Numbers

Compared to what happened next these were only small ‘victories’ for my superiors. I remember coming into work early one day, walking through the glass doors to my lab was one of the things I used to dream of fondly, but by that time it had turned into a nightmare. When I entered on that day two of my supervisors were gathered around one of the bodies. I froze in midstride and looked on in disbelief.

Julianne had a distinguished look about her. She always seemed to look down at you even if you were taller. Her small beady eyes never missed anything but at that time they were fixed on the unbelievably bruised body. Her usual prim and proper manner was discarded at this moment as she slouched close to the bodies face, examining something I could not see. Tony also had his gaze turned to the body but had a death grip on the bodies right arm. He always seemed rather kind, always had a ready smile and warm eyes every time I came into his office. Yet now his eyes were as hard as stone and no smile decorated his face. That’s when I noticed the syringe in Julianne’s hand, my heart started to race.

“What are you doing?” I forced through my stiff lips.

They didn’t jump, they didn’t look startled or ashamed- they were to dignified for that. They did turn around slowly, reluctant to take their eyes off of the body. “Hello Dr. Van Doran,” said Tony pleasantly, he even smiled again, “A very good morning to you.”

“What are you doing,” I repeated a little more firmly.

“An experiment,” snapped Julianne, looking back to the body, “We are scientist too, Doctor.”

I let out a slow, uneasy breath and tried a different approach, “What did you inject?”

“I don’t see how that is any of your business, Doctor.”

“It’s my lab.”

That gave her pause, scientist indeed, but she only appeared to be staring at the body harder, “Why does it not move,” the question wasn’t for me, it wasn’t rightfully for anyone, but I was the one that had the answer.

“Did you tell it to?”

“One more cross word out of you and I’ll-“

Julianne didn’t get to finish before Tony cut her off, sweeping back grandly to face me again smiling, “Why would we have to tell it to move?”

“I gave you the gift of rebirth, not the keys to the mind,” I tried to joke.

Julianne sniffed in an irritated fashion, “Snap your fingers,” she ordered the body.

It quickly obeyed. I suspected it was a test to see if I was telling the truth, I was wrong. When the body snapped its fingers a tiny flame leapt onto its finger quicker then I could blink. I stared at the tiny flame, swaying in the faint breeze created by Julianne’s breath. I soon came to my senses and yelped, grabbing the closest thing to water I could find. But Tony grabbed me before I had a chance to throw it on the body. “It’s not burning it, Doctor, look!”

I took a closer look at the flame- it was true, though it touched the skin it didn’t spread or blister, it simply stood. Amazement, there’s no other way to describe it, budded in my mind. I opened and closed my mouth many times before I found my voice, “H-how?”

“Classified,” Julianne snapped, finally pulling away from the body.

“But…you would need friction enough to cause a spark- and even then it’s only a spark, you need…something else to make the fla-“

“Enough, Doctor,” exclaimed Julianne, whipping around to face me, “I told you its classified!”

My breath caught, “Y-yes ma’am.”

Tony released me and smiled reassuringly, “Would you put the body back in his room,” even though he looked at me he didn’t wait for me to answer before he turned away.

I nodded at his retreating back; I couldn’t bring myself to speak. Or maybe I couldn’t trust myself to speak. Either way I watched them go, anger quickly replacing my amazement- I let out an exasperated breath as the glass doors closed behind them. I turned back to the body and jumped back, startled. Those glazed eyes were staring at me when they had been staring at the wall not seconds ago. I have perfect understanding that it takes less than a second to shift ones gaze from point A to point B, yet the bodies never seemed to move unless told, much less shift their gaze. I gulped, “Put out your fire.”

The body closed his hand, extinguishing his flame. I sighed fumbling about for paperwork, ashamed that I had let a body make me uneasy, “They had no right to do that to you…haven’t you suffered enough?”

I couldn’t be sure but I thought that the body nodded. I shook off the thought; these bodies can’t think- not anymore. I was letting my imagination get the better of me, if they couldn’t move on their own they very well couldn’t think or comment on their own, right? “Let’s see. What’s your number?” I muttered to myself, reaching over to pick up the bodies necklace in order to see the number.

