by Harper Doyle
“You must know by now that what you see here is not the true way things are. I assume that someone along the way has informed you of this facility’s true purpose, am I correct?” Rebecca’s voice was serious and rigid, leaving little room for the bubbly girl that Nadia had met.
“Jack told me that this was a place that created cyborgs for the government.”
“That’s true, did Jack also tell you that the death rate is 55%. A good portion of the people that come in here never make it to the final stages. The 55% are those that die after completion, those who die during are much higher. I know that since you have made it here to the community housing they have already injected you with the tracking device and tested for allergies. Your next step is for them to replace something of yours that is small, or doesn’t take much time to heal. For me the first thing they plan to do is my eyes, then ears, they do the small things until you are old enough to do the limb replacement. I am telling you these things so that you may be prepared for what is to come.” Nadia was astounded that Rebecca knew so much and that her eyes and ears were already planned to become machine.
“How long have you been here?”
“For over two years”
“How were you taken?”
“My family and I were living in California at the time. I was on my home from school when they took me. I was barely nine at the time. For over two years I have been here, and in that time many horrible things have happened to me and to others. I have seen my fair share, and seen many friends die much too soon. I hope that by entrusting you with the information I have we will be a support system for each other. I may be only twelve, but I have seen death, pain, and torture and I need someone that I can rely on. I feel strongly that you are that person. I wish for you to tell me about yourself, really this time. In order to form a strong alliance we must know each other closely.”
“I’m afraid that my story is quite a tough one and being that it happened so recently I don’t know if I am strong enough to tell it and not walk away an emotional wreck. All that I can say at this moment is that my family was taken from me and now I am living here in this place that wants to ultimately make me their property. I don’t take well to having people overpower me, but in this situation that seems to be all that’s happening to me. Frankly I have no idea what to do from here.” For a while there was silence between them, Nadia unable to find the words to continue her story, Rebecca uncertain what to say next. In the end it was Rebecca who posed another question.
“Do you know what exactly happens here?”
“People take human beings and convert them into living machines that work for the government as killers. At least that was the gist I got from it.” Nadia was furious at the world, for sending her here, for taking her family and now for taking her life day by day. Rebecca turned to see if anyone was coming, finding no one there she faced Nadia once more.
“Well, while that may be true, don’t say it too loudly; the warden doesn’t respond well to those that trash the company’s name. He is so naïve, to think that what the people here are doing is life altering and purposeful. He may be the nicest out of the bunch here but he is also the most clueless. Even I know more than he does about how this place runs. The truth is that this facility was created to produce artificial intelligence, and that is what they tell the public and government.
“Little do they know that the company is kidnapping children like us and slowly changing them into the robots they claim to create. You see they tried to create a robot that was completely made of machine, but the experiment failed so horribly that they had to turn to human transformation, which leads us to where we are today.” Rebecca stopped for a moment to take a breath and focus her thoughts. “Filthy pigs, that’s what they are. Who gives them the right to toy with our lives? They are not God, nor did they earn the right to play with our lives! It sickens me to know that my life is going to end in short while no matter what I do. Whether I am lost to the shadow of death or the promise of eternal damnation, confined in a hollow shell.”
What Rebecca said hit Nadia’s heart, because Rebecca’s fate was Nadia’s fate, the two were intermingled and would be till their ends. Each person in the housing was connected by a fate that they were to be lost at some point during this crazy scheme. Though life was to be a precious thing Nadia wished that, if given the choice, she wanted to die before the company encased her mind, body and soul in steel. For once that happened; she existed forever in limbo, neither dead, nor alive. Her being would no longer be hers, and the thought of becoming a thing instead of a person was more than she could handle.
“What is the purpose of living knowing that your life means nothing?” Nadia asked Rebecca, as if this small girl held all the answers. Rebecca wanted to give Nadia an answer, but there was none to give.
“I don’t know, perhaps for us living is hoping that one day, before we are lost we find a way out or at least leave a memory in the minds of others. It is possible to exist through the memories left behind. That is the best answer I can give.” After that Nadia and Rebecca sat together, no longer talking. They sat there until there was a call announcing that the lights were going off in five minutes. The two of them got up and walked back to the beds. Once Rebecca rejoined the rest of the population of the community housing she placed her barrier of cheerfulness back up and pretended that everything was peachy keen fine. Nadia had no such barricades and instead just got into the top bunk and laid down waiting for sleep to overcome her. Though when sleep finally did come it was plagued by thoughts of what lay ahead, and nightmares of being suffocated in steel.
Chapter 3
The next morning started promptly at seven thirty with a loud bell ringing. Nadia was not ready for such a noise and nearly fell out of the top bunk. Somehow Rebecca was already up and getting dressed. Nadia pulled herself out of the covers and stared blankly at Rebecca as if waiting for some cue.
