❘❙❚ ISSUE #05 ░░░░ VOL. 1
❛ COMPOUND N❜ ┆🌹
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"Four hundred and ninety-eight! Four hundred and ninety-nine! Five hundred"
Rosie and Ben had had an afternoon to prepare for what the doctors called "the next step." None of the children knew exactly what they meant, but they followed the specific instructions assigned to them individually: for Ben it was to keep the training the soldiers were carrying, doing push-ups and weights; for Rosie the sentence forced her to do edible fruit or she would be killed.
"Five hundred one! Five hundred and two! Five hundred and three!"
Ben was doing push-ups having Rosie sitting on his back to make more weight, while she had scattered dirt on the ground and tried to create a damn edible apple for the soldiers. She had been given a box and had to fill up by four o'clock, when they would be taken outside. The girl's nerves increased with each failed attempt, the room was full of apples rolling to the boy's mouth and took a bite.
"Five hundred and four! Five hundred... Rosie! I forgot." Receiving no answer, the boy got up as if nothing, and threw Rosie on top of the failed apples. "Rosie!" he demanded attention by taking the apple he had bitten. At least someone ate them. "How many apples are you going to make? You have to count my push-ups I can't count them, I get distracted, and I don't like to count."
"Ben, please! I have to fill the box of apples before four, there is half an hour left, and I haven't done one!"
"What, are you blind? There are hundreds of apples! Put them in the box and help me count!"
"Oh god Ben!" She exclaimed in a volume she felt uncomfortable, but she was the only one who woke the child up from his narcissistic vision. "If I didn't have this box today, I'm going to die. Do you understand, Ben? They are going to kill me, I spent months trying to do this and I still can't, they are already fed up with my failure. Please, I need to concentrate."
Of all the times Rosie had felt on the edge of death, threatened and frightened, this was the worst. The doctors of group II have spent months deciphering the problem of the hardness of their plants –and amazed by the new ability that would work to explore an ocean of money– without looking at a solution, putting the pressure and blame on the girl, even hung her as a traitor to the homeland and a liar. The poor girl was on the verge of collapse, knowing the symptoms spoking frankly about her problems: glassy eyes struggling not to cry, uncontrollable breathing, and voice broken by the lump in her throat and her fingers, full of dirt, trembled more and more.
"They're not going to kill you," the boy's words didn't reassure her, what did he know? They would never kill him, they worshipped him. "I'll tell them not to kill you."
"Ben!" Rosie was fed up, and for the first time, she showed her patience was over. "They're going to kill me," she said, and he believed it. Would death be so bad? Maybe she would go up to the kingdom of God, share land with precious little angels and Mary would be her mother, give her shelter and gifts because, after all, she was still a good, godly and helpful girl.
"Then make the damn apples, what's wrong with you! Why you can't make them?!"
Now they were two upset children. When Ben questioned her problems and he did it quite often to not get bored, Rosie was forced to talk about them or she would have to deal with a moody, unruly and squeaky Ben. She would rather do everything he asked to please him than make him angry and untie the monster who announced his arrival in the same way: first a few screams and then he broke something.
"I can't!" And then, the girl didn't resist and burst into tears, burying her hands in the ground and holding her tired body. She hadn't slept for days because of duty.
"Maybe you can't make soft apples anymore."
"Yes, I can," she tried to calm down by taking a deep breath and taking off her tears before ben was disturbed. If she didn't give it much thought and hide her face, she would be saved from the taunts and words. "I've made them softer these days..."
"How do you create plants? Just imagine them?" Ben was upset and wanted to make his push-ups and have Rosie counting, it was his innate behavior, but since he had brought up the subject of death, he seemed to remind himself to behave like a soldier.
"Yes, I usually think about the cells they have, the chemical composition, among other things..."
"That sounds boring, maybe you should think of something more fun or something that makes you happy, what makes you happy? Fighting makes me happy, fight with a soldier. Punch him until he bleeds and begs to stop. They always yell soldier at me, I'm the center of attention out there, you know? That makes me happy."
That sounded horrible to the girl.
"Being alone makes me happy," she replied. "I feel safe and free, there's no one around to force me to do things" Rosie thought Ben might have some kind of reason and for almost two years she forgot how she had made her first rose.
"Try it," he encouraged her and gobbled up another apple.
She buried her fingers in the earth and abandon the bad feelings, concentrating on the positive ones, in which made her feel safe in the reality of her head, building a mental palace where she made her plants and danced the melodies of the queens. She imagined the cabin in the middle of the forest, raised from her own hands and decorated with natural furniture, unknown flowers and warmly colored vines. She imagined an orchard and a few fruit trees, she would also like to have animals and take care of them, use the milk of the cows and the eggs of the hens to prepare a delicious breakfast. In that reality, she found herself walking barefoot through the grasses, feeling the freshness tickling her fingertips, and as she made her way to the apple tree, hummingbirds fluttered around her. She stretched out her hand to take the apple that fell like a drop of dew. She cut it and felt it soft in her hand, soft and perfect, the most intense red color, and when she tasted it, the juice soaked her lips. How delicious! Soldiers will love to have such delight in the midst of war.
