The Disparate One

“Ray?” Oxford looked at the teen for assurance.

The subject gazed at the three-letter word, asking himself if this would be it. Would this be the name for the rest of his life? Or would it only be temporary? He asked Oxford.

“Depends. If we found out who and what you are, then this will only be temporary. If we don’t, then you’ll be called ‘Ray’ for the rest of your life.”

A minute of silence passed between the two.

“Yes… ‘Ray’ it is.” announced the subject, closing the folder and sliding it back to its place.

Oxford nodded while he walked back to his desk to officially write his subject’s new name.

The document in the tablet was always updated in real-time so that Chap and the others could see or sense what they were doing. One of the management’s ways to increase productivity and efficiency.

Oxford remained standing when he wrote the last letter of ‘Ray’. After that, he gestured to Ray to follow him to another place before heading out. Ray trailed behind him, glancing in both directions at either end of the endless hall. They boarded the elevator again.

This made Ray wonder, how massive was this facility? And why underground?

Ray stared blankly during his thoughts while they rode the elevator up. He didn’t hear what Oxford said, so now he was basically in for a surprise to see where he would take him this time.

“I suppose you still have a lot of questions to ask?” Oxford spoke, slightly looking down at him, keeping his other hand in his side pocket.

“A-a lot…”

“Well, don’t be shy. Just ask. Though, expect me to not answer all of them.”

Ray felt heavier for a quick moment when the elevator gained speed as they continued to ride upward. The bearings from outside were somewhat audible now.

“What is this place?”, asked Ray, staring at their reflections in front of them. He caught a smile that grew on Oxford’s face all of the sudden.

Oxford didn’t answer immediately, he kept the smile on his face as if he was waiting for something.

A sudden burst of harsh light blinded Ray for seconds. He groaned and stepped back behind Oxford for cover, but the light was pouring from all sides of the elevator. It was as if they teleported on the surface of the sun.

Oxford remained standing still as his eyes quickly adapted to the bright lights. This was one of his favorite things to do in his job. Watching his subjects get blasted by light.

“Welcome to the SPOT Facility,” stated Oxford just in time when Ray’s irides gradually contracted.

Ray’s jaw dropped through the elevator’s floor and down the bottomless shaft as he gazed around with wide eyes.

Oxford transitioned to a tour guide as they rose above the endless sea of machines, conveyor belts, tubes, catwalks, floating platforms, and etcetera. He stated that no one in the facility knew the entire size of this structure due to the never-ending expansion that began long ago, even before his existence.

He later added that the facility where they were currently was the third sister, the youngest and smallest of the three. The other two were located in the Indian Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean; all of these were under the same Cal’s management.

He explained to Ray their purpose and reason for building such a place under the ocean, to prevent any discoveries conducted by the people on the surface. Oxford told Ray, which he learned from his predecessor, that the original plan was to build this one up in space, but the budget was nowhere near to start feasibility.

Oxford turned around and found Ray pressed on the wall, admiring the industrial scenery. This moment reminded him of the time when he was in Ray’s shoes and his predecessor was explaining everything.

“This is the largest section in the facility, the Manufacturing Section.”

Here, they could build everything as they wanted, the only limits were themselves and the machines. They had built all kinds of materials here, not limited to that but also weapons and other advanced technologies.

His smile vanished together with the light. The elevator’s walls were displaying their figures again. Ray retracted from them and stood next to Oxford without saying a word. He noticed the absence of a smile on the man’s face.

“How come I don’t remember a single thing about myself?” Ray broke the silence.

Oxford moved his head to stare at the reflection.

“Our first guess is that you experienced a concussion, which could also explain the headaches you had earlier.”

The elevator chime came when Oxford felt the tablet’s speakers pinged. The tablet only did it when the document had been updated.

Chap must’ve added something, Oxford thought, scrolling through the document barely filled up.

Oxford stayed in the elevator despite its doors opening. His eyes searched for the blue pin which indicated Chap’s addition. After re-scrolling many times, he caught the blue color atop the detail of age.

18? thought Oxford, gently cocking while his brows joined.

He wanted to ask him about it, coincidentally, they were already heading towards him. At last, stepping out of the elevator, he introduced Ray to another section of the facility: the Laboratory Section.