“Time to get up sleepy head, breakfast will be ready in half an hour, you need to get dressed.” Rebecca threw some clothes in Nadia’s general direction then headed off to brush her hair at one of the bathrooms nearby. Nadia took that as a sign to get her lazy butt out of bed. Groggily she put the clothes on and walked in the general direction that Rebecca had gone and got herself ready in the bathroom. Breakfast was served exactly on time and after gobbling down some sort of bran muffin with a glass of orange juice Nadia was finally awake for the day. Once breakfast was completed Rebecca pulled Nadia along to a room that was supposed to be the school room. It was simply made with twenty desks lined up in four rows of five. The teacher or at least the person whom was to teach them was a stout old lady that had dyed brown hair and wrinkles. Like most of the people at the facility she seemed unapproachable and harsh.
“New student?” Her voice was as unpleasant as her appearance.
“Yes,” Nadia responded. The teacher gave her the once over and placed her in the front row, so that she could keep an eye on Nadia.
The schooling went by without a problem, the schoolwork was slightly difficult, but if Nadia remembered correctly this was an accelerated program designed to further the education in a shorter time. The lunch break seemed to whiz by in a blink of an eye and then it was time for the training session. Nadia was unsure of what to expect from the training class, she had been informed that it was some sort of hand to hand combat learning. Nadia grabbed Rebecca and pulled her to the side before the class began so as to get an idea of what she was getting herself into.
“Rebecca, what the heck do we do in the training session?”
“It’s not that bad, we learn basic self defense and some kicks. It gets harder as you get older but they know that you have to start somewhere.” Nadia let out a sigh of relief knowing that she was not going to make a complete fool of herself. As it turned out the teacher, sensei he liked to be called was a decent man. H
e was by no means kind or cheerful; he just was not harsh or overly grumpy. The class went by quick enough and it was dinner time before Nadia knew it. Many of the kids there went to the optional class, leaving Rebecca and Nadia behind once more. Nadia had looked over the list of classes offered and determined that the extra free time she got she would spend with Rebecca.
Much of the subsequent days followed the routine set out. That is until Jack decided to make a surprise trip to see Nadia. He came in at lunch time, while Nadia was sitting with the other girls eating a turkey sandwich. Jack approached the table silently and nobody noticed until he was already there.
“Hello there Miss Rachmaninov, how are you fairing here at our lovely abode?” His voice was like oil, thick and dirty. Nadia had no words to say to him, she merely stared at his stubby chin, hoping that he would just go away.
“Is that anyway to treat a friend? Come now, I am just here to see you. Well, that is not entirely true, I am here to see you, but I am also here to take you away for a little procedure. Quite harmless, not very painful and extremely helpful. Come, let us take a walk, there is much I need to tell you and even more for you to see.” Jack waited for a moment, and once it was clear that Nadia had no intention of getting up he grabbed her arm and started to pull her along after him. Nadia tried to fight him, but in the end she allowed him to guide her, but still put up a fight every once in a while. Jack took her back down the hall, to the hospital she remembered from nearly a week ago. Nadia remembered that there had been something in the beds, but she had not been able to identify them. This time Jack walked her slowly through the beds, giving her the ability to see each person, or part of a person, in the bed. Those that were partially human consisted of plainly seen mechanical parts; both their arms and legs were machines.
“The ones whom are humanoid are the ones the company uses for spy missions or assassinations. The ones that have no skin coverings are used for infantry in a specially created part of the military. Today we are going to determine which one you are, and to do a psych evaluation. The reason I showed you this today was to get you excited to start your transformation. If you follow me down here we can start your tests and evaluation.” Jack started to walk to the far door towards the back of the room.
Nadia hesitated and felt uneasy about the way this ‘little walk’ was going. Jack once again came back for Nadia and grabbed her once more. This time Nadia did not let up in the resistance and tried her best not to start this process down the road to eventual destruction. Once Jack and Nadia arrived at the door Jack threw the doors open and tossed Nadia in. The doors closed shut behind her, leaving her in total darkness.
Then when Nadia was searching for the door a bright, harsh light turned on, focusing on Nadia. She had to squint to make out what was happening. A woman appeared beyond the light, but was incredibly hard to see, as the light seemed to come forth from her body. Nadia put an arm up to block the light from her eyes and immediately her arm which she extended was grabbed and placed behind her back, quiet painfully. The other arm was seized and pulled behind her as well. With both hands bound, Nadia had nothing to block the light from her eyes. The figure that emerged from beyond the light was now behind Nadia. She was then placed in an iron chair, with her arms behind the backing. Her legs were kept untied and the light recoiled for a moment.
Nadia was tempted to ask this light being what was going on, but then she remembered that this must be the test that Jack had been talking about before. Her plan of attack was to not say anything, to keep her emotions in check and to avoid any confrontation. The figure walked around Nadia until they were directly in front of her, facing her and staring her down.
“Hello, and welcome to my torture chamber. I am going to ask you a series of questions, if you do not answer them to my satisfaction I am going to have to do some unpleasant things to you. Do you understand?” Nadia said nothing, looking straight ahead, unflinching in her state. The woman sighed and started to pace back and forth in front of Nadia.
“So you wish to play that game, do you? If that is your choice then I can do nothing to persuade you, except maybe to inflict bodily damage.” At that time the person slapped Nadia on the left side of her face. For some reason Nadia let out a giggle. This perplexed the figure and stopped the pacing, temporarily.
