The same day, inside the researchers' building,
"AaaArGhhhHhhHh!" Screams echoed inside the basement of the building, but it was not the only noise the guards heard. The sound of a drilling machine always accompanied the silence that came before each session of 'research'.
"I bet 10 credits this new guy will not last three days like this," said one of the two guards that protected the only entrance to the basement.
"I accept your bet. Even the chicken guy endured for four days," said the other guard, but once he heard footsteps coming from down the basement, he quickly changed his posture to a more professional one.
The basement door opened from inside, and a bearded man in white coats came from it. "Feed him and clean him. I will come in two hours," said the man, not even looking at them while passing.
"Ehhhh Sir, sorry to interrupt, but we tried to give him food yesterday, but he only throws up black stuff, we dont know what to do," said one of the guards.
The man stopped and adjusting his glasses, looked at the guard that just spoke, and said, "Do you guys can't read? There is a medical record in front of his cell that clearly states that he must be fed with mutated animal meat. If you stop making useless bets and focus on your job, I'm sure that you will be able to read what is said there. After all, even a monkey well trained can do that. Should I change you two for monkeys?"
Receiving a reprimand like that, the guard was not sure how to respond and only lowered his head in shame and frustration. After all, he didn't want to make the head of the laboratory even more angry.
"Now you lost the ability to speak? Do you even understand what I say?" asked the researcher with a stern expression that didn't show any emotion.
"Yes sir, I will immediately do as you said," said the guard.
The researcher didn't even flinch at that response, because everything always seemed to be as he predicted and just as he thought that, he turned away and kept walking.
The guard that just spoke turned to the other and said, "Dammit! I told you to never speak nonsense during the lab watch, this guys have ears everywhere, lets go prepare that stupid kid"
...
Two hours later inside the laboratory,
The researcher looked at Mark laying over a cold metal table, the bones of his chest could be seen protruding under his pale skin, and the holes made in his arms showed the procedures he went by in the last hours.
Mark barely eat anything in the last few days, and that could be fully seen in his appearance. He was skin and bones, with barely any fat in his body.
The researcher knew that if this continued, Mark would not last all days that he needed him alive to continue his tests, and that would be a shame, thus he came to a conclusion.
"Give him three days of rest, eating six small meals a day, and give him a sleeping pill every day. I want him to have a good night of sleep, wanting or not." said the bearded researcher.
"Yes Prof. Hess, I will personally supervise that is done as you asked." said another researcher standing a few steps behind professor Hess.
Mark was not unconscious and heard everything, and the only thing that passed on his mind when hearing that was that his tortures would stop for a few days.
He wished to be dead right now, wished to be able to kill himself, but it was not possible, they didn't let him, he was cuffed even when eating, and even if he wasn't, he was so weak right now that he doubted he would even have the strength to do anything, even to himself.
"How is the progression of the bone implants? Did they grow?" asked the professor.
"From yesterday to now, we could not see any visible progression with the X-ray exam. Maybe his body is too weak to produce the corresponding enzymes to bind the new cells to his bone marrows. These three days of rest should give us a more concrete conclusion." said another researcher in the room.
Mark could hear them talking about the holes in his arms and legs, but even if he heard them, he could not understand anything. The only thing he knew was that they were inserting something into his bones. But that was not the only experiment they did with him.
Mark was there for only a day, and they already did dozens of exams in his body, and after that, the torture begun, experiments that he thought were things only from movies, but that never would happen in real life, but he was wrong, and he regretted trusting the army, he regretted caring for people that he didn't know, he regretted being so naive.
He regretted all decisions he made in the last days, all of them, he wished to kill all of them, but that was also another pipe dream, and the best he could wish for, was to be killed for someone, or have a heart attack during one experiment and die.
'I wonder if someone would miss me, if someone would think about me,' thought Mark remembering the few friends he had, but he was realistic, this was the apocalypse and people died all the time, he guessed they would forget him, and keep going with their lives. After all, Mark didn't consider himself someone of big importance. He was not charming, nor was he the joker one. He had nothing special about him, just a normal guy from the apocalypse era. One that could be easily forgotten or replaced. Thinking about that, his mind suddenly wandered through his memories, his father and mother, his friends and even the crow.
"Come crow, come, take a bite, my mother dosn't..." said Mark in a feeble voice, with his eyes closed, then he immediately started shaking on the metal table, his entire body shook as if he was electrocuted.
"Professor, I think he is hallucinating while his body is having a rejection to the new cells, its better to..." said one of the researchers
"No," said the professor, interrupting him, "Feed him more mutated animal meat, through vein infusion if needed. I don't care. I think his ability has a relation with this, and is not a rejection to the new cells, but more like.... His body is adapting to the new cells, and the main responsible for that is his ability."