Chapter 22 – Zulu 4 [Part 1]

Entering the private dining area exclusively made for his unit, he moves to take a seat next to Zee, as always, but crosses his legs together to trip and tumble.

“Take it slow.” Zed, catching him before he crashes to the ground says “It’s only been a day since you’ve had it”

“Ye…Yeah” he stutters “Sorry, Sir.” He apologizes as he is helped to his seat.

“How are you feeling?” Zee asks chewing on bread.

Forcing each of his fingers to slowly bend and unbend “I feel…slow?” he questions “tired?”

Lethargic

Blinking at the appearance of the word he says it out loud “Lethargic”

“Don’t worry.” Zig says, pouring milk into her cereal bowl, “It’ll pass in time.”

“I also feel like,” moving to grab a glass but instead pushing it off the table “feel like I’m on fire.”

“That’s normal,” Zed says catching it, “you’ll get used to it,” pouring a glass of water, “We have higher body temperature than normal people.”

“Higher?” Scrunching his brows at his inability to move properly, “how…much higher?”

Blood Temperature 74 Degree Celsius

Smiling, “No doubt you know the answer,” handing the glass to him with a straw in it “You’ll get use to it.”

“How is this…possible?” he asks before sipping through the straw.

Not answering, Zed moves back to his seat, next Zig and opposite of him.

“There are trillions of Nano-bots in your blood system.” Zee answers, “Replacing most of your red and white blood,” pausing “Have you been eating?” she asks pulling his head back to see his face more clearly.

“I’m haven’t been hungry.” He replies shaking her hands of him “I just feel hot” drinking more water.

“You won’t ever feel hungry” she says pushing her plate of toast in front of him, “Nor will you ever feel full.” Getting off her seat to get more food “You should still eat though.”

Grabbing the toast, it crumbles in his hand “How long till I’m…normal again?”

Cutlery

Picking up the knife and fork Zee had placed on the table, he struggles to hold them correctly.

“It’s different for everyone,” Zig speaks up, watching him struggle, “took me four days,” crunching her cereal in her mouth, “It was three days for Zag, six for Zee and apparently a week for Zed.”

“Less…time for each new person?” he questions.

“No,” she replies, lifting up her bowl “That’s just a coincidence” drinking the rest of the milk.

Finally successfully cutting the toast, “…So there is no telling?” he ask eating with shaky hands.

Wiping her mouth, “Constant moving seems to decrease the time though.” She says getting up, bowl in hand.

“Which is why we aren’t really helping you,” Zee states placing a bowl of cereal next to his plate of toast, “Make sure you eat this as well.”

Slowly nodding, “What are you guys…Doing?” he asks as they gather their equipment.

“We’ve got an assignment.” Zed answers, “Zag there,” he nods in Zag’s direction, who was on another table, “Will help you through this stage whilst we’re gone”

Getting no response at the mention of her name, “Zag,” Zed repeats but still get no reaction, “Zag!” Zed says a bit louder, a bit more demanding, shaking her from her concentration.

“Whaaat?!” she asks turning around with a spoon in her mouth.

“We’re leaving,” Zed sighs, “Help out the new guy”

“Ah,” she turns around and grabs the two solid cubes she was focusing on, “Good luck” she says before turning back and taking a seat diagonally opposite of him.

“Don’t eat anything else after the bowl of cereal.” Zee says leaving with the other two, without waiting for a response.

Sitting with Zag on a table made for ten, neither of them interact with each other. He struggles with his breakfast, constantly dropping his cutlery and spilling his drink whilst Zag slowly eats her cereal and stares at the two cubes.

Eventually finishing his breakfast, he finds that his fingers react better, but it still requires quite a bit of concentration to move them. Looking towards Zag he sees that she is still staring at the two cubes, bowl of cereal still present and spoon just staying in her mouth

Experiment

Deciding to move closer to see what she is really doing, he stands to change seats, slipping instead, he knocks the table, falling upon his butter knife and puncturing his left lung.

Gasping for air he rolls on his back and finds Zag looking down on him from the table.

“What are you doing?” she asks, grabbing the butter knife, “You shouldn’t be moving without supervision.”

Feeling her mercilessly twist the knife, he coughs out blood and tries to stop her.

“I wasn’t this uncoordinated when I got mine.” She frowns pulling it out.

Concentrated Healing Commencing

“Don’t be so worried,” she smiles wiping the blood on her uniform, “You won’t die”

Coughing as he feels himself burn and fail to block the blood flow, he stands and falls over and over. Trying his best to move towards the drawers at the side of the room; to look for bandages.

“You’re a Zulu now,” Zag says, crossed legged on the table and watching him fall continuously, “Stop acting,” scratching her tilted head, “like a newborn baby.”

Finally reaching the drawers he opens them and looks through them hysterically. Though with his very unresponsive motor skills he ultimately fails to successfully find what he wants.

“Stop it” Zag says as she appears behind him with a chair, “You’re a Zulu now” she repeats pushing him down onto the chair with strength one would not think was possible for her size. “A single stab wound is nothing to us.”

