Chapter one

The thing I wanted most was the smell of fresh air. All I smell is nothing. This hospital is kept so sterile so clean, that there is no smell. It’s the smell of pure nothing. Nothing was really all around me. There was no noise really, as a way of keeping me calm, to make my stay more… comfortable, which is ironic since, they poke and prod me twice an hour, all day every day. They draw my blood, they run more tests, and it’s the same routine every day. Sometimes they will break the routine by running a stress test, or give me new medication and go over all the possible side effects, what the expected results are. They treat me like a God, because I am the savior, not just by anyone, no just by everyone. I would know, I've seen the posters, I have a huge stack of fan mail that waits to be read, of which I still haven’t even read the first years worth because I'm always in the hospital.

When they had first told me I was gifted, I was happy to help. When they told me my blood was perfect, that it cured all the diseases, I already had my arm prepped to be waiting, when they told me I would be assisting the research to find a way to make my gift into medicine so I was no longer needed I was waiting to sign. What they didn't tell me, was I would be pumped worse than a cow being milked. Everyday for thirteen years I have been their guinea pig. They take a pint of blood every time, since my heart is able to pump so much without being strained. My body can adapt to almost anything, and yet, the pain hasn’t changed. My body is so sore that everything hurts. I no longer walk with a stride. I have a limp, my legs are weak. I am the cure for everything, I can fix anyone’s problems, but I haven’t left this room in over thirteen years.

I look at the heart rate monitor and in the corner is an electronic image of the time. 12:32 pm. In three minutes, Alice should be coming in with my afternoon dosage of pills. I look around my room and I can’t help but notice the faint outline on the wall of where the window used to be. They took out the glass and sealed up the wall after a plane nearly exploded as it was taking off.

Thirteen years ago, a month after I was admitted to be the lab rodent of the world, mainly America, a plane was taking off. It was a clear day and only a few clouds were in the sky. The plane had just left the strip and was almost to the clouds when the plane had started shaking violently. Even from two miles away, it was clear as something not even two feet away from me. “Adam, would you mind reading the guide for the new set of pills?” Doctor Hannex, was staring at me but I was too transfixed at the sight of the plane. It was one of those sights you just couldn't seem to pull your eyes from no matter what. As much as you want to look away, you can’t, and it just feels like the world has disappeared because you're so focused on the disaster unfolding right before your eyes. “Adam, Adam” he kept calling my name, but it fell off into the background. Then I heard, “What in the…” Hannex finally saw what I was hypnotized by and he stopped to stare.

Nurse Janet was standing next to Hannex and had just set her eyes on the plane too. “This was the new airplane they just released. This is the grand opening, of the new safer line of aircraft. First time passengers have been able to ride it. It has two engines at the back one at the front and two on each side; the biggest engines being located at the front and the back. This is to be safer, gentler and to be able to withstand any weather. It’s also able to hold two times as many passengers; I believe it carries 350 or more people. They had a huge report on it. Adam, I think you saw it.” The engines on the right side exploded and the wing caught on fire. Then the left engines exploded. An annoying beeping started somewhere in the background behind me, but I paid no attention to it. Thick black smoke began to come out the back engines and sparks were sent in the air. In a second I saw they both explode and a huge fireball form up, and I concentrated on the fireball from the rear engines. I heard the beeping get louder but everything felt like it was in slow motion. I felt all the force, all the power, all the strength in me try to stop it. I could feel my powers working against the impending doom. The ball expanded and then began shook like the plane did. As though with a snap of the fingers it went out and disappeared, almost like the fireball was vacuumed quickly. Using the rest of my strength I slowly pushed the airplane down to the ground. The annoying beeping returned louder and quicker, every beep for every second that passed by, however I still ignored it and continued to concentrate on the airplane. As soon as the plane hit the ground, a terrible pain hit me everywhere but it seemed to radiate from my chest. My chest felt as though it was going to explode, I was gripping the railings of the bed and struggling to breathe but the pain made it difficult. I was gasping for breath and I began to seize. The beeping had to be going faster than a beep per second, and the noise was amplified, piercing my ears. My eardrums wanted to explode. Nurses rushed in and injected me in the chest with a syringe with a thick yellow liquid. As soon as they injected me my body grew cold all over and I could breathe as nothing had ever happened. The feeling was amazing, I literally felt, perfect. There was no pain, no anything. The beeping had also slowed down too. I felt like I was weightless, like I was on cloud nine. Looking around I realized I was floating. With a quick yank I was pulled to my bed. Three nurses crowded around my bed, two holding me down, and the other watching with a syringe ready to put me down if I resist. Hannex pressed a button on the side of the bed and within a second metal bars came over my waist, my wrists, and my ankles.

