Endurance (12 page)

Tom’s
thoughts came to an end as he fell asleep.

Lucy dragged
Danni’s body, while Smith carried Tom over his shoulder.

14

Tom awakened
once again in the white room. As he opened his eyes, Miller and
Smith stood at the end of his bed talking to each other under their
breaths.

Tom tried to
move his hands to rub his heavy eyelids. As he did, his hands
stayed tied to the metal bars on either side of his bed. He could
see that his hands were tied with plastic cable ties to the
bed.

Miller and
Smith’s heads turned simultaneously as they heard Tom’s bed scrape
and shuffle.

‘
You have
done enough. Stay there and be quiet,’ Miller said.

‘
We should
have killed him,’ Smith said.

‘
Where’s
Danni?’ Tom asked.

‘
Tom. You
need to understand that you are not well. Neither is Danni. You
need to stay away from her. Danni is here and she’s safe. She
escaped from here and we had been looking for her for a while. So
it’s good that she tried to help you escape, we were able to bring
her here, as well as you.’ Miller leaned in as he spoke to
Tom.

‘
I’m not ill.
You are lying to me, I don’t know what to believe anymore, I don’t
believe I’m ill and I don’t believe Anna is still alive and I know
I don’t have a child.’

‘
So what do
you believe then? That some flying objects tried to kill you? That
you killed your father in a building full of his experiments? That
all of London was destroyed?’

Tom paused as
he stared into Miller’s black eyes. His eyes seemed darker than
usual and very bloodshot.

‘
I believe
that you are a sick man who’s ruined my life.’

‘
Smith, could
you leave the room please.’ Miller sternly said to
Smith.

Smith left
the room, slamming the door behind him.

‘
Look Tom,
I’m trying to help you and have been helping you for some time. I
will give you an ultimatum here. I will let you go right now if you
want to, but you’ll be killed. You need to realise you killed
children and mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. You will
not be safe out there; and with your mind the way it is, you might
cause damage to people. You do not realise, but you are mentally
ill and you don’t know it.’ Miller reached for a pair of scissors
as he continued to speak. ‘So I’ll let you free and let you decide,
Tom.’

He cut the
cable tie on either wrist and began to walk away.

‘
It’s your
choice now. Do what you…’

Miller’s
voice became soft as he tried to continue speaking.

Tom clenched
Miller’s throat. He forced him against the wall and held him by his
jacket.

‘
Tell me the
truth right now or I’ll kill you.’ Tom spat in Miller’s face as he
spoke.

‘
I am telling
you Tom.’ Miller attempted to catch his breath and whispered
quietly, ‘Please don’t do this.’

Tom continued
to squeeze Miller’s neck. He stared into Miller’s desperate and
frightened eyes. His black eyes looked small, more bloodshot than
usual. His face became pale and he drooped to the side. Tom let go
and Miller thumped onto the ground. Tom looked down at Miller’s
body. It looked shrivelled and bleak. He tucked his head into his
arms protect it. Tom kicked him in the stomach. Miller groaned and
wriggled around on the floor.

Tom spotted
Miller’s handgun strapped to his belt. He unclipped the gun and
checked to see if it was loaded. It had a full round of real
bullets.

I’ve never
held or shot a gun. It can’t be too hard to grasp.

Tom walked to
the door.

He leaned on
the door, the door groaned as it opened. Tom moved his head out of
the room. He looked up and down the corridor. No one was in sight.
He walked warily into the shadowy corridor; a light flickered to
his left. It was so very dark in the other direction. He decided to
go right; he walked down the corridor with his gun aimed in front
of him. His finger was pressed tightly on the trigger.

As Tom
entered the darkness, he heard somebody behind him. He turned.
There was no one in sight. He continued to walk down the dark
corridor until he heard another sound behind him. He whirled about
to see a woman standing in the corridor, blood dripping from her
fingertips. Her black hair covered her face. Her arms hung down by
her sides; her head tilted up, her neck popping repeatedly with
each slight increment. Her hair dropped behind her face and into
place to the sides of her head. It was Anna. Her eyes were almost
non-existent now, just black slits. Her skin was dark and blotchy,
her veins black and created a roadmap on her skin. Tom looked at
her neck and saw bloody hand marks.

He paused in
disbelief. He closed his eyes and slowly opened them
again.

I’ve been
thinking of her dead like this for a long time. They have been
dreams. This is not one of my dreams. This is real.

Tom continued
to stare at Anna, until two men appeared from around the corner and
grabbed her. She pushed them off violently and the two men
struggled to control her. One grabbed her legs and the other
grabbed her shoulders and they threw her roughly to the ground. One
shocked her with a stun gun. Her body jolted three times before she
finally became unconscious. They snatched her up and carried her
away.

Tom ran to
the opposite end of the corridor and stood with his back to the
wall. He leaned carefully around the corner to see where the men
took Anna. As he snuck his peek, a bright light shone in his eyes.
Tom quickly straightened up and held his gun, preparing to shoot.
He looked again.

He can see
that at the end of the corridor was a glass door with a silver
frame, leading to a room that shed a bright light. It appeared to
be a laboratory.

A man and a
woman in white coats walked around the room.

I recognise
that woman from somewhere.

Tom heard a
door click open or shut, he looked back toward the direction of his
hospital room; there was still no sign of Miller. Tom ran to the
end of the corridor. He grasped the handle to the door of the lab,
trying to keep himself in the shadows He turned the handle and
walked into the room.

As he
entered, he saw TV screens in front of him and somebody slouched in
a seat in front of the screens.

The room was
dark with red and green lights flickering all around the room, with
TV monitors and what appeared to be sound systems as
well.

As Tom
continued to soundlessly approach the person in the chair, he
noticed a CD with “Endurance Test” written on the top in thick
black letters.

