LOCKED

by DaSilva, Luis

  “In a minute! Anyway, tell me your end of the story. How you got here. Then I’ll tell you mine.” she bargained.

  “Alright. Well, I got chased by that helicopter… It started firing on me, I got sho—OH GOD, MY LEG!” I had just remembered! I quickly turned around and grabbed the one that had been shot, and… it was just fine. I was astonished that the thought had escaped me in between all the events that happened since that moment. All eyes in the room were on me.

  “What is it?!” Danni asked shakily, eyes wide open. My own eyes were open wider, and I tried to run every thought from the past few days through my head. Eddy and Beich walked over to me to find out what I was screaming about.

  “I ran into the subway, the helicopter tried shooting at me… I got hit a few times but it didn’t hurt or anything… and now it’s fine…” I whispered to myself, but loud enough for Danni to hear. Just a second later, we snapped our heads from my leg to each other’s eyes.

  “MILLER’S DRUG.” we said in unison. We looked over to Eddy and Beich, and they just looked at me as though the concept of bullet wounds healing themselves in a few hours was abnormal. The two looked at each other, and back to me.

  “You’re coming with me.” Beich somehow commanded non-threateningly. Eddy and Danni tagged along as I was led out of the room, down the claustrophobic corridors, and into a slightly larger room which basically was the same as the one Danni was being tested in except for the single rotten cot in the middle of the room.

  “Alright, hop in.” he pointed to the cot. I did as he told, and laid back. The fibers underneath me felt like spider webs, ready to break at any moment. I watched him the entire time, which I did have a bad habit of doing with nurses, dentists, and now doctors I found in a factory. He ruffled through some boxes underneath the cot for a moment.

  “Ok, this’ll hurt for just a second…” Beich muttered as he pulled my pants leg up a bit, and prepared a needle that he got from the little box. He rubbed it lightly with alcohol, its burning smell filling the room.

  “AH, GOD!” I screamed out when I felt the needle shoved right into the back of my leg, even after I realized I hadn’t really FELT its sting, just the needle going in.

  “Calm down, you’re fine, you’re fine… don’t act like a child…” he groaned as he turned away, thinking I couldn’t hear him.

  “Eddy.” Beich held out his hand, and Eddy threw his hand into his own pocket for a moment before pulling out the familiar little black device he’d been using every so often. Beich took it from Eddy, and held it over the needle for a second.

  “Not bad.” I commented. So far, the little device was a messenger and a medical sampler. The screen on the device showed several graphs and blurry images of what I guessed were blood cells or something of the sort.

  Beich gasped quietly. I tried to shoot right up out of the bed and just ask him what was wrong with me, but he quickly subdued me with a gentle push back onto the bed and I came to the conclusion that he knew what he was doing. He slid his fingers over the graphs and quickly reviewed any and all statistics that came up with startling speed.

  “So… it really does look like your wounds repair themselves literally in seconds.” he gulped. This time, I really did shoot straight up.

  “Leo, I think this is a side effect of either the original medication Miller gave you, or the shot that supposedly fixed what the first did.” the doctor tried to explain in the most down-to-earth way possible without using terminology he knew I wouldn’t understand. He showed me a visual display on the little black device he was using. It had two videos side by side, one was my own blood cells and the other video featured normal blood cells. My own seemed to be moving around much more erratically; jumping, running, jerking much faster than the other. Beich pulled out a small scalpel from underneath the cot, and held the device in his other hand.

  “This won’t hurt a bit. And this time, I actually mean it.” he chuckled sadistically. He made a small incision, so minute that I couldn’t even feel it. He quickly put the scalpel aside, pressed the touch screen on the device a few times, and held it up to the microscopic cut he had just made.

  “Hmm… I’m going to be perfectly honest; I’ve never seen anything like it. I saw that cut mend itself before my eyes. And there’s morphine in it too! You won’t feel pain!” the doctor let out a deep breath with wide eyes.