“302,” said a deep voice.

I dropped the necklace, startled, and turned around to see who had spoken. No one was there. I was alone with the body. That gave me pause- I was alone with the body. It couldn’t be, it simply wasn’t scientifically possible. The only injections that had been possible were ones that combined adrenaline with lizard DNA, and that was only enough to repair the heart muscle. Not the brain. It couldn’t repair thought. I refused to believe it, my mind refused to grasp it. Dead tissue wasn’t supposed to come alive, but then again, a dead body wasn’t supposed to walk.

“What did you say,” I asked the body, surprised at how calm my voice sounded.

“I am labeled 302,” it answered without hesitation; I thought my heart was going to give out.

His glazed eyes still peered into mine, and for the life of me I couldn’t look away. His eyes may have been green once but it was difficult to say. His long hair hung just below his ears, and he looked as if he exercised until the day of his death. Cuts and busies marred his skin, but I couldn’t tell if they had happened before or after his death. I imagined what could have happened to cause all of that pain, none of it was a pleasant thought. I blinked out of my illusion, realizing that it was the first time I allowed myself to think of the bodies as individuals. It was the first time I had looked at one of the bodies and really seen it. I wasn’t sure I was glad about that fact. “Right,” I said to him, “Off you get- to your room.”

He obeyed without a second glance- but I watched him as he slowly strode to the door that opened to the rooms. His pace was like all the other bodies, slow and even, he didn’t appear all that different from the rest…and yet he was completely different. Or was he just like all the rest and we just couldn’t understand the complicated workings of the bodies because they couldn’t communicate their thoughts. But then how did 302 manage to communicate his? What had that injection really done to him? He stopped before the door. Waiting for admittance, I soon realized after several silent seconds. All but running to the dial pad I typed in my code sending an echo throughout the hallway beyond when it buzzed entry. He stepped through without hesitation I wish I could’ve done the same- only to wait again at the door to his rooms. I refused to let my thoughts stray.

I came slower, growing more and more ashamed by my earlier hastiness. “You are frightened of us,” the man suddenly said, making me jump yet again, “Why?”

I took a calming breath; it was a reasonable question even if it did come from the walking dead, “I fear what I don’t understand.”

If the bodies, the numbers, if this man could smile- or show something similar to emotion- he showed it then, “Then you must live in fear.”

I entered the second code making his door smoothly slide open, “Enter,” he obeyed with his usual slow stride and I slammed the door shut.

I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone what happened. I couldn’t bear to admit I had no idea how this could’ve happened, nor could I stomach the fact that people were keeping secrets, especially people who were supposed to be my supervisors. Yet number 302 was just the beginning. After witnessing half of what happened that morning I came to notice that some of the bodies would seem to disappear for unusual hours at a time. Only to come back with strange bandages or scars that were not previously recorded in our records. And the results were increasingly daunting, to the point where number 302’s fire was the least of my worries.

Number 582 produced some sort of electrical vortex one morning so powerful that it destroyed half of the DNA processing room. My employees managed to believe that it was some type of systems failure, no one was hurt but I was forced to keep an unusually close eye on 582 ever since. Number 476 appeared in the lab one day with wings that spanned about 10 feet, no one could over look that. He strode into the lab that day escorted by a pair of armed guards, everyone in the lab looked up with wide eyes watching them slowly stride past. The two perfectly white wings on the body’s back hardly seemed to quiver, until Carter, a lab assistant, told the body to open his wings. The next second Carter was flying across the room having accidentally been hit by one of the massive things. The guards quickly took the body into its room without further interruption. Nor could anyone over look the fact that every time someone stuck Number 525 with a needle lighting seemed to strike…inside the lab. I couldn’t even try to make up an excuse for that one.