Tom walked
behind the figure and looked down at him. He was asleep, and wore
black trousers and shirt with a badge that said
“security.”

Tom held the
gun to the back of the man’s head, his finger hovering above the
trigger. His decision made, he pulled the trigger. A loud bang
vibrated throughout the room. Blood and fragments of brain
splattered on the small TV screens. Part of the man’s head was
gone. Tom looked at the body slouched in the chair. Blood was all
over the gun, Tom’s hands and on his white suit.

Tom stepped
away from the body. He looked at the CCTV screens. He saw his room.
Miller was no longer on the floor or in the room. Tom quickly
looked at all the screens trying to find Miller. He saw corridors,
other rooms with people lying in beds, labs. With no sign of Miller
on CCTV, Tom walked to the CD titled “Endurance Test” and picked it
up. He looked around the room for a CD player and a TV. As he
glanced around the dreary room, he spotted an opening. He strode
over to find a smaller room with a tape, CD, DVD and video player
with a TV.

Tom entered
the room and shut the door. As he closed the door, keys jangled in
the key hole. He quietly locked the door and turned to examine the
equipment.

Tom pressed a
button which said “power on” and the player turned on with a
message, “Welcome.” Tom pressed the eject button and a slot opened
for the CD. Tom laid the CD on the dish and pressed the eject
button again and the tray closed. The machine made a whining and
chugging sound, the TV changed channels and the CD began to
play.

Ken Williams
was the first person shown on the film. He began to talk to the
camera.

‘
I am Doctor
Kenneth Williams and I am currently working on a project to
experiment with a drug that has failed to cure cancer but has
caused major side effects on humans to turn them into an aggressive
wreck.’

I knew I was
fucking right. Miller was a liar. I don’t have a kid, Anna is dead
or at least I think she is. Lucy is in on this. Stuart is dead and
Dan most likely is. Now I know the truth.

‘This footage
you are about to observe is a series of recordings of the
experiment I decided to implement using human participants. The aim
of the Endurance test is to examine what humans are capable of
doing in order to survive. This test will allow us to identify, by
using futuristic equipment, the side effects of the
drug.

On this CD,
you will see a number of names. These names relate to particular
recordings from the experiment, involving the subjects placed in
the experiment. But first I need to explain what you are about to
see.’ Ken paused, took a deep breath and looked straight into the
camera. ‘My team and I built a complex replica of London. It’s
realistic and is identical to London. We used open land to
construct this masterpiece. We built it to scale of a small area of
London; from Waterloo to Leicester Square. We felt the participants
would stay within this area because it’s one of the most populated
parts of London. We considered the locations and built what we
needed, including the undergrounds and railways.

Within the
replica, we allowed the army to use their battle hovercrafts to
test the capabilities of their machines. They were used to kill the
infected and test the ability of the participants’ wills to
survive.

The subjects
were chosen randomly, with the exception of my son, and his
friends. To obtain our participants, we tracked them until they
were in their homes, where they were drugged and transported to our
replica. They awoke without knowing that they were, in fact, in
false replicas of their homes.

If anyone was
able to find a way to the end of the replica walls, they were
executed. We decided to focus our attention on my son, Thomas
Williams.

He and his
girlfriend Anna Reid, were the first exposed to the experiment.
They were to spend their five year anniversary in this London
replica and we planned to film their activities. Although this may
seem diabolical, it isn’t. This is an experiment testing many
aspects of human life and will benefit our future.

This replica
allows us to have control of the weather, but not who lives and who
dies.

I would like
to quickly name some of the scientists to thank for this
experiment; my wife Sarah Williams, Doctor Michael Miller and
Doctor Vidolski.

A menu will
now appear to make your selection of which participant you would
like to observe.’

A menu
appeared on the TV screen; the first name is “Thomas Williams”,
followed by many others including “Anna Reid, Kenneth Williams,
Lucy Allan, Dan Maguire, Stewart Lake, Danni and Graham
Taint.”

Tom stared at
the screen in disbelief.

How can they
make this seem like a movie?

Tom used the
remote to hover above his own name on the screen and finally
selected it. Ken returned to the screen, looking into the
camera.

‘
You have
chosen my son Thomas Williams. Just to give you some background
information. My wife Sarah, and I, have been experimenting on Tom
for a long time. Nothing too serious at first, just testing his
reactions and how certain choices affect brain patterns and then
affect his life and future choices, etc.

I decided to
let Tom grow up thinking his mother, Sarah Williams had died of
cancer when the two of us were away. Of course she didn’t, but we
had to take drastic actions to get our work underway, and Sarah
wanted to begin on the experiment, Endurance. Later, I let Tom
believe I was murdered in a mystery shooting.

So while I
and Sarah were out of Tom’s life, it allowed us to watch him and
prepare our experiments, to prepare the replica, the drugs and, of
course, test Tom’s mental strength.

This
experiment is to show what humans can endure. Thomas is the main
subject here and I believe he will survive the chaos that he will
be presented with. Some of the scenes that you will watch on this
footage are graphic and will be distressing.’

Tom watched
the TV screen change to CCTV footage of him waking up in his bed.
Tom fast forwarded the CD by chapters. He skipped to himself
walking in Anna’s flat, and watched himself pacing up and down in
her room, waiting for her to change. He then skipped to them
eating, then to himself in the restroom of the restaurant, then to
the cinema, then to him kneeling down in front of her preparing to
propose. Tom watched the catastrophe unfold. The car ran over Anna
at some speed and snatched her away from Tom. Tom fast forwarded
slightly to the explosion. He watched the hovercraft above the
group of people who came out to help Tom. He watched as it sent
small explosions and bullets along the ground and onto buildings.
The camera shook and was destroyed. The view changed to one showing
the entire location covered in flames.