“Shit…not again.” Despite her annoyance, Ha-Yun smiles as she watches the heart rate monitor drop to zero for the third time in as many days. She unplugs the last few wires, which takes a minute, then grabs the paddles from the wall. She doesn’t bother yelling, CLEAR, before shooting electricity into Emi’s chest.
Emi jerks awake…her eyes buzzing blue with light. Bee blasts her kill death ratio across her sight: [KILLS: 9 / DEATHS: 4]
What? I’ve only died once.
Bee plays the first KillCam: Ha-Yun has peeled back her stomach, exposing what’s inside like she’s a mechanic looking under the hood of a car.
A voice cuts the replay short: “You need to relax, your heart can only be restarted so many times.”
Emi talks too fast, “Relax? You can’t be serious…I’ve died three times in your care.” She faints, her head bouncing off the concrete bed. She sleeps for a few seconds.
When she opens her eyes again, Ha-Yun is rubbing her hands together, recharging the paddles.
“Why can’t I feel anything?” Emi asks with speech that would be slurred if it wasn’t coming from the speaking system installed in her neck.
Ha-Yun taps the part of her hazmat suit where the side of her skull would be. “Ask you friend.”
“She looks tired,” Bee comments as if looking at her muse.
Why are you more worried about her than you ever have been about me? And why don’t I feel any pain?
“That’s quite the illogical leap…I’m just pointing out how tired she looks. And it must be the pain medications she put you on.”
I’m sure it’s very tiring work repeatedly killing a sleeping girl without working legs. Emi has already forgotten about the pain—or lack thereof.
Ha-Yun goes to replace the paddles on the wall, moving to a file cabinet not far off.
“Girl? Is that how you see yourself? Is the amnesia still that bad? And it’s the waking the dead part that is usually the most exhausting part of her job.”
Emi closes her eyes, which enhances her hearing enough to tune in to the sound of squealing and scurrying not far off on the cold floor. She reopens her eyes despite knowing she shouldn’t look; she spots the feasting rats Liam’s corpse now wears like a suit of armor.
Emi ponders aloud, “Why has no one claimed the bounty on your head?”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Ha-Yun nods her plastic-covered head up at the black sky of her underground torture chamber, “No one is brave enough to come down here.”
Bee empathizes, “Aw, she sounds so sad.”
Emi sounds angry, “Why not?”
“We’re Unit 731…don’t pretend you’ve not heard of us.”
“Nope,” Emi lies.
“Amnesia,” Bee explains.
Ha-Yun looks frustrated, like all her work has been nothing. “And I brought you back to life, so the bounty is off my head.”
“Thanks so much for that,” Emi says sardonically before nodding to the rats, “but what about him?”
Ha-Yun looks at Laim’s fur-covered body and laughs, “He’s not dead…yet.”
Emi shivers. “I take it your hypothesis was correct? My dead father sent no one to help me?”
Ha-Yun nods, confused, “Why do you sound relieved?”
Bee answers, “Because she thinks this confirms her father is dead. After a certain amount of time living with them, it’s easier to have our fears confirmed than to be told they weren’t real from the start.”
Ha-Yun almost looks sorry, “Wrong conclusion.”
Emi ignores them, “What are you going to do with me now?”
“Further testing,” Ha-Yun says like a scientist.
Bee is annoyed by this response, “You have performed ample tests to be sufficient proof The Devil doesn’t care what happens to her. Any further testing is redundant and therefore a waste of our time.”
“I agree…but from here on out the tests are more for satisfying my own curiosities—off the books as Jashi might say.”
“What does Jashi have to do with this?” Emi asks.
Ha-Yun shrugs, “You tell me…he sent you to us, did he not? He would never let his stock roam free without intending to profit from its escape.”
She’s not wrong…
“Go ahead, tell her the truth.”
“Jashi didn’t send me…I’m the one who let his prisoners free.”
The scientist continues flipping through her files, then pulls one free and heads for the whitest part of the wall. “Even if what you’re saying is true, why would I ever believe you?”
[COGNITIVE DISSONANCE DETECTED]
Please don’t create fake warnings…just tell me what you’re thinking like you do with literally everything else.
[WARNING: GOD COMPLEX DETECTED]
I am well aware.
Ha-Yun is tired of waiting. She flips a switch, illuminating two images. “Can you spot the difference between these two images?”
“What exactly am I looking at?” Emi asks.
“Before and after images of your surgery.”
Emi refuses to look any closer, choosing to stare up into oblivion instead.
“You have to let me see…I have to know what we’re dealing with,” Bee asks nicely despite not asking at all.
No. I’m not playing her game.
“Emi, the world is watching. They all want to see you fail...prove them wrong for once.”
Emi pulls up her view count: [FOLLOWERS: 83; RANK: 30,720]
“Okay, fine…you’re boring to watch because you spend most of your time just sitting around waiting for things to happen to you. But trust me, everyone wants to see you fail…at least one even finds it funny.”
Why? No one cares about me enough to even know I exist—my father included apparently. And why am I even here? Everyone is claiming he is still alive. Doesn’t that make me innocent? I should be free to go!
Bee processes her response.
What, suddenly no response? Why am I not surprised. Hypothesis confirmed: BCI only answers when most inconvenient.
Ha-Yun leaves on the lights, “Look…don’t look…either way is fine with me. Your life is in your own hands now. I’ll check back in tomorrow. Until then, I’ll just assume you are both dead and alive.” A metal door closes, then locks.
Emi looks at the illuminated images while rats continue fighting over their all-of-you-they-can-eat buffet.
[MISSING PART IDENTIFIED: LIVER]
“Life expectancy: twelve hours.”
[EXPERIMENT INITIATED: SCHR?DINGER’S CAT]
Should Emi take Liam's liver or let herself die?
