Renegade

Chapter 14

     Ben was taken to a secluded room with a hard bed in it.

     "Lay down," Oswald instructed. "I will be back with the proper materials."

     Ben laid on the bed and stared up at the cracked ceiling. His heart beat with nervousness and the blood rushed through his head. As the minutes ticked by, he began to actually second-guess what he was about to do.

     Oswald came into the room with a box from which he unloaded several tubes and wires. Carefully, and with precision, he attached the various instruments to different parts of Ben's body. All he could do was lay on the bed, letting each instrument get attached to him at a time.

     "What are these instruments going to do?" Ben asked, finally.

     "They are going to stimulate your central nervous system," Oswald explained, "while the serum rewrites your genetic code."

     "What will happen after my genetic code is rewritten?" asked Ben, worriedly.

     Oswald shrugged, "Results vary on the person. The serum is...unpredictable."

     Ben tensed up, "Fucking fantastic."

     After a couple more moments, the old man brought in a couple of machines. He turned them on, and then attached a cylinder to a particular instrument. The cylinder was filled with a blue-liquid, and the old man even extracted some with a syringe.

     "So you have a vial of the serum?" asked Ben, watching the blue liquid shimmer.

     "I've always kept a sample of the perfected formula," Oswald explained. "Our process tonight will be crude, but effective nevertheless."

     He tested the syringe, and then disinfected a place on Ben's upper arm.

     "You know," Ben said, "I never asked if you were a doctor or not."

     Oswald nodded his head, "Oh, I used to be."

     "A doctor of what?" asked Ben.

     "Psychology," he replied.

     "Wait, what does that have to do with--" but then he stopped as the serum was injected into his arm and white-hot pain spread throughout his body.

     "Argh!" Ben grunted, tensing up.

     Oswald quickly switched on the machines and prepared to flick a switch.

     "One!" he proclaimed loudly. "Two! Three!"

     He flipped a switch and the machine sprang to life. Electrical stimulation soared up the wires and attacked Ben's nervous system. The world went black as Ben's conscious flickered from the pain. It was ravenous, and it tore through his body like a knife.

     Ben screamed, and his body thrashed about on the bed. The old man switched off the machine, and curiously observed Ben.

     "Is that it?" whispered Ben, his face dripping with sweat.

     Oswald shook his head, "Again!"

     The pain was unbelievable. It went up and down his body as if he were repeatedly getting struck by a thunderbolt. Ben screamed, but he couldn't even hear himself over the screaming that was happening inside his head. The world was fading; it was getting darker.

     Oswald stopped the machine, "No result, again!"

     The world went completely black, and Ben slipped into an odd state. Images danced before his eyes and rippled with a flurry of colors. A bright light seemed to open up above him and he heard a soft voice.