Viscera

Prologue

Helena's POV.

Moscow, Russia.

March 21, 2017.

Operation Skyfall is nothing but a joke. Imagine raising a child, just to be reduced to being a mere prototype for these people to test on, and the worst, they even treat them like trash, itatapon lang kapag hindi na kailangan.

This place is like a farm for children, they are injected with a substance that can make them incredibly strong.

It's a good thing, actually, since the serum enhances almost all the attributes of the child. But what comes after it horrifies me.

They want perfection, and they think the only way to achieve it is to sacrifice the life of these Children to master the serum, and create the perfect specimen.

Unfortunately, I was part of it, I didn't expect the job to be like this, nag-apply ako to be a scientist, not some torturer that tortures Children for a living.

We're currently doing an experiment on a child right now, my fellow scientists are with me.

And this special child is in front of me, encased in the glass box, getting experimented on by us, pressing the buttons that would electrocute him, some would even splash hot water, it would make him scream until cold water was splashed at him.

Every scream feels like a cut, every beg feels like a sword being dug deep into my heart, I cannot stay here anymore... but I have no choice, now that I'm part of this, there's no going back, or papatayin nila yung pamilya kong nasa Pilipinas.

They press the button, making the voltage skyrocket into 120 Volts.

"He hasn't eaten in weeks, can you decrease it?" I asked my workmate, I cannot handle this anymore.

"Sorry Helena, this is protocol. If this Child dies, then he will be replaced by another one, so don't worry about it."

I can only swallow the words that I wanna say.

I watched for a while to see what will happen to the child, as he was being electrocuted, he fixed his eyes on me for like 5 seconds before passing out completely.

They turned off the machine, pero hindi ko na kaya, umalis na agad ako sa harap ng experimentation room, at nagtungo sa kwarto ko para umupo sa kama.

Wala akong nagawa kundi umiyak, the screams are still in my head, I can still hear them kahit malayo na ako. Tinakpan ko yung dalawang tenga ko. "Stop, please stop." But the voices never left me.

Luckily, as I was shaking, my fellow scientist and also my roommate, Claudine, approached me. "Helena? Are you okay? I saw you leave the facility, your duty is not yet over, you might get in trouble."

Umiling ako, while crying. "I-I cannot see another child being treated like that... that's... that's too much, Claudine."

"What if we have a choice? What if we can save them?" sabi ko kay Claudine, she's the only one I can trust.

"No, no Helena. These Children... we cannot save them, we cannot do a thing to save them. But God knows, Helena. God knows if we have a chance, we will. Rest first, Helena. I will take your shift."

"Thanks for always being here for me, Claudine." I smiled, and she wiped the tears out of my eye.

People like Claudine are the people that make this kind of work bearable.