Adam ch2 pt2 - Writers Forum

domoarigato206 · 02-13-2008, 03:32 PM

Please let me know how you are liking the story.

“Certainly sir. I am anxious to proceed as well. Very interesting, this hypothesis of yours.” I said, taking a sip.

“Were you successful in not damaging the equipment?” He asked me, a bit of spittle still lining his lips.

“I, uh, believe so sir. I arranged it all on that table there.” I motioned to his left.

He followed my gesture and nodded when he observed the layout.

“Very well. We begin.”

His instructions were very simple. I was to prepare a space to lay the subject down upon and gather essential tools for surgery. After that was done I was to drain the chassis and remove the subject. I did that one in reverse order because there was no way to effectively remove the boy in that manner without crawling into the cylinder with him and tossing him out. I retrieved him by manipulating the current in the solution, causing it to force him to rise to the top. I grabbed a hold of his arm with a grounded, gloved hand and pulled him free across the rollers, his body going limp after being stoic for a week. I removed the respirator from his face and was taken aback. All of his teeth had grown back, on the outside of his mouth through the skin. They were white and perfect and disturbing. Memories of that first night crept back. A shiver spiraled down through my spine, tickling the backs of my knees. I placed the subject onto the stretcher, covered him with a clean sheet, and pressed the button that read “down”. Last was the sanitation. I rolled the bed the center of the room and placed the boy on the ground next to an incurved drain in the floor. I reached up over my head and took hold of a hose hanging down from piping that ran across the ceiling. I turned the nozzle and sprayed the boy down with frigid soapy water. There were no other abnormalities from his healing. The wounds were gone, his face being the only result of the regeneration. I wasn’t quite convinced it was a malfunction with the machinery. He gave a twitch and I jumped.

Ser Rodney was preparing his new equipment as I was accomplishing my tasks. I glanced over curiously from time to time and watched as he activated one of the contraptions, causing it to pulsate in a brilliant polychrome glow and hum with power. Others were less spectacular. Ser Rodney had a look of seriousness about him now. His movements were more fluid and precise. He deftly handled each one with a care and swiftness that was hard to follow. It was quite entertaining to watch and helped occupy my mind, along with the prospect what we were accomplishing. Respect for the man came a little easier seeing him work. I finally finished soaking the boy down sufficiently and placed him back onto the stretcher.

“Ser Rodney, I have finished my tasks.” I reported. “Shall I assist you?”

“Certainly, thank you.” He replied setting the last of his activated contraptions back onto the table. “ The subject is prepared I take it?”
I nodded affirmation.

“Very well. We will begin by implanting the gatherer.” He reached for the clear spherical device and carried it over to the subject, holding it carefully with his thumb and forefinger over the boy’s mouth. He saw the teeth that I had forgotten to inform him of. “What’s this now?”

“The boy, it appears to be a regeneration error. I noticed it when I removed his respirator.”

“Interesting. The teeth and skin have seemingly become one. This should prove difficult to reverse. If the retransmutation does not succeed, we will have to dispose of the subject. We can’t have one such as him existing in his current state now can we?”

I agreed completely.

He continued with the “gatherer”. He pressed his fingers together slightly and the spherical device uncoiled its metal components into a wicked looking robotic caterpillar. It was maybe five inches long. He was now holding it by its “tail” and lowering it down to the boy’s face. Ser Rodney had me part the boy’s mouth, which I did with some hesitation. The gatherer slid easily in and down the subject’s throat, it’s slithering clearly visible through the skin. The scientist wiped his hands on his rag and made his way back to his console and the floor.

“Since your nanoscopes went down some time ago, we haven’t had a clear picture of the subject’s cellular composition. With the gatherer, we will be able to see what developments we’ve been missing.” He said, rapping away at the keys.

I moved to look over his shoulder at the monitor. I was presented with the gatherer’s view of things, and then the image split into hundreds of views, each going a different route through the boy.

The scientist informed me of what we were witnessing. “The gatherer is a very diverse creation, its primary function being to gather information. I could have placed the same one that’s in the boy at this moment into your coffee maker and found out how many pots it has brewed in its lifetime. Brilliant isn’t it? Right now, I have activated it’s nanocomponents and literally split it into hundreds of microscopic robots, each under my direct control.”

I listened and watched in amazement. He continued.

“The gatherer also has another…useful function. Since the bots are under my control, I can raise and lower the amount of free electrons that they contain. Think of the nanos as man-made atoms. I can mold them into whatever I want, or need should the occasion arise. Watch.”

I was glued to the screen watching as he typed in a set of commands. The bottom half of the screen came together into one view while the upper screens remained separated, still traveling through the blood streams and bone structure. He beat-out some more commands and the bottom half of the screen displayed about ten of the nanos moving ahead of the whole. They searched out and found solid cell tissue and began eating away at it, like ravenous methodical beasts. They destroyed the tissue and moved ever onward feeding there insatiable hunger. It was very exhilarating to behold.

