Eric's POV
I woke up in a dimly lit room with the worst sensation in the pit of my stomach. I knew that everything had gone horribly wrong. I tried to keep my eyes closed in the hopes that when I reopened them I'd find myself in the apartment, waking up from a horrible nightmare.
My body ached but it was almost ignorable in comparison to the horrible pounding of my head. This was different from anything I've experienced before. It's not the I just worked out in the sun without water kind of pounding. It's not the I just woke up hungover pounding. It was so much worse and it was intensifying with each passing second.
I eventually opened my eyes fully and inched myself up slowly. I had been placed on a simple bed with dull grey sheets. The walls were completely blank and white however they slowly merged and became other colors. There were no other furnishings except for the bed. There was no door to be seen either.
I was almost convinced this was still part of my nightmare.
Suddenly the wall to my right started to shimmer and part of it moved aside to allow a young blonde girl to step inside what I assumed was my cell. She wore a lab coat like the others but she didn't carry herself with much importance as they had. She must not be high up in the ranks.
"Don't worry, it's not bad that you slept the longest. He said your memories were the most complicated to process. It took much longer than the girl," she smiled and gently extended her hand where she held a little plastic cup.
I scoffed at her behavior. She acted as if she were some nurse visiting her favorite patient. I almost expected her to bring flowers or something.
"Go on, you'll want these," she smiled pressing the cup into my hand. Inside the cup were three inky blue pills so dark they were almost black.
"Like I'd take anything else you give us," I replied indignantly.
"I wasn't aware you enjoyed migraines," she shrugged her shoulders, her smile never faltering. She was truly becoming annoying now.
"Where is everybody else? Where is that son of a bitch who locked us up here, huh? Too scared to come face us so he sends you instead?" I yelled and begun to stand up. However the pain in my head began to grow unbearable, the corners of the room turning black.
"Take your pills, your friends are coming," she assured me, unfazed by my outburst. I glared at her and reached for the cup. It's not like it would make a difference if it were something bad, I was already locked up in here. Anything to kill the pain.
As soon as the pills landed on my tongue they began to dissolve sending a liquid goo down my throat. Before I could react I was fading away into darkness once again.
.
.
.
.
When I woke up again I was furious until I realized the headache was gone. I still felt like a train had rammed into my body but at least I could think. It didn't take long for the blonde girl to return, this time on the opposite wall.
She pushed a wheel chair in front of her and greeted me with her annoying smile.
"I see the pills worked perfectly," she said looking pleased as she approached me.
"Come on, you don't want to be late," the girl ordered, reaching over and began lifting me off the bed. For her small size she had an odd amount of strength, easily lifting my limp body off the bed and onto the wheelchair.
She placed my hand on the arm rests and strapped down my arms firmly and then did the same to my legs.
"Don't try to struggle they'll only get tighter until they eventually seep into your skin. You thought the headaches were bad?" she clicked her tongue to convey her displeasure and shook her head.
I'd probably have to worry about those later but at the moment I was just trying not to freak out about Akio and the other girl, Aleeza. Akio especially since it was my fault we were in this mess. Both Charlee and Lavender will kill me. That is, if I don't wind up dead first.
Outside of my room was a white hallway, bare of any doors or windows for as far as the eye could see. The only other things in the desolate passageway were Akio and Aleeza strapped down to similar wheelchairs with their own annoyingly perky nurses smiling behind them.
Aleeza look annoyed and distressed while Akio just looked blankly at the walls. His eyes were sunken deep into his face, shades of purple under his eyes.
"It has been ordered for them to be given the tour," the nurse who had been visiting me said, a voice of authority, unbeknown to me, rang out as she gave the command to the two other nurses, one a brunette and one a red head.
"Ordered by whom?" Aleeaza asked. Neither her nurse nor Akio's replied.
"By people you don't need to worry about," the blonde one assured her.
"We've already been given the grande tour of your marvelous establishment," I reminded her and she nodded her head.
"Yes, of the parts we wanted to you to see, now you must understand why you are really here. Your purpose, your use. We don't just torture people for fun, although don't trick yourself into thinking you're not disposable. You'll soon learn that you are exactly that," she smiled and placed her hand on my shoulder tenderly.
I didn't hesitate to violently shrug it off.
We were pushed down the hallway, or labyrinth really. We took lefts and rights and turned around and took elevators until I wasn't even sure we were in the same building anymore. It was much much colder and more doors started to appear, each with more security measures than the last.
"Nico is truly a brilliant man, he has devised all of this right under the nose of Dr. Lorelei herself. She didn't like his plan, you see, didn't trust him-"
"What a shocker, she didn't like a plan that involved holding people hostage. Horrible woman, truly," Aleeza interrupted her. The blonde nurse glared at her and the redheaded nurse who had been pushing Aleeza stopped her wheelchair and came around to face her.
She bent down and adjusted the silver shackle like bonds trapping her wrists. Aleeza did not shout or scream or show any other sign of pain except for a twitch of her foot and a tear that streamed down her face before she could stop it.
"As I was saying, Nico, truly brilliant man, is the heart of the operation. He, better than anyone, understands the risks that you honorable government officials go through every day. The government uses you all like soldiers for their master plans. Sending you out to battle while they stay behind enjoying political immunity. You all lay down your lives, you are all used up and then whats left of you?
One mission gone wrong and all that's left of you is a private funeral with your nation's flag and a classified file that won't ever be seen by anyone. Do you really think you're making a difference?" she shook her head sadly.
"It's our job, we know what we're getting into when we sign up for it," I retorted.
"Do you? Well let me show you what you're signed up for now," she smiled as she pushed us toward yet another sliding glass door, this one with more security than any of the doors we had passed before. Five guards stood before a large glass panel where put in a pin code, scanned her hand, and her eyes before it lit up.
