I N V A D E R S **also being trashed and rewritten soon**

||Chapter 8-Dreams and Drills||

Bryce

We were back in the Lab. The horrible, painfully bright Lab. Leather straps dug into my wrists and ankles and the cold  from the metal table seeped through my thin shirt. I looked to my right to see my older brother Caleb in strapped to an identical table. His brown hair was matted to his head with sweat and blood. His blue eyes were usually so calm and clear. Now they we're clouded with pain, but he put on a brave face for my sake.

"We're strong Bryce. We'll make it through this." He was already out of breath, but his words gave me hope. 

I nodded bravely, trying to look fierce so that he wouldn't worry. The corners of his lips turned up and his eyes shone with pride.

"Listen to your brother Bryce. It will all be just fine." The Doctor had returned.

Just the sound of his voice was more torturous than anything they put us through in the lab. That sick smile and  green eyes that shone with psychotic intent were gut wrenching, even more so than the enormous needle he was holding up to the light. The syringe held a putrid green liquid that was almost glowing. I could almost feel the radiation seeping into my skin. He flicked the syringe and swirled the mixture around, paying no attention to us. 

After an agonizingly long silence, he turned back to us, "Which one of you gentleman would like to go first?" He gave us both a nauseating smile and held up the syringe needle again, "Won't hurt a bit! But... If no one would like to volunteer..." He brought a finger to his chin, as if thinking, "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo! Catch a tiger by the toe..." He walked over to my brother and raised the syringe over his thigh, "If he hollers, let him GO!" 

He was just about to drive the needle into my brothers leg, but I shouted, "WAIT! Please, take me instead. Please, I-I volunteer." Sweat was dripping into my eyes, my vision was blurry, but I'm pretty sure he smiled in delight.

"Ah, brave soul. Brave soul." He stepped away from my brother who had already passed out, probably from heat stroke.

He stood over me, waving the hypodermic needle in front of my face, "Do you know what this is Bryce?"

I said nothing, instead I stared at my brother. Was he still breathing? I couldn't see if his chest was moving or not.

"He's alive. For now."  Said the Doctor. He an uncanny ability to echo my thoughts out loud at times.

I looked back to him, "What is it?" I rasped, "What's in the syringe?"

Again he flashed that revolting grin, "Good boy. Now pay attention." He raised his arm slowly and stabbed the needle into my leg.

Fire raced through my body as I screamed at the top of my lungs. My back arched off the table as I tried to escape the pain. It surrounded me in a cloud, it obscured my vision with red spots and constricted my lungs in its iron fists. No matter how much I struggled, there was nothing I could do to lessen the pain of the acid substance burning through my veins. I was in seemingly endless agony, but I still couldn't think of anything but my brother on the table next to me. My screams had awakened him. He was shouting hoarsely, pleading the Doctor to stop. 

I met Caleb's wide  brown eyes one final time before I slid out of consciousness.

   ⦁☓☽☓☾☓⦁  

NightCorps Base - Two days after the quake, 5:00 PM

I sat up in bed so fast that my head smacked against the bunk above me. Each beat of my heart sent a volt of electricity through my body, every blink of an eye seemed to make my head pound harder. I leaned back into my pillows, trying to calm my breathing and wipe the cold sweat from my brow. I thought of my dream, which was technically a memory. They had wiped my memory of everything that had happened in the Lab, and to this day I'm still not sure what exactly happened. What  I did remember was fragments of the beginning, when we "volunteered" for the experiments, being promised the entire time everything they did to us would make us better soldiers. It worked for a time, until I realized what they had really made me. I also remembered bits and pieces of the "middle stage". Those memories returned gradually in hazy dreams or visions at random moments. Nothing spectacular. Just needles and pain most of the time.