The Touch

Chapter 38 - Dying

Weeks went by and all the time I was tested using different serums which took control over my body. I felt terrible pain sometimes or like I was bursting with energy at other times, I couldn't understand it. If he had the serum that was going to take away my abilities why was he still using serum after serum on me? I wondered if it pleased him to see others in pain or was it purely to find out how far my abilities could go?

After each day my body felt numb and heavy and I fell asleep as soon as I was escorted back to my room. I didn't eat as I had no appetite and the weight started to fall off me. Dr Martins wasn't ready to see me die and insisted I ate, and when I refused he made sure I was intravenously fed.

I tried to keep the vision of his death and our escape in the front of my mind, but as the weeks slipped by and it was moving into my second month imprisoned I felt the vision fading and I wondered whether I was now getting inaccurate insights.

Mirabelle and Blind Bird were the only ones I was allowed to see and sometimes I was so exhausted that I lay on the bed sleeping while they held my hands. Blind Bird was distraught, often saying she was sorry but I would rather they did the testing on me then on her. With her age I didn't think that she could withstand any more tests and I knew she had been through enough.

I never told her about my vision when I had seen Dr Martins death. I didn't want Dr Martins to suspect that I knew these details and I knew he would try anything to get them out of Blind Bird if she had them. Even now when I felt so close to death I knew I would never allow them to do further harm to her.

Warning Melissa and her family was a priority though as they had to be prepared. In one of our nightly discussions I asked Melissa to see if her father knew of Max, but she said they didn't.

The children's parents were becoming increasingly anxious as they had heard rumors that the children were to be taken away soon for some kind of testing. They asked every time that I contacted Melissa if I knew when this ambush was going to happen, which of course I didn't. I knew it was going to be soon, but I didn't know the date or how much longer we would have to wait for it to happen.

Melissa told me that her friends had heard one of the nurses say that they had finished testing a new serum and they were going to start testing it on the children soon, so I knew they were becoming increasingly scared and I felt powerless to help them.

Dr Martins had me on a schedule of five days of testing and two days of rest. The rest times were glorious to me because Mirabelle would come in my room and try to feed me some soup and read to me. She loved books and her favourites were Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. She loved the idea of a life born free and simple and I understood exactly why she felt like that. Mirabelle had been born inside the institute by parents who worked here. No one knew that she was going to be born with the Touch and when it was discovered her parents were killed and she was incarcerated here. This was the only home that Mirabelle had known so therefore a life in a time of romance and being free to go where you wanted to must have sounded like heaven to her.

I envied her sometimes to not have the knowledge of what life could be like outside of these walls. I didn't know what was more painful, the knowing or not knowing.

 

Ten weeks had passed since I had the vision and I was losing hope.

My body was bruised from the constant needles and tests they were putting me through. I was skin and bones and my face had started to look concave with dark rings around my eyes. Blind Bird had begged Dr Martins to stop the testing he was doing but he ignored her requests and instead increased them.

I felt like death was coming close and I welcomed it. All I had now were memories of Slade, my Grandmother and my parents. I had loved them all and now I welcomed the thought of joining them. I had fleeting images of Slade kissing me and holding me in his arms and it felt like I was seeing a glimpse of heaven from the pits of hell. Sometimes I wished that I could die in my sleep and gently drift off to be welcomed into his arms. But every day I woke for more pain and torture..

In the last week I had stopped communicating with Melissa as I didn't feel we had any hope left and I didn't want to give false hope to her or her parents. I felt terrible about this but my mind was so exhausted that I just wanted to sleep all the time.

This morning I woke knowing it was going to be my last. My body was numb all over and I felt very cold. I could feel the life being slowly drained out of me and I knew that if Dr Martins gave me the wrong serum today it would send my body into spasms and my heart would not be able to take it.

I could see one of the Watchers looking at me as they took me down to Dr Martins. He knows, I thought to myself. Today will be the day that I die and he knows it, he can see it.

They lifted me onto the hospital bed in Dr Martins new lab and strapped down my arms. The bruising on my arms and legs were horrific now and I saw the Watcher wince at them as he placed my arm into the straps. He looked me in the eyes and I thought I could see a glimpse of some kindness there.

"Dr Martins, the patient is very unwell" he said. "Don't you think we should take her back to her room until she has gained some of her health back?".

"You think so do you?" Dr Martins replied. "It is funny but I don't pay you to think or to give your opinion. I pay you to bring me the lab rats and then stand back until you are needed".

The Watcher looked at me then at Dr Martins. I could see his resistance and then the realisation that he was also trapped in the work he was paid to do. He walked over and stood by the doorway.

You can watch me die from there, I thought. Today is the last day, you know it and I know it.

Dr Martins fetched a small bottle out of the cabinet and the nurse placed the tourniquet around my arm. She felt for a vein and then Dr Martins plunged the needle into my arm quickly. I felt the serum start to move into my vein and through my blood system.

I felt my eyes become dull with tiredness. I welcomed the blackness, I welcomed my death.

A loud noise erupted just as Dr Martins was checking on my vitals. He was thrown back as another loud blast blew out the doors and windows to the lab room.

Glass and particle board shattered everywhere and a large plume of dust blew through the room. The cloud was thick and I felt like I was choking on it.

I could hear people screaming in the next room and further down the building.

Torch lights were being pointed around the room and down the hall and I could just make out a group of men in dark colours with gas masks on running down the corridor.

My ears started ringing just as another bomb went off on what must have been the other side of the building.

I looked to my right and Dr Martins was huddling on the floor. It was exactly like the vision I had seen.

The nurse was moaning and crying to the left of me and I could see that the glass had shattered directly on her. I think she may have been hurt but at this moment I really didn't care.

I tried to move my hands and arms to see if I could loosen the restraints but Dr Martins had tied them tightly to the bed and there was no way I was getting out of here on my own.

The dust started to settle and I could hear rapid gun fire further away in the building. The rhythmic sound of the popping of bullets were going off between the masked men and the Watchers.

There were sheets of ceiling material strewn all over the smashed windows and floors and desks were covered in dust and electrical material. The alarm was ear piercing and I wished someone could turn it off. The hallway linked down to the rooms that the people with The Touch were being held in and I could hear running and screaming. People sounded disorientated and the gun shots were getting closer to our room. All I could hope of now was that they would arrive here quickly as I didn't know how much longer that I could stay awake. The comfort of the darkness was calling me and it was hard resisting the urge to close my eyes and drift away.

Dr Martins started stirring on the floor to my right and I turned towards the hole that was once the door to see the two masked men come in. Shots were fired and The Watchers that had brought me down were killed. That was the last thing that I saw before the darkness took over me and I felt myself drift away.