When Man-Made by K.E. Rodgers
Chapter 4-
A man was laid prone on a metal examining table, held down by five male physicians, two on either side, one controlling his head. I stood in an observation room, a thick layer of reinforced glass isolating us from those in the operating room. Even through the layer of glass I could hear him, feel his pain like it was my own.
Hot lights burned from above, showcasing the horrible scene in front of me, revealing the rivers of sweat rolling down the exposed flesh of this unknown’s body. He was completely drenched and glistening under those lights. I could easily see each muscle spasm, clench and release of his fists held to his sides, his chest rising too fast as he took in short bursts of air. He was suffering greatly and I was ineffectual at saving him.
“Why is he not secured properly with restraints?” Mr. Rockthorn asked as he stared dispassionately through the thick glass.
A technician working in front of one of numerous monitor screens, answered him. Rotating in her chair she explained, “We tried to secure him on the platform, but he broke through.” She tilted her head slightly to watch the scene playing out in the other room for a second before turning back to us. “He’s impressively strong, sir. There seems to be nothing formidable enough to hold him. We can only hope that the sedative will relax him enough that we can get enough blood samples.”
Mr. Rockthorn frowned. “If he’s been sedated, why does it require five people to hold him down? Look at him. He’s barely leashed as it is.”
It was true. Even under the influence of our drugs the man was barely being controlled by the physician’s hands. I could see they were sweating as well, the amount of energy needed to keep this one man at bay taking all their effort and determination. It was a precarious situation. If even one of them backed off, losing strength, it would be over. They only had a thin measure of control over this unknown creature. Who would succumb first, the men or the beast?
“This is the first anyone has been able to keep him in place since he awoke,” the technician countered. “Even with the drugs, he’s resisting.” She swung her chair around to face another monitor that showed a detailed analysis of the man’s body. “Look at his readings. It’s unnatural. I’ve never seen anything like this man. If he’s human, it’s only because he looks it. Everything else places him as something entirely different.”
I could read from the scrolling charts that his body temperature was well over normal range for a human. In fact, if I had only seen his charts and not the physical specimen, I would have thought he wasn’t human at all. If he was human he would have been dead. He should be dead. He was human, wasn’t he?
“He’s not human,” retorted Mr. Rockthorn. “He’s an animal. If he cannot be controlled, put him down.” There was no hesitation in his voice. The act of issuing a death sentence was rare in our world. Life was far too precious for us to allow it to slip away so easily. But Mr. Rockthorn spoke as if the taking of this man’s life was inconsequential and would easily be forgotten as time passed. This man held no value to us, his life held no sway over our own.
I could have held my tongue and my life would have continued forward. I had a good life. And despite my complaints about my job, I enjoyed being part of something. If my internship ended successfully and I knew that it would, it would be a foot in the door to my future career. Success was just inches beyond my fingertips and I could have it all. People would remember me as they do my mother, look at me with adoration and awe. I could have that if I just kept my mouth shut.
But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
I’m not terribly adventurous, cunning, or a natural born leader, but I am intelligent. Intelligent enough to think beyond my peoples limited perception of the world. However most of the time I fall short, listening to others instead of searching for the truth. For some reason, today, I would not fall into that trap.
Perhaps it was because I had had it up to here with Mr. Rockthorn’s bitter and disrespectful attitude. But in any case, I spoke my true thoughts to him. Whether he was willing to hear them or not, I was going to give him my two cents and then some. This great man was going hear the first person to contradict him in who can guess how long?
I was proud of myself as I mustered up the nerve and the words to invoke my displeasure. Unfortunately, pride cometh before the fall and with a deep breath I stepped off my comfortable ledge of conformity into the unknown. I prayed someone would catch me.
“You cannot allow this man to be exterminated like an unwanted vermin in your home. He is a human being. And even if he isn’t, that doesn’t give you the right to cut his life short.”
I saw Mr. Rockthorn’s eyes widen at first, his jaw go slightly slack. Shock, and then it was gone. And then fury encased his entire body, his jaw tightening, flexing. I speculated that he was enraged that someone as insignificant as I would dare question his authority. Everyone else in the room, the technicians and Zeke simply looked dumbfounded. I could feel all their eyes on me. For a brief moment I was the complete center of everyone’s attention. I took my moment and ran with it. “You condemn this man without any sense of remorse, before you even take the time to figure out why he’s resisting our efforts to help him. That is entirely irresponsible, not to mention unethical.”
I threw my hand out, pointing to the scene beyond that glass wall. “Can’t you see he’s in pain and he’s confused? To him, we are the enemy.”
At that moment the man inside the examining room howled, one of his limbs coming in contact with a tray of instruments, causing it to crash onto the floor. Broken glass vials of his blood spread out from the upturned tray; tiny rounded fingers of liquid creeping across the otherwise pristine floor.
“We’re hurting him, not helping.” I yelled my words over the roar of the man. “You must stop them.”
