Dark Past

Chapter 5

The next few hours of waiting were remembered by Katrina to be the most suspenseful in all of her life. Goten had called his mom, and got permission to spend the night. While the two boys tried to sleep in Trunks' room, Katrina tried fitfully to spend the night in her own. At about one thirty she could fight it no longer, and finally fell asleep. Her dreams however, were no comfort...

Katrina was kicking and screaming with all her might, 'how dare they do this to me!' she thought. She saw her mom doing the same on the other side of the room. She was using language that would have made a sailor blush, but how could you blame her, when she had just seen her family torn apart? Two faces flashed in Katrina's mind. They were that of a man and a little girl. The man had the same shade of hair and eye color Katrina possessed. This must be my Father she realized. He smiled and hugged a small girl closer to him. The girl looked just like her mom, Katrina thought. She had the same fiery red hair and wild green eyes. That must be my sister.

But what had happened to them? Were they killed along with her mom? Or were they spared? Could they be living somewhere wondering where she was? Katrina was back in the strange looking room kicking and screaming. She wanted these men to leave her alone. She recognized on of them from her flashback of being in the bed when they had injected that... whatever it was into her. She leaned over and bit one of the guys hard in the arm. She tasted his blood in her mouth, but did not let go, even as he started to yell. The two men were distracted long enough for Katrina to push them away and attempt an escape.

"That's it Katrina! Run! Run away as fast as you can," came her mothers' voice. Katrina obeyed and took off in the direction she knew would take her out of that awful place. She was stopped short, however, by the man she had bitten. He looked at her and swore.

"You little whore, now your gonna pay!" He ran at her and beat her down to the ground. A sharp pain came across Katrina's back, and she cried out as her body made an impact with the floor.

"No! My baby! Leave her alone you son of a bitch," her mom screamed as she continued to struggle. Katrina started to get up, and the man just beat her down more and more each time she tried. Her back was on fire with an anguish she had never before felt in her life. Tears were streaming down her eyes-it was too much. She was only thirteen, she should be at the mall with her friends, checking out boys and trying on clothes. Playing video games and going to the movies...not this...anything ...but...this...

This was the last of her thoughts as the man finally beat her unconscious. The last sounds she heard were of her mother pleading for her child's' safety. When Katrina woke up, she found herself in a type of room, or more like a cell, a prison cell. She sat on a simple white bed. A single window nine feet above her provided her only link to the outside world. Its beam of light was chopped by the shadow of bars that ensured she couldn't escape. There was a sink, and in a small closed off section, a toilet. What she guessed was a force field made the need for prison bars in front of her cell obsolete. She at least had a clear view of what was going on in front of her cell, but that wasn't saying much due to the fact it was nothing but a plain concrete wall.

She wondered how much time had passed between this memory and the last, but guessed it must have been more than a few weeks. Some men in white lab coats (Katrina guessed it was the uniform) came up right outside her cell and swiped a card in a slot. It gave a small beep and then they entered a set of numbers. The device then gave a louder and longer beep and the force field disappeared. The two men walked over to Katrina and proceeded to pick her up. She would have fought back, but her spirit was gone. She no longer cared what they did to her, as far as she was concerned she already felt dead inside. They brought her into the dark room she recognized from one of her flashbacks. They put her into a special bodysuit and placed her on a platform.

She sat there as a machine stuck various tubes and monitoring devices all over her body. They gave her an oxygen mask and then backed away. A tube shaped glass barrier separated her from the people outside. It filled with a liquid that wasn't entirely transparent. She knew what was coming next, and waited patiently for it to happen. Unlike her previous flashback, she could hear what they were saying this time.

"Boost the dosage to 1789 mg's"

"Affirmative, boosting dosage now." Katrina winced slightly as the tubes sticking out of her body expanded from the increase of liquid.

"Okay, now," A loud crash followed bay a bell and that same voice yelling about a security breach were heard by Katrina. Some frantic yelling was going on outside the confines of her little tank.

"Who is it!"

"22051-25 sir!"

"Damn her! She's probably come for number twenty six!"

"What course of action do you want us to take sir?"

"Don't kill her! But find her before she gets in here! Remember I want her ALIVE!"

"Yes sir!"

"Dr. Geode what do you propose we do now?"

"Keep up with the process! I'll search the F-1 corridor to see if she's down there!"

"Yes sir!"

Katrina heard footsteps and after a few minutes it was quiet again. With the exception that the alarm that was going off of course. The scientists had gone back to proceeding with the experiment, and Katrina wondered if this would be the end of her memory. But then she heard the door open again.

"Did you find her Dr.-" She heard the woman gasp, and a tearing sound followed. Blood splattered on the glass of her tank. Katrina heard three more men yells and then more blood landed across the glass. She was unsure of whether or not this was a good thing. On one side this could be someone here to rescue her. On the other side, it could be something committing a random act of violence, in which case would mean that she was pretty much screwed.

