#ot 9

She clutched her belly as tears threatened to spill. Her other hand flew over her mouth and she closed the body drawer. She swallowed a sob and told herself repeatedly to calm herself; you could be caught. Subjects 00, 07 and 68 had been ‘terminated’. She refused to believe what she heard in passing that three of the unfortunate souls had been put down. She had sped down to the mortuary at the first bell for her break.

They’re too valuable to kill.

She felt horror in the pit of her stomach pulling out the drawer of subject 00 his tall body crammed in the small space. He was a beautiful creature that deserved better. She hadn’t been let into his cell before, they had male nurses and doctors only for him, he was prone to violence.

She then stared at subject 07, she had taken his blood samples on numerous occasions and he never failed to smile sweetly at her as she always struggled with her morals. How could he smile with the things he suffered? He was well behaved, she struggled to see why he lay in front of her, frozen and lifeless.

She hated this job.

68 had been the most volatile of the three. He was fast, agile and the most emotionally thawed. He’d lash out whenever he could at the workers who got too close. He’d take every chance he could get whenever a nurse or doctor would let his restraints loose; he’d run. However, she failed to see why he needed to die, why any of them did.

“Can I help you?”

She tensed and she swallowed, her throat closing up in apprehension. She turned around, hoping her eyes didn’t betray her emotional state.

“One of the doctors has already come to sign off their medical forms.” The somewhat clueless morturer was a small balding man and he looked anything but menacing.

She still didn’t relax. She thought quickly. “Oh really?” She forced herself to smile with a scoff. “The communication in this place is unbelievable.”

