"So you can't... fix this on Lyle?" Said Arthur as he paced the room. He held Lyle's finger which was inside a small flask. Marco was restrained on the table, he tried to shake his head, instead just replying with a stern "No." He had told Arthur the whole true story, from beginning to end with as much detail as possible.
Tyson was generally not the talkative type. While he wasn't reserved, he never shared much about his own life. In the nearly year that Marco knew him, the most he ever heard him say was how much he enjoyed drinking, it was in fact, one of his biggest challenges when enlisting up for the O.S.D.
While technically he wasn't allowed to drink, his mother drank her late during pregnancy, shockingly he didn't come out with any physical symptoms aside from a constant thirst for a good pint. This is all stuff he said in confidence to Marco as his captain, while the research and recruiting department were in charge of being thorough, every person had a thing or two they had to hide. It was only after months of slugging through heavy withdrawals that he was diagnosed severe lung cancer.
Marco couldn't think of any ulterior motives at the moment, Tyson never said anything that led him to believe he had any special role in anything here. As he recounted what happened in the canopy of the fissure, he thought to himself, was what Tyson became even a purposeful action? Arthur stood by the window and motioned with his hand. Marco's restraints became undone, he tried to stand up quickly but was unable to because of an unbearable pain on his stomach.
He looked down at himself, from his elbow, his right forearm was missing entirely including his arbiter. There was a white wrap around the nub. He was naked, looking down at himself he could see his entire abdomen had been wrapped in the same white composite. "Can you walk?" asked Arthur, Marco stood on both of his feet, the lack of weight on himself nearly made him fall over to his left. Arthur opened the singular door and began to walk out, "Follow me."
Marco looked down at his left bare left hand, the purple blade and that surging pain was gone. He almost walked out the door before asking, "I'm just gonna walk out there naked?" Arthur peeked through the half open door with a stern look, he reached to his left and picked up a plastic bag with a hospital gown on it.
They were in an unfamiliar part of the academic wing, at least that's what it seemed to him. The hallways were dark gray and extremely well lit, dotted with unmarked doors left and right. This one hallway extended far far beyond the size of any of the buildings. They both walked slowly, Marco kept his amputated arm in front of him as he limped with every step. "Perhaps you want a wheelchair?" Arthur asked coldly without turning to him, Marco shook his head.
They walked for a few minutes in a straight line, even then, the hallway didn't seem to end. As they both entered, Bodhi was in a similar getup to Marco, he drank from a cup while he faced towards a window. As the door opened, he turned his head and raised his cup before taking a sip. "You've seen better days Marco." Bodhi looked ruffled, his graying hair which he usually kept shaved with a razor now highlighting the baldness on top of his head. Marco felt his chin with his left hand, feeling a slight coarseness.
"How long have I been out?" He asked, Arthur replied in few words. "Two days, today was the last of your testing, right after you woke up." He flicked his wrist and looked down, a small huff escaped his lips as he reached for a nearby small table .
The room was not lit, there were a few computer screens before the window with what looked like vitals, he looked up to see three tall tanks with what looked like bodies inside of them. All well lit from top to bottom, they all had headgear that wrapped around their head. Arthur came back with two cups of coffee in hand, handing one to Marco. They all looked at the individuals through the window.
"Is that-" Marco began as Arthur finished his sentence, "the three trainees? Yes." They all drank as they stared. "I thought they were dead" said Marco with a not so heavy mind, Arthur sipped from his coffee. "So did we, but they're alive somehow-" he coughed as he cleared his throat and approached the window, "but they have a lot of brain activity, so something's keeping them alive."
Marco looked around the room, no visible cameras or anything of the sort. Arthur put the cup down and turned to the two of them, "you are not being recorded, you are not being watched, in fact, there are not more than ten people who know about this let alone see work here." He leaned back against the table, and signaled towards the three men with his head. "Watch this." Two men entered the door, fully suited up like the ones who were running tests on Marco. They typed away at the computer, a black mist began to spew from under the three men in the containers, slowly enveloping their bodies before fully disappearing in the darkness. The computers flashed with all kinds of warnings, high heartrate, low blood pressure, extreme endocrine activity.
Arthur signaled the two out, leaving Bodhi and Marco with him. He covered his mouth pensively as he stared at the three. "Those two are some of the smartest scientists in all of Europe, yet they can't figure what to make of it." Marco spoke, "is that the same mist used in the VGRs?" Arthur nodded without speaking. They all stepped forward to look through the glass.
"What are the chances we can bring them back?" As he asked, Marco and Bodhi turned their heads at each other slowly. The two of them shrugged, "I'm not sure, I'm not an expert in these topics" Bodhi responded sarcastically.
"What would it even entail?" Marco asked, Arthur looked up. "I'm not sure, but I can tell you one thing.-" He adjusted his coat. "-while you were out, you were not too dissimilar to the three in there." Pointing with his mouth in their general direction while he fixed his bottom button. He stepped in the direction of the door, grabbing Marco by the shoulder, "I'll have an implant for that arm of yours by the end of tonight, as for me, I have a lot of meetings to attend. He'll keep an eye of you." He stepped outside, his shoes resonating the hallway as he left.
In stepped Lyle, his regular tracksuit replaced by shorts and a t shirt, deeply contrasting Arthur's professional look. "Yo" he gave them the least convincing fake smile they had ever seen which quickly turned to a deadpan expression, he sat on one of the chairs that was by the desk, spinning it around. "Your life for the coming weeks will be down here, anywhere you go, anything you wish to do, you ask me and It's my discretion to take you there."
He leaned forward in his chair and spoke sternly. "To the outside world, you're both either missing or at most dead. You act out, and I make that a reality, capiche?" He made an okay sign with his hand. The two of them nodded, "yes sir."
"Let you in on a little secret? We are not on earth." He stood up from his chair and leaned by the door. "That's all Arthur said I could tell you, that way you don't get any funny ideas."