Frozen Ones

Chapter 4 (Brian)

The annoying sound of an alarm clock shrilled through the room and Brian felt compelled to open his eyes. Annoyed, he turned onto his other side and felt for the device to finally turn it off. He was actually supposed to destroy it and bury the pieces in front of the entrance to this hellish facility. Unfortunately, he never reached that very entrance, which is why the mission could prove difficult.

Yawning, he sat up and, after a quick trip to the bathroom, shuffled into the common room to get some coffee.

The room was large and one floor below their rooms. It also contained a small kitchen, as well as books, seats and even sports equipment. Nevertheless, Brian couldn't stand it and only went in when it was absolutely necessary, like now. Without coffee, his brain didn't function properly.

When he entered the room, it was fortunately empty and so he could stand at the coffee machine without pointless conversation. He refilled it with powder and then pressed the button, causing the machine to growl to come to life.

While he waited, he leaned his back against the kitchen counter and watched the two doors. No matter which of the two opened - whether from the direction of the bedrooms or the laboratory - he didn't feel like it. Even though there were of course gradations and some visits were less annoying than others.

The cup behind him began to fill with coffee and at that very moment the left door, the one to the laboratory, opened. A figure all too familiar to Brian entered, which caused a cold smile to appear on his face.

"Morning, Lio," he greeted the boy with a mocking undertone. At the same time, he wondered what he was doing here so early. Examinations didn't start until the morning. What was he doing here?

The boy raised his gaze slightly, but as soon as his dark green eyes grazed Brian's bare upper body, he quickly turned away again. "G - Good morning, Mr. Dunclaf," Lio replied.

Brian turned around without saying a word and picked up his coffee cup. He never bothered to put on something decent so early in the morning. But why Lio found that so offensive was a mystery to him. After all, he usually carried out all sorts of experiments on him, so a little bit of skin shouldn't bother him anymore.

Or it was because of the age difference. The little one was only 19 and Brian was already 54, although of course you couldn't tell from his look.

"So, what are we going to do today?", Brian asked in a sarcastic tone. He knew that Lio couldn't help it and that the whole situation was very stressful for him, but he simply didn't care. He had experienced enough to no longer have a conscience. Something like that was far too annoying.

"Um, I don't know yet," Lio replied tensely and was already standing in the doorway to the bedrooms, as if he wanted to leave the room as quickly as possible. "Two new people have arrived, so I assume we'll analyze them first. We probably won't need you until this evening."

"Aha," said Brian and crossed the room towards the same door that Lio was about to go through. The young doctor automatically backed away and stumbled over the first step. He fell awkwardly backwards and landed on the stairs. His eyes darted anxiously towards Brian and his hand felt around on the floor. The object he was looking for didn't seem to be there, however.
With a snort, Brian bent down and picked up the small trigger that had fallen from Lio's hand. He knew the thing all too well. There were several of these buttons, one for each frozen one. When they were triggered, the collar that everyone had received sent out a shock that knocked them out. All doctors carried such triggers with them so that they were safe from the sometimes questionable test subjects. For example, from Michael, who had previously been an (albeit not very successful) assassin. Or from Mirai or Will. Or even from Brian himself.