Go For Stories

“What?” asked Milly, her breathing heavy and her words slurred with the effort of pinning the monster down. “How?”

“I don’t know,” said Nigel, “But she’s dead.”

“Are you sure?” asked Bec.

“Well, I mean … I think so,” he said. He completely understood the need for assurance. If they let go, thinking she was dead and gone, only to discover that she was playing possum all along…

“Does she have a pulse?” asked Milly.

“I don’t think so,” replied Nigel.

“Are you gonna check?”

“She doesn’t have a heart,” he said, flailing an arm towards the lab. “It’s lying on the floor over there.”

“Yeah, you’re right. No pulse.”

“Look,” Jacob’s voice came from down near the creature’s foot, “I love hanging out here as much as the next person. It’s cosy on the floor, I get it, but do you think we could make a decision. That guy’s blood is getting on me and I’m getting a cramp.”

“We’re just going to have to risk it,” Nigel said in a wary voice. “One at a time. Jacob, you go first.”

“Gladly,” he muttered, releasing his grip on the creature and pushing himself off the body.

They all watched and waited for a reaction from their quarry. When none came, Milly lifted herself off the monster as well. With two arms and both legs free, this would be the moment to attack. Nigel gave Bec a nod and she opened her hands, watching the white skin for any sign of movement.

The body twitched.

Bec let out a panicked scream and dropped back onto the arm, Nigel clamped down and bunched his muscles, preparing for another fight. Adrenaline spiked and his heart took off in a manic drumbeat.

“Sorry,” said Jacob, stepping over the monster’s leg. “Sorry, I tripped.”

Nigel clenched his jaw. “Step away from the death creature,” he growled, his mouth barely moving through gritted teeth.

Jacob raised his hands in surrender.

“I said sorry.”

Nigel turned his focus back to his former colleague and released her. Bec, again, let her arm go. There was no movement this time. They were in the clear. The pair stood and looked down at the creature at their feet.

“Now what?” Nigel asked.

“I don’t know about you,” said Bec, “but I’d like to see what’s inside her?”

Nigel wrinkled his nose. “What?! You want to cut her up? After we just killed her?”

“Yeah, but how did we kill her? What did we do? We have a complete specimen before us and we have the ability to see what makes them tick. Likewise, we could maybe find a way to make them untick. Wouldn’t that be exactly the best thing? I know what she meant to you, but it’s our only chance. Unless you want to go out there,” she pointed to the mass of writhing, white flesh pressed against the glass, “and catch me a new one.”

“Okay, so where are you going to do it? I know they haven’t made a dent on that glass yet, but if you start cutting into one of their own…”

Bec paused for a moment. She seemed to be having an internal argument with herself. At length, she spoke. “I think you should see something, but it’s important that you realise I couldn’t tell you before. Okay?”

Nigel leaned forward to look her in the eyes. “What is it, Reynolds?”

She glanced up at him. “I’m under contract not to disclose this information, but-”

“I think we’re past getting fired now, Reynolds. What is it?”

Jacob and Milly caught onto something happening and turned their attention to the pair. Nigel waved them away with his hand. They stayed where they were.

“I’ll show you.” Bec took a step away from the corpses at their feet and held out a hand to stop Nigel. “But you can’t get mad. It was just my job.”

At that, she walked over to the painting of the hope-tree in the barren landscape. Placing one hand on the wall below it, she pressed her finger into a particular spot of the tree. The painting lit up from behind as a line of light moved up and down the painting, scanning her finger. Her hand against the wall was scanned as well. With a click, the entire wall panel slid back and opened inwards, revealing a busy room behind.

Not busy with people, but busy with equipment and cages and lights and…

“What is this?” Nigel asked Bec, who ignored him and moved into the room beyond. Jacob and Milly followed close behind. Nigel took up the rear, looking over the cages lining the walls. Half of them were inhabited by various small animals: rats, mice, small pigs. There was one particular cage with a monkey in it, white as a sheet of paper and moaning on the floor of its prison, cradling its head in its hands.

“There are toilets over there if you need them,” said Bec, as she crossed to a cupboard. She pointed behind her with one hand and opened the cupboard door with the other. Jacob dashed off to the toilets without a second thought. Milly wandered into the middle of the room and spun around, taking in all the sights. Bec pulled out a box and placed it on a nearby bench.

“Food,” she said to Nigel, mistaking his unerring eye for curiosity in place of the rising anger he felt.

She turned away from him and walked back out to the hallway, where she bent over and grabbed the albinoid by both feet. Grunting and groaning, she dragged it all the way back and stopped at one of many surgical beds in the centre of the room. Nigel watched all this without offering a hand.

“You at least gonna help me lift it onto the bed?”

Without taking his eyes from Reynolds, Nigel stooped to grab underneath the uppermost arms and they heaved the body onto the bed. Bec went to get some equipment from a nearby trolley.

“If you’re going to keep watching me like that,” she said without looking back, “you could at least say what you’re thinking.”

“You want to hear what I’m thinking?” Nigel asked, his voice higher than he intended. “You really want to know? Because I’ll tell you … This is fucked, Reynolds. This is the most fucked up thing I have ever seen. These things I can handle,” he pointed to the albinoid in front of him, “the ghosts I can handle, being stuck down here for four-and-a-half goddamn years I can fucking handle, but the idea that you are in here torturing animals and keeping it hidden from us this whole time … it’s fucked. I mean, what the hell is even the point of this? What are you really doing and why do you seem to think it’s okay?”

Bec slammed a small power saw down on the trolley.

“What am I doing? I’m trying to help humanity. I’m trying to find a way to keep people back from the brink of death when they’ve had stupid little accidents, or pointless diseases. I’m trying to make the world a better place.”

“But, the animals, Bec.”

“Yes, the fucking animals. You think people never experimented on animals before? You think your medicines are simply fashioned out of thin air and put on the shelf ready for your ignorant hands to come along and grab them? Do you honestly believe that we could do the work we are doing here without having to break a few ethical codes?”

“I would have thought due process-”

“Bullshit on your due process! Due process is what rich people use to keep poor people sick. If we wait for due fucking process, we’ll have our fingers up our arses until our body eats them away from under us, right down to the third knuckle. You want to die when you could be saved? Be my fucking guest. You want your loved ones to die when they could live a full, happy life? Then you’re more cruel than I could ever be.”

“They did die, Reynolds,” said Nigel, unable to stop himself. “Right in front of me. And this, this is not how they would have wanted to be saved. They would never want me to be a part of this. Never.”

Silence fell on the room, smothering the atmosphere. Bec’s cheeks glowed red and Milly stood back, her hand over her mouth. Nigel looked from one to the other. He hadn’t meant to say what he said. He hadn’t told anyone about his former life. Not for many years. Now, he could never take the words back. All of his memories would come back to haunt him again. Terrible, life-destroying memories.

As they all stood around, unsure of what to do next, the door to the toilets opened and Jacob stepped out. He took one look around the room and scratched his head.

“What happened here?” he asked in an upbeat voice. “Who died?”

“Fucking everyone,” snapped Nigel. He swept past Bec, grabbed a small packet of some food or other out of the box on the bench and stormed off towards the toilets. He could feel three pairs of eyes burning into his back as he kicked the door open, stepped through, slammed the door behind him…

And looked straight into the hollow eyes of his long dead wife.