DamNation
an excerpt

“Up and at ‘em!” shouted 11542. 13784 pounded his fist on the mattress.
“Again?” he said weakly. 11542 nodded and said, “Yep!” in accompany.
“Time for another experiment! Last one, I promise,” he said solemnly. 13784 moaned again before trudging out of bed, picking his uniform out of his drawer, and standing up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He grabbed hold of 11542’s hand instinctively and waited for him to lead him. 11542 did not protest, and led them down the winding hallways towards the medical wing.
After fifteen minutes of what seemed like navigating around a silver city—to 13784, at least, in his sleepy state—they reached the medical wing. 11542 pushed 13784 into a room labelled “W C” and all of a sudden, he wanted to throw up. The nurses motioned them to leave but 11542 kept his grip on 12784’s hand and led him into the depths of the room.
“Look up 13784, and tell me what you see.”
He lifted 13784 and placed him on a chair so he could see over the tops of all the beds. Immediately, his knees felt weak and he covered his mouth, eyes tearing. The smell just got ten times worse.
In front of him was a long row of beds with people in them, all of whom with devastating injuries. It seemed that the dominant color in the room was red, and groaning abounded. On one bed, someone’s ribcage had been shot through, then trampled on. Bone stuck out of the body, straight through the skin, plain and visible. Another man on a bed beside him had his face shot through, two matching holes in each cheek. His tongue, shot off in the process, barely stayed on his lip, almost falling off the face onto the floor, red liquid emanating from its end profusely. A third man whose arm was only attached by a thin layer of skin was almost rolling off the bed onto the floor, his disconnected arm hanging over the edge of the mattress, his bone clearly visible and covered in red. Yet another, his head partially shot off, had his brains falling out of his skull, pulsating as though it were trying to breathe and failing. 13784 shut his eyes and tried to cover his nose and ears at the same time.
11542 peeled 13784’s hand off his nose, off his ears, and forced his eyes open. “13784, I want you to pick one of these people.”
“Wh-why?!” he cried, trying his hardest to keep his eyes away from all the carnage. The nurses tending to the men sighed and shook their heads at 11542.
“It’s an experiment, I told you,” he sighed sadly. 13784 held his breath and shut his eyes, his finger randomly going around the room as he waved his arm to and fro. He finally stopped his arm still and opened his eyes, taking a look at the man nearest his finger. He was lying on his stomach, his face propped up on a pillow so that his neck turned at a sharp ninety degree angle. His mouth was wide open, with something in it, but 13784 couldn’t see when he was so far away. He nodded to him and jumped off onto the floor, walking over to him. He struggled to climb onto the mattress and crept closer for a look. The man moaned in distress, protesting this little boy here seeing him like this. 13784 moved closer and closer to his head, but when he saw it, he felt sick again, and fell straight off.
In the man’s mouth was something that looked like his lungs, or his stomach. It was expanding and contracting in time with the man’s breathing, the other item constantly pulsating, much like the other man’s brain. It looked so squishy and fragile, and yet here it was, sticking through his mouth as though they were noodles.
“11542! 11542!” he shouted for help, pointing to his limp, slowly lifeless body. 11542 walked up and patted 13784 on the head and made him stand up, wheeling a cart of medical supplies over.
“It’s still an experiment, 13784, come on,” he said softly, handing a roll and bandages over to him first. The nurses made a move to help, gasping as they watched the little boy unroll the bandages, but 11542 made them stop in their tracks.
13784 stared at the bandage, completely clueless as what to do first. He left the bandage on the bed and rolled the cart closer to himself, opening all the drawers one by one. The first three didn’t have what he needed, but the fourth one did. He looked through all the pre-prepared syringes.
“Umm…which one’s the numbing-stuff?” he muttered to himself. 11542 picked up one of the syringes and handed it to him.
“I think that’s the proper substance and dosage for someone like him,” he said, “But I’m not a nurse, so I can’t be sure.” The nurses stood by, mouths agape as they watched a little boy try to treat a grown man with one of the most gruesome injuries they’ve seen for years.
13784 nodded and lifted the man’s wrist, injecting the syringe at the vein. He’d learned that the vein at the wrist was something very important in his science classes. Something to do with the flow of blood. He figured injecting it there would make it circulate faster—or something. He was only eight years old, how was he supposed to know?!
The man cringed a bit while 13784 put white gloves on. He headed to the front of the bed, where the man’s head was, with all its pulsating organs sticking out. Cringing, he looked away as he shoved them into his mouth harshly, hoping he’d swallow. The man screamed, but 13784 had clamped his mouth shut, tears moving down his cheeks.
The nurses screamed in shock as they made a move to roll the bed into the operating room, but 11542 stopped them again, glaring at them harshly. “He’s meant to do this on his own, ladies,” he said authoritatively, glaring them away from the bedpan.
13784, after shoving the organs back in his mouth, grabbed the bandages and wrapped them around his entire head, the nose and mouth entirely sealed shut. He used three bandages in total, to make sure it was all secure. When he finished, he jumped back, pulled off the bandages, and curled up in a corner under yet another living corpse, and cried.