"I think this one works, I can't really tell if it's soft for the soldiers, but it does feel different from the others," Ben took her out of the trance. "Look, I barely make strength and it broken," he put a piece in his mouth. "It tastes good."
Rosie snatched the apple from him to check it out for herself. He was right, in her hands it became weak, like the first plants she had made. Did she finally make it? She also couldn't tell how soft they were, measuring their strength altered perception; however, the difference was abysmal with what she had been doing since she entered the room.
"This will work" she said, breathing normally again. They had granted her a miracle, finally the angels and Mary had taken pity on her. "I can help you now to count Ben."
"Great!" The boy threw the apple bone into a corner of the room. "Get on my back and count from five hundred."
The children continued with their activities until four 'clock and the girl with the blond hair and the girl with the black hair went to took them. Ben continued to eat another apple, while Rosie carried in her arms the box full of edible apples.
The doctors of group I and group II were present in the area outside set for children and examinations, with the important difference that there were many uniformed soldiers, with shields and weapons of big size, no soldier was present on the other side of the fence for Rosie's relief. Rosie didn't like changes, much less what was in front of her eyes that bristled the hairs on the back of her neck as she had not done before and situation of fear had lived enough. Tanks were located as barriers to the center, where they left the two children standing. She looked at Ben looking for relief, Ben wasn't to be easily frightened, but at that time he had looked at her in the same way.
"Children!" Dr. Stein stepped forward, he looked older and emaciated, with white hair falling down his sides and leaving him bald. The smile and the great spirit he had scared Rosie. "Girl! "All eyes were on her; how could Ben be happy like that? "Doctor Lang, go eat one."
Rosie dropped the box of apples near them and quickly returned to her stall, near Ben. Dotor Lang being in charge of testing her apples made the girl calmer, he was the only doctor who could lie for her. For her luck, it was not necessary, when he took the apple to his mouth, his teeth bit it easily, without any problem. Yes, she succeeded!
"The apples are perfect," he gave the verdict and came back behind Dr. Turner.
"Ha ha, the girl has been saved. It was what she needed, a little scare to activate her neurons. Very well!" he threw his notebook to one of the interns. "Children, my precious children today are going to spread your wings and become the next race of humans. You are going to be the beings that free us from this society of madmen. Dr. Vought's genius has created a new compound thanks to your generous performance in exams. Our study has provided him with the information needed to create the compound N. Dr. Fisher, Dr. Turner" both doctors stepped forward holding a small, black briefcase. "My children, today is the big day."
A bad feeling clouded her consciousness, just as she sometimes felt other people, especially Ben when they were so close that it was a direct contact between their bodies. Rosie felt the excitement of exercising. A moment ago, when she was sitting on her back, she could feel him, as well as her plants, but that feeling was a reading of the environment, of the soldiers armed to the teeth, the tanks sheltering the doctors and the two soldiers in the distance pointing at them, Ben had told her that they were called snipers.
"Doctor Stein," Ben raised his voice without fear of speaking to the doctors. "What does this mean? It doesn't seem to be safe."
He immediately turned to see the doctor, confronting him. His curiosity for the answer overcame his fears, she thanked Ben in her mind for asking.
"Boy, soldiers are not afraid, that's about faggots and women" Ben didn't like the answer at all, he didn't like any response that was offensive to him, and he held him in such high esteem that it infuriated him to be treated like a child. "It's fine, it's another injection. Doctors, proceed."
Dr. Fisher was in charge of Ben, Rosie was dr. Turner, luckily, he was gentler than Dr. Fisher and his breath burned. The injection was bluish than the Alpha compound, the injections they had been given since she started storing memories, and she even noticed it shiny. Dr. Turner rested one of his hands on her shoulder, that's when she felt danger coming from him or she could be confusing it with her own. The girl was terrified, with her heart in her mouth and looking weak to face the situation. She did not imagine running away, much less killing them all by poisoning them with her plants. She was not bad, she was a good, godly and helpful girl, just as Mary wanted the girls to be. And Rosie wouldn't disappoint Mary like that little girl in the story who broke the rule of not opening the thirteenth door. She stood still and quiet, like the dolls in her room, at the mercy of the doctors. It was not time to innovate, she would be obedient and kind, and one day her king would arrive.
The doctors had a strange device, similar to guns, where they poured the liquid through a kind of tube. He pressed the tip against her arm, and then, without warning, pulled the trigger. She felt a frightening, very painful prick that almost knocked her down if Dr. Turner hadn't held her before. He removed the gun and showed a needle and both doctors ran behind the tanks, where the rest of the doctors were already taking refuge.
