The Hive: Kaliska

"Time's up!" a gruff, nasily voice informed us. "Everyone back to your designated cells!"

The cafeteria started to clear out at once. The more "dangerous" experiments that needed escort were hoisted up and handcuffed immediately by their accompanying guards, even if they weren’t done with their current mouthful of food. There was even one guy that they were putting a muzzle on. Sheesh, I wonder what his power was...

I unwrapped my arms from around Jessi and put my hands on her shoulders to hold her at a distance. She sniffled, her eyes closed tight. "It will be okay, Jessi," I told her sternly. "Just keep doing what we always do: survive." I could tell she needed some major encouragement. "We're still here, right? We can make it through this. You know, I bet--"

Her eyes opened. "We have to escape."

I blinked, interrupted.

"We have to get out of here," she continued a little more fervently. "Don't you see? We'll die if we don't!"

... Escape? Yes, the thought had crossed my mind now and then, but never seriously. You might call me stupid for never considering it, but when this kind of life is all you have known, it's hard to believe there's something else out there. Apparently, I was actually normal at one time in my life. But they kidnapped me when I was too young to remember, so it doesn't really matter.

I sighed and shook my head. "Jessi..."

"Come on! We're on an island! You can swim, and I can fly..."

She trailed off. There was a guard coming our way, and I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate what we were talking about. "We'll talk about this later... at dinner," I whispered; she nodded.

We turned to pick up our trays and through them away, acting casual. That guard was still coming towards us. I looked at Jessi with an expression that said "What the..."

"Hey," barked a voice from behind us. Oh, God. He couldn't have heard... could he? I ignored it, scraping my tray off into the garbage and placing it on top of the stack of other dirty trays. "Hey, you," it said again. Jessi froze next to me. There was no hiding from it now. I grimaced and turned around.

"Yeah, you," the guard declared, coming to a stop in front of us. He thrust a piece of paper at me. "Looks like you got a surprise appointment."

I took the paper. He sneered at us before turning and walking away.

"Great." I rolled my eyes, although a part of me was relieved.

"What does it say?" Jessi inquired.

I looked at it. "It just says what room they want me to go to."

Jessi nodded. I could tell she was distracted. "Well, we'll talk later. Bye, Kaliska."

"See ya." We marched our separate ways. Better leave before the cocky guards feel like they need to use excessive force. I examined the paper again as I walked.

