by B.V. Bayly
Chapter Twenty-Three
The screech of steel on steel startled Gabriel and he jolted up in the short cage, smacking his head on the low ceiling. Something was happening above him. He pressed his face awkwardly against the bars, hoping to catch a glimpse. At the top of the room, light was pouring in from a hole in the ceiling. A hum slowly began and four fan blades spun shadows around the room. Goose bumps rose across his skin as cool, fresh air floated down into the stale dungeon. The air smelled sweet, almost lush. He inhaled deeply, trying to rid his nose of the musty smell of his cage.
He turned to talk to Kyrie, but she was gone again. They must have taken her again while he lay unconscious. The steel door to the room opened abruptly and three guards stepped in muttering unfamiliar words to one another as they looked around the room.
One of the guards spotted him, walked over, and kicked the door of his cage. “You come with us!” The man unlocked the cage. “Remember what we said! Behave or we will punish everyone in this room!”
Just then an old man across the room screamed as one of the other guards stomped on the fragile hand he had left dangling outside his cage.
“Leave him alone!” Gabriel yelled. “I’m coming out!” He met the dark eyes of the guard in front of him.
“Good! You understand.”
The other guard laughed and lifted the heel of his boot off the old man’s hand.
Gabriel crawled out of the small cage and stood up. His muscles cramped up instantly. He stumbled towards the guards and they handcuffed his wrists behind his back and blindfolded him.
After leading him through a series of turns, and up a flight of short stairs, they removed his blindfold and handcuffs. Bright neon lights burned his eyes and he blinked rapidly to adjust. “What’s going on?” Gabriel stared around the room.
A shove from behind forced him forward and a guard told him to sit on the chair before him. Obeying, he sat down on the uncomfortable chair that was bolted to the dirty floor. There was another door beside him, and one of the guards opened it. The smell of bleach burned his nose and throat and he coughed. The side room held a tall steel table with clamps and leather straps hanging from it. A young man stepped out from the adjoining room. He wore thin wire-rimmed glasses and his hair was long and gelled back. A blood-stained apron covered his t-shirt and jeans. He met Gabriel’s eyes and grinned.
“So, you are the one with the white ore in his chest?” When he finally spoke, his voice was tiny and thin like the hiss of a snake. “Shiro told me about you …” He pulled a small electronic pipe out of his pocket and sucked at it deeply. “That’s better.”
Gabriel stared back at him and said nothing.
“Perhaps you would be so kind as to explain your abilities me?” He took another breath from his pipe, exhaling slowly.
The mad scientist. Gabriel stared at him. He wasn’t going to answer anything.
“No response? Come on.” The stranger almost giggled. “You know I have seen many people in your spot. Some talk. Some don’t. Some even share their own thoughts as to why they can do what they do with the ore. I enjoy the common villager and ill-educated the most. The morons believe they are gods and have powers to control the elements. They realize quickly that they are not gods, nor do they control anything. So, I pick them apart – like a good scientist – and find out how they work. I can tell that you are smarter than the usual vagrants Shiro brings me. Make this easier for yourself and tell me what I want to know.” The man shrugged.
None of this made any sense to Gabriel. “Why are you doing this? You aren’t a psycho like Shiro.”
“Yeah, Shiro’s crazy. But he brings us what we need and you, my friend, are somewhat of an anomaly. My bosses are very, very interested in you. So, tell me what you know and you might even get out of this place.”
“The ore doesn’t do anything.” Gabriel wasn’t going to play his game.
He puffed on the pipe again and laughed. “Nothing?”
“Not a damn thing.” Gabriel shrugged. “Just glows.”
“Too bad.” He pressed a small black knob.
Flames of pain seared through Gabriel’s body. His muscles locked up and his back arched as the current burned him from the inside out. It stopped just as suddenly as it started. He gasped for air and fell to the floor, his mouth full of blood from his bitten tongue. The doctor skipped over to him, beaming. His shiny leather shoes stopped inches from Gabriel’s eyes.
“Again!” The young man snapped his fingers and the guards responded, placing Gabriel back onto the chair, binding him there with leather straps.
“Observation number one – electricity will slowly cook your organs.” He laughed. “Now, what can you do with that crystal in your chest?” He waited again for an answer as he wiped his glasses off and replaced them on his face.
Gabriel gasped heavily, and the crystal in his chest was silent.
“What about it … What can you do with this?” He scooped up a small piece of red ore from inside a silver box.
“I dunno.” Gabriel was quick to answer this time.
The researcher looked surprised, almost amused. “You’ve never seen the other ore before?” He laughed.
“No.” He shook his head as he struggled to slow his breathing down to a steady pace and fought the urge to pass out.
“You’re an odd one, that’s for sure.” The scientist approached him. “See, most ore users react to any kind of ore – the connection is there, but when you find the right type for that person...” He gripped the glowing ore in his hand. “That’s when the magic happens.”
Gabriel needed to waste more time. “You can hold the ore without protection.”
A grin crept across the scientist’s face. “Smart.” He chuckled. “The spy picked up on that, as well, but I expected that from her. You – I’m impressed.” He stepped just in front of Gabriel. “Now, hold still.” He pressed the ore up against Gabriel’s face.
The room flooded with a red light. Gabriel’s entire body instantly boiled with heat, not with pain, but an overwhelming warmth.