“Are you insane?” Hannex screamed. “We specifically said do not strain yourself; do not use your powers. That much of your power being used at once, for the first time, will kill you. You can barely control your powers and to do what you just did, was beyond reckless and stupid. But we warned you. Clearly you did not listen.”

“You know how many people are on that plane, over three hundred, and they would of all died had I not helped. Not to mention if that plane crashed, how big the explosion would have been, and who knows how many bystanders would have been killed. You want to let innocent people die?”

“You nearly died then, your heart nearly ruptured as in exploded in your chest. Yeah, that beeping noise is your heart rate. Without YOU, millions of people would die. Generations of people lost, due to a few hundred people you want to save. Now who exactly is the one who wants to let innocent people die?”  He paused and slowly rubbed his hand down his face in order to calm himself down. “Apparently, you can’t follow the rules; you want to bend the rules like you bent that railing, so we just have to make sure you follow them properly. Inject him.” He sneered and pulled out his phone. Yelling about the window into the phone, he left the room. The third nurse with the syringe stepped over to me. She had a syringe with watered down orange liquid filled in it. She was blonde and skinny; she probably worked out a lot.

“Sorry, but if you can’t follow the rules, we just have to make you follow them.” She had a thick Russian accent and small lips. She pushed the syringe into my arm. Instantly I felt as all my strength and energy had left me. My arms and legs shriveled down to almost nothing. All my muscles basically left. She placed a toothpick on the counter across from me. “Try to move it.” I focused on the toothpick and forced everything I had to move it. Nothing. “Good, you can’t use your powers, the medicine worked.” Just like that, she walked out with the rest of the nurses. A few minutes later, Doctor Hannex showed up with two scrawny guys.

“There's the window. How soon could you have this done?” he asked and the two looked at each other and shrugged.

“A few hours.”

“That's pretty fast, well for the amount I’m paying you, you better be working fast.”

They gave me another injection so I would be unconscious for the patching of the wall. A few hours later the window was patched up as though it was never there. A week later, the room was sound proofed.

Thirteen years later, the outline of old wall and the new wall was still there. I was still injected with syringes, of all sorts, even with the orange liquid, although it’s weaker. So now its where only when my heartbeat goes up does my body adapt and I am able to use my powers. However it’s been so long, I don't guarantee I can control them. It’ll be like pressing restart if I ever got to use them again. I'm scrawny now, I'm no longer built, I'm pale as a sheet, a bunch of my hair has fallen out yet everyone can still recognize me as America’s favorite lab rat.

“Knock �" knock Adam, guess who it is.” Alice’s head popped in. She was tiny, short and extremely thin, but without being called anorexic. She had long, thin, brown hair and big bright emerald green eyes. She was always happy, and was the only one who treated me like something other than a guinea pig. She saw how miserable I was and sometimes I felt the pity radiating off of her for me. She didn't see me the way the other doctors did. The other ones took note of when I was in pain, she would try to help get rid of it. She was the only one who… cared.

“Yay, time for my blood run, I'm just so excited” I rolled my eyes and sat up the best I could.

“If it makes you feel better, I'm turning eighteen this Friday.” She smiled and hugged the clipboard to her chest jumping a little. She did this dorky dance and moved her arms in a circle. We started laughing until there was a knock on the door, which was Hannex’s way of saying stop. She cleared her throat and put on her owl glasses. Her glasses were circular went from the middle of her eyebrows to the bottom of her cheekbones. They were huge, needless to say. The lens would probably cover most of my palm. “Well the latest test requires three pints of blood, which is why you need to use this medication.”

“When did you become a nurse exactly?” I was curious; this question has been on my mind for a long time now.

