Chapter Twenty-Six
I'm pushed into a room by Erasers and land on my knees. I spin around to glare at them, but the door is slammed shut just before it comes into view. Trying hard not to growl in frustration, I turn around again and freeze, stunned by the sight in front of me.'
I'm in a room made of ice. No, not a freezer, but a room made literally of ice. It looks like a cave of ice that's white to blue and every color in between. The size of the room appears to be about half the size of the arena I used to fight Erasers in, but the ceiling is only a few feet above my head, meaning I can't fly in here.
Slowly, I begin to feel the cold through the long-sleeved shirt and pants that are reasonably thick, but not good enough for these sorts of temperatures. The scientists had forced me into them after literally cutting my old clothes off of me, muttering something about burning the old clothes for some reason. I've also got normal socks, which aren't very thick, and sneakers that are exactly my size on. Otherwise, I've got nothing else to wear.
Walking around the room to see what's in it, I realize that there are small caves in the ice made purely of ice; it looks like they just drilled holes into the walls of the room that are about four feet high and six feet deep. There are also some cliffs along the walls starting about halfway into the room. Otherwise, the room is just an area made of ice. It's actually what I imagine Antarctica to look like, though I've only heard passing comments about the continent at the bottom of the world.
I don't know why I've been sent into this room, but I know that I have to keep walking or there's a chance I'll freeze or get hypothermia, though I have a feeling the scientists will take me out before I die. Walking around the same area over and over is boring, so I try to make a game of it, though it's hard to begin until I catch sight of darker patches of ice in random areas of the floor, all of them within jumping distance of each other.
My game is very simple really. I jump from patch to patch, trying not to touch the lighter shades of ice, as I try to get from one side of the room to the other. If I touch a lighter shade of ice, I have to start over. Once I do it once, I have to try as get back to the beginning. When that gets boring, I start trying to use my wings to jump from patch to patch, but not the ones right by each other.
By the time I'm exhausted from all of my movement, I can barely feel the cold anymore and I'm much more used to it. The only problem I can see is sleeping in here because I know that overnight my body will get cold again, and I don't want to wake up frozen. Thinking about a solution just doesn't get results, so I go find the largest cave I can, it's five feet high and eight feet deep, and go inside.
When I start to get cold, instinct seems to take over and my twelve-foot wings surround me so that it's like I'm in a feather cocoon. Sudden warmth seems to go into my body, making me even warmer than before, which surprises me since I had thought I had been warm as I could be before. It seems my feathers are a source of heat; that or the heat reflecting off of them is warming me up just like a jacket would.
The heat lulling me, I fall asleep peacefully, not even noticing my hungry stomach or dry throat. In fact, I don't notice them for two days, and when I do, I just grab a bit of ice and suck on it to take away the dryness of my threat, chewing on more to try and cut down the pain from my hunger to a manageable level every day.
I don't know how long I'm kept in this room, but I spend every day making up new games that range from trying to glide just beneath the ceiling to sliding on the ice to jumping from the cliffs to practice using my wings to slow down a fall, no matter how small it is. All I know is that the movement keeps me warm, the ice keeps my thirst down just enough so that my throat doesn't hurt, and the chewing of ice keeps my stomach from killing me from hunger.
I could have spent a month in there for all I know. By the time I'm let out of that room, I'm so used to the cold that the hallway is making me feel as if I've just been put into an oven. I start sweating so much in there that my clothes are soaked within minutes, which seems to surprise the scientists before they seem to remember that the temperature is burning for me. They consult a clipboard, pointing at different things on it and whispering to one another, before seeming to agree on something.
A couple of women come towards me and lead me down the hall and into a cooler room, though not as cold as the ice room. I stop sweating as much, though the room is still burning hot to me. Inside the room is a table with a tray of food, three bottles of water, and a few glasses of milk.
Without even thinking about it, I hurry over to the table and drain two glasses of milk before I even touch my fork. Once I do, I begin to shove food into my mouth as if I've never seen it in my life before. I don't even know what I'm eating; I just eat everything on my plate, stopping here and there to drain a glass of milk or a bottle of water. By the time I'm done, I've eaten every last crumb and sucked out every last drop of liquid that the meal had to offer.
