We were silent, still in shock. Rereading our personal information again and again hoping it'll somehow change but it's like a fridge, no matter how many times you open and close it, the contents will still remain the same.
Lennox began, "It's hard to process all of this, you might be thinking of why now or why you haven't noticed them before right?" he paused then put a bottle of pills I recognize on the table.
"Why the hell do you have my pills?" I asked. Did they take it from my room or something? What the hell for?
"What do you mean your pills? Those are mine." said Ange, and somehow something clicked. I looked at Ethan with the same expression.
"I'm not going to assume anything but those pills look exactly like the ones I take too…" announced Ethan hesitantly. And there it was, I instantly had a thought to what Lennox will be saying next.
"None of these are yours specifically but my point is made. Each of you have been taking these medications since young am I correct?" we all nodded in unison. "It's because the people whom you thought were your parents, made you take it for a reason. To suppress your abilities."
"Let me get this straight, first we're all adopted, second our parents are some secret agents that work for the organization that are what, undercover as our parents so that they could keep an eye on us? And now, they've been making us take the same medicine since we were little to suppress our powers?" I clarified finally piecing everything together in my head, trying to make sense that I actually said that.
Lennox looked impressed and nodded his head, "Exactly, it's a good thing you understand. These" he held the bottle pill in his hand, "are bad for your health because since your abilities are all genetic it's attacking those cells in your body, containing it but based from the background checks we did on all of you it didn't fully suppress it. It's like antibiotics, the more you drink it the lesser it's effects become, considering that you've been drinking it since you were only five or six years old it'll have lost its effects by now." he put down the blue bottle of pills back on the table.
"The terrifying part is in a few days after you stop drinking them, you'll experience a relapse, and you'll feel your abilities start to resurface little by little. I know you are all afraid but like what Charles said, as long as you're here under our protection we'll do everything we can to help you control and develop them. And another fact of the suppressors you were drinking, it shortens you're life span by years." our eyes widened. I'm outraged, that all this time the people who I thought were my parents were making me drink something that's killing me slowly?
"So you're here to tell me that I might not have long to live because of those pills?" Ethan was the one who asked.
"Not quite, how old are you guys 24 or 25 years old right? You'll be fine as long as you stop immediately before you reach 30 years old." he put five orange pill bottles on the table. "These are like vitamins, they were biologically created to somehow provide for the incredible amount of nutrients that you're bodies will need in order to sustain your genetic abilities." he gave each of us a bottle and saved one for when Lillian comes back.
He took one and drank it which surprised us, "I know you're probably thinking it isn't safe but like I said it has enough nutrients in there to sustain a human for at least a month without eating. Because as you use your abilities, a certain amount of nutrients," he quoted with his fingers, "will be taken from your bodies that will make you feel incredibly tired and drained afterwards. It replenishes you, for me who is an ordinary human who just took that I won't have to eat anything for a month and I'll still live but for you, taking this at least once a day is necessary." I stared at the bottle and took one pill from inside. I scanned it but it didn't look out of the ordinary.
I looked around the table with the same hesitation and with that I popped the pill in my mouth and swallowed it. They were startled, "What the heck Elizabeth?! Why would you drink that?!" yelled Thea. I wanted to know for sure what it was and staring at it won't change anything.
I sat still but I didn't feel anything, I didn't die at least. "Are you okay?" Ethan asked.
"Are you sure this--" I was going to ask Lennox if it really was enough to sustain a person for a month when I suddenly felt dizzy. I immediately grabbed unto the table for support. Ethan grabbed my shoulders to help me, I could hear Thea and Ange freaking out.
"What the hell did you make her drink?!" Ange yelled at Lennox but Lennox also looked like he didn't know what was going on.
"I don't know. I swear I don't know why she's feeling like that. Hold on, I'll just go get help!" I saw Lennox run outside to get help I supposed. My eyesight started getting blurry then refocusing--like a camera. I felt so dizzy and my vision wasn't helping either.
I saw Charles and Lillian running inside the room as well as Nicole and Alexander looking worried, "What's going on? What happened?!" Charles walked to my side with a red-eyed Lillian in tow.
"I don't know, she just started getting dizzy after drinking the expeditor. I drank it and I'm fine." he looked panicked. Charles knelt in front of me and when I came to look at his face I could've sworn I saw his eye in full zoom.
I stood up from the shock which only worsened the dizziness. I was using the table for support but my hand slipped and I stumbled forward but Charles caught me just in time. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked me softly. "Ofcourse it won't have an effect on you, for them it's different. What are you feeling?" he inquired like a doctor asking his patient.
