NOVEL WEB Chapter 37: The Third Experiment: A Drug Called APTX-08
As soon as the door swung open, I saw Ryuji’s guilty expression.
He spoke in a low voice: “The chief wants you to come with me to the drug production room right now. And he warned me not to let you hurt Zane any further. He said he might die if you do.”
I smirked. The chief was playing dirty.
I asked Ryuji: “Can I have a minute with the twins before I go? I won’t touch him, I promise.” Ryuji agreed but urged me to hurry up. The chief was impatient.
I walked back to the twins and talked through Eve: “Something’s not right here. I have a bad feeling about this. I don’t know what they’re going to do to me in there or how it will affect me. You two need to be brave.”
I glanced at Zane and added: “If you can, try to break his arm and leg while I’m gone. Eve said he’ll heal in a week, but I don’t want him to hurt you when I’m not here. If you can’t, don’t worry. I’ll deal with him later.”
The twins hugged me tightly and pleaded: "Promise us, Xeno," the twins pleaded, their eyes filled with worry. "Promise you'll come back to us."
"I promise," I replied, my voice steady despite the fear gnawing at my insides.
Ryuji's grip on my arm tightened, yet his arms were shaking as he led me away, his silence a stark contrast to the twins' emotional farewell, however, I could feel his concern.
The drug production room was a chilling sight. The sterile, metallic surfaces gleamed under the harsh fluorescent lights, and the constant hum of machinery was punctuated by the occasional clink of glass vials. The air was thick with the acrid scent of chemicals, a smell that seemed to seep into my skin, a constant reminder of the grim reality I was facing.
The chief was waiting, a cruel smile playing on his lips as he watched me enter.
His eyes were cold, devoid of any human warmth.
"Welcome, Xeno," he sneered, his voice echoing ominously in the vast room.
This time, I didn't argue. I didn't say anything. I knew the stakes. If I lost control, if I let my anger get the best of me, the twins would pay the price. I couldn't let that happen. Ryuji, with a look of regret, forced me onto an iron bed.
It clamped around me, leaving me immobilized, my eyes the only part of me free to move.
It was a familiar, terrifying sensation.
The chief's laughter echoed in the sterile room, a cruel soundtrack to my suffering.
"What's the matter, Xeno?" he taunted, his voice dripping with false concern.
"You're not looking so good."
I remained silent; my gaze fixed on the ceiling.
My silence seemed to infuriate him further. "Oh, not talking today?" he sneered. "That's a first."
He turned to the scientists, a wicked grin on his face.
"Electrocute him," he ordered. The familiar jolt of pain coursed through my body, but I bit back any sound of pain. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
In the midst of this, the chief introduced a new element to the torture - a drug called APTX-08. "This little pill," he said, holding it up to the light, "is a gene mutation drug. It's supposed to enhance your internal organs or create a new one. But who knows what will happen if it fails?"
He forced the pill into my mouth, making me swallow it. The taste was bitter, a stark reminder of the ordeal I was about to undergo.
"Enjoy the ride, Xeno," he said, his voice filled with malicious glee.
I felt the pill slide down my throat and I wanted to gag. I knew it was a bad idea to swallow anything they gave me, but I had no choice. I hoped it wouldn’t kill me or turn me into something worse than I already was.
For the next five days, I endured the torture of being hooked up to machines that monitored my vital signs, blood pressure, heart rate, brain activity and other things.
They also injected me with various fluids and substances that made me feel sick, dizzy, hot, cold, numb or in pain. Sometimes they asked me questions or made me do tests, but I ignored them as much as I could. I only thought of the twins and Lana and how much I missed them.
I wondered if they were okay, if they managed to hurt Zane or escape from him.
On the sixth day, something went wrong. I felt a sudden surge of pain in my chest, like someone was stabbing me with a knife. I screamed and writhed on the bed, but the clamps held me down. I saw the chief and the scientists rush to the monitors and look at them with shock and fear. They started to shout and panic, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
All I could hear was my own heartbeat, pounding in my ears like a drum.
The pain then spread to my stomach, my lungs, my liver, my kidneys, my spleen.
It felt like they were all on fire, burning from the inside out. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t do anything but scream and cry.
I wanted to die, to end this agony, to see the twins one last time. But death didn’t come. It only got worse.
I don’t know how long it lasted, but it felt like an eternity. The chief and the scientists tried to do something to stop it, but nothing worked. They gave me more injections, more pills, more shocks, but nothing helped. They looked at me with horror and pity, but also with curiosity and fascination.
They whispered among themselves about what was happening to me, what caused it, what it meant. They said words like “gene mutation”, “organ failure”, “cellular breakdown”, “systemic collapse”.
They said it was a rare and unexpected outcome of the drug APTX-08, which was supposed to create and enhance the internal organs, but instead destroyed them.
They said they didn’t know what would happen next or if I would survive. I wished they would leave me alone or kill me already. I wished they would let me go back to the twins and I wished this nightmare would end. But it didn’t.
It only got worse.