Suffering for the cause

When I had a future to look forward to, I wasn’t worried about what was going to happen tomorrow, but when I got to know that my end was near, every day felt like a blessing. I wonder, how all those before me felt when they discovered that they were given false hope? Wonder how Xiba feels about it…

This morning we woke up a little lightheaded, not sharing what you are suppressing within can often suffocate you and make you feel miserable. I am grateful that everything worked out well and that people who are close to me understand me. It was time we made everything fair the way it should be. We planned to not infiltrate but instead, wait for our target to be alone so we can prey on him without any interference.

We dropped Mika at her house safely and told her, not to leave the place no matter what. Xiba and I were the only ones executing this plan. We tracked information about Shin, when he comes to the headquarters and when he leaves. We had everything we needed to know to make this plan but before we could make our move, we suspected that the sample which was injected into me could also contain the nanobots like they were in the case of Xiba.

We were out in the northern part of Jahan; we travelled here just so we can meet someone who could help us remove these bots from my body. To Xiba’s surprise, it was someone she already knew of, maybe her acquaintance or something. We were sitting in an outdoor café in a small town, we decided to meet here so that Shin or The Hope won’t be able to find us easily. We were carrying mobile jammers with us and installed custom firmware to our watches for disabling the firewall that was blocking us to access the full capabilities of the watch. Now we were able to get notified as soon as someone from the hope access code tried coming near a 10 km2 radius from the centre of our location, which assured us that we were safe from The Hope.

A man wearing a black jacket and a blue jogger with a girl accompanying him joined us at the table. The girl with black hair and blue eyes was happy that we let her join her on this project. The guy introduced himself properly.

“Hey, I was the one you contacted 3 days ago. My name is Arren Baker and joining with me is-”

“Soya Harisha.” Xiba interrupted. How much does she know about random people?

“Oh, you both have some kind of history, I assume?” Arren asked in his calm relaxed tone.

It looked like Xiba was just barely bearing to work with her. “Yeah, we go a long way back. Story for another time, I guess. In short, we know each other and can bear working together.” Xiba said while keeping a straight face.

“Yeah, same.” Soya agreed.

Arren was a tech freak; he had already cracked many government security codes in competitions and even managed to remove tumours using nanobots. All that at the age of 23, it was a big achievement. Given that he never had any higher formal education in specialized sectors. Xiba was able to find him going through some records from The Hope, he was already being listed as a potential hire for the company. He was smart and knew what he was doing.

Soya was working with him for a long time too. Xiba wasn’t aware of it when she picked him.

We then proceeded with introducing ourselves again and told them what happened and what is going on within The Hope’s premises. Arren was shocked to find out that a company which has its hands deep in Jahan’s infrastructure was corrupt at its core.

“Aha, I will help you a hundred per cent. I am not so happy with what’s going on as well. If I can help the cause? The sheer motivation is enough to drive me crazy to work for it.” He cheerfully accepted our request.

“Soya was surprised to know that Xiba left The Hope. “Oh, so it’s the case, I see… I hope you won’t regret your decision.” Soya implied.

“I would’ve regretted it if I didn't,” Xiba replied.

“So, what do we have to do to help you?” Arren asked excitedly.

We explained everything to Arren, and even though he was a bit overwhelmed, he still took the job. Soya wanted to support us because we were trying to do something against The Hope. Everything was set up and we even hacked their watches as well as a safety measure. Arren told us that he needed at least a week to study me and the formula which was injected into me. I agreed and gave him a sample of my blood as well. We took off and agreed to meet each other three days after that.

After three days we met again, but this time at a different spot. We suspected Shin might’ve been searching for us. So, meeting at different spots was a good idea to prevent extra exposure at the same place. Arren was meeting us alone this time. We met at a busy restaurant the surroundings were noisy and the atmosphere was dull, pretty uncommon for a famous restaurant nowadays. This restaurant was famous for its noodles, we sat there and ordered some noodles as well. As we were eating our food, Arren told us about his discoveries.

“Your body is interesting, to say the least. Your body someone manages to regenerate cells and tissues much faster than a normal human, even after being damaged by a lot.” Arren took a sip of soda and continued. “Normal being would take almost 10 years to regenerate a bone but your body takes just a few hours. Some cells were expanding even faster than others, I am really amazed how someone could create this type of thing. Who created thins?” Arren asked.

“Shin, he created it,” I replied. Xiba was looking a bit gloomy. “Is something bothering you,” I asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” She responded.

There was still some mystery left that I didn’t know about Xiba even after all we have been through.

“He must be a genius to come up with this, but it seems it doesn’t work with everyone. You are a kinda unique case.”

“Yeah, I know that, I wish I wasn’t unique.” I sighed and took a sip of water.

“By the way, why did you let them do this experiment on you if you never wanted this to happen?” Arren questioned.