“It was a week before I turned 15 and I'm would be a doctor, or a surgeon or something but Hannex refuses to promote me for multiple reasons of which not having enough experience is one of them, I am not smart enough, and I should be older to be in this position. It used to be you passed an exam and a few other things to become a doctor. But no they changed it to passing a few exams, a few challenges, success on solo surgeries, and some other stuff, including the approval by the head doctor, which is really our only doctor, Doctor Hannex. I have passed all of that, with no mistakes, no errors, no incorrect anything, heck I've retaken some stuff just to prove a point and still nothing. I have passed all the exams with no incorrect questions, several times and he doesn’t even blink an eye. Mind you, I graduated several, several years early, top of my class; I've been in several news shows, interviews, etc, by shows broadcasting not only all across America but across the globe. Not to mention, I am a prodigy, with an eidetic memory.” I stared blankly at her. She's talking a million miles an hour and I can barely keep up. So when she pauses I'm absorbing all she said and trying to figure out what the word means. “A photographic memory. I am ranked in the top ten smartest people in America, and yet, I am not able to be moved up to doctor? I know every patient of mine, their charts, every page on those charts and I can remember the lines too. This includes patients I had in the past and am no longer under my service anymore. I have awards, and grants given to me. What more do I need to become a doctor?” She sighed, exasperated and shook her head. “Sorry to go off on that rant but its just frustrating. But you would know about frustrating wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, it is. I know this is bad to say, but I hate it here. I hate doing this, I want out so and but people will die if I do.” Speaking the truth made the situation sound even worse than when I had thought about it in my head.

The amount they’ve taken from you over the past thirteen years, can last them for a long time. Trust me if you leave its not like people are just going to drop dead. The way you are now, Id say the people will last longer than you are. But then again you got super powers so it should just prolong your suffering for all eternity. Do you see yourself wanting to do this for another thirteen years? If not more?”

“Well…” then a sharp pain started at the bottom of my leg. It quickly spread all over my body. My heart rate monitor beeped loudly and rapidly. I looked down and she was leaning a little over my leg, still holding the syringe in her hand as it was still in my leg.

“I'm sorry. I didn't have any other choice.” She pulled the syringe out and capped it and hid it in her jacket. “I injected you with a medication, I created, and that should bring back your powers to one hundred percent so you could escape. You need this; you really need to be free. Nobody should live like this. Your powers won’t be controllable, so it’s best you run. Adrenaline and moving helps.” I stood up and for some reason I ran straight for the door, I barreled through it before I had a chance to stop and the doors went flying across the lobby. I kept on running looking for stairs, I knew they would stop the elevator and be able to get me there.

I could hear pure chaos behind me, people shouting, people running, but I didn't dare look back. She was right I needed this. I busted through the door and ran into people which made them fly into the wall. I heard a bunch of people, sounded like cops, running upstairs so I got off on the level I was on. In front of me was a bunch of people. They started to crowd around me in order to stop me. Panic surged through my body. A white light exploded and it was like a grenade went off. The ceiling came down; people were hurled in different directions. I looked around me and only two were still breathing. The rest, I had killed. The word echoed in my head and instantly I felt nauseous. What seemed like paralysis kicked in and I felt cold everywhere. Then I heard shouts coming from the stairway. I began running again to find another stairway and pain hit me. I felt like I was on fire, everything burned. A sensation of falling hit me and I looked around me. I was almost falling through floors but so fast and I was burning so much that the floors melted around me as I was going through them. It was like I was a human rocket burning everything in my path. Then I hit the last floor hard. More security headed my way and ahead of me I saw the exit. Outside. The one word I missed most. When I got outside, I could barely recognize it. It seemed like I stepped into another dimension. I looked around and tried thinking of a good place to hide. But the city looks so different from the last time I remember seeing it, that I couldn't think of a place to hide. I blinked my eyes and for some reason I was now in the market place. I looked around trying to figure out how I got here but I realized it must have been my powers that brought me here. Looking around, I saw a small shop nearby. My luck, it was unlocked. The old shop still had old curtains up from the last person who used the store so I closed them, that way no one could look in and find me. I searched throughout the store and found an old dusty blanket. I laid down and wrapped myself in it and slept without worrying about another interruption.