moment. It was Wes.
He blacked out after that.
When he woke up again he was laying down on a medical bed. He couldn't tell much else about his surroundings though. He had a massive headache, the spot where he'd injected himself throbbed painfully, he was having a hard time even breathing, and everything was so blurry. He saw two figures standing a ways away. They seemed to be talking, but he couldn't hear anything they were saying.
"Who's there?" He asked.
The two turned towards him, making their way over to stand next to his bed.
"How're you feeling?" One of them asked. He recognized her voice as Deb's.
"Like shit."
He tried sitting up and the other person gently pushed him back down on the bed.
"Better not try sitting up yet." The other voice said. It was Scott, Wes' assistant.
Ben groaned. "How long was I out?"
"Several hours." Deb answered.
"Why can't I see clearly?"
"Probably because of the serum. It's been leaking out of your eyes. And your mouth, and nose." Deb explained.
"What?" He panicked, trying to sit up again but the pain in his arm only got worse with the movement he grimaced and allowed himself to lay back down.
Deb nodded. "Your body rejected the serum."
Whatever pain meds they'd given him must've been wearing off and the pain quickly got worse. The spot where he'd injected himself felt like he was being injected all over again. He screamed.
