February, 2282
White lights. That's what she could see.
What could she feel? Pain. It was everywhere, but worse in her left arm and ribs than anywhere else.
And with a sudden crack, the pain spread to her left leg as well.
"No!" Alma cried, "Oh, God, please stop!"
"Alma," Rochelle said, careful to keep her voice calm, "we have to do this. You know that."
The girl glanced over to her arm; it had been broken, and the bone poked through his skin. There was blood. A lot of it. And bruising, and swelling, and the sight made her sick. She knew her abdomen was equally bruised, because at least a few of her ribs had been broken as well.
The girl squeezed her eyes shut and fought the urge to vomit. "Why?" she whispered. This wasn't the first time they'd subjected her to this. It had happened before, both to her and James. The other children, though? They hadn't been put through this since they were ten, and no one knew why the experiment only continued on Alma and James.
Rochelle opted not to respond. She knew the answer to the girl's question; she and James had both been injected with a hybrid of F.E.V. and the Pan-Immunity Virion - called P.E.V. - and thus far, it was the most successful any of the vault's experiments had been since the bombs dropped. There had been others like them before, but to her knowledge, Alma and James were the most successful experiments to date.
One of the effects was that their bodies healed faster than most, meaning they had to test it, see what the limits were, and see how quickly the subjects recovered, which is where breaking bones came in. Telling her about it, however, wasn't an option; the Overseer would have a fit. The doctor turned to the synth responsible for injuring the girl on her table. "Her ankle next." The synth nodded and did as it was told.
Pain exploded in Alma's leg, briefly blinding her. She shrieked. She knew it was coming, and she knew it was going to hurt, because the synths were told to grind the broken bones against each other whilst breaking them in an attempt to splinter them further.
Rochelle seemed unphased by the girl's screams. Alma's voice had become hoarse from screaming and crying, but Rochelle had no choice but to continue. She glanced over the subject's chart before giving the synth its next order. "Dislocate her shoulder."
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James and Rohit sat outside one of the experiment rooms. There were several, most of them being in the same hallway as the two boys. Every single one of them had windows so that the experiments could be observed. The pair could hear Alma's screams from inside, but they were faint due to the thickness of the vault's walls.
"Which ones do you think they're breaking this time?" Rohit asked. His knees were drawn to his chest, and his eyes were locked on the floor.
James had his legs laid out straight on the floor. His ankles were crossed, and his hands were clasped in his lap. Like Rohit, his eyes were downcast. "I have no idea," he said, "but I bet they're grinding. That's probably why she's screaming so much."
"I hate this."
The blonde sighed. "Yeah, me too." He leaned his head back against the wall and allowed his eyes to drift shut. "The three of us are gonna graduate soon, though. We've got, what, three months?"
Rohit nodded. "Three months. And then none of us are going to have to deal with these experiments. We'll just head west, get in touch with the NCR, and start actually helping people."
"You know," James muttered, "I heard they told the last Graduates to go to the Enclave. You know, the ones who see anyone but their own as unpure or whatever."
He furrowed his brow. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would they send them there? Wouldn't they get shot on sight or something?"
"I have no idea. Maybe the staff has some kind of connection to them. Maybe they send us all different places?"
"Yeah," Rohit said, "maybe." He glanced to James. "Wanna go to the shooting range till they're done with her?"
James nodded, and the pair stood. Rohit, however, froze upon spotting the experiment across the hall.
Radiation emitters were in the room, surrounding a small platform. On it was a girl of Asian descent. Despite only being thirteen, she was nearly six feet tall and weighed nearly two hundred pounds. She was slim, however, and the weight was due to muscle. The girl was on her knees, her hands on her scalp where her hair used to be. It was now scattered on the platform around her. Her skin was covered in radiation burns and sores that had popped up over the last week, because she'd been there for the last two weeks.
And now, on the fifteenth day? Her skin was peeling off.
