The Beginning Of Rain In December (9 page)

“Ms. Rule,” she said. “Welcome, please sit, I will take your blood sample, however, I understand that it will stay with you, after this I will escort you down to the lab.”

“Okay.”

Less than five minutes later, the nurse, Helen and Dr. D’Ares were walking down another hallway; Dr. Downs’s now joining them. They went into a secured lobby and were met by a white coat lab assistant. “Ms. Rule, you may watch the proceedings with your blood through these windows,” she said, leading Rain and the doctors through a small room well lit and through the glass had the entire lay of the laboratory for their observation. “But this area is restricted due to possible contamination issues. May I have the vials?”

Rule handed the technician her blood vials and she smiled, and Rain watched as she walked through a sliding door and into the lab. She kept her eyes on the vials while Dr. Downs and Dr. D’Ares spoke quietly between their selves, studying their notes. They excused their selves from Rain after fifteen minutes and promised they would collect her within an hour.

“Please bring bleach and gasoline upon your return,” Rain said but did not take her eyes off the lab technicians. She studied their every movement, not overlooking anything that occurred within the room. When Dr. D’Ares and Dr. Downs returned, with the large containers of bleach and gasoline the lab technicians were wrapping up and placed the vials of blood and test tubes onto a metal try on a wheeled cart.

The lab technician wheeled the cart to her, smiling, but speaking to the doctors. “The tests will be ready within an hour, it will be downloaded in the system, I’ll beep you when it is completed.”

“Very good, Melinda,” Dr. D’Ares said.

Rain took the cart from Melinda and placed the containers of bleach and gasoline upon the cart. “Where can I dispose of this?” she asked.

“Follow me,” Dr. Downs’s said.

She did and they went to a utilitarian cleaning room where Dr. Downs’s switched on overhead lights and some large ceiling fans. “You can dispose of it in here in the sinks,” she said.

Rain nodded and started disposing of her blood from the vials, pouring bleach and hot water and gasoline down the drain along with her blood glad that Dr. Downs had started the fans, the fumes were oppressive and loud but that did not stop her from making sure ever molecule of blood was rinsed down the drain and diluted with gasoline and bleach.

“What do you think we will do to your samples?” Dr. Downs asked as the hot water rinsed down the blood, watching as Rain broke the small glass tubes and rinsed them down.

Rain stared at the water and bleach run down the drain. “I shouldn’t be alive, Dr. Downs. I was shot twice, once in my chest, once in my abdomen, as a child of five or six. I should not be alive. Whatever was done to me, should not be done to another. I have always known that I am different but I have this need, this wish, this hope to be so human, to be needed, wanted…to be normal. It is a constant painful ache that will never go away.”

“But don’t you see? If your grandmother hadn’t done what she had, you would have been dead.”

“If my grandmother and grandfather hadn’t done what they had then those people would not have massacred my mother and father, my village, my home and destroyed everything that I had treasured. If my grandmother hadn’t experimented on me as if I was a fucking lab rat and left my family alone this…all of this…this life…. I would not be wanted as a continuing experiment to appease the government, to be poked, prodded and dissected like the freak of nature I am.”

“You are not a freak.”

“Then why am I here?”

Dr. Downs had no answer for her.

“Exactly. The only reason why I am here is to figure out what was done to me and to make sure it never happens to another. I will not be the beginning of some militant, war mongering dictator to create a society of perfect, soldiers to kill others without thought for repercussions, without the ability to feel death, sickness, fear. I will not allow that to happen. Ever.”

“You don’t know if that is what will occur.”

“I am not a fool, Dr. Downs; do not treat me as such. The want of power, dominance that is what drives man, society, nations.”

Dr. Downs couldn’t or wouldn’t respond. “Are you finished?” She finally asked.

“Yes,” Rain returned, pouring bleach on the tray that held her vials of blood and urine and this to she rinsed in the sink.

