Escaping: The Experiment

Chapter 1

I was five years old. I had been sleeping. I was woken up by visions of flashing lights and tear stained faces. I was only five, so I gave into instinct and cried for my mommy, but when I open my mouth I didn't hear my call. Instead, I felt liquid filling my mouth. It had a metallic taste to it. I opened my eyes and held my breath to see what was happening, but when I looked around I almost threw up. I was in a giant cylinder filled with some sort of orange liquid. Still holding my breath, a realization hit me. I wasn't drowning. I looked down to see a terrifying amount of tubes and needles stuck in my flesh. One was in my torso, lodged uncomfortably under my ribs, presumably into the lungs. Another one was pumping blood. Most of the other tubes were pumping color tinted substances into my body. I wanted to throw up, but I couldn't. I was starving. I probably hadn't eaten in days.I only remember wanting my mommy and the feeling of dry heaving.

After being awake for what my five-year-old self thought was forever, someone in a bright yellow hazmat suit looked at me. All of a sudden, I saw men in white coats holding clipboards just watching me. I was screaming, yelling for them to let me out. I didn't stop until my lungs burned from the orange liquid that I was still floating in. One of the men walked towards the tank and turn the nozzle at the bottom. Everything went black, and I had the nightmare again. The lights and the screaming and the faces. I woke up screaming, but I heard it this time. This time, I was on a bed in what seemed to be a jail cell. I'll admit, I was scared. I saw more people in whitecoats through the bars looking at something that sounded like an angry dog. The growling was the first clue, along with the barking. They were probably moving it somewhere else because they pulled it out, but what they brought out was not a dog. I got up from the bed and walked to the bar door to get a better look. It was a person with horrifyingly ugly with fangs and an enlarged jaw. His nose was turned up like a pig, with eyes deeply set into his face, and ears that were pointed at the top. I almost didn't recognize him as a man. I grabbed the cell bars in my hands and squeezed them to keep myself from fainting. Squeezing as hard as my hands would let me, the bars crushed as easily as tinfoil. Letting go, I looked at the bars and I screamed. It wasn't a regular scream you would hear in a horror movie, it was louder than anything anyone could ever hear and a higher pitched than almost any whistle. The dog man fell to the ground with eyes rolled back in his head. Everyone else's ears were bleeding along with some noses. I was terrified of myself and what else I would be able to do. Suddenly, all of the people and whitecoats were looking at me and whispering with each other. Backing away from the bars, I almost considered screaming again. A young boy, who was six at the time, ran towards my cage and just stared. I think he was starting to smile, but a very tall man came and grabbed him off the ground. He said something to the boy and put him down. The boy looked at me once more and ran off while the man unlocked my door and walked in. I was sitting against the back wall and watched him get rid of everyone. He sat against the door.

"Are you OK?" His voice was so deep and rough that it almost didn't match his body. He was tall and skinny with a large chest. His face was clean-shaven with a sharp jaw and noticeably blue eyes behind large framed glasses. He had brown hair that was short and messy and went well with his slightly tan skin. All he did was look at me as if he expected me to answer his question. I didn't know him but I just knew he was a good person. Afraid of hurting him, I just nodded my head. I guess I was giving him a look because he suddenly spoke again.

"I know you're not going to hurt me. Remember the boy? He's my son. He'll be helping when you both get older."what he said scared me because that meant I might never see the family that I didn't remember. I started crying, knowing it wouldn't affect my circumstances. I wouldn't look at the man. I got the mental strength to stand up and walk to the bed. I sat on the bed and turned away from those watching.

"By the way," his deep voice breaking through the sound of my sobbing, " I'm Dr. Virgil Gunderson, but you can call me Mr. V."

After that day, I was placed in a more suitable room. All of the walls were blank and white. No furniture was there, except for a bed. I was left in the room for a whole day with nothing but a small remote that they said controlled everything in the room besides the door. I went on to examine it when I was hidden under the bed's covers. Being under the thick comforter, it should have been pitch black, but I saw everything as if I were peering through night vision goggles. I didn't think much of it since I already had seemed to have super strength and sonic screaming. The remote had four buttons. There was one with a bed on it, one with a TV screen, and another with a plate on it that interested me, but the last button scared me. It was a large red button that took up most of the remote. Since I was curious, I decided to test the other three buttons. The button with the bed switched the beds position, which startled me since I was crouched on the bed. The second button with the TV brought out a huge flatscreen that changed the channel based on what I was thinking, but I had to learn how to use it first. The last button called people to bring me snacks. The snacks were brands that I didn't know, so I didn't eat them, but I did teach myself how to use the TV. I watched for a while and dozed off.

I woke up to see Dr. Gunderson watching the TV that had turned back on once I was awake.

"Amazing," he whispered, "it takes most people weeks to work this screen correctly, and that's with assistance. It seems that your intelligence is growing faster than expected." His words scared me. He knew what was happening and why, but I didn't.

"What have you done to me?" Those were the first words I've said since I woke up in the tank who knows how long ago. It felt like a lifetime since I've used my voice. It was gravelly from being mute for so long and slightly deeper than you'd expect a five-year-old's voice to be. It sounded mature. It wasn't grotesquely deep, and was still childish because I still sounded as innocent as the young child I was. It took Dr. Gunderson a while to get over the surprise my question. His face went hard and expressionless, and he refused to look at me in the eye.

"You were chosen to be subjected to experiments meant to give normal people powers through our human lottery of families in poverty. Those families were given money for entering the children and were promised that if their child was chosen, that their child would always live without the pain of living without a proper house or enough food. I want you to know that all of the people willingly participated and force was not used." He was so calm that it had to be true. He told me that we would start testing tomorrow and that I should get some sleep. I went to bed glad to know that I was there willingly, but when I fell asleep, my recurring dream suggested otherwise.

This is my first book. I'm not very good at punctuation and would appreciate comments on how to fix it or if there are any plot holes so far. Thank you!