The elevator opened...

The elevator opened back up after hitting the basement level. There was a stark contrast between the basement and the floors above them. Upstairs, with its hundreds of windows, the sun's light made it seem much brighter and livelier. What the elevator opened onto, however, was a dark, ugly, and simplistic hallway. Outlines of cement blocks painted a yellowish cream color made up the walls down there. The hall seemed to go on forever in both directions and was broken up by doors every few feet. The floor itself was nothing but cement with some kind of clear coat on it that shone in the light coming from the overhead fluorescents.

They stepped out of the elevator before the doors could close again and stared down the long stretch of hallway.

Darius wanted nothing more than to turn around. To go back up in the elevator, go back to their room, and sleep until it was time for his first class. Alex wasn't backing out though. He was staying, which meant Darius was staying.

Despite his determination to see this thing through, Alex still felt all the same reservations and warnings Darius did. The prospect of $10,000, however, worked like a force of nature on him. It propelled him forward even when he thought he would back out. He convinced himself very thoroughly that it was the only way to stay in college and finish his degree.

Alex turned to look at Darius and nervously shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess we'd better go then," he said.

They started walking down the hallway. The numbers on the plain metal doors were descending. After a few minutes, they came to the one they needed. Room 21. Alex tried reaching for a door handle, but to his surprise, there wasn't one. He leaned back, peering down the hall at the other doors and found they all had handles. Room 21 was the only one that didn't. He gave Darius a look of confusion, but his friend only glanced back at him in weary dismissal.

"I've said what I've had to say, so if we're gonna do this, we might as well do it." He shrugged his shoulders to show he didn't care anymore.

Alex nodded and then knocked loudly on the door. It echoed eerily around the empty hallway.

Darius hoped there'd be no answer but, no such luck. The plain door swung open on its own a second after Alex finished knocking on it. They glanced inside tentatively and found nothing there but a small, almost pitch black room.

"Do step inside," a voice declared. It came through a speaker set just inside the doorway, embedded in the ceiling.

They did what the voice said and stepped inside. They found themselves crammed into what looked like a janitor's closet. Mops, brooms, dust pans, and other cleaning supplies were stowed away neatly on free-standing metal shelves to their left and right. The wall in front of them, however, was completely bare.

When they were both all the way inside, the door shut again and a light suddenly turned on.

"Okay, so we're in a janitor's closet," Darius said, looking around. "Somebody scammed you." He turned to leave but backed up when he realized there was no handle on the inside of the door as well.

"Shit. How are we supposed to get out of here?"

"Calm down." Alex tried to reassure him but failed miserably.

Darius was slightly claustrophobic and knowing he couldn't get out of the little room was starting to make him hysterical. Panicked, he rushed the door, banging on it loudly.

"Son of a bitch!" His voice cracked with panic and stress. "Don't tell me to calm down! I can't get out. I can't get out of here!"

"I'm sure there's a way to get out. Just wait a minute. We'll find it." Alex pushed past Darius to examine the door. He looked at it for a couple seconds but turned away when he realized it was no good. They really were trapped. "It's probably..."

He didn't get to finish what he was about to say. There was a sudden clicking sound that made them both flinch and then the bare wall at the back of the closet slid to one side. There was a noise, like metal sliding against metal, and then they were looking at a glass chamber with the same dimensions as the closet. The floor and ceiling were comprised of milky white panels and as they stepped inside, the panels immediately started to glow with bright green, pulsating light. It was slow at first, then pulsed more and more rapidly as time went on. It was annoying but not painful.

They looked at each other with uncertainty for a few seconds. Then they stepped into the chamber even more, still tentative.

"It's just a light show. Probably something to spook us," Alex said, talking mostly to himself. "Don't worry about it."

There was a lack of conviction in his tone which Darius was quick to pick up on.

"Yeah right," he replied. "Nothing to worry about my ass."

"Decontamination in three...two...one."

The voice was loud and came out of nowhere. Both of them jumped slightly at the unexpected sound.

On two, the wall behind them slid back into place, sealing them inside the little chamber. On one, a cloud of chemical smelling vapor erupted from concealed vents in the floor and ceiling, spreading over them like a noxious blanket. It coated them in moments, crawling into their noses and mouths and stinging their eyes until they ran with tears. As more and more of it poured down their throats, they began to cough harshly. They were deep, wracking coughs that almost made Alex hurl.

Darius, on the other hand, managed to control the coughing a bit so he didn't get that particular feeling, lucky him.

"Going to k-kill y-you," he said between fits of coughing.

"I-I kn-know. I kn-know," Alex replied back as best he could.

There was a whirring sound and then the vents that poured the chemical cloud inside the little chamber started to suck it back out. They were surprisingly fast and in no time, the vapor was completely gone.

"Okay." Alex wiped a hand across his still-watering eyes. "So far this idea could have gone better."

"Ya think?" Darius replied, sarcastically. "There's no way outta this now, you idiot. We're stuck for it."

"Insulting me isn't going to help anything." Alex was a bit annoyed at Darius's tone but he didn't really have the moral high ground there so he let it go. He looked for a way out of the glass chamber but when he couldn't find one, he resorted to pounding on the thick glass.

"Quit being a pansy." Darius turned to the sliding wall, trying to force it open. "I think we've got bigger issues than me insulting you."

"I'm just saying," Alex continued, stubbornly. He knew it was ultimately a pointless exercise but he couldn't help it. Every once in a while, he decided it was enough and said something about it. "You know I don't like that shit."

