Subject 47

“Help! Please help me!” Not one person flinched. All uniformed in the same gray suit. She had no way to distinguish them from each other. Who were the doctors? Who were the business executives? Who was in charge?

“Help! Please help me!” She started marking her cell walls with tallies for each day, but she had no sun to confirm and no room for more ticks. Her days followed one schedule with no variation: wake up, yell for help, eat her first meal, study the people, eat her second meal, yell for help, study, eat, yell, sleep.

For the first four months, she thought the cell was sound-proofed. Not one flick of the eye. Not one person startled by her pounding on the glass. Until day 137, she saw a new face. A young woman, not much older than her, wearing navy blue. She must’ve been the head honcho’s daughter, to be let in dressed like that.

Once the blue blazer registered, the captive woman yelled for help in the midst of her second meal. Food - or whatever she was fed - splattered the glass. Some particles flew off once she started pounding. She had rehearsed every day, three times a day, for this moment. When she used her foot against the barrier - stomping and shrieking - the strange woman turned back over her shoulder. Now, her cries morphed into something of hope. “Help! Please help me! Help!” Her smile faded once the blue blazer left. Each day since, she searched for that woman.

They took the last of the other captives today. She was the only one left. As she cried, no one explained why. When she threw her food tray at the window into her cell, no one flinched. Her cell had to have been sound-proofed. How could they not move?

“Help! Please help me!”

***

“She’s the only participant to not yet succumb to the treatment.”

“And how much longer do you suppose that’ll take?”

“Perhaps two weeks.”

“Make it one and a half.”

***

“Help! Please help me!” She screamed like a rooster announcing the sunrise. Today, she spent hours sitting and staring, looking for any clue to explain why she hasn’t been dragged off yet like the others. It looked like any other day. Gray suits. Clipboards.

Then, one of them sat on a ledge in front of her cell with his back to her. She crawled over to him and used whatever leverage the window could offer to stand up. Looking over his shoulder, she saw what he was reading. A page full of tables, tables full of numbers. She pounded on the glass, rumbling his back rest. Still not one flinch.

“Help! Please help me!”

All she had was her voice and her strength. She couldn’t decipher those pages. After he got up and left with the others, she continued. It’s said that she didn’t stop for five hours.

***

“You said she would be finished two weeks ago.”

“Yes, I did. However, her reaction is unexpected, abnormal.”

“Then, make her normal.”

***

“Help! Please help me! Help! Please help me! Help! Please - ”

She woke up in her bed, lying on her back, arms placed at her sides. Her head weighed fifty pounds, and she sat at the center of a revolving door, the room swirling around her. Closing her eyes simplified her situation. Now blind, she tuned into the buzzing like a machine processing, humming and whirling. 

She wheezed and coughed. Her muscles strained. Her voice could not help her right now. She peeled her eyes open again. Shook every cell of her body to turn her head and to see out of her cell. Either there were lots of visitors that day or she was seeing triple. Squinting helped or at least made her feel like it helped. She searched the crowd for any hint to explain her new state. Who was there? Was there anyone new? Was anyone noticing her? Were the other cells filled again?

A tear fell from her eye. Perhaps from pain or exertion or exhaustion or defeat. Her head was stuck. Her eyes would not close. Her sight fixed on those in front of her, talking to one another about the weather or their weekend plans. Was it supposed to rain? Would the soccer game be rescheduled?

Blue? Her eyes bulged at the odd blazer, but her mind couldn’t compute. Adrenaline rushed in. She sat up as if she had a new body. Blue. Blue. Blue. She stood up to get closer to the woman but fell to the floor. She then crawled, using her sweaty palms and fatigued form to best drag her body. Blue. Blue. Blue. Once at the edge of her window, veins popped out of her neck as she hoisted herself up. Leaning her face against the panel to stay upright, she searched for the woman. Found between two gray suits.

“Help,” she mouthed. She swallowed gallons of air and whispered, “Please help me.” She threw her own hand at the glass. “Help,” she said.

***

“Sir, we advise that you deem Subject 47 an outlier and follow the due protocol. She has yet to succumb to the treatment. Five years now, she has not yet accepted the negligence. Either you end her progress and discard her reports or present the board inconclusive results again.”

“Fine. Erase Subject 47.”

***

“How was your weekend?”

“It was fine, but my son’s soccer game got postponed again. This damn rain won’t quit.”

“Take a right here.”

The men continued down the hallway and stopped at a sealed door. The guide let in the visitor and led him through weaving tracks of tight hallways. Doors and slots passed them on each side.

“Here we are.”

Door 47.

The guide let the man in. He dropped his equipment and examined the room surrounding him. “So you need all of this covered?”

“Yes. Is that possible?”

“Yeah. Just give me a few hours and a lunch break.”

“Thanks, Tim. Let us know if you need anything.”

“Will do.”

He grabbed a bucket to prop open the door and then turned to his belongings. He started mixing the plaster, while taking in his surroundings. He would never count these tallies.