The Project

Chapter Nineteen: Sensitive

"It's Ken, right?"  Tyler sat next to the brown haired man and gave him a warm smile. "Yeah." I sat down on the other side of him and put on the rings. "What happened to the rest of your group?" Tyler glared at me and I shrugged.

 Ken's eyes widened and he scratched the back of his neck. "Uh.. I'm not so sure I should be telling you this." I set my hand on his shoulder. "It's not like I have anyone to tell." 

He smiled weakly at me. "I uh.. I had to watch my group be experimented on." He pursed his lips at the memory and shook his head. "No one should have to watch someone else's suffering like that." He held up his wrist. A black leather band held tight to his skin. 

"Jackson gave this to me right before they took us to that room." Ken shivered and fiddled with the band. "You don't understand what it's like to see someone die right in front of you.."

I clenched my jaw. I know exactly what that feels like. "No, I don't. I'm sure it was painful to see. Can you tell us what else happened?" Ken looked up from his band and bit his bottom lip.

 "Brittney's hair had been ripped right from her scalp. They injected her with some.. silvery liquid. It made her crazy.. she tried to bite the doctor." He sighed. "She was a docile girl, I don't know what they did to her.. but the next thing I know.." 

"Her brains exploded all over the room."

I scrunched up my nose in disgust. "What about the rest of your group?" Ken looked at me with sad eyes. "Sophie, Jackson's sister.." Ken's eyes welled up with tears. "They cut her open and dissected her insides while she screamed in pain... So much blood.."

 He squeezed his eyes shut and took in a shaky breath. "Her brother went through a much worse fate in my opinion. They skinned him alive and burned the muscle." His hands were shaking at this point. Despite this horrible experience he went through, his voice was steady.

 "Abel and Eli?"

His eyes shot open and he narrowed them at me. "How do you know their names?" I shrugged. "People talk." He hesitantly nodded. "Uh.. Eli and Abel.. I have no idea, honestly. They weren't in the room with us and I have no idea whether they're alive or dead." But Dan said that all of group six besides one died.. interesting. "Question." He nodded. "Go ahead."

"How did they keep them alive long enough for the skinning and dissecting?"

"I don't know that either."

"Well Ken, since you're alone.. you can come sit with us whenever you feel that you're comfortable enough." Tyler clamped a hand onto Ken's back and gave him a wide smile. Ken nodded appreciatively and focused back onto his meal. Damnit Tyler.. I don't need more people to slow me down! 

It's not like I want to care.. It's just instinct I guess. To keep people alive.. To feel. It's like I'm becoming a totally different person. I care TOO much. I need this feeling to stop. It's not helping me get out of here and frankly- It's annoying. 

Tyler stands from the table and makes his way over to me, jerking me up by my forearm and pulling me over by the coolers so no one could hear us. "What the fuck was that, man?!" He hissed, glaring at me. I jerked my arm away from him and narrowed my eyes. "What?!" His eyes widened at my response. 

"What? Are you kidding me? You just brought up his dead friends out of the blue! No warning or anything." His voice had lowered suddenly and he rubbed his arm. "What the hell else was I suppose to do?" I held onto Tyler's shoulder and my expression softened. 

"Hey, It's okay! Your friends are dead and I didn't know them. Let's make this harder for you and console your ass so you can cry on my shoulder and tell me that you're too emotionally drained to talk about it!" I sighed heavily. 

"Listen, dude. It's better for everyone if emotions aren't involved. If we're going to get out of here, gathering info without getting attached is the best option." He bit his bottom lip and hesitantly nodded. "I-I guess you're right."

I nodded and raised both eyebrows, shaking his shoulders a little. He nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I'm okay." I let go of his shoulders and we both walked over to table one. This time, I sat by Mark and Tyler sat by Felix. Felix looked to Mark curiously. 

Mark looked up from his food and noticed Felix's stare. He grunted and went back to his food. "Mark, you got the stuff?" Mark looked over to me blankly before his eyes lit up. "Oh! Sorry.. yeah. Amy wasn't really that hard to-"

 I cut him off with a sharp jab to the ribs. "No one needs to know." He nodded sheepishly and handed me the syringe filled with silvery stuff. "Why did you have to make it sound like I was selling drugs though?" I glared at him and he chuckled.

 I'll ask him about Amy later, seeing as I shot her in the Death Hallway. Yes, I'm calling it that now. I had asked Mark a week ago to try and seduce one of the guards to give him a syringe, Dan said he'd have someone 'outside' examine it to try and figure out what it could be if Mark succeeded. 

Then again, when was there a chance of him NOT succeeding? He's got more charm then all of us combined. I mean, not me of course. I'm Irish after all. Everyone knows an Irishman has a bottle o' luck and charm on their side.

 Anyway, I'm not sure how Dan's suppose to smuggle something out of this high security underground box. No ones even allowed outside.. but we have to figure out what the hell this silvery shit is.. After all, it's causing more deaths then I can process.