2050: A Time of Courage

Chapter 28: Commander Petrovich

I am not quite sure what time it is when I first hear someone assaulting my door, but I know it must be early in the morning.

Pulling myself from bed, I cross to the door, already irritated without knowing which subject or scientist has come for me.

"What do you want?" I snarl, nearly ripping the structure from its hinges.

Torres tilts her head, glaring back at me furiously.

"Eryn needs an assistant in the lab this morning."

"And I am suddenly qualified?" I snap, "I am a soldier, not a scientist, in case it slipped your mind. If I were a scientist, I wouldn't be wasting time waiting on you and your colleagues."

"I am running tests on one of the subjects in a separate room, and Kristenson is going into town again this morning. There are not enough of us, but you are staying here so you should expect to be useful." Torres retorts, drawing herself up to her full height, "As I'm always telling Eryn and the subjects, either you are useful or you leave."

"Fine." I decide, "But I refuse to be a lab rat. That is what your subjects are for."

"Agreed." Torres gives me a smile, "Follow me."

Torres's sneakers squeak against the tile as she jogs down the corridor, leading me down two hallways and up a set of stairs. She pauses with her hand on the knob of a door, smiling at me again.

"My subject waits inside." she purrs, "This is where I leave you. You're needed across the hall."

Torres slips through the door, leaving me to walk across the corridor. I do it in three strides, landing a hand on the doorknob and turning it without a care.

I did not sign up for this.

I am apathetic, knowing that only the test results could change my opinion on the insignificance of this task.

Stepping into the room, instinct has me stopping in my tracks.

The Inhumane is the first thing to catch my eye, its soulless eyes zeroing in on me. It has been changed for a long time, at least a month or two. The skin on its face is peeling, the ashen complexion covered in an array of different lesions.

Olivia is sitting next to it on the wide metal table, and it takes several moments for me to realize that both the creature and the Superior have their hands chained behind their backs.

"Hello!" Olivia squeaks, looking at me hopefully, "How are you? Are you here to watch?"

"I don't know why I am here." I snap, "I did not come here to talk to you, though."

"You don't have to be that way, Commander."

I flinch, my gaze snapping to the desk in the corner of the room. Above it, a large cabinet is built into the wall, and I assume that it contains supplies of some kind. A notebook and a pencil are positioned on the desk, and Eryn is occupying the small swiveling chair. She looks more like a surgeon than I have ever seen her, wearing the stereotypical lab coat and gloves. A surgical mask obscures part of her face, muffling her voice slightly.

"Do I have to wear that?" I demand, my annoyance clear as I roll my eyes, "This seems worse than my military uniform."

Eryn mimics my eye roll.

"You shouldn't."

She stands up, opening the cabinet over her head. She pulls a handful of supplies from the depths of the cabinet, setting a flashlight and two syringes on the desk in front of her. These are quickly followed by two identical vials and a few additional instruments. The only ones I recognize are the thermometers.