There was nothing I could do- no one I could report to because all of my supervisors were participating. I had thought of going to the news paper, the police, or anywhere…but who was going to believe this? Who was going to believe what I was struggling to believe myself? But that wasn’t the only thing that stopped me, what truly stopped me was what could happen to me. If I came bursting into the lab with the police at my heels the police would probably find nothing. Everything could be hidden, papers could be destroyed, the bodies could be taken somewhere else. They would name me insane and if they didn’t commit me to a hospital then the institute would find something to do with me. Neither idea was very appealing. Maybe this was for the ‘greater good’ yet every time I thought that I couldn’t help thinking about Hitler’s greater good for the Jews. Maybe I was just as bad as the rest of them, maybe, deep down, I really wanted to keep experimenting on these bodies. Maybe I was really one of them. I couldn’t look at one of the bodies without the crushing comparison between myself and Dr. Frankenstein. But he only had one monster… I have hundreds; somehow the numbers didn’t seem to add up.

One night, when I was alone in the lab, I found myself wondering about Number 302. For the past several months I had made a point not to think about who they had been just like when it all started- that wasn’t my job anymore- but then I allowed the subject to force its way back in. What had he been like before this nightmare had taken hold of his body? What did he do, what was his job before I got a hold of him? Was it even worth asking these questions? I know he can speak, but does that mean he can remember? Or did the Engineers actually do their job? Did that horrible machine down the hall actually do what it was supposed to or was it all for show? Before I fully grasped what I was doing I was at his door, entering my code.

The door slid open. Number 302 sat on his bed staring at the far wall, just like all the other bodies. He had his hands neatly on his lap, reminding me of an attentive student instead of the body with discolored skin that had healed remarkably from the last time I saw him. His hair was shorter then last time, cut well above his ears and a fresh scar ran from his left temple to behind his ear. I could guess that wasn’t recorded. Out of the dozen scars that now covered his body I knew only two had been written, the one at the nape of his neck, my injection, and the one just above his right eye, from the Engineers. A mixture of outrage and fear swelled within me. It was supposed to be my lab, after all, how was I supposed to keep decent records if secret operations were taking place?

“I wondered when you would come back,” number 302 mused not taking his eyes off the wall and pulling me out of my thoughts.

“How did you know I would even come back?”

Number 302 slid his eyes over to me, holding me still, “I guess it was more like hope.”

I nodded as if I understood; I took a step into the room and squared my shoulders, may as well get to the point, “Do you remember anything?”

“I remember a lot of things.”

I took a deep breath, forcing my eyes not to roll; I had to press forward, “Do you remember anything from before?”

He looked at me blankly; I tried again, “Do you remember your name?”

Understanding glimmered into his glaze eyes for a moment before he looked away. Nervous? Embarrassment? Could he feel such a thing? “I was called Paul,” he answered simply.

I nodded again, I wasn’t sure I was going to understand any of this. But something in me needed me to try. “Paul,” I nodded again, “that’s a good name.”

Right as the words were out of my mouth I wished I had them back. I felt I had just agreed on a name for a baby. My cheeks felt hot, I looked down hoping he wouldn’t see as if he was any other guy I would meet on the street. I shook my head hoping to clear that thought away. I took a deep breath and began again, “I mean…can you remember anything else?”

302- Paul- just stared with his blank glazed eyes, that question wasn’t going to get answered apparently. “Do you remember if you had any family…before all of this?”

He shook his head, “I don’t believe I did,” he paused, not meeting my eyes…he was going to have to stop dong that or I was going to take him for an actual human. That thought made me freeze- wasn’t he a real person? Who was I to tell him otherwise? This conversation was beginning to get more complicated then I first thought it was going to be. I watched his expression carefully, watching for any sign of…well anything. I didn’t know what to expect from him, he wasn’t like the other bodies, somehow he was more expressive. He showed more emotion then I ever thought was possible with dead tissue.

“I remember arguing with someone,” Paul said, “I can’t recall all that was said…but I think I loved her at one point.”

My breath caught in my throat, this is the exact thing we had tried to avoid. Past relations- past complications- it made my stomach twist to think of it in that fashion. I almost told him to stop, I wasn’t sure my mind could handle such a thing. But I kept quite; I listened as he went on.

“It ended,” Paul whispered sadly, “It ended the night I died…that’s why I was out so late- that’s why I just walked into the road. It was raining and…” he didn’t finish.

