“I never got to say thank you…” I murmured. “You were like a brother to me…and I can never thank you enough…”
He held me tightly and, for the first time in what I was sure was several lifetimes, I felt safe.
He finally moved to my side and I rested my head on his shoulder, holding his arm, drawing comfort off him.
When Randy and his team came to collect me for another round of testing, I turned to Josh as the scientists opened the door. He looked between the scientists and me and then slowly stood. I stood as well, wondering what Josh was planning. My eyes were darting back and forth between the approaching scientists and guards and Josh. The former member of the Eight Group did nothing. He remained where he was, watching them approach.
The others did not see him.
“Come on, 88911,” one of the guards said, fastening my hand in the typical restraints for traveling from the cell to the table. As Randy had done before with the guards, he told them that he could handle me, and led me out of my cell. The guards followed silently, but they stopped at their respective posts as we moved toward the lab. I studied them, wondering if they were members of the Eight Group, and if they were letting Josh follow me because they knew Josh’s plan. I felt my heart quicken in excitement, wondering if Josh would be able to find a way to get me out of the Commission and back to the fort…or wherever it was that the survivors—if there were any—were hiding.
We walked into the lab and I was moved onto the table again, sitting quietly as Tiffany removed the cuff from my right wrist to test the mobility and reflexes of my limbs.
I looked around at the four scientists, wondering how Josh was going to get us past them.
Josh stared at me, took two steps forward, causing my heart to knock against my ribs, and then he retreated the two steps, nervous and worried.
I was confused.
“Everything seems normal,” Andrew noted over the hissing of the blood pressure reader deflating. I looked at Josh expectantly, waiting for him to make his move.
“What are you waiting for?” I whispered. The scientists turned to me and Amanda sighed. I could hear her behind me.
“She’s showing some trauma related to the testing,” she mused. “Better not give her this dose. She should have had enough of it anyway.”
Josh turned and began walking toward the door, leaving the lab.
I panicked.
“No!” I screeched, lunging off the table and trying to make a run for Josh. Randy grabbed me, but he was knocked off balance and both of us crashed to the floor. I let out a sob as I tried to wiggle out of the scientist’s grip, reaching for the door. “Don’t! Please! Stay!”
There was some other yelling around me as I struggled against the vice grip. I began kicking and screaming unintelligibly, my feet connecting with one of the rolling tables and sending instruments and the case of J5 serum clattering to the ground. I turned to the case, seeing the broken contents.
That was what was keeping Josh here.
I changed the angle of my struggling, kicking someone in the jaw as I clawed at Randy, clamoring to the shattered glass, my hands immediately slicing open as I went to the ground and tried to drink up the serum, desperate to keep Josh with me. There were tears flowing down my face as I slurped up the remnants of the J5 from the dirty cement like a drug addict in withdrawal.
The sharp pain of nails in my scalp as my hair was pulled, removing my head from the puddles, made me cry out in pain, and another sharp sting was felt in my shoulder, followed by a cool spread of liquid over my shoulder blade, continuing up my neck.
My vision blurred and I barely heard the echoing of the people around me, screaming something about detoxification and fluids. My eyes turned heavily to the door, seeing Josh, tears streaming down his face as he remained where he was, his hand on the handle, watching me fall unconscious.
* *** *
I woke up cold and terrified, immediately turning my head from side to side to see if there was any sign of Josh. There were so many white coats around me that I knew more people had been brought into the lab to handle my outburst. They were mumbling, maybe even speaking a foreign language.
I groaned and, suddenly, there were hands all over me. I tried to move away, but the burning around my wrists and ankles proved that I was strapped into those rarely-used fabric cuffs on the table.
Josh…
Where’s Josh?
“…J-Josh…”
“What did she say?”
My eyes flew open. Corbett was standing to my right. Andrew was on my left. Both the teams that had tested on me were in the room, crowding me.
“I don’t know…”
I looked at the faces, trying to identify everyone. Two of them were wearing surgical masks. I let out a pathetic sob and tried to move my arms again.
“Great, she’s having a fucking breakdown…” Tamara groaned, annoyed. “Did she show any negatives on the J5?”
“None,” Randy answered.
“And the security didn’t see anything in her cell?” Amanda asked, looking at the first group of scientists.
My Group-A and Group-B…arguing over their joint project…
“Nothing unusual.”
“What should we do, then?” George pressed.
“I say we turn her files over to Dana and tell him to deal with her,” another voice snarled as she lowered the surgical mask from her face. I gasped, seeing the painfully familiar green eyes and blonde hair.
“Agreed,” the other one wearing the mask seconded, also in a familiar voice. I turned to him, seeing Griffin’s face appear from behind the white fabric, standing just across from Tori. “He said that she would probably start hallucinating, but she seems to be losing her fucking mind…”
I screamed. The others jumped, surprised, but Tori and Griffin continued to look at me, smiling.
“Get away from me!” I bellowed. “Josh! Josh! Help!” I screamed, the tears choking me as I thrashed on the cold table, pulling at the restraints until I could feel the warm blood dripping over my skin.
