Remnants -- Remake (Carl Grimes Gay Fanfiction)

12: The Interview

Two hours later and I was sat in a brightly lit room, relaxing on a comfortable swivel chair and swinging myself around out of both boredom and childish amusement.

Whatever the scientist had approached him about earlier must have been important, since he'd been in the laboratory with him ever since, other than leaving momentarily to instruct me to wait for him at his office.

That was where I sat now, and had been waiting with a gradually decreasing level of patience for at least twenty minutes, and now looked casually around the room to pass the time.

It was a very luxurious place. Light rays filtered between open blinds through a large glass facade, where they cast down upon a varnished oaken desk upon which sat a computer, keyboard and mouse on one side, and a small globe on the other. A fish tank was built-in to the wall, where a colorful array of aquatic life could be seen inside. 

It looked like the office of some elaborate Bond-villain.

There was something else on the desk too. A strange, small phial, containing an unusual blue substance that glistened mystically in the sunlight. 

I hadn't considered reaching out and holding it to inspect it. This was the Governor's office. But it had been twenty minutes, and he was yet to turn up, and my curiosity was beginning to overwhelm my self-restraint.

I'm sure if I'm quick enough, it doesn't matter if I--

As I began to reach over and inspect the phial, the door to my left was opened abruptly, and I quickly jolted back to my original seating position, awkwardly crossing my arms in an attempt to act casual as the Governor entered the room.

He regarded me with a look of confusion, and noticed that I was staring at the phial sat on his desk.

"Oh, this?" he motioned to the strange container, walking over to it and shaking it gently, "it's only in the trial stages right now, but we hope it's gonna become something big soon."

I nodded in understanding, just thankful that I didn't find myself being shouted at after less than a day in Woodbury.  

"So... Why am I here?" I asked in confusion as the Governor stared outside for several seconds before finally sighing and taking a seat at the other side of his desk. He then opened a drawer beside him and withdrew a small voice recorder, placing it on the table.

"It's customary here to interview every new arrival," the Governor explained, "we need to find out about you background, relations, origins et cetera. We had a bad experience once, and I'm not taking any chances in letting it happen again."

He must be referring to what happened with his daughter. I can't believe he's managed to stay so composed and sane after that. I can't believe I have either.

"I didn't want to ask you straight away, since you'd obviously had quite a shock," he continued, motioning to the stump of my left arm.

Somehow, I had almost forgotten about it. 

Thinking about it and looking at it still seemed so surreal, as though I was hallucinating. Everything else in my body told me I was: it didn't hurt at all, there was no blood dripping out or flesh hanging off. Hell, I could still almost feel my arm.

But it was gone. That was irreversible.

"Sorry," the Governor apologized after several seconds of my peering down at my arm, "reminded you about it did I?"

I replied with a distracted "yeah."

"You know we have pretty advanced medical facilities here," he explained to me, as I averted my attention from my arm to face him, "we could attach a prosthetic forearm in a few days."