Beyond Control

Chapter 21 (Kaysen's perspective)

A ring woke me up, I aroused from my sleep to my phone ringing and vibrating on the bedside table. The song that I once considered relaxing and mellifluous is now the most irritating song I've heard. Every time I heard it, I felt like I'm losing my mind and just wanted it to shut off.

I pushed myself up from my bed lazily and reached for my phone.

It took a single tap to shut off but it woke me up from a good 9 hour sleep which broke off the beautiful dream I'd just had.

The dream was-

Shit, what was it again? I'd just dreamt about it, and now I could recollect none of those good times. All I could recall was feeling extremely relaxed and good in that dream.

When I tried to dive back into that dream I'd just had, as fast as possible, to prevent losing the dream again, the ring sounded again.

I pushed myself up relentlessly then remembered that I hadn't set an alarm to wake myself up today, and that ring was a call ringtone.

I brought the phone before me and accepted the call before I even looked at the caller's name.

"Kaysen!" I recognized Derrick's voice, "Subject 15 is dead."

"For fuck's sake." I muttered, hoping for him to hear it but the phone cut off there, "Give me a break."

I dragged myself off those comfy bed sheets and pulled away the black out curtains that made my room nothing apart from void during the night. I stretched my arms around and brought myself to the bathroom of my lavish apartment.

After a rushed morning routine, I arrived at the scientific facility which was built underground, right under the apartment I live in.

Whilst walking down the exact hallway towards subject-15's cell, I see crowded people, mostly workers and some janitors walking in and out of the place.

The janitors' expression seemed as undisturbed as they're always seen as, but the scientist looked as if he hadn't slept for the past two days. His hair was messy and untidy which I assumed he's been scratching his head pretty often.

"What is it?" I asked as I approached the scene. My tone was calm since subject-15 isn't the most successful creature created.

I plodded into the observation room and saw the boy with feathers on his back laying dead on the ground. His eyes were still wide open but there's no sign of life in that boy's body other than the pool of blood his head was laying on.

"There's no visible wound on his body," Derrick informed then asked, "but is subject-89 contained?"

That question came abruptly that emptied my mind. It made me feel as if I'd been sent back in time to yesterday when subject-89, Crystal, escaped its cell just a few days ago.

"Yes, is there a problem?" I asked.

Derrick scratches his head again, "Well, his cause of death was like Felix's. No visible wounds, blood burst out of his brain and we presumed he was having heart problems."

I nodded as I glimpsed the corpse, and a few workers had arrived to inspect it.

"What time did he die?" I inquired, bringing my phone out again.

"We assumed that it was at midnight." He answered.

At midnight. Which meant that no one was keeping guard at these places. Subject-15 could've been screaming and yelling for help but none of us were alerted.

"Are the other subjects fine?" I asked, peeking my head out from the door to glance at the rest of the hallway.

"Fine, but some of their immune system had been affected by something." He stated, then walked into the cell as the workers called for him.

I walked out of the suffocating room and stood in the hallway where workers come and go. I tilted my head down onto the phone and called for the security team.

I told them to check for the cameras and see if subject-89 is still contained in its cell.

They said yes, she's still locked in that cell after they saw her through the night vision camera. They confirmed that she's just been sitting in her corner and constantly fidgeting which she was known for doing.

But when they came across the replay of the previous night's footage from the other subject's perspective, they saw that they'd been frozen in place for a while and it was by the time subject-15 died.

After hearing the entire story from the workers, I was told that only the few subjects placed near Crystal's cell had been victims in whatever attack happened during the night. And that left me only a single conclusion to be made.

"Subject-89 is affecting your other subjects." I declared as I walked into my father's office.

After several conversations had left me exhausted, I threw myself onto my favorite couch in my father's office where he sat staring at his monitor blankly.

"You mean Crystal?" The old man asked, turning his attention to me who just came in.

"Yes." I responded with an annoyed tone, "She's doing something on her own and killed one."

Father stayed silent. When I turned my gaze to him, I saw that he had already switched his gaze elsewhere.

When he was silent, I spoke, "Should we take action?"

I stated the suggestion Ayven gave, just to see if he'll consider it after so many times of rejecting my ideas.

"Leave her," he says, "we don't want to risk killing her, she's the best out of all of them."

I sighed as he spoke again, "Move the other subjects then, we still have a few more rooms empty at the end, don't we?"

I nodded, thinking how large this place is and how much he had forgotten about the effort he put in just to build up this specific project.

We spoke for a while about the arrangement between each subject, since the main subject we have is growing more powerful.

At the end we decided to rearrange the subject's cells instead of moving the one causing the problem.

As I began to take my leave back to my room, hoping to be able to go back to sleep again, my phone rang.

This time, it's Ayven calling.

I picked it up and spoke right away, "What?"

I stood in the hallway after leaving my father's office as I thought of telling him about the plan of rearranging the subjects' cells.

Then, I heard my friend panting over the phone. I asked if he was alright and he said that he is.

I waited for him to calm down with no plans on rushing over to wherever he is right now, though there's a chance that he could seriously be dying right now.

"Check for subject-89." He spoke, speaking as if there's a sigh after each word because of his pants, "Workers near level 3-"

He gasped for more air, "They are collapsing one after one."

"Where are you?" I asked them to begin pacing through the hallway.

"Heading to my lab," Ayven stated, "it's 89's influence."

I ended the call and immediately called for the security.

Even the security team has two different teams for morning and night shifts, while I, as the head of all workers, have to work 24 hours.

They confirmed that she's still in the cell, sitting at the exact position where's in when they last check up on her.

I grunted as I headed towards level 3, using the lift which was not encouraged to be used, instead of the extended stairs.

By the time the lift arrived at level 3, I began to hear rushed footsteps coursing down the hallway and faint screams before the door could open.

When I stepped out of the lift, the screams stopped and the entire place fell into utter silence. I stood at the end of the hallway where the lights were switched on but no one was there.

That left me wondering if she has escaped her cell by now.