Cridex

Chapter Thirty Eight

Trevor's smile cut through me as he waved his hand towards Camden- who was lying on the table strapped down so that his resistance was nullified to a small jerking of his body.

"Stop this!" I shouted, "Stop, please! You don't have to do this!"

"Oh, but I do... Your kind have evolved too far on your own, leaning too heavily on the human half of your creation to engage in petty things, like emotions, and feelings." Trevor paced around the small room, and ran a quick hand down his lapel to brush of invisible specks of dust. With each move, my apprehension rose, threatening to engulf me fully.

My eyes drew back to Camden, and the doctors that surrounded him, their blue tinted scrubs swishing about in a grating noise.

Camden shrieked, his cry filled with anguish that tore at my soul. "We'll need to subdue him- someone get the anesthetic!" The doctor yelled.

"No!" I shouted, but my arms were heavy as I tried to reach up. "Stop!" Helplessness wrought self- loathing so strong that I flinched back. I was powerless to do anything but watch.

A nurse approached him, small needle in her hand. She pushed on the butt of the syringe, and a spray of thin liquid squirted out. "Anesthesia is prepped and ready to go, doctor. We will have more than enough time to go through with the procedure without him waking up."

"Inject him, then," One said, although through the masks I could not tell who had spoken, "And we will begin."

"No!" Camden bucked against the straps that held him down. The white cloth that was covering his torso slipping to the side to reveal a heaving chest, and as he tuned his head to the side to avoid the needle, his eyes caught onto mine.

"Ellery! Help Me! Please, they are going to hurt me!" His face was flushed with fear and exertion, eyes moving frantically as he looked for any reaction on my part. "Ellery!" He screamed again.

"I can't," I tried to mouth to him, "Something's wrong here, I'm trying, I really am! Hold on!"

"Ellery," He begged, tears welling in his eyes, and I saw the doctor move behind him with the needle. "Ellery, please. Make them stop."

I opened my mouth to respond, but Trevor cut me off as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. "We could always skip the anesthetic," He said nonchalantly, shrugging. "Move straight on to removing parts of his frontal lobe and replacing it with our own software. Of course, he would feel every knife blade."

I inhaled sharply, eyes flying to the doctor, who had the needle poised over Camden's neck as if waiting for permission- permission from Trevor. I nodded my head and looked intently at Camden. "You'll be just fine now, Cam. We'll get through this, I swear it to you," I assured.

"No," He shook his head, but the doctor lowered the needle piercing his skin, "No, Ellery, please!" I saw the doctor press down on the syringe, emptying its contents into his blood flow.

"I swear it, Camden! We'll get through." I repeated the phrase, over and over, until his eyes fluttered and his previously heaving chest settled to a slow, rhythmic rise. "Happy?" I bit out softly, choking as my tears threatened to overwhelm me. "You're getting exactly what you want now."

"Not quite," Trevor chuckled and motioned to someone behind me, smiling. "But almost."

I turned frantically in my seat, watching as another doctor approached me, another needle in hand. "No," I swallowed, "No, please."

"I want you to watch. Everything, unable to look away, unable to cry out or disturb me while we view this scientific advancement in your species." He motioned once more, and as the doctor advanced, I knew my resistance was futile and pointless. "We'll watch together and then you will undergo the same surgery. Something tells me this procedure will be very... successful."

I couldn't help but replace the last word that he drawled out with a variety of adjectives. Painful. Soul-wrenching. Demeaning.

I felt a pinch as the doctor injected me. "W-what are you doing to me?" I tired to swallow but my throat felt thick. "What did you do?"

"Prolonged paralysis. It will take you until the end of Camden's surgery and keep you seated while he surgeons prepare you for your own."

"Sir?" One of the surgeons inquired, eyes narrowed, "We are ready to begin."

Trevor placed his arm out to the side as if welcoming someone into his home. "Then by all means, please do so." He smiled sourly.

The doctor nodded reverently, and turned to the table. Every part of Camden was covered in that horrid white sheet, and I tried to open my mouth to order them to remove it. It refused- the paralysis already taking over me. I was rendered truly helpless, unable to even speak out.

The surgeon wielded a drill, the bit spinning erratically as he held the button down. "We'll crack the cranium, and remove part of his skull. Prepare a saline wash and the software for the implementation."

He lowered the drill, and I watched, appalled as it entered into his skin, whirring as blood began streaming down in red rivets. "Clear the field of operation, please, doctor." The surgeon ordered, and almost immediately, someone took a cloth to Camden's face, wiping away the blood that marred his skin.

"Removing the skull fragment now." The doctor told the field of operators, "Is the implant ready?"

"Yes, doctor." A women held up a dish, into which the surgeon discarded the piece of skull, leaving a wide gap in Camden's head, the brain matter visible inside from the angle that I was sitting at. I wanted to look away, willed my eyes to shut or my head to turn, but my own body was unresponsive.

She hefted a large, metallic looking web, the wires floppy and silver coated as she expanded it, waving it out like a plastic bag. It filled out into a partially circular mask, the lining shining in the fluorescent lighting.

"Prepare the wild with saline, please." The surgeon spoke, and the other sprayed the line of water gently over Camden's brain, washing away any excess blood or matter. Camden's body jerked in response to the doctor's ministrations, but showed no signs of waking.

"The software, please." He held out his gloved hand. If I hadn't been drugged, my heart would have sped up as the surgeon placed the silver net along Camden's detached skull, smoothing it out in swift movements, before he reattached it in place, stapling the bone back together along the way. My stomach would have churned, my eyes would have watered, my spirit would have sank low as I watched as my friend and ally was slowly taken over by the new circuitry.

"When can the tests be made?" Trevor spoke for the first time during the procedure, and the surgeon nodded to the other doctors to wrap it up. Taking off his gloves and walking to the cleansing station, he scrubbed up to his elbow before responding. "When he is recovered. In a few days, we should see a noticeable difference in his willingness to comply."

"Excellent," Trevor smiled, "The procedure went well, our software is more than likely ping o be successful in studying our inferiors... I only ask one more task for today, doctor."

"What is it?" He smiled, although clearly he was weary. "I am here to help."

Trevor glanced over to me, and although I could not move my head to stare at him squarely in the eye, I liked to think my glance was hard enough to make up for my lack of movement. It did not deter him, however, even if he had noticed.

Slow words resonated inside the small room, and even the surgeon's eyes went wide at his request. "Prepare Miss Kent for surgery. She, too, will also undergo the procedure."