HOPELESS ( A short story )

"Crying?" he asked me.

"No" I answered, wiping the tears that threatened to come out from my eyes.

That was the third corpse we buried in this underground faculty. The dead body was of a child who was only about 13 years old. I have seen him before when he was unconscious several times. He was a sweet kid. 

******

Indeed this is a God forsaken place as Jimmy curses everyday. I don't know how I came here to a place where the sun doesn't shine in the middle of nowhere. I was on a vacation with my friends from the hospital when they kidnapped me here. Before this I'm just a regular surgeon who practised heart surgeries as my specialty. My life was ordinary as everyone else. A happy go lucky girl with a good job. Then it all became a memory. A sweet memory, more like a sweet dream.

I was grabbing a cola from a vending machine when I lost my consciousness. When I came around I found myself in bed. The room was clean and it kind of felt empty. I was in a bunk bed and the room only had a cupboard and a table.  It was plain and simple. The room was filled with the smell of antiseptic. It was kind of like a break room in a hospital. The door was closed and there were no windows in the room. However, those were not what I noticed at first. The moment I opened myself I realized I was in a prison, although there were no iron bars keeping me locked in I knew I was imprisoned here. As long as I live I will not be released. It might be instinct but I know I'll never get out of this place and I was right.

"Hello! You are awake. How do you feel?" A man with a sunny smile greeted me. I felt like he was out of place in this kind of harsh crude environment. He was too bright for this gloomy room. "My name is Jacob. You can call me Jace. I'm one of the three doctors in the faculty. Oh now we have four doctors again with you here." Again one of his bright smiles.

"Um, where am I? and was it you who kidnapped me?" I asked directly.

"Ya think we are that crazy? No, we haven't lost it that much to kidnap someone yet. Maybe we will soon lose that much if things continue like this" A crude man entered the room, an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"Now, Jimmy, you are scaring her. She just came here." A woman in a punk outfit patted the crude man's shoulder. " It's okay sweetie. Everything is fine. This is an underground research faculty. I guess this is funded by some bigshots all over the world for they have many resources. Whatever you were bought here just to become a doctor as the previous doctor was killed because he tried to run away"

I felt my head was going to break apart with all that  information I got ever since I worked up. There are four doctors in this faculty including me, Jace, Jimmy and Natasha. They all were kidnapped here just like me. Jimmy and Natasha are here for years, while Jace is here only for six months as he guesses. Our responsibility here is to take care of the test subjects and keep them alive. What are they researching, you ask? Yeah what else? It's humans they research on. We are here to keep the humans they torture in the name of reasearch alive. 

Ironical right? For a better future they research on humans so that they can artificially induce evolution. The researchers here want to evolve humans so that they can obtain abilities just like they describe in the apocalypse novels. A human race with various kinds of abilities like controlling water, wind, earth, fire, wood or with healing abilities, mind controlling, space whatever the ability you ask. That's what they say. Few people dying for the betterment of 

mankind. The kids who die here are fortunate, they say. What a joke. At least thirty to forty kids die in a month here. Some are dying because of the drugs they inject or because of electrification. Whatever the method, they simply torture those so called test subjects until they die. 

***********

"This God forsaken place in the middle of nowhere. Only way out from here is death. Now that kid is at least free." Jimmy cursed. The unlight cigarette still held in between  his teeth. 

"Only eternal sleep can bring them out from this wretched place where the sun doesn't shine. May he rest in peace"  Natasha prayed as we buried that kid. 

It may be true. They might love to die rather than be tortured here everyday, Every single day they will be tested in various inhuman methods until they lose consciousness. Then they will be transferred here to get treated. We doctors will heal them so that they can be tortured again. In a way I am also a sinner. However, if I want to live, I have to heal them. If I refused to treat them then the one who will be killed is me. 

Once I asked Natasha about the doctor who was here before me. " Ask from your roommate. He knows better." She answered.

So I asked Jace, who lives in the upper bed of my room. We had to share the room to provide space for the couple. Yeah I heard Natasha and Jimmy had been married for about seven years even before they were brought here.

"He was shot dead. That was my brother-in-law" Jace answered. He still had that bright smile. Although it was out of place his smile was the only comfort I had in this sun don't shine place.

"My sister was a military doctor. They both volunteered to help refugees in Afghanistan. However she was shot dead by a stray bullet. They buried her there. So every year me and my brother-in-law come to pay her respect on her death  anniversary.  My elder sister is the only relative I had. She was like a mother to me. After she died my brother-in-law took care of me. He was the one who encouraged me to become a doctor." He smiled, remembering sweet old times.

"We were both kidnapped here on her tenth death anniversary. My brother-in-law was killed because he helped a child to escape from here. However they caught the child, Both of them were shot to death. I asked why he did this. Knowing he'll end up dying. When  my sister died she was pregnant. My brother-in-law said if his son was alive he'd be the same age as the kid he helped" A sad smile.

"I'm sorry." I hugged him. My tears overflowed. 

"It's okay Vanessa, it's okay. They must be happy together in heaven. At least they'll see sunlight everyday unlike us" Jace returned the hug. The warmth of another person who suffers the same fate gave the  hopeless me, a sliver of hope. So we decided to give these suffering souls salvation they deserved.

***************

 We set up the last bomb. We made these bombs remembering our long forgotten high school chemistry lessons. Raw materials were secretly stolen from the research labs. It took more than six months for the four of us to make them. However we had enough explosives to blow up the whole faculty.

" Say Jace, do you think they will stop doing human research if we blow up here?" I leaned on his shoulder watching the count down. In a few minutes we will be saved. Oh, it's a pity I didn't get to have a lover yet. A lover like Jace would be the best. Gentle and sunny, and a capable doctor. The best husband material. What a bargain ah... I bet he'll be a great dad too. 

"Who knows. If this one burns down they will build a new one. A small setback will never quench the human desire for power. Inhuman research in the name of humanity. There will be no end." He smiled, the brightest smile I love the most. 

"It's a pity we are leaving now. We will not see if that's true." I smiled. His smile might be contagious. 

"Yeah it's a pity. We didn't get to see the sunlight one more time before we go" In this God forsaken place in the middle of nowhere a man named Jace kissed a girl named Vanessa, and they both smiled. It was brighter than sunlight. This  wretched place covered in eternal darkness, brightened up with their smiles. Two souls suffering from the same wretched fate fell in love in a place where the sun doesn't shine and that was beautiful.

We hugged each other and kissed. This love is too beautiful to be alive. The count down marked zero *boom* Everything was engulfed in flames. A love too beautiful to be real burned away in the fire. 

THE END.

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