I didn't recognise the lab. It was different from how I remembered it being. It was brighter, more makeshift than it was designed to be, more than it had been before.
Fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling at irregularly spaced intervals, illuminating the workbenches below. There were people that I didn't recognise, most of whom I'd never seen before and some whose faces were only familiar at a glance.
They all worked, huddled over their benches, not paying attention to the new individual who was being led through their workspace with Pilot following close behind.
Mike led me to the back of the room, where a separate office area had been set up. It was cramped, like everything else in EDIN but somehow, they'd made it work.
"What is this?" I asked Mike who seemed to be hiding his excitement as he stood in the middle of the room. There was a white desk and two chairs on either side of it.
"I think you knew this was coming, Ben, but we need some samples," he replied, glancing behind me to Pilot. "You can leave us now."
Pilot shifted but finally nodded, glaring down at me. "I'm still watching."
I mimicked a halo on top of my head. "Best behaviour."
The door clicked shut as Pilot stepped out of the room but it didn't make me feel any more comfortable. Chris had already been sent away back to the room until further instruction.
For now, I was on my own.
A second after Pilot had disappeared, the door opened again except this time Julia crossed the threshold and closed it behind her. She smiled but ducked her head guiltily as she maneuvered herself to the corner of the room.
"Sorry I'm late," she raised an apologetic hand before she began rummaging through the drawers of the desk.
Mike turned to face me, pulling over a tray of needles and syringes. The metal tools clattered against each other and the sound was enough to put me on edge. I'd started to think that they hadn't let Chris come along for a reason.
"You're not going to like the sound of this, Ben," he said.
"What is it?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"We need to make sure you're immune to the Infection."
I rolled my eyes. "Fantastic." There was a pause when Mike's expression didn't change. "Wait... You just need a blood sample, right?"
Mike pushed out his bottom lip and Julia remained silent. "We could do it that way..."
"Or?" I pushed. "What's the other way?"
"Well..."
Julia moved towards the tray of medical equipment as Mike met my eyes.
"You're kidding, right?" I tried to shrug off the anxiety that had begun to creep in with the realisation of what I'd been led into. "What happened to normal procedures?"
Mike directed me to sit in one of the chairs and I followed with unease. Julia seemed to step into action with my compliance. She pulled a strap around my arm, a blood pressure monitor. She pressed down on the Velcro and took a step back. Her hands were covered by a pair of blue gloves which I hadn't even seen her put on.
"Mike, come on," I tried to plead while failing to hide the agitation that had crept into my voice. "Is this really necessary? I'm sure a blood test would suffice."
There was a pause and almost a look of sympathy in his pupils but it was gone quicker than it had appeared, like a flash of lightning on a dark night.
"It'll be more beneficial to the research to see the true effect it has on your body... Whether there's even any reaction at all."
I glanced to the tray of equipment, to the syringes and vial of liquid beside it. "What is it?"
"Do you have to ask?" he questioned.
"What is it?"
"The combination," he explained. "Naxor and JCR-23. Taken from an Infected."
"You did read the research, right?" I pressed like he hadn't even spoken. "You're absolutely sure about this?"
He gave a small, reassuring smile. "I'm almost certain you'll be fine."
"Almost certain?" my eyes widened. "What if I die? What are your procedures then?"
"Well," he hesitated, "there's no evidence that will happen."
"You really haven't thought this through, have you?"
His greying brows pressed together. "I've thought about it. You've got nothing to worry about."
I raised a brow, still not convinced by his words.
"You've been assigned top priority. We wouldn't let anything happen to you unless we were sure about the result."
"I'm just not sure this is the way to go about it."
His tone changed. "Why did you come here, Ben?" he asked. "Just to give us that hard drive? Because I can't believe that for a second."
I scowled, caught off guard by the change. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that you came here for one reason, you chose to stay for another. Now, I don't know what that reason is, but how bad are you willing to fight for it? What are you willing to give up?"
I sighed. His stare bore down and he knew he'd hit something in me. "Fine," I said.
A needle was going into my arm regardless and I didn't want to waste my energy trying to argue with someone who wouldn't listen.
There was an instant sensation as the needle pierced my skin. Except the pain wasn't sharp like I was expecting, like catching myself on a knife. It burned around my body better than boiling water, searing each nerve.
"Jesus fuck," I gasped, gripping the arms of the chair and squeezing my eyes closed.
Julia took a step back and dropped the used needle onto the tray beside her.
"What's happening?" Mike asked with wide eyes.
I pressed my body back further into the chair, trying to control the pain.
"How many years did you study for just to ask that? Please tell me you did not just ask me that question, Mike." I squeezed my eyes shut again, hoping to regain some sense of control. "What the fuck do you think is happening?"
The pain was overwhelming and I felt my mouth becoming numb with each second that passed. Consciousness was slipping from my grasp and it was like I was losing myself, fading away slowly.
"Pulse is 140 and rising," Julia said. My ears were fogged but I knew it was her. "Ben, how are you doing?"
"He's fine," Mike answered for me.
I groaned as my blood continued to burn and my muscles grew weak.
"He's burning up, Mike. Temperature's rising... Pulse is 160."
"Just wait," he said. "He'll pull through."
Julia lifted my shirt and began to attach leads to my chest. "You better be right because we don't get another chance at this."
I closed my eyes for a moment to bring some relief from the pain and Julia's voice came muffled in my ears.
"Ben, stay with me. Don't give up."
"I feel cold," I said.
"Leave him."
"Mike."
Her touch disappeared from my skin and they both stood blurred in front of me.
"This isn't turning out like you planned, Mike. You need to call it."
"His body can fight it. I know it can."
"Maybe, but you don't know the effects this is going to have on him."
The machines in the room began to beep erratic noises and both heads turned to me. I could feel myself slipping, almost drifting away.
"Pulse 150. Temperature 40 degrees," Julia stated.
After a while, my body became numb. There was a heat beneath my skin but I could no longer feel its burning strength.