They brought him through a veritable maze of corridors where sharp turns and twisted angles threw Adrian’s sense of direction off-balance. When he arrived at their destination, he no longer knew where he was. It didn’t help that all the hallways looked nearly identical, the only difference being the location of other doors as indicated by the lines on the walls. His mental map was completely turned around and he had long since given up trying to keep track.
The room looked like every other room he’d been in so far, not surprising Adrian in the slightest. The screens off to the side sat idle, waiting to be used. Instead of a chair or some other machine in the centre, the room appeared to be some kind of futuristic gym.
The equipment looked eerily similar to what he remembered from the gym he’d gone to for all of two weeks as a New Year’s resolution several years ago. Each piece of machinery, however, only had a single-weight plate that could be moved. The alien accompanying him brought Adrian over to a weight rack that had two dumbbells and one kettle ball neatly arranged on the top.
The alien pointed at the dumbbells and motioned for him to pick it up. After so much time spent around them, he was beginning to learn some of their body language. Its antennae twitched rapidly in impatience while he took his sweet time picking up the weights. Some might call it petty, but he took great joy in annoying his captors when he thought he could get away with it.
He expected the dumbbells to be heavy, but they weren’t. Surprised at how easy they were to lift, he brought one close to his face and inspected it. The entire thing was made from a white metal and each end of the dumbbell had a faintly glowing blue circle centered on the outside.
The alien motioned for Adrian to follow and brought him close to one of the terminals. It spoke and the screen flared to life, showing a life-like simulation of Adrian doing an exercise with weights. It spoke again and the scene changed, showing Adrian standing next to the equipment in the centre of the room repeating the same exercise.
Catching on to the idea, he walked over to the spot shown on the hologram and began imitating the exercise he’d seen. Adrian felt little strain as he continued to work out, the featherlight weights posing no challenge to his muscles.
The alien spoke again and the lights on the outside of the weights lit up. In the span of several seconds, they continuously grew heavier until Adrian could barely lift them. He yelped in surprise, dropping them on the ground when they became too heavy for him to hold.
The alien spoke, its antennae twitching as it pointed back and forth between the simulation on the hologram and Adrian. Adrian shook his head and pointed towards the weights. “I can’t lift those,” he said. “I’m not going to be able to do that.” He knew the creature wouldn’t understand but spoke to it anyway. It repeated its motions and Adrian sighed.
He bent down to pick up the weights and heaved. He tried lifting one of them, but was unable to make any significant progress, his face turning red from the effort. With a grunt, the dumbbell fell from his hand and landed with a thud, narrowly missing his foot. “Told you,” he said, huffing from the exertion.
A chorus of clicks and shrieks came from the alien. It turned back to the computer and the image changed, a display of the dumbbell alongside text that Adrian didn’t understand appearing instead. Busy staring at the screen, he missed the lights on the weights dim ever so slightly. He watched as the symbols directly beneath the image changed, the alien once again motioning for him to continue.
“We tried this already,” Adrian said with a flat look. “It’s too heavy for me to lift. I’ll try one more time, but I don’t know what you expect.”
He bent down and gripped each handle again, bracing himself. He pushed with his legs and heaved, shooting straight up. To his shock, the dumbbells had become a comfortable weight. He looked over towards the alien in dismay.
The weight was variable, and the creature had adjusted it to something Adrian could handle. He looked past the creature’s shoulder and to the text displayed beneath the image of the dumbbell. Those had been numbers! The text below the image on the screen must represent the weight, he surmised. He wondered if there was a way for him to learn their numerical system. He tried recalling what the symbols had originally looked like, knowing that the current display indicated a smaller value than what was there before.
He also realized why there was only one plate on each machine. They simply didn’t need more than one. How do they work? he wondered. Lost in thought, Adrian missed the exercise displayed before him change again, directing him to use a different piece of workout equipment. A loud, angry shriek cut into his musings, startling him.
The creature’s left antenna waggled in an up-and-down motion, an action he knew occurred when they were upset. He turned his full attention towards it, lest he be punished. This was not the time to be cheeky.
Adrian placed the dumbbells back on the ground and went over to the next machine. He positioned himself and began the exercise. Over and over, he was forced to switch to a new piece of equipment after finding his failure point. Each muscle group was targeted and by the end, sweat was rolling off of Adrian in buckets.
He still wasn’t done, however. The final exercise involved him running on a treadmill until he almost passed out. What is it with these research facilities and their treadmills? His human captors had also made him run on treadmills. Staggering on unsteady feet, Adrian was brought back to his room.
When he arrived, he immediately noticed that there was more food than usual. He shrugged and welcomed the change, feeling ravenous. Tired muscles worked overtime to reach over and grasp one of the cubes. He scarfed it down, long since accustomed to the horrendous taste.
Over the next fifty sleep cycles, Adrian was brought for a daily exercise routine. For hours, he did nothing but push himself to his very limits. Unbeknownst to the aliens, he paid close attention and slowly began deciphering their numerical system. He didn’t know what number each symbol represented still, but he was learning. Thus far, he’d counted seventeen unique numbers but was murky on what order they came in. Without a proper reference point, he still had no idea how much weight he was actually lifting.
