Chapter 10: The Days in the Lab
1644 Words
“In this lab, you can call me by my real name.”
As if Ian had to witness a huge revelation before his final days, he immediately heard Dr. Mouse’s real name.
“I’m Dr. Dunn Curtiz by the way.”
Ian couldn’t have misheard that.
“When you get in trouble someday, you can search for the name Dunn to ask him for his help. He’ll surely help you once you tell him my name. He’s the only friend I have whenever your father tries to scare me…”
Ian remembered how his mother had talked about a man he could ask for help, but Ian never searched for the man since he had no idea where to find the man. Now that he remembered, he doubted if the person in front of him now was the one whom his mother mentioned.
His mother didn’t describe any characteristics or features about the man so Ian couldn’t muster the courage to ask.
“More than twenty years ago, I was young, considered to be a genius… and worked at Novu Babel as one of their geneticists.” Dr. Dunn’s eyes seemed to linger on a past memory, slightly revealing a tension as he looked away. “…but not anymore.”
Ian could feel something deep and dark from the doctor’s words, but he could not figure it as Dr. Dunn suddenly switched his mood so quickly after a brief moment of interaction.
“So, let’s begin?” Dr. Dunn said.
Ian didn’t know what to do next.
Day 1.
He only slept for about four hours since he arrived at midnight.
For his first day of service, Dr. Dunn ordered him to just guard the entire lab. If he noticed something sa mga the specimens around him, or having some kind of a problem in the lab, he just needed to contact the doctor who would be working at the hospital above this underground-built laboratory.
Ian was fine for the meantime. The task wasn’t so heavy or exhausting, and he just needed to watch the entire lab.
Day 2.
New specimens arrived at the lab. Ian didn’t know the people he saw went down to the lab, delivering things in glass containers that looked like body parts of some animal or creature he couldn’t identify.
He realized that Dr. Dunn wasn’t always going down because he hadn't returned since yesterday. Instead, he contacted Ian to take care of the specimens to be placed in their respective cryostorage units.
However, after Dr. Dunn finished his job during the day, he went down to the lab. That was about twelve midnight. Ian was forced to stay awake until the doctor finished what he was doing to the specimens since he was assisting the scientist.
Ian didn't know what they were doing. He was just told to do this and that. The specimens were kept and subjected to different types of chemicals that he didn't know.
Day 3.
Ian didn’t get much sleep. His mind was starting to get restless.
“Let’s go out…”
“You need to get out…”
He heard the voices in his head again. They wanted him to go out. As if that desire wasn't already in his mind since he got here. He knew he needed direct sun exposure, but in his current situation, it was impossible to get out of this place.
He just ignored the voices and did what Dr. Dunn ordered him to do. He was tasked to monitor what happened to the specimens they processed, which were now placed within large test tubes while inside a machine whose purpose Ian didn’t know. He was also given a data sheet that he just needed to mark based on his observations.
The task wasn’t that exhausting, but he had to monitor the specimens every two hours for three days.
The voices would never stop forcing him to find a way out.
Day 6.
After three days of not having a normal, long sleep while only doing the task of monitoring the specimens in the lab, Ian’s complexion grew weak. This wasn’t only because he wasn’t sleeping well, but also because he hadn’t been exposed to the sun for several days.
“Out…”
“There might be a way out…”
“You need to get out…”
Ian could never get used to the temptations in his head despite having heard it more than a hundred times.
Dr. Dunn hadn't even come down to check on Ian, so the weak man remained alone for three days in this vast and hidden facility. He could feel the prevailing silence in every corner of the wall. The quietness gave way for the whispers in his head to be more demanding. These voices were almost all he ever heard when he had nothing to do.
The prickly, itchy feeling in his body started to show up.
He dropped the data sheet from his hand as he suddenly squatted down, [how to define an action of hands on the floor as if to give support to the body from falling or hitting the floor such as those performing push ups?], unable to stand from the sensation.
Every inch of skin seemed to be pierced by tiny needles that seemed to make him think of destroying every wall he could find just to get distracted from the feeling.
It was noticeable in his greeting teeth how painful the sensation felt while keeping himself in control of his body.
He desperately wanted to go out.
There was no stimulation, but he could only think of destroying everything.
After the sensation subsided for few minutes, he stood up again and tried to search for any possible way in the lab to just get exposed outside, but the doors he found to be the other sources of escape were just the same as the platform he took with Dr. Dunn last time. They used fingerprint and other biometrics to grant access to whoever wish to enter or exit. Ian’s biometrics were not programmed into the lab’s system.
“Access denied.”
All he could hear was the AI voice denying his access.
Day 7.
He finished monitoring the specimens that Dr. Dunn ordered him. He managed to survive until the seventh day without causing a destruction in the lab.
The doctor simply ordered him to take out the specimens from the machine where they were kept. He also said that he wouldn't be able to come down to the lab that day, so Ian could rest since he wouldn't be given any tasks.
Ian would never feel rest in his current state. He would have preferred to be given a task to distract himself from the voices he heard and the uncontrollable restlessness of his entire body, but then his body began to feel heavy.
He vomited in the bathroom after he woke up, drenched in sweat and with a headache.
The tingling sensation got worse. He wasn’t being tickled, but rather, he felt much more pain all over his body. His hands and feet couldn't stay still.
After washing his face with water, he looked at himself in the mirror and saw his pale and weak face. His skin now looked like a plain white sheet of paper, almost similar to the color of the few white strands of hair at the front of his head.
He suddenly felt an uncontrollable trembling in his arms and legs. He immediately fell and lay on the floor, as if he lost all his strength to stand. He was still in the restroom, making it hard to endure the feeling of getting locked up in a tiny space.
Unable to walk with his legs still tingling, he crawled back to his room and went to his bed with full effort. His expression seemed to be torn apart by the pain. He really forced himself to lift his body using his trembling arms just to get back to bed.
When he lay down, the feeling still did not vanish. The silence, the whispers in his mind, and his unsatisfied hunger to get out of this facility seemed to have combined all together. He didn’t know when he would go crazy from this.
He wanted to contact Dr. Dunn to tell him that he was feeling so much sick, but he didn’t know if he could get out of this underground facility. All his body wanted was to get exposed to the sun.
Day 8.
Another day passed and the restlessness unified into as a deep, and more painful headache, as if his head was hit by a heavy hammer. Ian could not sleep the entire day from the moment he lay in bed. The dark circles in his eyes couldn't be easily erased by washing his face.
His hand ended up punching the iron wall beside him. It wanted to be freed from its chains, Ian also wanted to make a hole to get out from this place, from his unstable, chaotic condition.
He was trembling.
He was irritated.
He felt restless the entire time.
It was so hard to stop himself from repeatedly punching the wall just to get some relief from what he was feeling. The moment his exhaustion got to him, he became calm again.
The back of his hands was injured from punching the wall, but he couldn’t feel the pain. The painful feeling all over his body remained the same
It did not take long when he heard footsteps outside his room.
His head turned to the sound.
They sound stopped at his door.
“…”
It became quiet for a moment.
Knock! Knock!
Then a knock was heard.
“I’m here to check on someone…”
That voice was not from Dr. Dunn, however, Ian thought it sounded so familiar.
- Writer
