"ADAM: The Horrors Beneath"
Chapter 5. Jolene's Fate
"My arm feels all tingly, Miss Jolene", the boy said in a slightly frightened tone. She smiled reassuringly, telling him that his left arm was feeling numb that way because of the pressure in the blood pressure cuff. Shaking his head, the boy told her very solemnly, "It's not...it's not in my left arm." Glancing at the boy's other arm, Jolene nearly cried out at what she saw. The flesh of Subject #15's right arm seemed to have swollen considerably, but that was not quite the only word to describe it. His very flesh seemed to writhe and crawl, as if something was shifting beneath the layers of inflamed tissue. Jolene ran to the door, pushing the button that activated the PA system inside the observation room and speaking frantically into the microphone. "His arm, doctor..it looks very swollen. It's moving like something is alive under the skin. I really think you should get in here." As the young nurse released the button, she looked at the window to the observation room, seeing that the doctor made no attempt at responding to this information. Bewildered, she pressed the button again, asking why they were not coming to help the boy. Dr. Tenenbaum sighed and looked down very quietly, her heart and her head in a struggle over what to do. She knew that the young nurse should be let out, that the boy needed help. But her mind, ever the source of brilliance and a thirst for knowledge, told her to let these events unfold. Monitor them, see what happened next. Progress, wasn't that what all this research was for? Bridgette could not bring herself to look at the young nurse as he finally pressed the button on her side of the PA, speaking into the microphone. "I'm..very sorry, Jolene..." These words brought a look of terror across the nurse's face, just as a sickingly wet ripping sound came from behind her.
The boy's arm was now massively swollen, so much so that his flesh could not take the punishment. It ripped with a disgusting sound, blood spraying out as the tissue seemed to explode out like a popped balloon. Subject #15 cried out, looking with fear and agony at Jolene. His eyes filled with tears, and he managed the words, "Please..Miss Jolene! I'm scared!" before collapsed in a fit of screaming. His arm, the flesh covering it now gone, seemed to expand even more, the tendrils of muscle each seeming more like a tentacle. These began to take on a sort of life of their own, their color fading to a dark red, almost black. The boy's right arm now seemed almost as big as his torso, squishing and pulsing as it moved of it's own accord. Her eyes wide with wonder and sheer horror, Jolene stepped into the far corner of the room. Her mouth opening to scream, but nothing would come out between her lips, their red lipstick brilliant in the sterile white light of the room. She slid down to the floor just in time to watch a tendril of the boy's swollen tissue whip across the room. This time, her voice worked as she let out a very sharp shrieking sound. Unfortunately for the young nurse, her noise was silenced by a sudden squeezing pressure around her throat. Another tentacle of the boy's mutated arm had found her neck, choking off the sounds of her shrieking in an instant. Dr. Tenenbaum tried to look away as these events unfolded, but her scientific mind and slightly morbid sense of curiosity would not let her. Bridgette watched as the young nurse's throat was clenched tight, causing a small snap as her neck bones were crushed by the pressure. What followed would haunt Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum to the end of her days, though she would never speak of it to anyone again.
As Jolene's lifeless body hung limp, the tendril of dark red flesh began to drag her across the floor. Her features, however beautiful even in death, would not last much longer as more strands of the boy's former right arm began to envelop her. Dr. Tenenbaum continued to watch as the mutation simply devoured the nurse, much like many snakes devour their prey whole. The bulge from the nurse's corpse inside the flesh seemed to move up the length of Subject #15's horribly deformed appendage. The boy's eyes seemed to be filled with a detached look of horror, and the doctor wondered if he was even still able to comprehend what was happening. As the mass of Jolene's consumed body moved, the mutation of the child's body began to spread, his shoulder and most of his torso taking on the same swollen appearance his arm had. Before long, the flesh began to stretch and crawl as the mutation's "meal" was transferred slowly to the stomach of it's host. This tissue soon gave way as well under the tremendous swelling, tearing the skin away and revealing the same dark red mass of flesh beneath.