Unbecoming Humans

Chapter 16

I skipped my morning run on Sunday, since I had not eaten the day before. Instead, I slept in again until breakfast time.

"Where have you been?" Blake quizzed me as we walked together to our places in the line-up.

"I wasn't feeling well," I half lied. "Treatment wasn't sitting well with me this month." Blake looked at me suspiciously. I had not had a notable adverse reaction to a treatment in years. No doubt he knew I was lying, but he said nothing.

I wolfed down my breakfast, ham and eggs, and requested a second helping. Because of our boosted metabolic rates, we were strongly encouraged to eat as much as we wanted at meals. It was one of the upsides of being an experimental superhuman.

I polished off my second helping in record time and excused myself from the table. I intended to return to my room, but my mother - who had followed me out of the dining room - stopped me.

"Aria, dear," there was that "dear" again. "Now that our newest guest is awake again, you will assist her with her recovery therapy," she commanded me. I mentally scoffed at my mother's use of the term "guest." We bore a lot of titles in this compound - royalty, residents, participants, experiments - but guests was not one of them.

"Of course, Mother," I acquiesced with a mock curtsy. I was thrilled that I would get to spend so much ordained time with Nima while she recovered, but my mother's motives still made me leary. Unwilling to let my suspicions ruin my opportunity, I watched her return to the dining room and then skipped cheerily all the way back to my room. Once there, I quickly dumped my shoes on the floor and headed straight for the laboratory.

When I walked through the doors leading to the lab, the curtain was not drawn around Nima's bed. She caught sight of me, and a huge grin split her face. I returned the expression.

"You just couldn't stay away," Nima chuckled.

"Ugh. My mother sent me here to babysit you," I rolled my eyes, feigning disgust.

"Wow. That must be so horrible for you. I'm so sorry," she deadpanned sarcastically. She rolled her eyes, but even she couldn't take herself seriously. She broke out in laughter.

"So why are you really here?" Nima asked, once she had recovered from her laughing fit.

"I told you. My Mother sent me down here. She wants me to help you with your recovery."

"Really?" she asked incredulously. I nodded in response.

"I don't know what game she's playing," I told Nima, "but I'm not going to ruin it with questions."

"I guess I can't argue with that," Nima concluded. "So, what now?" she asked me.

"Well, I guess we wait for the doctors to tell us what to do," I shrugged. As if I had summoned a demon, one of the doctors came sauntering over at their mention.

"Alright, Miss Barrett," he addressed Nima. "If you're going to get yourself out of that bed today, the first thing we need to do is get the blood flowing in your limbs again." He pulled back the sheets, revealing Nima's full body. She was thin, but I could tell that her body was already on the mend. The coma had given her body the time it needed to process her first gene treatment. No doubt, it was already working, and her body would be able recover more quickly than the average human's.

"Miss Sekin," the doctor continued, turning to me. "I presume you are here to assist?" I nodded yes. "Good. The first thing I want you to do is kneel on the end of the bed." I did as he instructed. "Now, Nima, this exercise is fairly simple. All I want you to do is place your feet against Aria's shoulders, like so." Nima's feet were cold as the doctor helped her lift her legs to rest her feet on the soft parts of my shoulders.