Steele- Chapter one

Chapter 1

~present day~

I used to be a heavy sleeper. No one, or anything could wake me up. But ever since that night, that terrible, life changing night, my reflexes made me at jump at every little noise. It was like they -they being my reflexes- were preparing me for a brawl, just in case something was around. In some cases, quick reflexes do come in handy, like in fighting for instance. And in other cases, like sleeping, it makes things a lot more difficult. It had been raining all day and it continued into dusk, and soon into the darkness of night.So I wasn’t surprised when I found myself awake at 4:30 AM due to the loud, continuous taps of the rain on my window.

I stared up at my ceiling. The moon’s lighting cast a silver colour across the room. Even the usual dark areas of my bedroom were now filled with the soft silver glow. I could clearly make out every detail in the room, even with the lights off. But all of my interest happened to be on my ceiling. There was no reason, really. That’s just were my eyes decided to wander.

My thoughts were all over the place. I thought about work and all the research I needed to get done by next week.  I also thought about Boss and how disappointed he would be if I didn’t get done what I needed to. The Warehouse was a rough place to work. Once you mess up, you don’t get another chance. It was scary there , too.  The corridors were always long and dark with only the faint orange glow of the lanterns hanging up over the doors. You weren’t allowed in those doors. It was strictly forbidden. Boss says so. No one knew what was behind them. Only that whatever they were, screamed a lot.

I also thought about that day. Two years ago seems like a long time when you had to go through what I did. I remember exactly what happened, in what order, and every detail. It was the most petrifying thing I had to endure. The needles, the scalpel, the lumpy hospital bed, the blood stained restraints keeping my hands and feet tied to the sides of the bed, the dark shadows looming over me, the screams escaping my mouth...

I squeezed my eyes shut trying to remove the memory. The pain, the fear, his ugly smile... Nothing was working. I tried to keep the memories locked up, but they ended up flooding back to me with no way of stopping.

~Flashback~

The back of the van was a cold, dark place. There wasn’t much room to maneuver considering boxes took up most of the back of my kidnapper’s vehicle. What was in the boxes, I didn’t know. Nor was I looking forward to finding out. There was a sticker on all of the boxes, most likely telling what it was being used for. But the words were faded and illegible. The panic was setting in when I couldn’t read the words.What was in them? Drugs of some sort? The thought of these guys being drug dealers came into my mind. But I remembered clearly what Mr. Johnson had said. “It’s for the best, Eli. They’ll take good care of you. You’ll be safe.” Mr. Johnson was never really fond of me, but I don’t think he’d put me in the hands of drug dealers.

Why did he say that? He knew they were coming? All these scenarios came rushing to me. “You’ll be safe.” What did that even mean?! I was being taken by two strangers that most likely carried armed weapons and could use them with great accuracy. Safe...right.

A bump in the road cut off my train of thought. My head slammed onto the roof of the van. I banged on the chipped grey paint with my fist. “Hey slow it down will ya? If you kidnapped me, I must be important right? Then let’s try to keep me alive.” I was surprised about how confident my voice sounded. Being as terrified as I was, a confident and strong voice wasn’t what I was expected to come out of my mouth.

I think the driver must have heard me because right after that comment, he slammed on the brakes, sending me across the length of the back of the van. A few boxes managed to tumble over and make the contents fall onto the floor. When the car came to a steady speed again, I crawled over to one of the spilled boxes. In the opening of the box, there lay a needle. One single needle, nothing more, nothing less. The box was pretty big compared the needle itself, so I wasn’t sure why there was a need to have only one in the box. The liquid inside of it was a bright green, like the colour of  the leaves when spring just begins. It gave off a strange scent. I couldn’t quite place it, but it was definitely familiar. The weirdest part of the needle wasn’t the scent or colour though, it was the temperature of the needle itself. It was freezing cold to the touch. That worried me.  

The car came to a stop. I hurried and tried to put the needle back into the box. The door of the van opening scared me enough to make me jump and drop the needle causing the green liquid to spill onto the the metal floor. The kidnapper looked at me with his mouth open.  He seethed at my mistake. All I could do was stare at the man. His huge hands grabbed me by the collar of my suit jacket and pulled me out into the brightness of mid morning. The sun’s light was blinding and made me squint. But the real problem here was the giant man attached to my collar dragging me around. Because I made him angry, he was yanking me more carelessly. I really didn’t think that the needles would be that special. They were just needles right?

“That needle you just ruined,”  he said his back still to me as he was pulling me into a large building, “was the most important instrument needed for what we’re gonna do to you. Boss needed every last one of those. And now that’s there’s one less, your chance at life is now decreased by about 23%.”

“Ha, for a second there I thought you said that my chances at life decreased by around 23%. But that wouldn’t make sense.” I laughed nervously, really hoping he was joking.

The man stopped dead in his tracks. We were almost at the door to the building when he turned around to say, “This is the last time you’ll ever get to see the light of day with human eyes, Eli. Take it all in before we change your life forever. If you live, I mean.”

“What? Change my life? What are you talking about? Tell me what’s going on!” My heart was pounding. I couldn’t breathe right. Is this guy serious?

“Chuck! I just got a call from Boss. He says he’s ready for you two.” My other kidnapper and apparently the one who was driving the van yelled out from the rolled down window.