She scurried past him, avoiding his stare. “Sorry for disrupting your work.” She called over her shoulder.

~~~

She made it to the junior nurse’s lunch room, her heart still in her chest. She walked to the back, towards the lockers to get her sandwich from her bag.

“Excuse me nurse, may I have a word?”

She almost dropped her sandwich in fright at the sudden voice behind her. She whirled around quickly and met the face of a well suited man. He was a young caucasian male with kind eyes, his brown hair neatly swept atop of his head. Fear gripped her - he wasn’t a doctor, what did he want.

Was she in trouble?

“Y-yes, absolutely!” She gushed, her voice breaking and she wanted to hit herself.

The visit to the morgue had left her a nervous wreck and she was an open book to anyone - friend or foe. He smiled and it nothing but nice as he motioned for her to follow him but she dared not let her guard slip. She clutched her sandwich dumbly as the man in the suit lead her out of the busy lunch room. Her blood was roaring through her ears as her imagination played horrific scenarios to her.

She thought back to a few weeks prior, how she pulled the fire alarm in a moment of desperation and mercy on subject 99. She remembered the look in his eyes, the look of confusion and fear as she let her guard down in his cell. The feel of his erection against her body - she decided that was a side effect of the drugs that must have been pumping through his veins. She was kind and she didn’t want to inflict pain and suffering on any of them.

Was he going to punish her for that? Was he going to dismiss her? Would he throw her in her own cell to be tortured and experimented on?

Oh fuck.

They came to a row of unoccupied conference rooms and offices and he let out a light hearted chuckle. “Spoiled for choice.”

He flicked her an amused look and she let out an uncomfortable laugh. She never had been in this part of the facility, she was a low ranking nurse, they didn’t involve her in any meetings of importance.

“This will do.” He opened one of the doors and stepped through, turning to her with a obligatory smile as he motioned her inside.

“Sit.”

She did.

She waited, her fingers clenched together in anxiety of what was about to unfold. He sat opposite her and he placed a large planner in front of her. He opened it and sifted through some sheets of paper. Looking at him then, she realised he sported a visitor’s tag on his lapel. He didn’t work for Nova Sciences, he was from the outside, where was his guide?

She read his name Dr Richard Francis.

“This is a confidential meeting.” He began, not looking up from his planner. “No one in your company will know.”

She didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse. “You can eat your lunch, I don’t mind.”

She kept her sandwich on the table untouched as she waited for him to say more.

“I’m a doctor for an independent non profit organisation called Revive.” He continued, his voice strong. “And I think you’d benefit by working for me.”

She blinked at him, her brows furrowing at the bold statement from a stranger. “Excuse me?”

Richard’s smile wavered. “I have read through your file, your background and your incident with subject 99.” She noticed how he seemed uncomfortable addressing him with his identity number. “I watched the security footage and you sparked my interest so I got my hands on more footage of you with the patients.”

Patients. She didn’t miss that, was it a slip of the tongue; referring to them as something more humane than subjects? She didn’t disagree with the notion but she felt shock settle in her stomach - it was the first time she had heard of it. Yet it made her feel more at ease.

She made a face which made him hold up his hands in defense. “I know how that must sound.” He laughed, nervous. “You’re nice to them, I noticed.”

The smile that had snuck onto her face slowly diminished, maybe she was wrong, maybe she was about to be punished.

“You have empathy.” His tone lowered, becoming serious. “And that’s rare.”

She sighed, gathering her thoughts trying to seem nonchalant. “Why are we having this conversation?” She looked up to the clock. “My break ends in 10 minutes.”

“I want you to work for me.” He pressed on. “Work for the company I work for - undercover.”

Undercover. She felt uneasy at the word. She didn’t know if she could handle more secrets and lies.

“Experiments like what Nova are doing here is global, hundreds of men and women are being tortured, their DNA altered gaining supernatural abilities some are even being mixed with other mammals creating a whole new DNA structure.”

  “Some die before results are made, some are killed.” He leaned forward on his chair. “Revive want to free survivors, bringing them into the world like they deserve but we can’t do that without inside help from the facilities we aim to bring down.”

She pieced together his words trying to make sense of it all. Her heart budded with hope, hope for her, hope for 99 who she saved. She longed to save him properly, she wished she could save them all. But it was impossible. What could she do? She stared at him, reeling in her heart who tried to run away with the idea of his heroic sounding plans.

“Is this a test, Mr Francis?” She asked, her breathing was rapid.

She knew she had failed if it was, she knew she had given away her position with the glint in her eyes.

“I promise you, it’s not a test.” He pulled out a small card from a slot in his planner. “It’s an expression of interest.”

“Here’s my business card.” He handed it to her. “We need informants and we want you on our team.”

She took the card gingerly, staring at it with a curious expression. On it was his name, his doctorate and his contact details on the back - no company name.

She paused, the room falling silent. She knew he was waiting for her response. It was as if the gods had answered her blind prayers, her opportunity to help and free the patients, it could happen. She longed to grab onto this opportunity with both hands, she knew she ought to, but she had learnt one valuable thing at her time with Nova, deception was everyone’s second nature.

“How many informants?” She asked.

“I can’t give out that information for safety reasons.”

“And if I went running my mouth about this conversation about your supposed company?” She wouldn’t, even if it was a pack of lies.

“You won’t.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You seem so sure.”

“We’ve been monitoring you for months to know you well enough you won’t”

She bit her lip. “I’m a nurse here, Francis but if I worked for you I’d only be an informant.”

He shook his head. “I understand that. Once we have freed the patients in this facility all informants will be able to continue their work but with us in the rehabilitation of the patients.

“We want to give them lives, help them discover their humanity for the first time. Some of them have been in here since they were children, never experiencing even the little things we take for granted.

“You’re a junior nurse, you have yet to be exposed to more of the awful happenings in those cells.” He said. “But we need more, we need more to get rid of this bastardisation of a scientific government experiment.”

She was stunned into silence. Richard Francis’ voice became more poignant and his expression became riddled with anger. She became increasingly torn, she couldn’t deny the rawness of the display of emotions in front of her; no actor could be that good.

She sat in silence, every one of his words sinking in. She thought of subject 99, the bruises on his body, the heartbreaking defeat on his face as his resolve slipped from his fingers as he waited to die. She wondered of that’s how they all went, a gun to their head. How could she be so foolish? Believing them all when they swore they were all too important to science to die. There was a reason for the morgue in the building, there had to be more than three to die to facilitate such a department.

She decided then; determined to bring Nova down. If he was a liar, if she was stripped of her integrity, tortured or killed trying to rescue the patients she knew it was for a good cause. She didn’t want to be the nurse who meekly followed immoral orders out of fear.