Young Writers Society

Sorry, guys. This one's going to be really short, but I'm on limited time today.

~C.K.~

The other children were gathering, but C.K. did not join them. Christopher was not back yet. C.K. was sure Dr. Abrams went to find him. They were probably torturing him now. Maybe he was even dead by now. C.K. pulled at his hair, blubbering to himself. "It's my fault. Christopher will hate me. He'll hate me."

The children were talking about something. Sunglasses. C.K. heard the word sunglasses. C.K. heard his own voice interject something about Christopher, but he was barely aware that he himself was speaking.

Christopher might even kill him.

C.K. hugged his knees and buried his face in his arms. A doctor entered, and C.K. heard him dismiss the guards. C.K. tuned out the conversation that followed. What if Christopher never came back? C.K. would - no. It would be a good thing. Christopher deserted him. He was better off....

A pair of shoes came into C.K.'s little window of view between his arms and his knees. Only then did C.K. hear his words.

"C.K!! Subject 24601!! I am such a big fan! It's an honour to meet you! It's been a while since I met someone with such a... calibre of speciality!"
C.K. resisted looking up.
"You... I... Wow... oh... by the way, where's... Christopher? He doesn't seem to be close..."
C.K.'s head shot up. "C-Christopher?" he stammered. " What did you do to him? You killed him! I know you did!"
C.K. would not cry. He would not cry in front of this doctor.

The door opened, and Link was pushed into the room.

And Christopher stormed in. Ignoring the new doctor, he grabbed C.K.'s throat and pinned him against the wall.
"You want to get rid of me now, C.K.?" he hissed. "After all I've done for you? How could you? You think you're better off on your own, now? You're nothing but a ball of nerves without me. I'm your strength! Your stability!"

Link gazed around the room. "What did I miss? And who's the midget?"

The doctor straightened slightly, and a smile threatened to emerge.

"Fine then. I'll leave." Christopher spat. "You disgust me, C.K. I'm never coming back for you. Just like you wanted."

"No!" C.K. screamed. The doctor, who had slowly started to face Link, snapped his attention back to C.K., eyes wide with excitement.

"I'm sorry, Christopher. I'm so sorry. I need you. I do. I swear! I'm sorry, Christopher!"
Christopher was leaving, and C.K. was lying on his stomach, weeping into the floor, reaching for Christopher. When a hand touched his own, C.K. looked up, expecting Christopher's forgiving gaze.

He found himself looking into the doctor's face.

And Christopher was gone.


-Sea-

*Edit* So.....not so short, apparently.

Micah,

This is bad news. The new doctor, Mal, or whatever his name is, is not good. I can see it in his eyes, that mad look that says someone is not all there. And there's something else, too: a kind of bestial viciousness, something that's definitely not human. It terrifies me.
Link is back, and C.K. is having a breakdown, screaming for "Christopher" to come back. The new doctor is smiling down at him. It's a cruel smile, full of hunger and the promise of pain. Hideous.
Link is clutching his head, and I turn to him in concern, ignoring the evil presence in the room for now.

"What's up? What did they do to you?"

Link shakes his head, "They injected me with alcohol, and then the All-Cure...it's making my head hurt."

I frown, "Then it's giving you problems, too. That All-Cure thing made my pupils dilate completely-,"

"And it paralyzed Nimsi," Link says grimly, and Isabella gasps. I groan.

"Oh no, she's not been sent to a 'specialist,' has she?" Isabella asks tearfully.

"I don't think so," Link says, "But she's in a bad state."

"Who's in a bad state?" says a cheerful, evil voice. It's Mal. We whirl around.

"None of your business," I snarl, "Why don't you just leave?"

"Oh, now, I don't think you should be speaking to me in that tone of voice, Micah," the doctor says sweetly, "I'm trying to help you escape, don't you realize?"

I snort, "Escape, my ass. You don't care about us, none of you do. So why don't you just give up the pretense and tell us why you're really here."

