The wall opened, revealing a shimmering blue field of light that Adrian was unable to see through. He stood up, ready to face his captors and to learn of their motives. He’d thought long and hard about what he wanted to ask them. A black form passed through the field undeterred, one step at a time, rather than the tan limbs he was expecting.
Adrian stared. And stared.
And stared.
His mind looked at the approaching form in front of him uncomprehendingly. A part of him screamed out to run away, pumping adrenaline into his system. The other part watched with morbid fascination as the thing slowly clinked closer.
Four long, sinewy legs worked in tandem to move the creature. They had black, chitinous plates covering the outer portion of their grasshopper-like form. Each leg jutted out from a large, grotesquely formed thorax that was a disturbing blend of grey skin and black chitin. The carapace, if it could even be called as such, was oval and lay horizontal with a pair of legs on either end.
Its body was upright at the front, entirely covered in black chitin that resembled that of an ant. Cracks and grooves running along its shell hinted at the muscle beneath. It had four arms attached to its upper body. A pair of larger arms that ended in a sharp three-pronged grip sat in the middle of its stomach and smaller, grey-skinned arms were higher up, closer to its head. Each arm had two joints. The smaller arms, strangely, had no chitin like its larger counterparts.
The creature’s insectoid head had six bulbous eyes that took in its surroundings as its antennae twitched, with only the middle pair being faceted. On the top of its head were two long, mostly transparent protrusions that had a yellow tinge. In each one was brain matter, clearly visible from where Adrian stood.
The entire thing looked wrong. It disturbed Adrian on a deep, primal level that such a thing could even exist.
Four flaps on the front of its pointed face opened to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth that went down into its throat. It let loose a crunching, grating noise from its mouth that sounded like pebbles going through a blender, punctured by a staccato of clicks. Finally, Adrian’s mind unfroze but his body remained glued to its spot.
An undignified shriek of abject terror left his lips as he trembled in place, frozen out of fear. The monstrosity stepped closer, and Adrian frantically looked around in a panic.
He quickly retreated to the furthest corner of the room away from the door, but the creature followed him. When it got too close, he dashed to another corner, trying to put more distance between them. Closer still it crept. Adrian ran in a circle around it and veered towards the door. If the alien could pass through it, so could he.
A quick glance showed the alien turning around to chase after him. Adrian redoubled his efforts and made it to the barrier. He ran through it, his hands passing freely, but was jerked to a stop when his cuffs refused to follow.
Adrian pitched forward at the sudden change in momentum and his head passed through the barrier. On the other side, he saw another one of the aliens waiting for him several metres away. It stood there and clicked loudly when it saw him.
Panicking, Adrian pulled his head back into the room and furiously looked around. The alien behind him had caught up, but stopped short of him and waited, making no attempt to come closer.
What are these things? he wondered. I was herded into this exact spot, and I fell for it without realizing. Again. The humming force field disappeared, leaving him stuck between the two aliens.
“Alright,” he said in a shaky voice. “You’ve got me. Now take me to wherever it is you’re bringing me.” The alien tilted its head slightly upon hearing Adrian address it. It spoke back, but Adrian didn’t understand. He did not speak in clicks and shrieks.
It began walking towards him and he backed up. The other alien moved forward down the hall the same distance. Adrian understood the message. It was time to move. He turned around and followed the one stationed slightly down the hall. He was sandwiched between the two aliens with nowhere to go. Resigning himself to his fate, he marched on with heavy footsteps, constantly looking over his shoulder.
The hallway was wide enough to comfortably fit two of the aliens side by side and was made of the same gunmetal-grey material that comprised the room in which he woke up. The floors upon which he walked had grooves that formed geometric patterns and the walls had glowing blue lines that ran along them in an uneven square wave pattern. Adrian wondered what they meant.
He was brought deeper into the facility and soon had his answer when they arrived in front of one of the waves. The inner portion melted away and revealed a doorway that fit just perfectly within the blue contour. Understanding dawned on him. Each one represented a door. Mystery solved, he stepped through, following his guide.
