You are startled awake by a knock on your door. The clock on your nightstand reads 3:13 AM, and your heart flutters in your chest from the jarring disturbance. Groggy, you fumble for the light switch, blinking against the sudden brightness in your living room. The knocking continues.
Feeling a swell of unease, you approach the door. Peering through the peephole, you see two figures in dark suits, their posture rigid, their faces concealed by the distorting glass. You canât make out any detailsâonly that theyâre official, authoritative, and impatient.
Your mind races. No one comes by at this hour for trivial reasons. You open the door with caution, pressing yourself against the frame. The two individuals stand in the hallway, their expressions cold, unreadable. They flash government identification so quickly you barely catch the emblemâsome military or paramilitary organization you do not recognize. The taller of the two thrusts a crisp white envelope toward you without a word.
âSign here,â the shorter one orders, voice devoid of emotion. You glance at the proffered documents, your stomach churning. Its heading reads: âSummons for Immediate Conscription: Experimental Soldier Program.â
Your eyes flick from the paper to their stern faces. âThis⊠must be a mistake,â you begin, your voice trembling with the aftershocks of being yanked from slumber. âIâm just a civilian. Iâm not in the reservesâor the military at all.â
Neither agent reacts. Reluctantly, you press the pen to the document and sign where indicated, wondering if you even have a choice.
âReport to the specified facility at dawn,â the taller agent informs you. âAny delay will be treated as desertion.â
They leave as swiftly as they arrived, departing down the hallway without further explanation. The words âcompulsory conscriptionâ and âExperimental Soldier Programâ practically burn themselves into your mind.
An hour of restless pacing follows. Yes, youâre in good physical shape; you lift, you run track, youâve taken pride in sculpting your body. But youâre no fighter.
The directive is clear, and the hour is growing late. Knowing you canât escape this, you make a feeble attempt to sleep again, but every time you close your eyes, you imagine the two agentsâ stony faces.
At dawn, you force yourself out the door and head to the address included in the summons.
When you finally arrive, armed guards greet you with silent scrutiny. Past the barbed-wire gate, past an austere courtyard, youâre directed into a squat, concrete building. Inside, the corridors are utilitarian, lined with unmarked doors and glaring fluorescent lights that hum incessantly.
They guide you to a large, steel-gray reception hall. On one side, you see a queue of grim-faced men and womenâsome in military fatigues, others looking as out-of-place as you do, obviously civilians. At the front of this line, bored clerks at desks check documents and stamp papers. An official gestures for you to join the line.
When your turn comes, a clerk scans the barcode from your summons, then passes your file to someone else who breezes through it silently.
âFitness aptitude but no military training. Conscript assigned to Medical Research Trials.â He glances at you impassively. âReport to Lab Sixteenâdown the west corridor, second right.â
You blink, swallowing hard. So they donât intend to toss you into the battlefield. You almost feel relief. Almost. But something about âMedical Research Trialsâ feels equally foreboding. You muster a shaky nod, following the corridor signs that lead deeper into the facility.
Your footsteps echo as you move forward, unsure who to address. Eventually, a freckled redheaded womanâher hair pulled into a tight bunâapproaches you. Her freckled nose crinkles with a faint smile that tries to be warm but only heightens your unease.
âYou must be the new one,â she says, studying a tablet. âCome with me. Iâm Dr. Whitley.â
At the center of this room, under harsh lights, stands an examination bed fitted with thick leather restraints. The sight of those straps makes your pulse spike. You glance at Dr. Whitley, suddenly desperate for answers. But before you can voice your concerns, a slender, disheveled-looking male assistant guides you to the table.
âRight this way,â he says politely, gesturing for you to lie down. When you hesitate, Dr. Whitley murmurs, âJust a precaution. The procedures can sometimes trigger involuntary thrashing.â
The assistant carefully loops the leather restraints around your wrists, over your biceps, across your torso, and around your ankles.
Your voice cracks with tension. âIs thisâtruly necessary?â
Dr. Whitley lifts a hand, as though to soothe an anxious animal. âWeâll be quick,â she says softly. âYouâll be perfectly fine.â
Fine. The word rattles uselessly in your mind. The overhead lights glare, making you squint as your heart pounds in your ears. You hear scuffles around youâother lab personnel filing in. A brunette in thick-rimmed glasses approaches with a calm, professional demeanor. She doesnât bother asking permission before removing your shirt, her fingers lingering on your skin in an oddly reverent way. On your exposed chest, she places sticky electrodes connected to an EKG machine. You glimpse the display in your peripheral vision, its lines jumping in time with your pulse.
