SAGE
The chill of the serum poured into my veins.
My body responded instantaneously, my arm seizing up, wanting to reject the fluid.
“She’s waking up. Administer more anesthesia,” Dr. Adamson said, looking up from the screen, glancing over at my body.
Dr. Stanstopolis jumped from her chair and ran to the IV stand.
The fluid flowed through me, my body trembling.
“Hold her steady!” Dr. Adamson ordered. “More anesthesia! Get it into her!”
Dr. Stanstopolis gripped the IV stand. Dismay rolled across her face.
“She injected herself. The serum bag is empty.”
She ran back toward the computer screen, her voice rising.
“She’ll start convulsing. Have you got them?” Her hands took hold of either side of the monitor, her voice growing to near hysteria. “Have you got them?!”
A spasm shot through me; my body jumped once on the table.
Dr. Adamson shouted in horror. “Keep her down! I need to get the needle out!”
My body erupted into movement. I had no ability to stop it. I felt myself writhing on the bed, my back arching, Dr. Stanstopolis attempting to hold me down.
I could not feel my limbs. I only felt the ice. The cold moved through me, so intense it burned.
“Do not lose the samples!” Dr. Stanstopolis cried.
The ice gave way to something more—a stinging, itching sensation that began at the center of my body and radiated outward, until it felt like a thousand insects bit the whole of my skin. I screamed in pain, in terror at what I’d done to myself, on the decision I’d made. The gag in my mouth muffled the noise.
“It’s out!” Dr. Adamson shouted.
“Did you get them? Did you get the eggs?”
“I don’t know! But we’ve got to get out of here before she changes. She’ll tear apart her restraints.”
Dr. Adamson placed something carefully into a briefcase and slammed the lid shut. “Let’s go,” he said.
Dr. Stanstopolis snatched up items, shoving them into bags.
“We have to leave, now!” he cried.
My free arm flailed, scratching at my body, scratching away the pain.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard feet running across the floor, the wheels of a monitor rolling with them.
A door slammed shut, and I knew they’d left me to suffer alone.