Next thing he knew, he was far from home and strapped against a plank, standing straight up and back, in a place composed of only clean white walls and blinding fluorescent lights. He tried to swallow, but his jaw was locked open and facing the ceiling above.
A tense pulling of tightness in his jaws; the sizzling dry heat blistering his nose, mouth, and throat; the shuddering and splicing of his deteriorating stomach; the heaviness in every inch of his body; the pin needle scratching against his bare left forearm; tight straps squeezing each major joint in his arms and legs, across his chest, waist, neck and head.
Above all, he was so thirsty.
Yet, over-all memoryless.
Except for Nansen. He remembered what happened to Nansen… vaguely.
There were two other people in the room with him, conversing quietly around him. Although the man and woman hovered over him, they seemed to be unconcerned with him all at once. The man couldn't have been much older than forty, yet his everyday expressions were deeply engraved into his skin, forever. The wrinkles were most concentrated in the middle of his bulbous forehead from working with the frontal lobe of his brain most often. He was tall, too. His upper back hunched forward in a bow, creating a hump in the back of his white lab coat. There hung a photo badge from the lapel of his jacket that said, Doctor Jim Branching, B Lab with his photograph dead center.
Jim turned away from Iggy and retrieved a cotton swab on a long stick from the nearby side table. He pinched the fleshy part of Iggy's cheek outward, then plunged the cotton swab into the side of Iggy's mouth. He danced the swab back and forth between Iggy's teeth and cheek, but it was sticking to him rather than collecting a sample of saliva.
As Jim pulled back the cotton swab their eyes met for the first time. His eyes were a warm chocolate brown color that was dull in shade, matching his clean cut brown hair. His face was long and narrow, and his eyes were a lot higher than his cheek bones, allowing more room for his wide mouth.
Jim smiled, exposing a mouth full of crooked teeth with years of coffee stains in between. His voice was calm and quiet, yet still loud in such a silent atmosphere. "There's not enough saliva to take a sample," he chuckled and looked over his shoulder at his partner. "Maria…"
Maria stood in the glow of a portable computer station monitor, reading the rhythm of Iggy's heart and blood pressure, as well as other windows open on the screen with very small detailed information. She was small statured, less than five feet tall and one hundred pounds. Her frizzy brown hair was cut about an inch from the top of her shoulders and tucked under a hairnet.
With her hands still planted on the keyboard, she looked over her shoulder at Jim. She had a short round face. Dark circles loomed under her eyes so much so that they could have been genetic, however her thick rimmed glasses hid them well. She wore a similar oversized white jacket with a photo badge, too. Maria Johnson, B Lab Intern. Her voice was dehydrated and tired, and her stomach rumbled so obnoxiously that it was the loudest noise in the small observation room. "Yes, Jim."
"Please make a note that subject IF17 has a severe case of central heterochromia." Her fingers crossed the keyboard. "Maria…" Her shoulders dropped and her head slowly spun around to look at him again. Once Jim stood straight, she needed to look up to meet his gaze even with the distance between them. "Do you know the significance of that?"
Out of her pocket, she magically pulled out a folded up bundle of papers and a pen. Her hand held the pen, ready to begin note taking. She nodded, "go on."
"This will be on your test, surely. Central heterochromia is the multi-coloration of the eye in which is found in subjects who display strong responses to thirst." Jim swung his head. "Come look."
She walked away from the computer and joined his side. Together, they leant in on either side and studied Iggy's eyes, however the bright lights caused him to squint and left little to see. "Oh, why bother…" she yawned. "Can't see much like this."
"Watch and learn," Jim said confidently, as he reached for a side table and found the first thing he could with the color red on it. It was a card with the name Andy McLaren at 95 Hinderhurst. "This might be just enough to get him to look long enough for you to see. Take note of the yellow, green, and blue. And tell me if you have ever seen such eyes before." He drew Iggy's eyelid up with his thumb while his other hand held the card in Iggy's line of vision.
Once Iggy saw the color, the thirst reflex kicked in. His mind's thoughts and logic vanished from the situation. Behind the two doctors, the monitors beeped with his racing heart. The pain ruptured his insides, bringing his blood pressure up to dangerous levels. His limbs jerked hard against the restraints and his jaws grinded against the hard prop inside of his opened mouth. Jim drew the card away from sight, yet Iggy still thrashed to and fro. Infectious saliva seeped through his teeth and dripped out from the corner of his mouth. Jim pressed the cotton swab against the inside of his cheek, soaking it in the fluid, then he cautiously handed the sample over to Maria, who dipped the swab into a tube of chemicals. She stared for a few moments, but nothing changed. After disregarding the specimen on a side table, she retrieved an identical tube of chemicals and new cotton swab.
Jim leant forward, his eyes squinted as he looked at the back of her head. "Maria, why are you repeating the venom test?"
"The results were completely inactive, so I'm doing a repeat." He lingered over her shoulder, watching each perfectly executed step as she prepared the test flawlessly. The swab dipped inside the tube. She shook it once, yet nothing changed in the liquid consistency. "I don't get it!" she admitted exasperatedly as sleep deprivation squandered what little patience she had. "It says that he has a potency of 9.8 out of the 10th's scale. That's impossible." She slumped her shoulders forward tired and exhaled a full breath of hot air onto the test. "What the hell am I doing wrong? I can't afford to fail another class! My father… he'll kill me if I hand him another tuition bill!"
Jim stared back at her with fascination glimmering in his brown eyes. His diaphragm was tight, making him look even taller and thinner in form. His shoulders hunched up near his ears and he peered down on Iggy.
Even still, Iggy's body was acting all on its own. His limbs reached at their own will, only to be stopped by the restraints, and if it weren't for the sedatives dripping into him at a constant pace, he would have broken through. Iggy took his only comfort in the fact that the internal pain was nothing more than a ravaging sizzle in his esophagus and rawness in his aching stomach. He could clearly see what was happening before his eyes, because no matter what he did, he couldn't blink.
Jim's eyes fixated on him piece by piece, beginning on his teeth. He smiled and laughed once. "Record what I say to his file." Maria stood before the computer again with her fingers positioned over the keys and he cleared his throat before beginning. "Protrusion and sharpness; upper lateral incisors, canines, and first premolars. Bottom…"
Maria stopped typing and she looked up. "Bottom?"
"Bottom canines, to be specific."
"That's rather odd," she noted.