Mental (Slow updates)

Chapter 7

"Finally you're awake," a voice spoke calmly. Ash's eyes fluttered open, only to shut again as piercing white light seemed to cause his head to swim. Ash winced. "Don't be so dramatic. You're completely fine, just suffered a bit of blood-loss," the voice chided.
"Where am I?" Ash weakly croaked. He tried to grasp at images rushing around inside his mind.
"You're home, safe and sound," the voice responded. Ash frowned, it had sounded like the voice was sneering as he spoke. He brushed the thought aside believing he had imagined it.
"I had the most horrible visions of a lab, and a bird cage filled with kids, and doctors testing and torturing me. What happened to me?" Ash asked, shuddering at the memory of the visions. The voice was silent before responding, "You opened up an old wound, began to bleed profusely and fell unconscious. The doctors started to patch up when you woke up, for your own health and safety they put you under. While you were under they also installed a device that will monitor your vitals so this cannot happen again. Had we not got to you in time you'd be dead." The voice chuckled before continuing, "I do have to say, this is the first time since you were very little that you've been put under and I must say the results are interesting. The anaesthetic seems to loosen your tongue... Zero."
Ash's eyes shot open. Leering down at him was Master Malicious Smile. He froze, as his mind finally broke free of the drugs and his memories surged to meet him. Fear encompassed him, as he remembered what he had told the Master and how he'd spoken. Despite his fear his mind caught on one seemingly insignificant detail the Master had said. "Monitoring device, so it can't happen again?" He mumbled not realising he'd said it out loud.
"Of course Zero. We almost lost you, and that cannot happen. You are far to important. You are as your name suggests, the first, our patient zero. The one to thank for all this," the Master, made a wide sweeping gesture of the room. "Far too important. Why we'd discard every other subject in this place to save you," the Master drew the back of his hand down the side of Ash's face in what would seem like a gentle and caring manner. Ash pulled his head away from the touch, sick to his stomach. "If I'm as important as you say, Master, why not just let them all go?" Zero asked quietly.
The Master smirked, "they have their uses. Besides the only way they'll be getting out is in a body bag, Zero. You should know that by now." Faces of the 14 dead teenagers flashed through Ash's mind. His hands curled into fists as tears formed in his eyes. Bile rose in his throat as different memories rose of their corpses the Masters had shown him to confirm their deaths.
Suddenly Ash realised that his emotions were surfacing against his will, what he thought must be a side affect of the anaesthetic. Reverting to what Ash was felt was his default state, he pushed his emotions and memories down. Within seconds all traces of emotion vanished from Ash's face. He heard the Master walk away from him and busy himself with something on the other side of the room. Ash held his breath, fear pulsing through him as he remembered the Master's threat last night to 'discipline' him. "Finally I have proof that you're not as emotionless as you seem," the Master said with his back to Ash. The Master walked back towards Ash, as Ash's heart beat seemed to pound through his chest. The Master smiled down at Ash. "You might be able to fool everyone with your cold demeanour, but your vitals betray you. I can see your fear. I already knew you were a bleeding heart with your pathetic attempts to protect the other subjects, but I had no idea you were this scared of me. I must say Zero, you hide it well." Ash bit down on his lip, knowing he could no longer hide his emotions from the Masters. "Now my dear Zero," the Master said mockingly, "you reminded me we have unfinished business." The Master smiled his signature malicious smile.
Knowing he was already in trouble, Ash risked a dangerous question. "What if I just stopped obeying you and keeping the others in line?" He spat out. The Master halted, obviously shocked by his sudden outburst. Ash secretly smiled at his small victory. The Master quickly covered up his hesitation, "You will obey and keep the others in line, unless you want their blood and suffering on your hands... And of course torture is a great motivator, believe me boy you have no idea the pain I can put you through. In the end you will beg for the sweet release of death!" The Master spat out, before turning on his heel and storming to the side of the room. Defeated once again, Ash mumbled under his breath, "I already do."
The room elapsed into silence. After a few minutes the Master spoke again, "You know Zero after I saw you disobey my order to look after the new subject, I planned to use the wounds on your side to discipline you." Ash winced at the thought. The Master continued, "Then she ends up causing you to open those wounds yourself. She almost did my job for me and you might've gotten away without any disciplinary action. Of course that was before you defied me in front of the other subjects, almost killed yourself and talked back to me. I would say you're starting to become rebellious, and we can't have that. I've been waiting for the opportunity to try a little experiment and I think it's time to do it. I can, to put it primitively, kill two birds with one stone. I get my results and squash the tiny spark of rebellion in you."
Fear coursed through Ash's system stronger than before. His whole body tensed, his heart rate skyrocketed, his breathing shallowed, and his mind screamed at him to run. The Master had never held back doing an experiment before, nor had he ever used an experiment as a type of discipline and that terrified Ash as he thought of the suffering he would be forced to endure.
In a moment of panic-induced madness, Ash moved to escape, but was stopped as strong hands grabbed him and held him down. Ash struggled in their grasp although deep down he knew his efforts were in vain. The Master came back over holding a syringe in his hand. "Oh Zero, I'm so glad we installed that monitor. It alerted me to your panicked state and made me aware that you might try to escape. I must say its been awhile since I've had to call in others to hold you down. You'll be moved to a different room for my experiment, I was going to let you walk there with your dignity, instead I'm afraid because of your current state, I'll have to do this," the Master said as he plunged the syringe into Ash's arm. He cried out as he felt his limbs become heavy and numb. The hands lifted him up and placed him on a stretcher, being especially careful around his wounded side. The Master smiled then said in an obviously fake cheery voice, "come now Zero, it's time for us to begin" and Ash was carried out of the room.