“Who the fuck is Josh?!”
“Who gives a shit?! Sedate her, damn it!”
Another sharp pinch in my shoulder and I was, once again, pulled under, my eyes turning to the side to see Josh behind Jeanie, looking at me with tears streaming down his face, falling onto his dirt-covered suit.
I was not under for long, slowly coming back to consciousness with a heavy head and a weak body. My eyes rolled around uselessly in their sockets as I tried to take in where I was, recognizing the bright lights above me surrounded by the dark walls of the lab.
I was still on the table.
This time, I was much colder, my bare skin pressing into the metal surface. My wrists were still fastened to their spots, and my ankles were locked in place.
I groaned, trying to force my foggy brain to create a solid thought.
My eyes finally began to focus, and I saw the line attached to my arm leading to an IV bag. I could only stare at the tubing and watch as each drop of the clear liquid fell into the top, feeding the long passage to the needle in my arm.
There were four scientists sitting at the table in the corner, looking over papers and talking among themselves. My senses were not sharp enough after the drugs to hear the words, so it came to my ears as a dull rumble.
I moved my head to the other side, a cringe in my neck making me hesitate before I turned to the darker half of the room.
Josh was there, sitting in a chair, looking at me sadly.
I moved my arm as much as I could and reached out to him, holding my hand for him to take, making pathetic whining noises that I barely heard.
He stood and walked to my hand, closing his fingers around mine.
The tears burned hot in my eyes and I squeezed his hand as much as I could, which was not much with the drugs coursing through my body.
“I’m sorry…” I choked.
He looked me over before reaching out and tugging on the rest
raints on the table. I looked at the chains supported by the leather straps and sniffed, trying to help him by struggling against the restraints. He sighed and let go of the strap, moving to my ankles, also tugging weakly. I knew he was stronger than that. Why wasn’t he trying harder?
He moved to my other side and pulled on the cuff around my wrist, but it did not give way.
He moved around my head and to the left arm again, once again pulling on the restraint, silent, as I watched him in confusion and concern.
He rounded the table three times, tugging weakly on the cuffs as the tears began to well in his eyes.
“What is wrong with you?” I murmured, my eyes slowly sliding shut. “You’re stronger than this…”
There was a man in a white coat beside me in no time.
“You’re already awake?” Randy blinked.
“He…help me…”
I was talking to Josh, choosing to ignore the scientist at my side.
Josh walked to my other side, his hand passing over my hair as he leaned down to kiss my forehead. I panicked. He was going to leave.
“No…” I begged. “No, don’t leave…”
Josh’s hand slipped from my hair and he walked to the door, not turning to look back.
“No! Don’t leave me! Come back!” I bellowed, fighting against the restraints again. It was only then that I noticed they had been tightened, that I did not have nearly as much mobility in my flailing.
“There she goes again…” Amanda sighed, also coming up to my side. My eyes were locked on the door that was just sliding shut. I heard the latch snap into place as if it was a gunshot and the pain tore through me. I screamed and bellowed, feeling the pain rip through my chest.
Just as soon as I began screeching like a madwoman, the door burst open again, and everyone in the room jumped. My screaming ceased and I turned to look, my eyes wide and my breath heaving from my struggles.
“So, this is the little psycho?”
“What are you doing here?” Amanda growled.
“We’re taking over from here,” the man chuckled.
“The hell you are,” Randy snapped.
“Dana’s orders, kids,” another male voice laughed. “Here’s the transfer. Don’t worry, you’ll have her back shortly. We’re just taking over for the next two tests.”
“You’re not supposed to get involved until later,” Tiffany shook her head.
“Sorry, it’s Dana’s orders,” a third man said. “If you have a problem, take it up with the boss.”
“Maybe we will,” Amanda snarled at the approaching five men. For some reason, they all looked the exact same to me. The five new faces had nothing to distinguish them from one another, or from any other face I had seen in my life. I was not sure I would ever be able to recognize them.
“For now, we’ve been instructed to take over,” the first one said. “Where are her charts?”
Randy slowly went to the table and gathered the papers with Andrew, bringing them to the man who was apparently the leader of the next group that was going to run tests on me.
One of the men smiled darkly, and his hand crept over my leg, running up my ankle and over my knee as he stared at me hungrily. I shivered in grim understanding.
“You’re not fucking serious,” the leader groaned, looking up from the papers to Randy. “Seriously, you wasted time with the J5? She’s fine. She’s not atrophied or having spasms.”
“She had severe psychological reactions,” Amanda pointed out. “We had to give her recovery time.”
“She can have recovery time during POLE-8,” the leader groaned. “That test is nothing.”
“We wanted to be sure of her physical and mental health.”
“Do you not know who this little cunt is?” One of them barked a laugh. “This is one of the leaders of the damn Central Angels. After what happened to her little friends, her mental health is going to be so far gone, you shouldn’t even think about it.”
“That’s the difference between you and me.”
“No, the difference between you and me, Randy, is that I’ve got twenty more years than you under my belt when it comes to working with these things,” the man snarled.
