The smell of medicine was the first to assault his senses when Barry woke. The ever present smells of some unknown sanitizer, and the click clacks of shoes seemed like bombs in his brain.
Bombs....
Barry's brain kickstarted hard as the reality of the situation blasted to the forefront of his thoughts. The facility! My body, these flew through his mind.
Each too fast to focus on, the world spun even behind his closed eyes. God everything in his body ached, each bit and each limb stung. Like a hot needle being jammed into his skin over and over again.
Yet every inch of his form was swarmed by this feeling.
He was only able to relinquish himself to the pain for a few minutes, seconds away from that edge of the abyss he remembered from that day that seemed like forever ago.
When they threw open the door to his hospital room, and it slammed against the door Barry's eyes cracked open just wide enough to see them.
His brother Anthony, his ex girlfriend Serena, and another tall man he didnt recognize.
They each bustled in, seemingly arguing in hushed and frenzied tones. Just loud enough to hear, but too quiet for Barry's buzzing ears to comprehend.
This went on for some time, until the tall man looked his way and reached out a hand silencing Anthony and Serena.
The tall mans face was...blurry
Serena and her short cropped black hair, Anthony and his wheelchair both shined in comparison. Yet the Tall mans face seemed to be shrouded in a perpetual fog.
Anthony was the first to speak, wrapping his fingers around one wheel and pushing himself forward a bit, he seemed afraid.
"Hey...Brother?"
Barry opened his mouth a small bit, his cracked lips tearing slightly, as he attempted to voice his brothers name. All that came out was a throaty croak.
Barry then lapsed into a coughing fit, his parched, sandpaper like throat ripped and tore. Sending blood out of his mouth directly onto the bedspread laying before him.
Anthony and Serena sprung to him, each wrapping a hand around one of his wrists. Anthony's grip was weak and unsure, Serenas was the same as always, tight and confident. Barry had missed that hold.
The Tall man hadn't moved an inch. His blurry face betrayed no detail to Barry, as he ever so gently attempted to move his right arm. The one occupied by Serena.
She let him go. Slowly and calmly she laid her head against his mattress. Letting Allistars long, trembling hand carress her cheek once before his strength failed him and the arm dropped like a rock.
Anthony did nothing. He let go of Barry's wrist and let his arms fall back to his chair. Already his energy drained.
After a moment of akward silence was when the Tall man strode forward.
His face came into a small bit of focus for but a small second. Long enough for Barry to make out a pair of silver eyes, before the blur overtook Barry's vision again.
"I would like a word alone please." The man spoke. His voice gentle and calming, like an ocean breeze.
Seemingly withought fuss. Anthony wheeled himself from the room, as quickly as his arms could take him. Serena lifted her head and looked up at Barry once, before she too stepped away from the bed.
"I would also like if you would close the door on your way out dear."
Serena shuffled over to the door and left the room. Closing the door slowly behind her, the click rang into the room. Signalling that Barry and the Tall man were now alone.
Barry's head ached as the memories surged into his brain. The spontaneous quiet reminded him of what had happened after the wreck with Anthony.
It scared him now. Much more than back then.
The tall man strode over until he stood directly besides Barry. He spoke then,
"Terrible buisness that bomb don't you think?"
Barry shrunk as much as he could into the mattress.
"So easy for them to break in, It almost seemed like an inside job." The Tall man tapped the bedspread along Barry's arm.
"I know you had nothing to do with it though. Too weak willed, never thought you were strong enough to... make a move." His blur mobed suddenly close, so near that Barry could feel his cold breath.
"Yet, you were the only one with the mutagen at that time, and my employers are very unhappy with its disappearance," The Tall man laid his crooked fingers along Barry's arm
"Now. Tell me where it is, and I will let you get on with your continued employment, like nothing ever happened."
He stepped back and looked down upon Barry. He seemed to grow exponentially in his eyes. A sense of dread grew in him while the Tall man spoke
"I would appreciate it, if you told me where the mutagen is?" The blur moved away for a second as Tall mans silver eyes bored into his.
Barry could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest while his body tingled. He opened his mouth, and instead of a croak his voice came out. Gravelly and quiet but it existed.
"It disintegrated...the bomb blew it away..." Barry sunk away into his bedding.
The Tall man stepped back and for a 3rd time, Barry saw the blur melt away and he saw a simple smile.
Barry felt all the dread sink away as the Tall man opened and walked through the door.
Anthony and Serena came back both wearing all smiles now. Barry attempted to rally his spirits and smile, but he only felt his heartbeat once again.
"Sorry about that guy. He seems to have shaken you up pretty bad." Serena drawls, pulling a chair over to the bed. She sits and grabs Barry's wrist again. Her gentle touch igniting the pins and needles again in his body.
The pain shifts around his body until it finally reaches an epicenter. The base of his spine.
The horrid rotting feeling in his spine pushes Barry into the black of unconsciousness. Before he forced his way out. He sucks air into his teeth hard. Feeling tears sqeeuzed out of his eyes while Serena runs her thumb over his wrist.
Anthony just sat, too stunned by the display to say anything.
Barry's body arched off the bed, giant drops of sweat dropped from his head, his knuckles white and strained as Serena just sat. Pain clearly showing in her expressions.
Silent screams ripped through his sandpaper throat, until finally one single yell pierced the blockade his throat had set up.
His scream resounded through the hospital bouncing around the thick, eggshell white walls that confined him here.
Then boom.
The surge ceased. Barry felt the darkness encroaching, and he fell back to the bed.
There he stood once more. On the edge of that abyss. He fell into it, accepting the comfort that comes with sleep.
YOU ARE READING
What Lies Inside
Science FictionBarry Smith was never a normal man by any rights. He wasn't strong, he wasnt brave, he was just an uneventful man, he was average in each and everyway. When he decided he was sick of this mundane life, he donned a lab coat and set his eyes on geneti...
