Inside

by Kyra Anderson

  Randy was too shocked at what he was seeing that he had to be screamed at to participate in sewing me together…

  …the others were unknown to me.

  They calmed as the final wounds were treated, though someone reminded the doctors that I had scratched at my head and hair as well.

  The bag was removed, my eyes adjusting frighteningly quick to the surroundings. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces that had worked on stitching me back together. I felt better, surprisingly. I was lighter, not as bogged down with the heat and nails that had been slicing through my organs.

  But I was still covered in wounds they had not treated. I could feel them growing on my body, peeling away at my dry and cracked skin…

  When the man came closer to press the cotton seeped in antiseptic to my face, I lunged, teeth open, ready to bite. In my sudden movement, the restraint around my left wrist snapped free and I moved close enough to him to bite his nose, sinking my teeth in deep.

  A blunt blow to my shoulder caused me to let go of the howling scientist, and another smack with the metal ruler drew my attention to the other person. I growled, and he quickly backed away, as did everyone else.

  For several long minutes, no one moved.

  Until the door opened and three men that I vaguely remembered walked into the room. I quickly fell back onto the table, feeling nausea wash over me at their appearance.

  “Well, she caused a scene…” the leader of my T-Team chuckled.

  “What did Mr. Christenson say? Did you show him the footage?”

  “No,” the leader shook his head. “I didn’t have to. He saw the whole thing from the beginning.”

  “And? He agreed that her testing should be halted?” Jeanie pressed. “This is going too far…”

  “No, no, quite the contrary,” the man laughed coldly, walking to my side and looking at me with a sick grin. “Everything is going according to his plan. He said he was very pleased with her reaction.”

  “Pleased with her reaction?!” Randy repeated angrily. “She tried to kill herself! How could he be pleased with that?! If we let her go, she’ll do it again.”

  “No, she won’t.” He looked at me knowingly. “Dana says to leave her here alone for three hours and she’ll calm down. Then we can resume.”

  “Resume?” Jeanie snarled. “I refuse.”

  “It’s not your decision. The next test is mine,” he snapped.

  “At least give her some recovery time,” one of the others hissed.

  I saw the leader of the T-Team look down at me darkly.

  “Dana said two days was all she would get. Then, she’s back on the table.”

  * *** *

  My feet dragged over the ground, my head low as I lumbered down the hallway with the guards toward the Dome.

  I felt as though I was no longer human, as if I had mutated into something horrific and disgusting.

  I need to die.

  There were no illusions in my mind about being able to kill myself. There was no way for me to achieve such a thing in my cell where I was under constant surveillance. After I had calmed down and been led back to my cube of Commission property, guards were posted nearby, just in case I had another “outburst,” as they called it. I was sure that even if I tried to break free of the restraints on the table and grab at one of the scalpels or needles and endlessly hack at myself, someone would stop me before I could accomplish any real damage.

  And unless Maria was in the Dome this time, I doubted any of the other experiments would kill me.

  I hardly noticed the sheer number of guards lining the halls with large rifles. I didn’t remember the Dome being so heavily guarded before…

  The door opened and I stepped under the bright lights of the panels that made up the fake sky. It was warmer in the Dome, which brought some relief and comfort, though it also made me feel more disgusting. Even though there appeared to be no marks on my body, I could feel the oozing and angry pus-filled sores that littered my skin. It was clear that my skin was hanging off the bones of my face, stripping everything down to the bare structure. I was a hideous sight, and the heat made my wounds fester and bake, as though I was a walking carcass in the desert, a monstrosity of torn flesh and infected sores.

  It was just the testing that made me hallucinate that my skin looked normal.

  It was clear that my assumption was correct when I walked further into the Dome and looked around, trying to decide what to do with the boring surroundings. There were seven other experiments crowded around the door, looking petrified and eager to leave.

  I was obviously a horrendous sight. They wanted nothing more than to get away.

  The guards at the door began yelling harsh orders that hit my ears like battering rams, telling the other experiments to get back, even as they pled with the guards to let them out.

  I found myself chuckling without smiling.

  The door slammed shut and I turned over my shoulder to the experiments who were sharing worried glances. Sighing, I decided to go off on my own into the Dome. I would save them the pain of having to look at my disfigurement.

  “Don’t go in there!” a woman gasped as I started walking. I halted.

  What was that tone?

  I turned, not bothering to open my mouth and ask her why. My eyes would be enough to get her to tell me an answer.

  “He’s in there…” she hissed, her eyes wide.

  He?

  I blinked, slowly, trying to process who was denoted in the pronoun.

  He…

  Sure that Dana would not waste his time in the Dome, I had to conjure up other options.

  He…he…

  …the Machine of Neutralization.

  A small glimmer of excitement could be felt beyond my oozing wounds. I turned to the bridge and, only hesitating for a second, I stepped forward, ignoring the protests behind me.

  It was possible that if I went to him and asked, Eyna would kill me and that would be the end of it. Dana was stupid to set up a time in the Dome with me and the Machine of Neutralization. Surely he understood that I would go to him and he could kill me…

  If Dana wanted to keep me around, he should have kept me far away from his most prized experiment.

