Story:
The biggest worry of a soldier on the battle field is of course the enemy. But when a soldier has been fighting for several days without any time to rest, then his biggest enemy is not a guy with a loaded rifle pointed to his head. But, it is his own body. Sleep, fatigue and pain may not kill you, but it will dull your senses and make you a easy target and a worthless soldier.
The military once tried to address this problem by commissioning a group of scientist to conduct an illegal experiment to develop a stimulant that could make such problems irreverent. These researchers kept 5 people alive for 15 days using an experimental gas based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so that the gas didn’t kill them, since the gas was toxic in high concentrations. This was before closed circuit cameras so they had only microphones and 5 inch thick glass porthole sized window into the chamber to monitor them. The chamber contained books, cots to sleep on but no bedding, running water and a toilet, and enough dried food to last them for over a month.
The test subjects were Pakistani prisoners. Each of them had spent at least 5 years in the Indian jails. And, in all this time no one had come to claim them. So it was safe to say that no one would miss them if anything went wrong in the experiment.
Everything was fine for the first 5 days, the subjects hardly complained having been promised (falsely) that they would be freed if they submitted to the test and did not sleep for 30 days. Their conversations and activities were monitored and it was noted that they continued to talk about increasingly traumatic incidents of the past, and the general tone of their conversations took on a darker aspect after the 4 day mark.
After 5 days they started to complain about the circumstances and events that led them to where they were and started to demonstrate severe paranoia. They stopped talking to each other and began alternately whispering to the microphones and one way mirrored port holes. Oddly they all seemed to think that they could win the trust of the experimenters by turning over their comrades, the other subjects in the captivity with them. At first the researchers suspected that this was an effect of the gas itself…
After 9 days the first of them started screaming. He ran the length of the chamber repeatedly screaming at the top of his lungs for 3 hours straight, he continued attempting to scream but was only able to produce occasional squeaks. The researchers postulated that he had physically torn his vocal cords. The most surprising thing about this behavior is how the other captives reacted to it… or rather didn’t react to it. They continued whispering to the microphones until the second of the captives started to scream. The 2 non screaming captives took the books apart, smeared page after page with their own feces and pasted them calmly over the portholes. The screaming promptly stopped.
So did the whispering into the microphones.
After 3 more days passed, the researchers checked the microphones hourly to make sure they were working. Since they thought that it was impossible that no sound could be coming with 5 people inside. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all 5 must still be alive. In fact it was the amount of oxygen 5 people would consume at a very heavy level of exercise. On the morning of the 14th the researchers did something they said they would not do to get a reaction from the captives, they used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping to provoke any response from the captives they were afraid were either dead of unconscious.
They announced: “We are opening the chamber to test the microphones. Step away from the door and lie flat on the floor or you will be shot. Compliance will earn one of you your immediate freedom.
To their surprise, they heard a single line in a calm voice response: “We no longer want to be freed.”
Debate broke out among the researchers and the military forces funding the research. Unable to provoke any response using the intercom, it was finally decided to open the chamber at midnight on the 15th day.
The chamber was flushed of the stimulant gas and filled with fresh air and immediately voices from the microphone began to object. 3 different voices began begging, as if pleading for the life of loved ones to turn the gas back on. The chamber was opened and soldiers sent in to retrieve the test subjects. They began to scream louder than ever, and so did the soldiers when they saw what was inside. 4 of the 5 subjects’ were still alive, although no one could rightly call the state that they were in as ‘life’.
The food rations past day 5 had not been so much as touched. There were chunks of meat from the dead test subject’s thighs and chest stuffed into the drain at the centre of the chamber, blocking the drain and allowing 4 inches of water to accumulate on the floor. Precisely how much of the water on the floor was actually blood was never determined. All 4 ‘surviving’ test subjects had large portions of muscles and skin thrown away from their bodies. The destruction of flesh and the exposed bone on their finger tips indicate that the wounds were inflected by hand, not with teeth as the researchers initially thought. Closer examination of the positions’ and the angles of the wounds indicated that most if not all of them were self-inflicted.
The abdominal organs below the rib cage of all test subjects had been removed. While the heart, lung and diaphragm remained in place, the skin and most of the muscles attached to the ribs had been ripped off exposing the lungs through the rib cage. All blood vessels and organs remained intact, they had just been taken out and laid on the floor, fanning out around the still living bodies of the subjects. The digestive systems of all four could be seen to be working digesting food. It quickly became apparent what they were digesting was their own flesh that they had ripped off and eaten over the course of days.
Most of the soldiers were Indian special operatives at the facility, but still many refused to return to the chamber to remove the test subjects. They continued to scream to be left in the chamber and alternatively begged and demanded that the gas be turned back on least they fall asleep…
To everyone’s surprise the test subjects put up a fierce fight in the process of being removed from the chamber. One of the soldiers died from having his throat ripped out, another was gravely injured by having his testicles ripped off and an artery in his leg severed by one of the subject’s teeth. Another 5 of the soldiers lost their lives if you count ones that committed suicide in weeks following the incident.