He smiles wickedly, "OK,"

Mal

Such fun. It had been a while since Mal had had the chance to have such fun with mice. Most of the other facilities had already broken their mice; broken toy mice. But these, these had not been broken yet. They had been treated nicely, treated kindly. They had been kept alive and unbroken. For him!

"Who's in a bad state?" Mal asked randomly, trying to pitch into a conversation that did not interest or concern him.

"None of your business," Micah snarl, "Why don't you just leave?"

"Oh, now, I don't think you should be speaking to me in that tone of voice, Micah," Mal replied sweetly, "I'm trying to help you escape, don't you realize?"

It did not take him even a moment to snap back, "Escape, my ass. You don't care about us, none of you do. So why don't you just give up the pretense and tell us why you're really here."

"OK," Mal smiled, "as you wish."

He walked closer to them. It was interesting how some of them did not cringe or move when he did came closer. Not all of them, but nonetheless, they were strong; afraid and helpless but strong.

Mal sighed, "Yes. I do not care about you. I can't care about you. Unfortunately, most of the others here do seem to care about you all... don't worry, I'll not go telling them off."

Mal turned around and walked a few steps forward. He turned around again and faced the mice, eyeing Micah in particular. He was strong, strong and excitingly breakable , "Micah... Micah Micah Micah.... despite what you may believe, which I know isn't much, I don't lie. I don't have a reason to lie. If I wanted to kill you I would say so. My real intention is to see if you can escape. I really don't care about what happens to you. If you escape, I'll just experiment on my preferred ca... subjects. You know, the doctors... Grey... Crawford... Abrams and... well everyone else..." Mal grinned and clapped his hands together imagining the fun he would have with them.

At that Micah rolled his eyes. Sarcasm. It had indeed been a while since he had met such a... special mouse. This place was heaven! A schizophrenia and a strong willed mouse, not to mention the one who seemed drunk. And yet there was something about theses mice that made him warm and fuzzy inside. Warm and fuzzy! These mice were a pack. It was not a rare phenomenon for mice to band together against the cats, but these mice had earned a sentimental value to Mal. He would enjoy working with them. He would leave Micah and C.K for last, or at least let them live. Life was so much more worse than death after all.

Mal stopped and smiled again, "so yes... I have come... and I've met you. It's been fun... It's been good, thanks for the visit." he took out the key of the door and threw it at Micah, "don't believe me yet? There's the key to the door. Now I'm leaving if you don't mind. Questions would be appreciated my lovely lovely lovely mice!"

The red haired mouse caught the key without much effort. Perhaps he had been expecting it? No. He wasn't so trusting of a doctor. Neither was Mal at that. He wanted to see how far they made it before they were caught. The halls here were underground and stretched for miles. If they managed to get through the maze of guarded halls they would have to use the lift and get through a heavily guarded medical centre. If they got through that, well, onto the new mice then!

He would of course tell the other doctors about this curious pickpocketing incident in a few days. Maybe twenty four hours would suffice. Either way, it would be quite interesting to see what happened now. He remembered once how one of the mice in another facility had thrown the key back at him thinking it was some sort of bomb. Bomb! As if! Ah mice! So much fun!

*Hope this is all right guys, thought I'd let the children have some sort of upper hand on the situation. If no one wants me to change the post, what happens next is a mystery to all of us *

*Sorry guys... I completely forgot about Dr. Crawford for a while... *

Dr. Crawford

There was something wrong with Nimsi. Surely it wasn't the venom? Brittany started panicking. She didn't know what to do since she had no idea what had been given to Nimsi.

Panicking, she remembered Dr. Grey. If her memoy served her right, Dr. Grey had been in charge of Nimsi during this experiment. The idea that she would know what to do was more than a mere idea, it was hope.

"I have to tell Dr. Grey this." She murmured before pulling out here phone out of her lab coat. She hurriedly typed a simple message into it: 'Nimsi. All-Cure reaction of paralysis!' She put the phone back into the pocket and looked at Nimsi.