The room much resembled the hallway, the same patterns decorating its floors and walls. Adrian idly noted the detail. Along the walls were workstations equipped with monitors that showed large, floating DNA strands that slowly turned in place. Other monitors showed him naked with his arms spread and floating objects next to him.
Several aliens walked along the equipment, inspecting each display. In the centre of the room was a large chair with a small machine attached to the right arm. Surrounding the chair was a series of floating panels that hummed with potential.
He was guided towards the chair. As he approached, the panels parted, allowing him to walk through unperturbed. He took a seat and noticed that the small machine sat just above his arm. It had many tubes and three empty cylindrical slots at the top.
Adrian sat there nervously as the aliens spoke to each other in their grating language. One of them came close and inserted three glass vials into each of the empty slots on the machine. The blue liquid contained within pumped through the tubes. He saw this and frowned, which quickly turned into a wince as the machine clamped down on his arm with no warning and injected him with the contents of the vials.
A cooling sensation ran through his veins as his heart pumped the intruding liquid throughout his body. After several seconds, the cold gathered behind his eyes. The feeling was at odds with the warmth of his body. Without warning, icy needles of pain lanced through into his eyes. Adrian screamed out, clutching them. He thrashed around in the chair and fell off, landing on his shoulder. He paid no regard to the impact and rolled on the ground in an attempt to distract himself from his misery.
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He was left alone while this happened. The aliens made no move to help him, instead talking amongst themselves in their nonsensical language. The pain abated somewhat, and he blinked back tears. His eyes were beyond sensitive to the light, and he was unable to keep them open.
He cried out as he tried opening them once more, quickly screwing them shut. Sitting up off the ground, he felt around for the chair he’d fallen from, making use of the quick glimpse of the room he’d gotten. Locating it, he hauled himself up and sat down, clutching his eyes.
He heard movement beside him and his hands were forcefully moved away. Something soft wrapped around his head and over his eyes. They were putting bandages on him. He waited for them to finish before reaching up to feel his newest accessory.
The bandages were wrapped securely around his head, and he could only see darkness when he opened his eyes beneath them. The act of opening his eyes triggered a fresh wave of pain, making him grimace. His tears were absorbed by the material and wicked away from his skin.
He rested there until he was grabbed by both arms and hauled off the chair, sharp chitinous digits slicing through Adrian’s clothes and cutting into him. He was left standing there, bleeding, when they let go of him. A prod from behind urged him forward. With unsure steps, Adrian did his best to follow, being nudged in the right direction whenever he veered off course.
Adrian used his hands to feel around in front of him, preventing him from running into objects. They brought him towards the door, whose edge he felt as he passed by. Adrian figured they were bringing him back to his cell.
He continued to walk, forcefully nudged on until the alien in front of him started clicking. He stopped and waited, unsure of what to do. The alien walked around, behind, and away from him. A gentle hum from behind told him that the barrier reappeared, followed by the sound of the wall closing back up.
He was alone again in his cell. He turned around and took several tentative steps forward, his hand outstretched. Coming into contact with the wall, he began walking around the room, keeping his hand on the wall at chest height as a guide. He located the water dispenser and took several gulps, his throat parched after the experiment.
His eyes throbbed and felt like they were being scratched from the inside by rough grains of sand. Sharp spikes of pain came and went as Adrian sat on the floor in the dark. Sleep came with difficulty, the pain keeping him awake. When he woke up, a slightly different scent filled the room. Painstakingly, he managed to crawl closer towards the source.
Feeling around, his hands came across the familiar hole in the wall where his food appeared. They were giving him something to eat. He felt around inside and picked up a familiar cube, turning it around in his hands. It was the same size and texture as the ones he normally ate. He hoped it was the same food and not something new. Taking a tentative bite, he was relieved that it was indeed what he normally ate. He welcomed the familiar full-body throb that came with each bite.
After finishing his meal, Adrian lost track of time. Going to the bathroom had been an adventure with the bandages on his eyes, which remained screwed shut as they were still too painful to open.
He waited for something, anything to happen. Slumped against the wall, he strained his ears for any sign of change to his environment. Remaining alert through the pain was difficult. Phantom noises spooked him, his head swivelling towards imaginary sounds. He expected another experiment at any moment, and the thought of undergoing one blind terrified him. Between the pain and his fear, he hardly slept.
