WARNING: You know the drill.
4.21 Punishments and Experiments
Tony
I had a serious problem. I was terribly bored.
In prison we could work or study, we were allowed to go outside to the yard once a day. But this place? It was more prison than the real one I had been in before. I had too much time on my hands and nothing to fill those long hours with. The idleness was killing me. If it was going to continue this way, I would soon become the worst version of myself.
I often found myself thinking about ways of killing these crazy scientists and agent Stiles to pass time. I also talked to Emma, the dead alien girl in the tank, once in a while. Yeah, I did gave her a name. Neither of us liked Gabriel, the young blonde scientist wannabe. One time I caught myself fantasizing about Kellie in a way I really shouldn't. If that wasn't a proof I was losing my mind day by day, I don't know what is. Wait, I take it back. If I start fantasizing about the lady with plastic cups and test tubes coming for me, then I'm finished. In fact, the longer I spent in this zoo, the more appealing the idea was becoming. And that was disturbing enough to make me start planing my escape.
It didn't take me long to memorize working schedules of the staff and learn pretty much anything I could from watching them, listening to their chatting or talking on the phones. Hell, I soon knew even names of their children and their pets. Not that it was of any use to me. The building itself seemed to be well secured, especially the restricted access area they held me in. Doors were equipped with fingerprint or retina scanners and soldiers were stationed in this lab to keep me in check. A courtesy of agent Stiles. I knew I would have to take a hostage to get out. There was a high probability things would not go smoothly and people would come to harm. That's why I needed to do it when Kellie wasn't here.
I couldn't have known I was running out of time and that soon I'd have no strength left to execute my plan.
Speaking of Kellie, her working hours were the only highlight of my day. I had the opportunity to watch her at work and I won't lie, I enjoyed it. She was very methodical and efficient, which were qualities I possessed myself and thus appreciated them in others. I found her approach to conducting experiments and making notes strangely comforting.
She didn't waste her time on idle chatter like her colleagues. She was focused and clearly motivated to succeed in achieving her goal, whatever it was. I liked that very much about her.
There was still a large part of her potential that remained unlocked. She was too timid. She should be in charge of this lab, not some old professor who was so easily influenced by the little schemer Gabriel Cole.
It all started when Mr. Cole was tasked to fill a form with me. Of course I didn't cooperate. How could I miss the opportunity to show how incompetent he was and help Princess to impress her boss? I din't like the guy's attitude, so I just glared at him
and let him try his best for a while. Then I yawned and turned my back on him. I knew the professor would send Princess, if Cole was unsuccessful. I counted on it. (Agent Stiles wouldn't be happy, if he witnessed this shameful manipulation on my part. Luckily he wasn't there that day.) As planned Mr. Cole returned to the professor empty-handed and I strained my ears to hear his usual tirade against me and so expected: "Let Heffner do it!" I smiled to myself.
The professor, mildly irritated, asked Kellie to perform the task. Mr. Cole watched her with hostility and as she was passing him, he made a snide comment, loud enough so I could hear it too, "Maybe he wants you to touch him, Heffner. Haven't seen a woman in months. Better you than me."
As Kellie was walking to my cage, I had a perfect view of her face, which turned red with shame at those words. Our eyes met for a second. She probably wanted to apologize for what the oaf said. That's what she always did ‒ apologize for others treating me badly, even though she herself never did, but Cole's words were clearly too shocking to her, that she couldn't bring herself to talk about it. Her eyes gave her away though. I wished she uderstood there was no need to apologize. I experienced much worse treatment back home. I didn't care about any of these scientists, their words could not touch me, but I gritted my teeth, because they hurt her. They will not make my princess blush! It is my job and I would do it only to put a smile on her face.
"I need to ask you some questions, Tony," she said. "I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not, Princess, but you will have to answer some of mine in return."
She paused and then nodded. I wanted to add something funny to cheer her up, but it didn't seem appropriate at the moment. Maybe later. She unlocked the door of my cage and pulling a chair in with her she joined me inside. Unlike others she wasn't afraid of me. She had no reason to be.
"Let's start. Where were you born?"
"Napoli. Italia. How's Chris doing?"
