Me

Chapter 4

Soon, my eyes run dry. I stay in a ball on the couch and process all of the information I have just been given. Carolyn is dead, there is some kind of crash that's going to kill us all. "It'll help us," the woman said. Which mean's they're going to restart the experiment. Which means they're again risking the system crashing and killing kids. Although that wouldn't matter because we were artificially grown anyways, or so some people would argue. But just because we were artificially grown doesn't mean we don't have a concious, that we aren't alive.

I stand up and walk over to the door. There's a small barred window at the top of the door and a slot underneath that, through which they give us food. There's a metal slide that goes over it, so I'm not forced to see out of it. I move the slide back and stand on my tiptoes. "Hey," I yell. Nobody seems to hear me. "Hello?" I try again. I pound on the door, kick the door, do everything I can to get somebody to notice me. If there's no one in the halls, then they have cameras.

I remember the button next to the door. I could push it, but it's only for emergencies. But this is an emergency of sorts. I decide to use it as a last resort.

I go back to creating as much noise as possible. "You can't just lock us in here!" I yell, pounding on the door.

"Jaz?" I hear a voice next to me.

"Reyna? Is that you?"

"Yeah."

"Help me get their attention."

"This is inhumane!" I hear Reyna yell. Loud thuds can be heard as well, and I assume that she's pounding and kicking as well.

"You need to let us out!"

"You can't do this!"

"There has to be away to prevent this crashing!"

"Can we speak to someone?"

"This is unfair! We need more information!" This is a new voice. It doesn't sound like anyone I know in particular, but all the noise we can make the better.

"We can't stay in here!"

"Let us out!"

"You can't keep us in here!"

New voices yell with us, and pounding resounds throughout the hall. This is surely heard by the scientists, although they aren't paying attention to us.

"We can't be treated like this!"

"You're treating us like prisoners!"

"We're US citizens! We deserve our rights!"

Shouts of rebellion fill the air. Then I get an idea.

"Push your buttons!" I shout. Buzzes fill the air now, as well as shouts and pounding. Scientists come rushing in, trying to calm us down.

"What's the problem!" One yells.

"We need to be let out!" Somebody says.

"We need more information!" Somebody adds.

"Be quiet please," a man's voice says. "Be quiet. BE QUIET!" This shuts everyone up. "All known information has been given to you, and until we know more about this crash, you need to stay in the cells. We don't know what will happen and we need to keep you here until we do.

The man sighs and continues. "We are so sorry that this had to happen. We aren't sure what is going on and until then, we can't fix it. By monitoring you at night, we can see wheter or not there are changes in you genetic makeup. So please, don't do this. The more you do this, the less time we have to focus on fixing the system and the more time we spend explaining this to you. We can explain everything when the system is up and you are out."

"But what if we don't get?" a small voice says.

"Then we don't know."

***

It's five days later, with the same thing happening over and over again, at least for me. I sit and think on the couch, picking at my food that they slip through the slot. I try my hardest to ignore the sounds of others. People are falling like flies. There can be yelling or screaming, and then the scientists rush in. I haven't twitched yet, although I do know that I will. There have been a couple of instinct and adaptability kids who have been taken. Most of the cure and appearance are dead. It happens pretty fast. They press the button, the scientists come in, the kid reports twitching, the scientists strap them into the machine. There's nowhere else to take the kids, so the rest of us are subjected to the sounds of their resistance. Sounds that aren't human.

I hear the screaming now, high pitched and loud, most likely a younger kid.

"Shh, shh, shh," a scientist says, trying to calm the child. The child still screams. It sounds like she's being tortured.The sound of the metal door opening and closing can be heard down the hall. The child stops screaming. She's been injected with anesthesia. They came up with the method yesterday, injecting screaming children with anesthesia. That way, they can carry the child out of the room to some place where they are left to let the genes change them drastically. They don't seem to be doing anything to stop it, although I wouldn't expect that. Even with the inhumane experiments, the scientists still seem to have hearts. The look on the anesthesiologist's face is sad, as they carry the children out of the hall.

I walk over to the door and see a man walking out of the room with a small girl in his arms. Even though she was just screaming, her face seems very, very calm, and the hall is eerily silent. I put my hands on the small ledge where the barred window is, peering out to get a better view. That's when I notice movement, just to my left. The fore finger of my left hand is twitching, ever so slightly. I knew this would happen.

I back up to the couch, watching my finger twitch. I know I should press the button, but it might just me being paranoid. I keep my eyes on finger adn it doesn't twitch again.

Night fall comes soon and I'm strapped in. I don't bother to tell the man about my finger, if it's worse in the morning, I'll let them know.

***

I wake up to silence. That's weird, normally kids are yelling, or pressing their buttons in the morning. Did they fix it? Did the crash right itself? I look at my left hand and find not just my finger moving, but my whole hand. So much for the fixing thing. I unstrap myself like we were told to do and go to press the button. I don't know what will happen, but I think that I will start screaming soon. I wish I knew the mental state of kids when the crash starts to affect them, but I guess I'll find out.

A scientist opens the door and comes running in, down to my door. "What is it?" she asks.

"My hand is twitching. It started yesterday with my finger, but I wasn't sure if that was just my imagination or not." I'm surprised at the sound of my voice, and at myself. I would think I would be scared, but I seem to be calm. Maybe because I know what's coming. Maybe the crash is affecting me already.

"Come on, let's get you strapped in." The door opens and the woman steps in. She's young, and is wearing blue scrubs. "You seem very calm about all of this," she points out. I don't say anything, and I wait for her to put my wrists and ankles in the metal bands. She snaps them shut and attaches wires to different parts of my chest and head. I wait for a few minutes for something to happen, but nothing does. Having nothing else to do, I sleep.

***

"AAAAAAAHHH" A high pitched scream escapes my lips as the pain rushes through my head. There's a pain behind my eyes, a ringing in my ears, a burning in my nose. There's a tingling in my fingertips and movement all around. My wrists and ankles are still in straps, but I can feel my legs and arms shaking against the metal straps. The pain is almost unbearable. My head bangs on the back of the table but it's barely registerable. I suddenly feel hands on my arms, trying to keep me still. I struggle anyways, against my will. My eyes, shut the entire time are blinded by a shining white light. I scream again, and the hands push firmly down on my limbs. I hear voices speaking to each other urgently. I hear another scream, although this time, I'm not sure it came from me. I feel my right arm pinned down and it stops moving. I feel a needle being pushed into my arm. The contents are squirted into my bloodstream, and I fall unconcious.