"What do I do now?" Brittany murmured.

"Please... don't kill me." Nim whispered, tears flowing down her face again.

"It's alright sweetie, I won't let that happen to you." Brittany assured her. She wanted to stroke Nimsi's head, to make her better, but it would both be useless and would certainly land her in deeper trouble thanks to the watchful eyes of the guards. "We'll think of something."

Britt stared at her helplessly. The phone rang.

"Dr. Grey I..." Brittany started to say but was cut off.

"What's wrong?" It was Lily.

"I... Nimsi... Subject 16... She's paralysed! Is it because of the All-Cure? I guessed already that it struck the medically effected areas of the body but for this to happen!" Brittany started crying. She could not take it out of her mind that it was their fault that this was happening.

She brushed off her tears. If the guards so her she might lose her job. There was a pause on the other side of the line. Brittany knew Lily was thinking, but her impatience was just too much.

*Yes... it's short... I've been jinxed... I didn't have enough time to write two words in my Classical Greek Exam and didn't have enough time to write one word, yes One Word! in my Classical Roman Exam... No... it's not a coincidence, I'm jinxed in all forms of writing... *

Micah,

I stare at the key dangling from my hand. Everyone else is looking at it, too. Mal has left, closing the door behind him.

"He gave us...the key?" mutters Link, shaking his head.

"So we can escape now, right?" Sebastian says excitedly, eying the key hungrily.

"No! You saw what that guy was like...he's up to something, and I'm willing to bet that it isn't helping us to escape," Isabella snaps, and I smile grimly.

C.K. is still blubbering in the corner, and feel bad for the guy, even if he got us into this mess, partially. I sigh.

"I get the feeling that that doctor doesn't give a crap what we actually do, he just wants to play with us and test what we will do," I say, slowly, "It's like...I dunno, he wants to hurt us, but he wants us to hurt ourselves."

The others stare at me. Someone coughs uncomfortably.

"Uh, that's pretty twisted, Micah...Where did that come from?" Isabella asks quietly.

I shake my head, "I don't know. It's just, the way he was looking at us, I felt that I was under one of the doctors' microscopes," I shudder.

"The question remains, though," Sebastian says impatiently, "What do we do about the key?"

Link.

"The question remains though. What do we do about the key?" Sebastian asks.

"Nothing", I state. The other gape at me. Micah looks as if he is about to protest, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand

"Not without Nimsi."

Firestalker - Please edit your post about the conversation between lily and Britt.

Dr. Grey

Lily walked down the corridor, to the place where she had been minutes she was stabbed. She shuddered and immediately winced, holding a hand on her chest. The wound still hurt like she had been run through with a sword, which was pretty much what it had been. She continued walking, noticing that the number guards had almost doubled. Then, at the same time, she noticed how many of them were staring at her. She immediately gazed at the ground and quickened her walk.

As she neared Dr. Abram's office, her Motorola vibrated inside her lab coat. Taking it out, she glanced at the screen. It was a message from Dr. Crawford. It was short, but was enough to make her stop dead in her tracks. She read it again, feeling buckets of ice hitting her stomach. It said,

'Nimsi. All-Cure reaction of paralysis!'

"Oh no." She whispered. She had half a mind to run towards the testing lab to see Nimsi but that would look exceedingly suspicious, and taking a call here would mean that any of the guards can eavesdrop on her. She looked around, and saw the Women's restroom a few meters away. She hated the public restrooms, even in Medisync. She preferred the cleanliness of the one in the doctor's lounge but what she needed privacy, not cleanliness. So, she walked towards the restroom and entered it.

Upon entering, she closed her nose with her free hand. Of all the money Medisync made, none of went towards buying scent blocks and air fresheners. Gritting her teeth, she locked herself in a relatively clean stall. Then she dialled Dr. Crawford on her phone. She waiting until the call connected, feeling the urge to pace but the stall was so small, having made for subjects, she could barely turn around without hitting the wall.