She wrote down my answer. "Chris is... he is not happy. Something seems to be bothering him lately." She lowered her voice. "To be honest, I'm hoping it's his guilty concience and that he's going to visit you in prison soon. He should start asking questions, when he doesn't find you there."
"Is he still making the headlines?"
"Yes, he is. For different reasons than before, though. My turn, Tony." She looked into her papers and tapped her pen at the next question. "Hmm. They want to know who your parents are and if they're still alive. Looks like this info is missing in the file they have on you."
I felt my jaw stiffen. No one asked about my parents for years and that was exactly how I wanted things to be. "I'm not discussing my parents, Princess, I'm sorry," I said through my teeth. "As for whether they're still alive, I don't know nor I care. Next question."
She looked up, startled. I had always been nothing but nice to her. She studied my face and I could see sympathy in her eyes. I was frowning, I didn't need sympathy. Not for something in my ancient past.
"Alright. Next question then." She checked her papers again. "Can you remember when was the last time you were ill?"
I couldn't. "You guys still haven't abandoned the alien theory? Any update on that? You've been running one test after another."
"I'm afraid the results of our tests suggest that you have been exposed to... We think you may have been abducted and subjected to alien genetic manipulation. Your DNA has been altered."
"What does it mean? Are you saying I am an alien? How is that even possible?"
"No, you are not an alien. But you're not completely human anymore either. You seem to have gained the same regenerative ability they have. Correction: your regeneration is not as powerful as theirs. We have come to conclusion that humans and aliens are genetically compatible, although the alien genes seem to be recessive. Chris was also tested in order to..."
I felt my blood starting to boil. "What? They are bothering my son now?!"
"...rule out the possibility he inherited the alien gene too. It was a single quick test. Nothing to worry about. We found no traces of alien DNA in him. Either he didn't inherit it or more likely you were still human when he was..." she blushed, "conceived."
"I see."
"We didn't get to those questions yet, but did anything weird happened to you in the past twenty five years? Have you ever felt like you missed a day or several hours and didn't remember what you were doing?"
"If you don't count hangovers and effects of various substances I used, I experienced no memory loss."
I could read the disapproval in her eyes, when I mentioned various substances. I felt it important to explain to her I wasn't messing with drugs. You don't mind her knowing you're a killer. What difference does it make if she thinks you do drugs? Because I didn't do drugs. I wanted the people I cared about to know the truth about me. "Kellie. I used those to deal with the loss of your mom. I had no one to talk to. Chris couldn't stand the sight of me." I shrugged.
Her expression changed. "Oh."
Now I certainly prefered her sympathy over her having the wrong idea about me.
"You could have talked to me, Tony."
I could count on Princess to say something like that. It made me smile. "Maybe I should have." I said and I meant it.
In all the chaos that had been happening back then and now, she seemed to be the only person beside Vincent that never thought ill of me. And she didn't even know me as Vincent did. She was taking care of my son, his little sister, me... Who has been taking care of her since Beryl died? I knew what she was looking for in me. I couldn't be a father to her, but perhaps I could be her protector. It felt like a natural course of things. I was already watching over her. From now on I would make sure all obstacles are removed from her way. Permanently if necessary.
She was tapping the end of her pen against her lower lip, thinking. She shook her head. "I don't get it. No memory loss, no abduction. You must have been part of some experiment then. There is no other way how your DNA could get altered without inserting the alien material into your body. But if there was no alien abduction, then..."
The tapping stopped and her eyes went wide. "Unless... the experiment you were part of was performed under the guise of something else that didn't raise your suspicion, and it all happened with your consent!"
"I'm sure I would have noticed if some weird stuff was being injected in my body. Wouldn't let that happen."
"But what if you thought the person was helping you? You could have been injured and someone was treating you, pretending to give you a shot to ease your pain."
I didn't like the thought at all, because it was indeed possible. "You're saying this person could have simply injected me with the alien stuff? Is it that easy to turn me or anyone else into... what exactly?"
