by Bryan Tann
“You’re in Oregon. At the company research facility.”
Opening his eyes slow, to protect himself against the burn of light, he could make out her face. He blinked multiple times, trying to reach to rub his eyes, he felt that his hands were still restrained.
“Why am I restrained? What happened?”
“I do not think that now is…”
“Just tell me why I’m here? Why am I being restrained?” Focus finally came to his eyes. Her hair was in a tight bun, dark brown hair. Light make up. Keeping it very professional. Nice. Her wire frame glasses rested over her vibrant green eyes. Her face had a strong, regal look to it, almost like a lioness. Her lips were thick and full, a slight look of worry etched on her face. Am I dangerous? Is that why she’s afraid? What the fuck did I do?
“Do you know your name?”
“My name is...my…my name…I don’t know.” Helplessness clutched at his chest as he continued to try and force the memory of his name for only nothing to come back to him. The cold fog was there blocking his memories, building a self-hatred within for being unable to remember. If only he could figure out how to make the warm and his memories come back again.
“It’s alright. Your name is John Baker. Sergeant John Baker. You’re a Marine. You serve in President King’s Armed Forces. You were injured in an attack. Do you know what year it is?”
John? John Baker? Is that my name? It doesn’t feel right…it doesn’t feel right. She’s got a script she’s following. She’s assessing me. Keep her talking...John. Keep her talking. The more she talks the more answers you get.
“I…I can’t remember.” He suppressed his internal rage, knowing that it wouldn’t fix anything to lose his temper. The calmer he was, the more the answers would come. Answering her questions would answer his.
“It is 2135. You have been here at the facility for the last two months.” Her voice was even and calm. Somehow though he was able to sense something else about her. It was faint, hard to pin point.
“Two months? Why?” He could feel his body starting to warm ever so slightly around his heart. The warmth slowly began to make its way to the rest of his body. As the warmth spread, his senses began to sharpen. The color of her eyes became more vibrant, the rhythm of her breath was apparent. He could hear two sets of drums at a different beat. Ever so slightly, the beating began to get a little louder.
“You were injured. Do you recall your last combat mission?”
“No.” One of the drums began to beat louder. As it began to beat, the warmth began to spread further. As he continued to search his mind, he was unable to find what he was looking for. The more he searched, the less he could find. And the less he could find, the beat grew louder, making the heat spread through his body. My heart? Is that my heart?
“Your squad was after an individual of importance. You are the only one to survive. We thought you were dead.” Her voice was calm. The second drum beat settled into a calm rhythm.
“How did I get here?”
“That I do not know, Sergeant. I can only give you but so much…”
“No.” The quiet strength in his voice stopped her into silence. He could barely feel the cold anymore, and he began to sit up as best he could with the hospital restraints holding him in place. “I want to know what happened.”
“Sergeant, there is only so much that I know. I am only here to ensure that you are recovering and…”
“Then why the hell are you doping me?” His body was growing hot. The cold was almost gone. There were voices…somewhere.
“It is for your own good, Sergeant. You have to understand that your injuries were quite massive and…”
The heat was growing stronger, and his patience was wearing thin. She was hiding something, and he had quite enough of the games. There was another voice in the room with them, electronic, she had an ear piece.
“Nurse Denton, calm him down now while we ready the sedative. According to our readings he has all but completely burned it off. You are doing fine. Tell him a little bit about his injuries.”
He wanted to bust her on the ear piece. He wanted to let whomever it was on the other end of that communicator know that he could hear them. No. Don’t show your hand…John. If you show them your full hand, they will never let you out of here. Just play dumb. Play it cool. They will make a mistake.
“Please?” he said in a meek tone, choosing to take a different tactic. A tear began to fall from his eye. “I…I have to know what’s wrong with me. Was I dead? Am I dying? Please? Please don’t let me die. I just need to know what’s going on. I can’t remember anything, or anyone. Do I have a wife? Children? Parents? Siblings? I just need to know…what’s wrong with me?”
The tactic seemed to work. The nurse’s face softened from the rock of fear she had built around herself.
“Clinically, you died according to your charts. When we got you we…we did all we could for you. You made a remarkable recovery. Now we just want to ensure that you are alright before we begin your rehabilitation. You have to understand, Sergeant Baker, you have had multiple surgeries. You are not through the woods yet. You have to understand that when you get over excited, we are sedating you for your own good so that you do not over tax your heart.”
“Good, Nurse Denton, very good. You are getting through to him. Don’t say anything else, just let him chew on that for a moment.” The electronic voice sounded pleased at her progress, and the nurse seemed to be growing more confident.
“Nurse Denton…” Sergeant Baker’s voice was low, keeping up his own meek charade. “I am so hungry. Can I please have some food? Can I at least not be strapped down? Please? I won’t over do it.”
“Tell him not yet. Tell him it is just a precaution,” the voice chided her.
“I do not think that is a good idea as of yet. You have been having extraneous night terrors that cause you to become a danger to yourself and to the staff. Until we can get you monitored better, we have to keep you sedated and keep you restrained for your safety.”
