The Post Sunday Experiment | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 21

It was strange, the longer Penny laid on the bed with the tubes covering her, the more exhaustion begged her to close her eyes and sleep. She had only been in that room for a day, but to her, it felt as if it had been weeks.

The bright, white lights bore into her, the high-pitched buzz of the monitor screens hurt her head. It felt like hours had passed before a doctor came in the room and took out all of Penny's tubes and wires.

"Miss. Penny, I'm delighted to tell you that you appear to be clean." The man reassured her as he took off his facial covering and smiled at her. He had a round face, many freckles, and a messy, mop-top of red hair that looked like he desperately needed a haircut.

"Clean of what?" she asked as the wristbands that held her down opened up so she could sit up.

The man creases his brow with confusion and straightened himself up. "Never mind that, Miss. Penny. Let's get you to your room."

"No, really, what is it? I do mind."

"Uh—I'm not authorized to tell you that. If you don't already know, you won't find out."

Penny sat up in bed. She climbed to her feet in her paper doctor's gown. The girl met the man's eyes and gazed into them with such intensity that the palms of his hands became sweaty.

"Please," she whispered in a soft voice as she took a step closer to him. She tilted her head. There was something in her eyes that the man didn't understand. It pulled him in with a look and as soon as his eyes noticed it he thought he was dreaming.

Watching through the security cameras from the room above, Mr. Aldrich squinted at the monitor screen in confusion.

"I- uh-"

"I just want one name," she whispered softly. "Say it."

At that moment, another man barged into the room. He took Penny firmly by the wrists without saying a word to her.

"Whatcha ya gonna do now? Huh? Drag me back to that cell?" she screamed. No one responded to her, but she continued to shout at them all. Penny squirmed to break free from the man's grasp, but he was much bigger than her. He easily dragged her to a cell-like room and closed the door.

Two hours later, Mr. Aldrich walked into the room. Penny sat on her cot and stared at the wall as if she were watching television.

"May I speak to you, Miss. Winter?" The man came in and pulled over a chair.

"No." She continued to stare at the wall.

"What is it you did to that man back there?" He spoke, ignoring her previous answer. Scoffing, Penny turned her chubby face from the wall to face Mr. Aldrich's sunglasses.

"Why should I tell you?" spat Penny as she looked the man up and down.

The man gritted his teeth. "Because I have control of your life." The man's intensity made Penny uneasy, but she refused to show her fear. Instead, she held onto her pride.

"No ya don't."

"Excuse me?" spoke Mr. Aldrich as he stood up to look down on her with his towering figure.

"Ya don't have power over my life," she laid out very clearly as she looked dead at his sunglasses. "Ya cannot kill me and ya know it."

"Why is that?" the man smirked as he sat down again, a look of mocking amusement on his face.

"Because you need this job and ya need me."

Scoffing, Mr. Aldrich replied, "I do, do I? And why is that?"

"Because ya can't find Ody without me and if ya do not find him, then he will leak the Post Sunday Experiment to the world."

The man's face drained white but his countenance was soon regained as he took in a deep breath and sat back down.

"He doesn't know what that really is."

"Oh?"

"Yes."

Smiling a little, Penny looked back at the wall, "You mean about Technasma?" Penny tried to smother the look of triumph that threatened to overtake her face.

"How did you..?" The man stared at her with anger and horror. Penny only shook her head. She had said her peace, her lips were sealed.

***

Anger poured from the man's eyes as he walked at a clip up the metal steps to where the red head sat on his bed on break. The rest of his face was relaxed yet his eyes gave his true countenance away.

Mr. Aldrich had been sure the children were ignorant to the true fact behind the PSE yet how then had Penny known about the Technasma? The man was positive an employee of his had let the word slip when they were testing her to see if she was a carrier but that was all he could come to.

As he opened the door, the man crossed his arms to look down at the red headed boy. The red head tensed and stuttered to find words to say.

"Dr. Ben," Mr. Aldrich composed himself as he nodded at the man who was no older than 22—the boy was practically a child.

"Yes, sir?" Benny—the red head—did his best to keep his voice from quivering. Looking up at Mr. Aldrich, the boy didn't know what to say or do. He'd never spoken one on one with the director of the PSE. As he sat there and watched the director give him his full attention, he wasn't sure what to do with himself.

"May I sit down?" The man spoke with no hint of emotion in his firm voice that was secretly aggravated.

"Of course, sir." Benny pulled his desk chair out for the man. sat back down on his bed with posture so perfect that it made Mr. Aldrich slightly uncomfortable. He was used to the stiffness of the young doctors, they simply wanted to impress.

"Dr. Ben, what- was it that the little girl did? We noticed your reaction. What went on in there?" Mr. Aldrich chose his words carefully so he wouldn't have to repeat himself.

"Oh." Benny hesitated with embarrassment as he remembered the situation. "It wasn't what she did, sir, but what I noticed." Benny's gaze fell to the floor, humiliation of how he must've sounded burning his ears a bright pink.

"And what did you notice, Benny?" spoke Mr. Aldrich softly as he crossed his ankle over his knee and leaned forward on his hands in interest.

"It was- her eyes." His voice was just above a whisper. Directing his gaze back over to Mr. Aldrich, he continued, "There was a spark in them. It was like she was animal—even though I probably imagined this and it's entirely false and I most definitely made it up-"

"Ben! Continue."

"Well... it was almost as if the pupils of her eyes flashed to slits for a second. Like the eyes of a cat or snake."

There was a pause where Benny's eyes awkwardly begged Mr. Aldrich to speak but Mr. Aldrich contemplated his words in silence. Self-conscious that Mr. Aldrich thought of him as crazy, Benny opened his mouth to defend his statement but was cut off.

"Dr. Ben, I need you to do me a favor." Mr. Aldrich pushed his sunglasses up farther to his face.

"Anything, sir," replied Benny as quickly as he could. He hoped he could find a way to regain the respect he believed he had lost when really he had not.

"I need you to tell the second floor that basement five needs to interview a 'Mae Winter'—the ex-wife of our employee Devlin Winter. We need her to begin working as soon as possible."