Off to waiting room number 407.
~~~
There wasn't anything spectacular about waiting room number 407. It was the one that I have always had to go to. But every time I did, I always got a bad feeling, so waiting room 407 was marked with cold blood, in my mind. I shuddered. I would take my time walking down this hall on the fourth floor.

You would think that I'd be at least a little curious to know what the appointment was for, but really I wasn't. It could only be one of two things: an exam (which was highly likely because I had just finished doing that endurance test) or another injection. I hoped to God it wasn't the latter.

Inevitably, I reached the door, and hesitated. Come on, just get it over with. I sighed and pushed the door open.

What greeted me was actually not what I expected.

Instead of the seating arrangement of uncomfortable grey-padded chairs, there were two wonderfully blue couches that looked quite comfortable to sit on. It almost made me happy. Almost. Until I realized that one couch was just as much beyond repair as the entire room. The only two lamps-- which were also new and colorful-- were smashed and broken on the floor. The only light was coming from the emergency lights from overhead and, strangely enough, the flames that were now consuming one side of a couch. There were dents, cracks, and even holes in the walls and ceiling. I stood there, mouth agape.

"Rain and Alex were here." The obese secretary answered my obvious question in an irritated tone.

Ah, that explains it. Rain and the bird boy, her brother, had quite a reputation and were well known in the Hive, even to the other experiments. They were top priority projects, just like me (and believe me, that's NOT a fun thing). In fact, Jessi was kind of... a test rat for Alex. Both had hawk DNA successfully grafted to their genetic makeup, meaning that they had raptor senses, and could sprout wings from their back and fly. But for whatever reason, Alex was the more important specimen, so whatever they were going to test on him, they tested on Jessi first to make sure it wasn't lethal.

I've met Rain before. She's a good person; a little too sarcastic for my taste, but trustworthy. At least, that's my impression of her. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that she had some sort of control over fire. Oh, now it clicked. The flaming couch. Definitely fire.

Several custodians arrived just then, although I'm sure they wouldn't be able to help much. One of them had a bucket of water with him. He brought it over to the couch, but instead of doing the obvious thing, he soaked a towel in the water and threw that on the flames. What was he trying to do? Save the couch from water stains? Anyway, it didn't work. Fire quickly dried out and consumed the rag in a burst of energy and he tripped backwards, narrowly avoiding getting singed. His foot hit the bucket and it tipped over, the water running away in little rivers. The newby custodian then began to panic, swinging his head back and forth looking around for help, but everyone was occupied. It surprised me how no one else was worried about the fire.

I laughed a little and rolled my eyes. He was a comic sight. But I decided to help him. It took him a moment to realize that the water seemed to be spilling in reverse. It massed together in one shifting sphere and hovered in the air above the couch. Then, I released the water from my control, and it immediately suffocated the flames.

He glanced around him with wide eyes, surly looking for someone who had also seen this phenomenon, but no one else had been paying attention. I couldn’t hold my laugh in anymore. The custodian whipped his head in my direction and gave me one of the meanest death glares I had ever seen. I just smiled back at him and winked.

I heard a door open to my left, then a gasp. It was my usual physician. His face didn’t even betray so much as a little shock, although once his eyes found me, he regarded me accusingly, like you would look at a puppy who had just pissed on your favorite blanket. But he dropped the look when I conveyed ignorance and innocence. At least he trusted me… kind of.

“Kaliska,” he called, adding a quick nod towards the door. He glanced once more at the catastrophe, then turned, expecting me to follow. I did, and the waiting room disappeared behind me as the door closed.

I ran a couple steps to catch up with Dr. Gontier. He was a tall, lean man, and he walked fast.

“So, what’chya got for me today?” I inquired.

“We’re trying something new this time,” he said, “after we check your vitals.”

Oh great. I was wrong. It would be both. I sighed.

After going to the end of one hall, turning a corner, and going down another passageway, we reached the usual destination; a door with a plaque on it that read “Examination Room D-14.”

Numbers, numbers. Always numbers. So cold and calculating. Where’s the love?

He held the door open for me, but not in a polite way. More like I was incapable or unworthy of doing it myself. I pretended not to notice as I walked inside.

“Sit,” Gontier commanded.

I may not be short, but I still had to leap up onto the exam table. My legs swung back and forth over the edge nervously. The doctor had his back turned to me and whatever he was doing was producing delicate clinking sounds.

When he turned back around, he had a terrifyingly long and thick syringe in his hand. His martyred expression showed no pity, as if he did this every day. Probably because he did.

I was scared shitless.

I wasn’t scared of needles – never had been. But I was terrified of pain, ever since the first experimentation they performed on me. And that needle looked like it was going to hurt.

To my great relief, he set it on the tray next to him. “It has to sit until room temperature,” he explained.

I let out the breath I was holding, and relaxed, but only slightly.

I tried to calm my mind as he performed the normal check-up – listened to my heartbeat and respiration, checked my reflexes (which I guess were faster than an average human, but I couldn’t tell you that myself), looked in my ears, nose, and throat, and made sure my eyes dilated correctly. After every stage, he jotted down notes on a clipboard.

“Everything checks out,” he said, clicking his pen and tucking it into the pocket on the front of his coat. He then proceeded to draw blood from the inside of my elbow, which was also normal procedure. I felt the needle wiggle around in my arm, but it was just uncomfortable, not painful.

Finally, even that was done, and there was no more avoiding it. My breath started to come fast, and I could swear that even the doctor was able to hear my heart speed up without the help of his stethoscope.

He picked up the syringe.

“Why is the needle so big?” I blurted automatically.

“This solution has to enter your nervous system; in order to do that, it needs to be delivered to the top of your spine, which requires a big needle,” he explained impatiently. “Now, lay on your side and face the wall.”

I whimpered under my breath, but complied. I felt him lift my shirt up to my shoulders. I braced myself, clenching my fists and jaw. Then he pushed the fat needle under my skin. Between the back of my neck and shoulder.

I bit my lip until I tasted blood to keep myself from screaming bloody murder. I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut tight, but it didn’t help. God, it was taking forever! Just hurry up and finish!

A tingling sensation was making itself known in my neck area. It was kind of like when your foot falls asleep, and it feels like little needles are poking it, except for it wasn’t my foot. And it was a couple times worse.

Finally! The syringe was removed. I let out the breath I’d been holding, and panted. I let my body relax.

After a few moments, Gontier spoke. “Sit up.”

I finally opened my eyes. Hmm, my vision was a little blurry. I hoped that wasn’t permanent. Sighing, I pushed myself to a sitting position.

That’s when the pain really began.

The tingling sensation that was in my neck spread throughout my body within two seconds. The stinging and poking amplified to an excruciating level.

I screamed like fucking hell.

I slammed back down onto the metal table and writhed in agony. My body twisted and contorted out of control. Dr. Gontier just watched me with that same look on his face. He was taking notes. Fuck him!

Still shrieking like a banshee, a particularly violent spasm shook me, and I fell to the cold floor. I was in a conscious, seizure-like state. Although I never totally blacked out, my mind created an emergency place that it could escape to since it couldn’t combat the pain. I thought of my conversation with Jessi earlier, and had a delusion of escaping the hive. It was a very detailed delusion about how we escaped and what a free life was like.

For the first time in all the minutes, all the cold, calculated, manipulated hours, days, months, years that I had spent my life here, I finally knew what I had to do. Jessi was right: we had to get out of here.