Chapter 6

 Arcelia

I sat in my room, looking at the wall. “On.” I said, watching the wall flicker before it became alive, turning a dark blue.

“Hello Arcelia 14786. What would you like to do today?” The wall asked, sounding cheery despite its monotonous voice.

“Give me the Weekly Mental examination please.” I murmured. The wall processed my request before it started to whir softly and the screen turned black. They used the color black during quizzes because it helped the experiments concentrate.

“What is your name?” It asked and I smiled like I always did. The request was always amusing to me because not a second ago the wall had just said hello to me. The only thing missing was ‘experiment’.

I answered anyway. “Experiment Arcelia 14786.” The wall whirled again before asking its next question.

“What is the current date Arcelia 14786?” It asked and I paused. For me, the date was always the most difficult. I couldn’t seem to keep track of when a full day passed like they expected us to.

“The 27th day of the third month.” I replied, and was rewarded with a whir. For every wrong answer I was given a shock from my shocker.

He had told me that we used to be more specific about the date. They used to have years and names for the months. But over time, they’d gradually forgotten about them. New advancements and discoveries in the world meant that there were more important things to remember, and the months and years became trivial pieces of information. Thus now we just had four months, one for every season. There were generally 89 days for every season, unless a season lasted longer than anticipated.

“How are you feeling today Arcelia 14786?” The wall asked and I didn’t reply, not knowing how to answer. How did I feel?

I knew the right answer. I was expected to tell the wall I felt stable and healthy. If I told the wall I felt unstable or unhealthy it would tell me to wait a moment before the lab coats came in and thoroughly examined me. If they found something wrong, I would be terminated. If they didn’t I would be put back in my room, but watched carefully.

My answer was betrayed. I felt betrayed by Him. He’d been the person I trusted, the person I’d become reliant on. But He’d tortured me and ignored my tearful pleading before He disappeared. Had He just been torturing me for His amusement? Had He really been trying to save millions of lives like He promised me?

I never got the chance to answer the wall though. My door slid open and I turned, seeing the same female lab coat and Dimitri.

“Off.” I said, watching the wall as it disappeared and became nothing more than a white wall.

"Hello Lia. I forgot to introduce my assistant, Linsey." He said but I vaguely paid attention because his clothes were distracting me.

Yesterday he'd worn a lab coat and black pants like everyone else had. But today he wore a shirt with holes and it was black. It looked thinner than the regular crisp suit shirts the lab coats wore. Then he wore blue pants that looked very different to the black ones the lab coats had.

"Why are you dressed weird?" I asked tilting my head and saw the lab coat cringe when I asked the question. I sympathized because inside I was cringing too, waiting for him to revoke the pleasure of asking questions and receiving answers.

"Because it's a lot more comfortable than those damn suffocating suits, that's why. I don't see why everyone seems to like the suit style nowadays." He muttered, looking down at his clipboard. I glanced at it and saw Arcelia 14786 in bold letters on the top.

"There's nothing on there that I can't tell you." I said politely and he finally glanced up, his eyes flickering to the clipboard once before tucking it under his arm.

"No, I suppose there isn't. I said we'd do some testing today but I decided I wanted a tour from the beautiful Arcelia instead." He said with a friendly voice but it had my whole body tensing, wondering what he wanted. Did he want to hurt me like He had?

"Where would you like to start?" I asked as we left my room and stepped into the hall. Everyone was suddenly busy – not one lab coat was staring at me which was unusual.

"You're the guide Lia, you decide." He said and I paused. This was new, getting so many choices. I could choose to start anywhere.

I found myself wanting to visit Varian's room right away, but decided to save him for last so my trip would be fresher in my memories when I finally went back to my room.

He'd need to know where all the basics were so I started with the cafeteria. The cafeteria was large, close to being one of the largest rooms but not quite. It was white like everything else.

The lines were controlled by the latest versions of Xerox, the Xerox5000. The Xerox5000 were a new model of machines built to serve different purposes. The ones in the cafeteria served the food and they weren't like us because they didn't have emotions or anything. They decided not to put too much in them after the last uproar, so these simply responded to certain phrases.

Most of the scientists were in here because it was their lunch break. You could clearly hear the request, "Pasta please," and the whirring of the Xerox5000 as they tried to process the question, soon followed by the ‘splat’ of the pasta as it hit the plates. The Xerox5000 were built to only serve when the scientists asked politely with a ‘please’ at the end, as the engineers didn't want humans to lose their humanity and manners.

There were numerous circular tables with five chairs at each. The line of food was against the wall, with a narrow space in between for the Xerox5000. Today, they were giving the customary pasta as they were every Sunday.