  “I hope you don’t mind…” he mumbled before shoving the wicked needle right back into my leg, taking a blood sample, and slipping it right back out. The lab worker walked over to a machine on the other side of the room to store the new found “magic” blood. I turned back to Danni.

  “So… photographic memory?” I grinned from ear to ear, hoping that she’d finally explain. She sighed and smiled at the same time, and sat down next to me.

  “Yep, I’ve got it. I just never really wanted to talk about it because… well, think about it! You remember EVERYTHING. I never wanted you to think any differently of me for having a little quirk. I remember the weather on this date three years ago. I remember page thirty-six of my math book when I was eight (it was on PEMDAS). I remember when I thought I wouldn’t be able to save you…” she exhaled and blushed. Her frustration grew the more she explained, clearly uncomfortable that I wasn’t the only member of the audience of her explanation. Thankfully, the awkwardness was cleansed from the room when the lab worker found something to say.

  “Ok! So as I’ve already told you, Leo, you have regenerative tissue. Well, highly advanced regenerative tissue, if that makes more sense. Your blood cells are much more effective at fixing wounds, to put it in a very brief nutshell. That said, we have all the living essentials here if you chose to stay! We need to study the blood samples we have, and it’d be wonderful to have the source right here.” Beich described this with a bit of timidness toward the end, tapping his fingers together.

  “So I’m supposed to be your lab rat? I haven’t been through that already?” I asked in a somewhat accusatory tone.

  “You have to think about this. There is literally nothing out there but war and wasteland. Where else do you have to go?” Eddy butted in before letting me continue.

  “I, uh, know it might sound kinda cruel, but…” he looked down and rubbed the back of his neck, “… your world out there? It’s gone. You really don’t have anywhere else TO go. It’s not like we’re killing you here anyway.” he gravely stated. I felt hopelessness bubble up inside, not just over what he said, but the truthfulness behind it. I took one more look at Danni, and the light seemed to diminish in her eyes, but a certain passion was still there; I could see that she wasn’t ready to extinguish the flame completely, not just yet.

  “So… I know it’s tough. I uh… you, well… you’ll be alright. We’ll give you little jobs for your first few weeks so you can get used to the place. We have plenty of cots for you two to sleep in, better get a lot of rest after the hell you’ve been through.” Eddy explained. He didn’t want to say just what that task would be, but I had a feeling that I would be a janitor in addition to an experiment for some time.

  “So… what do we do with the rest of the day?” I asked.

  “Rest of the day? It’s already night! Get in bed!” he laughed. I was taken aback by how easy it was to lose track of the time when you couldn’t see the sun. After the initial uneasiness wore off, I tried to get comfy in the cot I was supposed to sleep in. Another cot was pulled in from another room so Danni could sleep beside me. Just as quickly as night had descended, the lights went out and Danni and I were plunged into darkness. I closed my eyes, and made a laughable attempt to sleep. How could I sleep in peace again? This would be my first night’s sleep after being haunted by hallucinations of demons, being in a crippling coma, chased by helicopters, and almost losing my life. Danni seemed to be able to read my mind.

  “Leo?”

  “Danni?”

  “We’ll be ok. I trust these guys.”

  “Are you serious? They just picked us up today and ro
ped us into working for ‘em.”

  “Would I let you do anything that I thought you couldn’t handle?”

  “…I guess.”

  “Guess that I would or wouldn’t?”

  “Wouldn’t! For God’s sake, anything else, ma’am?”

  “Yes, a latte. Don’t make it too hot. Oh, and a back massage. Chop chop!” I smiled, and felt safe again. My mind began slipping away once more, only it was under my own control…