She looked at me with sympathy again. "We don't have a name for it yet. As far as we know the alien gene is causing you no harm, on the contrary. Your injuries heal faster thanks to it and from what I heard it saved your life in the jail. We can't predict if it stays benign in the long run, but you've been doing more than well for years. There's no reason to believe it will change." She took a deep breath. "There's some bad news though. Or good news, depending on what you think. You see, the moment your body adopted the alien gene, the aging process of your cells slowed down radically. I didn't tell you, but the aliens are conclusively long-lived. It is more than certain that you will outlive us all. If you don't die a violent death, that is."
I swallowed hard. No. It was too insane. But she clearly believed it. I would think about it and what it means later. Not now. But there was another thought I couldn't supress, that emerged after she dropped the bomb on me. "They will never let me out of this place, will they?"
She went pale as if she just realized the truth. She opened her mouth, probably in attempt to say something comforting, but couldn't think of anything and closed it again. She cleared her throat and looked at her papers instead. "We'll need a list of medical personnel that treated you in the past years. We have to prevent this to happen to more people and find out where did the alien material come from."
I really wished I could get to each of the medical personnel first.
"Let's get back to our questions for now, Tony." Her hand with the pen hovered over the paper as if she wanted to write down something and changed her mind. She looked up again. "How many children do you have?"
Speaking of dropping bombs... "Two. That I know of."
Her eyes popped. "Chris has another sibling?" She couldn't be more shocked if she found out I was a full alien. "When... How old is she or he?"
"Not much younger than Chris. His name is Ethan."
"Younger? I thought... Who... I mean... Does Chris know? You have to tell him!"
I grimaced. "Do you think it would help anything right now? Does he really need one more reason to hate me more than he already does?" I shook my head. "I will tell him. When the time is right."
"But..." She sighed deeply. "You're right. It would only make things worse."
I could see she wanted to ask many more questions about it, but didn't dare to. She lowered her gaze to the papers to make a note. I put my hand over hers. "Don't." I said. "It was only for your ears." I jerked my chin towards other scientists and agent Stiles, "I don't want them to go searching for my second son and do tests on him. The family has been through enough because of me. Let them live in peace, wherever they are now."
She nodded. Her hand kept hovering over the paper as she went through inner struggle of some kind.
"It will do no good to anyone if the boy gets dragged here and locked in a cage like this one." I said. "I probably had it coming, but nor Ethan or Chris deserve to be treated this way. I couldn't hide Chris from them, but Ethan still has a chance to fly under their radar. You have his fate in your hands, Kellie."
She finally wrote number one in the box next to the question. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least one of my boys was safe.
Remembering my decision to be Kellie's protector I asked my next question. "What's with the Cole guy? Why is he so mean to you?"
She didn't want to tell me, but after some urging she eventually did. I knew Gabriel Cole was a bad seed the moment I saw him, but using chemicals to take revenge on a pretty girl for turning him down, that takes a special kind of twisted mind. When Princess finished her story, I decided that punishment of Mr. Cole was long overdue.
We went on with more questions and answers, but part of my mind was already working on a plan how to deal with the blonde shyster.
* * * * *
Finally I had something to do. I had a mission. I spent next few days focusing solely on my new target. I learned many interesting things about Mr. Cole that could prove useful for my plan. For instance he wasn't as methodical and efficient as Princess. Not by a long shot. Actually he was pretty sloppy, which played in my hand nicely. He often ignored the safety regulations, not checking his equipment before he started working, he didn't keep his workplace particularly clean either. I noticed lots of flammable material there, such as magazines, empty candy wraps, crumpled tissues. Those I could certainly work with.
It also turned out that the Furfante was running a little business on the side. Apparently he had been selling stuff from the lab to another party. To a rival lab perhaps? If plan A fails, this information could serve as my plan B.
With the plan complete in my head all I had to do now was to wait for the opportunity. I didn't have to wait long.
One morning I was let out of the cage, because they wanted another x-ray of me done. At this rate they'd be soon able to use me as a free lightsource, but I didn't mind this time, for I'd be passing by Mr. Cole's workplace on my way to the x-ray machine.