The call connected.

Britt's frightened voice came through the phone, "Dr. Grey I..." but Lily cut her off.

"What's wrong?" She asked, knowing what was wrong, but wanting to hear it from Britt herself.

"I... Nimsi... Subject 16... She's paralysed! Is it because of the All-Cure? I guessed already that it struck the medically effected areas of the body but for this to happen!" Lily heard Britt crying into the phone. She felt another cold bucket of ice hit her stomach. She drove away the fear and the sound of Britt's sobs and thought about this.

The all-cure was developed so that it finds the diseases causing agent and mutates itself to form it's antibody. Then the antibodies were supposed to engulf it and destroy it. Then it was supposed to destroy it's self, leaving the antibodies in the bloodstream so as to prevent the disease from happening again. But it seems as if the all cure haven't destroyed it self but had attached to the organs and tissues to which the diseases had struck the worst. So essentially, the all-cure had become a disease as well. It would take a lot more time for her develop something that would work against the all cure.

She knew that the only way to remove the effect, is to inject the snake venom again and cure her with the anti-venom. It was a chance, but she was willing to risk it.

"Britt, this may sound extreme, but I think I have a way of curing Nimsi. Take the exact amount of snake venom and inject it to Nimsi. Then give her a few hours for the effect to occur, and then inject the anti-venom."

"But... where... how are we going to get the anti-venom? It's with Dr. Abrams." She whispered.

Lily knew that either she had to lie to her or tell her the truth.

"I have the anti-venom with me. I... got it from Dr. Abram's office." She confessed. She heard a gasp at the other end.

"Lily, what have you done? What if someone saw you?" She whispered, sounding scared.

"No one saw, and I couldn't let Nimsi be in that much pain. She suffered enough." Lily replied defensively. "Just, inject her with the poison. I have to go now, because Dr. Abram's is expecting me."

"I... alright, Lily." She said, and cut the line.

Lily exhaled, feeling like she haven't slept in hours. Everything was making her feel dizzy and confused. Mentally shaking her head, she opened the stall and came out, where she came face-to-face with a young women she knew as Mandy. She was smiling, but her eyes held an evil look.

"Any problems, Dr. Grey?"

*Chirantha - sure.... I did, hope that's what you meant by edit...*

Dr. Crawford

She looked at the phone in her hands and sighed, brushing off her tears with her trembling hand.

She walked up to the metal table upon which all the tools of their experimentation lay on. There, among other vials lay the vial containing the snake poison that was given to Nimsi. It did not take long for Brittany's practised hands to get some of the venom into a syringe without air bubbles. She stared at it for another moment before turning to Nimsi.

"Don't worry, everything's going to be fine" she said soothingly before slowly injecting the needle into Nimsi.

The girl muttered something for a moment before resuming her unconscious position.

"Please be fine" Brittany repeated to herself, hoping Dr. Grey would arrive as soon as possible.

Mal

Mal walked through the halls whistling to himself and feeling happy and joyful. He skipped a few steps occasionally and tried his best to step on all the cracks he passed.

The game had begun and he was a player. The game had begun and the pieces were in place. The mice, the cats and him. What followed would certainly be exciting and ecstatic!

The guards of course were mostly gone. They were probably playing around somewhere in their rooms. They were certainly pawns. The mice on the other hand were much more valuable. And the cats... well he would soon see how they were.

Mal walked down the halls, he had already memorised the majority of the plans of the building he was now in. It was an intricate pattern of halls that the mice would certainly lose themselves in if they ever decided to escape. Of course they also had to escape from theunderground facility they were in and also get through the guards at the entranceabove.

Mal yawned and skipped again. He would go to Dr. Dimitri Abrams office now. He had no particular reason for choosing so, but he liked the name "Dimitri". It sounded so Dimistri-ish. Mal laughed to himself. Hopefully the man was as interesting as his name.

