"Good, amazing Mark. I guess you finally understood. Gimme that." John took the key card, then cuffed Mark's wrist to the metal table. "You ain't going nowhere. And Richard for the fuck's sake lower that shotgun." John used the card to lock the door, so now the men couldn't leave, not until things were crystal clear. Richard lowered the weapon and slowly followed John, silent, tense, as if he was curious to know what the man would say, as if he was waiting to decide what he'd do.
'John, why don't you just leave? No need to do this. You could just go home and forget this.' Richard said weakly. 'I'll open the game, we saw the footage from Mia's office, we know how you...got...warm together, a certain night after work. How you nuzzled against her, how you...seemed to hold her so dear. So you...you definitely shouldn't see this. You...shouldn't. I say that as a friend.' John just snarled. "Mia was your friend too and you guys gave her brain damage, you let that happen to her, lied to everyone saying she was dead. Friends my ass. You're in just for the money and some proud biased sense of duty." John was acting tough, but his voice was shaky, he was anxious about what he was about to see. "I don't trust you no more, damn, truly never did. Mia was different. She actually wanted to do things right, she wanted to help, she was good, no cheating or mischief, she was just good and that's what was the end of her." Richard tensed more, trying to talk, trying to interrupt John's firm walk but failing.
It was about three doors John used the card to open. Labs and areas he had never seen. At some point, a way to the left and one to the right. "Where's Ruth? And...where's Mia?? She's still here, right??" Richard sighed. 'Just see for yourself. No matter what I say, you don't listen. You could go home and not see any of this. It will be impossible to unsee it later.'
That just made John more nervous. He turned left, while where Ruth was being kept was on the right, but he didn't know.
After unlocking another door, a larger one this time, what John saw crushed his soul, or what was left of it. He froze, hands went numb, his spine too, cold shivers he had never felt before, not even when he had faced the monsters.
It was Mia. Attached to some machine of sorts, inside some fluid, nude, wires and whatever probes and ducts attached to her- her brain, huge, so huge it didn't fit her head, her belly so large, her eyes so dead, like she had some severe metal damage, her vitals and brain waves on a screen, on the sides of the room, glass cilinders with embryos with codes, numbers, 108, 109....
John just froze, went pale, lips parted. The way Mia's lips kept moving, like she was trying to learn how to speak but had no clue of what words even were. 'You see...many of the studies pointed in the direction being a sensitive could be related to genetics. Her brain getting reduced to some newborn state...she couldn't help like before, but...well, more stem cells, more possibilities. It's what the development team said. Her brain has been helping us read the waves, that's how our scanners work. In theory it should cause pain, but she doesn't even know what pain is anymore. It's the data her brain interprets that allows us to use the advanced scanners, and you see, all our work now has only been possible because of that.'
John felt nauseated, he vomited on the floor, stumbled to the side, rested his weight against one of the large glasses, made the cylinder with the fetus fall down and break. He was shaking. Stood up quickly, stepped back from it.
'Don't worry, John....it wasn't a sensitive one. Most of them aren't. These are going to be discarded anyway. Well, not totally discarded, more likely donated to other projects. Making a life go to waste as some routine, that wouldn't be acceptable. You see, all this has a purpose, it's not for nothing. The ones that were her clones, they were more sensitive, but died too early before they could develop. Even so, the brains and cells have been useful to calibrate the scanners, to try and develop a biological mixture where we could properly isolate the cells of those creatures. They always melt down and vanish when we neutralize them, if we could study them, it would help us understand what those creatures are. Now can you handle the sacrifices? Can you handle dealing with this? I doubt.' Richard raised the shotgun towards John.
Marston was speechless. He didn't know what to feel, he was...feeling everything. "You've been keeping her here...for 8 years....you said...her brain went back to the one of a newborn...she doesn't even know what's happening....she....she didn't....it...it's Mia.....it's Mia...Richard....you guys....how....did you even allow this to..."
Richard shook his head. 'We allowed it just like we allowed you to stay alive. Because she asked, we agreed and you proved this could be possible. That human cells could adapt to these monsters and keep them stable, so we could study them.'
John seemed so shocked and so confused, the bundle of cells contorting on the ground making him feel dizzy, his eyes trying to look away but everything seemed ultimately disturbing. "Me? What the fuck you're talking about? You were gonna kill me and she told you not to?? How did I prove anything?"
Richard rubbed his eyes, smiled in anxiety.
'Well, one of those things scratched you, didn't it? And you didn't become one of them. I mean, its claw fucking penetrated you, fluids, blood, it carved into your spine, and then Mia ran you and the damn thing with the car, felt guilty later, wanted to save your life at all costs. The creature's claw, part of the tentacle, it got stuck inside your spine. We thought you were going to turn, but you didn't. Maybe because the tentacle got ripped from the creature's body before it transferred its consciousness to you? Or maybe your genetics were just immune to it? We really don't know. What we do know is that the claw...fang thing...it integrated into your body in such a perfect way it was impossible to detect. Scanners, X Rays....nothing. You don't emit any waves, you have nothing related to the monsters even if you have claw....nail...cock....tongue...whatever the fuck that is inside you. It became you. Became one with your spine. It's what kept your movements after Mia ran over you and that thing with the car. We knew...but nobody else did. We decided to keep that between us, the team. If the higher ups knew, if we had told them, you probably would be inside some secret national security lab being studied. See? Some things need to stay secret. We like you, you were part of the team, we didn't want you gone.'
John was shocked. Frozen in place. Reality seemed worse than all the nightmares he used to have.
He just knew one thing. That had to end. John knew how important the research was, but seeing his Mia like that, the numbers past 100 in those fetus, all that- it seemed so worse than those creatures could do. Damn, slitting some throat and having some tumors grow from it, that sounded like mercy compared to being kept in that place for 8 years, being used like some incubator for illegal experiments.
Fuck, the world could end, but he couldn't allow that. Not to Mia, not to Ruthie.
'John, I know you loved her, and for sure, she loved you too but—'
A loud bang, the glass shattered, liquid spread everywhere, monitors turning off— John had shot Mia in the head, ending her suffering. A strong wave of relief filled the whole facility, and then it faded, in joy of finally being able to sleep. Richards quickly raised his shot gun to John. 'THE FUCK YOU JUST DID MARSTON??!!!'
