Challenge #02576-G019: The Test

The researcher's eyes widened suddenly, as the battered body on the table began to slowly smile, fingers flexing and eyes turning towards the now-trembling man as the realization struck him like a punch to the gut...
"Oh... Oh no... Oh God no... You... you've been letting us do this to you. The experiments, the punishments, all of it. You wanted us to... to test you. Because if we know the extent of what you can do... ...so do you." -- Anon Guest

Not-fun Science Fact: Humans make terrible experimental subjects. -- excerpt from the surviving notes of Taanus Klav.

Humans go missing all the time. Some of them, interestingly, want to go missing. Most of them don't. Of the Humans who go missing, their last known location frequently correlates to the location of cave systems. Of the remainder? There's a high likelihood that they were Taken by Xenoscientists. Their experiments generally centre around how much these new species can tolerate and how useful they might be as a workforce in covert facilities.

Klav had most of her subjects running a gauntlet. She thought she had a perfect subject for subjugation. Scans showed plenty of survived injuries and a previous environment of deprivation. She thought this one would be easy to keep docile with simple measures.

The first danger sign was the singing. No matter what gauntlet Klav put this Human in, they kept singing with whatever breath they had left. The audio feed from the tests was full of it. _"I will survive! I will survive! As long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive! I got all my life to live, I got all my love to give, I will survive! HEY HEY!..."

They should have been broken. They should have been docile. Yet under the submissive appearance, there was a boiling rage. There was a murderous aura that wouldn't be tamed.

Finally, terminally curious, Klav took the Human, suitably restrained, to the interview room. There, a translator app converted each other's words into something the other could understand.

The Human seethed in their bonds, and having glanced around the otherwise bare room, kept their burning gaze solidly on Klav as they flexed in their bonds.

"So what is this?" said the Human. "Q and A? An IQ test? Well done, you're ready for the real test? You're my good boy now? I've heard it all. Get it over with."

Klav took some notes. "I wish to know things," she said. "Is there purpose to the song?"

The Human laughed. "Oh man. Let me tell you about the old lady. She knew when she picked me, that I'd be vulnerable. Foster kids are always after the slightest scrap of love. It took me years to stop making excuses. It took me longer to get away. She thought I'd break. She thought I'd be helpless without her. I lived. I made it. I survived without her. You're just another power-hungry asshole out to break me. Newsflash... I. Don't. Break. Not any more."

The flexing, Klav learned a mere half an hour before she died, was to find the weak points in the bonds and use them. All this time, the Human had been merely waiting for a chance to be in the same room as their tormentor. Waiting for a moment when their tormentor was secure in the assumption that they were perfectly.

Klav would never get to say how she knew it, but the surviving recordings show her blurting, "Oh... Oh no. Oh sweet klaazt no... You... You've been letting us do this to you. The experiments, the punishments, all of it. You've been letting us test you... so you would also learn what you are capable of."

The Human escaped their bonds and wrapped their hands around Klav's throat. "Nailed it in one. Wanna know what I learned?"

"...please," Klav croaked.

"I'm stronger than I believed." The Human let her go. "Run. Warn your little friends. I'm going to fucking kill you all."

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / VAC]

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