“Alright, then it’s time.” Chuck grabbed onto my arm once again and pulled me along into the front doors to the building. “Eli Steele, welcome to the Warehouse. Hm, well, considering your chances at survival, I think it would be more fitting to call this ‘your final resting place.’” He smiled at me, showing his teeth. I didn’t notice before, but every tooth in his mouth ended in a sharp point. In fear of getting my flesh shredded to pieces by his teeth, I kept my mouth shut.

Before entering the Warehouse, Chuck punched in a code. The door slowly opened, allowing an eerie screech to escape. It was a big metal door with intricate designs decorating the whole thing. Swirls and lines covered every part of the metal. The thing that stood out most though and what really scared me was that the words “We are not human” were engraved into the door. The sight of it sent shivers down my spine. If they weren’t human, what were they?

Chuck and I stood at the opening of the doorway waiting for it to completely open. Looking in the building made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was completely dark other then the faint orange glow that came from the lanterns hanging above the vast amount of other doors lining the hallway. The corridor seemed to go on forever without any end. Chuck nudged me along urging me forward. I didn’t know where he was taking me exactly, but from the looks of the Warehouse, or my final resting place as Chuck put it, I knew it couldn’t be good. The place reminded me of a dungeon, and I didn’t like it.

We walked in silence for a long time. Every time I thought we were coming to the end of the hallway, more of it showed itself. And Chuck’s hand was making my arm go numb. He was still holding on tightly, and not once did his grip loosen even for a moment.

I cleared my throat. The echo boomed through the hall, causing a strange brake in the silence. “Do you think you could maybe let go of my arm? It’s starting to hurt.” He chuckled at my request and gripped my arm tighter.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “ you won’t be able to feel anything in a few minutes after what will be done to you.” Just as he finished his sentence a black silhouette came into view. As he approached us, I could better make out the details. He wore a long, white lab coat that reminded me of a scientist. His shaggy brown beard came down to his shoulders, just as his hair did. The man would probably be more approachable if it weren’t for the eye patch covering his left eye. On the eye patch were the same words that were engraved onto the metal doors, “we are not human.”

Before I had time to be scared of this guy, he came up to us. Chuck gave a slight bow and the man nodded his head in return. Not really sure if I was to just stand there, or bow too, I decided on just standing still.

Chuck was the first to speak. “Boss, he is the one you wanted, correct?”

Boss looked at me up and down. He seemed to be very pleased. “He’s perfect, just as I imagined him to be.” He looked up at Chuck. “You’ve done well. Your reward shall be waiting for you when you return to your cell. You’re dismissed.” Chuck gave another slight bow and walked off down the long hallway.

Boss looked at me and gave me a creepy, maniacal smile. “I’ve been waiting for the perfect human for over 20 years. You, Eli, you’re that human.”

“Look, Boss, I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I want explanations. Why am I here? Why do I have to be this... ‘perfect human’ you’re referring to?” My anger was getting to a dangerous level. My face was getting hot and my voice began to rise.

“Now, now, Eli. You must wait to ask questions. If you survive this experiment, all of your questions will be answered.” With a snap of Boss’s fingers, two men, identical to my kidnappers, came out from a door to my right. Each grabbed me from under my arms, leaving my feet dangling above the floor. I kicked and screamed, but nothing seemed to phase the two men.

Boss walked back down from the way he came and the men carrying me followed. Not too much later, a pair of double doors came into vision. They were like the double doors you see in hospitals, the ones that swing back and forth when you push them open. We walked through the doors and ended up in a different section of the Warehouse. The room looked just like a hospital operating room did.

The men placed me down on a lumpy hospital bed and tied my wrists and ankles to the railing keeping me from falling off the sides. The straps were leather with belt like buckle and covered in blood. The crimson spots were smeared all over the brown leather leaving very few areas unstained. I let out an ear-splitting scream. “What are you going to do with me?!” I cursed like mad then. This will be where I die, I thought.

The men left the room just as Boss entered. He was carrying a box that looked quite familiar. As he placed it on the table with all of his operating tools, I noticed it was the same type of box that was in the back of the van. He carefully opened it and gracefully pulled out the needle that was placed inside. He held it up and looked at it admiringly.

“This Eli, this is my most greatest discovery. In each and everyone of these needles, there’s a special liquid called Mercuranium that allows me to change people’s DNA and make them a whole new species. I’ve tested it on numerous humans, all with the same result, success. Never, have I used more than one needle of each of my specimen, though.” I hated how he used the word ‘specimen’ over humans. “But you, Eli, will be my first attempt. The needle will be injected directly into your heart. The pain will be unbearable, but on the slim chance you survive, the rewards will be greater then you could ever imagine.” He picked up the scalpel that was placed on the table along with his other instruments of torture. “Take a deep breath Eli, and prepare for pain. I can assure you, this will hurt you more then it will hurt me.” Boss let out a loud laugh.

He ripped open my button up shirt allowing my bare chest, covered in sweat, to show. With my hands and feet unable to move because of the straps, I could do nothing to defend myself. I felt completely and utterly helpless. Today will be the day death will finally knock on my door and tell me it’s time to leave my life.

Boss took the scalpel straight to my heart without hesitation. The pain was more then I could handle and I let out another scream. Trying to lift my head to see the damage, I caught a glimpse of the blood escaping from my body. My chest was already covered in the crimson liquid. The next burst of pain was more intense. It was the same pain as the scalpel, multiplied by 10. He was injecting the Mercuranium into my heart. As he as doing so, I could feel the liquid surging through my body, traveling from my fingertips to my toes and back up to my brain. The burning of the liquid mixing with my DNA was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. One after another, screams were heard. Not from Boss, but from me.