She followed Dr. Downs’s out and to another room that was dark, an ultrasound machine set up. “I will personally perform your ultrasound, we shall do it of your heart and abdomen, okay?”

“Alright,” Rain said.

The testing was long and tedious, by the time they had completed, it had been more than twelve hours of cardiograms, MRI's, ekg’s, treadmill testing, Doppler studies, blood and lab works, physical exams, endurance testing, being poked, prodded and commanded. By the time they were finally finished, Rain wanted to get away from the facility quickly.

“Rain, we have your test results. At this time we will just discuss it with you and Lebna, if that is okay,” Dr. D’Ares said as Dr. Downs and Lebna walked in the room where Rain had officially begin the testing with the questioning of her medical history. She sat on the edge of the hospital bed, while Dr. D’Are and Dr. Downs sat upon their rolling stools and Lebna gave her a reassuring smile before standing against the wall, the door closing behind him.

“Rain, you are right…you aren’t quite…normal, so to speak. Your MRI is...amazing, never before seen. Every single inch of your body has a flared intensity signal. Usually, in layman’s term that means there is questionable abnormalities and this can range from a stroke in your brain to disc bulges in your spine to cancer. With your increased intensity there are no abnormalities that include any type of sickness or disease or malignancy, it is as if your body is performing at a heightened state, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Your brain MRI is absolutely unbelievable. As there is some increasing flare in a normal brain, yours, to put it in civilian vernacular the near entirety of your brain has increased flare signal. Especially when Dr. Downs asked you to try to see what she was seeing at that time. Your signals electrified tenfold. Your heart has six chambers, not the four of humans, it is working more efficiently than a four chamber heart, your spinal cord and nerves are intricately more than the average person. Your oxygenation, your arterial Doppler, your respiratory system, your endocrine, gastro, lymph nodes, even your female reproductive system are more powerful, work more efficiently than the average human being. Your lab results are truly amazing…your ranges are exquisitely perfect, no hint of inflammation, your antibodies are increased with no signs of an illness or sickness. To put it simply…your body works more efficiently than any human or machine ever created. You are a miracle to science.”

Rain tried to digest his words, the excited chatter of Dr. D’Ares and Dr. Downs as they spoke to her and each other. Yet, she couldn’t quite grasp the enormity of their words.

“What does this mean?” She asked quietly. When they ignored her, too busy studying their notes, she repeated it again, this time loudly. “What does this mean?!”

They startled into silence. “Ms. Rule,” Dr. Downs said. “It means you are now the property of the United States government.”

The hours begin to pass, meld into each other, blend until they became one seemingly endless nightmare. Lebna had tried to quiet her yells, she had tried to escape, but it was to no avail, she had been tackled by close to ten soldiers before they were able to subdue her. She had no idea where Enlai was but had seen John, smiling softly as Dr. Downs had injected her with some nameless medicine and she’d fallen into near instant unconsciousness.

When she awoke, she was chained and strapped to the floor of a white padded dead locked room. There was nothing except the endless padding of the room, even her neck was strapped to the floor, she could not move one inch. The nightmare was occurring now, instantly, swiftly. What she had feared most had occurred. She had walked into this like a dumb, gullible fool, never believing they would hold her hostage, condemn her to endless arrays of tests and experiments. This could not be. The only thing that detracted from the white padding was a large mirror on the wall opposite of her and she knew someone was studying her.

She stared at the white padding of the wall, her mind trying to calm down, formulate plans. She had to escape, had to get away from here and this time once she did she would hide, hide forever.

“Ms. Rule,” a voice came on over invisible speakers in her small, padded room. “It is me, Dr. Downs; the sedation did not last as long as I thought it would. I am sorry for the state that you now find yourself, but you must realize that what is occurring is to the betterment of mankind. You cannot deem to be so selfish as to keep us from helping others. Your DNA, your cells, they hold the cure, a cure free from disease, death. You are the key, Ms. Rule, accept it now.”

