Soren paced back and forth in the house, trying to calm down but his body would not allow him to. Not after the conversation he had with Araya just before.
___________________
They did not have any problems from the time the two jumped out of the car till they reached the house again. But he could not relax.
Not after everything he saw upon coming back into the house.
Orion felt dizzy and went to lay down in the guest room while Araya is still looking after Zadie.
He almost lost his cool when he saw the condition Zadie was in. Everything below her knees is missing, judging by her complexion, she also lost a lot of blood.
When he came back a second time, he had to make a quick trip to the hospital to get blood bags for her.
That was when Araya took him to the basement for the first time since they have moved in here.
There were all kinds of medical equipment and just pieces of equipment in general.
He could hardly tell what some of them were but, as he laid Zadie on the bed and helped Araya with her, he realised that there were a lot more secrets kept from him.
Araya had to strap Zadie onto the bed as she began to treat her.
Soren checked her stumps and saw some wires sticking out of it that he pulled out with Araya's instructions.
"Have you ever put prosthetic legs on someone?" Araya asked, opening a cupboard with some metal legs in there.
"I have." He said, staring at them. "I didn't know that she used prosthetic limbs."
"Well ... it is my father's wish that she be strong enough to go beyond human limitations," Araya said, venom in her voice.
"Wait, you mean-?"
"Yes. He cut off her legs so that he could design legs that will 'take her beyond human speed'." She spat the last part out, annoyance written all over her face.
"Your father sounds ... uh ..."
"Neither I nor Issac claim any relations to him," Araya said, frowning as she began plugging Zadie into the various machines in the room.
Those monitor her heartbeat, breathing and pain threshold.
"Pain?" Soren asked, looking at the monitor. "What pain?"
"You see, my father made us stronger than normal humans." She said, grabbing a scissor and cutting the clumsy stitches on Zadie's body.
The pain meter did not even rise as she pulled the thread out with some flesh stuck to it.
"Let me do it," Soren said, taking the scissor from her as she began to talk.
From the drawer, Araya pulled out a pair of latex gloves that she helped him wear.
"So we do not feel pain as often as you all would," Araya said, letting Soren take over. "But when we feel pain ... it is enough to kill us off, if not taken care of immediately."
Soren stared at the meter again as he cut into her flesh to treat an infection and the meter hardly even rose.
No anaesthetics and the pain meter is still so very low. He thought, turning to Araya cleaning the prosthetic legs with a cloth in the corner of the room.
"Araya?" Issac called, going back to remove the stitches on the wounds while the blood bags hung from the sides and are littered on the table beside the bed.
"Yes?" The woman asked, taking a brush and scrubbing the little corners of the metal, screws, bolts and all.
"Are you … like Issac?" He asked, looking at her from the corner of his eyes.
"Like Issac?" She repeated, pausing. "What do you mean by that? What is he 'like' exactly?"
"I didn't mean it in a condescending way," Soren said quickly, holding his blood-covered hands up. "He just told me that his teeth are not real and so are his lungs."
"That's all he told you?" She asked, surprised. "Well … that is a lot coming from him. He must really trust you, Soren."
"Well, trust is a strong word." He shrugged, taking some of the tools laid out on the table beside him and began stitching her body up. "Wait, what do you mean by 'that's all'? There's more?!"
Araya stuck out her tongue at him, "Maybe. But that isn't for me to tell, now is it?"
"Then … can you answer my question?" He asked, hopeful.
"Sure." She said, smiling brightly. "Though my memory is a little bit fuzzy in a lot of places. So, take what I tell you with a grain of salt."
"Ok." Soren nodded, attaching I.V's to Zadie's arms after making sure that her heart rate is stable and that the stitching was closed up properly. "I am done, by the way."
"Here." Araya walked to him, handing one of the prosthetic legs to him. "I have all the tools here, just ask me for anything."
"Thank-" Soren grabbed the one prosthetic leg and instantly dropped it to the ground. "What the hell is that?"
"What do you mean?" Araya asked, staring at him blankly. "Are you ok?"
"That is heavy," Soren said, trying to pick it up again and struggled to even lift an inch. "What on earth? It weighs like a motorcycle. How is she going to walk with this?"
Araya gave him a sad smile. "No other prosthetic will work on her, or us for that fact. Only the ones that old man-made."
"Old man?"
"He really is irrelevant." She said quickly, coughing. "Here, I will put the leg in place for you."
Without waiting for Soren, Araya picked up the prosthetic leg like it weighed nothing and laid it next to Zadie's stump.
"There we go." She dusted her hands off and went back to her spot, cleaning up the other one again. "Oh, and you asked if I am like Issac?"
"Yeah?" Soren said, staring blankly at the metal glistening with the light overhead before he set off to work.
"I am nothing like Issac." She said softly. "In fact, Zadie is more like Issac than I am."
"But … you are hella strong. Didn't you feel the weight of this thing?" Soren pointed to the metal, staring at her with slight fear in his eyes.
Araya looked up at him for a second before chuckling at him, "That is nothing compared to what that old man puts us through."
She pulled up her sleeve and showed her wrist, "See this?"
He looked at her wrist from where he stood and tilted his head to the side, "Something wrong with your hand?"
"Not entirely." She smiled, putting the other leg down and walked to him. Taking a scalpel, she cut through the skin of her wrist and showed him the metal under the flesh and blood. "See?"
"You have prosthetic wrists?"
"Hand actually." She said laughing while flexing her fingers. Pointing from the tip of her fingers to her elbow. "All the way till here is metal."
"But you said-"
"In terms of what that old man intended for us, I am very different from Issac and Zadie." She explained, going back to her seat once again.
Oh yeah. Soren thought, remembering what Issac told him. Zadie is the perfect specimen while the other two seem to merely be test subjects.
"Let me tell you a little about … all this." Araya piped up, voice beaming amidst the beeping and whirring of machines. Muffled sounds of vehicles passing seemed to quieten down as Soren's heart thumped against his chest loudly.
" ... Ok."
"Our father has always been obsessed with perfection, that is what I assume Issac told you." She began, holding the leg close to her.
"Yeah. He told me that much." Soren said staring as the machine began to connect to the nerves and endoskeleton of Zadie's leg the moment he placed the two close together. "What on earth?"
"Oh yeah," Araya said, bringing the other leg to him. "Most of the time, this will connect to her itself. It is made specifically for her anyway. Connected by the same DNA."
"That ... why was I even needed anyway?" Soren sighed, staring at the pain meters as it began to shoot up suddenly. "Araya."
"I see it." She said, quickly putting the other prosthetic limb in front of the other limb. "Soren. Please hurry."
She did not need to say it twice as he went to work, cutting the stump open as her body began to convulse, heart rate shooting up as the pain meter increased.
"Father's little machine," Araya said, taking a scalpel to her neck. "That is what we would call her, growing up. She was always with him, trying to get his attention and approval."
"What are you doing, Araya?" Soren asked, noticing the sharp scalpel just in front of Zadie's neck. "Put that down."
"No time," Araya said, not turning from Zadie. "If you can't make the leg connect to her body in thirty seconds, I will have to kill her."
"What? Why?"
"Twenty-five seconds, Soren."
He stared at Araya for a second before going back to his work, "Honestly. I don't get paid enough for this."
"We're paying you?!"
"Of course not. That is why I said that."