literature

Test Subject

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Literature Text

Ray didn't like the smell of this place.  It reminded him of that time he'd gone to the emergency room when he'd fallen off his bike.  They'd put three stitches in his chin, and while he wanted to squirm and cry he'd sat perfectly still.  It hurt like hell, but his mom was so proud of him that it was worth it.

And afterwards, he got ice cream.

Now he was surrounded by hospital smell, a smell you never got used to.  And like then, he wanted to squirm and cry but… something inside Ray held him perfectly still.  It was important he remain calm, the inner-Ray whispered.  Very important.  Stay calm, keep track of everything.  

Maybe mom would come get him soon.

He snapped back to himself, blinking.  They wanted him to do the trick with the concrete blocks again, so he sighed and concentrated.

And, up they went: three big grey bricks, hovering in the air above the concrete not-hospital floor, twisting lazily in the cool air.  He wished he could snap them together like Legos, but these were the real kinds of bricks they made buildings from.  He'd never be able to lift one with his hands!

The men wrote more stuff on their clipboards.  Doctor Amrun just watched silently, arms crossed, expression unreadable.  He wasn't ever sure if Doctor Amrun was happy; that was just the way he was.  As far as Ray could tell, he was the only medical doctor in the place, despite the hospital smell.

"Very good, Ray."  Amrun clapped like Ray was putting on a show.  "But that was just a warm-up.   We have something different today… so put the blocks down, please."

Something different?  Ray caught himself mid-yawn.  The blocks dropped with a crash, the corner of one breaking off and skittering away.

"Sorry."

Doc Amrun's mouth smiled.  "No problem.  We'll clean that up later."   He gestured to the soldiers who always attended these sessions, but instead of scurrying over to pick up the broken blocks they saluted and one ran off.  Ray watched him wave his ID badge at the door's reader, which bleeped and turned green.  The thick door slid aside and the soldier disappeared when the door hissed and thunked closed behind him.

Ray wondered what was coming next, but when it didn't happen right away he grew bored again.

"Ray, don't."

He looked up, startled to realize one of the bricks was spinning in mid-air again.  He let it go.  Amrun's face was unreadable as he glanced at his watch.  Maybe the new thing would start soon.

"Sorry."

Another minute passed, maybe more.  Ray wasn't sure.  He was terrible with time.  But soon there was a kind of… snort?  And then the clatter of a large motor starting someplace nearby, then a sustained rumble.  He could feel it in the floor through his Keds.

Then there came a beeping noise, like when a truck backs up.

Within seconds the entire farside wall slid upwards, like a garage door.  Ray squinted from where he stood, trying to see, but headlights blinded him.  The clatter turned into a roar, and the rumbling grew more fierce.  Was it a bulldozer?  He loved those.

No! It was a tank! An army tank, like in the Transformers movies!  It rolled forwards on clattering treads and into the main room.  Doctor Amrun and his assistants stepped out of the way and soon the bohemoth was parked not 15 feet away from Ray, its gun pointed up and right.  The engine died, leaving an overpowering smell of diesel exhaust.

Ray waved at the soldier who popped out the top hatch and climbed down.  The soldier didn't wave back.

From where he stood all he could see was a wall of grey steel, the front treads, and the glass slit where the soldiers looked out – he thought.  Ray wanted desperately to see the inside of the tank, sit in the driver's seat, play with the controls…

"Ray?"

He dragged his attention away from the tank back to Doctor Amrun.

"Ray?  Can you… lift this?"

He wasn't sure.  It was way bigger than those concrete bricks.  Bigger than the trashcans and bicycles he'd been playing with when the Army guys had come to get him from home.

But maybe if he did it, they'd let him see inside.  "I'll try."

Doctor Amrun nodded, gestured to his crew.  They started the cameras and waited.  At Amrun's signal Ray reached out with his mind and felt the tank, wrapped himself around it, and… pushed.

It took a lot of effort, and he could feel… something… inside his head bulge, hurt a little.  Like there was too much blood up there.  But the tank shifted, groaned, then finally lifted a few inches off the floor.

His vision wavered, and he felt a little woozy.  He wanted to spin the tank, maybe turn it around the way it came… that would be funny.  But honestly he wasn't sure if he had enough time.  Instead he let it fall, the treads taking up the immense weight of the thing again.

Ray wanted to sit down.  Doctor Amrun saw this, gestured, and a soldier rushed over with one of those folding metal chairs and a Diet Coke.  Ray wished it was root beer.

He sipped his soda and watched Amrun and his team gesture at test results on a laptop computer.  Soon they turned back to Ray, asking all the same questions they usually did.  No, it didn't hurt.  Yes, it was easy.  No, he couldn't tell what the tank weighed or what it was made of… it was just really really big.

"Ray," one of the men with clipboards asked finally, "could you stop the tank from moving?"

"Sure," he shrugged.

This set the scientists off, and they resumed their discussion.  Eventually Doc Amrun held up a hand and everyone stopped talking, watching him expectedly.

"Ray, we'd like to try an experiment.  See if you can stop the tank moving."

