Experiment Number One
CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The last day I had for training changed everything for the worst.

Instead of Lieutenant Wallace picking me up, a random guard member was at my door that morning. I didn’t think much of it because I assumed Lieutenant Wallace was still pissy from the day before. When we got to the gym, George and another guard were waiting for me. As I got closer, I realized it was just Ren Clash dressed in the uniform.

“Good morning, Emerye,” George’s gleamed. “How’d you sleep last night? Are you loving your new living quarters?”

“Where’s Lieutenant Wallace?”

George grimaced at the name. “Lieutenant Wallace is, uh, on sabbatical.” George clasped his hands behind his back and began to rock on his heels. “He’s out of the building. But he’ll be back soon enough, don’t you worry.” He smiled. I had that weird feeling in my stomach.

“When is he going to be back?”

“Well, there’s really no telling when it comes to Wallace. He takes these leaves every now and then to do some work outside of the facility, you know this of course. So it can be hours, days, months. We’ll see.”

“So, how am I supposed to work on my powers?”

“Ren here,” George clasped Ren on the shoulder, “will continue your training with you for today.” My gut twisted. Ren did mishandle an apocalyptic weapon and released unspeakable demons. What would that entail if he got his hands on me?

But did I really have the option to deny his service? The authorities in the compound might have been instructed to treat me like a human, but to them, I was still just a subject. Nothing more, nothing less. I still had nightmares at night of what the government would do to me at the slightest incorporation. If I refused Ren’s service, they might’ve became suspicious and found out what happened during the black out. Just the day before, Lieutenant Wallace warned me something else was happening, and then the next night he was gone. It was connected. My bones began to vibrate. Something was wrong.

But I couldn’t let them know I knew that.

“Alright, fine with me.” I could feel myself getting all worked up, so I walked over to the mats, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. “Lieutenant Wallace was kind of a bad teacher anyway,” I turned to face the men several feet away. “Maybe Ren can actually teach me something.”

That sparked something in Ren. I boosted his already too-full ego, and he came bouncing over to me. “Yes, of course. I have some ideas that we can use to exercise our power. Not only to make it stronger but also you.”

George excused himself by clapping his hands and announcing, “Alright, I’ll let you two do whatever Ren has planned. If you need me, I’ll be in my office.” George gave Ren a knowing look. I had to bite my cheek to keep the flash of betrayal from displaying on my face. They were supposed to trust me now, to let me in and yet I was still held at arm’s length. I was starting to see what Lieutenant Wallace said I was blind to.

Strangely, my session with Ren Clash felt… great. Exhilarating, even.

We started by me showing him what I learned with Lieutenant Wallace. I demonstrated him the one thing I seemed to accomplish: channeling my power out of free will. I was stiff and nervous with Ren watching me. It felt like holes were burning into my back, so it took me a couple of times to get a grip on my power, but once I did, it came flowing out of me at full force. Ren drifted over to the bundles of bolts, removed his goggles, and got so incredibly close I would have to redirect my aim every few seconds. His death wish curiosity was a different approach than how he acted in the meeting room just a few days before. Then he was ready to throw away the whole EXNO.1 project just for the sake of his life. During our training, it was like he was ready to risk it all for the sake of discovery.

Ren made some calculations and wrote down his findings, he mumbled words and numbers only an intellect would understand. This might be a bit late to say, but don’t expect me to repeat all the science jargon that was spoken to me. I can give the jist but for moments like this where it was just Ren processing his scientifically thoughts out loud, I couldn’t tell you a thing.

After his analysis, we worked on a new technique.

“You have channeling your powers and shutting them off down pack, but can you aim it at a target?” Ren Clash goes into the supply closet of the gym and pulls out a bunch of equipment. He builds a target dummy out of place mats, hula hoops, basketballs, and rope. After the first one, he instructed me to help him make the rest and in the end we ended up with four dummies. We built two pallets out of four squared skateboards and tied down one dummy on each of them, leaving us with two statues and two moving targets.

“Alright,” Ren clapped his clammy hands when we finished. “We’re going to do some target practice.” Ren stalked over, grabbed my shoulders, and maneuvered me around the gym. “You’ve never seen a Dhasl before, but they accumulate in dark powdery substances in the air.” Suddenly, it felt like his gloved hand was digging into the wound I got from the Infected on my shoulder. I tried to rid myself of the feeling. Ren Clash knows nothing about that night.

“They travel through those dark clouds but once they attack, they turn into shadowy demons and invade your body through airborne spores. Imagine a floating ghost coated in all black springing at you. That’s a Dhasl.” Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNovᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Ren placed me at the south end of the gym while the dummies sat in the middle, a reasonable fifty feet distance. “It’s mandatory to wear a gas mask around the Dhasl so that they don’t go seeping into your immune system but for now, let’s build up your stamina without it.” That explains why Lieutenant Wallace had the mask on when he found me in Dhasl hall. I was breathing just fine during the blackout. Yeah, I felt the spores coat my lungs but I didn’t get infected like Ren claimed. I was immune to the mind altering bite of the Infected and I was immune to the hosting of the Dhasl.

“What you’re going to do,” he kept one hand on my shoulder and pointed over to the dummies, “is direct your power at our test subjects over there. Pretend they are the Dhasl, and they are going to invade your body and make you a host. And I don’t want your silly clumps of lightning. I want you to manifest your power into beams to hit the subjects accurately.”

Ren squeezed my shoulder and gave me a thumbs-up that matched the bright smile on his face. It didn’t do much to reassure me.