“Please, Nurse Denton?” His voice took a begging tone. “I cannot sleep like this. It’s so hard to get comfortable laying on my back. Drug induced sleep won’t be as good for me as good, natural sleep. You know that.”
“Sergeant Baker…” she began.
“Agree with him, Nurse Denton. Tell him that one more night of sedation is all that is required and that we will make an attempt at natural sleep tomorrow,” the electronic voice instructed.
“…tonight is your last night of scheduled sedation. After tonight we will try a night without the restraints, with natural sleep. Will you at least relent to one more night of sedation?”
“Good, Nurse Denton. Very good. Do not push him. If he refuses, just give him the shot,” the voice instructed.
“What about my family?” he asked. Hoping against hope that he could delay the inevitable for just a little bit longer. Now he could tell that the ‘wall’ to his left was actually a one way monitoring window.
“I’m sorry, Sergeant Baker, that is all that I can tell you right now. Rest now.” She made one quick gesture and the syringe was in his arm and the cold spread through his body. It was slow at first. The heat fought it, a lot better than it had the last time. It was not strong enough, the cold began to have its way and his eyes began to close involuntarily.
All of the sounds began to fade away and sleep overtook him.
“You did very well, Nurse Denton.” Dr. Newton smiled to the young nurse that stood before him. His grandfatherly tone and charm made her anxiety of the situation calm almost immediately.
“I was so frightened.”
“There is no need. I do not believe that he would have harmed you intentionally. I do not think that he is ready to know the extent of his injuries.”
“Dr. Newton I think that maybe if we were honest with him he would handle it better than if we lied to him and kept him sedated.”
“I agree with you, Nurse Denton. However this is not a dis
cussion that I would like to have here in the clinic. If you wish to discuss this further, we can do so elsewhere.” He lowered his voice, looking around at the other technicians and medical staff. “There are too many ears that are not agreeable to our opinion. I fear that it can lead to less agreeable consequences if we are not careful. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Dr. Newton, I do.” And with that, her anxiety grew again.
“Do not be afraid. All will be fine and will be revealed in time.” He smiled to her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Prepare the case notes and then take the rest of the day. We will discuss this this evening at Mitsy’s. Acceptable?”
“Of course, Doctor,” Nurse Denton replied, standing up to prepare the case notes as she was instructed.
“From what I saw of the film study, your Nurse Denton handled herself quite well in dealing with the Subject.” Later on that day, Dr. Tee sat in the office that he and Dr. Newton shared.
“That she did. She was nervous, but she accepted instruction quite well and was able to keep him controlled.”
“Are you truly going to allow him to sleep without sedation tomorrow?” Dr. Tee’s concern resonated on his tone.
“Absolutely. I am of the impression that if Nurse Denton is able to form a cohesive connection with our John Baker Project, then her influence will be able enough to keep him calm and under control.”
“I am not so sure, David. He could be far too volatile.”
“I do not agree. His psychological profile states that he has a protective nature, specifically of women and children. I do not see him causing her any pain purposefully.”
“David, you are giving far too much to chance! If it proves to be too much for him and he lashes out…”
“Then we can make use of your serum. I am sure we can fit the security measures with your serum can we not?”
“Of course it can!” Dr. Tee snapped in irritation. “My serum is the only thing keeping him under control! I can outfit the guns with the serum in the self-injecting syringes with no problem.”
“Then you have nothing to concern yourself with, my dear Nobu. It is simply a matter of having a plan and implementing it. Why are you so worried, Nobu? What is it about this man that brings you such fear and worry?”
“I am not afraid of him, David. I am, however, concerned that he cannot be controlled. And if he cannot be controlled…”
“Nobu, it cannot all be about control. If you would focus so much more on cooperating with the Project instead of wanting to control him, it would be a much better outcome.”
“This Subject will be much better suited under control. Cooperation can be pleasant for a time, but what if he starts to get a mind of his own? Goes public? That could be disastrous.”
“Your point is well understood and respected, but is there any way that you would consider just trying?”
“I cannot see how.” Dr. Nobu looked to David Newton with intensity. “I will not let this man ruin my life’s work, our lives’ work. That is exactly what he will do, I know it. As soon as I am able to perfect the neural inhibitor I will attach it to him immediately. Then I will be able to rest well at night knowing that our experiment is a success. Now it is nothing more than a wild card, and I hate wild cards.”
“Nobu you are, as the kids say, a control freak.” Newton chuckled gently patting his younger colleague’s shoulders.
“Call me what you will, David. I simply like to know what is going on, and be safe. If that makes me a control freak, than I will be guilty as charged.”
Dr. Tee rose from his desk and left the office in his typical stiff postured stance leaving Dr. Newton to sit alone in front of documents and charts indicating John Baker’s physical progress and how much of the serum was being pumped into his body to keep him docile. His notes, chronicled from the theory of the experiment, to the day John Baker came to them, to that very day, he knew by heart. Yet he read through them anyway, all the while he asked the same question;
“I wonder what it is that makes you so special?”
