Matt stopped pacing and turned to face the cot in the corner as his eyelids began to droop. He had been awake for a while, and he desperately wanted to sleep. He lay down on the cot and closed his eyes, feeling his rapid heart rate as he drifted into sleep.
Matt groaned as he awoke in the morning, remembering the strange feeling he had before falling asleep. Matt pulled himself off the cot and walked to the back wall, pressing his back against it as he sat down and let out a sigh. Matt felt even more strange now that he was awake. There were tingling sensations in his chest and stomach that caused him to shift uncomfortably in an attempt to adjust to the feeling.
Matt jerked to attention, jumping to his feet as the door quietly clicked open, revealing a large guard standing in the doorway. Matt backed against the wall as the guard stepped into the cell and walked forward with an emotionless face, grabbing him by the upper arm and pulling him out of the room. The guard quickly escorted him down the hall and shoved him through an open door.
Matt stumbled forward, teetering on the edge of falling over as a hand darted out and caught him.
"Careful, don't want to hurt yourself," came a familiar voice, and Matt quickly focused his eyes on it. Matt glanced up to see Jack smiling down at him as he helped him regain his composure, though something about Jack seemed different. Jack let go of his arm and took a step back.
"What did they do to you?" Matt asked as his other two friends came into view.
"Probably the same as you," John said, stepping forward and pulling Matt into a friendly hug, "After they separated us, they kept us all locked in individual cells, though the three of us were close enough that we could talk to each other through the doors."
"We thought you were dead," came Trevor's voice as he suddenly forced himself between Matt and John and giving Matt a bearish hug as tears streamed down his face.
"Really," Matt asked, looking dumbfounded.
"Yeah, they wouldn't answer any of our questions about you or if you were okay," Jack said, stepping forward to hug Matt, "honestly, though, they haven't told us anything at all about what's going to happen to us."
Matt pulled away from Trevor's hug and finally took the opportunity to look at his friends and their surroundings. However, the thing that caught his attention was his friends. They were in a large room that almost reminded Matt of an interrogation room with a large one-way mirror set into the far wall. Unfortunately, the only entrance was the one that Matt had been thrust through, and it was now closed. He couldn't quite place what it was, but they all looked a little bit different.
"You're..."
Matt began to say but hesitated as his mind began to churn. They couldn't have gotten shorter, could they? Indeed it wasn't possible. Not only that, but Matt was sure that John's blond beard was looking a little more sparse while the other two almost seemed slightly younger.
"What?" Jack asked, Matt's sudden hesitation catching his attention.
"Um... nothing."
Jack smiled, "Yeah, we noticed it too. But, you do not imagine it; we've gotten younger. But, of course, so have you."
Instantly, Matt rushed towards the mirror and peered intently at himself. It was the same face that greeted him every time he looked in the mirror, though there was no denying that it was younger than he remembered. Matt looked at his body and noticed his clothes were feeling a little looser than the day before. Matt spun around to face his friends.
"What's happening to us?"
"I don't know, but it probably has something to do with the serum they injected us with a few days ago," Jack said with a sad smile, "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's going to be trouble if we can't find some way to stop it."
"I'm sorry, but that won't be possible."
The four friends whipped around to face the tall man striding into the room. The man in the white lab coat had an old face and a sinister expression. He stopped at the door of the room and ran his eyes across his captive's faces, analyzing them with a mixture of disdain and contempt before bowing slightly to acknowledge their presence.
"Well, aren't you all just looking more youthful by the minute?" he taunted with only a hint of humor in his voice. "I'm sure there are going to be some interesting developments happening soon."
"What did you do to us?" Trevor shouted, taking a few steps towards the man before stopping as two large guards entered the room to flank the man in the lab coat.
"Tut-tut, that's no way for a child to speak to his elder," the man said, smiling as he wriggled his finger back and forth like you would if you were scolding a toddler.
"What are you saying? We're not children!" Trevor shouted, his emotions beginning to get the better of him.
"See," the old man said, glancing over to his guards, "I told you they were coming along nicely."
"Let me and my friends go now, or you'll regret it," Jack said, stepping around Trevor towards the man.
The anger in his voice made Matt feel a little stab of fear inside him, but the look on the man's face as he stopped and turned and glared at Jack was nothing short of terrifying.
"I'll regret it, will I? Even if the four of you did manage to overpower my associates and me here, how far do you think you'd get? Beyond this door is a maze of corridors and passages filled with people who wouldn't hesitate to stop you from escaping, and that was if you could even navigate this facility without getting hopelessly lost. No, I don't think you'd make it very far at all."
The man's voice was quiet and unconcerned, but the anger in his words had Jack visibly shaken. The four friends looked in shock as the man in the lab coat turned and began walking towards the one-way mirror.
"And, on top of all that, there is so much more we're going to learn from you. Besides, I'm here to offer an olive branch. An agreement, if you will."
The man stopped to face the mirror and smirked as he watched his prisoners flanking him on either side, a mixture of fear and anger etched across their faces.
"What... er... what do you mean?" Matt asked, even though he had an idea lurking in the back of his mind that he didn't like at all.
The man turned and smiled. "Ah, the mind works! I couldn't have picked better subjects if I had hand-picked them myself. But, I can see now that there is something else in your mind. As beautiful as fear of captivity is, it isn't ideal for the next part of my experiment. So, I'm here to offer you a different idea: hope."
"Are you offering us a deal?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow as he spoke.
"Yes, I'm offering you a deal: In exchange for being obedient test subjects, you will be freed from your cells and allowed to roam the facility, or at least the living quarters of the facility. Then, if you've been sufficiently well behaved, we will return you to normal society for the next part of the experiment."
The prisoners were silent. The old scientist appeared to have some plan, but whatever it might be, it sounded terrible. However, declining would most likely result in their permanent imprisonment if they could survive whatever horrors the experiment might throw at them.
"And what's the catch?" Trevor suddenly asked, trying to sound as calm and carefree as possible, "What if we don't live up to your condition? Or what if we cause trouble?"
"Hmm, a good question," the man said, stroking his chin with one wrinkled hand. "The catch, if you will, is that if you don't behave yourselves and go along with our experiments willingly, then you will be forced to undergo the same experiments unwillingly. And, in that case, you will find that one's body can be a much better prison than any wall."
"How do we know we can trust you?" Jack asked coldly, "You haven't even told us your name."
"Ah, yes, that's fair," the man smiled, looking down as he began patting the pockets of his lab coat that hung loosely from his body, "Well, I'm Dr. Squires. I'm the head researcher at this facility, and you're only chance at having a semi-normal life."
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