The soldier escorting me watched me too closely though. I couldn't do anything on my way there. But when they were done with the x-ray imaging and I was supposed to return to the cage, the professor delayed the soldier, asking him questions about security during the night shift. It was the perfect distraction. I inched closer to Cole's place pretending to flip through a magazine on his desk while I was making small adjustments to his equipment. I wasn't an expert on chemicals, but I knew the important stuff. My plan was as simple as possible. I tinkered with the burner just a bit, spilled a little alcohol, moved some flammables and that was it. I knew I wouldn't be having much time. I counted on Mr. Cole and his sloppy nature to do the rest.
He didn't disappoint me. It took a while before he started working. There were all necessary phone calls he had to make, texts he had to send, colleagues he needed to chat with, but eventually he returned to his place. I watched as the alcohol I spilled there slowly soaked into his sleeve without him noticing as he was reading a magazine. Finally he closed it and pulled up his kit and uncapped the burner without checking anything first. Just as I hoped he would. I made myself comfortable. The show was about to begin.
When he lit the burner there was a whoosh sound as the flame shot high, much higher than he expected. He shrieked when the fire jumped from the burner on his alcohol soaked sleeve and all flamables within range. Before he knew it, Mr. Cole was roasting like a turkey. What a pleasant sight!
There was a moment of hesitation as everyone in the room froze, their brains taking time to process the dreadful image they encountered. Precious seconds of inaction that cost Mr. Cole his mop of hair, followed by frantic action as everyone was running somewhere, yelling orders or just screaming with horror.
Kellie rushed in with a soldier carrying a fire extinguisher. Someone called the paramedics. I couldn't remember when was the last time I had so much fun. Cole's wailing was a bit annoying, but you can't have great music in every movie.
They managed to put the fire out before the paramedics arrived.
He kept wailing as they were laying him down on a stretcher. When they carried him past my cage his and mine eyes met. I couldn't find it in myself to feel sorry for him, despite the fact that his injuries were far worse than what I had planned for him. He was uno schifoso hiding behind a pretty face. Now he had a face he deserved.
He must have noticed the lack of compassion in my eyes, because he stopped wailing and started yelling instead, "It was Corleonesi! He did this to me! He did this to me!"
Kellie who was following the stretcher, shot me a worried look, before she left the room. Agent Douchebag also shot me a look. One that didn't bode well for me at all.
Then unsurprisingly he sicced his army dogs on me. "I gave you two warnings, Corleonesi. I really wish I could let my boys shoot you right now like an old mangy dog that you are. But our scientists prefer you alive. If you ask me they could as well study your corpse, it would be much safer for everyone that way. Well, if we can't kill you, we can make your life very uncomfortable."
His men grabbed me. "Boys, you know what to do. I want him to cry like a baby everytime he takes a piss. The bastard will heal in a day or two anyway."
And so they started.
"I know it's futile to try to teach you a lesson, Corleonesi. But we are going to. And if it doesn't help, we'll try again and again."
Then unsurprisingly he sicced his army dogs on me. "I gave you two warnings, Corleonesi. I really wish I could let my boys shoot you right now like an old mangy dog that you are. But our scientists prefer you alive. If you ask me they could as well study your corpse, it would be much safer for everyone that way. Well, if we can't kill you, we can make your life very uncomfortable."
His men grabbed me. "Boys, you know what to do. I want him to cry like a baby everytime he takes a piss. The bastard will heal in a day or two anyway."
And so they started.
"I know it's futile to try to teach you a lesson, Corleonesi. But we are going to. And if it doesn't help, we'll try again and again."
He just watched. So typical of him, never got his hands dirty and let others do the job. I won't pretend I was brave and didn't make a sound when they started beating me. The scientists stood there like a flock of sheep watching too, as I was being pounded and kicked, and none of them lifted a finger to help me. Why would they?
The soldiers knew their job well and it didn't take them long to make my eyes water. The world around me imploded as sudden throbbing pain became the center of my existence. The beating went on. I could barely feel it anymore because my brain's pain center was overloaded. Sometime between another kick into my stomach and a blow that almost cost me my front teeth Princess returned. I heard her yelling at them to stop. I wished she didn't have to see me like this. I doubted anyone would listen to her, but to my surprise the beating stopped.
"Agent Stiles," I heard her say, "This is a lab, not your private torture chamber!"
I snortled even though it hurt and I blew crimson bubbles out of my nose. Princess wasn't as timid as I had thought.