Karen Denton sat in ‘Misty’s Bar’ staring at greasy, yet appealing, cheeseburger and French fries dinner in front of her. Misty’s was the only bar in the town of Musgrave, Oregon. A tiny old mill town whose economy was dependent on the cedar mill, the live chicken plant, and most recently, Fuji-O’Hara Industries that enjoyed a close working relationship with the government.
To the public, the research facility was a producer of basic pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies. The revenue from the company protected the town in what could have been economic ruin as the mill did not bring the revenue to the town as it had. The chicken plant was steady, but did not have the revenue to support the entire town the necessary jobs.
The workers from the cedar mill, and the first shifts of the company and the chicken plant were enjoying Happy Hour. Most of them were gruff, hard men and women that did not bother with certain ways of life and manners that Karen had grown up with.
Her father, a renowned surgeon. Her mother, a tenured Physics professor. Her family life that of proper etiquette, education, and manners were key. Her mother, always a quiet woman except when it came time to discipline her and her brothers.
It was impossible not to admire the women that were able to laugh loudly, without any reservations of who they were. To be able to hold their own with the men in the telling of stories, and drinking. To not care about anything but the moment.
Karen’s thoughts went back to the man that lay, in secret, as a prisoner in Fuji-O’Hara Industries. She wanted to believe that it was safer that he be sedated, for a time. His begging and suffering, only wanting to be able to lay on his side, it hurt her heart to know that she could not help him. Her fear of Dr. Tee, who had come to the Oregon facility only within the last two years from Japan, was second only to her hatred for the man. He was so cold and impossible to please, it was as if she were dealing with her father.
Her thoughts ran in their own directions of dislike for the Japanese doctor when the sound of a chair being pulled from a table near her cut through her thoughts. When Dr. Newton sat down at the table with her, his warm smile made the feel a bit more at ease.
“Nurse Denton. Thank you for meeting me here this evening.”
“It’s no trouble at all, Dr. Newton.” Karen picked up a single fry, chewing on it slowly.
“I will not mince words with you, Karen. Dr. Tee and I have conflicting philosophies on how to handle Sergeant Baker. I believe that we need to earn his trust, while Dr. Tee would like to keep him subdued to study him. Is it safe for me to assume that you feel that Dr. Tee’s methods are…short sighted?”
“I believe, doctor…” Karen began as she sipped the glass of cola in front of her, “that we cannot keep him sedated like this. It cannot be good for his overall recovery. Keeping him in a weakened state will not only make him leery of us, but could cause detrimental effects to his overall physical health.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” His chuckle was rich, lasting, like the taste of fine wine. “I have ordered that his sedation stops tomorrow. When he awakes, I want you to have him transferred to a private room. Provided that his vitals prove top notch.”
“Understood, doctor.”
“I also want a full echocardiogram, x-ray, and EKG. I want that done tomorrow, and done again every two days. Do you understand me?”
“Of course.” Karen began to pick at her French fries, feeling self-conscious about picking up her burger in front of her boss.
“Be very careful with what questions you answer. He will have them and that is to be expected, but I do not want you giving him more information than is necessary. Is that understood?”
“How will I know…” the question was out before Karen was able to stop it. Unable to control her, the embarrassed blush was present.
“Well,” the older man could not help but laugh inwardly, “if you have to question if it is too much, than it is probably too much. How is that? Use your discreti
on. I trust you.”
“I understand, doctor,” came her meek reply.
“Good. Real good. I knew that I could count on you, Karen. If you do well with this task, I see big things for you with Fuji-O’Hara Industries.” The older man rose to his feet. “And with that said, I will allow you to finish your meal. I have somethings that I need to take care of and some orders to put in for tomorrow. You are the head nurse on Sergeant Baker’s case, second only to myself and Dr. Tee. And…” the older man reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. “Enjoy your meal.”
With that, the old man left the bar leaving his new head nurse to ponder the position that she was in. Only being with the company for two years, she had done all that she could do to just keep her head down and do her job. The private sector was appealing since her parents had such high standards for their children’s earning power. To her, it was the best compromise.
All she knew about Sergeant Baker was what was in his file. Now that she was moving up the medical corporate ladder, the blacked out spaces of his file would be more open to her. She knew that. It was important to know exactly the best way to do her job. She couldn’t help but be just a little bit curious of the man whom she was ordered to drug on a daily basis with a mixture of drugs that should have killed him the moment the first drop was administered.
“You okay, honey?”
The voice cut through her thoughts
“Huh?”
“Are you okay?” the middle-aged waitress with a short platinum blonde haircut and pink highlight tips looked to her with a curious expression.
“Oh…I’m fine.” Karen looked to her untouched burger and her near-finished fries. “Can I just get a box please?”
“Of course. You sure you’re ok, hon? You look nervous.”
“I’m okay. I just have a very big day ahead of me tomorrow. The kind of day that could change everything.”
3
