by Nikita Spoke
“Seriously?” typed Josh. Dr. Harris ignored him, and Jemma paid attention to the voices in her head once more.
“Sorry. They said they hoped languages would translate. It doesn’t sound like they were sure it would work. Some sort of test, I’m sure. We all passed, if that’s any comfort.”
Jack sent what sounded like a snort. “I live to please.”
“Hey, new guy, what’s your name?” asked April.
“Mauro. And you are?”
Introductions went around, Jemma last.
“How’d you get taken?” April asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You haven’t been captured?” clarified Jack.
“No, I haven’t. I signed up for a study they were doing near where I live. It pays well. Does that mean that the three of you were captured?”
“Yeah, we were, so tell everyone you know to help rescue us, okay?” April sent, words nearly colliding.
“Oh no, no no, I have a family I need to keep safe. This money was for them. I’m not saying a thing.”
“I have a family, too, you know,” sent April.
Mauro didn’t respond. He remained silent through Jack’s prodding, too.
“I think he’s gone,” sent Jemma. “Either that or he’s ignoring us.”
“We should assume he can still hear,” sent Jack. “No discussion of— Well, you know.”
“I thought I wanted to visit Italy. I don’t anymore.” April sent disgust.
“Can you really blame him?” sent Jack. “If he’s trying to protect his family? There’s a lot I would and wouldn’t do to keep the people I love safe.”
“Yeah, but I mean, he’s not the one trapped here!”
“You don’t even want to try to escape,” returned Jack. “We offered to try to find you a way out, and you don’t want to take it.”
“All right, that’s enough. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know when a test is going to be the last one because they get bored of a combination or they move on to something else or because…” She swallowed. “We don’t need to spend the time we have arguing like this. Especially not inside my head. It hurts enough already.”
“Sorry, Jemma,” muttered April.
Jack sent a wordless apology, followed by a cool caress she could almost feel. This could be the last chance they had to Talk, and now they couldn’t really even say anything.
She felt a hand on her arm again and wrote a message before he could ask her to try anything with Mauro. He stopped Talking to us. It’s just April and Jack, now.
Dr. Harris frowned, then nodded. He studied his clipboard. “Then I want you to try once more to transfer your connection from Jack to April. Do it slowly, carefully. We don’t want you to lose consciousness again.”
***
Head pounding, she lay in her cell, staring at the ceiling, her stomach almost uncomfortably full, as promised. Luckily, she hadn’t passed out this time.
She hadn’t really gotten a chance to say goodbye to Jack, either.
She moved the arm with the tracker carefully, testing. It was still very colorful, still tender, but she could at least move it now without pain shooting through the whole arm. She trailed her fingers along it. It seemed like he’d inserted it deeply enough that she wouldn’t be able to get it out on her own, not even if she got desperate enough to try.
She sighed and rolled onto her side, closing her eyes at the resulting wave of nausea. If Jack really did escape, she was on her own. Senator Pratt had made it clear he wasn’t going to help, and if Jack wasn’t able to find some other way to help, it would be just her, with the continued injections.
Dr. Harris would only protect her from Josh for so long. Eventually, he’d either stop thinking Josh was a threat or Josh would find a way to get her alone. She knew he wanted to. And Josh wouldn’t respect her limits as well as Dr. Harris did. Jemma didn’t believe that Dr. Harris would do anything to kill her or permanently injure her.
Josh just might.
CHAPTER SEVEN:
Blind
Jemma was greeted the next morning by a welcome change in her guard; Heidi arrived to escort her for her morning trip to the restroom and then to the lab. The woman had been instrumental to her earlier escape, not just sympathetic, but actively helpful, arranging for Jemma to overhear conversations she needed to and even providing a crude map.
“I’m glad to see you in one piece,” Heidi typed as they walked, Jemma unable to respond, “though I’m more than a little surprised to see you again. How are you holding up?”
Heidi was walking beside her. It felt so different, walking beside someone instead of being prodded from behind or being led by a firm grip on the arm. Jemma waggled her hand back and forth, then shook her head. She rubbed her temple, her forehead, then showed Heidi the bruise on her arm that had yet to fade in the slightest.
Heidi tensed. Jemma could see her arms get tighter through her shirt, despite the padding, and Heidi’s face froze, her mouth tightening, eyes flashing. She stopped moving, turning toward Jemma. She studied her arm without touching it, then continued walking, Jemma trotting to keep up. She didn’t type anything further until they were in the bathroom.
“Who did this to you?” Heidi handed Jemma her keypad, which was similar to Josh’s.
“Josh. He put a tracker in me so I couldn’t escape again. It’s relatively small, considering, but it’s deep. It still sort of hurts when I use that muscle.”
Heidi took the keypad again. “It’s not just the size, why they don’t put those sorts of things in humans, or animals even. We haven’t finished testing that. I don’t know what that could do to you if we leave it in.” She put the keypad back in her pocket, then touched Jemma’s arm, looking at her for permission. Jemma nodded, and Heidi manipulated it carefully, shaking her head before letting it go. She retrieved her keypad again. “You’re right. It’s deep. We’re not getting that out of you short of outright surgery.”