“Woooo!” The scientist whipped his hand back. The ore tumbled into Gabriel laps, the glow still strong, but not nearly as bright. “Wow, that was hot.”
Gabriel stared at the shard, confused. What had happened?
“Okay!” The scientist plucked the shard from his lap. “That was fun.”
Gabriel stared up at him. “What happened?”
The scientist took a long puff on the pipe he carried in his pocket. “Oh, man, this stuff is good.” He glanced back at Gabriel as if he hadn't heard the question.
“What happened with that piece of red ore?” Gabriel demanded.
“Well,” the scientist puffed on his pipe, “you have a connection to it. An insanely strong one, too. A lot stronger than most. You are going to be the highlight of my reports from here. Now, what can you do with that white ore in your chest?”
“I told you – nothing."
“Yeah, you’re lying.” The scientist hit the black knob again, and pain ripped through Gabriel’s body. Seconds later the electricity stopped, but the pain still echoed through him. Tears rolled from his eyes as he gasped for air. “The guards told me you nearly ripped the steel door off of your cage. And I know Shiro’s methods, but yet you are undamaged.” He peered at Gabriel’s face and frowned.
Gabriel licked his lip, the large split in it was indeed gone.
“So the white ore accelerates healing, despite the sedatives. You seem to energize ore when you touch it, and obviously your strength is heightened. I would say you have some abilities.” He looked annoyed.
Gabriel blinked, his head still fuzzy from the shock. His ribs and face didn’t hurt him anymore. “I … I don’t know what I can do! Well, not everything … the strength is new, but I … I can’t control it! The red crystal – I don’t know what that was! And yes, the ore can heal me. But I don’t know anything about it. Honestly, you have to believe me!”
The researcher studied him.
“I was looking for the Sphere to try and figure it out.” Gabriel tried to explain.
“A Sphere?” The scientist tilted his head. “Interesting. And what about your brother?”
“What?” His voice trembled. “Adin?” How did they know about him?
“Yes … your brother works for TERA.” The scientist’s voice slowed as he paced the floor with his arms crossed. “How much does TERA know about you?”
He panicked, searching his mind for an answer. “I don’t understand!”
“How much does TERA know about you and your abilities? What tests did they do on you?”
“What? No tests! Adin didn’t tell anyone. It was just between the two of us.”
The doctor went silent again, staring at him. “Why should I believe you?”
Gabriel closed his eyes, praying for no more pain. The researcher said something sharply to the guards. They roughly removed his restraints before hoisting him up by the arms. Where were they taking him now? They dragged him into the side room with the tall steel table. The doctor walked ahead of them, tapping several wall mounted screens. The screens flickered to life and machines hummed loudly in the small space. A robotic arm lowered a large scanning device into position above the foot of the table. Gabriel’s heart began to race, beating loudly in his chest. What were they going to do to him? Each breath he took shook his body, and his fear grew as he looked around the room. Then he saw her.
“Kyrie?”
A glass, coffin-shaped box was set into the wall, radiating an eerie green glow. Inside the clear coffin lay Kyrie. She didn’t move. She lay there as if dead, an intravenous line in her arm. The thin tank top she wore was stained with so much blood that he couldn’t tell what color it was originally. She was covered with wounds that had been carelessly wrapped with gauze and adhesive. Everything in the room drifted away as Gabriel stared at the glass coffin. What had they done to her?
“An amazing subject! The green ore can sustain her life no matter how much harm we put her through: gunshots, beatings, surgeries, whatever Shiro pleases to do to her. She just heals right up. A wonderful specimen to have. So helpful with testing, but it does take some time. She often spends days in this chamber after difficult tests. I swear that without this little angel I would be years behind in my research.”
Gabriel remained frozen at the window, a silent anger building inside him. She was nothing more than an experiment. A lab rat. No longer a human being. He remained in a daze as the guards pulled him away from the glass and strapped him to the steel table. The scientist took scans and pictures of the crystal in his chest, babbling on about its composition and structure. The process took hours, and Gabriel remained numb to what was happening. His mind kept replaying the same thought – all of this was happening because his father had found something he should have left in the dirt.
A sharp stab to his arm jolted him out of his misery.
“This will keep him sedated for awhile, but double his pills. The ore is still active despite them. Triple it if you have to.” The scientist sent him away.
Blindfolded again, Gabriel was hauled back to his small cage. The door slammed shut behind him. He lay on the cold floor, staring at the empty cage beside him, his body paralyzed. How long had Kyrie been here, hoping for someone to save her? A chill crawled down his spine. Was his fate to be any different?
Hours passed as Gabriel lay on the floor, drifting in and out of consciousness, the cocktail of drugs in his body prevented any connection to the ore. Kyrie was eventually tossed back into the cage beside him. He tried to move, to make sure she was alright. She crawled over to him, leaned against the bars, and began to talk quietly.
“I remember my father taking me out for ice cream once a week because he used to work so much that I would be mad at him. He called it ‘our time’. A time for him to remind me how much he loved me …” She just talked. “My mother made sure he never forgot and we went out every week no matter how old I got. We kept doing that – even when I left for university – and he never missed a single week. One day, he told me he had quit his job at the government and was working on the ore with a small group of scientists. They were trying to find a use for it that didn’t create the negative effects … so it would be safe. When I finished my schooling, I joined them. He’s looking for me – we just have to be patient. We just have to survive.”