“Go observe the subject’s left shoulder and tell me your findings.” Offered Ser Rodney.

I stood up fully and approached the subject’s left side. What I saw was amazing. An inconsiderable spot on the shoulder reddened at first, then small molecules of blood seeped through the skin, pooling together into a droplet that streamed down onto the clean-sheet underneath the boy, staining it. The spot was growing in size and blood flowing freely when it suddenly closed up, no evidence of harm.

“Did they do that too?” I asked, turning back towards the scientist.

“That wasn’t me.” He said, slightly shaken. “That was the subject. Something attacked the nanos and I’ve lost all contact with the lower half. Th-that has never happened. The subject’s case must be severe.” More typing as I moved back to my original position. I was watching the remaining screens, which had slightly expanded to replace the lost ones. They were still roaming through at the molecular level when I saw a familiar site: The darkened spheres. Except now they were apparent, moving through the boy’s cells and tissue like strange ghosts. Some were passively orbiting cells while others were spinning violently around them, somehow bending them, changing them into something unrecognizable to my eyes. I pointed to them and informed Ser Rodney that that is what I had seen in the nanoscope data.

“Thank you, this is very interesting.” He said, looking up from his typing. “The objects appear, from observing them, to have no mass whatsoever. What are they?” he said, peering closer to the screen in a way that brought hope of realization.

I was studying one of the views when a nanobot it was covering came into contact with one of the black ghosts. The dark thing surrounded it and for a moment sat there motionless. Ser Rodney saw it too and hastily typed in a command. The nano-bot began generating an electrical charge but before it could release it the black sphere closed in on itself, crushing the bot. In the next instant, screens started going dark from lost contact and the ones that remained up for that short time went dark from something else. Ser Rodney’s panicked commands did nothing to save them. Soon all the screens had vanished from the monitor.

“That is very unfortunate.” Commented Ser Rodney just as the lights on our side went out. The room was unlit save for the small rays of illumination streaking in from the window of the door. The way the beams were entering the room they were positioned above the subject’s stretcher, barely reaching the far wall. The room grew very cold and a snowflake landed on my bottom lip, my shocked exhalation of hot air doing naught to melt it’s icy touch. Ser Rodney was mumbling something about power failure when I heard a rustling by the stretcher and witnessed the boy sit up, glowing in the light, a twisted smile adorning his foul face. I wasted no time scrambling to my feet and rushing my way into the darkness, towards my desk. I smashed into the worktable with my hip, forcing a sharp cry from my mouth. I recovered quickly and flipped the table out of my way, sending the unquestionably expensive equipment crashing to the floor, and continued on. In two steps I tripped over my legs, my knees popping, breaking my fall, and crawled fleetingly the rest of the way, slipping with some difficulty beneath my desk, gasping for breath.

domoarigato206 · 02-13-2008, 03:33 PM

“What in hell are you doing doctor? It’s just a power-outage! No need for all the panic!” Said the agitated scientist. I could hear him scrambling about, testing his surroundings with his hands, trying to find something recognizable. I didn’t answer him, I just kept gasping cold air that never seemed to satisfy my lungs, attempting to fight the fear that pressed itself down upon my like a vice, crushing me ever so slowly. And the snow came on.

“Ah, there, the lights are back on.” Remarked a relieved Ser Rodney.

I couldn’t see the wall three feet in front of me.

“What have you done to my equipment? You fool!” He raged, his destroyed equipment made visible to him. “You will surely compensate the Research Division for this atrocity!”

Then, I assume, he saw the boy. “The subject is awake doctor!”

I began to pray. The snow was relentless now and the ice of the flakes frozen so sharply that it felt like they were nettling into my skin, digging down to pierce my flesh. Tears formed in my ducts only to be frozen before they could drop.

“Hello there, little one. Try and be still. You have suffered a great trauma and must rest.” He reassured the boy.

That is when Ser Rodney began to scream. I heard him fall to the ground with a loud smack and wails of “What? What are-.” Followed by the shrillest cry I’ve ever escape man’s mouth. Eventually my own suffering drowned him out. My head turned itself to the right and I was confronted with a view my dead daughter again. The snow falling melted before it ever fell upon her and rotten steam was escaping her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. Flesh dripped from her face and splattered into a gory pool on the ground. What was remaining of her brow was furrowed and an evil grin adorned her melting face, her swollen, oozing eyeballs piercing into me. She wore the red dress she died in.

“Hello daddy. Did you miss me?” She pressed, the wraith that was my daughter.

I tried to run and couldn’t, tried to scream and choked, tried to look away and met her terrible fury. Flames erupted from where she was standing and engulfed her, her scream cleaving into my soul, flooding it’s foul presence along through the walls of my existence. I writhed inside, pain flaring at the end of every nerve. My teeth began exploding, the shards ripping inward and out, frothy blood spewed from my mouth only to freeze mid-air and softly shatter as it struck the ground. My finger-nails tore themselves from the tips while my toe-nails pushed themselves inward, chafing the bone as they moved.