Jemma nodded again. She’d already guessed as much. She held out a hand for the keypad. “Dr. Harris is trying to protect me, I think. He hasn’t let me be alone with Josh since this happened.”
“That’s good,” typed Heidi after taking back the device. “We can use that to keep him from arguing when I take over your protection permanently. That slime shouldn’t have been alone with you in the first place.” She rested her left hand on Jemma’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.” Jemma shrugged, not sure how else to respond. “Okay, you do your thing in here. They won’t let me get away with leaving the room, but I can turn to face the door, at least, which I’d guess is more than you’ve been getting since you got back.”
***
By the time they got to the lab, Jemma felt safer than she had since arriving back at the facility. She knew Heidi was limited in what she could do, but at least the woman wouldn’t let Jemma be harmed if she could help it.
In the lab, Josh stood next to the seated Dr. Harris, as she’d come to expect. Instead of waiting by the door, though, Heidi came to stand on the other side of Jemma’s chair. As Jemma sat, she thought she saw a look of relief on Dr. Harris’s face. Josh, meanwhile, just rolled his eyes in Heidi’s direction.
“How are you doing today, Jemma?” typed Dr. Harris, handing her both paper and crayon.
She blinked at him before she responded.
My head never stops hurting. It feels a bit like a stretched out rubber band from getting the drug over and over every day. I want to go home.
His face closed off before he typed, and Jemma pushed away any regret for her honesty. She was human, a real person, not just a subject, and it was important he remember that. “We’ve checked the scans repeatedly. There’s been no permanent damage. I’m sorry there’s pain with the testing, but the testing is crucial.” When she didn’t respond, he continued. “We’ll be trying another drug today. Joshua has finished adjusting it so there should be no adverse side effects.”
“She just told you she’s bar
ely tolerating one drug,” typed Heidi, “and you want to give her another one on top of that?”
“While I appreciate your expertise in escorting Jemma and the other subjects, you are not trained in any medical or scientific fields, are you?” Dr. Harris raised an eyebrow. Between his almost smug expression and his words, he reminded her of Josh for the first time, and Jemma could finally understand why Heidi had disliked him so much initially.
Heidi remained quiet, and Dr. Harris nodded at Josh, who hesitated only slightly before moving between Jemma and Heidi to inject her with first the expansive drug, then the one Jemma dreaded despite her hope to learn more through it. Josh smirked at Jemma as he moved back to his place.
“You will be communicating with only April today,” typed Dr. Harris, and Josh winked.
Had something happened to Jack? Surely Josh wouldn’t be in such a good mood if Jack had escaped or if he was merely not communicating for the day. Jemma forced herself to calm back down, and Josh took the opportunity to connect her to the monitor before the drugs could kick in all the way.
Already, her mind had expanded, the feeling almost familiar after less than a week, if not anywhere near comfortable. Jemma was pretty sure the sensation of her brain spilling out of her head would never be a comfortable one.
She tensed as she waited for the painful crawling of needles across her brain.
Instead, when the new drug finally kicked in, she relaxed, her head dipping forward so suddenly that Heidi reached out to catch her. She shook her head, smiling reassurance at the guard, then looked toward Josh, who was smiling back at her, pride on his face, his arms crossed.
Sorry, she wrote, squinting at the paper, still smiling. It just took me by surprise. It doesn’t hurt. I’m fine.
For the first time in weeks, Jemma was completely without pain. She still felt a little dizzy, and she suspected something in the drug was affecting her mood, as well. Either that or her body was reacting to the sudden lack of pain. Whichever the cause, she couldn’t completely wipe the smile from her face, not even at the look of obvious concern from Heidi, the caution from Dr. Harris.
Subject is acting unusually, she picked up from him as she swayed in his direction. Doesn’t seem to be having the same adverse reaction as last time. Suspect Joshua included more than he disclosed in the adjusted formula.
At the mention of Josh, Jemma looked at the man, who was still smiling, that particular smile that usually set her hairs on end. Look at her. It’s working. She’ll be able to do so much and she won’t be able to complain about the pain anymore. No more interrupted sessions just because Harris can’t take seeing her hurting. His face seemed to blur, and Jemma frowned, shifting her attention to Heidi.
Don’t know how much longer I can keep watching things like this. Keep doing my job. Heidi’s face was blurred, too, and Jemma closed her eyes.
“Are you still all right to continue, Jemma?” She was pretty sure the speaker was Dr. Harris’s, and she nodded.
Maybe I should make sure there’s an accident with the cure. It isn’t like they can’t make another one in a few weeks, not with my help. Days, if I actually tried.
Impressions still, not really words, some of the thoughts almost came with pictures, if she focused, but it made her even dizzier.
“April should be contacting you soon. With the secondary medication, we’ll start with a baseline, seeing how your connection measures, and then we’ll move to trying to enhance the connection further.” Jemma nodded again, feeling her head wobble, fighting a giggle at the sensation.
She wished Jack were here with her.
Wait, no, she didn’t. And she was worried about him, too. She frowned, trying to wrangle her thoughts. Once she concentrated, she found them falling back into place.