Being retrained in the chair and not fully comprehending what she means, “What are you doing?!” he shouts in panic.

“I really liked the girl better.” She sighs, still restraining him with ease. “Stop struggling so much and just relax”

“You’re a horrid medic!” he spits blood as he continuous to struggle

Pursing her lips and staring directly at him for a moment, “Zee is the medic in our unit” she states before punching and knocking him out.

Waking up he immediately feels that his right arm is chained down.

Night Vision Activated

The sound of metal whining and drilling being done shrill out as he shakes his head; to get use to half his world being green and the other half being its usual colours.

“Zag!” he shouts finding that his lungs are healed and all traces of it happening were gone.

“Zag!” he shouts again, but fails to get her attention as the noise of metal work was too loud.

**** 4 Communication Established.

“You’re awake?” the sound of her voice feeds into his right ear.

Surprised that the voice was so very crisp and clear despite the fact that the noise of metal breaking was so loud, “Where am I” he takes a while to respond.

“You’ll learn that the headgear is a lot more than just an information gathering device.” The sound comes over with some hysterical laughter, “I’ve chained you down to the wall. There are five vials near you, labelled Vit-3100, Cal-8050, Pro-2634, Min 9706 and Car-7420.”

It cuts out as the sound of hot liquid steel is heard being poured and spilled.

“Sorry,” it comes back, “There are five vials, Vit-3100, Cal-8050, Pro-2634, Min 9706 and Car-7420. Inject yourself with them and get free of the wall.”

“What?!” he instantly responds without thinking, “What’s going on? Is this another test?”

Waiting a moment and not getting a response, “Hello?” he says, sounding worried.

“Sorry” she responds again, “During this period, I am to,” the sound of sawing runs into his ear, making him cringe, “I am meant to teach you like Zig taught me,” Sound of her throwing something away runs through, “But how Zig taught me was slow and boring.”

“The way I’m going to be teaching you is going to be fun and exciting.” A moment of silence followed by a short cackle ensue

Looking at his hand chained to the wall, “How,” he pulls against it with all his uncoordinated strength, “is this,” stopping to catch his breath, then trying again, “Teaching me?!”

“You’re a Zulu now,” she responds sounding amused, “you need to realise that your old limits are no longer your current limits.”

Still straining against the chain, “You…Are not…Teaching me.”

“You haven’t taken the vials I told you to.”

Stopping “You’re watching me,” he states, searching the room, “Aren’t you?”

“Of course,” she replies as a box shaped toy like car moves further out of his reach, “You still haven’t taken the vials.”

Looking near him, he finds five vials labelled as stated. “What are these?” lifting up the Car-7420

“Your body is in need of Vitamins, Calcium, Protein, Minerals and Carbohydrates.” Hearing more tearing of metal, he flinches, “We gave you a Mix -7954 yesterday, but for you to tear yourself away” she grunts at something, “you need those vials in you.”

Still just looking at the vials, “I still don’t understand how I’ll get free” he responds.

“Take the vials!” she shrieks, as he hears the sound of something dropping.

Leaning against the wall, he injects himself with almost stable hands with each of the five vials, flinching each time he stabs a different point on his thigh.

“How does this help me?” he questions letting the last vial roll away from him

Watching the small box shape toy like care roll further away, he gets no reply.

Turning his attention back to the chain that ties him down, he pulls and strains with his slightly more responsive muscles against it. “This,” he says after a time, “is,” working up a sweat from the exertion, “Not” getting tired but still trying, “Working.” He groans collapsing to the ground.

“Keep it up,” Zag’s voice sounding entertained feeds into his ear, “remember how you felt when you first woke up.”

“How I felt?” breathing heavily, “I was barely awake, barely aware at the time.”

“You remember,” Her voice states, sounding dark, “all of us remember.”

Slumping against the wall, “I do.” He replies closing his eyes and doing his best to emulate how he had felt.

Concentrating on himself, he forces himself to feel each heartbeat, to feel each lung shrink and expand. Seconds pass then minutes and an hour, “This isn’t working.” He sweets heavily, “I can’t do it.” He sighs opening his maroon coloured eyes.

“It is,” he gets calm response from Zag, “You’re halfway there.”

Feeling irritation at her comment, “It’s not!” he pulls his arm, snapping the chains and sending some of it flying at him.

“New limits,” Zags voice repeats, “Pull out the pieces stuck in your arm and come find me when you’re done. You’re in my workshop.”

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A/N

I had planned to write this flash back since chapter 9.

Thought'll it'll be less words, but whilst writing it i realized its longer than i had thought it'll be.

Hence its now in parts, for the next 1 to maybe 2 or 3 chapters it'll be a flashback.

@ItsMeParker. Space in the numbers was just a formatting issue i had on my p.c ~

@J0nn0. Thanks again for the drawings ~

Hope you guys liked the chapter. And As Always, Thanks for reading :P