*Justin's POV*
"Before you get angry, let me inform you that this transformation is only temporary," the director continued to say.
"It turns out that the drug stripped you of your enhanced abilities. And you did tell me that you wanted to be human, so if I were you, I'd be happy."
"Why are you doing this?" I asked, wary of his ulterior motives.
"The testing you were forced through was a lot," he answered.
"I figured that it was only fair that I compensate you for your troubles."
Now I had further reason to be suspicious of the director.
First of all, he definitely didn't seem like the type of person to make up for his mistakes.
And secondly, this whole "becoming human" thing feels more like another test than an apology.
"What about Erin?" I questioned, hoping she was safe.
"Did you let her go as promised?"
"Of course!" The director spoke, as if he wasn't capable of breaking a bargain.
But I didn't trust him.
Why would I?
He was a slippery man, and he could easily try and use Erin to blackmail me again.
I had no choice but to take his word for it though, because I didn't have any proof that she was still here.
"How long will I be a human?" I queried.
"At least eight hours. Ten hours at most," he responded.
"And I should warn you now, your strength and speed are still greater than an ordinary human's."
He turned to leave.
"What's the point of keeping me here anymore?" I inquired.
"I'm human now, and I assume that means you have all the test results you wanted."
"You don't get it, do you?" He chuckled, facing me again.
"This is another test. Why else do you think it's temporary? I'm not planning on letting you go anytime soon. You were a test subject from the moment you were brought to this facility, and that's what you will be until the day you die. Your whole life from here on out is a test."
I wanted to be shocked at what he'd said, but I couldn't be.
From the minute the director had stepped into the room, I'd suspected that this new transformation was merely another way for him to study me.
And now that I was human, he would only take advantage of the decrease in my amount of strength.
I watched him walk out of the room and called after him.
"You won't get away with this!"
He looked me right in the eyes, and in the few seconds it took for the door to slide shut, said:
"I already have."
It wasn't so much his words that bothered me, but the eerie expression he had on his face while saying them.
A smirk caught between pride and a psychotic grin.
Not only was the director desperate, he was insane.
His mental state should've been obvious sooner, but somehow I'd overlooked it.
I sat down against the wall again and leaned my head on it.
Getting out of this place is going to be hell.
-
*Erin's POV*
Ever since I was thrown in the prison, I've been cultivating a plan to escape.
Now was the time to execute that plan.
A guard comes around the prison every few hours to check on the various creatures and feed the ones who required food.
Eventually, he made it to my cell, and I sat quietly while he opened it and served me disgusting prison food.
"Enjoying your stay?" he asked me, laughing to himself.
"Not re-" I started to reply, but then held my stomach and started gagging.
I rolled over and kept wretching, acting as if I were ill.
"Are you okay?" he inquired, heading into the cage to try and help me.
As soon as he crouched over me, I bolted to my feet and snatched the key ring from his belt.
I locked him in my cell and took off.
My first instinct was to find Justin, but my new main problem was that I had no idea where he could be.
This place was enormous, and finding one being in it in a timely manner would take more than one person.
But I've made it this far, there's no turning back now.
So I started the long and tedious search for Justin.
-
After two very difficult hours of sneaking around, trying to avoid security and cameras, and looking through various rooms, my search turned out to be a failure.
I climbed through vents, checked cameras behind the guards' backs, and even tried searching bathrooms.
Every attempt at finding him was unsuccessful.
No matter how many places I looked, Justin was nowhere to be found.
There were so many rooms here, how was it that I was only picking all of the wrong ones to search?
If I gave up now, I might as well have handed the win to the director.
I shook my head at the thought.
I couldn't allow Justin to be caught in a fate like that, not after everything we've done together.
I tried to think intelligently about the situation.
There were a few places that I hadn't looked through, only because I couldn't.
Places with doors marked "Special Clearance Only".
They each had keypads on them.
A special code needed to be entered into the keypad to open the doors, but the codes are unique to every door.
I remember there being one by a lab next to the prison.
As quickly as I could, I found the door.
As expected, it was locked, and I needed a numerical code to enter it.
"Damn it," I grumbled.
I didn't want to guess the code, in case a wrong input set off an alarm, so I tried to crack it with math.
After staring intently at the set of numbers on the keypad for a while, I considered the fact that the code could be the numbers represented by a letter's position in the alphabet.
Slowly, I typed in the numbers "31345", which represent the letters "C", "O", "D", and "E".
And to my luck, the code was correct.
I stood patiently as the door slid open, waiting to be lucky again and have Justin be the one behind the door.
The door opened, and I smiled as my intelligence was rewarded with nothing more than a smokey black, floating mass in a paneled room.
My smile slipped from my face, and I groaned.
The creature seemed to be aware of my presence, and started for the door.
I didn't think it was a good idea to let it out, so I pressed a button on the keypad which quickly closed the door again.
"On to door number two," I rolled my eyes and started my journey to find another door.
-
Fortunately, the second door I found was Justin's, and this time I was truly rewarded with a kiss and a long embrace.
"I knew you were still here," Justin murmured.
"Director X tried to convince me he'd set you free."
"I'm glad he didn't," I replied.
"If he had, I couldn't rescue you."
He hugged me more tightly, and I sensed something different about him.
And that's when it hit me.
"Your eyes," I gasped.
"They haven't changed color since I came in here-"
"I'm human now," he interrupted me.
"It's only temporary. I'll change back after eight to ten hours."
Questions bubbled up in my mind, but I couldn't ask them now.
We had to get going, otherwise we'd be caught.
"Let's go, before someone sees us," Justin said, grabbing my hand and leading me from the room.
We didn't get too far before none other than Director X showed up.
"And where do you think you're going?" he asked.
"Away from here," Justin answered.
"Erin freed me from the mechanical prison you were keeping me in."
"Indeed she did," the director said, smiling.
"And she must feel so smart doing that."
He was staring at me as he said it.
"Well, she shouldn't. Erin, you were being watched the whole time. Did you really think it was that easy to get around a governmental facility? I allowed you to play "secret agent" and "sneak" around this place. And the doors, the keypads were altered to accept all input, no matter what door you went to. All of it was set up."
Now I knew how Justin felt while going through those excruciating tests.
To put all your effort into something that didn't even mean anything in the end.
It made you feel used and tricked.
But why did the director want to test me too?
That's the end of Part 27 :)
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