I was wrong, he had feelings, emotions, whether people wanted to realize it or not. Anguish filled me as I looked down at him from beside his door. He still wouldn’t meet my gaze but I knew. I was even more a monster then I had first realized. Paul could remember, against all odds he could remember. “I’m sorry,” I said, feeling as if I should put a comforting hand on his shoulder, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Paul looked back up at me; no emotion showed in his eyes, yet I thought something might be there even if it was buried deep inside, “You didn’t.”

“I need to go,” I murmured after a moment, “I’ll be back…I’ll come back tomorrow night.”

I slowly edged toward the open door, he made no move, no advancement, and no emotion touched his eyes that continued to stare at me. He didn’t stop me from closing the door to his room- if anything he went from tense to his normal state. Still I couldn’t help feeling regret at leaving him there- practically alone- as the loud buzz signaled the doors locking. But I forced one foot in front of the other until I had left the eerily silent hall behind, at least for one night.

I was true to my word. I came to Paul every night, I can’t say I came to know anything else about him then what he had shared about his death, but I can say it gave me some form of peace of mind, if I can even have such a thing. Every night I would enter his room after everyone in the lab had already left for the night. At the beginning I always stood by the door, as if afraid to step fully into his room, but as our times together grew more frequent I came further and further into the white room. One of these times I found myself sitting on the edge of his toilet, I examined the floor at my feet as I tried to find the words to start. Luckily I didn’t have to, “Why do you come here?”

My head snapped up as I regarded him, “I thought you wanted me to come.”

“Is that your answer or is that what you thought I wanted to hear.”

I hesitated, “Maybe I should go,” I murmured starting to stand.

“I do want you to come…but what is your reason for coming?”

I paused, slowly sinking back down to my perch on the toilet; I couldn’t explain what had drawn me back to this room night after night. I had been coming here for about half a week and I still didn’t know the answer to that question, “I don’t know,” I had decided to answer truthfully, “Maybe I just want to talk.”

Paul smiled, “If that’s your answer I think we’re doing something wrong. You hardly say anything during these visits.”

I chuckled, “Right…I should probably work on that.”

“Maybe. Well why don’t I start?”

“Start what?”

“Well, Doctor, you have asked me some questions it’s only fair I should ask some myself.”

I shrugged, “What would you like to know?”

“What college did you go to? You did go to college didn’t you? To work at a place like this I would think you would have to go to college.”

I smiled, “I did go to college. I started undergraduate work at the LaBute School of Science and continued my studies in genetics at Jekyll University.”

“Masters?”

“I’m a doctor.”

“Right. Any special interests?”

“Special interests?”

“You can’t only devote your life to one area of interest…well, I guess you could but that wouldn’t make for very good conversation,” Paul laughed.

“I like to read…I guess that could be a special interest.”

“But it’s almost granted, you are a scholar after all and reading is part of the deal.”

I smiled but pondered his question, what else would pass for a ‘special interest’? It was a strange question for him to ask but talking to him I had completely forgotten about his tinted skin and glazed eyes. “I’ll ask another one,” Paul smiled, “We can always go back. What about relationships? You asked about mine anyway.”

I sighed, “I did. Well I have had a few relationships but nothing that is worth diving into. They were mostly in college and didn’t mean anything.”

“Why would you say that?”

I felt myself blushing, “I hadn’t really…matured back then, and I used guys to…de-stress…that would probably be the best word, from finals and the like. They didn’t mean anything,” I sheepishly looked up at him, I don’t know why I was so embarrassed to tell this to just one of the bodies, but then again, he wasn’t just one of the bodies.

Paul laughed, “I think that many people might have done that, but what about right now?”

“What? A relationship? No, I’ve been a little busy lately to really even think about it,” I eyes Paul wearily, “Why?”

“You asked me first,” he answered simply but he smiled.

“Right.”

“So about these relationships, that aren’t relationships.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. I would like to imagine I found a friend in one of the bodies. I liked to think of Paul as my friend. And so it came that the one thing that helped me relax was my long talks with him- my horrors melted away in his presence and I could almost completely forget the inhumane things I was working in. Almost. There was still the guilt that weighed heavily in my mind. The guilt of the hundreds of other bodies that littered about the white halls of the institute that I helped awaken.

