The memories came back as nightmares, creeping in like an infection. Brew dreaded falling asleep as he imagined the hell that awaited him inside his head. He had dedicated his life to solving the worlds mysteries through science, but he never anticipated the darkness that lay right below the surface. Fresh out of college, bright-eyed and enthusiastic, he had taken a job at the Hillside Research Facility. Sure, it wasn't a prestigious university or a world-class lab, but Brew believed he would still make progress in his pursuit of answers.
The experiments started out benign enough. He raised tardigrades and studied their behaviour. Then he was asked to feed the tardigrades different foods and look for changes in their behaviour and growth. Eventually he was asked to start adding classified chemicals to their water which resulted in numerous casualties. Brew found this troubling. Although they were simple micro-animals, he had grown attached to them. He found it difficult to make human friends, so he had began to feel a connection to his tardigrades. He could swear that they each had their own personalities and he secretly gave them names (all coffee related of course). One tardigrade in particular caught his attention; specimen #8334, or Bean as he called it. Bean became somewhat of a pet to Brew and they formed a close bond. Everyday Brew looked forward to peering at Beans cute face through the microscope and he liked to think been enjoyed his company as well. Brew noticed that Bean began to grow well beyond the maximum size that tardigrades had been observed growing to. Soon Bean was large enough to be seen easily with the naked eye, then he was the size of a marble, then a golf ball. He just kept growing. Brew diligently reported his results to the High Council who funded the research facility. Soon the lab was overrun by people in yellow suits. Brew watched in horror as they took Bean away to be poked and prodded and most likely destroyed.
They ransacked Brews notes and detained him in the basement of the lab. They questioned him for hours about his research and what he had done to make Bean grow so large. Brew didn't understand why this was happening. He thought the scientific community would be delighted to learn of his new discovery, but instead he was being treated like a criminal. He gathered that he had somehow stumbled upon classified information that was not supposed to be known by the public. The more he denied stealing classified information the worse the interrogation got. It started with sleep deprivation. He lost count of the days as his captors continued prodding him for answers, none of which seemed to be satisfactory. Next they began weaponizing electricity. They shocked him again and again no matter how much he cried or begged for mercy. Time stopped having meaning to Brew as every moment of his life was now filled with misery and pain. He was no longer able to distinguish what was real and what was his tortured mind playing tricks on him. He felt bugs crawling over his skin and biting him. An ocean of ants. Ant ocean. So many ants. How did all these ants get here?
Finally he was left alone. He sat in complete darkness, his ragged breath the only sound. This was the extent of his memories. He could remember every second of his torture, but not his release. He hypothesized that the council had decided he could be useful and that's why they chose not to kill him.. They had done something to erase his memory and implant false objectives. He had been brainwashed to give his full allegiance to the council. He was still unsure what their ultimate goal was, but he knew he was under constant surveillance so he was careful to continue feigning amnesia. He also suspected they were spiking his coffee as he now found he couldn't go more than 3 hours without a cup; something which would make escape virtually impossible. However, there was one thing he was grateful for; Bean had been returned to his care. At least his not-so-little friend was safe. Now it was up to them to figure a way out of this mess.
