Why couldn’t they just be dreams? They were chilling but the fact that they were more than just dreams was terrifying. I squeezed my eyes closed as I remembered smelling the steel beneath me, of hearing the drill. Feeling my head and realizing all my hair had been shaved off. I remembered dreaming of running endlessly. Dreaming of a pair of earthy eyes watching me through an observation window. It was West, I knew that now. He had seen everything they had done to me. The only person I had actually known my whole life, and I couldn’t remember him.
I didn’t sleep that night. I just stared up at the ceiling, trying to dredge up memories I couldn’t recall, memories that were recorded by someone else’s hand on the pages I held.
Morning came, casting a grey hue to the space around me. I didn’t leave my tent, couldn’t make myself even get out of my bed. But it was one of those very rare days I didn’t have any duties.
As I heard Eden begin to stir, a plate of food was pushed under the flap of my tent and then I heard footsteps retreating. I reached for it, eating what was there without realizing what it even was.
The food in my system seemed to boost my commitment to unlock the past and I finally opened the pages.
West was right, the pages about me were located in the middle. The notes in the beginning of the notebook may as well have been written in another language. It was scientific and talked about a lot of different alloys, programming, words I didn’t understand. I could only guess that they were about the design for making me what I was.
The first entry was dated from when I would have been roughly four-years-old.
Test subject Eve has been observed for 1,128 days. She has shown optimal health, vitality, and intelligence. Procedure is scheduled for this coming Friday.
So there was my answer. They had been watching me since before I was even a year old. Had I been with my family before that? Had I even had one, ever? Maybe they had picked me out of an orphanage. They could have found me in a dumpster for all I knew.
The next entry was dated for two days after my surgery was supposed to take place.
Operation was a success as far as we can tell. Subject was sedated and Dr. Rothenberg assisted my son in the procedure. Chip was implanted and subject transferred to recovery room and is being closely observed. She is being sedated for the first three days and then we shall see what happens. Under normal circumstances, recovery could take up to a month, maybe longer. Vitals are showing signs of recovery already. Brain activity is steadily increasing.
What he didn’t know was that the sedation had taken longer than they had expected. I had relived that horrifying moment of paralyzation in my dreams. I had heard the sound of the drill, the feeling of being unable to move my limbs. Thankfully, I must have been finally pulled under before they drilled into the back of my skull. Or if I hadn’t, I didn’t remember that part.
Seven days later:
Subject began to awaken five days after surgery. Eve was sluggish at first, appearing confused and unsteady. Coordination was obviously thrown off. Things changed rapidly by the next day.
An assistant went to check on Eve and to give her the morning rations. Subject was startled awake and attacked the assistant. We heard the racket and opened the door to find Eve on top of the assistant, fingers gripped tightly around her neck. The assistant wasn’t breathing and her lips were turning blue. Upon seeing us enter the room, subject leapt at us, attacking with force far beyond what a four-year-old should be capable of. It took three of us to wrestle her onto the bed and secure her down.
Aggression was extreme for the next few days. We waited for things to even out. The fusion of the chip and the human brain is bound to be fought. The implant is placed in an area of the brain where emotion stems from. The brain is trying to attack itself, manifesting as aggression. Programming will be adjusted to fix the problem.
Problem. That was what my reaction to being altered was. It was a problem that I hadn’t liked what they had done to me, that I had tried to fight back.
“Eve? Are you alright?”
I jumped violently when I heard the voice from outside my tent.
“Yes, Gabriel,” I said, trying to steady my shaking voice. “I just needed some time to myself today.” Was I lying? What counted more as time to yourself when you’re learning what happened to you in the past that you can’t remember?
He hesitated, catching my out-of-character response. “Okay,” he said, drawing out the word. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” I said, shrinking into my bed. I listened hard until I heard his footsteps fade away.
My hands were shaking as I looked back at the notebook. I suddenly felt like I had to keep this a secret, as much as West had felt he had to. I didn’t want anyone to know what was in here. The past it contained exposed what I was, what I was capable of. It exposed the fact that I wasn’t completely human.
But West had read it all. He knew everything that was written here. And he hadn’t been afraid of me. He hadn’t run away.
I shook my head. West was a distraction I couldn’t afford. I didn’t like to admit it, but that’s what he was. A distraction.
An entry from several months after the chip had been implanted:
Thus far the chip has been successful in overriding limitations as designed. Endurance has been increased. Exhaustion has been overruled. Tied to this is increased strength.
There has been talk about approaching military officials. This technology is something they have sought after for decades. We have created the potential for the perfect soldier in Eve. With an army that never tires, doesn’t feel pain, and is stronger and faster than everyone else, they would be unstoppable.
While I may have decreased morals I am unwilling to allow this to get out. Eve’s experimentation is a means to another end. Once the data needed has been collected, I shall move onto the next phase of the experiment. I will not allow the world to be destroyed with an army of beings like Eve. Surely it would be the end of humanity.
He had been wrong. It was with the intent to heal and save the world that he had in fact destroyed it.
And that was when it hit me. West’s grandfather was the one who had created the infection. It was his research and his creation that had led to the fall of humanity. And I had been a part of that. He had created the infection using the data he had collected from the experiments done on me.
I nearly vomited.
My stomach rolled as I forced myself to read through the rest of the pages. It didn’t seem important to read them in detail anymore. I had been experimented upon as a child. And now here I was. I was the way I was and there was nothing I could do to change that.
There were pages and pages recording the endurance tests I had been put through. They continued to monitor my sleep habits. It seemed I had required little sleep my entire life. I didn’t require as much food as normal people but I still required it as I was mostly human.
The shock of reading what was continued on those pages should have worn off by then. It didn’t. Things continued to get more twisted and terrifying.
An unexpected side effect of the chip implantation has occurred. I have been aware of the fact that everything Eve is able to do should be impossible. Her strength, her speed, her increased eyesight and hearing capacities. It’s just not possible with a simple chip in her brain telling her to do these things. This has evolved beyond the capacity of what was expected.