The lab coats would grab a tray, before stopping where the Xerox5000 stood, handing the food to them. Once they said ‘please’, the Xerox5000 would place the pasta on the tray before handing it back to the lab coat. Then the lab coat would proceed to move forward, having either a choice of water or milk for their drink. Once they chose, they would proceed to thank the Xerox5000 who stood at the end of the line. If they failed to thank the Xerox5000, then their ID number was taken and they were later questioned by the head lab coat, which was Dimitri now.

One of the most important things for lab coats was their manner as it acted as a basis on how they held themselves in front of the experiments. As part of their training, they were expected to take a class that lasted until their teacher felt they were well mannered. He had once told me manners were taken very seriously in all the Labs around the world, not just Lab Arcelia. He’d said that lab coats were the only remaining species with manners. I’d just nodded, believing Him.

The reason it was taken so seriously He’d told me, was because the lab coats were looked up to. They might not realize it, but the experiments were learning from them, watching their every step. If a lab coat had the habit of tapping their foot when they were impatient, an experiment might start tapping his foot during the long hours of Testing Day. Showing impatience was considered a weakness, a flaw. That foot tapping would get the experiment terminated and the lab coats would abruptly disappear.

So the lab coats went through their training before they were carefully picked and placed in the Lab that suited them best. The most elite and flawless lab coats were placed in Lab Arcelia.

The lab coats were scattered around, talking quietly amongst themselves. They were usually louder, but they kept glancing at where Dimitri stood. Were they all afraid of him?

"It looks like most cafeterias. Yours is slightly bigger because you have the most successful Lab creations." Dimitri murmured. He sounded like he was talking to himself but I listened in spite of this.

I would've shown him where his room was next, but I thought Linsey had and I wasn't allowed in anyway. We passed a big sign with bold letters carved in, clearly screaming "EMPLOYEES ONLY", and headed further down the corridor.

Next were the chemical rooms. They'd tried putting the chemicals in the Lab areas but stopped when an experiment threw a toxic acid in a lab coat's face.

The chemical rooms were the rooms that all the lab coats complained about. They said they weren't bright enough, but I liked them. They were dimly lit and the walls themselves were a dusty yellow, showing its age. They used to be storage rooms but they built new ones so they could have the chemical rooms.

Inside each room were racks and racks of small vials followed by a couple of hood vents where they kept the really powerful ones that you couldn’t access without His authorization.

I showed Dimitri the hall of chemicals and he didn't seem too interested in those, looking slightly bored like he'd seen it before. We were the first Lab to have a pure chemical room, but not the only one.

I then took him to the control room. This is where they controlled all the mechanisms such as the doors and shockers. I knew ours was the best by far because they didn't want to risk having all the experiments becoming dominant and disobeying them.

I remembered His words in my head when he first showed me this room. “Other Labs used hand based punishments, but we realized it wasn't that easy. You couldn't try punishing something that was more powerful than you with just the strike of a hand. So they invented the shockers.”

The shockers were sleek silver halos worn around our necks. I'd tried several times to claw it off until my nails were chipped and red with blood, but it stayed shiny and secure.

They were able to shock you to death, or create a frequency so high it had you screaming as you writhed and blood trickled out your ears. I'd figured that all out by experience.

Dimitri actually seemed interested this time, his eyes landing on everything as he roamed around one of the control rooms. I was standing outside because I wasn't allowed in.

"Very interesting, their method of punishment. When it was first proposed everyone thought they were crazy. No one thought it would work, that it would somehow malfunction. But I authorized it anyway because I was curious to see how it would work. It turned out to be useful." He murmured, his eyes flickering to my neck. I just stood there, staring back.

He suddenly clapped his hands, making me and lab coat Linsey jump. "Alright, what's next Lia?" He asked and I stood there trying to figure out why he'd changed the subject so fast.

I couldn't come up with a valid answer, so I just took him down the worst hall, the one experiments hated.

Above the hall read "EXPERIMENTATION" in ugly black letters. As we entered the hall my body started coiling tightly together, each leg moving without my permission and my eyes grew expressionless. I became so empty Dimitri noticed.

"What's wrong Lia?" He asked and I found myself looking down, old habits returning back.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm perfectly fine." I said politely, waiting to hear footsteps before I followed behind. But I didn't hear any. So I just stood there, looking at the polished, white floor until the sound of footsteps became nearer.

My body coiled even more, to the point that it hurt. If He was coming closer then I had done something wrong and He was going to strike me with a relentless hand. But instead I felt a soft hand slide along my chin and gently pull my head up.

It wasn't Him who stood there with soft eyes, but Dimitri. "Is something wrong Arcelia?" He asked and I suddenly felt anger swelling up. Why did he care? No one cared, not even Him.

"I am perfectly fine." I stated blankly as I stared back at him, my new musical voice gone hard and uncaring. He seemed surprised but he didn't step back like I wanted, so we stood there until Linsey finally cleared her throat making Dimitri the first to look away.