"You're eyes have green and blue specks in them." I said because as of now the only thing my eyes can see are a super zoomed view of Charles' gray eyes. "Everything is in full zoom…like I'm looking through a telescope pointed at the moon." I said slowly.
Their eyes widened, even I'm shocked because five minutes ago my eyesight was both 100/100 vision from all the late night reading and laptop radiation. "It shouldn't even be resurfacing yet. It's been twenty years, it couldn't have suddenly just activated. Could it be the expedite?" Lennox asked.
"Can you control it?" asked Charles while helping me sit back down. I shook my head, I was stumbling because my vision didn't match my physical coordination right now. "Try closing your eyes and opening them again." I tried but it got worse, I didn't think it was possible but it got somehow--closer. I felt like I was getting sick, I wanted to vomit and vertigo started to kick in.
"Will this happen to us too?" Ange asked panicking. "If this will happen to me if I drank that pill then I don't want it." she said furiously. I couldn't exactly look at them so I sat there and tried to relax.
I closed my eyes and imagined my eyes like camera lenses, refocusing and adjusting then I opened my eyes. It was blurry at first but it refocused and now it's back to normal. I looked around at the chaos around me, Lillian was next to me holding my hand looking incredibly worried and her eyes were a bit wet, like she just cried. "Are you okay?" I asked her as I tried to wipe her eyes. She was surprised at first but quickly hugged me.
"I was so worried!" she yelled then pulled away, "Never scare me like that again. Are you okay? Is everything still, I dunno, zoomed?" she asked, still worried.
"Yeah, I think I'm okay now. Just a little dizzy." I replied honestly. Charles sighed in relief and a panicked Lennox started bowing repeatedly. "What the hell was that about?" I asked.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't know the expeditor would immediately work on you like that. What you just experienced was a small taste of your ability, hyperfocal distance viewing or HDV for short. Maybe we should proceed to the full body check-up?" Lennox asked.
"I just went to Dr Sutton and he told me to send them in for the check-up." it was Alexander. I don't ever recall hearing him speak before, he was also British like Charles but his accent was a bit thicker like a posh gentleman from the late eighteen hundreds. "Follow me. Can you walk?" it took me a few seconds before realizing he was asking me.
I immediately stood up to prove my point, "Of course, I'm fine. Like I said, just a bit dizzy otherwise fine." I motioned for him to take the lead.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Ley asked as the rest of us followed Alexander to another set of hallways and laboratories. I still couldn't believe that this whole place was inside a hollowed mountain. I wonder what it's like here during an earthquake. I gave her hand a little squeeze.
"I am totally fine. I promise so please stop worrying, I'm more worried about you. Are you okay now? What did you and Charles talk about?" My dizziness will fade but her emotional and existential problem isn't going away anytime soon and it's crushing me that I don't know how I'll make her feel better.
She shook her head and wrapped her arm around mine, "I'm okay. I realized that acting irrationally won't do anything. Charles told me what I had to know, about…my real dad. It's just a lot to take in but I'll be fine." we continued walking until we reached what looked like an entrance that goes further inside the mountain. The door was metal that sealed the whole entrance to the lab.
Alexander scanned his identification on the door and like a seal it released pressure, the door slowly opened and what came to view was like a tube-like entrance. He entered and motioned for us to follow, like the guinea pigs we are, we followed. The air felt air-conditioned and chilly, I rubbed my arm when I felt a sudden chill run through my spine.
"Are you cold?" asked Ley, "It is a bit cold." she stated.
"Yeah, just a bit." then we reached another door but this time it was clear and was also pressure locked like earlier. A red beam passed over us which surprised us a little.
"Scanner, it's protocol." explained Charles like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Another beam passed through, this time it was blue. "Retinal scanner. It's--" I cut him off by saying, "Protocol. Yeah, we get it." he rolled his eyes at my remark. Yes, by now I'm used to all his rude gestures.
I heard Ethan covered his mouth with his hands to suppress a laugh but Charles gave him a really cold look that made him put his hands down. I would laughed too but the door made a sound as it released pressure as it opened so my focus went there instead.
What came to view was exactly what you would expect from a laboratory filled with mad scientist in an underground cave inside the mountains. A variety of people were inside each a different race and different experiment or invention. It was a bit chaotic but the intellectual kind if that even makes sense.
A tall man with a mustache and bald head came towards us wearing a lab coat and white button up shirt with a brown stain on it's sleeves, grinning from ear to ear. Of course, not weird at all.
He loudly announced, "Let the tests begin!" which of course startled the rest of us. Oh boy, guinea pigs it is.