[Chapter Thirteen]

“Good morning 7384” Dr. Lucy greeted the specimen, which was sitting on the bed inside its container, through the microphone. It in turn nodded its greeting before returning its attention to a ragdoll made up of rags and torn-up clothing. Dr. Lucy then left to help with the others that were behind the curtain of cellophane which was a laboratory for them. Materials that were not used, by the researchers that were not working on specimen 7384, were placed inside their laboratory. The place was not that crowded since it was only nine of them working throughout the whole study.

“Did it respond this time?”

“Yes, it did. It nodded today”

“Good”

Aside from the small talks, there was not much talking done. The whole place was quiet except for the sounds of the equipment and materials that they were using. Dr. Aberly sat almost unblinking as he kept monitoring the specimen’s vital signs through the connected wires. There were a few times when he thought that they have dealt too much damage to the body of the specimen, sometimes the heartbeat would flatline for a few seconds before reviving again. Often, during the surgery, the brain was not letting out any brain waves but it proved how resilient the body was when it kept on reviving itself. The tissues were healing nicely despite how rotten it was once.

“Dr. Anton, it grew another tooth”

“Okay, I’ll begin the extraction”

The specimen was now bald due to them trying to open its head, the curly long black hair was shaved off and burned. It does not eat anything due to the absence of its teeth and can only rely on the intravenous fluids that they were providing. It sat alone and sometimes would try to open a book from the shelf that they had a place there. Most of the bandages were removed leaving only those that were on its torso. After seeing these same people for a lot of days, it was already used to their almost hushed tones while speaking and the quiet atmosphere. The only thing that would break this tranquility was the sound of the keyboards when they typed or when they get into an argument, which, they settle by debate.

She had long noticed that her prized possession was missing after waking up multiple times only to find the absence of a sharp edge of the object digging on her thigh. It must still be in that man’s pockets, she thought to herself. It was not long when she heard a voice again.

“7384, lay down on the table again.”

She cooperated and laid down despite knowing how uncomfortably cold that table was. It was not long before she heard metal clicking noises, her limbs were shackled in place once she was situated nicely. A man wearing what she thought was a funny costume emerged from the door. They had kept her company, and she knew they had done something to her body. She could not seem to see the bones that were once nearly protruding from her joints or the blackened or greenish skin that was causing a pungent smell. This man had inserted a needle inside her mouth but she did not flinch nor move her head, not long later, she can taste something warm and metallic inside her mouth. The man took a metal thing with a small wire attached to it. He pressed somewhere before it sounded like it was sucking air inside before it was used to suck up the metallic taste in her mouth.

“This should be good enough…”

She heard the man mutter before he cleaned his tools and left. The shackles released her once the man was outside of her glass cell. She had spent much of her time either asleep or watching those people work. She sat back on the soft bed and poked the ragdolls that were placed on top of the pillows. She does not know what they are doing to her body but it was not stiff as it was before. She still couldn’t utter a word but she loved to hum the tune of the lullaby she often hears before she awakes. When she could speak again, she wants her thing returned to her. She only knew it is important but she doesn’t know what that thing was for. She must’ve been dwelling in her thoughts too much, she saw those three stood up from their seats. Another three persons arrived, they were facing each other and talking about something before the three that had been accompanying her left through the same door and the new ones sat at the table. The papers had already piled up to a great height that it nearly blocked the person typing away on the strange device.

“Dr. Preston, the results for the fungi should be out by tomorrow”

“Positive? Then that should speed up the research”

“Let’s see the progress report on 7384… This is interesting, it had learned to understand a bit of what they were saying.”

“Then might as well send it something to use to write. Check on the IV, I think it’s not dripping anymore.”

“Alright then, tell it to go to the table and then open on my signal.”

“Right, right, the drill”

“7384, move to the table.”

She heard someone say, it was not the female that had asked her. This time it was a man, it was not kind nor it requested her to move, his tone was more demanding. She moved, she was not familiar with these people neither did she saw them in one of her dreams. The old man’s voice before was very much familiar among the others. She felt she had heard it before. She snapped back from her reverie when the shackles snapped close again on her wrist. The man walked in and went to check the thing where the liquid was dripping, he wrote on the paper that his other hand was holding before he placed the paper on the table and twisted the little thing at the side that was connected to a bag of clear liquid.

I miss rabbit and the birds, she mused about as the man walked away from her and the bag of liquid. She wondered when would they let her leave this place, there was no sun, sky, moon, stars, and wind. Pretty much everything she saw when she was outside was not here.

“This shifting schedule is a good idea at the moment. We each get eight hours to do what we need before working again.”

“They only thought about this when Dr. Parks collapsed a few days ago. You are roommates with him, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes…”

“What was he doing during the resting hours?”

“I don’t know. When we do return to our rooms, I was the first to sleep so I don’t know.”