Keary Taylor - The Human

Dr. Evans shook his head. “Her heart was only developed to eighty percent of what it should have been, her lungs only to sixty. But they both function perfectly now.”

“And the other one?” another man asked.

“Her development is slower,” Dr. Evans said. His voice sounded tired and heavy. “We weren’t sure how TorBane would react with a psychological disorder so this is totally uncharted territory. But she’s coming along. She’s talking, she’s well behaved the majority of the time. She’s slowly learning how to interact.”

“Tell us about the regenerative abilities.”

Dr. Evans eyes met mine and something in them lightened.

“Eve,” he said kindly. “Would you come over here for a moment?”

I got to my feet, my eyes meeting the strangers warily. I crossed the room and gripped Dr. Evans’ jacket tightly in one fist.

“Can you show me that cut you got the other day?” he asked me.

I held up my left hand, exposing my palm.

“The nurse dropped a glass two days ago and it shattered on the floor in Eve two’s bedroom. Eve here tried to help clean it up and cut herself. But as you can see, it’s completely healed.”

This brought a smile to the strangers’ faces. “Perfect,” one woman said.

“I think TorBane and chip X731 are going to be a perfect match, Dr. Evans.”

“No!” I screamed as I leapt across my bed. I grabbed my hair brush and threw it at the man. “Don’t touch me!”

“Come back here, you little…” He chased after me.

I wrapped my tiny hand around the neck of my lamp and hurled it at him next. It caught him in the shoulder and shattered.

A growl ripped from his throat and he tackled me to the ground.

A sharp pain pricked in my neck as he jabbed a needle into my skin.

Everything seemed to slow instantly.

I jabbed my finger into his eye and he reeled backwards into a wall.

“Don’t…” I tried to yell but my throat felt thick. “Don’t touch me.”

“Eve,” a familiar voice said. Dr. Evans. The younger one. “Everything is going to be alright.”

“No”, I shook my head. I tried to press my back further into the corner. My vision blurred and the dark shadows before me blended together.

“She’s never been this aggressive before,” a voice said. It felt like someone was screaming into my ear. Everything was too loud. I pressed my hands over the sides of my head, trying to block it all out.

“She’s afraid,” a lighter voice said.

I couldn’t make out any details anymore as I opened and closed my eyes, trying to clear my vision. My head felt fuzzy and clouded.

There was a pair of warm arms underneath me and I could feel them moving.

My vision was totally black by now and at some point, someone slid my eyelids closed when I couldn’t do it myself.

They changed my clothes and there was a strange buzzing sound.

Soon my head felt lighter and cold.

The next second all I could make out was the scent of steel under me. There were voices in the dark, talking excitedly behind me.

Then there was the sound of a drill.

“What’s wrong with her?”

West sat in front of me, building a tower with foam blocks. But he kept looking up at me.

“She had her surgery,” a woman said. I looked over at her and blinked. She looked at me. There was something about her face that looked off. Her brows were pulled together slightly. A sheen of sweat beaded on her forehead. There was a bit of moisture under her arms.

“Are you scared of her?” West asked, looking at the woman too.

She looked at West, but then her eyes fell quickly to the floor. “Build your tower,” she said.

West stacked another block, then looked up at me again.

“She normally tries to take my stuff,” he said, still looking at me. “Why is she just sitting there?”

“Build your tower,” the woman said again. “Don’t worry about it.”

“The other one is the same way,” West said, turning back to his blocks. He made a fence around his tower. “She didn’t used to fight, but she just sits there now too.”

“Build your tower, West.”

Tests.

Running.

Weight lifting.

Observation.

Always.

“You see that there?”

I could faintly hear them through the glass wall and over the noise the machine around me made.

“Wow,” someone else said. “Is that…?”

“Yeah,” the other person breathed. “Her bones. They’re completely fused with cybernetics.”

“That’s…” a voice said. “Incredible.”

“And look here. Her heart. It looks like it’s about seventy-five percent cybernetic as well.”

“It would take a lot to stop a heart like that. These girls, they might damn near live forever.”

“No one lives forever.”

“Are you not seeing what is on this scan?”

“God would not permit anyone to live forever.”

“It looks like man has caught up to God if you ask me.”

“…kidding me,” a voice said through the haze.

“It picked the lock on the southeast entrance.”

“That’s the second breach in the last week.” Margaret. “We’ll have to increase the guard.”

“We’ve already got a guard at each entrance at all hours,” the man said. “We only have so many bodies.”

“Please,” I moaned. My vision blurred and swirled. “Stop.”

“She’s waking up,” Margaret said, her voice rising in alarm. “Increase the dosage.”

“We’re almost out,” someone said.

“Then we’d better hurry up.”

I walked down the hall, headed back for my room. I’d just finished four hours on the treadmill and Dr. Evans and the people who always watched what we did seemed pleased.

Voices floated through a window as I paused.

West was there, reading a book aloud.

I sat next to him, my face totally blank but looking at the pages.

West turned to me and asked me a question. My eyes met his and I muttered a response and looked back at the book.

West draped his arm around my shoulders and kept reading.

Something bubbled up inside of me, hot and toxic. West was kind and caring with that me. But the real me he pestered and annoyed and tortured and pushed until I exploded.

My fingers curled into fists and tiny black lines flickered across my vision.

I turned and continued down the hall.

“Is it true?” the woman asked.

I’d been in her care for years, but she had never given me her name.

Not that I had ever asked for it.

Dr. Evans nodded, a smile pulling at the corner of his lips as he looked at me. It was the first real looking one I’d seen on his face in years.

“They ran out of funding,” he said, turning back to the woman. “They’re going to pay for us to keep the Eve project maintained, but we don’t have to do any more testing.”

“What will you do with them?” she asked, glancing over at me. “They’ll never be normal again. Not after this long.”

“We’ll keep them here,” he said, his tone falling once again into seriousness. “This is their home anyway, it’s all they’ve ever known. I’ve already talked to Dr. Beeson. He’s going to maintain them. I assume you are on board to continue in two’s care?”