War: A Business

Chapter 53: Experiment

   I woke up in a hospital bed. Doc and another bald, Oriental-looking old man sat beside me. A nurse tended the IV beside me. She notices that I'm awake.

She notifies Doc and the other guy beside.

I stood up, still weak.

"Its okay, lie down for a bit." the other guy scolded.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm the one who planted the nanomachines in your body when you were a child." he explained. "Call me X, or Professor X."

"What?"

"You're part of a past experiment that continued from the late-World War 3 years until the Eastern Spring." he stated."The remnants of the People's Liberation Army continued this experiment until the end of the Eastern Spring. The experiment is used to create 'Super Soldiers' to try to replicate, improve and to compete between the abilities of earlier nanosuits of NATO and Russian specialized forces during that time." he explained. "One of the experiments is trying to improve the human body and mind for combat by injecting large amounts of nanomachines in your bloodstream." he explained.

"And?"

"You are the only one who survived the experiments, out of 552 kidnapped people."

   I can't be surprised, I'm now used to surprises after the recent events. This is not the most unusual thing that I heard in my life.

"The bad news is, it worsens your PTSD and it adds some potentially deadly side effects." he said. "Do you want to participate for a experiment that you have a 0.01% chance of surviving?" he added.

"Don't mention that part." Doc scolded X. "What he meant was, he was going to improve your abilities by boosting the self-replication process of your nanomachines in your body." he explained. "You will survive."

"Okay." I agreed. "I got nothing to lose anyway."

   If I have a silver of a chance to live. I can see no problem with that.

   I can finally die in peace. But strangely, I still feel nervous, even if I have come to terms that I can die anytime.

   A nurse pushed a wheelchair to my bed.

   I crawled my way to the wheelchair because my legs are missing.I sat on the wheelchair and the nurse pushed the wheelchair outside the room.

We roamed about the corridors and we got to a elevator. The elevator opened its doors.

  We entered the elevator and descended into the ground floor. They walked beside me to the outside of a hospital.

"Where are we?" I asked Doc.

"In a civilian hospital in the Liberated  States. Its the only way you'll be safe from RavenClaw forces."

   I looked at the flag standing beside the hospital. The flag resembles the former United States of America, with the only difference is that it has fewer stars, and the unmistakable symbols of Neo-Marxism: a violet circle with a fist holding a hammer.

"By the way." Doc added. "Before your brother visited you, a friend of yours visited you during your 3 day coma."

"Who?" I asked.

"A Japanese man named Tadashi."

  I thought he'd forgotten me. I wish I saw him. He'd make a great drinking buddy, along with Q.

   I remember now that he's dead. I tried to find my E-cigarette, but I realized that I don't have it, also I have no pockets on my hospital attire.

  Everyone dies around me.

  We entered a van. The nurse returned to the hospital.

  We drove amidst the old buildings of a small town. We drove on a highway with tall pine trees on either side of the road.

  Later, we drove in a old, abandoned compound. The buildings are crumbling. They walked out of the van while the driver pushed my wheelchair to where they going.

  Then, we arrived at a abandoned factory. The door opened, and I saw what's inside.

  The factory is converted to a giant laboratory. Tons of equipment for scientific research are propped up on the center. The remnants of the rustic factory equipment merged with the lab.

  They walked with me to a bed surrounded by white curtains. They opened it and pushed my wheelchair to the bed. I crawled on the bed and just lie there. They connected my body on transparent tubes that leads to a large machine that I never seen before.

"Are you ready?" X asked.

"What will happen to me? I asked nervously.

"If we succeeded, your already superhuman abilities will improve tenfold. If not, you will die."

"Sure." I answered in a facade of cheerfulness, while grinning nervously.

They activate the machine.

  The glass tubes at the top of the apparatus, filled with black liquid, glowed with a blue light. I hear the whirring of the apparatus.

  The two old scientists operated the complicated apparatus, pushing buttons on the floating holo-screen.

  Then, the tubes connected to my arms and torso were filled by the same glowing liquid and rushed in my body.

  My body burned in tremendous pain. It feels like my body is tearing itself apart, filled and eaten with acid.

  Later, I suddenly woke up. Nobody is here. I stood up. I looked down.

   I can't believe it. I finally have legs that look human, the only thing is, my legs are shiny, and jet-black in color.

   I got out of the bed and I stand up on the floor. For the first time in a year, I felt my foot touching down the concrete floor, not like the metal ones I used to have.

  I walked to the mirror beside my bed. I looked at it.

  My brown skin stays the same, but with a slight grayish tone with it. My dead brown eyes have been replaced with, glowing light-blue irises. I feel like I'd changed, not just in appearance, but in what defines me.

  My recent experiences are the same with the bloody past, but the newer ones were made more significant. For the first time in years, the deaths on my part moved me.

  I opened the curtain and I walked out of the curtained area. The old men waited on a bench.

"It worked!" X shouted. "Finally, this nanotechnology can be made commercially! I must patent this!" he celebrated.

"Sorry, Jack, he's like that. He's overjoyed by his accomplishment. He was working on it during WW3 until now. I helped him a bit." Doc explained.

"No problem." I assured.

"Now for the testing phase." X announced.