"Has someone trod on your corns today that you had to take it out on a defenseless man?" she went on. "The fire was an accident. Mr. Corleonesi didn't cause it. How was he supposed to do that? With a remote? Or pyrokinesis?"
I felt very much uplifted by her unfaltering faith in my innocence. If only she knew I was a much worse man than she thought.
"Watch your tone, lady," agent Jackass replied. "I have the authority to have your butt escorted out of here for good, if you interfere with my job. The man we are talking about is a convicted killer. He's resourceful." Thanks for the compliment, Jackass. "If Mr. Cole says it was Corleonesi who caused the fire, I'm inclined to believe him. I'll do what's necessary to keep this monster under control and I don't need your permission for that."
"You think you are better than him, agent Stiles, but you're not. Under that facade of yours there's a very uncivilized man. I saw your face. You're enjoying violence. Others may be afraid of you and the government you represent, but I'm not."
Damn, I loved her! This was the woman, that I knew had been hiding in there somewhere. Seeing her emerge to defend me - a public enemy, a killer - was a unique experience. I was wondering what would it take to make her stay and not disappear again. The right cause, apparently.
I was in too much pain to listen to the rest of the conversation. I passed out. When I came to, Kellie was treating my bruised face. I wish I could say I grinned at her and made a joke about our situation, but I didn't. With her help I made it to the bed and crashed onto it. She stood there for a while, probably listening if I was still breathing, before she left. I wanted to be her protector, but in the end in was me who needed her help. Before I passed out again I was wondering how would I ever repay her for her kindness.
A day later
Kellie
I couldn't sleep last night. Every time I closed my eyes I saw the scene, those soldiers beating Tony brutally. I had no idea how I found the courage to stand up to agent Stiles. I was so terrified, I thought he would have me beat up too and locked me up in the cage with Tony.
Poor Tony. I wept for him when I was alone in my room. I couldn't let Chris and especially Celeste see me so devastated.
Going back to the lab every day was getting harder and harder, my stomach hurt each morning, but I had to go. I couldn't leave Tony there alone with them. It was them and us now. Since the fire and beating I no longer felt part of the science team. I didn't believe Tony had something to do with the fire and he didn't deserve such treatment. The reality of what was happening in our lab shattered my dreams about being a scientist. My dreams didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was keeping Tony alive and out of harm's way. And it just wasn't enough. I had to do more, I had to find a way to get him out of there. I couldn't do it alone though...
We were sitting outside, enjoying late summer's sun - well, Grayson probably was, I have been finding it hard to enjoy anything at all lately. He finished his sandwich and looked at mine, that I barely touched. "I hope you're not on a diet, Kellie, because you don't need it," he joked.
"I don't know how long I can take it, Grayson," I started. "I hate seeing him in that cage. I hate watching them treat him like an animal. There must be something we can do!"
"You mean something like breaking him out?"
I looked at him with hope. With Grayson's help everything would be so much easier.
"I'm sorry, Kellie, I'm not putting my career on the line for a criminal. I had to leave my previous job because of my relationship with Knight Richardson, I don't want to search for another. I know you care about this Tony great deal, but he's still a criminal. It doesn't mean I approve of anything that's been going on down in the basement."
I felt tears stinging in my eyes. I was on my own. "I... I understand, Grayson."
"Will you eat the sandwich?"
I shook my head. "No. You can have it."
He took a large bite of it and looked into the distance. "Have you read the safety regulations?" He asked me after a while.
"Of course I read it. We all have."
He smiled. "Everyone signs the papers stating they read it, but not everyone actually does. It's hundred something pages of tedious text."
"I did read it," I assured him. "Why?"
He took another bite of the sandwich and took his time before answering. "I happened to read it again a few days ago. Are you familiar with the emergency protocol for our small lab in case of alien contamination?"
"Vaguely."
He looked at me over the rim of his glasses. "The lab in the restricted area has a very specific layout. Did you know it only takes one person to put the whole lab under lockdown, trapping everyone inside?" He chewed on the sandwich thoughtfully. "Those regulations are in fact a pretty interesting read."
I realized I was holding my breath. "I think I should re-read those regulations." I said. "And I'm going to sign myself up for a few quiet night shifts."