All her fears were dispelled though as a machine removed the tubes attached to her body. Her savoir then came up to the glass and put her hand on it. Her mothers' green eyes still hadn't lost the spirit in them. Her hair was still that flaming red color. Unfortunately, that was all that remained the same on her mother's features. There were deep bags right under her eyes. Her face wasn't as youthful looking as they had been since last they'd met. Her figure was slightly smaller than it used to be. Her grim face was set in determination. Katrina placed her had up to her mothers' as they stared at each other for a brief moment.

"I will get you out of here," her mom said. Katrina looked up and saw a team of what she guessed were security guards silently stalking up behind her mother.

"Mom look out behind you," she tried to yell, but the oxygen mask silenced her words. The only effect yelling had done was to make a mass of bubbles come out from the sides of her mask. But that was enough for her mom to realize something wasn't right. She turned around and was caught off guard by the small assembly of men. They took hold of the woman and tried to inject a serum into her, but the needle went flying across the room. So they tried the direct approach and used the electric shockers that they were wearing on their belts. It seemed to work, and they dragged her moms' unconscious body off to someplace. Katrina put both her hands up to the glass. She couldn't believe what had just happened. Dr. Geode came back into the room and tsk tsked at the bloody bodies lying on the floor.

"Weren't too careful there were we," he said as he looked at Katrina, "don't worry though my precious, I won't let anything happen to my most valuable specimen."

Katrina fought back the chunks that were rising in her throat. She didn't like this dream anymore; she hadn't from the start. She wanted out, and she wanted out now. But it wasn't that easy, and her memories weren't through with her yet... She found herself sitting back in her cell when the same guys in uniform came up to her. They repeated the procedure much as they had last time, but this time they brought her to a smaller darker room with a bed in the center. A light fixture was directly above the bed. As they brought her closer, she noticed the bed has leather straps on it.

"Oh no..." she murmured, as she knew what was coming next. They strapped her down and it started, she screamed and struggled, and they injected her arms and legs with that same damn liquid. This time, her arm wouldn't come out of the strap.

"There now," the man she recognized as Dr. Geode said, "That wasn't so bad was it? Just think, in a few weeks we shall reap the benefits of all this hard work. Then you'll be the greatest achievement in the entirety of my whole career. Doesn't that make you happy?"

"F you lunatic," Katrina spat at him.

"Hmmm... such strong words. But-I'm sorry you feel that way, take her back to her cell."

They undid the restraints her and had to literally carry her back to her 'home'. The injections had made her whole body feel like it was asleep. She lied in her bed and hoped that somehow she could wake up. She looked at her left hand. The numbers 22051-26 were clearly etched on it. She woke up with a start. She looked over at her clock, the numbers 4:37 a.m. flashed across it. She sighed and decided that she needed to get something to eat. When she came hobbling to the last step she saw Trunks sitting at the table with his arms crossed, he looked really pissed but concerned at the same time. He looked up and saw Katrina.

"I..." she whispered and realized a tear had slid down her face. No, she thought, I must be strong. For myself as well as others. I can take this. I have to. This is my past and I must deal with it myself. As the tears started to flow in greater number she realized she was ashamed of every one of them. She didn't want to seem like as though she wasn't strong enough to deal with the problem that faced her, It didn't seem natural, it just didn't seem part of who she was.

Trunks said nothing, but walked over and embraced the shaken girl in his arms and held her close. Katrina wrapped her arms around his waist and silently cried until her tears ran dry. Somehow, when she was in his arms, she had this feeling that she was safe. Like so long as he held her there, the whole world couldn't bother her. No matter what problem arose to chase her, no matter what demon from her past came to confront her, it didn't stand a chance. Not so long as he was there with her. The rest of the world didn't matter...only the two of them. Safe together...forever...

Katrina forgot when exactly they had sat down on the couch, or fallen asleep for that matter, but they woke up at six thirty a.m. Trunks went upstairs to get Goten while Katrina stayed on the couch and waited for the two's return. Her leg didn't hurt quite as much as it had the previous night, but it was still too sore to put all her weight on it. She would need to be helped down to the Decoding machine. She wondered briefly about what the machine would tell them. Maybe it was all some horrific misunderstanding.

Of course she knew that wouldn't be the case, but still... Perhaps the machine would tell her where her father and sister were; she didn't even know their names, or her mothers' for that matter. She could find out where they lived or something, get in contact with them, and... Her thoughts were cut short when Trunks came back down the stairway with a somewhat sleepy Goten following close behind. Trunks picked Katrina up and carried her down to their destination; it would be faster that way.

They walked in as the computer was finishing up the last few parts of the decoding process. A little timer had appeared at the bottom right hand corner of the screen and was counting down the seconds until it long awaited task was finally completed. The three teens sat around the device with anxious looks on their faces.

10...9...

what would it reveal to them?

8...7...

what sort of experiments did they perform?

6...5...

who were the test subjects?

4...3...

was Katrina the only one?

2...

.what had happened to her family?

1...