He stood up, set the coke on the chair, wiped his mouth.  "Okay."  

Amrun nodded, and the soldier who drove the tank came back in and this time he waved.  The soldier had something white in his hands, and as he fiddled with it the tank's engine exploded back to life, snorting a cloud of exhaust.  With supreme joy Ray realized the thing in the soldier's hand was an xbox controller!  Or very much like one: it had two joysticks and some buttons.  Ray ached to play with it, drive the tank around like an RC car.

The soldier carefully maneuvered the tank, spinning it in place by doing a trick with its treads.  It was fascinating.  Soon it was cross-side to Ray, and he could see the whole thing in sillhouette: treads, Army emblems, numbers, the long gun (with a weird bulge half-way up the barrel) and all those wheels!  The soldier made the tank trundle forwards and back a few dozen feet, demonstrating its total space to move within.

"Any time, Ray.  Make it stop."

He nodded.   Concentrated.  Soon the machine shuddered, paused in place, treads grinding  and spinning on the slick concrete floor.  It was easier than lifting it, much easier.  He held the tank frozen and tried something he had never done before: sent a part of himself over to the soldier with the xbox controller, tried looking down at the device using the soldier's eyes.

Aside from the markings and lack of symbols, it looked exactly like his controller from home.  Ray knew he could drive the tank using that controller if only…

"Hey!"  The soldier stumbled, stepped back, shook his head.  The tank rumbled anew, free of Ray's mind for a second, lurched 45 degrees awkwardly.

He was right!  It was easy.  He used the soldier's left thumb to rotate the tank further,  shoved the right one forward a notch.  The tank roared, thick black clouds of exhaust threatening to overload the room's ventilators.

Doctor Amrun looked surprised.  Ray laughed as he made the tank spin in place, lurching forward at the test-stand with all the laptops and hardware.  Men scattered.

"Ray!  Stop that this instant!"  Amrun's voice had a hard edge Ray'd never heard before.  

He let out a tiny squeak, released the controller, and let go of the tank.  The soldier slapped a button with the heel of his hand and the tank died, feet away from crushing the computers.  Soon the room was filled only with the sound of ticking, cooling metal.

Amrun was pissed.  He marched to where Ray stood, towering over him.  His face was red and his arms were shaking.  Before Ray could apologize, Amrun reached a long arm out and slapped the boy across the mouth.  Ray fell to the floor, tears stinging his eyes.

"I want my mommy!"  He blurted out, mortified that he'd say such a baby thing.

"Don't ever do that again!" Amrun stood glaring down at him, breathing hard.

Anger flared within Ray.  

He reached out and up, touched Amrun's mind.  The duality of looking at the Doctor with his eyes and seeing himself through Amrun's was confusing but he didn't care.  He was too mad to care.

What Ray found behind the Doc's eyes made him recoil.  He was crazy as bugs, thoughts all twisted and wrong, chasing after… something, an idea, a concept that was foreign to Ray.  He bore down with more of his will and the Doctor's face went slack as thoughts were untangled, pains smoothed, things too evil for little boys to see erased.

Ray was horrified to see himself splayed on an operating table, wires stuck in his head… no, his brain.  Top of his head cut off, brain exposed.  Like an experiment.  It was just a thought Amrun had, a desire, it'd never really happened.

Not yet.  But he'd been planning for it.

Ray shuddered, made the idea of that go away.  Amrun whimpered, eyes glassy and loose in their sockets.  When Ray let go – finally – the aged Doctor fell to his knees, held his hands to his face and wept.

"Say you're sorry,"  Ray whispered.

"Oh god, yes," Amrun sniffled, snot running between his fingers.  "I'm sorry!  So, very very…"

Ray nodded.  Stood up and looked around the room.  Everyone was just watching him, paralyzed by fear.  But there was nothing scary about Ray, was there?  He was just a boy.  And he'd helped Doctor Amrun.  Fixed him.  Amrun would never hurt anybody ever again.

"I want to go home now," Ray announced.  But the men just looked at each other.  

After waiting a reasonable time, Ray picked up the tank and threw it.  It seemed easier than before, almost effortless.  

Concrete bricks exploded before its 50-ton bulk as the tank pinioned away into the rooms beyond, spinning like a toy.  Exposed girders, pink insulation, and the stuff usually inside walls lay everywhere.  Alarms sounded amidst a cloud of white dust, and still they only flinched, staring at him.  The soldier with the xbox controller dropped it and ran.

"Fine," Ray sighed.  "I'll do it myself."

He walked past the men, climbing through the hole he'd made with the tank, past the wreckage.  More soldiers came and pointed their guns at him, but Ray reached into their minds and fixed them too. He walked on and on until normal carpet was beneath his feet.  This was the office part of the building, he realized, and offices had phones.  

Maybe somebody here knew how to reach his mom.
You'd think they'd have protocols in place for this, but no.

8 AUG 2011 UPDATE: ~doubtingthomas has uncovered a page of missing protocols here.
© 2011 - 2024 RalfMaximus
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Pinaz9's avatar
I like this. I wanna meat Ray. he sounds like a fun kid to be around.