*I wonder if you guys are okay with the facility being situated underground... it was just an idea I got while writing so I really don't know if it's okay or not. I tend to imagine a secret illegal experimentation facility being underground to avoid watchful eyes but I could be wrong? On second though I don't want to anger anyone so I'll edit it now and if you're all okay with it, we'll use it later.*

I'd actually been subconsciously assuming that it was underground, too...So I say we add that in!

Dr. Abrams

Dmitri took a gulp of fresh coffee and instantly felt himself calm a little. He looked up just in time to see Mandy showing Dr. Grey inside.

“Dr. Grey, perfect timing...” he signalled her to take the seat opposite his. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Uh, I’m fine, thank you," Dr. Grey replied, sitting herself down.

Dmitri looked at her with a slight frown. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that she looked a little worried about something, nervous even...

“Is everything okay?” he asked, genuinely concerned. She’d just been stabbed after all, she was probably still in shock.

“I’m fine,” Dr. Grey repeated, this time more firmly.

Dmitri decided it would be best to drop it. Whatever happened or didn't happen, Dr. Grey clearly wasn’t in the mood to talk about it.

“Will that be all, sir?” Mandy asked, still standing by the door.

“Yes, Mandy, that will be all,” he said, dismissing her. He waited until she was back at her desk before beginning. “Dr. Von Ray just called. He said that subject 16 is suffering from paralysis as a result of the all-cure...”

Dr. Grey bit her bottom lip. Again, she seemed to look nervous. “Yes, I heard...”

“Luckily, Dr. Crawford is administering anti-venom into her bloodstream,” Dmitri said, putting down his coffee. “Though, where she got it from is a mystery since all the vials are in my office...”

“That is a mystery indeed, Dr. Abrams...”

Both Dmitri and Dr. Grey looked up to find Dr. Connery leaning against the doorway. The arrogant smirk plastered on his face made Dmitri’s brows crease a little.

“I’m sorry, sir, I tried to tell him that you were not to be disturbed,” came Mandy.

“That’s fine, Mandy, take an early lunch...” Dmitri watched her walk away nervously, before his eyes focused in on Dr. Connery. “Mal,” he acknowledged, not at all pleasantly. There was something about the man standing before him that sent Dmitri on edge. “Can I help you?” he asked.

*RedBird - Well it's settled then. The labs are indeed underground, unless someone has a better idea? Do... you have anything more to add to the idea RedBird?*

Mal

“Can I help you?” Dr. Abrams asked.

Mal grinned, "yes of course!" he exclaimed smiling, "I have heard of you Dr. Abrams. The company says many great things of you. Likewise I suppose you have all heard of me... a point of advise doctor, the rumours are true."

His grin widened as Dr. Abrams frowned. Dr Grey on the other hand seemed blissfully unaware of what was going on. Mal decided that he would put an end to that.

"As I've said, My name is Mal" he said, bowing down in an extreme fashion, "Mr.... Monty thingy sent me here to supervise your establishment... he saw the fact that you needed a psychological perspective as a bonus to my visit here. Don't worry though, I'm sure my visit here will be quite.... short lived. Literally" Mal smiled.

"We weren't notified of such a arrangement Dr. Connery and we didn't ask for help either" Dr. Abrams replied briskly. He was a man who had the answers ready for questions not yet asked.

Mal sighed, "please, call me Mal" he repeated, "and yes I'm well aware of that. I asked for it personally. See... I took some time getting acquainted with your subjects. It was... what's the word? A... unforgettable experience!"

At this there was a sudden change in body language. Mal sensed a tensing of both doctors. He had struck a nerve. Interesting. He was right about the doctors caring about the patients after all.

"What did you to them?" Dr. Grey asked. Mal felt shivers of excitement at the mix of anger and concern in her voice.

"Oh nothing... we had a nice little chat them and me... a nice little chat indeed" Mal explained, "but getting back to topic. I am here to supervise. You must know what that means of course? So yes my dear Dr. Abrams the real question is in fact, what can you do for me?"

