Distress Signal

I sat leaned against the hallway wall, barely conscious but trying to stay attentive. A blaring buzz coming from the lights above intruded the silence. I slowly looked to my left and at the end of the hallway were the double doors I was trying to reach. I got on all fours and began to crawl towards them. My movements were slow and sluggish from all the drugs I had been injected with, but my goal kept me going. The strong smell of chemicals typical of a hospital overwhelmed me as I inhaled and exhaled. I’ve always hated that smell ever since I was a kid, even though I was always told to be a brave girl and deal with it. The hallway was empty aside from some trash cans and a few tables. The bulletin boards on the walls were all bare, who knows when this place was last used. Before I could reach the double doors, there was another open door before it. Once I had reached it, I paused and leaned back against the wall again and listened attentively. My fist clenched tight as I heard him in there moving stuff around and occasionally coughing. I began to tremble and started breathing harder. I didn’t want to move forward, but I knew I couldn’t just sit there forever. I slowly began to lean my head forward. On the door were the words “Test Lab - Room 201.” I continued leaning in until I could see the inside of the room. Beyond all the microscopes and lab equipment, I saw the bald bastard sitting at the far table with his back away from me, deep in concentration on his work. He was dressed in a white lab coat to match the walls. Beyond him was a giant window. Although it was only afternoon, it was grey and dark outside, with heavy rainfall that fell with platter sounds on the window. Taking my chance, I got on all fours with bated breath and began to crawl past the door. However, as soon as I was in view of the room, the bald bastard dropped what he was doing and turned around sharply. My heart sank. He stared at me with wide eyes through his round glasses.

“Hey, hey, hey!” he said in a hushed voice as he got up and rushed towards me.

I panicked and let out a terrified squeal. I tried to crawl away desperately, but it was pointless. He caught up to me and grabbed me. I screamed and tried to fight him off, but he injected me with something. Slowly, everything started to fade to black as I lost feeling in my body, and then passed out.

*

I awoke later strapped to the bed again. I screamed at the top of my lungs and pushed against the restraints.

“Let me go!” I yelled.

“Calm down,” said a voice from nearby. I looked up and saw the bald bastard standing at the end of my bed. “You’re just wasting your energy.”

His tone was that of someone trying to talk sense into a small child. I ignored him and continued to fight against the restraints in pointless desperation.

“Where did you think you were going exactly?” he asked, in a quiet and dangerous voice. I stopped struggling and looked him dead in the eyes. I began to pant, as my body exhausted quicker than usual in my condition.

“No really,” he continued when I ignored him. He placed his hand on his chin as he paced back and forth in front of my bed. “Were you just going to swim to shore?” He stopped pacing and turned around dramatically to face me. “Or were you going to steal the chopper? No way you could fly it in the condition you’re in.”

I glared at him, sick of his belittlement. “Oh, shut up! I know there’s nowhere I can go. I’m just so sick of being stuck in this room. I just wanted to get out and see the rest of the facility. Do you really have a problem with me just doing that much?”

“I told you many times you have to stay in this room,” he said in a low voice. “My specimen should do as they’re told, Test Subject Jane.

“Shut up! Don’t you dare keep using that name!”

“That’s the first name you’ve hated isn’t it?” he said. I said nothing but continued to glare at him, and then he continued in a calmer voice, “By the way, the new strain is almost complete.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “Oh great! I can’t wait to be injected again by another one of your failures.”

He looked taken aback but tried to keep his voice calm and collected. “No, no, this time will be different! I think I know what I was doing wrong last time.”

“Bullshit, you’ve said that every time. Admit it, you have no idea what the fuck you’re doing!”

“Have a little trust in me, Test Subject Jane. I’m in full control here.”

“You dare talk to me about trust?”

“Come on, I’m always up front and honest about what I’m doing. Its always been that way. There’s no surprises.”

“And what about the pain you put me through, you sick bastard?” I shrieked, raising myself as much as I could against the restraints. “Don’t you care about that?”

“That’s just a part of the trial-and-error process,” he said simply. “Bear with it. You do want to see me to succeed, don’t you?”

