Just Another Day on the Job

He’d been hanging there for 3 hours now, or maybe a day. He had no way to keep count of the time. He had no reason to, either, no will to live. His memory contained nothing but pain, and he could not remember his name. He could not see or hear a thing, and all he could smell was urine and burnt flesh.

Flesh. The man shuddered. He was sure he had not been hanging there for a day yet because he had not yet slept. But who could sleep after having those things done to them? Who could get any rest with the pain he felt through his body? Who could ignore the resonance?

When they took him from his office, they had done something to him. He remembered entering this place and feeling a sense of dread, feeling like he had been here for a year already. He could feel so many emotions pass through his head, and none of them was his, except maybe the fear. When he had crossed the threshold, he had started fighting anew, trying to get away to no avail. He had figured it out soon enough; he was part of a test for nanobots. The Doctor that examined him after he was chained to the ceiling told him that he could feel the emotions of everyone around him that had the same bots. He did not want to remember the other things the Doctor told him, or the tools that she had-

He heard footsteps approaching. His heart started racing. Only one person ever came to see him here. Please, if there is any God, anything out there with some mercy, kill me now. Nothing answered. He was alone in the darkness, alone with the heartless Doctor.

Light flooded the room, blinding him. The Doctor had flipped the lights on. The entire room was a seamless, unforgiving white, except for where his blood stained the ground. The Doctor started talking, but he could not hear anything over his racing heart. He struggled and dragged on the chains above his head, searching for some give.

The Doctor ignored him almost entirely, except for a chuckle. The subjects were always slow to learn that there was no escape. It only meant more fun for her. She enjoyed breaking them down, seeing what made them tick, pushing their limits. The SciFi writers always got it wrong; nanotechnology won’t get better because people wanted to excel, but because she wanted some entertainment. She took her tablet from the table in the corner.

He saw her turn around to the table. He remembered what happened when she did that. Unprompted tears fell down his face. “Please, please, good d-d-doctor, I-I’ll give you a-anything. Please!” He opened his eyes and saw her smiling face right in front of him, studying him intently. She raised her hand towards his face. He flinched. Her smile turned to a scowl, and the last thing he saw was that hand clicking a button labeled Max on the tablet.

That was why he could not remember the time; no one could stay coherent for very long with that pain coursing through them. He came to with saliva on his chin. The other inmates sent his pain back through him telepathically. He had worked out that there were at least nine others. He could not stop the tears from coursing down his face. This was only the beginning; she was insatiable.

The Doctor had asked one of the guards to get her favorite chair from the ward where she had last spent an hour in and wipe off all the blood. She was focusing on doing something on the table with one of her toys and a Bunsen burner, so she was taken by surprise when she heard his voice again. “So, you have come to?” she asked, with an amused tone in her voice. The only response was more pleading. He was boring her. Luckily, she had a solution to that. She scrolled on the app she made to interface with the bots and clicked the latest feature she had added: Enhanced nerve sensitivity.

His cries took on a surprised tone, then increased in volume. The Doctor worried that he would rupture a vocal cord, so she stopped the pain program. She stood up again and rubbed a hand over his chest. He moaned and cried some more. She muttered sweet, soothing things to him and checked to see if the scalpel was still red-hot. She hated seeing blood, so she wanted to cauterize the wounds as she made them.

He could not stop crying. He was surprised at the Doctor’s change of tone, but he couldn’t even process that through all the pain he felt from everywhere. Her hand on his chest felt good against his fever-hot skin. He would never admit it, though. How can someone so evil have such soft-

She put the scalpel through his thigh. “That’ll teach you to struggle when you see me.” She cackled in delight. She didn’t think he could get any louder, but she found out she was wrong when she dragged the scalpel out along with a chunk of flesh. Yes, this will be very fun, she thought as she went back to the table and clicked 10% on the app.

The guard assigned to Room 4 heard the screams of the new inmate. He hated what little he knew of what they did, but the job paid well. The money was good enough for earplugs, anyways. He popped in his industry strength pair. It was almost as if he was just out for a nice evening stroll. He closed his eyes and tried to remind himself that this was the only way the government would ever have agreed to release him from federal prison. Then he heard howling. Removing the earplugs, he was overwhelmed by sounds of pain from every room. The prisoners they had brought down from the ceilings were hurling themselves against the doors. He couldn’t see through the one-way glass in one of the cells; blood covered the entire glass window. Just another day on the job, eh?