I have gone over this in my mind. I have looked at this from every possible angle. Maybe you think me weak, or some other form of the word, to always dwindle on this fact. But I ask you this- can a human really be a human if they spit on humanity? Is that not what I have done? But can I really be made at fault if that was never my intention? Isn’t that the main thought of Frankenstein? Can someone really be forgiven from disturbing the dead, from disturbing their sleep? Maybe eventually someone can be forgiven, maybe someone is kind enough to reach out to the monsters of the world and comfort them. But the real question is, can I ever forgive myself? I thought about my conversations with Paul and I hoped that he forgave me. I wish that I could just say the words that I could just apologize and know but every night it never happens. Every night we pepper each other with questions, every night we laugh and smile, and nothing negative can bring us down.

Yet one day everything changed, again. It had started out normal- or as normal as a secret government lab could be- when two piercing screams sounded from the Engineers room. My first thought, my first hope, was that someone had stumbled onto the lab. Then the government would have to shut the project down. I wasn’t so lucky.

I wasn’t the only one that ran to the source, but I was the first one to get there. Lying before me was the Engineers horrible machine, which took up a rather large portion of the room with its giant lasers and metal slab, and two women who stared at each other wide eyed. The woman who stood wore a long white coat, marking her as one of us; she seemed frightened, panting with her hand over her beating heart. The second woman, however, lay sitting up on the metal slab in nothing other than a thin white dress. She was a body.

The body panted, just as the woman in the white coat, and she also had a hand over her heart. They looked like mirrors of each other. We all froze in the doorway; I held my breath waiting for the worst.

“What happened,” demanded one of my employees.

The Engineer jumped, as if she just realized we stood in her doorway, but still forced a shaky finger to point at the body, “I-It,’ she stammered, “It spoke!”

“She tried to cut me,” screamed the body.

A long moment of silence seemed to stretch out. Everything froze in place. The Engineer sputtered and paled, my employees all backed away from the room as a group, and I felt the blood drain from my face- this was the worst I could imagine. Then everything happened at once.

Someone screamed, the Engineer finally fainted, some went to catch her while others seemed rooted to the spot. I almost ran to the body and grabbed the tag around its- her- neck. “What the hell is happening,” screamed the body, making me jump.

I took a deep breath, which didn’t do much to calm me this time, and read her number, “Who injected 24601,” I asked in the calmest voice I could manage.

Silence answered me, a mixture of fury and fear rose within me until I shouted, “Who injected 24601!”

“I did,” came a small voice from the side of the room near the fallen Engineer.

Irene, a small biologist with long thick black hair and glasses, slowly stood from kneeling by the fallen Engineer. “I recorded that number,” she said in a small unsure voice, her eyes were wide as she continued, “it was me.”

“Get your notes,” my voice sounded emotionless even to my own ears, and Irene jumped to obey.

“Someone tell me what the hell is going on! Where am I?”

I jumped as the body spoke yet again, but I couldn’t force myself to turn and answer her. I took the cowards way out; I turned to a group of huddling employees, “Get the body to a room. Don’t let anyone hear it talk,” I flinched inwardly, ‘it’ could hear me too I realized as the words left my mouth.

The group hurried to obey and hustled the body to the door. I could still hear it screaming as they made their way down the hall. I could imagine it climbing on the scientists trying to get back to me, trying to get back to have answers for all of its questions. I forced myself not to shiver at the daunting thought. With the body gone there was nothing else to do but wait. I felt my eyes slide into a glare as time passed- the employees that were left shuffled from foot to foot looking anywhere but at me, the Engineer, or the metal table that stood behind me. For my part I only had eyes for the hallway. Finally Irene came sprinting back with a thick binder under her arm. She started to say something but I grabbed it from her and flipped to the correct sheet. I already knew what I was going to find, I could see Irene pale slightly out of the corner of my eye.

The sheet described the body correctly- everything from height to birth marks. The injection wasn’t anything new- adrenaline, lizard DNA, and a chemical compound injected in the back of the neck. Something we had used on multiple occasions, never with this result. Never with this extreme, unless something else was injected without record. My anger was renewed.

