Countd0wn

Chapter 16: For Your Health

When I woke up, I was once again back in my cell, only this time, something was different. The bare metal slab that I had laid on for the past few days was now given a mattress along with a pillow and blanket. I saw exactly what they were doing. "Rewarding" me for a job well done. I didn't want rewards for what I had just done. Nevertheless, I didn't think I would get much sleep tonight. Not after the dream I had last time.

I buried myself in the warm blanket, and tried closing my eyes a few times, but whenever I did, all I saw was the boy with his hands around my neck, or Gerrard showing me more hellish images of my past and future. So, I eventually just sort of dozed, drifting between a state of awake and asleep.

After a while, which could have been 3 hours or 40 minutes, the door opened, and I bolted upwards, expecting the guards to rush in and tranquilize me once again. Except they didn't the guards simply stayed outside. This time, a slightly balding man with a tweed jacket and a tie rushed in, and held a small device up to my skin, which was about the size of a hand mirror.

I didn't resist, simply because I didn't want to get shocked or knocked out again. I'd had enough of that for one day. The man waved the device over the scars on my cheek, and the marks on my neck from where the boy had grabbed me. Each time, the device flashed green and made a small beep. The man in the jacket seemed satisfied, then stood up and nodded to the guards. He walked out of the room, and they closed the door.

I had no idea what any of that had been about, but I was thankful that they didn't hurt me again. Then, my mind wandered to Ivy, and I mentally kicked myself. What the hell was I thinking? It shouldn't matter whether or not I get hurt, I'd go through all of this a thousand times over again to make sure she was alright. I just hoped Mossberg had kept her word.

I took up most of my time by walking around the cell and measuring it. I knew that if I tried to use my powers in here, I would get stunned remotely and probably beaten, which was another problem I had to deal with. I literally had to watch what I thought, otherwise I could give away information that could compromise me and Ivy's safety.

The cell walls were thick, and as far as I could tell, solid metal all the way through. It had clearly been designed to hold people like me. This facility was meant for us. Then, the word I had seen on the wall when they had hauled me out of the interrogation room flashed through my head again.

Knowing that they were listening, I was ready to test out another theory that I had come up with. As I thought about the word, I also began to recite a small nursery rhyme that I could remember in my head. Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one, the mouse ran down, hickory dickory dock. I kept repeating it over and over, and used that to sort of block out my other thoughts, in case anyone was listening, which I knew they were.

I focused on the word again. Reservoir. That was obviously the name of this place, or organization, or whatever it was. Judging by their weapons and tech, they were military, maybe some sort of top-secret section? I was basically guessing by this point. But I needed to find out more. How I was going to do it, I didn't know.

I had been resting for a bit, when the door opened. This time, the drugs didn't enter my system. Whoever was running things seemed to recognize I was more tame now, and didn't need them. The guards escorted me, not needing the wheelchair this time, but instead placing a blindfold over my face. A bit primitive, but still effective, since I couldn't see a thing as they guided me throughout the halls.

After a few minutes, we seemed to enter a room with bright lights everywhere, so bright I could see them through the veil of black cloth. Then, I was sat down in a chair, with the blindfold being removed. The harsh fluorescent glow blinded me for a moment, then my eyes adjusted and I saw what was in this new area.

It was a room full of small tanks, about the size of a small human, like my size. I was seated in a metal chair, with several other empty chairs next to me. Except they weren't all empty. Some were filled with more kids my age. Boys and girls, all of them with those strange devices around their waists. One of them was the boy who had fought me earlier, the burns still on his hands.

Then, the guards began to strip our clothes off, putting us down into our underwear. I resisted, but the other kids seemed to have blank expressions on their faces, and didn't seem to register anything happening. Even the boy who had seemed so animalistic earlier was staring off into space with a blank stare.

Then, the drugs began to kick in for me again, and I felt my muscles go weak. The guards carried me over to the small tank. I saw that there were several scientists standing around the tank, watching monitors, and looking at different leads and devices inside the tank. My eyes widened as I figured out what they were going to do. I tried to struggle, but the drugs were too powerful.

The front of the tank opened, and the guards placed me inside as I leaned against the wall. The scientist began to attach leads to the sensors and needles on my body, as well as putting a small breathing apparatus in my mouth, then closed the front of the tank. The claustrophobia began to set in, and I looked around to see the other kids doing the same in the other tanks.

I began to breathe heavily, and saw that the mouthpiece was giving me plenty of oxygen, like a scuba diver. My toes started to feel cold, and I looked down to see that water was coming in, that was coloured slightly green. Panic filled my body again as the water began to fill up the tank rapidly, and was soon up to my neck, then over my head. I opened my eyes and slowly began to breathe under the water.

I looked outside, and saw the man in the tweed jacket from earlier walk in. He looked at all of us in the tanks, and nodded to the scientists. They all began to push buttons on the consoles near our tanks, and the leads and tubes that were hooked into us began to move, like some sort of liquid was flowing through them. Then, they reached the needles inside my skin, and I jolted forwards, seeing nothing but light.

It was like every part of my body was exploding at once. Not with pain, but with energy and electricity, like nothing I had ever felt before. It was the same feeling when I released a ton of plasma with my bare hands. It was just raw power, and it was coursing throughout all of my being.

Then, just like that, it was over. The tubes stopped flowing, and the tank began to drain. My heart was racing, and I began to breathe faster than I ever had before. It was like being on a sugar high combined with drugs. After the tank had drained, it began to grow hot, most likely to dry us off. The tank then opened, and the guards pulled me out.

I had trouble walking at first, like I had to remember how to do it, then I managed to steady myself, and got my clothes back on. I looked around at the other kids, and saw that they weren't doing it as shaky as I was. Probably because they had done it before. The very thought of them being forced to do that every day was mind-boggling.

Before I could as what the hell had just happened, the guards grabbed me and began to escort me back to my cell. I saw the man in the tweed jacket talking to the scientists and nodding his head. I caught a bit of his sentence. "-great success-" 

I had no idea what he was talking about, but then managed to figure it on the way out of the room. We passed by one of the tanks, with the reflective glass showing me my face. My hair was unkempt, as usual, but I saw something that caught my eye. The scar on my face from the boy who had kicked it, was gone. Completely. Like it had never been there in the first place.