  And so the cycle of days within the facility began. The duties that were assigned seemed to eventually blend into one, and living became gray, monotonous. For both Danni and myself, survival depended upon the other; our friendship became the fuel that drove us onward through a life within the mechanized behemoth. Typically, the day started with Eddy shouting at us to wake up; we usually had no idea what the time was, as we didn’t have a clock in the room we slept in. As soon as we rubbed the sleep from our eyes, we were handed the tools (although the word “tools” suggests that they were effective in completing the job) necessary for that day’s task. Our work was usually spent trying to clean the decrepit facility, but every once in a blue moon it was a little more involved than that. On a lucky day, we would give a few of the many vehicles in the hanger a quick test drive and check-up to make sure that everything was in working order. As soon as the check-ups were complete, Danni and I would strap on Eddy’s old pairs of goggles and take one of the vehicles for a joyride around the gargantuan box of a hanger (though always staying well out of reach of the grated floors in the center; we never did trust those). Driving around at breakneck speeds became something to look forward to on those off days, even though our lungs would be full of dust by the end of it. Still, the average day was much more lackluster. Meals, a shower, and rest were all that we really had to look forward to once we were told that night fell, seeing as the sun seemed to shy away from our sight. Once night approached, a sort of ritual had been formed: at the end of each day of fate’s new creation, I asked a tired, scrapped, and incensed Danni one question before turning the lights out:

  “So…still trust these guys?”

  Her reply was always a soul-penetrating glare before taking her glasses off and turning the lights out by her bed without breaking eye contact.

  One of the most notable parts of our existence in the facility was the lack of fresh air. We were never given a chance to go outside, seeing as our menial little jobs required us to stay deep within the steel labyrinth. It seemed like so long since I had seen the sun, even though I had probably only been within the facility a few days by that point. Natural light seemed so scarce that I had to wonder if Eddy’s eyes had adjusted to subterranean-like conditions underneath those red goggles he always wore.

  Speaking of Eddy’s existence in the metallic caverns, Danni tended to butt heads with him when given directions. Wherever, whenever she was given a “do this, this, and that”, Danni would faithfully respond with a “why?” It was probably due to Danni seeing her own behavior as refusal to be a slave, which then involuntarily included refusal that U.S.P.L. was our only hope for survival in a world desolate. Still, she seemed to only confront his role as a leader. On the off-chance that they crossed paths off-duty, they shared a mutual respect. The three of us formed a trio that, while stress-inducing at times, ultimately made the factory life as healthy as possible (of course, only speaking in terms of mental health rather than physical).

  One afternoon, maybe two weeks after we had first arrived, Eddy sent us to do some maintenance in the iron jungle I had seen when I first arrived. We were handed a clipboard with a checklist and essentially told to make sure everything was in working order without any prior experience or supervision. Needless to say…it became a nightmare.

  Danni and I had no sort of guide as to where this lever or that monitor was. We had no idea where the ladder to the pressure gauge was. There wasn’t even a hint as to where the “central conveyer system” was. Our best bet was to simply examine every object in sight and mark down whatever statistics Eddy was looking for to the best of our ability. The numerous drones and bots on predetermined pathways didn’t help much, either. They littered the floor, clambered and climbed over machinery, and whizzed through the air. Their electronic language unheard by us made us feel suspicious, as though they were talking, teasing, plotting behind our backs.

  At one point, while I was trying to make sense of a series of dials and measurements in a corner of the mechanic undergrowth, I heard a sharp expletive come from Danni some distance away.

  “Danni? Everything ok?” I shouted behind me.

  “…It’s nothing!” she replied back after a delay. I stared ahead for a second or two, thinking over what may have happened, until I realized that whatever she had done really wasn’t my problem…

  …Until a loud “pop!” and the sound of cracking glass preceded every bit of machinery in the facility going out at once. Robots, lights, ventilation, conveyors… all shut off.

  “…Well, that just happened.” I stated in as neutral a way as I could.

  “YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT DID!” I heard Eddy shout as a door slammed open near the two of us. I saw the beam of his flashlight waving around, poking holes in the darkness between machines. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danni oh-so-slyly slip through the door behind him, obviously not wanting to take the blame. I took a step forward to make the very same escape, but knocked my foot against a metal bar on the floor that I hadn’t seen. As fortune would have it, I immediately found the flashlight shining in my face.

  Soon after, Eddy turned the emergency generator on, and it produced a series of very dim lights throughout the facility. The eyes on the ceiling that previously stalked our every movement with a bloodbath of light suddenly seemed to have a dulled interest. I found Danni in a sleeping quarter nearby, and she didn’t look the least bit guilty.

