Zane couldn't move. He was riveted to the spot, speechless. He recalled the hologram of the boy and the screams of pain and terror he had heard when he entered this mysterious building. Before anybody could do anything, a door at the far end of the room swung outward, illuminating a hallway similar to the one they had just left. The smiling man gestured toward the open door as if showing a prized artifact at an auction. "Come! Follow me and I'll give you the tour,"
Zane and Joseph followed numbly, ducking to get through the smaller than average doorway. Zane was in too much shock to say anything, and Joseph was completely terrified of what he would see. Zane shivered.
The man ahead of them continued to sound enthusiastic. "I am your new supervisor, Lucas Wawrzynski. I'll be monitoring your work and reporting back to the Governors." He strode past a barred door that seemed to have fire blazing against the thick material. "Don't mind that. Come on!"
Zane peered through the glass. A girl not much older than him was lying on the floor, writhing in pain. Around her raged flames and a thick coating of lava flowed across the floor, melting the steel. The girl seemed to be unharmed by the lava but was screaming for help. Her hair was the same color as the blazing hot magma, bright red and her eyes were a pitiful darkness, begging for help nobody could give. Zane was tempted to throw open the door but it was locked. He was also completely sure he could not withstand lava as she did. He realized there was nothing he could do for her. He also realized that this place was not humane.
This was a place of horror and nightmares. Zane did not relish the thought of spending most of his waking hours here. He didn't want to be the one to cause this pain, this suffering. He vowed then that whatever his job in this miasma of hurt he got, he would not contribute to the pain he heard, saw, and felt. He would convince Lucas to give him a job in the computer room, or maybe even mowing the front lawn, because why not? Anything but having to see people suffer on a daily basis.
Joseph was faring none the better. He seemed to be struggling to hold in his breakfast and flinched every time he heard a scream. He kept his eyes fixed on the ground, watching his feet plod along. His hair fell over his face, blotting out the fluorescent light from above.
Zane wished he had listened to Joseph on the train. Granted, Joseph had only been partly right. The reality was far worse. The Governors contributed to the process of human experimentation, turning a blind eye. They managed to avert people's attention by giving them a life purpose of pleasing the government. Giving them only one place to work and placing this building on the outskirts of the city also helped to disguise the process.
Lucas Wawrzynski was still walking and talking. "The Governors feel this process is necessary. Several other nations in the world have tried to bomb this wonderful city of ours, leading them to develop a new weapon," he said nonchalantly, walking past a room flashing with a mysterious light. His feet clomped on the floor every step he took, momentarily drowning out the faint screams. "The Governors decided that the best weapon was still a human being. Planes and bombs will never triumph over the prosperity of the human race."
"Excuse me, sir?" Zane asked. "What do you mean other nations? I thought there was only us."
"Please save your questions until the end of the tour," he said, smiling broadly down at Zane. "As I was saying, the Governors developed a serum that enhances the genes of humans, which create unexpected talents. We here in the experimental science division refined it to bestow upon the receiver supernatural powers, making us the most powerful nation in this dangerous world.
"However, it requires the receiver to have a certain level of independence, hard to find in a society where everything is decided for you. So, we've been sent citizens who have shown high levels of prejudice or rebellion, injected them with the serum, and recorded the results. Unfortunately, it hasn't turned out the greatest, as you can tell. They keep reacting badly to the serum, suffering from intense pain and surprise bursts of power. That's why we've been needing to draft more employees to work here. They keep getting killed."
For some reason, that did not make Zane feel better, and Joseph stopped abruptly behind him. "I can't do this," the other boy whispered, soft enough so Lucas would not overhear them.
"Come on, Joseph," Zane whispered back. "Make it through today, we can figure something out tomorrow." He laid his hand on the other boy's shoulder, and Joseph slowly nodded. He straightened up and walked side by side with Zane, breathing quite heavily. Both of them had forgotten the spat on the train. It was a miniscule problem compared to what they were facing now. They were being forced to work in a facility where humans were treated like lab rats. Once again, Zane shivered.
Lucas was blubbering some nonsense about the results of tests in the lab, but Zane tuned him out and focused on the screams and pain. The screams and pain he would avenge. He now truly believed Joseph. The philosophy was wrong. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but Zane knew casting away the mantra of humanity would be for the best. If Earth was for the humans as a species, why did they fight over it? If all not human shall perish, why was everybody so afraid of the outside world? Zane needed to find a way out of this place, and fast. He realized just how much of a level of independence and rebellion he had and began to doubt Lucas's motives. But his mind screamed for him to follow the laws and orders and quell his personal rebellion. It was an intrusive thought but he could not replace it with any others. It was one of the fundamental laws of New Vancouver, and he felt horrible violating it.
