Experiment X1A-9424

Xia sat on the bed, his legs pulled into his chest and his feet tucked under a blanket though the restraints were still on his wrists and ankles. Bruises lined his cheeks, throat and arms, yellow under new dark purple, scratching and small cut littered his skin. He hadn’t thought things could have possibility gotten worse but they had. With the military man in charge everyday was a series of tests, each harder than the last. It didn’t help the matter that Xia felt oddly tired and more easily exhausted then before.

Of course, he knew nothing about the reduced oxygen levels in the compound, nor did he understand why his vitals were suddenly monitored at all time. A small device was strapped around his waist, the little box sitting on his right hip, small wires with round attachments stuck all over his chest.

Many things had changed for him. He was never allowed to play his piano or even sing for that matter. If he tried he was hit by one of the soldiers. If he didn’t answer with a ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir’ he was hit. If he didn’t answer quickly, he was hit. If his answers didn’t make sense to whoever asked the question, he was hit. If he didn’t stand perfectly still, with his hands closed fisted to his sides, he was hit. He was learning many new things about how he should act and it was confusing and bothersome.

He had overheard some odd comments about his behavior and restructuring. He had heard words such as drilling, behavior modification, training, and soldier attitude. He didn’t really understand it but he knew he didn’t like it.

People were coming and going into the compound, reviewing tests results, there was a mixture of positive and negative emotions from the results. They continued one test in particular, an maze of sorts that involved a lot of running and scrambling to keep from getting shocked, bitten, hit or anything else that could cause pain. The pattern was always different though. Sometimes they seemed happy, other times they didn’t. Another word Xia kept hearing was ‘light’. He didn’t know what they meant by it and why they seemed to obsess over it.

There was light all over the compound. Xia was currently staring up at the light in his room trying to figure out why the doctors and military people seemed so crazy over light and why they always looked at him when they talked about it if he was in the area.They also kept asking him about something he had said a few years old about light behind the wall. He struggled to explain and was only hit in reward of trying to explain it.

The door opened and Lt. Barnett walked in. Xia scrambled off the bed, standing straight with his hands closed fisted at his sides, eyes forward as was expected of him.

“Better, much better.”

Xia automatically turned to look at him and a sharp slap across his cheek made him wince but he redirected his eyes forward.

“Explain the light.”

Xia almost groaned but restrained it in time.

“It is behind the wall.”

“What wall?”

Xia could see it in his mind, the wall with the light behind it. A wall like nothing he had ever seen before, swirling colorful smoke, behind it the purest light which sparkled and glittered shimmer from gold to white or a mix of both. Xia however with his lack of education and vocabulary, couldn’t describe this. His art work had done little to help the doctors when he had been asked to draw what he was trying to explain.

“It moves.”

“Walls don’t move.”

“This one does,” he replied annoyed.

This earned him a smack on the back of the head, hard enough that he stumbled forward before he righted himself.

“Apologize, sir. This wall moves.”

“What does it look like?”

“Big, colorful but….I can see behind it, sir.”

“Clear like glass?” Lt. Barnett asked softly in the boy’s ear, undoing the extended restraints.

“No, sir.”

“What is behind it?”

“Light.”

“Describe it.”

“It is also colorful but different, gold and white, sir.”

“How do you reach it?”

“Sir?”

“You said it was hard to reach,” Lt. Barnett walked in a circle around him.

“Yes, sir.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know sir, it just is.”

“Is it easier sometimes?”

Xia thought for a moment, “I don’t know sir.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I have never tried to reach it.”

“Then how is it hard?”

“It just is, sir.”

A hard punch to the gut, put Xia to his knees coughing. Lt. Barnett towering over the boy in rage.

“You tell me one thing, then another. You are lying to me!”

“No-sir-cough-no, sir.”

“How do you know it is hard to reach if you have never tried?”

“I just know, sir." he relied, kneeling on the floor, his arms around his stomach.