  Finding Eyna was no easy task. I walked around the perimeter of the Dome, climbing on top of the grassy knolls to see if I could spot the experiment. Finally descending the other side, I slipped into the trees where the dark and cool clearing rested.

  That was where I found him.

  As I ducked into the trees, I heard a growl and stopped, raising my eyes to scan the area for the Machine of Neutralization. I could not see him as I scrutinized the shadows of the trees, so I looked into the boughs. Still, I could not spot the hazel eyes or brown hair that I knew to belong to the Machine of Neutralization.

  “Leave…” a voice warned darkly.

  That was Eyna’s voice…it was the first time I had heard him speak, but I could tell it belonged to him with the incredible power that came with the single word. I almost did leave, but the thought that he could kill me and get rid of the disgusting feeling in my body made me stay, deciding that if I did not do what he said, he would kill me quickly.

  I took another step forward.

  There was a quick displacement of air next to me and I jumped, turning, but saw nothing other than a quick blur. I turned back around and saw Eyna, free of his chains and crouching in front of me, his teeth exposed in a snarl.

  For several long moments, neither of us moved. I stared at him, at the incredible power of his muscles, at the way he looked at me…I could have sworn I was staring a lion as he waited for me to move so he could pounce.

  “You…” he said slowly, his expression softening. “I know you…”

  “Uh…” I started stupidly. “We’ve seen each other a few times…”

  “Tori’s cell…you were in Tori’s cell.” He tilted his head, standing straight and, suddenly, his composure seemed approachable, albeit dangerous. “You were
the one who broke the experiments out…”

  “Yes…”

  “Why didn’t you break me out?” he asked, suspicious.

  I hesitated, remembering that my goal was to anger him.

  “Everyone was afraid of you,” I said. He blinked, tilting his head to the other side ever-so-slightly. “All the other experiments were sure that you would kill everyone if we let you out.”

  He barked a laugh.

  “I would kill everyone,” he agreed. “Which is why I was surprised that you didn’t let me out.” He turned away and moved through the clearing. He turned back to me before sitting down on the ground. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  I blinked.

  “You’re not?”

  “No.”

  “You just threatened to kill everyone,” I reminded him, taking a slow step forward.

  “Everyone in the Commission, yes.” He nodded. “The scientists and the guards, Dana and Sean and all those people who come to those stupid meetings every six days…”

  “But not the experiments or the prisoners?”

  “Some of them,” he shrugged.

  “Have you ever killed before?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I’ve killed any scientists I have a chance to.” I was finally standing next to him, though I was looking around the cove of trees.

  “Why do you hide in here?” I turned back to him. “Everyone is around the door wanting to be let out, but you’re in the back of the Dome…”

  “They hate me…” he whispered. “They show such compassion and understanding to everyone else who was on the table…but not to me.” He looked up. “Sit down,” he motioned to the ground. I lowered myself, sitting with my legs crossed and my hands on my ankles. “I sit back here because the lights are too bright everywhere else…” he murmured. “And if I can keep everyone else away, that’s good, too.”

  “Eyna…” I started asking if he would be willing to kill me, but stopped when his eyes became confused.

  “That’s not my name…” he hissed. It was my turn to be puzzled.

  “It…It’s not? But…that’s what Dana calls you…”

  “It’s not my real name…It was the name I had when I was a child, when I was still human.” He had a strange look in his eyes, somewhere between disbelief and total shock. “I have a new name, now.”

  “You do?” I blinked, suddenly concerned about his behavior.

  “Hyreyna…” he whispered, looking at me intently. “My name is Hyreyna.”

  There was nothing I could say. Finally, I cleared my throat and took a deep breath.

  “Dana gave you a new name?”

  “No, no,” he corrected quickly. “The earth did…”

  Okay…that testing has really gone to his head… I said to myself.

  “I know it sounds crazy…” he said desperately, seeing the disbelief on my face. “But I started having dreams when my testing was finished. I-I-I started seeing things, things I should have never been able to know. I knew of other worlds, of different types of people living in alternate universes, of dragons…”

  “Eyna…” I murmured gently, reaching my hand out, trying to calm him down.

  “That’s not my name…” he growled.

  “Hyreyna…” I corrected. “The testing makes you hallucinate. Your brain can’t handle everything anymore…”

  “My brain can handle everything and more…” he hissed. “Do you have any idea what I’m capable of?” he asked, leaning close. “I don’t even know your name…but I can see that you were loved by an angel…”

  I blinked.

  “Loved by an angel?” I repeated in a choked whisper.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “The red dragon has told me that if I keep practicing—”

  “The red dragon?” I asked, cutting him off.

  “Yes,” he repeated. “The red dragon…he’s good, and powerful, and…sublime. He’s going to help me escape someday…”

  There was nothing I could say. It was obvious that he was hallucinating. I should have realized that when he could not see the sores all over my face. My only hope was that he would get excited enough to attack me if I disagreed with him. Maybe then he would kill me…

  I was about to open my mouth to speak when he stopped me.

