"ADAM: The Horrors Beneath"
Chapter 6. Not What We Expected
As Subject #15's body became more swollen and mutated, the body of the nurse who had been so kind to him seemed to finally reach where his stomach should have been. But even this was hard to tell for Dr. Tenenbaum, as his body was distorted by the horrifying changes she was witnessing. Shortly after, the mass of flesh around the child's stomach began to writhe and squirm rapidly, as though something was churning away inside it. All her assistants gone before the terrifying scene had reached this point, Bridgette was alone in the observation room, the sole witness to what occurred next. The boy's mouth opened, his throat seemed to undulate as it emitted a deep groaning noise, followed by loud gurgling. Without warning, the subject began violently vomitting, though to Dr. Tenenbaum's surprise, it was not the remains of the young nurse. Instead, it was the semi-transparent red mass of stem cells that had been dubbed ADAM, and not just a modest amount. As the boy continued to heave, it seemed almost as though the substance kept coming from some endless well, it's thick crimson mass pouring from his gaping mouth. The chances of any sort of jaw structure still left inside the boy's head seemed miniscule, his mouth seemed to gape so wide that the doctor though it might simply tear apart. With one last, sickening gurgle, the boy released a final stream of ADAM from his throat before collapsing to a heap on the floor. Bridgette stood quietly for a few minutes, watching to see if the events were finally over. The boy's horribly deformed body began to shrivel up where it lay, becoming nothing more than a dehydrated mass of tissue within 10 minutes.
Later on in her office, Dr. Tenenbaum looked over the notes she had finally managed to scribble out from the results of this experiment. The ADAM, of course, had been cleaned up and stored away for use. The remains of the subject's body were incinerated to be sure that nothing more could happen, and his mother was informed of only a portion of the story. She was told that there had been "complications" with the testing. That the boy had simply passed on as a result, and that she had both their monetary compensation as well as their condolences. His mother nodded, sad at the loss of her son, but even in those early days her mind made up that it was for the good of the city. This disturbed something deep inside Bridgette, but she shrugged it off for the time being. After all, there were always sacrifices to be made in the name of scientific advancement. Of course her mind, ever the bundle of scientific thought processes that it was, would try to validate what had happened, to condone her actions. But her heart and her conscience would not be so forgiving of the events that had unfolded, the choices she had made. That day in her office, shortly after the other researchers and assistants had gone home for the day, Bridgette Tenenbaum buried her face in her hands and sobbed for nearly half an hour.
Almost two days after the incident with Subject #15, the daily routine of research and testing at Fontaine Futuristics had practically returned to normal. Dr. Tenenbaum had finished her report of the occurrance, and sent it off to Frank Fontaine as was the standard procedure for all research. Even with it's horrible outcome, the doctor knew that this experiment had been something of a breakthrough. The slug had indeed turned the contents of the subject's stomach into ADAM, though the manner it had done this was less than acceptable. Regardless, Bridgette knew this was a step in the right direction. As the saying goes, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. Even so, the doctor was beginning to see that, through her research, the cost of progress was perhaps becoming too high for the outcome. Yet there would always be men like Fontaine, whose conquest for glory and power would always justify the means to the end they desired, no matter how many lives were lost in the process.