Upon arriving at the facility, their vehicle was met by several heavily armed guards standing in front a large vault door. This was already a familiar sight for Hilbert but Jacques was surprised that a facility running a secret program is not just hidden from the nearest civilisation but also heavily defended.
"Are the big guns really that necessary? I bet no one can even get here, the guards are way too excessive." Jacques commented.
"As usual, that's the government blowing the majority of it's money on non-essential things." Hilbert replied before chuckling.
As their car stopped and they got out, the guards approached them and began frisking all three of them. Hilbert was the first to enter through the vault doors and down the stairs that lead underground into the main facility. Jacques shortly followed while the driver stayed outside and watched the car.
"Hilbert...you were originally discharged because you were mentally unfit for combat, right?" Jacques asked.
"Yeah, but then the doctor approached me along with other soldiers who were too shaken up from combat." Hilbert states.
"I just find it really strange why they picked out men who are unfit for combat." Jacques added.
"The same reason why we were the only ones to come out alive. I wouldn't call it luck but the doctor mentioned something about a high survival rate among us." Hilbert says as he walked through the final set of doors before entering the facility.
Jacques wanted to ask more but kept his questions for himself, it seems like Hilbert didn't have any idea on what was really happening. Just as they went in the heart of the laboratory, Jacques saw several individuals. Some wearing straightjackets and muzzles, made to look like lunatics in an asylum. Some had the worst of it and didn't even resemble a person, their faces are able to drive fear into friends and foes alike.
"These were the guys who came in before me, most of them aren't allowed to leave because their operations failed." Hilbert said as he turned to look at Jacques.
"This doesn't look humane, it's like they've been toyed with. Their distorted bodies are like a curse." Jacques commented.
"A curse? No, this is nothing like a curse for them. This is more of a second chance, if your operation fails, they'll numb your brain and turn you into a mindless drone. No more pain, no more trauma to haunt them." Hilbert replied.
"That just makes it even worse...but I wouldn't understand since I haven't gone through what they did." Jacques thought to himself.
A nurse came out and called for Hilbert and Jacques to follow her. The two men followed behind the nurse as they walk down an empty corridor. She didn't say anything and just pointed towards a door labeled "Operating Room" above it. Hilbert nodded and went in alone leaving Jacques behind to wait outside. The nurse stood by the door to block it, Jacques couldn't peer through the glass nor listen to what was happening inside. He began to try and imagine what could possibly be happening inside the operating room.
"Miss, how long will this take? Do you have a waiting room?" Jacques inquired her.
"It depends sir, but it won't last longer than an hour with Hilbert. The waiting room is the second door to the left." She said while smiling at the major.
Jacques nodded and headed to the waiting room the nurse pointed to. He took a seat and his mind kept coming back to the image of the soldiers that were turned to mere lab rats. Is the value of human life really that low? Has it really come that far that soldiers? The backbone of a warring nation, treated like disposable things and stripped of their rights as living beings to become cannon fodder. If they don't die, they suffer the scars of battle and are burdened by the nightmares of their closest friends dying over and over again. This is the sad truth that humanity will keep on repeating, an animalistic instinct that never disappears despite having been evolved multiple times. Jacques couldn't get it off his mind, he hasn't suffered as much as they did but his still devastated by the death of his brother. It has been several months now yet he is still unable to let go of such a tragic even, the only person he called family died.
"Major, come on. They already finished the tests, we still need to talk to doctor Basch." Hilbert says while he peeked his head in the room.
"O-oh? Yes! Yes, sorry...I must've spaced out." Jacques replied as he stood up and walked out the room.
"Spaced out? What were you thinking of, major? Don't tell me that you were dazed with how beautiful the nurse is." Hilbert teased.
"What? No, it's not that. I'm a soldier and my heart belongs to my country." Jacques replied.
"Still stubborn as always, I see. You're growing old and you still haven't found yourself a woman, major." Hilbert teased once more with a grin plastered on his cheeks.
Jacques ignored Hilbert but he remembered the times when Frederic also used to tease him for being alone and this gave him a sharp pain in the heart. It was unbearable but he had to keep his composure and act in a professional manner. He's a major and he should start acting like one, he will be looked up on by not just the men he lead but by all soldiers he comes upon. If society expects him to act like a fierce and ruthless warrior then he will act accordingly.
Hilbert walked through corridor after corridor as he walked with Jacques towards Doctor Basch's office. Counting the lights on the ceilings as they pass by each one, just like when he was being rolled in on the stretcher for his first operation to become a supersoldier. It wasn't long ago but the pain he felt during the operation was all coming back like nostalgia.