James watched in horror as the girl's mouth opened, presumably because she was screaming. His attention was stolen by the sound of retching, and when he turned to face it, he saw Rohit vomiting into a nearby trash can.
"Mitu," he gasped between retches, "t-they're gonna kill her!"
James' gaze shifted back to Mitu, the girl being exposed to the radiation. The room's walls were reinforced so the radiation didn't leak into the rest of the vault. She'd also vomited a few times earlier in the experiment because of the radiation, but by this point, she'd stopped screaming and had collapsed. James was thankful she'd at least been able to avoid collapsing into one of the pools of vomit, and he turned back to Rohit. "Hey," he muttered, "let's go. You don't need to be down here."
Rohit had stopped vomiting, but he still leaned against the trash can to steady himself. When James spoke, he glanced up, and after a moment's hesitation, followed.
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The two quickly made their way back toward the atrium rather than the shooting range. It served as a cafeteria, and as such, a small kitchen was attached. On the opposite side of the room was a doorway; this led to a large cavern with a swing set, a geometric dome for climbing on, and generators. This is where James led Rohit to, and the two seated themselves on the swings.
Silence.
They didn't need to speak. They both knew what the other was thinking.
James was concerned for Alma. He was worried for Mitu, but he'd already accepted that the girl was going to die. They always did in that state. Alma, though? She'd survived the bone breaking on more than a few occasions, and this wasn't a particularly rough round. There had been one time where over half of the bones in her body had been broken. He still remembered what she looked like after that; covered in splints and casts and bandages, unable to move for weeks. Unable to feed herself, or bathe, or even use the bathroom on her own.
This was nothing compared to that.
Rohit was angry. Angry at the staff for subjecting his sister to this, angry at them for killing Mitu, angry at them for all the other tests they ran on the kids. He'd seen countless children die. For what?
He knew they were supposed to go to Uptopland to help people. He wanted to do it. But were these experiments worth it? What could they do that normal people couldn't? Sure, James and Alma were stronger and smarter. They'd be useful. But everyone else? They were either average, or less than that. None of them would be any more useful than any other settler, and given how little they actually knew about Uptopland, they might even be a hindrance to settlements.
The experiments and tests and pain they were being subjected to were a waste as far as he was concerned. And he hated them for continuing to do it.
"She'll be out soon," James muttered.
Rohit glanced up to a clock on the wall. The two had been sitting in silence for nearly an hour. "You wanna get the sweet roll for her?"
"Yeah," he said, standing, "You go meet her in her room. She'll be in a lot of pain."
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Alma was in her bed by the time Rohit got to the sleeping quarters. Her left arm and leg were both in casts after being set. Her ribs had been left untouched since a cast wasn't a possibility, and compression wraps could have led to pneumonia. Still, the fact that they'd been cracked meant that moving hurt. Breathing hurt. Laying in any other position except for flat on her back hurt, but that had never been a comfortable position for her.
In short, she was tired, hurting, and now hungry because she'd vomited during the experiment due to the pain.
The door slid open, and Rohit stepped through. His face was solemn, but she was glad to see him and his messy auburn hair and pretty hazel eyes. They were distinct and familiar and she'd be able to pick him out of a crowd from any distance with them. "Hey," she muttered.
Rohit grabbed a couple chairs and set them next to the bed before taking a seat in one. "Hey. How bad is it?"
"From one to ten?" Alma sighed and closed her eyes. "About a seven."
"No painkillers?"
"Course not."
Rohit leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "We only have a couple more months till Graduation, you know."
The girl nodded. "I know."
"James is getting you a sweet roll."
A small smile formed on her lips. "I know that, too. You guys always do that."
"Well, you do it for us." He smiled and laced his fingers through Alma's, taking care to avoid bumping her ribs.
"Yeah, because you two are titty babies about pain."
Rohit's smile widened. Despite her pain, Alma was still joking. That was a good sign. "Don't make me kick your ass, Alma."