She didn’t respond to the woman’s words, merely closed her eyes, structuring her labored breathing.

“There is one more thing, Ms. Rule. Your urinalysis…it came back normal, all except for one thing. You have an increased hormone in your levels. The hormone first revealed during the event of a pregnancy. I thought you should know. We shall give you a day to rest and then we will begin the full range of testing on Wednesday.”

In the twenty four hours she was left alone, she formulated her plan, her mind rapidly firing as she remembered the minute details of the facility, the guards, the layout of the building, the doctors, cameras, security codes, sequences, badges. She then let her mind go, it searched for Dr. Downs found her speaking with Lebna, John, Dr. D’Ares, and three other official government men, they spoke about her, the tests that they would begin to run, how soon they could start the experiments, including shooting her at point blank range in the leg to see if she healed and how fast she healed.

She stayed with Dr. Downs and urged herself to feel that same desperation she had felt with Enlai, for him to touch her, with Dr. Downs’s for her to come to Rain.

Her headache and nausea grew but she refused to let any weakness deter her from her actions. She pushed Dr. Downs to come to her, keeping her eyes closed and watched as the doctor came down numerous hallways until she was standing in front of the pad lock door of Rain’s cell.

Open the door
, she commanded the doctor in her mind.
Do not question what you are doing, open the door
.

The door opened, Dr. Downs stood at attention inside the room, waiting for the next command.

Free me
.

Dr. Downs did as commanded.

Where are the others? Am I being watched?

“No, there is limited security for you, seeing as how you were restrained.”

“Give me your clothing, including your glasses and your hair tie,” Rain commanded.

Dr. Downs did as such, stripping herself naked.

“Now put on this gown and lay down, where I was, I will chain you down and you shall pretend as if you are me, do you understand? You shall not know who you are until Friday, do you understand?”

“Yes,” Dr. Downs said, placing on the hospital gown and lying down. Rain quickly placed the doctors clothing on, including id badge and security cards. She then strapped Dr. Downs to the padded floor, mussed her hair over her face.

“Keep your face turned to the left,” she said.

Rain pulled back her hair placing it in the low ponytail that Dr. Downs had. She searched her mind, ignoring the nausea. There was a secret passage way, she stealthily left the door, picking up the clipboard that had been on her door, pretending as if she was reading it while hurriedly walking down the hall, her face averted from all security cameras. Her mind within Dr. Downs.

She swiped the security card, found the door that Dr. Downs’ revealed to her in her mind. She quickly hid in a utility closet when armed guards were walking towards her. Once they passed, she slipped into another corridor, then another, her mind over powering Dr. Downs, allowing her to see the correct passageways, entry ways and exits that did not need voice activation and that held the least amount of people.

She finally found the empty room, a secret passage, as soon as the door slammed behind her, she started running down a concrete hallway, glad that Dr. Downs had sensible flat shoes on, and knowing that it would be a five mile jog through utter concrete only lit with emergency lighting. She did not stop, she ran full speed, faster than most humans, through the cold and dark concrete corridors, ran as her mind continued on Dr. Downs who had as of yet been discovered, ran and less than twenty minutes later she was at the concrete grate that led outside to the main highway.

She found the small opening, went through it, ran through some trees and bushes, before stumbling out into the road, panic overtaking her, Dr. D’Ares had found Dr. Downs, he was pushing the emergency button, lights were flashing in the building, sirens, guards running.

“Stop!” She yelled at the first car and did not know if it was said in her head and theirs and did not care, the car came to a screeching halt. A lone, female driver, who looked startled, is staring at her, waiting for the next command. “Do not be afraid. You shall take me to Pennsylvania,” Rain said through the open window while the woman nodded and unlocked the door. “Drive fast, but safe,” Rain commanded and the woman did as such, while Rain slumped down. “Do you have any sunglasses?” She asked the woman.