Chapter 13
Of course I did. The same little room only this time I was drugged with something that made me feel like a zombie. I lay on the cot staring at the ceiling for an hour before I rolled over. Using the wall, I sat up and stared at my knees in blue scrubs with the cuffs rolled up. Lifting my arm, I saw a blue cotton top with pockets and bare forearms. Two Band-Aids in the elbow crease over a wad of folded up gauze.
There were slippers like flip-flops on my feet. The door open with a pneumatic hiss and slid into the wall. Three men approached watching me warily and two held Tasers. One of them was the dude called Gaines. I stared dully at him, not feeling much of anything. My thought processes were circling in my head, not making any sense to me. I knew I was in danger, but couldn’t care.
“Danny?” Gaines questioned. I looked up and then back to my feet.
“How do you feel, Danny?”
“Okay,” I said listlessly. I wished they’d go away so I could lay down and stare at the wall. I could count the dimples in the padding.
“Danny, we’re going to take you for testing. All you have to do is walk with us, okay? Can you do that?”
“I guess.” He put his hand under my elbow when I stood up. Waited. He pulled me towards the door, which opened. Put cuffs on my wrists and locked them. “You okay, Danny? Not lightheaded or nauseous?”
I thought about it. Answered, “No.”
“Good. Just concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. It’s not far, we’re just going down the hallway to the elevator and the labs.”
“Okay,” I said agreeably and shuffled along with the other two behind us.
The hallway was short, only two doors, and then we were at the elevator. Black with shiny chrome. He punched in the code. While I stood there drooling.
“Not so feisty now, is he, Gaines?” One of the men snickered.
“Shut up, Read,” Gaines snapped. “He’s just a kid.”
“A kid with some weird ability.”
“Just leave him alone,” Gaines said gruffly. The elevator doors opened and his hand on my back sent me in. I stood facing the back wall. He turned me around as the doors closed. My stomach lurched as the elevator moved. No indicator to tell me if we were going up or down, nor what floors. Not that I cared or was curious.
The door opened on a hallway lined on both sides with windows that looked out over a city sky cape, but I didn’t recognize it. The three of them herded me down towards a set of fire doors which opened with a key card into a lab with long gray counters, and machines. An exam chair with arm and leg restraints. Some of which I knew the names and uses of – like a gene sequencer, mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph. Some stations held overhead toxic gas vents, specimen cages for large primates, exam tables, BP machines and even an open sided MRI machine. Only two people were in the lab, a man and a woman, both in white lab coats and laminated badges. They watched me closely as Gaines steered me towards the open area near the tables. One was an autopsy table, complete with a drain into a deep welled sink. A metric scale hung nearby. On the counter was an autoclave.
“Where do you want him?” Gaines asked and the man pointed to the exam table.
“Up here.”
“Danny, can you get up on the table?”
I stood there and thought about it, put my hands on the cold metal covered with paper and lifted my legs. My coordination was shot, I wound up half on and half off, so he grabbed my legs and threw me up.
“Lie down, flat,” the white coated lab geek ordered and I did. He strapped my arms and legs with nylon belts and another across my forehead. I lay quietly, my neck aching from the angle. My backbone poked against the hard surface, but the pain was distant and muted.
“What’s he on?”
“Thorazine. Administered this morning at 6 AM. 2 ml IV. We went light because of his age and weight. It lasts about twelve hours before it lets up.”
“Behaviors?”
“He can be…volatile. He’s tall for his age and strong. His Dad is 6’6”. He’s fourteen.”
“Fourteen?!” The woman came forward. She was pretty, even with her hair pulled back severely, a reddish chestnut color, and she had pale green eyes.
“Like Felice,” I slurred.
“What?” She questioned.
“Eyes like my girl...friend. Green. Pretty.”
“Your eyes are pretty, too. What’s your name?” She continued hooking things to my fingers, head, and neck as she slid her hands down my chest. I giggled as she tickled me.
“Danny. Danny D –“
Gaines interrupted me. “His name is Daniel D 1, for the purposes of this trial. That’s all the Director wants on the file. When you’re briefed later this evening, you’ll get the complete dossier. Right now, all you need to do is get a baseline to start with.”
“The EEGs will be skewed by the Thorazine,” she complained. “Also, the MPD tests.”
“You can do without the MPD for now. Director Sustain wants a working premise in two days.”
“Two days!” The man bitched. “I can’t develop a theory in two days! A DNA test takes a week, at the very least!”
“Then, you’d better get busy and work 24/7,” Gaines threatened.
I had to pee and it seemed like too much effort to ask for the toilet so I just peed where I was. My back got warm and wet, it felt good. I closed my eyes and drifted. Didn’t care when they complained about the smell of my wet clothes.
“Jesus,” one of them said. “He pissed his pants.”
“I’m not gonna clean that up.”
“Danny, if you don’t tell us you need to use the restroom, I’ll catheterize you,” the lady threatened.
I opened one eye and shrugged. “Don’t care. Easier to just pee.”
The four of them got me up, stripped me, and washed me off with baby wipes before dressing me in a paper gown. Put me back on the table and started over.
“We’ll be done with the standard tests in four hours. You’ll be back for him? She asked.
Gaines replied, “I’ll be with him whenever he’s out of the cell. When you’re done, we’ll transport him to the mess hall, feed him, and back to his room. Sedate him to sleep. Recommence testing at 0615. After his shot.” He dismissed the two men. I lay there and did what they wanted, neither caring nor feeling anything. Time passed in a blur.