Thery pay no attention to the obvious distress expressed in your frantic heartbeat. Dr. Whitley studies the readout, tapping on her tablet. âHas the subjectâs DNA been preserved so we can proceed with the experiment?â she asks aloud.
âYes,â the male assistant replies. âWe have the sample and the baseline data from their file.â
Dr. Whitley sets aside her tablet. âAll right. Letâs see how that extraordinary physique holds up.â Thereâs a subtle, disconcerting excitement glimmering in her eyes.
The brunette with glasses retrieves another deviceâa small ultrasound probe. She applies a cool gel across your sternum and gently presses the wand against your pounding heart. On a nearby monitor, a grayscale image of your heart appears, pulsing and contracting in real time. You watch with wide eyes, unsettled by how intimate this glimpse inside your body feelsâespecially when youâre strapped down and powerless.
âLook at this,â Dr. Whitley murmurs. She points to the screen, where the shape of your heart flickers in contoured lines. "The ventricular wall dimensions are on the upper end relative to its advance size, but not constrictive."
The brunette nods, adjusting her thick glasses as she studies the display. "The heart rate is elevated now, but that's to be expected given the circumstances."
The redhead approaches the monitor more closely. "Optimistic about those contractions as well."
Lost in the moment, you feel a prick in your arm as the brunette fixes an IV port, and then thereâs a sharp sting when she injects a cocktail of liquid that feels alarmingly warm. Within seconds, your heart pounds faster, harder.
A beep on the EKG intensifies, becoming frantic. Your breath hitches, sweat beading on your forehead. You can almost feel the wave of chemicals coursing through your veins.
âLook at the response,â the brunette exclaims softly, adjusting a dial. âWeâre climbing steadily. Those contractions you like are getting stronger.â She says with a smile to Dr. Whitley.
You try to control your breathing, but the flooding anxiety sends your respiration into ragged, shallow gasps. Dr. Whitley steps closer, placing her hand against your slick chest. The warmth of her palm contrasts with the cool gel, and you can tell sheâs feeling your heartbeat directly, pressing down just enough to sense every contraction.
âOh, feel that,â she breathes, voice tinged with a near-reverent awe. âItâs wildâlike a caged animal.â
A strangled whimper escapes you, your vision swimming. Each thunderous palpitation grows more forceful than the last. The edges of your awareness blur as the room spins. In the background, you hear them discussing your âincredible baseline,â the range they can push, the data sets they need to gather. Words like âglycosidesâ and âtolerance thresholdsâ begin to blur into an indecipherable haze.
Driven by equal parts horror and instinct, you struggle against the restraints. The leather digs into your wrists and ankles, unyielding. Dr. Whitleyâs hand remains firmly over your chest, her demeanor more predatory now, a thin-lipped smile curving her freckled cheeks.
She glances at the brunette. âYou said it yourselfâIâve always had a soft spot for strong hearts.â Her fingertip draws slow circles against your pectoral muscle. âThereâs something so intimate about feeling another personâs life force like this, beating under your hand.â
The brunetteâs mouth quivers with a grin. âJust donât push too hard,â she cautions. âWe need the subject alive for continued data collection.â
As if on cue, you feel another searing jolt of medication surge through the IV. Your body jolts. The beeping on the EKG ratchets up a notch.
From the corner of your eye, you see the dark haired man scribble notes: âHeart rate: 190⊠200⊠210âŠâ His voice is a clinical drone. âVentricular function⊠strong but nearing upper limit.â
Dr. Whitley leans over you again, studying your face. The overhead light draws harsh shadows across her features, making her freckles stand out like dark flecks of rust. âYouâre doing very well,â she coos, as if praising a prized lab animal. âJust a bit more, and weâll have what we need for this session.â
Her words run through your oxygen-starved mind. Session. That means thereâs more to come.
You barely register the next injection into your IV port, only the jolt that makes your chest seize momentarily. The EKG squeals in response, and you tremble against the straps, moaning through gritted teeth, begging them to stop. Dr. Whitley presses down again, feeling the frantic pulse beneath her palm.