Finally looking up from the table, I see the scientists looking at me in only slight shock, as if they had expected this reaction from me. Shrugging mentally, I stand up from the chair I've been sitting in and walk over to them, waiting for instructions on what to do next. The two women lead me over to the other side of the table where there is a pile of clothes I hadn't noticed before.
Lifting the pile up, I see a thin shirt, light shorts, and flip-flops in it. Confused about the choice in clothes, I take off my clothes, barely even thinking about the fact that I've got two adults in the room because I'm so used to changing with scientists in the room, and put on the new ones.
The two women lead me out of the room and down the hall to a new room, gesturing for me to go inside. I open the door and stop in the entrance, surprised by the sudden change in rooms. Last time it had been freezing cold; this time it's burning hot. In front of me is a desert that's about three-fourths of the size of the arena I had used to fight in.
A push from behind forces me inside just before the door slams closed behind me and I hear a lock turning even though I never turn around. Looking around while I take a few steps into the room, I see very little in the room, though there's more than there was in the other room. I'm standing on sand that seems to be trying to burn my feet – I have a feeling it's going to succeed pretty soon – and I spot a few plants that look like what I've heard cactuses look like.
Other than that, I see a lot of different sized stones, some fist sized and some so large that they're at least as large as my cage back in Flint. There are also a lot of branches and twigs from trees around, all in very random positions. Some are just lying on the ground; some are slightly buried in sand; some you can barely see back of sand; some are sticking out of the sand with the tips of them buried; some are standing straight up and are just barely visible. They are also a lot of different sizes, some large and some small.
Smiling happily, I realize that this room could have its own games in it. The twigs and rocks alone could make their own games both separately and together. The ideas are just endless in this place.
The next few hours, or maybe an entire day, who knows, are spent making up games to play and even starting a few. I know from last time that there's a chance I won't be taken out of here for a while, though I still don't know how long I was in that ice room.
Thoughts of the ice room remind me of my thirst, and I look around the desert, trying to remember how you could get water in one. I can't think of one, and I'm about to give up, when I remember the cactuses. They have water in them!
Smiling just slightly, I walk over to one with a few branches and a fist-sized rock in my hands. My slight grin disappears as I realize I don't know how to get water out of one with the right tools, let alone with nothing but twigs and stones. I stand there for a few moments, tapping my chin with a twig, when I realize the answer is hitting me in the face – quite literally.
I spend an immeasurable amount of time, for me anyway, using the stone to sharpen the five twigs I've brought with me, making them into spears. I work on them all, smoothening out the sides and making the end not being made into a point into a completely flat end. My thirst goes from a light annoyance to a painful feeling by the time all five are up to my standard.
I take the thickest one, maybe two inches in diameter, and put the point into the side of the cactus near the top. Using the stone, I hit the end of it over and over at an upward angle until it's about four inches into the cactus. Carefully pulling it out, I look at the hole until I see water coming down it towards my eye. Eagerly wanting the water, I put my mouth to the hole without a care in the world except for my wish of water. Warmish, but still cool, water flows into my mouth slowly, filling it up until I swallow and it soothes my throat while I collect more.
I don't know how long I keep this up, but my thirst is finally sated as I sit down on the ground next to the cactus after sticking the twig back into the hole so that the water can't fall out. Now I just have to figure out how to stop my hunger. This one has me stumped for so long that I fall asleep right there in the sand next to the cactus before I even realize I'm falling asleep.
I wake up the next morning, and I have an idea in my head, as if it was given to me in my dreams. I rush to find a palm-sized stone that's flat, and then I find a few more fist sized rocks to keep in my pockets with the extra twigs I'm picking up. I walk back to the cactus and pull the objects out of my pockets, laying them in the sand next to the cactus that is slowly becoming my base in the desert just like that cave was in the ice.