*Hmmm... sorry if Mal annoys you... he's trying to get on your nerves... I would take full responsibility of him but he has me on a leash...*

Isabella

I smiled and looked up at Link.

"He's right we can't leave without Nimsi. I mean if they don't have us then what will happen to her? Will she be subject to more experimentation than she is now?" I argued, glancing towards the door. "It would be betrayll and in here we all stick together, thats the way its always been. Its the only way we managed to get this far." Link nodded in agreement and Micah sighed.

"But what if this is one time chance to get out of this place? I don't know if we can risk waiting," Micah said.

"I know but its either we wait or we go and rescue Nimsi on the way out. Besides I know that you would only regret leaving her behind no matter how good freedom is," I murmered softly, putting my hand on Micahs shoulder. Micah nodded but stayed silent.

(Oh wow, I keep falling behind. I'll try to keep up now, now that I'm done editing for my friend.)

Sebastian

"But what if this is one time chance to get out of this place? I don't know if we can risk waiting," Micah said.

"I know, but it's either we wait or we go and rescue Nimsi on the way out. Besides, I know that you would only regret leaving her behind no matter how good freedom is," Isabella murmered softly, putting her hand on Micahs shoulder. Micah nodded but stayed silent.

"But she's paralyzed. If she never gets better, we'd have wasted our chance for nothing." I noted.

"But what if she does get better? She'd be all alone..." Isabella argued.

I shook my head. "No, they'll get new subjects. In the end, that is the biggest hole in our plan. They will just find new lab rats, from what they've said it won't be hard. The big question is, are we going to take the pain for other people, or should we let them take it for us? It won't matter if we leave Nimsi, because maybe that means that one less person is free, but that's also one less person taken later." I sigh. "I say we go. As soon as possible."

Link looked at me, and shook his head. "She's not just another person, Sebastian. She's one of us."

Micah,

I shake my head. How could I have even considered leaving Nimsi behind? What's happening to me? It's like I'm becoming one of them, one of the doctors. I clear my throat.

"Link and Isabella are right," I say, "We can't leave Nimsi behind."

Sebastian is about to protest, but I hold up a hand, "You're also right, Sebastian. They will bring in more kids, and this pain will not end for them. But there's something we can do, I think."

Everyone looks confused, so I continue, "I've been listening to the doctors for a while now, and they're working on this All-Cure, right?"

Isabella nods, along with Link and Sebastian. Even C.K. is listening now.

"They seem to think that it will improve their 'ratings,' whatever those are..." I say, "I'm pretty sure it has something to do with people outside of here, that this company is making the All-Cure for. Now, how do you think their ratings would do if the entire world knew that they'd been experimenting on kids?"

Some people grin, but Sebastian frowns, "Well, maybe doing experiments on kids is normal out there."

"Somehow, I doubt that very much," Link says. I nod.

"I think that everyone out there would be furious and they would close the place down. It would stop the experimentation! All we have to do is find someone who will reveal it to the world."

Firestalker; don't apologise for Mal. I think he's awesome, though I can't say the same for Dmitri

Dr. Abrams

Dmitri glared at the man standing before him. He’d heard a lot about Dr. Connery or ‘Mal’ as he liked to call himself. Mr. Montgomery had mentioned him a few times, but never had Dmitri imagined in his wildest dreams that he would one day end up having to work with him. Dr. Connery had a reputation, a disturbing one, and Dmitri knew that he would be wise to remember that.

Especially when it came to the test subjects...

Dmitri clasped his fingers together, his glare unwavering. “Look, Dr. Connery...”

“Mal,” he corrected.

Dmitri ignored him. “...Dr. Grey and I are very busy at the moment. We really have no time or patience to be interrupted by anyone, whether that’s you or anyone else. So, if you wish to ‘supervise’ us then you may do so when we are down in the laboratories.” He signalled his head to the door. “Until, then, I would appreciate it if you left us to our work...”