âBeautiful,â she whispers, more to herself than anyone else. âSo strong⊠so determined to live.â
The brunette nods, stepping away to analyze real-time data on a monitor. âWe have enough for the dayâs baseline,â she says. âLetâs stabilize, then prepare for the biopsy this afternoon.â
Biopsy. The word jolts you, fanning the embers of your terror. Before you can beg for mercyâthough in your core, you suspect it would be futileâyour body is swept in a hazy wave of sedation. Some new mixture floods your veins. The tension in your muscles goes slack, your eyelids drooping.
The next time you regain awareness, itâs all at once. No gentle easing into realityâjust a sudden, blinding rush of fluorescent light overhead, a wave of antiseptic stench, and the cold press of metal beneath your back.
Gradually, your vision clarifies enough to see Dr. Whitley leaning over you. Her red hair is pinned in a messy bun this time, stray curls framing her freckled cheeks. Sheâs not wearing the typical neutral expression of a physician. Instead, she looks⊠enraptured.
âYou gave us quite a scare,â she murmurs, almost intimately. Her gloved hand lifts from somewhere around your sternumâor what should be your sternum. She steps aside, momentarily revealing the open cavity of your chest.
Your mind screams at the sight. Even in your near-sedated state, you realize youâre looking at your exposed ribcageâno, not exactly that, either. Metal retractors hold apart what must be the edges of your chest wall. And within that space⊠something wet and pink is beating, pulsing in a disturbingly recognizable rhythm.
Oh God, thatâs your heart.
Terror floods you, but your body remains mostly limp, pinned by sedation and perhaps other restraints you cannot even feel. You try to shout, to ask what theyâve done, but only a thin, rattling exhalation escapes your lips.
âShh,â Dr. Whitley soothes, sliding back into your line of sight. Sheâs wearing a surgical cap and mask, though the mask is tugged down just enough to reveal her mouth in a small, pleased smile. âYouâre stable. We had to open your chest to resuscitate you effectively and examine some⊠structural qualities. Your heart is larger than we anticipatedâstronger, too. But it needed a little help.â
As if on cue, you feel an odd tickle, and then something cold glides across the surface of that beating mass. You cannot feel your chest wall, but the raw sense of motion resonates through your body. Youâre excruciatingly aware that your heart is outside your bodyâs normal protection.
A fresh wave of adrenaline floods your system, or maybe itâs something Dr. Whitley just injected into your IV. She sets a large syringe down, and her expression brightens with a frightening, clinical enthusiasm. âYour heartâs conduction system is still reactive,â she tells another figure you barely register to her leftâa nurse? An assistant? Youâre too disoriented to focus. âBut we want to see how it holds up under high-stress conditions. Given what happened earlier, I want to push it carefully this time.â
Careful doesnât describe what happens next. Dr. Whitley places her hand flat against your heartâyour actual heartâand the sensation buckles your mind. Thereâs a moment of primal panic, the knowledge that someoneâs palm is physically in contact with the essence of your life, your existence. Her grip isnât rough, but itâs firm enough that each beat is transmitted right into her glove, and you can tell sheâs measuring every contraction.
She flicks a switch on the IV line. Immediately, your heart rate spikes. A trembling quake runs through your arms, and you gasp for air, which you can only half pull into your lungs. The EKG machine to the side chirps faster, almost frantic. Your heart pounds, straining against her palm.
She glances at the monitors. âGood,â she breathes. âStrong sinus rhythm at 120⊠130⊠climbing.â Her green eyes gleam, half-lidded in fascination. âLetâs aim for 180. Then Iâll begin defibrillator testing.â
Defibrillator testing. The phrase sends a jolt of dread through your drug-clouded thoughts. Normally, defibrillation is used to restore a normal heartbeat when itâs lost, but she wants to test your heartâs âelectrical resistanceâ at an accelerated rate. Alarm bells ring in your mind, but your limbs remain numb to commands. Whatever sedation theyâve used keeps you still, but tragically conscious.
With an eerie calm, Dr. Whitley slips a slender paddle-like device from a sterile tray nearby. Itâs an internal defibrillator paddle, smaller than the usual external paddles but no less capable of delivering a massive shock. She holds it close to the apex of your heart, her other hand bracing gently against the organâs side. On a separate console, the dark-haired assistant raises the charge level, reading out numbers that blend into a horrifying litany: â50 joules⊠75⊠100.â
At that moment, your heart is galloping near 180 beats per minute, each contraction rattling your half-open ribcage. Dr. Whitley nods once. The assistant presses a button.
