Russian researchers in the late 1940s kept five people awake for
fifteen days using an experimental gas based stimulant. They were kept
in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the
gas didn’t kill them, since it was toxic in high concentrations. This
was before closed circuit cameras so they had only microphones and 5
inch thick glass porthole sized windows into the chamber to monitor
them. The chamber was stocked with books, cots to sleep on but no
bedding, running water and toilet, and enough dried food to last all
five for over a month.
The test subjects were political prisoners deemed enemies of the state during world war II.
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 in
their past, and the general tone of their conversations took on a darker
aspect after the 4 day mark.
After five days they started to complain about the circumstances and
events that lead 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
portholes. Oddly they all seemed to think they could win the trust of
the experimenters by turning over their comrades, the other subjects in
captivity with them. At first the researchers suspected this was an
effect of the gas itself…
After nine days the first of them started screaming. He ran the
length of the chamber repeatedly yelling 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 glass portholes. The screaming promptly stopped.
After 3 more days passed. The researchers checked the microphones
hourly to make sure they were working, since they thought it 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 strenuous exercise. On the morning of the 14th day 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
or vegetables.
They announced: “We are opening the chamber to test the microphones
step away from the doors 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 phrase 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 more response using the
intercom it was finally decided to open the chamber at midnight on the
fifteenth day.
The chamber was flushed of the stimulant gas and filled with fresh
air and immediately voices from the microphones 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. Four of the five
subjects were still alive, although no one could rightly call the state
that any of them in ‘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 in the center 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 four ‘surviving’ test subjects also had large portions of muscle
and skin torn away from their bodies. The destruction of flesh and
exposed bone on their finger tips indicated that the wounds were
inflicted by hand, not with teeth as the researchers initially thought.
Closer examination of the position and angles of the wounds indicated
that most if not all of them were self-inflicted.
The abdominal organs below the ribcage of all four test subjects had
been removed. While the heart, lungs 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 ribcage. All the blood vessels and
organs remained intact, they had just been taken out and laid on the
floor, fanning out around the eviscerated but still living bodies of the
subjects. The digestive tract of all four could be seen to be working,
digesting food. It quickly became apparent that 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 Russian 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
alternately begged and demanded that the gas be turned back on, lest
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 Russian 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 the weeks following the
incident.
In the struggle one of the four 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 ten times the human dose of a morphine derivative and still
fought like a cornered animal, breaking the ribs and arm of one doctor.
When heart was seen to beat for a full two minutes after he had bled out
to the point there was more air in his vascular system than blood. Even
after it stopped he continued to scream and flail for another 3
minutes, struggling attack anyone in reach and just repeating the word
“MORE” over and over, weaker and weaker, until he finally fell silent.
The surviving three test subjects were heavily restrained and moved
to a medical facility, the two with intact vocal cords continuously
begging for the gas demanding to be kept awake…
The most injured of the three 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 they had given 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 one wrist, even
through the weight of a 200 pound soldier holding that wrist as well. It
took only a little more anesthetic than normal to put him under, and
the instant his eyelids fluttered and closed, his heart stopped. In the
autopsy of the test subject that died on the operating table it was
found that his blood had triple the normal level of oxygen. His muscles
that were still attached to his skeleton were badly torn and he had
broken 9 bones in his struggle to not be subdued. Most of them were from
the force his own muscles had exerted on them.
The second survivor had been the first of the group of five to start
screaming. His vocal cords destroyed he was unable to beg or object to
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, they try the surgery
without anesthetic, and did not react for the entire 6 hour procedure of
replacing his abdominal organs and attempting to cover them with what
remained of his skin. The surgeon presiding stated repeatedly that it
shouldn’t be medically 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, 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 this must
be something of drastic importance the surgeon had a pen and pad fetched
so the patient could write his message. It was simple “Keep cutting.”
The other two test subjects were given the same surgery, both without
anesthetic as well. Although they had to be injected with a paralytic
for the duration of the operation. The surgeon found it impossible to
perform the operation while the patients laughed continuously. Once
paralyzed the subjects could only follow the attending researchers with
their eyes. The paralytic 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 three subject’s restraints were reinforced and they were placed
back into the 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 euthanizing the surviving subjects. The commanding officer,
an ex-KGB instead saw potential, and wanted to see what would happen if
they were put back on the gas. The researchers strongly objected, but
were overruled.
In preparation for being sealed in the chamber again the subjects
were connected to an EEG monitor and had their restraints padded for
long term confinement. To everyone’s surprise all three stopped
struggling the moment it was let slip that they were going back on the
gas. It was obvious that at this point all three were putting up a great
struggle to stay awake. One of subjects that could speak was humming
loudly and continuously; the mute subject was straining his legs against
the leather 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 in
surprise. They were normal most of the time but sometimes flat lined
inexplicably. It looked as if he were repeatedly suffering brain death,
before returning to normal. As they focused on paper scrolling out of
the brainwave monitor only one nurse saw his eyes slip shut at the same
moment 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 speak started screaming to be
sealed in now. His brainwaves showed the same flatlines as one who had
just died from falling asleep. The commander gave the order to seal the
chamber with both subjects inside, as well as 3 researchers. One of the
named three immediately drew his gun and shot the commander point blank
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 a
bed 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!”
“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 every
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 paralysis when
you go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot tread.”
The researcher paused. Then aimed at the subject’s heart and fired.
The EEG flatlined as the subject weakly choked out “so… nearly… free…”
**Note: i did not wrote this, although i wish i did.**
No comments:
Post a Comment