"Oh, whatever. You couldn't take me, not even now when I'm in bed with casts."
"Is that a challenge?"
Alma grinned. "Oh, you actually caught on this time."
"Why, you-"
Rohit was cut off by the door opening again. This time, it was James who entered, a sweet roll and napkin in his hand. "You two really gotta quit bickering," he said as he made his way toward the bed. Despite his statement, he had a twinkle in his eyes that made it clear he found the two amusing.
"How'd you know we were bickering?" Alma asked, her grin having faded to a smile.
"These rooms have windows," he explained, "I know you two well enough to know what you look like when you're doing it."
Rohit rolled his eyes and leaned forward to kiss his sister's forehead. "I'll give you guys a sec. I'm gonna go find some painkillers."
Alma nodded and watched as her brother left before looking to James. "Can I have the sweet roll?"
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The atrium was empty by the time Rohit left Alma. As such, it was silent. Most lights had been shut off, and synths were going about cleaning the place up. They did throughout the day, but in the evenings, they swept, mopped, and whatever else they needed to do. The atrium also had bathrooms and locker rooms attached to it, and Rohit made his way to the latter, as he'd had painkillers stashed in his locker. He grabbed the bottle of pills, then made his way back toward the sleeping quarters Alma had been sent to.
He paused a few moments later when he heard rustling. It was an odd sound, given that there was nothing around that should be making it. After a few moments of looking around, his eyes settled on a vent. Stuck to the vent's grille was a small packet of paper.
Rohit furrowed his brow and fished them out, looking the papers over. There were three, and they were stapled together. On the first page, there was information about them.
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P.E.V. Subjects
Alma Lancaster
Scored superior in both intellectual and physical screenings. PEV seems effective.
Set for Harvesting.
James Smith
Scored superior in physical screenings and excellent in intellectual screenings. PEV seems effective.
Set for Harvesting.
Steroid Subjects
Rohit Lancaster
Scored excellent in physical screenings and average in intellectual screenings. Steroids are effective, but don't provide the desired results.
Set for Disposal.
Mitu Kane
Scored average in both physical and intellectual screenings. Steroids ineffective.
Died during radiation exposure experiment. Body is to be disposed of.
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The list continued and ran onto the second page, detailing more experiments using enhancement pills and pre-birth genetic enhancement, with Nina Kurt and Brendon Clarke being standard humans and serving as the "control group."
Alma and James were the only two set for "harvesting."
What was disposal? What did it mean?
Rohit's blood ran cold when he turned to the third page.
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Subjects will be thrown the usual Graduation party in the morning.
Overseer Hayes will give his speech on Uptopland after lunch, and then one by one, subjects will be brought to the upper floor for lethal injections.
Subjects will be told these are vaccines.
After being given injections, subjects will be tagged with their names, numbers, and destinations. Synths will take the subjects being disposed of down to the incinerator.
The subjects being harvested will be moved to labs and used to create the next round of subjects.
Any staff members who divert from this plan will be disposed of.
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Panic spread through the boy's body.
His hands shook.
His mind raced.
There wasn't enough air in the room.
Before he knew it, Rohit was running. The paper was clenched in his hand, and he didn't realize it, but the pills he'd gotten for Alma had been dropped and forgotten. He sprinted through the corridors until he'd reached Alma's room, where James stood, waiting for him.
"Hey," the boy greeted, "she's asleep. Well, unconscious. Passed out a few minutes ago. Did you get the-" James stopped upon noticing the state Rohit was in. "What's going on?"
Rohit simply pushed the paper into James's hands, his throat too tight to speak.
James scanned the papers. Just like Rohit, the color drained from his face and his hands began shaking. He swallowed, then looked to his friend. "This can't be right," he whispered.
"It was in a vent," Rohit muttered, "and there aren't any printers down here. It had to have come from the staff floor."
The two boys looked to each other, sharing a single thought:
We have to stop this.