The flames around my daughter died but my pain remained. My daughter had covered her mouth with a skeletal hand and was giggling behind it. That was soon replaced by the previous evil features, her brow furrowed. Somewhere in the distance, far away, someone was begging for mercy between howls of pain.

“I said, Daddy, “Did you miss me?” She demanded.

I attempted speech and was allowed to form words.

“Yes.” I managed painfully, shards of teeth cutting into the word.

“Liar~liar~liar~liar~lair. LIAR!” Her singing turned into shrieks. I couldn’t lie to my daughter…

“I…missed…you, baby.” Every word a jolt of pain.

“Then why’d you burn me!?” She cried, weeping flesh instead of tears.

My heart swelled up like it never had before. The only tears I could cry were from blood pouring down into my eyes out of icy cuts. We sat there staring at each other, crying the only tears we could.

“I’m…sorry…Jessie.” Shame clothed every word.

“You murdered me. You should die too. But he won’t let me kill you. Not yet.” She told me. She looked above my head, at something in the distance, then back to me. “He’s finished with the other one. Now he’s coming for you Daddy!”

Ser Rodney’s screams had indeed stopped.

I felt the boy’s presence behind me, approaching closer. I heard his soft steps splash in some liquid as they landed, the rising step showering droplets back down. His breath, coming and going easily. Closer and closer.

He appeared around the corner, naked, behind my daughter. He raised a hand to caress her shoulder and she looked up smiling at him, a piece of flesh dripping in the process. His twisted smile returned the affection. And then he turned to me, all humor erased. Those dark eyes, revealing innocence and terror and something else. Understanding.

He moved in front of my Jessie and addressed me in a voice so foreign that my mind could only perceive a fraction of it. “Dr. Kinslow, I am Adam.” He said, a hint of a child’s voice hiding behind the foreign one. His lips didn’t move. He walked right up to me and put his face close to mine, burning it into my mind forever. “And you are damned.”

Before that sentence was complete, the world somehow shifted to a familiar place. I was in the study of the house I owned ten years ago, the house my daughter died in. I was staring out the window gazing out into the front yard. It was grey outside. I turned around, taking in the room. Plush red carpet covered the floor. The mini-bar was directly across from me, next to the door leading into the living room. It looked very inviting at the moment, but I suppressed the thirst. My red-leather couch was on the wall to the right of me with an unfamiliar book resting on one of the cushions. My desk was to the left of me, facing the wall. A stack of blank paper and a pen were the only objects decorating the top. The chair sat there facing me, as if waiting to be sat in.

My daughter skipped into the room at that moment, alive and well and beautiful in her red dress. She held something in her hands but I couldn’t quite focus on what it was. She saw me and smiled. She set something down and ran over to hug me. She reached her arms around me and I hugged her back. She let go and motioned for me to sit down at the desk. I happily obliged her. I sat down and turned in the chair to face the wall. That is when chains shot up from the ground and wrapped around my legs, digging into the meat of my thighs. I attempted to pry them off with my fingers, but pain shot through my hands and arms from the lack of finger-nails, leaving me crying out in pain. My Jessie giggled behind me as a strong smelling liquid was poured over my head, soaking my skin and clothes in a greasy substance. Try as I might, I couldn’t escape. I heard the familiar flick of a lighter behind me.

“Your turn, Daddy.” She said, tossing the flame onto my head. A bright flare engulfed me, searing my flesh but ignoring my nerves. Screams and laughter filled the room, my daughter taking her revenge in the exact manner of her demise ten years ago in this room.

The desk soon caught fire, but the pen and paper were untouched beckoning to be used. I heard Adam’s voice. “Use these tools to write down my story. Start with your own account. I will give words to your hand. This is your penance Doctor. Spend it humbly. When it is done, you will be free.”

I writhed as the flames licked at my body, cooking my muscles and frying my fat. I could here the popping of my flesh as pockets of grease erupted in intense agony, splattering on top of the desk. The smell wafted into my nose and I couldn’t escape it. I started retching up bile and coffee, the only contents of my stomach, burning as it came up and clawing at my throat as I coughed and choked it back down. I looked down to the chains and they were glowing white. I managed to focus my vision past the flames, to the pen and paper. I reached out in pain and grasped the pen, my fractured teeth digging down into the gums, causing a torrent of blood to spill forth. My hand steamed where I held the pen and I eventually got it shakily into position. I steadied a piece of paper with my other hand, tilting it slightly to the left. Adam’s voice began filling my head, every decibel coursed through my bones and touched I brought down the smoking tip of that fiery pen.

A-L · 02-13-2008, 09:34 PM

That was really good, a little creepy too, but really good. Post some more