Unlike the Manufacturing, this section was mostly made out of glass walls, showcasing the experiments being conducted and other scientific stuff. It was one of the sanitized places in the facility, second to the Hospital and Infirmary. This was also one of the noiseless places, fifth to the P.G.P.

Ray stayed close as they strolled through the fragile corridors. He watched people in jackets, goggles, gloves, and some with PPE, holding vials that were either spewing out chemicals or mysterious structures forming out of it. Some were even moving!

Though, for some reason, he felt somewhat safer now that he found guards patrolling around. Their bodies were much taller than Oxford. More robust. Of course, they’re robots.

After some turns, Oxford entered a particular lab where a man wearing a lab gown greeted them nonchalantly. He was sitting on one of the stools next to a modular, electronic microscope. His eyes were locked onto the screen, watching each tiny object moving about.

“Ray, this is Chap,” said Oxford when he slid a stool for Ray to sit down. He found himself a seat as well.

“Hello,” the young man replied, finally retreating from the monitor.

Ray blinked at the accent he realized just now. He darted his eyes at both men before shaking hands with the guy named Chap.

Chap had a slim, yet tall build. He had blond hair and blue irides. Clean jawline and his teeth were perfectly aligned like any orthodontists’ dream.

“So… this is ‘Ray’, eh?” Chap straightened his posture, his eyes were now examining Ray’s features, especially the white irides.

“That’s him… alright…” Oxford furrowed when he watched his colleague approach Ray. He had never seen him do this before.

“Mind if I take a closer look at your irides?” Chap asked, grabbing a retinoscope nearby, it was already aimed at Ray’s eyes.

Ray stuttered, looking at Oxford as a child’s first visit to an ophthalmologist. Oxford gave no reaction, he stood nearby, hands both on the tablet.

“S-sure…” replied Ray. He stiffened when he felt Chap’s skinny fingers pried his left eye wide open. A light shone on his eye and immediately, Ray’s iris responded. Then, Chap moved to the other, ending his sudden examination.

“I am still astonished…” murmured Chap, retreating and leaving his stool that was flattening his butt.

Chap and Oxford moved away as they chatted, their voices were audible at first but gradually faded.

Ray was still blinking due to the sudden feeling of his retinas being burned. Once back to normal, he looked around his seat. Eyeing each transparent jar that some had living organisms, some were beating organs, and the others were unknown. One thing was sure, it made him uncomfortable.

What the hell is this place really? he thought.

On the other side of the lab, Chap moved to a cabinet where he grabbed a syringe and some tiny jars with flat lids and put them all on a metal tray that he placed on a trolley. He moved sidewards to another cabinet where he grabbed a tweezer and reusable scalpels.

Oxford on the other hand was watching him in silence. He never expected him and his test subject to reach this far. So far, from his memory, only eight test subjects had met Chap in person, Ray included.

Not just that but he never saw Chap this motivated.

“He doesn’t mind if I do some things with him, right?”

Oxford gulped and raised a brow at Chap who had his trolley packed with his toys. He did his best to not show a smile.

Hours passed, Oxford was sitting nearby, observing Ray’s reaction to Chap’s examination and extracting samples… by all means necessary. The empty jars and other containers were filled with Ray’s liquids and others like skin, hair, and etcetera.

Now, Chap was extracting blood samples from Ray who looked very traumatized from the session. Oxford honestly didn’t know if he should feel bad or chuckle. Though he had witnessed worse, and he experienced it as well during his early days; which was conducted by his predecessor’s colleague which Chap replaced.

Pulling the syringe out, Chap stared at the amount of blood he had all by himself. The smirk on his face said how interested he was in this new test subject. However, for Ray, it was almost the complete opposite.

Chap thanked the two before moving away with his trolley, setting the teen free from his grasp.

Ray shivered while taking a seat next to Oxford where he felt much safer from the hands of his colleague. He kept his arms around himself. He wanted to curl into a ball in a corner and stay there for weeks.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” said Oxford calmly, patting Ray’s back which made him flinch. Oxford held his chuckle.

Chap returned moments after to have a chat with Oxford. He thanked him for bringing Ray here, in fact, he was going to call him when they arrived unannounced. Chap assured that he would update him and the documents regarding things he would find from those samples.

Ending their visit with a secret handshake, Oxford guided Ray back to the elevator where they moved downwards, passing the Manufacturing Section. Ray was in the corner in utter silence. His fingers were somewhat shaking.

