Sensation exploded back into reality as Adrian fell from his pod to the floor. He hit the ground hard but barely noticed through his disorientation. Chittering clicks and harsh screeches pained his ears as the bright lights blinded him. He didn’t have time to adjust to his new surroundings before he was picked up by sharp claws and hauled off in a direction he couldn’t tell. Dazed as he was, he never felt the prick on the back of his neck ensuring he would remain paralyzed.

  His head swam as details finally snapped into focus. Still unable to move properly, Adrian could only stare helplessly at the passing gunmetal-grey walls. They were adorned with glowing blue lines running in an uneven square-waved pattern that were identical to those in the gru’ul facility he’d found himself in all those years ago.

  Adrian wasn’t a fool. He might not know where exactly he was or how long he’d been in stasis for, but he knew that he was once again in another research facility. The drug coursing through his system prevented his heart rate from spiking as anxiety and panic dominated his thoughts. It’s happening again, he thought frantically. They’re going to experiment on me again.

  It was one of his worst nightmares come true.

  As Adrian was brought through a dizzying maze of corridors, he worried about what the gru’ul had in store for him. His mind raced, envisioning all the horrible things they might do to him once again in the name of science.

  Contrary to his expectations, he was not brought to another cell. The final wall in front of the gru’ul dragging him disappeared with a melting, bubbling, suctioning sound and opened into a room with several other gru’ul already inside and all manner of alien machines. Holograms floated throughout the room, with the occupants scurrying around to view them.

  In the middle of the room was a clean metallic operating table with two pairs of restraints along its length. Next to it, a lone gru’ul with an ornate badge upon its chest stood holding a silver translator orb. It was the only calm in the chaotic swarm of bodies around it and opted to wait silently as Adrian as deposited onto the table and restrained by his wrists and ankles.

  Only once he was fully restrained did the gru’ul speak, the alien sound a crunching, grating noise reminiscent of pebbles going through a blender, punctured by a staccato of clicks. It was as familiar as it was terrifying, reminding Adrian once again that he was far from home and utterly alone.

  “At last,” the translator orb spoke in a dry, mechanical tone after the gru’ul finished making its awful ear-splitting noise. “Long have I waited for the success to be brought before me. My predecessor let you escape in a glaring failure on its part. This will not happen again. This time, I shall finally introduce your augments into the rest of my kind. We shall transcend our limits and arrive one step closer to perfection, free from the hideous mutations that plague our current attempts. You are the key to our future, and I will not stop until I have achieved my desired results.”

  The orb stopped speaking while the Highest regarded Adrian in a silent, malevolent contemplation. It loosed one last glorious shriek as it motioned for its brethren to assemble around the operating table.

  “Let us begin.”

  Adrian landed in a sterile room with a heavy thud as he was unceremoniously dumped in his new cell. It too was stark white, just like the last one. The only noticeable difference was that it was far smaller than his previous accommodations. It was a cold, clinical place devoid of any personality and life.

  He lay on the floor, still paralyzed as an eternity passed with him remaining a prisoner in his own body. His thoughts screamed a silent rebellion. Adrian wanted out. Needed his freedom back. He struggled against his paralysis, fighting with every fiber of his being as his desire morphed into a deep, primal need.

  Minutes stretched into hours, each one more agonizing than the last. Nothing moved. Nothing changed. The monotonous surroundings slowly sapped his energy as he came to the realization that his struggles were useless. The longer he remained crumpled on the floor the more his will to fight back against his captors bled from his soul.

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  Adrian knew what was in store for him. Pain, violation, and more pain. Vivid recollections of experiments past clawed their way out from the deepest recesses of his mind, hinting at the horror he knew would come. Their whispers were maddening. He did his best to ignore them, but they drowned out all other thoughts.

  His fear spiraled out of control as an ever-increasing anxiety rooted itself in his chest. Adrian clung to memories of his time with Reya to balance out his negative thoughts. He relished in the joy and love he’d found with her, something that was his and his alone. But it wasn’t enough to stave off the relentless onslaught of despair

  It was the bleak epiphany that there would be no rescue this time that pushed him over the edge. He had no idea where he was, and he was sure nobody else did either. For all he knew, Verilia was no more. Perhaps the war had been lost during his time in stasis.

