Caught in Time

Chapter 7. The lab and A name

Location: Somewhere in Europe
Year: 2020
Time: 18:15

"Where is subject twenty-four?" The man in charge asked the lab rat. The little worker was sitting at his desk and turned in confusion by his superior's question. With a quick and swift swing of his hand he pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose. The motion looked like it was one of habit, nothing the worker was aware that he was doing.

The man sighed and inhaled deeply, feeling extremely frustrated. Nothing with this project could go wrong, then all of their efforts and all the time, and the money the investors had spent would be for nothing.

"Number twenty-four." The man repeated himself. "The girl I gave you clearance to put under yesterday."

The worker's eyes widened as he realized what the man was talking about. He fumbled with some papers on his desk.

"Where is her chart?" He asked and sighed loudly on purpose so the worker would hear that he had about one minute to find it for him.

"My bad, sir." The worker stammered with something that sounded like a French accent. The sound of paper being crinkled and thrown around echoed softly in the dim room.

The only light in there was at the moment the worker's own desk lamp. The rest of them had one home a while ago. Only one of the lamps in the ceiling was lit, but the man didn't care. He just needed to check the subjects' charts before leaving himself.

"Here! Here it is!" The worker gasped and ran over to the man and handed it to him. "Subject twenty-four." He stated and breathed out in relief that he had found it.

The man ripped the paper from the worker's hand and let his eyes fall on the girl's vitals and what procedures and tests the lab rats had done on her.

She's vaccinated... her vitals look good... The man though contently as he read his way through the only thing that tied the girl to this world. The rest they had destroyed. Her memory has been erased and wiped out... good... What is this? He thought and woke up from the routine check. It was rare that there were any mistakes in the charts, if there were, the procedures had been done all the same. The workers had just forgotten to get it onto the chart. They almost never missed anything. Yet here he was, reading a word that had never been an issue befire: Contraceptives... None?

His eyes glided to the right side of the paper, to the box that should be ticked, but there was no tick. The box was empty. This meant that the girl was able to get pregnant, and therefore also running a big chance of becoming pregnant in a period of time where women died left and right due to complications in child labor.

"What the fuck is this?" He breathed out, turned the paper and pushed it into the worker's face, whom with shaking hands took the paper and searched for the error his superior had pointed out.

"Excuse me, sir?" The worker stammered.

"She hasn't been given any form of contraceptive?" he breathed out and felt the rage surge through his whole body. "Or have you given her one but just forgotten to tick the box?"

The girl was perfect for the project they were all here for. They could not risk her life for something so simple as pregnancy! She was the perfect age, size and she had no one that would come looking for her. The research department had informed him that she had no family left after an accident a couple of years back. The whole family except for her died, of what he hadn't cared to listen to, he just wanted to get her to the lab as quickly as possible so they could start with the preparations.

We cannot risk her getting pregnant... Women, where she is right now, dies all the time due to complications in childbirth... He thought and an image of himself having to explain himself in front of the Board flashed before his eyes. Nothing would be more humiliating than having to admit to a mistake... or worse: incompetence. He had been given this position since he never failed with what he did and his ruthless ways of getting things done. His track record was flawless.