I thrust the folder back at Irene and left, shouting for them to all get back to work after they took care of the Engineer. I stormed down the hall, passed various labs and the occasional stray scientist, around so many corners I lost count in my haste and my fury, going straight to Julianne’s office. I didn’t wait for her secretary to announce me; I didn’t knock or do anything proper. I even ignored the secretary’s cries to wait, which I usually did just on principle, but not this time. This time I slammed open the door and strode into the smartly decorated office with diplomas on the walls, and leather furniture in front of a grand desk. Julianne didn’t even look up from her papers when I entered.

“What did you do,” I snarled.

Julianne at least looked up from her work at the question but wasn’t the least bit worried, “I beg your pardon,” she said calmly enough to make my skin crawl.

“I understand involving me in your side experiments, after all it is my lab and I began the damn thing in the first place, but you have no right involving my staff! Do you have any idea what you have involved all of us in?”

“What are you talking about?”

“One of your side experiments just woke up screaming in the Engineer room. You now have an unconscious Engineer, shell-shocked lab staff, and a screaming body of a woman who is supposed to be dead. I hope you’re happy but I didn’t sign up for this crap!”

“What number?”

“How the hell can you be so damn calm? Did you not hear what I-“

“I heard you just fine, Doctor. What number?”

I sighed, which did nothing to smooth my fury; this was not proving to be a good day for my temper. “24601,” I answered bitterly, “But that’s not the point!”

Julianne held up her hand, “I know your point and it all will be dealt with accordingly,” she stood, “but for now I will go look at this screaming experiment.”

She calmly rose to her feet, not bothering to put her papers away, and left me standing there in the middle of her office, shaking with anger. I stared after her, she was the cause of all of this, if I was walking away from my humanity in all of this Julianne was hardly looking at it in her rearview mirror. Julianne was the cause for all of this horror, but I couldn’t prove a thing. I had no evidence, I couldn’t stop this. That’s when it came to me- I had to do something, I had to at least try, because it had gone too far the day the body of 53 sat up in the lab. I turned on my heel and hurried out of her office past the sputtering secretary and down the adjoining hall. Tony strolled passed me greeting me with a smile and a small wave, I didn’t acknowledge him. I felt my jaw tense and my eyes slide into a glare as I rushed after Julianne. It didn’t take me long to catch up with her, yet she didn’t slow at all when she noticed me. If anything she smirked.

I clinched and unclenched my fists to keep from lashing out in the middle of the institute or to keep from accusing her on the spot…or both. All I had to do was keep looking forward and keep walking. We walked through the glaring white walls, past labs full of experimenting scientists, past the Engineers room, now locked, and through my lab right to the locked hallway that housed the bodies. Julianne entered her code and the buzz sounded throughout my unusually silent lab. My employees worked in silence, yet I could feel their eyes on our backs as the door slowly slid open. Then Julianne showed something that resembled emotion.

The demanding screams of 24601 hit us like a brick wall. Julianne stiffened visibly, but only for a moment, and then strode through the hallway towards the sound of screams. Taking a deep breath I followed, I tried to ignore the doors baring various bodies still staring at the wall. Out of the corner of my eye I saw 302- Paul- standing at his door. He seemed to be one of the few who even realized that something was different. That something was happening. It was yet another thing to suggest that he was something more. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind to address later and kept moving forward right behind Julianne’s heels. That’s how we came to 24601’s door, the screams were the loudest here, they made my skin crawl. I wasn’t sure how Julianne could keep such a straight face.

I could hear 24601 hitting her fists against the tightly locked door. Julianne hit the glass to get the body’s attention as she pulled out a syringe with her other hand. “Back away from the door,” she yelled, “I have Haloperidol and I have every intention of using it if needed. Back away from the door and you keep your consciousness.”

The bodies yelling had stopped with Julianne’s pounding, yet it didn’t stop it from glaring through the doors thin square of glass. Slowly, very slowly, she/it took a step back, then another and another until she was well into the middle of the room. Julianne quickly typed her code into the pad and waited for the door to slide open. We both tensed, I think we expected her to dart out of the room, but she stood still as we slowly entered.