The current slams into your heart like a tidal wave. Your vision goes white, and your body jerks upward despite the sedation. Even your respiratory attempts stall. For a second, your heart surges out of rhythm, thrashing erratically. The EKG squeals. Itâs unclear whether itâs going to recover or slip into another flatline.
Dr. Whitley pulls back, checking the monitors and the limp spasm of your heart. âSinus conversion⊠no, itâs fibrillating. Increase the energy in increments of 20 joules.â
Another shock. Your entire chest cavityâwhat remains of itâcontracts violently. The wet muscle of your heart convulses under the contact. Stars explode in your vision. Even your mind, dulled by sedation, can barely cling to consciousness. Then the monitors beep in that dreaded monotone again: a flatline.
âNo,â Dr. Whitley hisses, as though scolding your heart for not cooperating. âWeâre not done.â
She drops the defibrillator paddle and quickly gestures for a different tool. In your delirium, you see it flash silver: a large syringe, maybe adrenaline or some specialized stimulant. She rams it directly into the muscle of your heart with a practiced jab. The sharp invasion of the needle conjures a swirl of nauseous dread in your gut.
The EKG remains flat. Gritting her teeth, Dr. Whitley removes the syringe and does something both primeval and intimately horrifying: she begins manually pumping your heart in her hands. Wrapping her gloved fingers around the unresponsive muscle, she squeezes it rhythmically, trying to coax it back into beating. Each squeeze makes your mind spinâan unnatural, nauseating feeling of an external force attempting to animate your core.
âCome on,â she mutters, her focus absolute. âRespond!â
A flicker. The EKG hiccups with an uneven beep. Then another. Your battered heart twitches, as though deciding whether to obey or give up entirely. With another firm compression from Dr. Whitleyâs hands, it makes a feeble attempt at a beat on its own. The flatline disappears, replaced by slow, uncertain pulses.
âGood,â she praises softly, practically massaging your heart to guide it. âThere we are. Youâre too strong to quit now.â
Fresh sedation is introduced into your system. You find you can breathe slightly easier, but your chest remains unfeeling, your mind caught in the dreadful awareness of her manipulations. Slowly, your heart stabilizes, though itâs weaker than before. The EKG reads a tenuous sinus rhythm around 80 beats per minute, far from the explosive 180 that had been forced upon it.
You feel her shift her grip on your heart, and then you sense the clamp hooking around something thick and vital. The aorta. Sheâs actually holding it between her fingers. Despite the sedation, your body tries to recoil on pure reflex, but you can only twitch in your restraints.
Dr. Whitley gently pinches the top of your aorta. âLetâs see how it handles slight occlusion,â she remarks, applying pressure. The EKG spikes with a ragged beep as your heart works harder to push blood through the newly restricted vessel.
âHmm,â she muses, narrowing her eyes at the monitor. âSystolic pressure is⊠quite high. Thatâs very good. Letâs test its elasticity.â
She transitions from using her fingers to applying the clamp. The metal jaws bite into your aorta with measured tension. Your struggling heart falters for a beat, then resumes, pumping fiercely against the partial blockage. The beeping grows frantic again.
Every contraction feels sharper in your remaining sense of your chest cavityâlike a muffled wave of pressure fighting against an immovable dam. You canât produce a coherent scream, but your mouth hangs open in silent torment. You vaguely hear Dr. Whitley ordering the assistant to record the new data points: âMark the pressure reading at clamp intervals of 10 mmHg. Weâll see how far we can push before distention becomes dangerous.â
She tightens the clamp further. Another beep from the monitors. Your heart lurches like a panicked animal. She glances over with a satisfied curve to her lips. âRemarkably strong,â she comments, the same way a mechanic might admire a high-performance engine. âEven with partial occlusion, itâs still pushing blood efficiently. I wonder if we can refine those glycoside cocktails to build even more forceâŠâ
âThere,â Dr. Whitley murmurs to someone behind her. âLook at the state of it now. Fat, bloated, and vascularâthoroughly engorged.â She shakes her head in a kind of clinical wonder. âBeautiful, really⊠Itâs still trying valiantly, despite the occlusion.â
âWhat admirable resilience,â Dr. Whitley says softly, leaning closer, her hand pressing lightly on the top of your heart. Even with sedation muting your pain, the sensation of her gloved palm against the bare muscle is almost unspeakably perverse. âSqueezing so hard⊠but every contraction meets that clamp.â
She nods to the assistant, and you feel a subtle release of pressureâjust a fraction. Your heart leaps, as if starved for the chance to push out a full volume of blood. The relief is fleeting, though, because Dr. Whitley doesnât actually remove the clamp; she merely adjusts it, letting a bit more blood pass. You can sense your heart throbbing, swelling, pressing outward to fill the newfound space. Itâs horrifyingly intimate, feeling that muscle balloon, gulping blood to send it through.
