CHAPTER 17 (Everything Beyond Your Needs Is Poison)

Gunner was embarrassed to think of those thoughts. Yes, he had wept and he was heat broken but his brother's situation is not exempted to his. He felt like he was the worst brother living.

Even though he was in a depth of danger, he felt safe in his brother's room. There is not much in his room besides the bed, sheets, a pillow and a television. There were no cabinets, meaning he had nowhere to hide. And if anyone ever stops, he will easily get caught.

He was about to stand to check on his power bank when his shoes scratched something. He slowly kneeled and took a look at it. There was a small carpet which now looked like a rag. It was dusty and dirty and Gunner was skeptical. Why is it there? He slowly pulled the rag and was surprised as he lighted it. The floor looked like it had a secret passage or a hiding place that looked like a person who made it.

It was perfect because it was unnoticeable even though it is a cement floor. Gunner had a strong feeling that it was his brother who had created it and maybe he had reasons for it.

Gunner gradually opened it to see what was inside. And he was right. It is a hiding place and it looks much like a coffin. You can hide there but it will not be long due to the capacity of air. But it was built for an emergency case.

Does his brother know that he will be here? Does he have predicted it all? At first he was against studying the case concerning the WIC Company, but right now he was into it because of his brother's life.

He slowly closed the hiding place and sat again at the edge of the bed and in deep thought.

"What will I do next? I should make up a plan," he said to himself as he closed his hands and his elbows were resting on his knees. He was shaking and still couldn't concentrate on what he would do next. He shouldn't just keep on hiding and hiding. He should take action.

He inhaled and exhaled and calmed himself first. He pulled himself to the headboard of the bed and sat down. His knees were on his chin, and he closed his eyes. He badly needed to calm himself and try to imagine that he was home… together with his brother. He smiled at that thought and did not notice that a single tear had already escaped from his eye and he did not bother to wipe it away. Instead, he smiled more. How he misses his twin brother so much.

And that is when he was taken aback and suddenly opened his eyes. He now remembers who Dr. Vega is.

Dr. Vega was the former president of the WIC Company and the one who formulated it at most besides his father who had passed away at an early age. He was still young when Gunner had seen him in magazines and he was not yet a doctor at that time. He was named as Prince because he was the only son of the Gambit and was the wealthiest and best known family. Gunner studied this family because he was in doubt and also his twin.

There was a case where an employee recorded himself as having survived the said company. He did not reveal his face or even his name, but if you look into his eyes long enough, you will notice it. Eyes never deceive. The company itself was not what the people had expected.

In his record, it was like he was preventing people from going there and, if they may, they would be the next victim and become a host.

He also said that he had witnessed an insane project that Dr. Wilson Gambit is experimenting. He also said that it had not been perfect yet because it was a complicated thing to do and a lot of try-outs needed to be made.

And those try-outs need a subject and that subject are those male persons who have been employed in the WIC Company. Those missing people were used in the project and all of them died due to dehydration, anorexics and the drugs that was induced to them and all of them got overdosed.

He also said that he had witnessed it all in horror because he was trusted by the management and was assigned to secure the area every night and in charge of all the CCTV.

At first he just slipped and took it away, because he didn't want to get into trouble and be one of them, but as soon as he saw a young boy about the age of fourteen or fifteen, he took action that put his life in depth of danger. He did save the boy but, in the end, he died. Before he came into the job, he signed a contract that he would never and ever get in the way of what he would see and everything would be kept in private, but as to what had happened, he had become a host.

There is this logo that is used to hypnotize every subject that was coded or was experimented on and it would work out in you as it would swallow you into another dimension. Your body will go weak and you won't feel anything and what is the craziest part is your soul will come out of your body and you will see yourself there. It sounded crazy but it was all true. Science called it an astral form. The project says that it will be used in every war that it cannot be defeated.

He also describes what it's like to be one of the subjects. At first, if you had become an astral, there is no way back. Project Elysium was not yet perfected, but the subject can be in an astral form in just an hour and if you are not lucky and your soul won't come back into your own body, you will instantly be dead. Dr. Wilson had made him one of his subjects that were near perfection.

There were five of them and he was the fifth subject. The other four subjects had died after an hour of their soul circling in the room. That time it went black out and the generator was having trouble turning on. It had given him a chance to think. Even though his body was weak and his mind was in control of a machine, he tried and tried all his might to get back into his body out of the way and he had to do it fast or all of it was game over for him.

And then, before the lights and machines were turned on, he had managed to get into his body. While the other four bodies had died except him and Dr. Wilson didn't know about it, so he also pretended to be dead. Their bodies were disposed of and buried in the garden of the building. He had gathered himself and escaped in the horror without anybody noticing.

He also said that this project was intended for war soldiers and would cost about a soldier's life, which means a large sum of money that no one could imagine how much or maybe it is a lifetime sum of money. When it comes to power and money, any person will do anything and that is a poison. A poison is anything that, beyond what a human needs, is a poison.

He also said that the project was like a fictional character itself because no one would believe that it would exist. The generation keeps passing and passing and so is technology, so the impossible will be made possible if a person is determined to build it. It was called the Project Elysian, meaning the home of the blessed after death. It is Dr. Vega's motto, which he discovered by chance in his journal.

And that video was viewed by millions of people in just an hour because he was also a hacker that could get access to anything that he wanted to visit a site. Not until he was found and the video in the next hour had been deleted and cannot be seen anymore, even if you have it downloaded. But that abduction was carefully planned and no one had witnessed it, so people there thought he had fled somewhere else and started a new life.

Gunner remembered it all when he was young, then read about that article written by a ghostwriter. It was an old newspaper that can only be seen in the library of Deoxford. The Deoxford had everything that you wanted to know. Maybe it is a crime or has been dismissed or disputed. That is where he and Slasher always went when they had free time or search for clues, because everything that they handled was there and they always won the battle.

When Gunner read that article, of course, he did not believe it. Of all the cases that he has encountered and read, that was the most unbelievable case. For him, that was all fiction and just making it up for the sake of readers. And he was also curious about why this article is present in Deoxford library? Also, the article he had read was in an old box and was not binned but it was organized by page and that captivated Gunner's attention.

Gunner exhaled as he reminisced those memories.

He looked at the torch and a thought came to him.

"There was darkness everywhere, but there was always a light. But there is always a shadow in the light. I may have a sleek chance of surviving here, but I will make certain that my death brings justice to all of the people here."