"Would you just shut up?" Darius grinded his teeth. "You made me come with you. This is your fault and if I want to call you an idiot, I'm gonna call you an idiot! Suck it up!"

Alex stood there for a minute, feeling stupid.

"Maybe we should just talk about this later, when we're out of this place and everything's back to normal," Alex said.

He got ready to pound on the glass again but stopped midway.

There was a figure walking up to them.

Alex redoubled his efforts, yelling and screaming. Darius joined in when he spotted the person too.

The figure was a rumpled little man. He looked like he was around maybe five and a half feet. He had white hair that corkscrewed out from his head in an all-too-stereotypical, mad scientist hairdo. He wore a pair of black framed glasses with lenses in them so thick they made his watery, green eyes bug out of his head. He smiled at them and gave a tentative wave of one wrinkled hand. The smile caused deep creases to suddenly appear on his forehead, at the corners of his eyes, and all around his mouth.

Alex recognized the man at once as the certified genius himself, Dr. Emil Tiberius. Seeing the completely non-intimidating scientist up close made some of his earlier trepidations about going through with the drug test fade away. The guy looked like he couldn't hurt a fly.

Darius walked up to the glass, yelling. "You gonna let us outta here or what?"

The man jumped slightly and looked like he was reminded of something important he forgot about.

"Yes. Yes, of course. I apologize," he replied.

He walked over to one side of the chamber and laid his hand on a high-tech, biometric scanner. A green light read the patterns of his hand, followed by a satisfying beep of approval. There was a hissing sound as the decontamination room's doors opened, letting the trapped men inside free of their prison. They both took deep breaths once they got out because the inside of the chamber still smelled heavily of chemicals.

Dr. Tiberius held out his hand to Alex. "I am Dr. Emil Tiberius. You are?"

"Alex Porter," Alex gripped the doctor's hand with his own.

When the contact was broken, Dr. Tiberius turned to Darius with his hand held out for him to shake and an inquiring look on his face.

"Darius Clarke." Darius shook the man's hand, his face still angry.

After Dr. Tiberius was done with the introductions, he reached into a pocket on his lab coat and pulled out a digital recorder.

"Subject one. Alex Porter. Average height. Medium build. Slightly portly." He rudely stuck a finger into Alex's gut before moving on to Darius. Alex gave his friend a dark look when he heard him chuckle.

"Subject two. Darius Clarke. Tall. Lanky. Small build. Overly skinny."

He looked them over one last time.

"Subjects are ideal for trial 127-9KL per my initial request to my...benefactors." Dr. Tiberius paused as if to consider something else, seemed to think better of it, and then stuffed the recorder back into a pocket. He gestured at Alex and Darius to follow him. "Right this way, gentlemen."

He turned on his heel and walked through his laboratory.

Darius took the opportunity to walk closer to Alex.

"You see? I told you you needed to hit the gym more," he whispered, unable to keep the cocky smirk off his face.

Alex pushed him, sending Darius stumbling off to the side laughing. They continued on, following dutifully after the little man like school children following their teacher.

The scientist's lab was a lot bigger than what either of them would have guessed. Refrigerators with glass doors occupied almost the whole of one wall. Inside were different kinds of vials and test tubes filled with various liquids. More than a couple looked like they contained blood samples. Two long, metal tables, each with its own set of burners, beakers and sink, took up the center of the room. Along the far wall was a counter with a variety of sciency-looking equipment on it. The only thing either one could readily identify were a couple of centrifuges. The back wall of the room had a complex series of monitors mounted to it with computer towers standing upright on a simple metal desk. They looked expensive and were most likely top of the line. The monitors displayed intricate DNA models, complex mathematical equations, and chemicals that were broken down to their molecular components. The entire room was lit with rows of bright, fluorescent lighting that cast a harsh whiteness on everything.

"If you both could follow me," Dr. Tiberius said, this time leading them through a door and into a room that looked like it had been stolen straight out of the nearest hospital.

Alex leaned closer to Darius so he wouldn't be overheard. "They spared no expense for this guy, did they?"

"I know," Darius replied. His gaze was drawn to the monitors next to the bed and fear pumped back into his mind.

"If you could discard your clothes and put these on, we can get started." Dr. Tiberius gestured toward some folded hospital gowns at the foot of each bed. Then he left without another word.

Alex gave Darius a slight shrug and then hesitantly picked up the gown off his bed. He headed toward the bathroom.

"You can get dressed out here. I'll take the bathroom," he told Darius.

He headed toward the bathroom and paused outside it for a second. He took a deep breath to control his suddenly rising heart rate and fluttery stomach. He took another one just to be sure and then disappeared inside, shutting the door behind him.

Darius wasn't eager for this thing to begin but he started to change into the hospital gown anyways. He was stuck for it. There was no way out. To make matters worse, that feeling was back again, the one about the drug trial changing his life forever. It was persistent and unshakeable. He looked at the clock and watched it for a minute as his thoughts continued to drift. They slipped in and out, each one only serving to make him more and more anxious because they were either about Anna or the drug trial. All he wanted now was to get it over with, get paid, and leave so he could put it all behind him.

He took a deep breath, folded his clothes, and then placed them neatly on the recliner opposite the bed he took for himself.

Alex came out of the bathroom shortly after, putting his own bundle of clothes on the other one.

Then they waited and it was probably the worst part of the deal for them. It left them with too much time to think and definitely too much time to let their imaginations run wild. They didn't talk, or even look at each other. They waited in silence, the only thing that broke it was the steady ticking of the clock on the wall between their two beds.

Darius couldn't help but dwell, once again, on the feeling that things were about to change.

Drastically.