  “Why do you want me to kill you?” he breathed, his eyes filled with fear.

  Though I was sure that his eyes were not as wide as mine, I was baffled by his wide-eyed question. I was sure I misheard him. We blinked awkwardly, as though we had never seen creatures like one another in our entire lives.

  Was he really asking me that question? How could he not see the gaping wounds on my body that were killing me slowly?

  His mouth opened and before I could register that he had moved, his hands grabbed my shirt and ripped it open, the buttons flying on different trajectories as I fell back, surprised. I tried to push him away, but his body did not even flinch at my shove. His eyes were sharp over my skin, looking me over before he blinked, disturbed and confused. Our eyes met in mutual surprise as he remained with his hands gripping the fabric of my shirt, horrified.

  “I-I’m sorry…” he breathed. He released my shirt and his hands went to his head, his eyes distant. “It happened again…” He slowly leaned forward, his forehead pressing into the cool ground in front of my feet. “I’m sorry…”

  “What happened?” I asked, grabbing the ripped fabric and pulling it back over my chest.

  “I thought…I-I could have sworn…there were holes a-all over your body…not those ones,” he pointed to the bandages taped over my scratches, “but…others, that were infected…”

  Now, I was completely dumbstruck. While everything he had said and the way he had been talking sounded like ravings from the poor creature who had suffered too much under the influence of the Commission of the People, I was beginning to wonder if he had some kind of power that was beyond the realm of what would be considered possible. He had been able to see the wounds around the exact same moment I had thought of them.

  “How did you see…”

  “I don’t know…” he groaned, shaking his head. “I don’t know myself anymore…I see things I never should…I-I-I can’t stop it…”

  Before I could stop the question coming out of my mouth, I asked.

  “What else can you see?”

  He slowly straightened, his eyes wide with horror.

  “Dragons,” he whispered.

  “The red dragon?”

  He nodded slowly. “He tells me that things are going to get really bad…” he shook his head, his eyes on the ground. “He says that there will be a revolution…a bloody revolution.”

  I lowered my gaze.

  “That already happened…”

  “…how?” he asked, his voice puzzled. “It was my revolution…”

  “Your revolution?”

  “Dana is going to mass-produce Machines of Neutralization. He’s going to sell them all over the globe, and when we’re numerous enough…we’re going to take over the whole planet…that’s what the dragon told me.”

  And…we were back to the ravings of a mad man.

  I sighed and shook my head.

  “I think you’re hallucinating,” I whispered.

  “I want to get out of here,” he hissed. He looked at me, his eyes filled with tears. “Can’t you feel how much pressure weighs on this place? How little the air moves? I want to be among real trees and grass…I think…if I were to get out into the outside world a little…I…I might be able to understand what is going on in my head.”

  I could only stare.

  “I’m dying in here…” he breathed.

  “…me, too.”

  * *** *

  Thankfully, the screaming was no longer piped into my cell, but I was so convinced that it would sound at any second that I became jumpy and paranoid, sometimes standing up and screaming around the cell, telling them to sound the horrible noise just to offer me some relief from the anxiety of waiting.<
br />
  It never did.

  Admittedly, I smiled when I saw the scientist with the bandages over his nose leaving the lab I was being led to for my testing.

  The T-Team was waiting. I stared at them coldly. I felt no particular emotion other than defensiveness. I had to find out what made these guys cringe, what made them fear me. Seeing the way everyone was backing away from me after my outburst, I knew I could have control if I had the right type of image. Right now, that was an image of being unpredictable, dangerous, and able to cause pain. I just needed to find a way to extend that control to my T-Team.

  “Well, here we are,” the leader announced with a dark smile. He reached to the table next to mine and picked up one of the white pipes there. I looked it over, wondering why he was tapping the pipe against the palm of his other hand and why the others were also picking up pipes.

  “This is punishment for the other day,” the one I had bitten said. “And, lucky for us, it actually has to do with your fifth test.”

  Fifth test…there was something about the fifth test…

  Three guards were still holding on to me, keeping the chains tight so that I could not reach any one of them. I glanced around, seeing some of the guards flinch away from my stare. I hid my smile.

  “Prepare yourself,” the leader hissed.

  He took the pipe in both hands and swung hard at my stomach. I doubled over around the pipe, cringing in pain, but I made no sound. I had to be silent. If I screamed I would revert back to the image of the weak little girl that they could take advantage of and rape. This time, I had to show strength.

  Another pipe came at my shoulder, causing me to bend further to the ground, but I forced my foot forward to keep myself from falling to my hands and knees, even as another pipe struck my back sharply.

  I was able to stay standing through most of the beating, but my body was shivering from the strain of not folding under the blows. Eventually, I did fall, which allowed them to hit the other areas of my body they had been unable to while I was standing with the guards around me.

  Their goal was to hit every portion of my body.

  I could only imagine what the fifth test was supposed to change about me.