Spectrum

5.5: Yellow

"Where are you taking me?!" his voice was now hoarse, rasping out the words as if his very life depended on it. "Hey!" the rasp was now decreasing to a low whisper, and dizziness overcame his body in a wracking fit. He would have been sick in a corner, if his body had anything it could even get out of its system, but that was not the case. He was shutting down. 

-

White lights shone in the male's face through his eyelids - he opened them to the tune of a beeping machine. Was he in the hospital? No. This looked too desolate and large to be a hospital room, and the woman that stood over him was not wearing the proper clothes that would have been necessary for her to even enter a patient's room if she was a medical doctor. 

"Where… am… I?" the boy mouthed, not having the strength to pronounce the words - the woman smiled at him sadly, her face looking oddly familiar to him, until everything clicked into perfect place simultaneously. She was Helena's and Luke's mother, the woman who had helped him get better when he was ten, and who seemed to be helping him now. 

"You are at the SRU, Caleb. Funny how I always seem to be saving you, isn't it? We were in the middle of the transportation process when you seemed to pass out in the back seat, and before we even try to begin the isolation process, we need to make sure your body is in prime condition, so that you do not go into cardiac arrest from the lack of the sustenance in your body, the saturation inside you." Her voice was just as soft as it had been all those years ago, and it made the boy smile to himself - one of the only legitimate smiles that had been on his face in a long time. 

"Thank you…" he murmured, and the woman (he had yet to learn her name) smiled down at him in sympathy this time, brushing hair that had fallen from its quiff into his face behind his ear. 

"Do not thank me, Caleb Noble. Everything will come into place later - I just need you to trust me. Can you do that?" A weak nod was her response, a nod that received a slight hum of approval. It had been forever since Luke had actually trusted someone, and despite the fact that he did not trust her children, he thought of all the reasons why he could trust her legitimate. 

A lab assistant rushed into the room, glasses perched on her nose and a clipboard in her hands. 

"Miss Juliet, he seems to be ready for the Isolation Process." She said quietly, respectfully, and the woman - Miss Juliet appeared to be her name - turned to the male on the table and slightly lifted up his shirt sleeve, his eyes following her the entire time, watching her every move; trusting, believing. 

"Now, Caleb Noble, close your eyes, and picture your happiest memory. " A nozzle type object was in her hands now, an object that reminded him of a Tardigrade that he had seen in his biology textbooks. "You might feel a slight tugging pain, but other than that, the procedure should feel like taking a nap."

-

"Caleb!" A small boy's voice was sharp and clear as its owner pulled on Caleb's wrist, leading him outside, a ball in the other hand. "Play catch with me? C'mon, please?" A deep rumbling chuckle echoed in the older boy's throat - his brother always made him so happy, seeing him in the innocent happiness that every child should have the chance to have. 

"I'm coming, Sam, I'm coming…" the happiness in both boys' voices was enough to make any heart melt, and as they stood in the yard that day, the sun beating down on both of their backs and making them sweat, anyone could hear their laughter from down the street. As they chased each other good naturally around the enclosure, anyone could sense the happiness that radiated off of this small family in the suburbs of the large city. 

However, this was a happiness that was very shortlived.