Each session left him starving, the food they gave him not enough to satisfy him anymore. He needed more to keep up with his bulking form. His arms had thickened, his ribs no longer showed, and he felt heavier than when he’d first started the workouts. The speed at which his muscles grew was unnatural. Not for the first time, he wondered what they put in the food.
On the fifty-first sleep cycle since his routine had changed, he was once again brought out of his cell. Expecting to go back to the gym, he was surprised when they took him back to the room where he’d received his injections so long ago.
On their way, he noticed an open door that had previously always remained closed. Walking by, he peered inside to see what lay beyond. Rows upon rows of terminals were neatly organized, with dozens of screens active and dozens more of the aliens working. Floating DNA strands rotated in the centre of the room.
An alien exited the room and his guide stopped short. Its antennae waved in a way Adrian had never seen before and the creature lowered its head deferentially with a slight bow. The newcomer ignored the still form of its compatriot and stared at Adrian.
After several seconds, it turned its attention to his still bowing guide and clicked in an unfamiliar tone. As if receiving permission, his guide raised its head and responded in a low voice before quickly resuming its bowing position.
Adrian watched the display, perplexed. Whatever was happening, it appeared as if the other alien was the one in charge. It turned and continued on its way before finally disappearing through another door that opened as it approached. Only when it was completely out of sight did his guide raise its head and continue walking, guiding Adrian through to where he remembered receiving his injections.
The room looked the same as the last time he had been in it. Without being prompted, he made his way to the chair in the centre and sat down. Positioning his arm beneath the injection machine, he waited for the aliens to finish their preparations.
They loaded up the machine with orange-filled vials and watched as it clamped down onto Adrian’s arm. He winced. He felt the liquid enter his bloodstream and waited for it to kick in.
***
Adrian took a seat in his usual chair and waited for the aliens to prepare the day’s round of injections. Ever since they’d started injecting him again, they took him at least once a sleep cycle for a new dose. Each time they injected differently coloured vials into his bloodstream.
He didn’t know what they injected him with, but he was learning all the different flavours pain came in. From his very bones to the hairs on his head, the aliens found a way to make everything hurt to some degree.
Sometimes they repeated their experiments with the same substances for good measure. Adrian could tell by the side-effects. He reacted to each new dose that he received differently. Sometimes it would cause excruciating pain, and others, barely a twitch. There were even cases where he had no reaction at all.
After so much time, Adrian had long since become accustomed to feeling side-effects from his injections. It was expected, at this point. Which is why he stared at the cup in front of him suspiciously. The aliens had attached a small tray to the chair after he sat down, which sent alarm bells ringing in his head.
It was new. Adrian didn’t like new.
A gru’ul with one antenna much shorter than the other brought over a glass container filled with a pale purple liquid and unscrewed the lid. Immediately, a pungent, repulsive odour filled the air. The scent stung his nose and tears formed in his eyes. Everything about it screamed DO NOT INGEST.
Oblivious to his disgust, it poured him a small glass of the substance and centered the cup in front of him. Adrian almost gagged as the smell intensified. He shook his head, staunchly refusing to pick up the glass. For hours he sat there, not touching the glass.
For hours, they tried to coerce him to drink it. They showed him simulations and diagrams of him picking up the glass and bringing it to his lips. They screamed and shouted at him, but it fell on deaf ears. Adrian was willing to play this game with them.
So in the chair he sat. Time stretched on and the aliens refused to bring him back to his room until he drank what was in front of him. After more than eight hours Adrian began to get thirsty but refused to give in. They offered no food or water while he sat there. After twelve hours he began to get tired and closed his eyes. He was prodded awake right away, the aliens refusing to let him sleep until he did what he was told.
After sixteen hours of no sleep, water or food, Adrian gave in. With a grimace, he finally picked up the glass in front of him. He held his breath and brought it to his lips. In one smooth motion, he tipped his head backwards and drained the cup.
He immediately regretted ever being alive.
Adrian froze, the cup falling from his hands and clattering on the ground. His back arched unnaturally, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. He remained locked in his pose, until at last, a cry like no other tore from deep within.
The guttural, animalistic howl that loosed from his lips was a sound no being should ever produce. Echoing throughout the room, it drowned out all other noise. It was the sound of pure pain, on a level of which one could not comprehend.
Adrian floated, fell, sunk, ripped, tore, shattered, burned, froze and suffocated all at once as every nerve in his body came alive. Adrian thought he knew pain. Thought he could handle more than most others by now after all that had been done to him. He’d never been more wrong. Time ceased to exist as his mind retreated into its deepest recesses to avoid breaking under the strain until at last, everything mercifully went black.
Adrian woke up on the floor of his room. His throat was raw, and he couldn’t speak. He had lost his voice from the ordeal, but that hardly mattered to him. He curled up where he lay and wept. His memories of what had transpired were intrusive, flashing by incessantly as they refused to release their grip on his thoughts. All he desperately wanted was for somebody to comfort him and tell him everything would be ok. But there was no one.
Never had he felt so alone.
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