Grayson finished eating my sandwich and carefully wiped his hands with a napkin. "I think that's a brilliant idea!"
* * * * *
Thanks to Grayson I at least had an idea of sorts what to do now. To actually do it was another thing. I was too scared to act. I was coming up with new excuses why I should put it off until next day and the day after that. I had never done anything against the law. The only occasion I broke the rules was the one time I skipped school, when Thomas talked me into it. This was a whole new level of breaking rules. I kept waiting for a better opportunity, which of course wasn't coming, because I always found something that would pose a too high risk, whether it was the presence of agent Stiles, extra member of the science team working a nightshift unexpectedly or just a bad feeling. I kept postponing my plan until things got worse for Tony.
One night I came to work and didn't find Tony in the cage. I started panicking until I noticed they only moved him in the quarantine part of the lab. But something was wrong.
One night I came to work and didn't find Tony in the cage. I started panicking until I noticed they only moved him in the quarantine part of the lab. But something was wrong.
"What is going on?" I asked Dr. Bachman. "Why is he in there?"
"We inoculated him with the Llama Flu virus type A in the morning. Now he's got type C, the most dangerous one as you know."
My throat tightened. "What?"
"He recovered from type A and B within mere hours! His body produces antibodies with incredible speed! Do you know what it means? He could help us cure any disease!"
"But we can't use those antibodies to cure anyone without infecting them with the alien gene at the same time."
"Would you rather die or be a partial alien, Heffner? Besides, we can study those and find a way how to synthetize them without the alien gene. This will move our research decades forward!"
I thought about the alien woman in the tank. They weren't immortal. Sooner or later they will infect Tony with something lethal he won't be able to beat. "Why am I learning about it now? This wasn't in the schedule."
"It was Professor's decision. The government wants results and they want it yesterday."
The machines monitoring Tony's vital functions showed increased heart rate. He also must have been suffering from high fever which was typical for this type of Llama Flu. His body fought the virus with all means.
I despaired. In my escape plan for Tony I counted on his ability to move and run away. I could let him out and lock myself and the rest of the staff, including the soldiers and agent Stiles, inside the lab for fourty-eight hours which was the minimum time after which the emergency lockdown could be cancelled. That would give Tony a nice advantage. But in his current state he wasn't going anywhere.
I was completely useless for the rest of my shift. I blamed myself for not acting when I should have. I failed Tony. If he died here how was I supposed to look Chris in the eyes?
Later I went to buy a snack from the vending machine. I wasn't really hungry, but I had to eat something. I spotted professor and Dr. Bachman there too. I wanted to avoid them, because I couldn't stand the sight of them at the moment. They were so eager to vivisect Tony it made me sick. I waited until they leave, but they wouldn't go and kept talking. I was about to go find another vending machine or get back to work without eating, when I overheard a piece of conversation that caught my attention.
"Is it truth the government is planing to let the army take over the Morpheus Project?" Dr. Bachman asked.
"Agent Stiles mentioned the possibility if we don't give them something soon. That's why I decided that we move on to phase two sooner."
"You made the right call, professor. The results are incredible, aren't they?"
The professor chuckled. "They are ideed. Have you seen the numbers from the tissue regeneration analysis?"
"Oh I did. It makes me wonder how powerful the regenerative abilities of our subject actually are. For instance, can he grow a completely new organ?"
"You know, I've been wondering the same thing. Something tells me that we are going to see more amazing things. That's why I've scheduled another experiment for the day after tomorrow. We'll start with something small. I was thinking about removing one of his eyeballs..."
I couldn't listen to their conversation anymore. I ran outside. This place was horrible, I knew it now. I wished I could leave and never come back, but it wasn't an option.
They wanted to remove Tony's eye. One of those lovely blue eyes of his that always looked at me with such warmth and sometimes with mischievous gleam. How could I ever allow that to happen? You have to get him out of there, Kellie. No more excuses. Find a way.
I had one day. It had to happen on my next shift.
Poses by: Akuiyumi, Beverlyallitsims (Princess Paranoia), Joanne Bernice, Helgatisha, Kiyimu, Quiddity-Jones, The-Path-of-Nevermore