We walked down the same damp grey hallway for another few minutes the four people in lab coats still watching my every movement and the blond haired man talking about some Great War I wasn't paying attention to any of it I was already irritated by the fact I'm forced to fallow them and the eyes burning holes through me aren't helping anything. I stopped mid walk and turned to a man with red hair and freckles on his face and nodded at him
"what's your name?"
I ask surprised how well I hid my emotions
"my name is Philip. Why do you ask?"
I smile and turn on one heel to keep walking
"just wanted to know what I would write on your tombstone if you keep LOOKING AT ME LIKE IM A LITTLE PIGGY LAID OUT FOR YOUR DISSECTION!!"
The man steps back a few inches a horrified look on his face the blond man chuckles
"Thomas please try not to terrify my coworkers they are only doing their job."
I turn to him and point a finger at him "then you can tell them just how much it will hurt when I rip them limb from limb and use them to beat you unconscious."
I keep walking leaving them behind me and trying to ignore the whispers. The blond man speaks from behind me "next door on your left Thomas."
I stop at the door and cross my arms. They form up in a line at the door as the blond man uses a key to unlock it. He looks at me and smiles
"this is a special training center we had designed specifically for you."
I fake a smile sarcastically
"I'm touched what's next a frilly fruit basket and scented candles?"
He laughs at this and shakes his head "you sure have a very amusing sense of humor Thomas."
I shrug and walk through the door it's almost pitch black but the blond man flips a switch and the lights flare up and illuminate the room reveling several rooms connecting to the main room that has a weight set a small section of the room with a couch and TV and a corner of the room is covered in foam matting I nod my head to the corner
"what's with the floor?"
A woman I've seen before with long blond hair and glasses speaks up
"it's a portion of the room for you to meditate in, we will be doing extensive emotional control training and we thought it may be a good outlet."
I nod
"not a bad idea"
I say almost to sincerely. I recognize her voice she was the woman I heard talking in the hall way after I sat with Sam the man from before Philip steps up nervously and stutters when he speaks
"t-t-the rooms around you are all for different training routines for you to try."
I nod my head slowly and look at him "try not to be scared Philip it shows that I can control you."
I say quite seriously he looks down and steps back. I speak up and ask
"so why exactly are we trying to control my emotions?"
The blond man says
"your outbursts need to be controlled that way we don't have any mishaps like earlier."
I look to him and my face burns with hatred I know it's him that let me hurt Sam he's doing this on purpose
"you said your name Joshua right?"
I ask turning on my heel once more he speaks slowly as if he's impressed with himself
"why yes I did Thomas."
I nod and look at him dead in the eyes "your going to die first."
I turn and walk into the room I can feel the change in tensions in the room Joshua is angry now not that bright and bubbly man from before. the woman earlier clears her throat I turn to look at her
"if you don't mind I have a simple exercise i would like to try to help you control your emotions."
I nod and say
"sure I could use some anger management right around now."
I say looking and the man. We lock eyes for less then two seconds and I can feel he hates me just as much as I do him. The woman nods and leads me to a relatively small door and I raise an eyebrow
"what is this?"
I ask as I look at the woman
"we call this a sensory deprivation chamber it's a pitch black room filled with ten inches of salt water you strip naked and lay in there and float it makes you feel like your just floating in space it makes you get in your own head to help try and control your anger."
I stand there lost in thought and when I snap back to reality I look at the woman
"let's do it"
she nods
"well go to the observation room you strip down and get in"
I nod and watch them leave I remove my cloths and step inside and lay down on a cold floor at first but slowly out from under me water slowly fills up the tank and I begin to float. At first it's confusing I can't feel the water and the darkness is so disorienting but I steel myself and relax soon I begin to wonder if I'm asleep or awake. It feels like I'm in a world I've never been to I lay there floating in nothing. After some time I hear a voice, very faint but it's there
"Thomas you need to wake up and see your not like them."
I don't recognize the voice but it speaks louder and louder each time
"learn who you are."
"Be what your meant to be."
"Reach your true potential."
Then out of the darkness a face come into picture a pair of bright yellow eyes with no pupils and a face covered in blue plating with several tenderals coming from the face I being to panic in my currant state as I hear his voice so clearly as if he was speaking in my ear
"come find the cryptarcs!"
I snap up in the darkness and begin to panic as I hear the door unlatch and light fills the room I scramble out and try to catch my breath. Joshua's Voice is the first I hear
"what's wrong Thomas? What did you see?"
I shake my head not able to speak as I look around my eyes adjusting to the bright room I try to stand up grabbing my cloths and putting them back on I walk to the couch and sit down still barley able to breathe. It took a little over three minutes for the crew of scientists to get into the room by then I had caught my breath and was lost in thought when the blond man shook me and got me to snap back to reality. "Thomas what happened in that chamber."
I thought quickly about it and decided not to tell him.
"I feel asleep and I had a nightmare"
I say quickly and look away from him he gives a grunt and walks away. The woman walks up and puts a hand on my shoulder
"it's ok Thomas not everything works well try something different next time. For now get some sleep it's been a long day."
She gives my shoulder a tentative squeeze and walks away I look at my feet and then lay flat out on the couch looking at the ceiling
"who was that? He looked so familiar." I say to myself quietly. I try to remember what the voice said
"come find the cryptarcs.."