“I want to know what is going on,” the body said with barely confined anger.

“You’ve made that perfectly clear,” Julianne said coolly, “I will ask some questions first, and then the Doctor,” she pointed to me, “Will answer your questions.”

Both of us, 24601 and I, glared at her. Neither of us trusted her and she knew it. Not that she cared, “What is your name?”

The body scoffed, “Shouldn’t you know that?”

“Your name,” Julianne snapped, eyes glaring.

“Cynthia Marlow,” it said meeting her glare without flinching; I was expecting one of them to start throwing punches at any minute.

Yet Julianne pressed on, “Date of birth, occupation, and any known living family.”

“July 25,” Cynthia snapped through bared teeth, “Dancer and my mother- she lives in Brooklyn.”

Julianne nodded then turned to me, “I see no reason to press any further. You may eliminate them all but 476, 872, 10345, 20345, and 302.”

I stared, was she really saying what I thought she was saying? “What,” I asked, unable to make myself say anything else.

“Get rid of the experiments,” she said without blinking, no longer even noticing the body still stood before us, “All of them but 24601 and the others I listed.”

Julianne turned on her heel as I felt the blood drain from my face. I took several deep breaths to keep from passing out then followed her, ignoring the body’s protests from behind me. I grabbed Julianne’s arm before she was able to take off down the hall. “You just told me to kill thousands of people…again.”

Julianne nodded, “yes,” her eyes held no emotion, I felt as if I was going to get her coffee order not commit murder.

“You’re insane,” I yelled, “You can’t seriously think I’ll kill all of these people after I helped give them life!”

Julianne got close to me; put herself squarely in front of me, making me feel I was an ant even though we were about the same height. “You will do exactly what I say,” she said in an eerily calm and cold voice, “I will take care of everything else.”

My heart stopped ‘everything else’? What else was there? I wet my lips, “What do I do with the bodies,” I rasped, “Someone is going to notice hundreds of bodies being wheeled out of here.”

“Burn them,” with that she walked down the hall, leaving me there dumbfounded until I remembered Cynthia was still standing in the room behind me.

I quickly turned back to it. Cynthia’s eyes were wide with, what I assumed was, shock. She opened and closed her mouth trying to get some form of words out- with that I could relate. I could hardly process what had just happened myself. “That’s it, isn’t it,” the girl croaked, “I’m in hell.”

I let out a slow breath, nodding in agreement, “That would be accurate,” I turned on my heel and closed the door behind me. I made my slow way back towards the lab, going over the numbers in my head.

Why had Julianne said those numbers? What was different about those five from the other hundreds we had hidden in the institute? How the hell was I going to get away with mass homicide? I began to panic. I couldn’t do this; I couldn’t kill people not even to end their suffering. I had to keep some shred of my humanity. I had to.

I entered the lab once again not know what I was going to do. But I stopped, it was far too quiet, there should have at least been the clinking of beakers, the buzz of electricity, or something. Yet it was dead silent. I looked up, not really sure when I had started looking down, and saw my employees. All of them were pale faced and wide eyed as if they had all seen a ghost. Or had gotten bad news. My eyes wondered around the room until finally they landed on Irene who sat on her stool looking at nothing and panting as if she had just run a marathon.

She was the first to break the silence. She shook her head, “We have to do it.”

“Do what, Doctor,” I murmured, dreading her answer.

She looked at me with haunted eyes, “We have to kill them,” she stood up suddenly when I started to protest, “We have to or they,” she pointed toward the offices of my supervisors, “Will kill us!”

My breath caught, there was no way out, we had to kill the bodies. I almost heard my humanity shatter as I came to that realization. “Start the process,” I heard myself saying, “prepare the injections and start the fires,” no one moved, I couldn’t blame them, “Now.”

They sprang into action- some to start the injections while others ran to the incinerators- I quickly left the room. It took all I had to hold in my emotions until I was in the restroom. I locked the door as my knees buckled and I began to weep. I wept for my employees, I wept for the bodies, I wept for the world’s humanity, and I wept for myself. Yet through it all one thought was very clear- Paul would live. If nothing else at least Paul would live. The thought didn’t keep the tears from flowing.