“If you are slapped on the left side, offer the other cheek. So, shadowed being, I offer you my right cheek. Do with it as you will.” Nadia had decided to not say anything, but could not contain herself in commenting on the irony of the situation. To her God no longer existed, for if he did surely he would not condemn so many innocent kids, including her, to die. The figure, having their curiosity sated began pacing yet again.
“So you think yourself a follower of God? I find that odd. For you will not find God here, nor will you find comfort or mercy.” As if to solidify their words the figure followed Nadia’s suggestion and slapped her other cheek so that they mirrored each other, near perfect symmetry. Nadia was no longer giggling or thinking of God. She tried her best to clear her mind of any thought, to find her place of Zen, so to speak.
The time stretched on and the being asked questions and Nadia remained emotionless, unmoving, unflinching. The woman beyond the light would lash out with violence every time her questions went unanswered. Nadia received punches to the face and abdomen. There was the occasional bout of electrical shock via Taser gun. That was always fun. Toward the end Nadia was pretty out of it, but she vaguely recalled some form of needle being used on her, but her mind and body were so numb from the seemingly endless hours in the torture room that she barely seemed to notice anything. This process continued on and on for what seemed like hours. Then, all at once the being stopped torturing her and turned to face Nadia.
“You are quite determined to remain emotionless and stoic. Our time together has come to an end. May you be as strong as you have portrayed here, fare thee well.” The figure dissolved into the darkness past the light and the test was over. The bright light turned off and Nadia could feel the ropes loosening, becoming slack enough for her to slip her hands out. The chair was taken out from underneath her and Nadia fell to the ground. The dozens of bruises and cuts began to sting and caused her to gasp with the sudden pain as she fell to the ground.
During the time in the room Nadia was able to leave her body by escaping into her mind. A most dreadful place, it was still far better than staying alert for the senseless beatings she had received. Beyond the first slaps across her face Nadia had tuned out the world. Abruptly shoved back into reality allowed the pain to reach her brain and that occupied most of Nadia’s thoughts at the moment. The room was still dark and Nadia knew that she should look for the door, to see if there was a chance to escape, but alas she was paralyzed by the pain.
It was at that moment that Jack reappeared, pushing the double doors open letting in the fluorescent light of the hallway. He approached Nadia, but she did not respond to his arrival at her side. He examined her injuries by looking her over; she had mostly bruises, as well as a few cuts along her arms and face. Amazing what the mind could block out, even more amazing what the mind didn’t. Jack took out a case and unzipped it, within the case with a pair of needles and a vial of blue liquid. He filled the needle with the liquid from the vial and injected it into Nadia as he began to talk to her.
“Good job Nadia, you were selected to become a spy cyborg. You should feel proud, it is quite difficult to set yourself apart like that. I lied before, there were never two tests, this one here was both a test to determine your ranking as well as evaluate your mind. I am happy to announce that you are one of the top ranking subjects at this time. If you can still hear me now, I am going to tell you when your first procedure will be done.” He paused for a moment to see is Nadia was absorbing anything he was saying. From the look of it she hadn’t heard a thing he had said. That was not going to stop him from talking to her as if
she did.
“Your first procedure is an eye replacement, the left one to be exact. We have on file that you have less than perfect vision in that eye, so out of the kindness of our hearts we are going to fix that for you. By replacing your eye with the state of the art mechanical eye you will be able to see farther and analyze danger quicker. After that eye is healed and functioning properly we are going to replace the other one. Your first surgery is taking place next week, aren’t you so excited?” Jack was mock applauding, more for his own amusement than anyone else’s. He picked Nadia up from the ground and took her to the infirmary where they bandaged her cuts. The injection that Jack had given her was a combination of pain killers and nanites.
The nanites that were injected into Nadia’s bloodstream were tiny robots that would act as tiny helpers, speeding up the healing process and decreasing the chance for infection. This project had just been approved for use a few months earlier and if kept monitored with yearly injections the study was a proved success. They were able to combat most minor wounds and hold off nearly every type of infection. The downside was that is was extremely exhausting to maintain, both for the host and nanites. They tended to die out every year and when they did it cause the host of the tiny bots to experience horrible pain and exhaustion. This was why the scientists injected them into future cyborgs. By the time that the first round was due to die off a decent portion of hosts body would be replaced, so at least it would be less painful than a fully fleshed human.
Nadia was kept in the infirmary for only an hour before she was taken back to the community housing to return to the routine she had been given. Nadia was still out of it, near the point of unconsciousness, when she was returned to her bed. Rebecca and the other girls were at the training session still which made Nadia question how long she had been in the room. For the next few hours, well after dinner, Nadia was in alternating stages of consciousness. She vaguely remembered Rebecca watching over her and a few of the other girls hovering off in the distance. At one point Rebecca was offering food in front of Nadia’s face, but without energy, nor the will to lift her head Rebecca gave up on that. The night passed in rounds of pain and sharp breathing. The nanites were taking effect, and the first time they went to work was tense and painful. They were hastening the recovery time for Nadia but to grow skin and to mend damaged muscles was a long and agonizing process.