“Relax… he only does it when it’s necessary,” explained Oxford, glancing over at him.

“That’s not it, what he did, were those really necessary?” Ray showed a frightened look.

Oxford chuckled under his breath.

“We’ll be visiting a few more sections of the facility, this way you’ll get to know my colleagues. Believe me, Chap is the only one who does it,” said Oxford when the elevator chime came and the doors opened, introducing Ray to another foreign environment.

Stepping out of the lift, they stood in the middle of open space where at the front was a desk with guards stationed behind. On either side of the desk were halls that led to rooms that were tailored depending on the test subject. On the wall further behind the guards were giant letters painted across.

C-1, Ray read.

“But, for now… I know you’re tired…”, Oxford paused, “...or traumatized…”, he murmured, “So… I’ll be showing you the place where you’ll be staying for most of the time during your stay.”

Ray gulped when he followed Oxford, seeing the guards locking their eyes at him specifically. Some walks later, Oxford stood in front of a door which had a plate number welded on it.

0188.

Oxford brought out his keycard and tapped it on the scanner, unlocking the door with sounds of the locks moving from within. The door swung outward with deep hums and creaks. Ray was relieved to see what was inside.

Ray’s quarter had two rooms, one of which was his bedroom and the other was the bathroom. Greeting him on the door was the spacious living room with a hint of minimalism. A squared, black sofa, a brown coffee table as wide as the sofa, a single squared, black armchair on the opposite side, and an empty, light brown, wooden shelf.

Next to the living room was a fairly small dining area that had a table for four individuals.

In his bedroom was a minimalist, single bed resting in the corner, it was slightly larger than him. Next to it was a nightstand with a squared lamp. A single, white cabinet to store all his clothes. Moving on to the bathroom, it had everything Ray needed, a toilet, which was squared, a sink, which was squared, and a bathtub with a showerhead, which was also squared.

“The designer of this room must really like the shape of the square, huh?” Ray walked out of the bathroom, meeting his gaze at Oxford who was standing out in the hall.

Oxford snorted and showed a tiny smile.

“You wouldn’t believe how badly we want that designer out.”

A moment of awkward silence came.

“Well, this is where you’ll be staying for now. Heavy meals will be served three times a day and snacks will be served in-between. Don’t worry about the meals, the cook already knows what’s edible for you.”

“Oh…”

“Any more questions before I leave?”

“Y-you’re leaving?”

“I still have other work and meetings to attend to. You’ll be safe, as long as you don’t put your foot beyond this quarter,” Oxford pointed at the hallway side of the metal door frame where he was stepping.

“H-how long will you be gone?”

“About eight hours, enough for you to sleep off the time you had with Chap,” Oxford prevented a smile.

Ray only nodded before he watched Oxford step away from the door that slowly closed between them. Hearing the locks clicked, Oxford sighed with relief and finally let out a real chuckle while walking away. He couldn’t believe Chap had the guts to do those.

Ray on the other side was thinking of something to do to pass time. One thing already came to his mind which Oxford mentioned, sleep.

With all of the lights turned off, Ray slid himself under the soft sheets hugging a pillow, when he felt something rattle and hard on his right side. He searched his pockets and found the pills. He placed them on the nightstand before dozing off.

He sank deeper into the bed as he snored silently. This was drastically better compared to the bed where he woke up hours ago. It felt like he was sleeping on top of a thick, puffy cloud. He could feel the softness of it, it was unlike anything he had touched today.

It felt like he was flying above them, then out of nowhere, he heard a loud bang behind him, nearly deafening him. His ears rang as he watched himself pummeled through the skies and into a blue surface that looked like the ocean.

“Ahhh!” Ray jumped from his bed, gasping for air.

He was covered with bullets of sweat as if he had a fever. Shifting on his bed, he turned on the lamp on the nightstand while rubbing his eyes and sitting up. He looked around the exact space the last time he saw before closing his eyes.

It’s just a dream… said Ray to himself, sighing and resting his back on the wall.

Seconds later, his body drifted flat back on the bed when his eyelids returned to their droopy state. He was about to lose consciousness when he suddenly heard something that kicked his drowsiness away.

The sound came from the bedroom door, bouncing from the living room, piercing through the metal door to the outside.

It was the sound of screaming.

A girl was screaming for help.