Inhuman

Apparently these people were good at secrecy. I wasn’t surprised. I had determined long ago that they were part of a secret government sect, but it didn’t take a genius to figure that out.

“Okay, yup, okay.” Agent Evans finished his mysterious conversation with the unknown person on the other side of my cell door. Turning his attention to me, I stood with a defensive stance. My arms folded across my middle, I gave him my best ‘what the hell do you want’ glare.

“Yes, well, someone will come for you shortly.” Avoiding my abrasive expression, he looked past me at the wall.

“Come for me? Why?”

Walking quickly toward the door, he knocked to signal the guard to let him out. For a moment I thought he wasn’t going to answer me, but at the last second, he turned and gave me an unreadable expression. “We need to do another test.” And with that, he walked out.

Sitting down beside my uneaten breakfast, my stomach lurched at the thought of food.

Test? What kind of test? How painful will this one be? Curling up in the fetal position, I wondered what these jerks had in store for me now.

* * *

“Pee into this.” The lab assistant (whom I recognized as the asshole who’d taken a chunk of scalp from my head a couple months earlier) insisted as he handed me a little plastic cup.

Two armed guards had led me to a bathroom near what appeared to be the lab and then left me alone with the lab assistant. Hovering in the doorway, I gave him a cold glare.

Is he just going to stand there and watch me?

“Go ahead.” He stated, crossing his arms.

Out of all the torturous tests and inhumane acts, this had to be one of the most demeaning. Unzipping my white jumpsuit and pulling it down to my knees, I sat upon the cold, white plastic seat. Thankfully my long hair fell over my face and acted like a black satin curtain, blocking the gawking attendant from my view.

Holding the little cup between my legs, I waited for my bladder to release. There’s nothing more difficult than trying to relax an embarrassed muscle.

Finally, after what felt like forever, I managed to let my fluids go. Catching it in the little cup, I fought back the tears of humiliation as I handed him the warm liquid.

With his hands outstretched to obtain the sample, I intentionally tipped the cup and spilled some urine on his hands. I grinned with satisfaction under my veil of hair.

Pulling his hand back with a disgusted grunt, he stormed away to the lab. Giggling for the first time in months, I pulled on my jumpsuit and zipped it up.

Noticing for the first time since I’d arrived; I was out of the cell and unsupervised. Without a guard watching my every move, it was suddenly strange to walk around without an armed chaperone.

For a moment, I just stood in the bathroom doorway and just observed my surroundings. I could see the lab technician studying my urine sample. He was sucking it up with a little eyedropper and dribbling it on some slides and papers.

The lab looked like any I’d seen at a hospital; centrifuges, shelves filled with boxes labeled ‘gloves’ and ‘syringes’, and vials of blood standing upright in little plastic trays.

I haven’t had a blood test in weeks. Whose blood is that?

I guess it was a little naive of me to think that I was their only specimen, but I wondered if there were any more like me.

Tip-toeing away from the bathroom, my bare feet made quiet patting noises as my skin made contact with the white tile floor. Staying close to one wall, I moved down a secluded hallway. Fluorescent lights buzzed monotonously above me and reflected a blinding iridescence off the polished floor.

The hallway was long and wide with no identifying signs or pictures, just stark and bland.

Every so often I’d come across a closed door, not unlike the one on my own cell. I wondered if I should open one and have a look. Maybe there was someone just like me in there, afraid and alone.

Placing my hand on one of the door handles, I contemplated whether or not I should.

What if there’s a crazy person in there?

 Seemed rather likely in this place. I’d only been here for a couple months and I’d already danced with the prince of insanity.

No happy endings in this place, I’m sure.

With my hand still on the door handle, I decided to take a chance.

Why not, got nothing to lose.

Holding the latch down with my thumb, I yanked the white door wide open.

“Oh my god!” The words fell from my lips as I searched for something to hold the door open with. Scanning the small room, I discovered a tray of empty food near the sink. Grabbing it without losing my grasp on the door, I wedged the tray between the frame and the self-closing door.

After securing my escape route, I rushed to the side of the restrained occupant. “Let me get you out of this!”

Ripping off the Velcro straps, I had an unpleasant flashback of Meyers and his disgusting antics. Pushing the disturbing thoughts to the back of my mind, I focused all my energy on the task at hand.

After freeing all four limbs, the patient sat up on the cot. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, thank you.” Ocean blue eyes stared back at me with deep gratitude as she massaged her swollen wrists. Stroking her shoulder-length blonde hair maternally, I surmised she couldn’t be much more than eight years old.

“What’s your name sweetheart?” I asked, seating myself beside her on the cot.

“Jessica.” She replied, her tiny voice hovering between shy and afraid.

“I’m Cassia.” I thrust my hand toward her eagerly. Moving her petite hand slowly towards me, she accepted my gesture. Feeling her warm little hand in mine nearly made me jump with joy. I felt like it had been years since I’d been touched gently by another human being.

“Why on earth do they have you here? You’re just a little girl!” I felt a lump form in my throat as my imagination flew in all directions. All I hoped was that she hadn’t had to endure the torturous tests and inhumanities that I’d lived through so far.

Uncertainty clouded her young expression as she searched my face with suspicion. I could understand her reluctance to trust strangers; this place quickly teaches a person that no one should be trusted.

Smiling at her, I hoped that I could gain her trust. Frankly, I was just ecstatic to have some normal company again. Apparently deciding to confide in me, she spoke quietly as though telling me her darkest secrets.

“I’m…’mune to everything.” Confused, I frowned as I tried to decipher what she meant. Thankfully, she chattered on while she reached up and began braiding a section of my long black hair.

“When I was in my mommy’s tummy, she had a bad disease called…” She pursed her little lips and scrunched up her face as she tried to recall. “AID.”

“AIDS?” I offered, my heart sinking as I foreshadowed her mother’s fate.

“Yup. But I didn’t get it.”

 My brow knitted together again. I’d heard of babies being born free of AIDS when their mother’s had it. It didn’t totally explain why they’d consider her immune to ‘everything’.

Jessica continued to tell her short life story.

“Daddy told me that the doctors tested me a lot…to see why I was…’mune.”

“Immune.” I corrected her softly.

“Immune. He said they looked at my blood and it was…different.” My heart literally stopped. I could feel it pause as I held my breath, waiting for the next sentence.

Was she…like me? Maybe I wasn’t the only one. I didn’t know whether to feel elated for myself or pity for her.

“Different?” My voice was but a whisper as I urged her to continue.

“Yah. The doctors said that I couldn’t catch a cold, or the flu or even something called cancer.”

Knowing my own medical history and lack of illnesses, this young girl seemed to be molding herself into my own life story.

“Jessica, I’m going to ask you something very strange, but it’s very important that I know, okay?”