“I just know, sir.”

“Try to reach it.”

“I don’t know how, sir.”

“BULLSHIT!” Lt. Barnett shouted, dragging the boy back to his feet by his hair and shoving him into the wall, grabbing and twisting an arm behind his back.

Xia cried out in pain and struggled to break free but his arm and hair were jerked in response.

“I know you are lying because you have reached it, you have used it.”

Xia tried to shake his head, “no, sir. I haven’t, sir. Never, sir.”

“You see, you are a strange kid. Right now you can’t even break away from me but sometimes you can lift things that no other person can or even should. Have you never wondered why? Why, you can’t free yourself from me but you can lift that car today, a car that weights a lot more then I do?”

“Yes, sir. I wondered,” he definitely wondered, because right at the moment he wanted to push the man away and he couldn’t.

“Your speed is impressive, though that one seems tied to adrenaline and fear and again is not constant either. You agility, balance and grace however a constant, that is physical, the rest I believe is mental. So we need to find your mental state and your triggers. If I were you I would get as much as sleep as possible because you are going to need it.”

Lt. Barnett released the boy, who crumbled to the floor on his rump, one hand rubbing his throbbing shoulder, then left.

Xia realized he hadn’t been restrained but he knew he would never get out of the compound again. Maybe just maybe if he could figure out how to be stronger and faster all the time, he could then run away. He just needed to find out how he did it because most of the time, he didn’t even realize he was doing something unusual until after the tests.

He had been shocked to see the car in the maze that morning, it kind of looked like the fast objects he had encounter during his escape. Now, he knew what it was and he knew people shouldn’t be able to lift it like he had that morning. Now he needed to find out how he could lift it and he needed to find out fast.

--- --- ---

Megan sat with her mother outside on the porch, wrapped in a thick blanket with a cup of hot coffee in her hands. The weather had turned cold quick over the two weeks since she had come to visit her mother. She had a stack of vacation time saved up and she decided to take a whole month off though she could have taken four months and still have time to spare. She hadn’t taken vacation in nearly four years and it had just stacked up, the perks of being on tenure.

Her mother sat next to her buried her her book and coffee, and Megan was content to sit in silence. She had talked to Ryan that morning, things had been tensed between them since she had left but this morning their conversation had seems softer, smoother and more at ease. They needed this break from each other and the tension that had built between them over the last year or so.

“Honey, are you ok?”

“Yes, mom, why?”

“I said your name a few times and you didn’t answer. You seem lost in thought. Ryan?”

“Yes. Things haven’t been so good lately because of the baby issue.”

“Oh honey, just let it go. God will decide when it is time, if he even thinks you should have children. Maybe he wants you to be free to take care of other people’s children, maybe go do that doctor’s without borders you keep talking about. Why don’t you look into that? Ryan can go too, it would be a great adventure as a couple.”

“Maybe I will…” Megan said softly but deep down she knew she wouldn’t.

She wanted her own child to love and raise. She drained her coffee, “I am getting another cup do you want one?”

Her mother tilted her head in thought, “oh go on then.”

Megan laughed at her mother’s playful European accent and went inside to fill both mugs. A flash of grey in the corner of her made her jerk, automatically thinking it was Xia but she frown at the grey cat that had leap onto the sofa.

“Minx…” she muttered as she set the mugs down and refilled them.

She hadn’t stoped thinking about the boy and had discussed her thoughts with her mother who was pressed lip about giving her opinions on the matter. This told Megan that her mom was on Ryan’s side. It annoyed her but she knew they a valid point but Megan’s father had always told her to trust her gut. She looked at his photo on the wall and felt a pang of sorrow. He had passed away four years ago and she missed him greatly, especially now. He would have taken her side and they could have debated back and forth on the issue, adding and reinventing details of possibilities.


Megan picked up the mugs, shaking her head to clear the sad thoughts and returned to her mother and her own book.

Notes