“Well, I was forced to and they threatened me as well. I was going to die anyway”

“Wait, you were going to die?” Arren squeezed his eyebrows and started checking some test reports on his watch.

“But you are healthy, why would you die?” Arren was pretty confident when he said that.

“Are you trying to suggest that I was healthy even before this experiment?” I was curious to know that.

“Yeah, you are pretty much stable in that regard and you don’t seem to have traces of any kind of known disease. By the way which hospital were you diagnosed in?” As soon as Arren asked me that question, everything started making sense.

“It was a hospital managed by The Hope, I got my yearly health checkup done there. But they informed me about this after a few days of the visit.” Now I knew that I never had any kind of problem in the first place. But why did they lie to me about this? I am not the only one visiting that hospital.

“You mentioned how they tested on other people as well by giving them false hope. What I believe is happening there is that they are experimenting on normal healthy humans. The hospital informed them about an incurable disease, and they believed it. Later they were given a choice to die like normal or get treated unconventionally, they took advantage of their fear and vulnerability so that they won’t get noticed by different authorities.” Arren gave a disappointed look, as he seemed unhappy at what The Hope was doing which many people around Jahan trusted with their lives.

“Did you know about this Xiba?” I questioned.

“N-no, I never knew anything about it. I was just trying to help as much as I could with experiments on those people, I thought I was helping somehow, turns out we were just treating them as lab rats.”

Xiba wasn’t happy about it either. Even though it all made us feel bad about various things but it also gave us more reasons why we needed to take Shin down.

“By the way, I got a way to take your nanobots out or just kill them, I mean.” Arren was certain that this could work but he was also aware that it could go south anytime if not careful.

“Let’s do this then,” I said.

We were at his house now, it was a pretty nice place, it was on the 1st floor of a convenience store. We entered using the stairs and entered his place, it had a small gallery where small prints of some pictures were hanging. We walked through it and reached his living room; it was clean and arranged in a very orderly manner. Why can’t I be like this? I thought.

Arren told us to wait in the living room. Xiba and I were waiting in the living room for approx 5 mins.

“He is taking his sweet time, hun?” Xiba said.

“Maybe he is preparing the thing.” I guessed.

He returned with an injector; it was a big injection gun with a long needle. “Looks like it’s going to be painful,” I uttered.

“Oh yeah, of course. It’s going to hurt really good. So, are you ready?” Arren asked.

“Got no other choice, let's do this. By the way, what was the risk factor that you were talking about earlier?” I was curious to know what could go wrong.

“That, don’t worry about it. It is not a hundred per cent probability, you’ll be fine…” Arren was quite confident, so I trusted him.

“So, now I will inject this into your heart.” Xiba interfered.

“Wait a sec, will he not die if you injected it directly into his heart? Doesn’t seem like a safe idea.” Xiba asked.

“Why do you think I picked a long needle? It has to go directly to the heart where the blood comes in and goes through. It will transfer my nanobots faster and evenly to his entire body. Plus, if the bots inside Edra are as advanced as I speculate, they will try to fight. Most bots might be around his heart, and I don’t want them to give him a heart attack.” Arren calmly cleared our confusion and I was absolutely ready this time to take the shot.

I had laid on the carpet of the floor to take a direct stab at my heart. I took three slow and long breaths.

“Do it,” I said.

“Here I come! Don’t die” Arren whispered.

“Wha-” He then stabbed the tip on my chest it was as painful as I expected it to be. I gasped and tried breathing slowly. My eyes were teary and I was clenching my teeth.

He advanced by pushing the trigger which injected all the bots into my heart. I could all of it rushing inside of me, Arren said these bots upon entering will seal the hole caused by the needle. It was painful but this was the best we could do to overcome our problem.

He removed the syringe and now my body started reacting, my body was quivering and my heart rate was going up.

“Edra are you alright?” Xiba was trying to ask me something but I was unable to answer her. I couldn’t speak.

“Hey, Edra. Edra. Arren was holding me down as I was shaking quite abruptly. I could see everything, but I wasn’t able to hear clearly.

“Hey, Arren! Is he going to be, okay?

“Don’t worry Xiba, it will end anytime now.”

“I hope it will be worth suffering for this, our great plan.” I thought.

“It’s been three minutes since, why hasn’t his nerves stabilised yet?” Xiba asked.

Arren remained silent, he was still holding Edra, hoping he will come to his senses anytime soon. The clock was ticking, but Edra was still in an awful state. Then he stopped shaking but his eyes were shut. ‘Was this worth trying,’ is all Arren could think.

Xiba was praying in hopes for it to work. Watching Edra blackout was nerve-wracking for her, he was his only hope and she had nothing but Edra left in his life. Edra’s life was influencing more than just his own.