The guards stepped aside and the glass door slid away allowing her entrance. She turned back around to push my wheel chair, the others behind us like a train.
"Welcome to phase one, you've been in this room before," her voice rang out from behind me as she pushed me through the dark room. As my eyes began to adjust I realized that she was right, we had been here before. This was Nico's nightmare room, where he forced us to each relive our worst memories.
There were approximately a dozen metallic chairs, each with a person strapped onto it. Their heads where locked back into a plastic headboard and their eyes were forced open by wires. They stared off into space unblinking as surges of electricity hit them causing their bodies to shudder.
Directly across from them were holograms of the things they were experiencing in their heads. A person draped in a lab coat sat directly under the holograms manning machines that sent the shocks to the people strapped onto the chairs.
No one paid attention to us.
"The memories are the most important part of the process. It is what really makes our project unique in comparison to everything else out there. Everything else, I guess you could say, is borrowed science," she explained as if we were investors interested in their laboratory.
"You've also been to this part of the lab, although you weren't exactly conscious," she remarked ushering us past the room with the chairs.
In contrast to the other room, this one was flooded with light. We were on the other side of a thick wall of glass. On the other side, doctors were examining things in microscopes and carrying around see through tablets with information and data tables on them.
On the other side of the room there were people asleep being placed in machines similar to CT scanners you see in hospitals.
"This is phase two, you are currently in phase four," she explained.
"What's phase three?" I questioned, and immediately regretted it.
"I'm glad you asked," she smiled eagerly, ushering us away from this room and onto the next.
"Phase two is one of the most crucial ones. It took a bit of altering but we finally got it right. Using technology from Dr. Lorelei, which you've already witnessed, we make cells faster than ever before which is extremely important in the advancement of cloning,"
"Cloning!?" Aleeza exclaimed. We quickly passed through a room full of machines such as the ones we had first seen with Nico when we had originally arrived. Our pre prisoner days.
"Yes this is where the first steps of the cloning process occurs. You see while all other labs which have created technology even close to ours take up to years to create their samples. Ours are finished within a day," she explained proudly.
"You don't think you'll get away with this, do you? Do you know how many laws you're breaking?" Aleeza told her angrily.
"Oh dear, you don't think you're the firsts do you?" the brunette girl spoke up for the first time.
"Phase three," the blonde nurse behind me continued pushing us past this room and onto the next. I couldn't bear to wonder what kind of horrors still lay ahead.
"Phase three is where we merge the technology of biology with computers. Something not entirely new, but definitely vastly greater than anything anyone has seen ever before. This is far better than any clone imaginable.
With the memories and knowledge harvested from the original subjects in phase one, these clones are not like brand new babies who must be taught everything from scratch. They are the test subjects, but under our control,"
We emerged into the largest room I've ever seen in my life. It was impossible for this to be in the same building as Genética Para O Avanço. This was somewhere underground.
Everywhere I looked there were groups of identical people following the instructions of a single person clad in black. They trained in obstacle courses, the loaded guns, they combated against each other, and to my utmost horror, some jumped in front of a bullet landing limp on the floor in a pool of their own blood.
"Like I said, one comes to realize how truly disposable things are," the blonde girl said.
"Selene, are our newest subjects tuned into the scheme of things?" Nico finally emerged from the crowd, separating himself from a trainer.
So the snake had a name.
"Yes, sir. They understand why they are here," she smiled stepping in front of my wheel chair with her hands behind her back, obediently.
"Good, I have much to talk to them about now that they understand. Please, uncuff them. I'm sure we can all talk like civilized human beings," Nico smiled charmingly.
"You'd have to actually be on in order to talk like one," Akio responded, the first words he uttered. Nico did not seem perturbed by Akio's accusations and merely waited for us to be released.
Nico waved over three trainers to escort us as he began walking towards a door, his office presumably.
"You don't need to come in, they won't harm me in here," Nico assured the trainers and ushered us inside his office.
It was, like the rest of the facility, neatly organized. Not a paper out of place. He sat behind his glass desk and offered us seats across from it.
"Water anyone? You must be parched," he smiled but no one replied.
"Ah, straight to business then," he nodded his head at our silence.
"You may be wondering why I've kept you all around when you're clearly disposable to me. You see, there is a bigger plan to all of this. One I'm hoping you'd like to be a part of,"
We remained silent.
"I would like to install my biogenetically altered agents into actual agencies. We've tried a couple of missions and they've all been achieved with flying colors. It's time to take the next step. Seeing as your agency has suffered recent losses, I'd think you'd understand better than anyone what this would mean. Less deaths, more missions accomplished successfully, a difference in the world truly. We'd like to sign a contract with R.I.P," he finished and awaited for our response.
"You're crazy if you think we'll agree. You're joking right? You hold us hostage and offer us a business deal and expect us to oblige? What are you on and can I please have some to take me out of my god damn misery," Akio stood up from his seat and yelled at Nico, fury in his eyes.
"I thought you'd say that. You agents so predictable," Nico chuckled and patted Akio on the shoulder.
"I, of course, have a plan B prepared," he nodded off to a wall which opened seconds later to reveal a trainer escorting, well, me. Or a clone of me I suppose.
People always describe it like looking in a mirror but it was something more of a nightmare. It felt horribly wrong, against the laws of nature down to the pitt of my stomach.
"What do you say we pay a visit to your girlfriend? She's the head of R.I.P isn't she? I should be making the deals with her," Nico smiled, placing his hand on my clone's shoulder, who returned the smile and turned to smile down on me.
~~~
Thank you for reading!!
~Lorna~