“If it means I can get out of here, then yeah sure I want you to succeed.”

The bald bastard stared at me with the tiniest hints of hurt on his face. He turned to leave, but then looked back at me. “I really don’t want you strapped down like this,” he said. “But you’ve proven to me you can’t control your behaviour, so I’m going to leave you like this for a while. I see that I have to make sure the door is locked as well.”

He strode out the room and locked the door behind him.

*

The bald bastard kept me strapped for another 5 hours. I suppose this was his way of punishing me. He had only restrained me a few other times like this before, usually when I became difficult for him. Otherwise, I was confined to this tiny room while he tested his experimental drug on me. He slid food in through a flap on the door he created himself. If he came in, he came armed with a pistol to make sure I complied. Sometimes I wondered whether it would be better just to bite the bullet. But I suppose I still had some hope left in me that I can make it out of this somehow. I sighed and stared at the ceiling. There was nothing I could really do except let the intrusive thoughts sting at me. The room around me resembled a typical patient room. There were cabinets and counters full of medical equipment. I looked at the walls which were scratched with fingernail marks. I had dug those in the early days here as I cried hysterically. There were also some puzzles and books in this room. I had taken those up after a while to escape my reality. It was great to experience a few of hours of something that resembled sanity. Above the doorway in metallic letters were the words “Redwater Research Facility – Island Branch.” As I was staring at these words lost in thought, I heard fumbling at the door and the bald bastard returned with an injection in his hand. I felt my skin crawl as he came closer to me. My breathing intensified and I clenched my fists.

“Just relax,” he whispered. There was this smug look of excitement on his face.

“No, please,” I pleaded with him.

But he ignored me as he continued to walk towards me with a smile on his face. He rolled up the sleeve of my arm. I began contorting my body but there wasn’t anything I could do while strapped down. I felt a sharp sting as he injected my arm. He then stepped back and began to observe me with curiosity. I began breathing heavily, tense with the anticipation of what would be to come. Within minutes, the all too familiar sensations returned. I felt pain shoot throughout my entire body, and it became heavy and sluggish. It was that feeling as if something had a hold of me and my movements were restricted, accompanied with feelings of nausea and dizziness. I felt a sensation of intense fear and dread fill me, and all my energy drain. Three weeks here and five trials in, nothing had changed. But I knew something had to.

“How do you feel Test Subject Jane?” he asked.

“I…feel fantastic,” I said smiling.

The bald bastard looked taken aback. “For real?”

“Yeah,” I said softly, “I don’t feel the surge of energy you described I should, but I feel much better than before. I feel a lot stronger.”

His face lit up ecstatically. “This is great news!” He looked down at the injection and gazed at it admiringly.

“You know, I think you’re on the right path now,” I said.

“Didn’t I tell you?” he said, his voice shaking with excitement.

He then came up to me and undid the restraints. He looked like he wanted to say something to me or even give me a hug, but then he took a few steps away from me towards the door. “I’ll let you be for now. I’m going to the office to make a record of this. I’ll come back in a bit to see how the effects are turning out.”

He hurried off in excitement and didn’t lock the door behind him. As soon as he had gone, I got up off my bed. That was the best I could hope for. I was still sluggish and slow, but the determination to make it out of this was giving me the necessary strength. I exited the room and looked left and right. The bald bastard had gone right, just around the corner. I knew the offices were upstairs, where he had gone. Despite the situation, I felt this grim satisfaction that he was recording another failure as a success in his notes.

