Broken

Chapter 2: The Procedure

It has been only two days since I was taken from my family. To me it felt like an eternity. I sat in the corner of my cage most of the time, mostly sleeping because there was nothing else I could really do except pace around the cage, listening to the ongoing voices inside my head. I haven't ate since they put me in this hell hole. I thought they were never going to feed me, but then what use would I be to them if they just left me here to die of starvation? They'd have to bring me something eventually.
Sure enough after a few hours a man opened the door just enough to slide a metal tray across the floor with one slice of bread and a glass of water. I instantly chugged down the water in a matter of seconds. But I looked at the bread in hesitation. It looked old and moldy. I was debating on whether or not I should eat it. Then again, who knows the next time they'll bring me something again. Nor giving it any more thought, I picked it up and took a bite. As soon as it entered my mouth, I regretted my decision and spat it back out. It was disgusting. The taste of the mold made me feel sick. I pushed the tray aside and resumed my place in the corner.
This has been hell compared to the time I had in the truck. All they would feed me was moldy bread and sometimes a bowl of stale oatmeal, and that was rare. I got to the point were I couldn't hold my food down no more. I would get sick and sometimes throw up inside the cage, which then had to be sanitized. They put me in a waiting room until they deemed it decontaminated.
Today was different, not like it has been. There was a lot of commotion in the lab. I started getting a little worried it had something to do with me.
Two foot soldiers came inside my containment. One holding a tranquilizer in his hand.
"Hold him!"
Fear kept up and down my spine like electricity. I fled to the back of the cage. I braced myself for what was to come.
God I hate being right.
One soldier tried to grab my arms, but I pushed him away. I struggled as hard as I could. He was trying to distract me while the other would stick the drug in my neck. They think I'm that stupid not to notice.
"We need back up!"
To my dismay, two more men came inside and held me down. I tried, but I couldn't push them off all at once. Then I felt a stinging pain in my neck and I new they stuck the needle. Injecting me with the sedative liquid. I was back against the glass. I quickly felt my body loosing strength. My grip loosened from the men and I made a slow descent to the floor. My vision was blurry, but my eyes caught the sight of the men standing over me. They were speaking, but their voices didn't reach my ears. I could only hear faint noises.
"You mother fuckers." I spat and tried to kick them away in one last effort. My eyes were growing heavy, everything was a blur and my body was shutting down. I laid flat the floor and gave one more shaky breath, then my world went black.

* * * * * *

My eyes shot open to a blurred world. Everything was so bright. I'm guessing some time has passed, cause I was no longer in the cage. As my vision cleared, I could clearly see I was in another part of the building. I was laying flat on a hospital bed. I still felt dizzy from the drug. I looked from both sides of me, and found tubing attached to my wrists and an IV bag hanging over my head. The lamp hovering over me explained why it was so bright. I made an attempt to sit up and look around, but pain flared in my left side. I cringed and put a hand over my left torso, only to feel stitches embedded in my flesh.
Panic.
I didn't even think about how much it would hurt, I sat up and pain shot through my torso, it felt as if tiny needles were stabbing multiple times. The pain grew agonizing. I naturally reacted to wrap my arms around my waist, cradling my lower torso. I hugged my knees tightly to my plastron and my body began to tremble. I couldn't help my violent shaking. I rocked back and forth like a traumatic psychopath. My fingernails dug deeply into my thick skin to the point it drew blood.
Someone...cut me open... someone...put their hands inside me. They did something to me! But what? What have they done to make this hurt so much?!
I leaned forward on the bed, I couldn't help the soft moans that escaped my lips. The pain was almost unbearable.
"Ugh, oh God it hurts!"
"It's not gonna get any better if you keep moving like that."
I raised my head in the direction of the voice. It sounded female. I looked around the room until my eyes came to a stop to see another glass cage across from my bed. It was dark on that side of the room, so I couldn't see what, or who was inside. I only saw a dark, slender form sitting up against the wall...and eyes, glowing amber eyes staring at me.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
There was a quick silence before I heard the voice again.
"I'm Raquel, Raquel Cross." Her voice sounded so quiet I could barely make out what she was saying.
"Aren't you gonna tell me what your name is?"
"Oh! Uh, um... It's Leonardo. But I prefer to go by Leo."
"Hmm, Leonardo... sounds fancy."
I chuckled at how straight forward her response was. Though I couldn't help but think what this girl was doing here. Why do they need her? I can only hope she wasn't here for the same reason I am, which I still don't know what that reason is either.
I tried to change my position to get out of the bed, but the pain made it complicated.
"Don't! You'll make it worse!" Raquel hissed.
She was right. As much as I wanted to get out of here, I just woke up from surgery. I was in no shape to be moving around. I sank back on the bed and sighed.
"Hey, I wanna get outta here too, but you can't escape like that."
"Raquel, not to be rude but I don't have all the time in the world to wait. I have to find my brothers."
"You have brothers?"
"Yeah, three of them, and I have to find them before something happens to them."
"Are they here?"
My shoulders slumped. I don't ever know if they are here. Last I remember they were put into another vehicle and who knows where they were taken from there.
"I... I don't know..."
I heard Raquel groan from inside her cage. "Well, Leo... I'm sorry."
"Don't be...So how long have you been here?" I asked her.
"I arrived here yesterday."
"Why do they have you locked up here?"
"I honestly don't know. I...was kidnapped by these bastards and they locked me in here. Just this morning, they tied me to a hospital bed and hooked me to IVs. They injected me with this green stuff. It hurt, the pain was so bad I thought I was gonna die. I passed out. I woke up a few hours ago and I...I mutated. But here I am, still alive and being held against my will."
The whole time I was shocked at her words. She must have came in the day after me. Her story sounded so familiar to me. It was all staring to make sense. That's why I'm hooked to IVs, the Foot had done the same thing Erick Sacks had done, draining mutagen out of my body. Apparently they didn't drain all of it considering that I'm still alive. But they must have transferred the mutagen into Raquel and made her mutate. They were experimenting with human subjects, trying to mutate them for their own twisted reasons.
"You mean your not human?"
"...Not anymore."
My heart sank. This poor girl's life was ruined because of me. And I could do nothing to help her. I feel so useless. I felt so guilty if not responsible for her state.
"I'm so sorry Raquel. This was all my fault. You're the way you are now because of me and I'm sorry."
"Hey, don't beat yourself up. There was nothing you could do." Her voice was soft and heavy with understanding. But why would feel sympathy for me? I didn't deserve it. I rested my head on my knees, trying to hold back my tears.
I could feel her eyes staring at me. I couldn't see her face, I don't know how she's feeling right now. She has every right to be angry but yet she doesn't seem to be.
"Leo..."
Raquel was cut off when I heard her gasp. I look over to the door to see Carlos Quinn enter the room with several armed Foot reinforcements.