From ahead, Lucas smiled, staring straight ahead. It was completely unnerving. He led them into a room at the end of the hall and showed them a temperature control thermostat on the wall, which was highly uninteresting. Zane wasn't very surprised when Lucas rushed out, swung the door closed, and locked it with Zane and Joseph still inside.
Joseph ran to the door, banging his fists against the unyielding material. Lucas simply smiled from the other side. His grin was disconcerting, like a predator knowing he had caught his prey. "No!" Joseph screamed, beginning to kick the door as well. "You can't keep us in here!"
"Actually, I have paperwork from the Governors that says I can," he said, his voice muffled by the thick pane of glass. Joseph suggested Lucas go do something anatomically impossible to himself, and slid down the door until his legs were splayed in front of him, his back against the door. Lucas smiled again. "We've never had a pair of subjects get the serum together. Perhaps it may help you cope better and become what we need you to be. Fingers crossed." He crossed his fingers for emphasis and vanished from view. Zane saw nothing but the metal wall.
He looked around the tiny room. There was a steel table with two chairs in one corner, a deck of cards scattered across the table. Two prison beds were on the far wall, one above the other. A separate room led off to the side, presumably the bathroom. Great, Zane thought. Then he noticed the cameras in the corners of the room. Even better.
He sat down cross-legged next to Joseph. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you," he said softly.
"It's all right," Joseph told him. "We wouldn't have been able to do anything."
"We could have run away," Zane said. "After all, New Vancouver doesn't have a police force."
Joseph looked at him curiously. "We'd have no way to get food or water, or medical supplies. It's all regulated by the Governors."
Zane relented. He heaved a deep sigh. "I believe you now,"
Joseph shuffled his legs and pushed his tie to the side. "I know," he said.
Zane stood up, looking around the tiny room once again. If this was going to be his place for a little while, he might as well make himself comfortable. He let his suit fall down his shoulders. Underneath, he was wearing a simple white tee. However, he did keep his pants on. He wasn't that comfortable yet. He laid the suit down on the steel chair and sat down. The suit covered up the cold metal and gave him a sort of cushion.
"You know they're gonna inject us with that serum, right?" Joseph asked.
Zane smiled. "Yes, I do," he said. "And I figure, the more powerful the prejudice and rebellion, the more powerful the ability we get will be." He didn't know if he believed what he was saying, but he tried to look confident for Joseph's sake. The boy had gone through far too much already and deserved some positivity. In reality, Zane thought the concept of this serum was absurd and that anybody stupid enough to think it worked was chasing a hopeless dream. But Zane couldn't help but think of the ramifications of being cursed with such a thing.
Would he then be able to force himself to escape? Could he bring himself to abandon his entire life and embrace a different lifestyle?
He also never told Joseph that no matter how many emotions and feelings were marring his brain, prejudice and rebellion were not among them. He had never let his brain entertain either, so he felt neither. He tried, but it was in vain.
"The ability?" Joseph asked, confused.
"Lucas said the serum gives you supernatural powers," Zane said, shuffling the deck of cards, feeling the rough cardboard on his smooth palms and fingertips. "And when I get mine, I'm gonna use it to break out of here." What he didn't say was that he supremely doubted his ability to force himself to escape. Hardwired into his brain was the desire to obey, to follow concrete rules and allow his life to be predictable. But he didn't say this, because he knew Joseph would not appreciate it.
"How do you know it'll be strong enough?" Joseph inquired. He tapped his fingers against the floor and seemed to be only half-listening to the conversation at hand. His brow was creased in concentration. His hand was in his pocket, turning something over and over.
"I don't," Zane said. "But you taught me, in a short span of time, to watch out for the unexpected, and I figure breaking out of New Vancouver is very unexpected." Again there was that twinge in his gut, the feeling that he was speaking a lie.
Joseph cracked a smile. "I don't think I taught you anything," he said. "I figured I just made you mad."
Zane laughed at that. "You did make me mad," he told Joseph, and despite what was happening around him, he felt happy. "But you were right."
Joseph nodded, his gaze fixed on the ground. He stood up abruptly and followed Zane's lead, using his suit to place on the chair as a cushion. He sat down in the other chair and nodded to the cards in Zane's hands. "Go fish?"