“Your gut definitely shows that,” Amanda snapped.
“You want to say that to my face, little girl?”
“Enough,” the leader snapped. “We’re taking her for now, and we’ll turn her back to Jeanie and her team after we have completed our work.” He closed the file and tapped Randy’s shoulder with it, flashing a condescending smile. “You can go now,” he assured with a jerk of his head.
Slowly, the other four scientists left. With their departure, I felt a sickening fear settle deep in my stomach.
“Her detox done?” one of the men asked, stepping up next to the needle in my arm, his hand clasping my forearm harshly.
“Yeah.”
He yanked out the IV, ignoring my cry of pain. He then reached for a syringe that was being handed to him, sticking that into my arm and lowering the plunger to empty the contents into my system.
“Alright, 88911,” the leader laughed, leaning over me as I tried to get away, “I want to show you something.” He lifted a small device out of his pocket. It looked like a USB drive. “This is something you will get well-acquainted with.”
He jabbed the device into my side and I let out a shocked yelp at the pulse of electricity rocket through my nerves.
“If you do anything stupid…” he said, jabbing me again and walking around the table as I cringed away from the shock, “like leap off the table and destroy valuable equipment…” he pressed the device into my right collarbone and I screamed, “or start screaming for people to help you…” he jabbed my other side again, eliciting another cry, “then this will be the response.”
I yelped again as he jabbed me in the thigh with the black hand-held device.
“Am I understood?” he snapped, hitting the same spot again. I let out a sob and nodded quickly. “Say yes, sir!” he ordered with a chuckle, shocking me once again.
“Yes, sir!”
“Good girl,” he laughed. He yanked one of the restraints open around my ankle as the others began to release me. Without allowing me to redress, they violently hauled me off the table, one of them pulling me by my hair.
“Let’s take you back to your room now,” one of them said with a sick smile as he tightened the last cuffs around my wrists and pulled me to follow him.
I was forced to walk naked through the halls of the Commission, passing surprised experiments and shocked guards. I felt humiliated and sickened.
When I got to the cell and the door was opened for me, I had just enough time to look at Josh standing in the middle of the cell waiting for me before I was shoved violently in the back. I stumbled forward, falling on the ground, breaking my fall with my elbows. I turned quickly onto my side, watching the leader of the group approached me, crouching down and unfastening the cuffs, looming over me, his eyes scraping every inch of my skin.
He pulled the restrains away and flipped them over his shoulder as he stood, snorting in contempt with a cocky smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. He left. Another man, the one who had been touching me before, threw my balled-up clothes into the cell, causing them to hit me hard in the chest and face.
“Cover yourself up. You get raped parading around like that.”
The door shut and I remained completely still, holding my clothes to me, staring at the glass wall in fright. Those were my new scientists…
Finally, I turned to Josh. He looked different. His face was paler, his suit was covered in dirt and he looked at me with a cold sadness in his eyes.
“Why didn’t you help me?”
“What could I do?” he asked. “I’m useless. I can’t protect you…”
“What are you talking about?” I hissed, pulling on the pants of the red uniform. “You are a member of the fucking Eight Group.”
“I was,” he said. He shook his head, looking a
t the ground. “I’m nothing now…”
“Josh,” I said, pulling the shirt clumsily over my shoulders and forcing myself to my feet, buttoning up the shirt with shaking fingers. “How can you say that? It was because of you and Mark that we even got as far as we did.”
“No…it was because of Mark,” he hissed, shaking his head. “I should have never tried to help. I messed everything up…”
“No, Josh, no,” I said strongly, grabbing his face. “That’s not true. You were the soul of the group. That’s why no one could recover when you were gone. You had a light about you, a strength that helped so many of us—helped me—get through the hardest times.” Tears were in my eyes again. “Don’t you remember what you told me? Do you remember the bridge? You said as long as I kept fighting, as long as I believed in what I was doing, that I would be okay. You said that it’s harder for good to destroy evil, but you believed in it! You made me believe in it!”
He took my hands from his face and held them in his.
“Do you know what evil looks like?” he whispered. He took one of my hands and began leading me to the front of the cell. “Do you know how powerful it is?” He pushed the door open and led me out of the cell, turning down the hall and walking me toward the front of Ward Ten.
When he opened the door that should have led to the room joining the wards to the Dome, I was confronted with a completely different scene. There were trees everywhere, their canopies full of leaves, blocking the little light that shone down from the overcast sky. It was colder, and there was something artificial about the scenery, something about the lack of smells or noise that made everything frightening and unsettling.
Josh continued to pull me through the trees before stopping, dropping my hand and pointing to the ground.
“This is evil…”
There was a large hole dug in the ground. Inside the hole bodies were piled on top of one another, bodies with barely-recognizable faces. I saw Griffin with hair cut to the military style, in his military uniform. Tori was in her school uniform, her backpack under her causing her back to contort in a disturbing way. A young blonde boy resembling Mykail was lying across several other bodies. And someone who looked like Josh, but with longer hair and simpler clothes, was laid over another body in similar dress, with longer hair, and a painfully familiar face.
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