Once I'm seated again, I take a fist-sized stone and use it to attack the edges of the flatter stone, trying to sharpen them. It takes me two days, or what are days to me as I go by when I fall to sleep to measure time so it isn't very accurate, two sleeps, and at least thirty water breaks before the rock in my hand is sharp enough to bring blood to my finger when I scratch it with enough pressure.
Smiling tiredly but proudly at the stone, I stand up and go to the cactus, looking right at one of the parts sticking out from it. Signing with my hands for the first time since I was taken from Flint after I put the stone into my pocket for a moment as I rest, I say, Desperate times call for desperate measures, and this is most definitely a desperate time with this idea as a desperate measure.
After getting a quick drink from my hole, which is a new one on the other side of the cactus and lower down compared to my first one, I go over to the part sticking out of it. Sighing a bit tiredly after all my work and the fact that I haven't eaten in a very long time, I begin to saw into the middle of the thing sticking out – I don't have a name for it – because it's probably my best bet for getting food in this place as there are definitely no animals.
After a couple of hours of sawing, I finally get it off all the way. Signing to myself again, I say, Who knew that the preparations would take longer than the actual work to get food and water in here? I sure didn't!
Smirking to myself, I use the flat stone to saw off the spikes on my part of the cactus, careful not to let the open end go towards the ground so that it can't lose any water. After they're all gone, I slowly take a bite from the open end, and then begin chewing quickly. While it isn't like a good piece of chicken, the cactus is a lot better than nothing. In fact, it reminds me of some sort of fruit or vegetable I've had before, though I don't know which. Either way, it's both filling and helps my thirst, so I eat it all very quickly.
From then on, I spend the next few days, or maybe weeks, drinking from a cactus around the desert by using one of the sharpened twigs I always keep on me now, eating cactus after cutting it off and de-spiking it with the flat rock, and playing games by myself. I don't once complain, nor do I wonder why the scientists are putting me in here or wonder what they're testing. In fact, I soon adjust to the heat the same way I did the cold. I just don't feel it anymore.
By the time the scientists come and let me out of the room, the heat feels almost like a second layer of clothes. I'm also happy to say that when the scientists suddenly take me into the air conditioned hall after the desert heat, I don't react at all. I guess the ice stayed with me, I sign to myself, which obviously confuses the scientists because they're giving me odd looks while talking in Arabic. I just ignore them while I follow them down the hall and back into the room with the table and food in it.
Yet again there is a tray with food, water, and milk. This time there is more water than anything else, though I drink all of the glasses of milk, which is maybe six glasses, and then I eat the food, draining bottles of water between bites of food. Looking at the other end of the table, I see basic jeans, a T-shirt, socks, and sneakers there along with a hoodie. The shirt and hoodie have slits in them for my wings. I put all of the clothes on, yet again ignoring the scientists, before turning to face them curiously.
They lead me to another room for testing, though this one truly baffles me when I see it. I don't hesitate at the door this time, letting them just close and lock it behind me as I stare in amazement at the room. I'm in what seems to be a model of a city. I don't know how they have this in here as I've never seen the Itex building from the outside – I came to it knocked out cold by the scientists. All I know is that the city is amazingly tall, realistic, and has so many buildings that it reminds me of stories I've heard about New York, though I'm more willing to bet it resembles some place like Miami, which Victoria had seen while being moved once and described to me.
As I don't know why I've been put into this room, I let my wings out of my hoodie and being to fly up and around to see the something I've only seen for myself once in a dream and that was only in passing. The lights are sparkling from above, like a light show that never goes out.
"Is this what it's like to see the city from the air by either air planes or wings?" I whisper in amazement, using my voice for the first time since Flint for something other than laughing.
I'm about to continue when a sound to my right catches my attention and my head flashes in that direction to see what it is. I stare at the sight in front of me. I watch as a cone begins to grow from the ceiling to the ground, spinning as it does. Just as it touches the ground into a medium-sized cone, another sound comes from behind me as I see another cone, this one thinner, beginning to form and grown so that it goes to the ground.
Slowly turning to look around, I see that I've got a cone from each direction, north, south, east, and west, all headed towards me slowly. One is very thin, almost like a line; one is so large it looks more like a cylinder; the last two are medium-sized and look like normal cones. All of them are spinning air, and just as I realize that, my mind thinks of the name: Tornado.