  “So? How did things go?” she asked.

  “What do you think?” I grudgingly replied, rubbing the bruise on the back of my head that I had just received after being discovered as the “culprit”.

  “Ooh, sorry!” she winced. After a few awkward moments of silence, Danni looked right into my eyes.

  “…yes, I do still trust these guys.” she grinned with the utmost sense of smugness. I couldn’t help but tense up, but at the same time, new memories were being made. The facility was up and running at one-hundred percent efficiency again by the time the next morning came. For some reason or another, Danni and I were never allowed in that assembly zone of the facility again.

  “UPUPUP! Gettup! Gettup!” Eddy could’ve been ringing a massive bell in my face for all I knew, because his booming voice drowned out anything else. My eyes shot open, but I should have been more used to the schedule after about a month of living in the facility.

  Eddy chuckled. I noticed that the room was a little bit more brightly lit than before, but not by much. It was still the rusty sort of light filtered through the dust. I groggily swung my legs over the side of the cot, and lazily dragged my feet wherever Eddy was leading me today. He pointed to several doors along the hallway.

  “Wash up and shower n’ stuff in here right now, get new clothes over there, get a hot meal in here, and at the end of the hallway’s the door where you’ll meet up with me and Danni. Today’s a little different.” he directed. I nodded, and proceeded to get my new day started.

  I took my shower and changed into a new pair of jeans, a new shirt, and a light jacket. Next, I got my “hot” meal (this oatmeal might have been hot five hours ago…). I forced the heavy steel door open, and was in a lobby of sorts. A sigh-worthy, wide open space with cafeteria tables in a few places and light sneaking, filtering in from the ceiling, similar to that in Tank’s room. It was so reminiscent of the old, normal days. Danni and Eddy were sitting at one of the tables and motioned me over. I sat down beside Danni, noticing that she had changed into an aquamarine blouse and ripped jeans. Eddy was on the other side of the table, wearing essentially the same outfit as ev
ery day before.

  “Ok! So… this being your first REAL job at U.S.P.L., I just have to tell you how things go. I’ll be the one assigning you jobs, kinda like how I have been so far. I’m basically your supervisor.” The new procedure seemed so formal after a month of having cleaning duty…I guess Danni and I proved we were ready for a promotion.

  “Ok, so… your first task…” Eddy rubbed his temples and pulled out some documents before continuing.

  “Um, let’s see…Ooh, you’re lucky! Tank is gonna join you on your trip. First thing you’ve gotta know is that we have a network. We send them money and supplies so they give us info and other stuff. Sending ‘em messages electronically is too dangerous, so you’ve gotta send this to this address; it’s on the other side of what WAS the city. You’ll find your way.” Eddy handed me two different papers in both hands. One had a rough scribbling of an address, and the other had what looked like a doctor’s note:

  Need some antibacterial runnin low pass Millerout

  That was all that was scrawled on the paper. I looked up at Eddy questionably, but he didn’t seem concerned.

  “And why do we need Tank?” Danni inquired. She must have seen him and his startling destruction already.

  “You’re headin’ through the ruins of the city. You might find some nasty guerillas, ya never know.” Eddy explained. He seemed to be done briefing us as he stood up and neatly filed the documents (which seemed unlike him).

  “Ok, I got Tank ready for you while you two were sleepin’. The way out is over here.” Eddy pointed to a large metal door, not unlike a massive garage. It was already starting to open. Tank’s back was to us, and we could get a good glimpse at a few more details of his iron body, such as a large pack that may have been used as a battery, and jets on his “ankles” which may have been used to help him jump short distances, considering how heavy he must have been. In front of Tank were the ruins of our city. The skies were bleak and gray, the clouds huddled together to mourn. The city from here looked like it was made of little more than indiscriminate brown and gray bricks, little more than rubble. Danni and I let out a heavy sigh, and began our trek to the other side of the ashes of our home.