Efferent

Chapter 32

The room smelled of sterility and alcohol. Even having been deserted for an unknown extended period of time, dust was non-existent. Monitors with black screen lined the walls, and were settled next to small tables with restraints.

My chest tightened as I looked at the familiar linoleum floor and white walls. Almost identical to the clinic I had gone to, I clenched my eyes shut, gritting my teeth against the sour cloth in my mouth, trying to erase the memory of that day; the first time I had taken a life.

As overwhelmed by emotion as I had been, I found some comfort in the fact that I no longer had the power to enact that sort of damage. But one man, Dr. Ross, did not know that.

"Take her," He ordered, jerking his head to my, "Over there. Chain her up. Twice." The Officials did as he ordered, and, still dizzy from a previous blow, I remained silent and motionless, allowing them to drag me across the floor. "If I hear her so much as mumble," Walter glared at the far younger men, "I will kill you all. And remember, retaliation is futile. I will know before the thought is even fully formed in your head."

"You are a monster," Clark called out, "Turning in your own kind. Killing your own kind."

Walter chuckled dryly. "Do not blame me for your foolishness and naivety. You chose to believe that we were a family. I never influenced your train of thought."

Blaise kicked at his guards, baring his teeth. "You and the Afferent have more in common than one would assume at first glance." His eyes grew dark, and I could see him wishing to relinquish his power. "You are both a disgrace."

"Make sure his hands never get loose!" Walter ordered, ignoring Blaise's attempts to engage him. "He specializes in mind manipulation, but only when he is free to move about, to touch you of his own volition."

I glared over at him. He knew everything. He knew of our every weakness and of our every strength that could easily be exploited and warped to work to his advantage if enough pressure was given on the right point. He had been studying us, I thought.

"Did we truly mean nothing?" Amelia choked up. "You can not fool me into assuming that is true. I knew you held affection towards us."

"Affection that easily dwindled in the face of a different enemy and a highly equipped government breathing down my neck." Walter grit out. "Prepare the tables. The process cannot afford to be enacted any longer than we have waited."

The free officials swept the tables free of any excess tools, unhinged the restraints and turned on the monitors. "Sterilize the needles, and start the magnetization," Walter reminded them. "We cannot have the serum be tainted or diluted."

"Magnetization?" Blaise's eyebrows furrowed, and Clark's face went pale.

"They plan to hang us, put a strong magnet at our feet so that our blood flow is slowed and the extraction of the serum comes out more pure." He offered as an explanation. Standing erect, he looked to be leading the guards that kept his arms shackled behind him, rather than their prisoner.

"Hang us?" Amelia whimpered, a sob cracking her voice. "Is it painful?"

Clark turned to me, eyes questioning and I shook my head to the side. Amelia did not need to know the details. She would see them soon enough. Clark opened his mouth to reassure her, "N-."

"Extremely so, my dear, Amelia." Dr. Ross smiled willfully again. His eyes were cold cut stone that seemed to get harder the longer he stared. "You will find no relief, even moments before your death."

Blaise bucked against the guards at hearing Walter's voice, and upon seeing Amelia panic-stricken face. He growled loudly, glaring at Walter's aged features, "You-."

"Ah, ah, ah." Walter took three steps forward to face the small group of prisoners across the room from me. Dread clambered up my spine in loud stomps that left crevices in place of footsteps. Dr. Ross looked over his shoulder to meet me in the eye, and gazed silently for a moment, reading my fear and soaking it in. He looked away. "Now, who wants to go first?"

He stepped closer to Amelia shaking figure, "Isn't it custom that the lady deserves that privilege?"

"No!" Amelia shouted loudly, eyes shut tightly and yet her tears ran down her face seemingly uninhibited. She screamed loudly, and it echoed across the white walls. I joined her, my muffled protests raising the volume of her chorus until a frightened official checked me. Walter, too consumed and too close to Amelia to hear me, resumed his pacing. "No! You cannot do this! Dr. Ross! Walter, please." She begged.

"Fight Amelia!" Blaise called, "Fight him off!"

Weakly she raised her leg and kicked out, but it was caught by her guards and split with a sickening crack. Her leg fell at an odd angle as she fell to the floor with a white-hot scream, her face as sallow as a low hanging moon. Whimpering, her eyes fluttered closed as she approached unconsciousness.

"No!" Clark banged his head against his official, distracting him momentarily, enough to break away and lunge at Dr. Ross. "I will kill you! I will kill all of you!" He reached for Walter's wrinkled neck, grasping at his collar tightly as he choked, too feeble to respond. I saw his official recover and approach quickly behind him, and I screamed again, as he took the gun and slammed it across Clark's temple.

He sagged to the floor motionless, and I felt my eyes well as the sting of tears threatened to tear down my face. Blood pooled on the white tile, and I struggled to see if he was still breathing, if his eyes had closed or if the had remained open and clouded over. "Clarmph! Clarmph!" I called, unable to move, unable to speak. Slowly, as if his body was unsure, I saw his chest heave up. I sighed in relief, yet my hear beat twice as fast.

Walter coughed roughly, his normally gravelly voice falling out like chunks of broken asphalt. "Him." He pointed at Clark without looking, hunched over still and breathing heavily. "Bring him to the table. He will be the first to die."

Clark went limp as the dragged him to the metallic, four-legged platform, clamping the leather restraints down one notch too tight and tilted him back so that his long bangs just barely scraped the linoleum floor as his bare feet were pointed towards the ceiling.

"Start the injections!" Walter barked out. "I want him to feel it. His life, leaving him, second after second."