  Adrian’s will shut down. The walls closed in on him, shrinking his already tiny cell into something too small to contain him. This new facility would be his grave. He would never see Reya again. Never hold her or feel her love. Never have the future with her that he wanted more than anything else in the world. He’d been robbed of everything life was worth living for and now, without a shadow of a doubt, knew he was destined to die alone.

  All that was left for him was a slow descent into an all-encompassing numbness.

  A broken man sat slumped in the corner of the cell. Once the paralytic had worn off, Adrian was finally free to move. He’d used the last of his energy to crawl towards the wall and hadn’t budged since.

  The lights went out without warning, signaling a familiar cycle. Sleep never came for him, his paranoia about the next experiment keeping him wide awake. An indeterminate amount of time later, the lights turned back on.

  The pattern repeated several times, with Adrian only moving to drink water and relieve himself in the small hole on the other side of the room. The gru’ul had yet to feed him food, and he wasn’t certain whether he should feel grateful or concerned.

  He finished his drink of water from the black, rubbery tube poking out of the wall and trudged back towards his spot at a snail’s pace, unconcerned with how long it took to get there. A melting, suctioning sound resounded throughout the silent room and Adrian whipped his head around towards the source.

  He was not met with a gru’ul as he’d expected. In a slot in the wall sat an intimately familiar loaf of purple bread. Adrian’s stomach fell as he realized that he would have to eat it if he wanted to survive. His stomach growled in protest at its neglect, and Adrian made his way over to it.

  He picked it up and gave it a sniff, recoiling at the harsh scent of aged moldy socks. In a way, he was glad. Painful though it would be to eat, the loaf was the only familiar object he’d interacted with since coming out of stasis. It was also the only splash of colour in his white cell, and Adrian almost found it a shame that he would have to eat it.

  Almost.

  With a resigned sigh, Adrian tore off a chunk of the loaf and put it in his mouth. It took a conscious act of will not to flinch at the horrendous taste as he chewed. Unlike the food at the previous research facility, his current meal perfectly emulated the taste of trash left in the sun for too long.

  A tingling sensation prickled his tongue between bites, turning into intense, searing heat. He swallowed quickly, hoping to avoid the pain but the bread went down his throat like battery acid. His throat became constricted and cut off his breathing. Eyes widening, he ran as fast as he could to the water spout and took long gulps to dislodge the food stuck in his throat.

  It went down smoothly and settled in his stomach like a miniature sun. The heat spread throughout his entire body, burning him from the inside. Adrian dropped to the floor, screaming. The pain didn’t fade, and he continued screaming even after his voice went raw.

  At long last, the heat relented. His body cooled and the once unrelenting burning retreated as a blissful chill took its place. Adrian relished in the momentary reprieve of pain, only to immediately grow concerned at his falling body temperature.

  It wasn’t long before his bones turned to ice. His fingers became blue and cold to the touch. Adrian’s muscles grew sluggish and refused to respond properly. Panic flooded him. He needed to get warm fast lest he truly feel Death’s chilling touch.

  He pushed himself off the floor and slowly started doing pushups in an attempt to get his blood pumping. The effect was meagre at first but became noticeable the longer he kept at it. When the cold finally abated, Adrian was out of breath and drenched in a cold sweat.

  He collapsed back onto the floor, panting. After ten minutes, he picked himself up and grabbed his discarded loaf of bread sitting innocently on the floor. He glared at the food item that was more likely to kill him than provide any measure of sustenance.

  Adrian’s stomach growled loudly, and he knew he needed to finish the purple bread if he wanted to survive. He did the only sensible thing he could think of and stuffed the whole loaf in his mouth, chewing as fast as he could. He brace himself for the pain and it delivered in spades.

  Adrian woke up on the floor, not remembering having passed out. The feeling of a million ants crawling under his skin made him shudder. He looked around the cell for any changes since he’d lost consciousness.

  And saw another loaf.