37 - THE CHERISHED MEMORY 17
"Hey! Hey! HEY!!" IQ120 shouted.
"What is your problem? If you want to implicate yourself, do it alone." I swear, I didn't want to respond to the bastard, but he isn't giving up. Somehow, his voice reaches me even when I am at the deepest end of my cell, blocking my ears with my hands! It's as if his voice has some kind of power, compelling me to listen. A very annoying power, for sure. And even now that I reply, it's only a whisper filled with annoyance and irritation.
"Okay, you're awake," IQ120 said. So, that's what the constant disturbance was for. He couldn't tell if I was awake or not, and he could hear me from here. Well, I'm not that far away.
"I simply wanted to advise you about the starter," IQ120 continued.
"What do you want? To rub it in my face?" I replied.
"No, you fool. We are special subjects, and we have certain privileges. One of them is not being a starter experimental subject partner. I wasn't sure before who a starter is, but-"
"Then why have I been chosen as one?" I interrupted him. I wanted to disregard what he said, but I remembered that he was still my senior. Being both a captive and a special subject, I didn't want to admit it, but he is also smart, but-
"Don't interrupt me, fool," IQ120 exclaimed, irritated.
"Why are you even helping me? We are not even of the same race," I interrupted him again, needing to understand his motives. "It's widely accepted that members of the same race can help each other, but different races? That's a different story, especially considering that I am in a lower category than him. In this world, I belong to the weakest category of race. The strong either ignore the weaker ones, destroy them, or exploit them in some way. This even happens within the same race. So, why would someone from a different race and a stronger category help someone like me?"
"It just doesn't make sense," I muttered, this time speaking aloud instead of whispering, even though I remained in the deepest part of my cell.
"You're not going to answer," I continued, my voice filled with frustration. Despite not moving from where I stood, I wanted a response.
"You just arrived, didn't you? If you can't even ask me that question, it means you haven't been here for long as a captive," IQ120 stated. There was a brief pause, as if waiting for my reply.
"Well, even if you don't confirm my suspicion, I still believe I am right. I have observed it from the way you act in front of the captors. The fact that you didn't know he was your observer, something that is told to you after your third experimentation, says a lot. You are an extremely lucky and fortunate person, unlike me, unlike us."He paused again, but this time it wasn't for a reply. It seemed like a way to comfort himself.
"You are not the first person to live in that cell. There have been seven others that I know of, probably even more before I became a special subject. The thing is, being a special subject isn't always good. We tend to die faster than normal subjects. As specials, we are put through stupid tests, like yours, and some are even worse, determined by which kind of captor you are blessed with as your observer."
"The first of the seven, we were friends as normal subjects, and luckily we both became special subjects at almost the same time… This, this has been my cell for a very long time," he said with a bit of nostalgia.
"He was someone I cared about; we were members of the same race, but he couldn't survive more than two experiments." I felt his voice turn very cold and sad.