Slowly, he began experimenting and opening his eyes, adjusting to the pain as it went away. Several cycles passed before he was able to keep his eyes open comfortably for any length of time. Once he no longer felt any pain, he began clawing at the bandages in an attempt to remove them.
They remained fastened to his face, unyielding and refusing to budge. As if sensing the change in his behaviour, the door to his cell opened and he was brought back to the room where they’d been put on.
A wet sensation on the back of his head caught his attention as parts of the bandages dissolved in the solution that was being applied to them. A pressure he hadn’t noticed was relieved as the bandages came off his face.
Carefully, he opened his eyes. Bright light stung at his vision and tears formed. The pain was manageable and soon he had them wide open. The differences in his vision from before the experiment were astounding.
Everything was clearer and sharper; colours were more vibrant. He marveled at the change, still feeling a slight cold sensation coming from behind his eyes. He could pick out minute details and see the individual hairs on the antennae sprouting from the aliens’ heads as they twitched.
Adrian noticed a hologram in the room change as he looked around. Focusing on it, he found the sight awfully familiar. What was projected was exactly what he was seeing in his field of vision. Staring directly at the screen changed the picture displayed and an infinity of screens stared back at him. The effect was as mesmerizing as it was dizzying. He tore his gaze away.
The aliens were able to see exactly what he was seeing. Whatever they had done to his eyes had granted them this ability. The thought unsettled Adrian greatly and made him feel uncomfortable. He felt violated by how invasive it was to his privacy. Not that he had any real privacy here, he supposed. If he was being monitored at all times, then this was no different. He still didn’t like it though.
He sat stiffly in the chair as the aliens prepared another dose of injections while he was distracted. This time the liquid in the vials was lime green. Adrian chastised himself when he noticed what was happening around him. He should have known by now that nothing was ever easy and prepared himself for whatever fresh horror they had in store for him today.
The needles bit into his arm, the experience just as unpleasant as it had been the first time around. He braced himself, but no pain came immediately. The aliens congregated towards one screen and chittered amongst each other in a series of clicks and hisses.
A small, but manageable headache formed in the back of his skull while he waited. As if having forgotten that their test subject was still in the room with them, one of the aliens clicked loudly and the others stopped talking, turning their attention back to him. The alien clicked some more and a different one brought Adrian back to his cell.
The lights were harsher with his enhanced vision, but he made do. Adrian occupied himself by slowly eating the food left out for him. The taste was still horrendous, but at least it gave him something to do. All too quickly, he was out of food and bored again. His headache slowly intensified into a full-blown migraine as he sat there.
Adrian laid down on the floor, trying his best to ignore it, but the pain kept increasing. He clutched his head and groaned. Still, the headache worsened. He started shaking his ankles from where he lay, trying to find an outlet. When he could no longer stay still, he began rolling around on the floor, trying anything that might help distract him from the mind-numbing pain.
It felt like a spike was being driven into his brain while a jack hammer and a drill competed to see which one could turn it to mush first. Adrian stomped his feet on the ground wildly and turned over. He began banging his head against the floor. Lightly at first, but more pronounced with each strike.
He tried to stand, his fingernails digging into his scalp. He approached a wall and leaned heavily on it. A static filled the air and his cuffs stuck fast to the wall, slamming into it with a metallic clang. He tried moving his wrists, but they refused to budge. He flexed and strained with no success.
Adrian was stuck in his current position. Time passed by in a blur as he stood there unable to properly form thoughts, his screams a meagre distraction.
His headache eventually receded until it was nothing more than a distant memory. He calmed down and stopped struggling against his restraints. After an hour of remaining docile, the static in the air disappeared and Adrian was free to move again. He flexed his hands and wrists, testing his newfound freedom.
Adrian’s biggest surprise occurred when they turned off the lights so he could sleep. Instead of the total darkness he expected, he saw in greyscale. Everything was still rather dark, but he could still see. He looked down at his hands, amazed. Adrian could make out the walls of his cell and even the water dispenser.