Page 54 of The Program

‘Liberty, come on! We need another pair of hands!’a different voice called.

My smile suddenly felt forced. ‘Go on. Looks like you’re needed.’

‘Okay. Thanks A. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?’

‘Definitely. Love you!’

‘Love you, too.’

And then she was gone.

The loneliness hit even harder than before. I was happy she was finding her place amongst the other women, but I felt even more like an outsider than I did before. She had something in common with all those women that I didn’t. Not only were they all pregnant, but they all had children already. I never would.

A crushing sensation pressed against my chest, and I found it suddenly hard to breathe. Noticing my distress, Dave Junior rushed over to nudge his wet nose against me, yet another whine catching in his throat over his concern for me today.

I tugged him close and held him tight, burying my face in the short fuzz on his back.

‘At least I have you, Junior. You’re all mine, right?’

He nuzzled against me and swiped his rough pink tongue over my cheek in a long, drooling lick as if in agreement. I still wasn’t completely certain he comprehended my words, but in moments like these I knew that at least he understood my actions.

That night I fell asleep with him tucked up against me under the covers, and though the loneliness persisted, he succeeded in filling in a little piece of it.

CHAPTER 18

REECE

Iscrunched my eyes shut as tightly as I could, wishing I could do the same to my other senses. I didn't want to feel the agony throbbing through my broken body, the burning sensation emanating from my bones excruciating and unbearable. I didn't want to clench my teeth together so hard to avoid screaming for Adara's sake as whatever they did to me took root. Nor did I want to lay here naked with my gaping wounds exposed to the air. I also didn’t want to watch what they were doing to Adara,but I could hear her flesh tearing, the squelching of her insides as they dug around inside her, or the sickening sound the needles made as they were inserted into her bones, but I heard it regardless. They were viciously wrenching screams from her throat, the sound incomparable to the woman I knew.

It was another form of torture that they made us witness them performing these procedures on us, and without anaesthesia. I’d been awake for the entire ordeal when it was my turn, Adara’s desperate, tear-filled begging the soundtrack to my suffering. Now it was her turn to suffer while I lay on the other side of the room, bound and unable to help her. I couldn’t even imagine how terrified she’d been watching them do this to me and knowing she was next.

The experience was indescribable. I just wanted to die, if only so she wouldn’t have to watch again. But I couldn’t do that to her. I couldn’t leave her alone in this.

The doctor had informed us that we were now partners in their latest trial. They claimed our ‘participation’ would lead the way for groundbreaking discoveries and medical breakthroughs. They worded the statement as if we were heroes. No, martyrs.

But if we were so important, if we were so vital to their progress, why were they keeping us conscious through the process?

Because they wanted to hear our suffering. They got off on the pain they were inflicting. It didn’t matter if the results were revolutionary, they weren’t doing this to be the good guys. They were doing this because they were evil. It only took one session under their so-called ‘care’ for me to figure that out.

A squelching noise drifted over, horrifyingly sickening and reminiscent of what they’d just done to me. It was chased quickly by another of Adara’s soul-destroying screams, and I couldn’t do it anymore.

The fresh memory of them cutting into me, digging around under my skin, stabbing needles into my bones and injecting my marrow with some unknown substance bombarded me with so much intensity I couldn’t stop the vomit from surging up my throat and trickling out of my mouth. They had abandoned me, still splayed open on the table without stitching me up, and I was terrified to look at the mess they’d made of my body.

My own plight combined with Adara’s current torture was too much for me. I threw a silent apology at her, the words barely more than a shaky tremble of my lips that I knew would never reach her, and I succumbed to the numb but welcoming embrace of insentience.

CHAPTER 19

ADARA

The doctors left a while ago.

The lights had been dimmed to mimic nighttime but were still bright enough for the overnight staff to see by when they came to periodically check on us. They didn’t do much more than peek their heads in to make sure Reece and I were still alive, but at times it felt like we’d drift away into death’s embrace before their next check-in.

Reece had been motionless for longer than I cared to admit. At first, when the cutting and stabbing had finally ceased and we’d been left alone, strapped to these cold metal slabs that were slick with gore from our own bodies, I’d turned to him for support only to find him deathly still.

At first my screams were louder, made even more panicked by the thought of being left alone with the corpse of my friend, so I had looked away. It took too much effortto move my head, so I settled for squeezing my eyelids together instead.

The pain didn't abate, either. It increased as time went on, the burning and throbbing agony threatened to push me over into death's promise of peace more than once, and I blacked out too many times too count.

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