Closing my wings and diving out of pure instinct, I land quickly, and rush into the nearest building, hoping that there is a basement but knowing there won't be. The tests are suddenly making horrifying sense to me. They're trying to see what I can survive weather-wise, I sign to myself in my panic as I search for a basement.
Finding nothing to use as there is no furniture at all in this city, I rush back outside without even thinking that the tornados might be here already. Unfortunately, I probably should have as the first thing I see when I get out of the building is a wall of moving debris in front of me.
Gulping in fear, I think for the first time since I've gotten to Dubai that I want out of here. I slowly back away from the tornado, but it's too late. The tornado pulls me into it and I'm suddenly in a whirlwind, spinning out of control. I'm thrashed about as the debris hits me and moves me in odd ways while the wind buffs me all over the place.
Out of my control, my wings are pulled out of my shirt and hoodie. The feeling of my wings being almost pulled off of my back brings tears to my eyes as I try to fight the pain but can't. I can't pull my wings in no matter how hard I try; the wind is too strong for it. The most I can do is push them together so that they're straight and not collecting air.
Pulling my legs to my chest and wrapping my arms around them, I make myself into a ball with my wings straight out behind me. I close my eyes and mouth, letting the wind take over as it spins me around. My mind seems to detach itself from my senses and body as I seem to sit in midair without moving a muscle by my own will.
I can't feel anything anymore. I can't control my body anymore. I can't even seem to open my eyes anymore. I can't hear anything. I can't sense anything. I can't even try to use my force field or teleporting powers to do anything. I've literally lost control of myself as I sit here in the air.
I'm not sure how long I was up there, trapped in the tornado. All I know is that I've been moved between all four tornados over and over while barely noticing the transfer. I could have fallen asleep during all of this for all I know. I literally lost control of my body and my mind was barely working. I think it was only working enough to keep my body alive; no thoughts came into my mind through all of this.
The first thing I'm truly aware of is hitting the ground hard. I feel it through all of my bones as the ground jars my body. Flashing my eyes open, I watch as the tornados shrink back up to the ceiling from their original places and disappear, leaving a mess in their wake. Not only are all of the buildings gone, but they're all over the room in piles.
Looking down at my body, I see small cuts and bruises marring it all over. I'm numb all over and can't feel a single thing, not even the pain from before when I hit the ground. It seems that the only sense I have back is my sight as I can't hear, smell, or feel anything. I don't even think I can move at the moment as my eyes wander while my head stays in place, limiting my line of view as looking down at myself and then back up at the room was the most my body could take.
Closing my eyes, I feel myself falling over onto the ground as I fall asleep, exhausted. The idea of a person being in a tornado and not dying seems impossible, even to my mind, but so is the idea of a person having wings. I guess when the scientists say we're supposed to be really strong as well as indestructible, or as indestructible as they can make us, it includes surviving a tornado… or four.
Someone shaking me wakes me up, and I look up to see a white woman, which is a first here in Dubai. I'm not trying to be racist or anything, which is a term I heard from Erik through the dreams, but I've never seen someone as light as me since I've gotten here, so it's a shock. Though I have to admit, the fact that she speaks English and even sounds American surprises me anymore.
"Hey, I know you've just been through a lot, but you need to get up," she whispers softly and kindly, exactly like they were in Flint. I blink up at her as I stare into her half hidden hazel eyes; her black hair is in front of her face, blocking parts of it.
"There we go," she says softly as I start to sit up. "You must be strong. They began by putting you through tornados and then switched it to a huge category five hurricane. I think they're amazed you're alive, which is why they sent me into here to get you." I look at her in confusion. "I speak English because I'm also American, though I know Arabic fluently, and they wanted someone who can talk to you to wake you up.
"You shocked them a bit when you were able to spend three months in that room of ice. I think you amazed them even more when you spent four months in the desert, living off of the cactuses. You surviving a month in tornados and another month in a hurricane just set them off. I believe you're done being tested here."