In the struggle 1 of the 4 living subjects had his spleen ruptured and he bled out almost immediately. The medical researchers attempted to sedate him but this proved impossible. He was injected with more than 10 times the human dose of morphine and fought like a cornered animal, breaking the ribs and arm of one doctor. When a heart was seen to beat for a full 2 minutes after he had bled out to the point there was more air in his circulatory system than blood. Evan after it stopped he continued to scream and toss for another 3 minutes, struggling, attacking anyone in reach and just repeating the word “MORE” over and over, weaker and weaker, until he felt silent.
The surviving 3 test subjects were heavily restrained and moved to a medical facility, the 2 with intact vocal cords continuously begging for the gas demanding to be kept awake…
The most injured of the 3 was taken to the only surgical operating room that the facility had. In the process of preparing the subject to have his organs placed back within his body it was found that he was effectively immune to the sedative that was given to him to prepare him for the surgery. He fought furiously against his restraints when the anesthetic gas was brought out to put him under. He managed to tear most of the way through a 4 inch wide leather strap on 1 wrist, even through the weight of a 90Kg soldier holding that wrist as well. It took only a little more anesthetic than normal to put him under, and the instant that his eyes fluttered and closed, his heart stopped. On the autopsy of the test subject that died on the operating table it was found that he had triple the normal amount of oxygen. His muscles that were still attached to his skeleton were badly torn and he had broken 9 boned in his struggle to not be subdued. Most of them were from the force his own muscles exerted on them.
The 2nd survivor had been 1st of the group of 5 to start screaming. His vocal cords destroyed he was unable to beg or object to the surgery, and he only reacted by shaking his head violently in disapproval when the anesthetic gas was brought near him. He shook his head yes when someone suggested, reluctantly, that they try the surgery without the anesthetic, and did not react for the entire 6 hours procedure of replacing his abdominal organ and attempting to cover them with what remained of his skin. The surgeon presiding stated repeatedly that it should not be possible for the patient to still be alive. One terrified nurse assisting the surgery stated that she had seen the patients mouth curl into a smile several times during the surgery, whenever his eyes met hers.
When the surgery ended the subject looked at the surgeon and began to wheeze loudly, attempting to talk while struggling. Assuming that this must be something of drastic importance, the surgeon had a pen and pad fetched so that the patient could write his message. It was simple “Keep Cutting”.
The other 2 test subjects were given the same surgery, both without anesthetic as well. Although, they had to be injected with a drug to paralyze them during the operation. The surgeon found it impossible to operate while the patients laughed continuously. Once paralyzed the patients could only follow the attending researchers with their eyes. The drug cleared their system in an abnormally short period of time and they were soon trying to escape their bonds. The moment they could speak they were again asking for the stimulant gas. The researchers tried asking why they had injured themselves, why they had ripped out their own guts and why they wanted to be given the gas again.
Only one response was given: “I must remain awake.”
All 3 subjects restraints were reinforced and they were placed back into their chamber awaiting determination as to what should be done with them. The researchers facing the wrath of their military ‘benefactors’ for having failed the stated goals of their project, considered mercifully killing the surviving subjects. The commanding officer instead saw potential, and wanted to see what would happen if they were put back on gas. The researchers strongly objected, but were overruled.
In preparation of being sealed in the chamber again the subjects were connected to EEG monitors and had their restraints padded for long term confinement. To everyone’s surprise all 3 stopped struggling the moment it was let slip that they were going back on the gas. It was obvious that at this point that all 3 were putting up a great struggle to stay awake. 1 of the subjects that could speak was humming loudly and continuously; the mute subject was straining his legs against his bonds with all his might, first left, then right, then left again for something to focus on. The remaining subject was holding his head off his pillow and blinking rapidly. Having been the first to be wired for EEG most of the researchers were monitoring his brain waves with surprise. They were normal most of the time but sometimes all of a sudden it flatlined. It looked as if he was repeatedly suffering brain death, before returning to normal. As they focused on the paper scrolling out of the brainwave monitor only 1 nurse saw his eyes slip shut at the same time his head hit the pillow. His brainwaves immediately changed to that of deep sleep, then flatlined for the last time as his heart simultaneously stopped.
The only remaining subject that could sleep started screaming to be sealed in now. His brainwaves showed that same flatlines as the one who had just died form falling asleep. The commander gave the order to seal the chamber with both the subjects inside, as well as 3 researchers. Terrified, 1 of the named 3 immediately drew his gun and shot the commander point black between the eyes, then turned the gun on the mute subject and blew his brains out as well.
He pointed his gun at the remaining subject, still restrained to the bead as the remaining members of the medical and research team fled the room. “I won’t be locked in here with these things! Not with you!” he screamed at the man strapped to the table. “WHAT ARE YOU?” he demanded. “I must know!”
The subject smiled.
“Have you forgotten so easily?” the subject asked. “We are you.
“We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be free at any moment in your deepest animal mind.
“We are what you hide from in your beds every night. We are what you sedate into silence and paralyze when you go to the nocturnal heaven that we cannot tread.”
The researcher paused. Then aimed at the subject’s heart and fired.
The EEG flat lined as the subject weakly choked out “so… nearly… free…”
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