"Sir, you have a meeting in a few hours." She said, with a hint of urgency in her voice that I understood. I stood straighter and walked on, ignoring Dimitri's eyes drilling into my back, almost as powerful as a shocker.

I showed them the hall, refusing to join them in any of the rooms. They were horrible, where things worse than me were created, worse than you could imagine. I just stared ahead at the white hall until finally they stepped out.

I could feel my breathing become stable and my body relaxed a little. I didn’t feel like I was suffocating like I always did in that hall. But I wouldn’t let them know how relieved I was to leave the hall. They would use it against me as a form of punishment if I did. I continued on, showing them one more room.

We stood at the door, a label beside it reading ‘CCTV surveillance room’ in white, bold letters. I typed in the code, noticing from the corner of my eyes that Dimitri raised his eyebrow.

“She knows the code to this room also?” He asked, his tone incredulous.

“Her caretaker told her all the codes. He thought it wouldn’t rise suspicion in her if he told her more things than the other experiments.” Lab Coat Linsey explained, her head bowed. She seemed afraid because I knew the code. Was I not supposed to? He’d told me every single one of them so I could find my way around more easily.

“Interesting.” Dimitri murmured before I opened the door.

This was the room that held the footage for every camera. There were dozens of small screens that flickered every few minutes to the next room. The lab coats considered this to be one of the most important rooms. Without this room, they were blind. They wouldn’t have the control they thought they so desperately needed over the experiments. The screens were always there, always flickering. They had never gone out since this Lab had been built.

I watched one of the screens, Dimitri and lab coat Linsey’s voice drowning out. A lab coat was standing there, watching without movement as the experiment writhed in pain on the floor. He did nothing to reassure the experiment, to help ease the pain. He just watched, his hands clasped together. It reminded me of my first time being tortured.

I’d been young at the time, much younger than the average age of a patient who would be admitted in the Lab. They usually found teens on the streets and swept them up, claiming them as their own. They didn’t tell me where they found me, only that I’d been alone and young.

I hadn’t been trained yet when I’d first been punished. I’d been a foolish giggling girl who talked too much. A talking, questioning experiment was a useless one in the Lab. I’d followed Him around, asking Him questions about anything and everything. He’d been amused at first, even encouraged it. But soon He got annoyed.

“What’s that?” I’d asked, pointing to the cabinet that held many chemicals. He was supposed to be labeling them, but I kept distracting Him.

"Sweetheart, just be quiet. I have work to do.” He said, frowning down at his clipboard. I’d pouted my lips out and stomped my foot; something I would never make the mistake of doing again after that day.

His eyes flashed to me, tinted red with anger. I remember being surprised at how his eyes changed color, unaware of the ongoing ‘Perfection’ program that allowed his eyes to change color depending on his mood. My eyes didn’t do that, because it was decided that I was to be mysterious and unreadable.

“Arcelia, I said to be quiet. That doesn’t mean you should get an attitude. You’re testing my patience right now and it’s running very thin. I suggest you cut it out.” He warned. Despite this, my younger self didn’t listen. She didn’t see the way His body was tensed or how He scribbled with annoyance on the clipboard.

“But I just wanna play.” I’d pleaded quietly, although the volume of my voice didn’t matter. I would've yelled it or squeaked it out like a mouse; it would’ve resulted in the exact same thing happening.

“That’s enough!” He snapped right before His eyes glanced into the camera. I remember falling to the floor and screaming, tears rolling down my face. I cried for Him to help me, but He just stood there, watching like the lab coat on the screen.

"Ready to move on?" I asked politely, hoping my voice didn't crack. Living in the past was only going to distract me and possibly get me into trouble again.

"Yes th-" Dimitri started but before he could finish I was already padding off, my feet walking faster and faster until they stopped at the end of the hall.

"Next is Experiment Varian." I murmured, my body relaxing slightly. Being away from the screens, away from the tortured experiment seemed to clear the haze in my mind.

"I've heard about him." Dimitri murmured and I nodded.

"He's the most successful experiment, besides me of course. He's the second person to accept the Red Virus and the first male to do so. He's shown no signs of deterioration or lack of emotions. His body accepted it almost as well as mine did." I recited, remembering the exact words He told me so well that I replicated the tone He said them with.

"Do you know what the Red Virus is?" Dimitri asked, sounding curious and I paused slightly before continuing.

"I'm not allowed to know." I replied and he halted.

"But aren't you curious to know what's so successful about you?" He asked and I could feel my shoulders slump with the weight of the question. All it would take was one question and my shoulders could be light, air light.

"We're at Experiment Varian's room." I said as I typed in the code, not checking behind me to see Dimitri's expression. I didn't crave his prideful expression like I had His.