Suddenly her arm fell asleep, and the sensation spread throughout the rest of her body. Her legs failed her and she fell to the floor hitting her back. This had never happened to her with the previous injections, and where was the intense pain? She didn't feel any pain. Where was it? Had they made new injections that didn't cause pain? Rosie had been overjoyed for a moment, but that relief was snatched away from her seconds later as she experienced the worst pain and not only her, Ben was also writhing on the ground. She screamed and screamed, to the spasms shaking her body, something very different. Something was moving all over her body, as if she had a worm scraping her inside. She saw that through her arms the blue liquid advanced brightly, perceptible to the diabolical rays escaping in the cloudy sky. Ben screamed much worse than her. What had they done to them?
For what she felt an eternity, the liquid took her body, licking like burning flames every inch. An unbearable pain that did not cease, did not finish until knowing every corner. Rosie clung to the land, seeking help and compassion. She never imagined nature would betray her. She buried her finger on the ground, but around her was born tentacles of moss green plant, which moved as if they had a life of their own. They crawled growing around the girl's body, hugging her tightly.
"Stop!" the girl shouted at them crawling away, but the tentacles followed her; it was her hands generated them. She took them out of the ground, and they didn't care, they wanted to catch her. "Stop! Stop growing!"
Nature ignored her and around her feet and her butt grew new weeds that sank her towards the earth, even the earth made a hole for her to cradle. The girl tried to get them off her back, crawling out away, they succeeded. Wild plant, earth, and tentacles came to encircle her, suffocating her confined to the ground, as motionless as a rock. Why did nature do that to her? She loved her and took care of the plants.
"Ah! Make it stop! "Near her she heard Ben. With the little movement she could make, could see him hitting the earth hard, again and again, without stopping. He would strike with a clenched fist, throw himself to the ground and into a huge hole. "I can't stop!"
"Ben! she yelled at him, but the boy kept hitting the ground as if it were his only mission in life. "Help us!" This time she yelled at the doctors, especially Dr. Lang.
They were horrible people, they didn't deserve God's compassion. All the doctors wrote down in their notebooks, and the only one who looked into her eyes was Dr. Stein. The tentacles revolved around her body, rising to her neck, he was watching what was happening and did nothing, in his eyes was the death sentence.
"Soldier, help her," he ordered.
The soldiers trotted up to the girl. They took out some knives and tried to cut the tentacles, to no avail. They hadn't made a scratch and didn't stop, they were already squeezing her neck leaving her without air. She saw them pull out the guns and fired, this time they did a little damage. But the plants healed. What was going on?
"Sir! We can't get her out" the soldiers were pulling on the plants; others joined him and fired a little more and tried to cut them. Nothing. While the girl lost her breath and drowned. "Sir! We can't destroy these plants!"
Rosie pleaded for air and prayed to the angels and Mary to grant her another miracle. She begged nature not to harm her and asked God for compassion. The next thing that happened, Rosie came back as a miracle. A big breath of air woke up her body, brought her back to life. Her savior had been Ben, who tore the tentacles of plants from her neck and threw them far away. It opened up enough of her way for Rosie to escape and ran to the swings, moving away from nature. As soon as no part of her body touched the earth, the tentacles died, the earth stopped opening in a hole, and the weeds did not grow. Things had returned to normal for a few seconds, because Rosie started spitting out a viscous, green substance. A mixture of your pigmented saliva.
"Boy! Can't you stop?" Dr. Stein got a little closer to Ben and signaled to the soldiers.
Ben was worse than her. He hit one of the tanks, booing him. His blows sounded hard, resounded through the enclosure like a big thunder. One punch after another, growling and screaming. He kicked and slammed his head against the wheel. Not the slightest bruise had been made. The bluish substance still glowed on Ben's body, unlike the girl, who took normality by also soothing the pains. Those bad people! Rosie thought they had put him much more compound than hers, if they did it with the previous injections, why wouldn't they do it with this one? Was he going to die? Was he going to hit the tank until his hands disappeared?
"Ben!" she called him. "Ben! You can control it!"
"No!" He would punch and bang, growl and growl. "I can't!"
An arcade redirected her attention. She vomit a green viscosity in quantities.
"Soldier, put the boy to sleep before he starts beating us and take the girl inside without touching the earth and be careful with what she is vomiting."
Dr. Stein's order was clear and executed in a simple coordinated movements without room for failure, something they had practice. A soldier lifted her up and carried her like a potato bag inward, while in the distance she could see the soldiers putting a mask on Ben and his body fell in surrender.
💬！▬ author's note
please vote and comment, it helps a lot!
you guys like the sorty or not? if i see a lot of support i will translate a new chapter everyday or so. In the spanish version i'm already on chapter 17 and Ben and Rosie are in their twenties
if you have questions please let me know, i will answer.
xoxo