Your Human and You: Deathly Afraid

I stepped out of my Sedan, greeted by the warm smile of General Irvin Day, "Ah, Sergeant Major, good to see that you made a decision." Yeah, a decision I may regret if it goes sour.

I saluted and forced a smirk, "Glad to see that I'm not being tied down to a gurney and slid into a poorly lit room."

General Day chuckled, saluting back. "We're not doing that, lad. But before we head in, let me remind you that there may be unprecedented side effects. Those scientists want to make it clear with you before they begin. Understand?"

"I know, and I do. If I didn't, I'd be leaving." I turned to the army base built into the side of one of Utah's Rocky Mountains, the two double doors that lead in seeming out of place, "Let's head in, shall we?"

"Right this way." General Day stated, turning and opening the double doors. When I entered, I saw that the place was full of medical staff, some in hazmat suits while others were walking with trays of what appeared to be antibiotics. It seemed wild and unorganized, and when I followed the general down a hall that had flickering lights, I felt shivers crawl up my spine as I soon doubted that I wasn't going to be tied down.

The general took a sharp right and opened a door, and I was brought into a room that was pure white. The smell of medicinal alcohol hitting my nose almost caused me to gag, but I held it in as to not make the room drastically less sterile. I saw a soldier wearing what appeared to be an exo-suit, carrying a broken helicopter's roter blade. I was stunned, to say the least; how come we didn't have that in our military yet? I then realized that it was a prototype and that the risks of it breaking down was high. The room itself was huge, spanning about seventy feet wide, long, and high, like a giant cube of sorts. Perfect for tests and containment if things go wrong.

"Sergeant Major?" A feminine voice asked, and I turned to see a masked doctor holding a syringe filled with green liquid. Next to her was a seat with straps for the legs and hands. "Take a seat so that we can begin the process."

I eyed the seat for a moment, then turned to the doctor with a quizzical look, "If I may be so inclined to ask, what in the hell is that?" I pointed directly at the liquid in the syringe.

She held it out so that I could get a closer look at it, "This is a serum that, if injected into the subject's bloodstream, should give him or her immense strength and enhanced regenerative abilities. Meaning that he or she will be able to lift up to three hundred pounds easily, five hundred being the maximum in theory. It also means that he or she will be able to laugh off a shotgun blast from point blank, basically making their muscles and arteries as strong as stainless steel." She motioned to the chair, "Now please take a seat, Sergeant Major."

I sighed, sitting in the chair as two other doctors came over and got me strapped in. I sure as hell wasn't on a roller coaster, but the thrill of getting injected with an unknown liquid made my face pale. The doctor dabbed a spot on my right arm with medicinal alcohol, then brought the syringe to it, slowly puncturing the skin and injecting the serum into my bloodstream.

She backed away, same with General Day who was giving me a comforting smile. Everyone stopped and stared at me for a moment, even the soldier in the exo-suit. At first, I felt nothing; no agonizing pain, no dizziness, no sudden want to kill everyone. Nothing. I sat there for a few minutes, waiting for something, and was about to say something before I suddenly felt a growing pain in my arms that soon had me screaming at the top of my lungs as I gripped onto the arm of the chair. Without warning, the arm of the chair began bending and the strap eventually broke. The pain was soon around my entire body, and I screamed in agony as I began shaking my head furiously, using my now-free hand to break the other arm of the chair. I then kicked my legs, breaking the straps on them and I arose, falling to the ground. The pain around my body was unbelievably painful, worse than getting shot by a bullet then having someone jab their thumb in it. Soon, my world went black, and the last thing I saw was General Day and the doctor rushing over to me.

General Day had never seen Fredrick break out of a steel chair before, so that means that the test had worked, but the fact that he blacked out worried him. The doctor began doing CPR on him, but that was useless as he stopped breathing several minutes ago. He was dead, no doubt, but the doctor didn't want to believe it.

General Day put a hand on her shoulder, "Doc, he's gone." The doctor stopped the CPR, standing and putting a hand over her face. General Day heard her weeping behind her hand, and sighed, "I know how you feel; the Sergeant Major was a great man, and it's sad to lose him. But he understood the risks of the procedure, doc." He glanced at the dead body of Sergeant Major Fredrick Brooks, watching as two doctors lifted him and carried him away, most likely to the morgue. "He has no relatives, since most served in the army and lost their lives fighting for freedom, but he will be remembered."

The doctor turned around and hugged him, crying profusely, "I know, it's just... I-I hate to be the one doing these kind of things. I-It makes me feel like I'm... I'm responsible for their deaths!"

General Day sighed, holding her tightly; he knows the pain she's going through, and it's understandable given her current situation. He'd been the cause of death for several foreign soldiers who had families and loved ones hoping that they'd come home, only to find that they've been slaughtered in the shameful game of war.

Suddenly, there was a loud blast coming from behind him, and he saw the two doctors who dragged Fredrick Brooks get pushed back as said soldier was dragged into a portal of sorts. General Day was speechless, and as soon as Fredrick was on the other side of the portal, it vanished as suddenly as it opened.

The exo-suit soldier ran up to the doctors, "What the hell was that?!"

General Day continued to stare, his mind trying to catch his thoughts. He couldn't find them however, and shook his head. And I thought I'd seen it all..., he thought to himself.