"I what?" I ask shocked beyond belief at what she just claimed I did.
"I think the scientists were expecting you to last a week in the ice and the same in the heat, with maybe a few hours in this room. See, the point of the new tests here in Dubai is to test experiments in climates like heat, cold, wet, and windy. You were chosen for your survival instinct, ability to fight against the odds, and just because of the fact that you're not only an avian-hybrid but also an enhanced human.
"I think all of those together gave you the chance to survive. Your wings gave you heat in the cold while your body used the ice to keep you alive by using the nutrients from it as a food substitute. In the desert, well, you basically found water and your body used the fact that you've have harder times before without food to use its energy wisely until you could find nutrients in the form of the cactus, which amazed all of us. In this room, none of us know how you survived. The heat sensors and cameras we have in here showed us that you had curled yourself into a ball and straightened out your wings; you didn't move again after that until you fell asleep for two days straight after we stopped the hurricane.
"I'm guessing from your expression that in all three tests you literally lost track of time and this one especially." I nod slowly, awed by what she's saying. "Well, the only guess I can give you about this guess is that your exhausted body decided to lose contact from everything so that you had no idea what was going on with yourself. You basically went into a coma until everything was over, which I guess could be possible with how much debris was hitting you."
I sit there in a stunned silence, staring at her. I had lasted nine months through this testing, and I hadn't even realized it the entire body and mind had taken over and just let me survive when it was thought impossible. I can't believe I actually did that! I can't believe I actually survived all of that. It has to be physically impossible to do that. I'm willing to bet not even Erik could do that, and he was built to be stronger than me.
"Come on, Erika, it's time to get you food and new clothes," the scientist says softly, kindly while she holds a hand down for me to grab.
She helps me up after I grab it and I feel clothes, that turn out to be ripped rags as I look down at myself, move around on my body. My knees start to shake and it's all I can do just to keep myself standing. As if she could tell what's happening to me, I feel an arm go around my waist and help me walk out of the destroyed room and down the hall to the room with the table.
There's food in the room again, but this time, I can't eat it. I barely have enough energy to keep my head from falling onto the table in front of me as she helps me sit down in the chair. Before I even say anything, she lifts a glass of milk to my lips and helps me drink it before beginning to feed me from the plate of food in front of me. While I normally would complain about this sort of treatment, I barely have enough energy to keep my eyes open and head up; I can't even move my body from where it's leaning against the back of the chair.
By the time I'm done eating, I have no energy left and I feel myself falling asleep. The last thing I feel is the scientist undressing me from the clothes-turned-rags and putting another set of the same clothes they used to be on me. I hear her muttering under her breath about me going to be in Africa by the time I wake up at this rate.
While that statement surprises me, I can't do anything about it as the blackness pulls me under and I realize just as it happens that I missed the one-year mark while I was testing and the others were probably thinking something bad had happened to me – especially Victoria.
I will say, without feeling bad about it, that you are quite lucky to get this chapter today. I didn't expect to be able to write this chapter in time, let alone make it this long. Friday was my birthday, yesterday I was supposed to do my homework (didn't happen... big surprise there), and today I have a bunch of plans. With all of that, I wrote last night until about 1AM, though I had some of this started from earlier and took a break to read from my new Kindle, and I'm posting this now.
I hope I made the reasons for her succeeding so well obvious... I'm not trying to make her sound like the perfect experiment at all. What happened was her instincts kicked in - instincts the scientists gave her when she was created. Her body took what nutrients it could to survive. During the storm, she basically went into a self-induced coma to live through it, though it's more like that time Max basically made herself look dead in School's Out Forever. Either way, it was her DNA showing. We'll see the side-effects of all of this next chapter.
This was all one chapter for Dubai. I got the idea after finishing last chapter. Africa, which IS her next stop if I remember correctly, will be at least two or three and starts next chapter. You'll see why it's longer next week. Either way, I won't be telling you about time gaps anymore because they'll be more like this chapter was. Time passing without her really keeping track of what's going on.
Please review and let me know what you think! :) Oh, and check out my poll please.
Posted: 4/11/10