As he made his way to the middle of the gym, Ren made sure to put an ample amount of space between him and the dummies. Then he shouted at me to start.

I closed my eyes and pushed my power to my palms. I concentrated hard, morphing the bolts into a conformed group rather than letting them roam free. I aimed my arms out with my eyes still closed, and once the tingles rested in the middle of my palms instead of the whole hand, I let the power go. The jets streamed out of me, the pressure causing my body to recoil.

I heard a yelp, causing my eyes to spring open. Ren was frantically trying to pick himself off the ground. “Oh my God, did I hurt you?” I panicked. I tried to leave my spot to run over and help him but he said, “Stay where you are. I’m okay.” So, I stood firm.

Once Ren was back on his feet and he smoothed down his outfit, he said, “That was great! Maybe next time, aim it at the targets rather than me.” It was good thing he was wearing a guard’s uniform.

The rest of the session continued with me practicing precision. After a few tries, I got the hang of hitting the targets. Ren took the dummies on the skateboards and rolled them across the gym so that I could practice with moving targets. As the day went on, Ren kept rebuilding the dummies and placed them farther away from me so that I could gather more strength within my power. He even had me run around when shooting the targets so I could get used to navigating. Lieutenant Wallace was going somewhere with forcing me to run laps.

Working with Ren was so easy and felt like a breeze. Going into it, I was tense, but when we began to work together, all that stress and fear flow out of me. Although, what threw me off was Ren’s soft love. Whenever I messed up, he would say, “That’s okay! Let’s move on to something else.” I found myself missing the way Lieutenant Wallace would scold and forced me to work until I perfected it.

Towards the end of practice, Lieutenant Wallace plagued my mind. The parasite that lives inside was telling me that something wasn’t right. I did something to him and had to make up for it. I don’t know how to describe it; I felt the world would end if I didn’t apologize. The feeling started to gnaw away at me, and I decided to bring it up to Ren. Well, somewhat.

Ren and I went over our time for my power practice, which was usually an hour, but we pushed about three. Once Ren finally called it, sweat was pouring out of my body. I swear I was making a puddle beneath me on the floor.

The session for that day truly pushed me to the max because I was motivated to do so. I was becoming one with my power and excited to learn new things. So when we were finished, I had a huge smile etched across my face despite feeling absolutely disgusting and having the agonizing thought of Lieutenant Wallace on my mind. Ren Clash approached me and held his hand to give me a high five; I returned the jester.

“We made great progress here today, Mendoza! I can’t imagine how good you’re feeling.”

I wiped my forehead and then placed my hands on my hips. My white jumpsuit stuck to my skin, and I wondered if I sweated too much to make it see-through. I looked down and was covered entirely. I said back to Ren Clash, “I feel… amazing. It’s weird.”

“I bet you do. Taylor, George, and I just can’t imagine what it feels like to be a mutant. Like, gosh, all the pain you must experience, and all the good that comes with it too! I would kill to get to experience it for myself.” He had that creepy grin again. I noticed he didn’t mention Lieutenant Wallace when speaking about his colleagues. The absence of his name, or rather just the lack of thought toward him, shocked my body. I asked Ren, “What about Lieutenant Wallace?” His face turned a bright red. “Oh, yes. Of course.” He held his head down as he walked past me to the gym doors. “I bet Lieutenant Wallace is dying to be an M-Gene right now.”

I followed him with furred brows. “What does that mean?”

He chuckled, “Nothing, Mendoza. Just… Everyone would want to be an M-Gene with the Dhasl around, right?”

I looked him straight in the eye, and there was something there. A speck of darkness that was trying to hide deep in the sea of his irises. I recognized it.

It was the same darkness that hid within my mother’s eyes. The feelings that were clouded beneath the pits of the drugs she intoxicated her body with. It was as the same darkness swimming in my father’s eyes. The inky black secrets mixed with the pool of liquor he tried to drown it in. When I saw that within Ren, I knew it wasn’t some stupid classified government knowledge or a threat to my future. No, it was something personal, something they knew would hurt me.

My mind flashed to Amilio and Mariana. I tried hard to not think about it but if I had the power based M-Gene, they might’ve have it too. If they have it, the government would capture them for more testing. More weapons against the Dhasl. Not only would I die, but they would right along with me. Lieutenant Wallace warned me about it. He said there was something bigger going on that I was oblivious to. He tried to open my eyes and I realized all too late. I couldn’t do anything about it. Lieutenant Wallace was gone, and I was left defenseless.

No, I wasn’t.

If the government had my siblings, I promised I would fight my way out of that compound. I made the promise to myself that I would do anything and everything to save my siblings from my treacherous faith. I worked my whole life to protect them, and I wasn’t just going to give up like that.

Ren cleared his throat. “So, I know it’s the end of the session and you probably want to shower because you look, uh,” he circles his hand towards me, “uncomfortable. But Taylor requested me to bring you to her lab.”

I nodded as my eyes drifted. What if we walked into the lab and my siblings were being operated on? I pushed the gruesome image down and told myself not to wish it into existence.

Ren Clash took out my bracelet and snapped it to my wrist. That was the first time in weeks that I had the bracelet on, and even though it hadn’t been that long, the weight of the object felt foreign. I looked at him with wide eyes, silently questioning why he thought restricting me was necessary. “Don’t worry,” his smile was small. “It’s only because Doctor Taylor doesn’t want you interfering with her machines or something like that.”

He opened up the doors to the gym. “Now come on. Taylor is waiting and we have some news to tell you.”

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