“You presume too much to think to dictate to me, Ms. Forest.” His words were calm and softly spoken, his anger beyond the need to yell. “You’re like your father, I see. And it is exactly those kinds of words that got him killed. That creature in there would rip you apart and think nothing of it. He has no conscious understanding beyond his limited desires. We do the world a service by taking him out of it.”
I was appalled at his reasoning. “You are the heartless monster who can’t see beyond his own desires,” I hissed. I really enjoyed shoving his words back in his face, a strange high running through my system. I was living in the moment and damning all consequences.
Zeke took my hand, pulling me back into the safety of his arms. I didn’t realize Mr. Rockthorn’s face could have gotten any blotchier than it had been earlier, but I was wrong. His skin stretched so tight along the bones of his face I was just waiting it out before the skin ripped at the seams. It didn’t matter; he could buy a new face. However, I was unlikely to find a new job.
Zeke held me to his side, protectively. Leaning toward my right ear, he whispered. “Have you lost your mind? Of all the people to stand up to, you chose the most powerful man in our world to call a ‘monster’. Maybe you were daydreaming in ethics class because you just went over the edge. There’s such a thing as bravery and then there’s what you just did; suicide with no reprieve of actual death.” I felt his breath as he grumbled a few unintelligible words in my ear.
Putting his body between myself and Mr. Rockthorn, Zeke calmly addressed his obvious superior. “Sir, you know Lora doesn’t mean what she says. She has a kind heart and has obviously sympathized with this unknown man. Perhaps it would be best if I take her back to the office. I think she has had enough of a lesson today.”
Zeke was always so diplomatic. He was a great asset to our world and would be a leading force someday. I wondered if I would be there to see him take his rightful place. He was the natural born leader and I was proud of him. I could see by the subtle changes in Mr. Rockthorn’s expression that he was swayed by Zeke’s words, but then Zeke could make almost anyone listen to him.
“Fine, take her back.” He dismissed us with a flippant wave of his hand, uncar
Zeke would have liked to have hustled me out the door and away from this place before I said or did anything stupid, more than I already had. I knew he had heard Mr. Rockthorn’s words. And if they had been about him, he wouldn’t have let that kind of slander against his name slide. I knew he wanted me to ignore those words. But I couldn’t and I wouldn’t let this man diminish my importance in the world. Perhaps I would never be noteworthy, but I still had value. That man in the other room had value.
I jerked my arm free from Zeke’s restraining grasp. He pleaded at me with his eyes to reconsider what he assumed I would do. I ignored him. We were friends, but sometimes even our friends can be wrong. Mr. Rockthorn was too preoccupied with the technicians to notice me. He had dismissed me completely from his mind. They were at that moment actively discussing the best means of getting rid of their rather large pest problem. I wouldn’t allow them to do this heinous crime. Their apathy to this poor man went beyond my tolerance and it gave me the strength to do what I needed.
The physicians inside the next room were being instructed through an intercom to inject the man with both a high dose sedative and a death drug, a lethal cocktail that would lay low any creature in seconds. On the surface it seemed humane and most others would have stepped aside and allowed this man to die. But I had already jumped too far into this and I couldn’t halt my descent now.
The connecting door to the other room had been left slightly ajar when it should have been closed and locked. But in everyone’s haste they had overlooked this error. Fate was leading me forward.
It was a surprise to the occupants in the examining room and even me, when I pushed through the connecting door and found myself face to face with them. There was a moment of pause where I was looking at them and they were looking at me. All of the physicians had the same expression. The one that read, I had lost my mind. Perhaps I had. I could hear the others in the observation room, yelling at me, but no one came in after me. They were too afraid.
I think I’ll always remember the way he looked at me. His violet colored eyes, speckled with flakes of gold, eyes that saw me as no other had before. He was an animal, but then weren’t we all? It is not a highly tolerated perspective of humanity. But I wonder if it’s not true. Animals were stupid and only good as loving house pets or feared as our enemy. But when I looked into the eyes of this man/beast, I wondered if we were not as different as the other’s in this room believed.
“Stop,” I screamed, even though it wasn’t necessary. The examining room was completely silent. The man watched me with calculating eyes, seeing me as something different from the others he had encountered since arriving to our world. I was mesmerized by his eyes as I continued my mission to save him; the only thing I have ever felt surer about in my life. “You cannot kill this man.” I extracted the syringe of the deadly drug from one astonished physician’s hands, throwing it onto the floor where I made a dramatic show of crushing it beneath the heel of my shoe. I had never been so bold, a rebel.
Little did I know that my great show of resistance would cause the next chain of events. I had assumed that my actions would save this man from death and then I would go back to living my life; jobless, but relatively the same. But I was high in the moment and not taking into account that rebels don’t get to go back to their pre-rebel lives. The distraction of my unannounced presence gave the man on the examining table the opportunity he needed.