âLook how it squirms,â Dr. Whitley murmurs with a note of awe. itâs struggling to recover from the partial strangulation, but itâs not giving up. Fascinating.â
Through half-lidded eyes, you watch her mouth curve into something like a smile. She curls her fingers around the device, then deftly snaps it off. The clampâor whatever contraption was occluding your aortaâreleases fully. Your heart, no longer choked, thumps in a series of relief pulses that ripple through the cavity. It expands and contracts in robust waves, as if gulping in fresh life. The EKG responds with a higher, steadier pitch, though still faster than normal.
âThere we are,â Dr. Whitley says, voice lowered to a near purr. âLook at itâso vigorous now, flushed with blood. The contractions are returning.â
Her hand slides across the muscleâs surface, and you feel your heart spasm under the contact. Another wave of cold floods through your IV, no doubt her doing. Your pulse spikes in response, thumping erratically for a moment until it finds a new, unnatural rhythm. Heat flushes your face, mixing with the chills of terror and the sedation in your veins. Each beat rings like thunder, as if you can hear it in your ears, sense it in your skull.
The difference is staggeringâwhere moments ago your heart was strangled, now itâs unleashed, each contraction deep and forceful. In a sickening way, the sensation is almost euphoric. Your battered organ is desperate to reassert itself. It seizes the chance, pumping with renewed vigor, and the relief is so abrupt itâs disorienting.
Dr. Whitley observes every surge, measuring the bounding pulses with her other hand, as though she can count each gush of blood in her palm. âIncredible,â she whispers. âThis subjectâs heart is among the most reactive Iâve ever seen. No matter how hard we push it, it clings to survival with remarkable ferocity.â
The assistant steps forward to check the monitors, adjusting dials that control fluid drips, sedation levels, and stimulants. âSystolic normalizing,â he announces, scanning a readout. âIf youâd like to proceed with additional testsââ
Dr. Whitley silences him with a subtle gesture, then gives a slight shake of her head. âNo, not just yet. Let it recover. I want to see how it manages on its own for a moment.â
She eases her gloved hand around the apex of your heart, as though cradling a fragile artifact. Each throb jars youâmentally, physically, spirituallyâknowing sheâs effectively holding your life in her grip. Though thereâs no direct pain, the knowledge of your vulnerability is more excruciating than any scalpel cut.
Time passes in weighted moments, each of your heartbeats echoing in your ears and throughout the lab. Dr. Whitley hums under her breath, enthralled by the motion of the muscle. The rest of the lab staff stands at quiet attention, letting her examine the heartâs unsubdued recovery. With each contraction, the organ flares, glistening under the intense lightsâagain, youâre thankful for the sedation that keeps raw agony at bay, but the mental horror is still enough to make your head swim.
âAdmirable,â Dr. Whitley repeats, though more softly now. âItâs as though itâs reclaiming lost territory. Even after repeated shocks, high-pressure occlusions, forced arrests⊠it beats like it wants to take on the world.â
She runs a careful finger along an engorged coronary. âLook how enlarged these are,â she remarks, addressing no one in particular. âTheyâre inflated, carrying blood to a heart that refuses to quit. Note the colorârich and oxygenated. Subjectâs hemoglobin count is higher than baseline, likely a response to the repeated stress.â
Her words blur into clinical jargon. Your eyelids slide lower, sedation tugging you back to semiconsciousness. For a dreadful moment, you see every ripple in the wet muscle, the branching veins like a labyrinth of dark lines feeding the organ.
