White

Part #11: Continue Reading

Feeling strangely curious, I peel back the next page, anticipating. I stare at the opened page, dumfounded. Is this an anti-climax? I mean, what is this? I almost laugh out loud.

The page is empty. Completely blank. I turn to the next page, undisturbed. The double-page spread shocks me more than the first. It depicts a group of sleepy-eyed children fitted into small steel cages, only about 60 centimetres square.

In one cage, is a wary looking boy, hunched-over, the knobs of his spine creeping out from under his clothing, visible. Dark shreds of black hair obscure the sharp glaring of his green eyes. He appears to be glaring menacingly at the viewer, sending chills through my body.

In the cage next to him, is a little girl, probably no more than nine. She appears to be holding onto the bars of her cage with all her might, crying. The green-eyed boy has his arced back toward her, seemingly oblivious to her crying. Her oak hair spills over her fragile shoulders and arms and through the bars of the cage. There was no way to tell the colour of her eyes, as they were both shut in frustration, her wails leaving her mouth open.

In a cage behind the first two, is also a little boy of about four. He has long black hair and light brown skin. He too, is crying and his eyes are not visible. Both hands are busy rubbing at them as his knees are bent to his chest.

On the far left of the picture, next to the older, green-eyed boy, is another girl, probably much older than him, who looks away from the viewer. Her face cannot be seen, save for the tip of her nose as the yellow of her hair covers all but her linen covered back. Her bandaged left arm holds a bar of the cage, her back to the green-eyed boy.

All the children in the photo are wearing loose, short-sleeved dress-like mocks of pale linen. There are only four children clearly visible, but behind them, I see more metal tables with rows and rows of thousands more cages. I can’t see clearly, as to what else lies in them. I feel somewhat glad about that. There are four labled arrows drawn in black pen, pointing at the four children. The green-eyed boy has been labled Leon; the crying girl, Sachiko; the long haired boy, Adrian and the older girl is labled as Emile. I assume that these are their names.

I flip further through the book, to find whole pages dedicated to the observation of each of the children in the cages. Most involve the horrendous experimentation of mechanical enhancements done to the children and side-effects caused. Leon had his own legs removed and was given longer robotic ones. The photos show his unnatural height and the gained speed in walking longer distances with larger steps. The noted observations show his progress on getting used to them and not falling-over from such a height. It’s a miracle he still survived after all those experiments after falling over so many times.   

The page on Sachiko shows a picture of her right arm. I immediately recognised the deformity of her fingers, the ends now an assortment of alloyed metals and blades. The blood from the ‘little experiment’ still dripped from them. The horror of it made my stomach churn. It seems that her left arm was left as is. According to the notes, it took her seven months to use the left hand more dominantly, due to the mess-up with her right.

Adrian’s experiments were worse. He was being experimented on the efficiency of advanced stem cells. Parts of his body were cut off to test for quick regrowth.

These were all experiments with poor funding that were done in the dark. It’s obvious that there was no anaesthetic.

They managed to gauge out his left eye as well. Unfortunately, it didn’t grow back. Would have been ridiculously unrealistic if it had, though. There is a picture of Adrian trembling, with the bandages wrapped around the left side of his face. Wisps of hair are caught under layers of bandage. His wide, glassy right eye shines a brilliant blue. In the background is a jar with an eye of the same colour floating in it.

Separate experiments were conducted on the gauged eye to force evolution to make it a separate life form. It turned black and started growing in the jar. Apparently it still had some of Adrian’s will and was put into the ‘white room’. I shiver at the mention of the white space I had been trapped in earlier. Apparently the room was gassed and gave its inhabitants a range of scripted illusions.   

Emile’s experiment was also one of the most gruesome. Her left arm had been cut open to further advance the nervous system and study its chemical effects on the body. This meant hours of pain at a time and constant prodding at her delicate nerves.

Please continue on to part twelve.