I whisper to myself as my eyes flutter closed and sleep washes over me.
I wake up early the next morning and stretch my legs, I notice a small note attached to the TV
*thomas please be patient for a few hours we are setting some stuff up for our next training session we will be there as soon as possible to continue training- Joshua*
i scoff and look around the room
"well I guess I can try the meditation thing"
I say walking to the square of padding in the corner of the room. I sit down cross legged and close my eyes. I breathe lightly and begin to relax. For a long while it works I'm not angry but in not happy either it's some in between feeling that I don't like so I open my eyes and look at the clock it's been easily an hour and a half so I walk over to the TV and flick it on but the only things I can get out of the stations are old country movies and Spanish soap operas so I turn it off and lay back down on the couch and watch the clock for another two hours Then I hear my door open and the woman from before walks in
"hello Thomas I'd like to apologize for the wait."
I sit up and crack my neck
"don't worry about it I'm patient, by the way what should I call you?"
I ask putting my hands in my pocket. "Jennifer. But if you prefer you can call me Jen."
I nod and walk with Jennifer out into the hallway
"so what's on the menu for today doc?" I say as we being to walk down the damp hall way.
"Well Thomas we thought it necessary for you to know exactly what you are."
She says as we reach a guarded door. The double doors have a very large man on each side of them
"what do you mean what I am?"
I ask curiously
"you'll see soon Thomas"
she says and ushers me into the room behind the doors I walk in slowly and see a room with tubes of yellow water and small what look like bodies. I feel my stomach churn and it takes everything I have not to throw up. "This way Thomas"
Jennifer says I inch my way through the dark room keep as far away from the yellow tubes as possible keeping close to Jennifer
"what is this place Jen!"
I ask loudly
"a biological engineering center"
she says calmly as if it were no big deal I freeze mentally my body forces it's self to move as I keep quite we approach a large silver door and she swipes a ID card through a small slot in the wall and a green light flashes on "right this way Thomas"
she says holding the door open. I take a long look before I walk in a large table with the scientists from the day before and some new people I don't recognize. I walk in and take a seat Jennifer walks around and sit down next to Joshua. The blond haired man clears his throat before speaking
"Thomas we are going to discuss some things today and we need you to listen, your going to learn some things about yourself and you may not like them. But we trust you can be maturer about this information and accept it all."
I turn my head and raise an eyebrow "what kind of information are you going to tell me?"
One man who I do not recognize stands up
"boy I advise you to keep quite your damn lucky were telling you this"
I smile sarcastically and speak clearly "well I'm sorry sir I didn't know YOU WERE SUCH AN ASS HAT!"
I yell at him and slam my fist on the table cracking the wood. Surprisingly the man stands up and retaliates back by yelling at me
"KNOW YOUR PLACE BOY! THIS INFORMATION WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE TOLD TO YOU SO THE LEASE YOU COULD DO IS SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR THE FACT THAT IM NOT JUMPING OVER THE TABLE AT YOU!"
I hold nothing back my rage beginning to overtake me as I stand straight up out of my chair and begin to scream "YOU THINK I WANT TO HEAR THIS BULL SHIT?! I DON'T GIVE TWO FUCKS ABOUT ANY OF YOU OR WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY AND BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY I CERTAINLY DONT CARE IF THIS INFORMATION ISNT FOR ME TO HEAR! THE ONLY THING I CARE ABOUT IS SAM I WANT HER TO BE OK AND TRUST ME WHEN I HEAR THAT SHE IS IM BURNING THIS WHOLE BUILDING DOWN TO THE GROUND THEN ILL BURN THE ASHES SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO WATCH WHAT YOU SAY TO ME OLD MAN BECAUSE I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT I WONT BE SO NICE THE NEXT TIME IM FORCED TO HURT THREE PEOPLE AND THEN THROWN INTO BASICALLY A JAIL CELL!"
The room falls silent for what seems like forever. The tension is almost tangible, a thick syrup feeling fills the air making it hard to breath Joshua is the first to speak
"Thomas I understand your frustration with us but I need to ask you to please clam down, and Rick we have duly noted the fact your against telling Thomas this information but we all think it would be better if he knew and how much he could help if he cooperates With us."
I snicker and flop back into my chair as the old man looks around and then firmly says
"this boy is dangerous as he is and you want to give him this information? Be my guest in single handily being the ones who kill us all"
as he stands up and stomps his way out of the room. Joshua shakes his head and frowns
"he never accepted this experiment from the beginning."
I look up and snap at him
"EXPERIMENT?!"
He sighs
"Thomas please calm down, please it will all be explained in time."
I look down once more clutching shards of wood in my fists. Joshua looks around
"well who wants to start with what?" Jennifer clears her throat
"why don't we explain the cryptarcs." My eyes widen and my head snaps up looking at her
"the what?!"
I ask quickly she looks puzzled
"an alien species called the cryptarcs." I look back down joshua speaks up "well then let's begin, Thomas the cryptarcs are an advanced species of alien life forms that were found on earth just after the Great War ended. We were able to retrieve a dead cryptarc for analysis."
I raise an eyebrow and ask very carefully
"why dose that have to do with any of this?"
I ask slowly the room falls quite for some time all the scientists looking at each other, after some time all their eyes land on me and Joshua speaks "because Thomas"
he pauses
"your the first genetically engineered human cryptarc hybrid."