What was that she’d heard about destroying the cure?
“Hey, Jemma, you there?”
“I’m here, April.” She winced at the slur in her mental tone. “They’ve got me all drugged up. Jack isn’t joining us, though.”
“I know. Jasmine said they couldn’t find him this morning when they went to take him to his session.”
Relief, almost as strong as she’d felt when the pain stopped, washed through her. Jack was okay. He’d made it. He’d escaped, yet again.
“I don’t think they want me to know that,” she sent.
“I won’t mention I said anything, then. I kinda made you sound all ditzy the first time Jasmine asked what we talked about, so she stopped asking.”
Jemma felt herself smile, and she opened her eyes to make sure nobody watching could tell she’d find out about Jack.
She blinked.
She could barely see. The edges of her vision were completely black. The center of her vision was blurry, the same level of blurriness she’d been trying to blink away earlier.
She blinked again, then shook her head, fighting panic.
Subject showing signs of distress.
What now?
I can’t do this.
“Jemma, are you okay?” She thought it might have been Dr. Harris asking, but she wasn’t sure anymore. It felt like Heidi had moved to stand between her and Josh, putting all three of the others in the room roughly on the same side of her, which meant all their speakers came from the same direction, too.
She shook her head, pointing to her eyes.
Subject seems to have severe head pain again.
She closed her eyes, refusing to react to what she’d picked up, focusing instead on contacting April as panic cleared the drug’s dulling effects on her mind. “Tell Jasmine I can’t see, that she needs to let Dr. Harris know. I’m almost blind at the edges, blurry in the center.”
“Shit, Jemma. Okay, I’m passing it on.”
Silence. Jemma kept her eyes closed, waiting.
“She’s lost most of her eyesight. Jemma, are you in pain?”
She shook her head.
“Yeah, trust me, I made sure she wasn’t going to be in any pain on that particular formula.” That had to be Josh.
“You put a pain blocker in there?” asked one fuzzy speaker.
“How was she supposed to be aware of further damage to alert us if she was unable to feel pain?” asked another.
“Come on, we kept having to stop because she was passing out from the pain, but the scans weren’t showing any real damage.”
“They might now, Joshua. Leave while I get her scanned again. Ma’am, if you could help me get her there?”
Jemma tried to focus on what she could hear while they escorted her to get her head scanned yet again, trying to ignore the fact that even the number of scans alone couldn’t be healthy for her. Instead of letting herself worry, she just listened. She listened to the workers around her, to Dr. Harris and to Heidi, picking up as much information as she could while the drug was active. The effects continued while she was escorted back to her cell, Dr. Harris promising that, at a glance, she didn’t seem in immediate danger, and that he’d give her more details when he had them, and that, of course, she’d be given at least a few days to recover her eyesight.
He didn’t voice aloud the concern that she might not ever regain it entirely.
Heidi opened the door and helped her to her cot before typing. “If you need to get out to stretch your legs, I’ll be right outside your room, guarding it. You just knock.”
***
If she were ever going to be grateful for a tiny room with a single piece of furniture in it, this would be the time, nearly blind and all alone.
She wasn’t going to just sit here, literally, for long, though. She was going to find a way to get things moving, before Josh could do something as drastic as destroying the cure. It had to have been him who was considering it. It was time to try getting the cure released. If she continued letting them test her until Josh was finished, she’d be permanently injured or worse before they released the cure.
Since she didn’t need to get out of the building or coordinate with anyone else, it wouldn�
�t be as complicated as escaping last time, not really.
Well, except for the fact that she had a GPS tracker in her that may or may not be accurate indoors, she was more heavily guarded, she didn’t have Jack to help, she had a constant and splitting headache that made it hard to think, and her vision was more than a little bit blurry.
She latched on to the fact that she wouldn’t have to get out of the building this time and that Heidi had all but told her she’d let her out of her cell. There were the two biggest obstacles right there. She’d give herself the rest of the day to recover, and then tomorrow, she would go for it.
CHAPTER EIGHT:
Aches
Her pain returned during the night, waking her with a sudden spike of nausea. She rolled over just in time to avoid vomiting on her cot, the sound of the splatter on the floor making her retch again. Whether she’d heard the noise or someone watching the camera had informed her, Heidi entered, the door clicking and clanging loudly enough to send additional spikes of pain through Jemma.
A few minutes after the other woman sat next to her, offering nothing but silent presence, Jemma realized that recognizing Heidi meant her eyesight had recovered enough to make out her features.
She didn’t open her eyes again to figure out how much. Instead, she remained still, unmoving, her eyes closed against any light. She listened while someone else came in and cleaned up, and even after she slipped back into sleep, she was aware that Heidi stayed through the night.
***
When she woke again, the pain had lessened. She could smell a hint of bleach. The edges of her vision were blurry, no longer black, and the center of her eyesight seemed almost clear. As she looked around, Heidi, sitting on the cot with her back against the wall, opened her eyes blinking. She looked at Jemma, raising her eyebrows in question.
Jemma nodded, and Heidi gave her more room to sit up. She did so slowly, not wanting to bring back the nausea or make the pain any worse, and Heidi pulled out her keypad.