I went left towards the end of the hallway. I was slightly slouched after the shot, but I knew in my head this was my clear chance. At the end of the hallway there was a sign that said cafeteria and kitchens to the left, and testing labs to the right. I took the hallway to the right and went as fast as I could down the hall. I passed by some windows that revealed a giant room below me. There was a strange dome shaped object in the middle of the room that droned eerily into the silence. I looked behind me with my heart beating; what would I do if he came up behind me? I got to the end and turned left to the hall of the test labs. I reached laboratory room 201 where the bald bastard worked in. The stench of chemicals in here was the strongest I’ve smelled yet. His table was scattered with beakers, test tubes, and needles. I looked out the window; it was dark outside now. But the heavy rain persisted with the gentle platter sounds on the window. I could just make out the black chopper that I was kidnapped in and brought here. Beyond the sand, the ocean looked like it went on forever. The sound of waves crashing to the shore was pleasant to listen to. It was beautiful to be able to look outside again, something all of us take for granted. I quickly snapped out of it and got to work. I opened one of the cabinets and frantically began to search it. In one of the bags, I found his pistol. I had a feeling this was where he kept it. I felt much safer with it, but it also added another burden on me I didn’t want to think about. I edged out of the lab and looked to my right. No sign of him, I was still safe.

I went left and finally reached the double doors. I had a small sneaky chance out of my room once before and knew this was here. I slowly opened the door and walked in. It was full of telephones, radios, and computers. This was the communications room. I made my way over to the main computer in the middle. Although I had never done this before, I think I may have an idea. I found the link to the main Redwater research branch, and an option to send a distress signal. Once I had sent it, it said ETA 40 minutes.

I exhaled and turned to exit the room. Now I just had to go back to my room, act normal and wait until help arrived. But once I stepped out into the hallway, I saw the bald bastard in the distance walking my way. We both stopped when we saw one another. I could feel my heart sinking and the color from my face draining. Anger and confusion overtook the bald bastard’s face as he began to walk towards me.

“Wh-what are you doing here? Why is that door open? I thought I told you to stay in your room.”

“I just felt like taking a walk, I was feeling energetic after the dose," I said rapidly.

As he advanced on me, I began to walk backwards away from him.

“BULLSHIT!” he screamed. “I was clear that you were supposed to stay in your room. I don’t give a fuck that you were energetic after the dose.”

I backed into the communications room as he advanced on me like a madman. He then noticed that the computer was on.

“What is this?” he asked, looking at the computer with shock. “You bitch! You not only disobeyed my orders to stay in the room, you’re fucking around with the equipment and trying to bring outside interference into this. You were a never a good specimen, Test Subject Jane, and you sure as hell were never- "

He froze in shock, looking down at me in disbelief. I had pulled the concealed pistol on him. He slowly raised his hands but did so as he if he wasn’t sure that what he was seeing was real.

“What are you doing with my gun?”

I pointed it steady at him but didn’t say a word. He continued to stare at me with uncertainty and apprehension.

“Jane, it’s me,” he said gently.

But now my hands became unsteady with uncertainty, and my face began to twitch.

“That’s right,” he said reassuringly.

As I looked at him, I remembered the times before I started calling him the bald bastard. I thought back to our wedding day and how happy I had felt. But then I remembered that I was no longer Jane. I had now become Test Subject Jane. My hand then grew steady again around the pistol and I shot him squarely between the eyes. There was a loud bang, a scream, and John went down. He lay dead on the floor, his mouth slightly open in shock and blood coming out of his head. I dropped the gun and fell to the floor. I began to shake uncontrollably while silent tears went down my face. I don’t know how long I lay there, whether it had been 5 minutes or 5 hours, to me it felt like days. But then I heard a chopper land. Soon, sounds of hurried footsteps and the sounds of doors banging open could be heard in the distance. Next thing I knew, armed men stormed into the room and pointed their weapons at me. The others looked towards John.

“Oh god, is that Dr. Chadwell?” one of them asked.

Another one of them went and picked up the gun. He then turned to me. “Were you the one who sent the distress signal?”

“Yes,” I said. “My name is Jane Chadwell. I’m the wife of Dr. Johnathan Chadwell. He had kidnapped me.”

“All right. We’ll get you to safety, but we have to restrain you. Just a precaution, hope you understand.”

“Of course.”

“Didn’t Dr. Chadwell borrow this facility to test his adrenaline drug?” asked another one of the troops.

“Yes,” I said. “He wanted me to be his test subject, even though I refused. I asked him why he was doing this to me. He said I should have the honour of testing it, because the only thing he loved more than his work was me.”