Like Lab Rats Ch. 01

[system.login]

[password: ************]

[.........]

[ > access granted]

[access logs > participant: ryan duke]

[......]

[> participant logs found (ID: 0709344)]

[participant.testimony > recall]

[PLAYING: participant testimony...]

I sat in the all-white room, alone, twitching nervously. I guessed it might be no more than ten by ten feet, a perfect cube. The simple aluminum chair was cold against my skin, and now that I'd been stripped down to just a white pair of briefs, my thighs and back were forced in uncomfortable contact with the metal. Or maybe from being stripped of body hair. Even though there were no cameras, some of my chills came from the strange sense of being watched anyway. In the stillness of everything, I was vaguely aware of the mechanical whoosh of the air conditioner circulating through the giant, seemingly endless building.

In front of me, the System's screen continued to glow neon teal. As I'd now come to expect, a new question flashed on the screen in white text. Through its speaker, the computer's familiar voice, feminine with an uncanny twinge of its robotic origins, provided another instruction:

"ryan, please answer the question: How did you find out about the Research Study, and why did you come here?"

An icon of a microphone came on screen, the sign that I should start talking, and the smart watch secured to my wrist and glowing the same teal as the screen, filled with a new figure: "100 points." For that question? Easy points. I'd give the System as much as it wanted to hear:

[> time.reset: prior(two_weeks)]

[> participant.recall: BEFORE_THE_STUDY]

Adrian and I had been friends ever since we were little. He moved down the block when he was eight, and from that summer on, we became practically inseparable. We were into the same things all kids that age are: Hot Wheels, superhero cartoons, video games, and everything related. We'd just show up at each others' houses unannounced, and it was totally normal. We just wanted to hang. Teachers used to say they thought we must have been brothers.

We stayed close through middle and high school, although as we went from being children to real people, we had the chance to develop our own personalities away from kid toys and games. I discovered that I loved art, and Adrian realized he was better than average at a bunch of sports, from soccer to gymnastics. So some things changed, and I'll say only for the better. We were spending more time on our hobbies, making new friends and expanding our social circles.

People stopped thinking we were brothers: he focused on bulking up for sports, while I kept my slim figure and focused on upping my haircut and style to hang with the art kids. Adrian was sneaking around at night to hook up with girls, and I was sneaking out with friends to smoke cigarettes in the woods. Not that I don't want to hook up with girls, but he just naturally seemed to attract them better than I was.

Admittedly, there were times that I was worried Adrian and I were drifting apart, and there were even times when I wondered if that was just the natural way things were going to go. And then, we'd find the time to hang out for the first time in a few weeks, and we'd be laughing like we always had before, like nothing had changed.

So it wasn't out of the blue that he caught up with me on the way out of school one day and asked if I needed a ride home. Adrian had gotten a brand new sedan from his parents for his eighteenth birthday, but usually stayed late at school for a team practice or workout, so I typically grabbed a ride with one of my art friends.

"Don't you have practice? What is it, swimming season?" I quizzed, as we walked to his car.

"Yeah, I mean, nah, I decided to take the afternoon off," he replied, like he was dodging the question.

I ducked into the passenger seat of the car, shut the door, but noticed he wasn't turning the car on.

"Something up?" I asked.

"Actually, yeah man, I had something I thought you'd be interested in."

Adrian reached into the pocked his letterman's jacket, and unfolded a printed poster. It was simple, not like a professional ad you'd see in a magazine or online, but I got the sense it was still serious and important. It seemed like some sort of job listing, but I couldn't quite figure out what was going on.

"What's this all about?"

"So you know how you told me last month you really wanted to save up money to buy a car?"

It was true. In fact, the idea of buying a car had pretty much consumed my thoughts for a while. The freedom to hang out with my friends whenever I wanted, maybe even slip away with some of the girls in my group who seemed to fancy me. Not to mention the ability to drive to the colleges I had applied to for next year. I knew the only path to a car was to start saving, but had been dragging my feet. The idea of getting a minimum wage job at the local movie theater or pizza delivery shop was worse than death, and certainly no one was looking to cough up thousands of dollars for any of my drawings.

With that in mind, I looked at the flyer again, and a line at the bottom immediately caught my eye:

"EXCEPTIONAL PARTICIPANTS COMPENSATED WITH UP TO $10,000"

Ten grand? More than enough to buy a used car with a huge chunk left over for gas money. Or Playstation games. I snatched the page from Adrian and started pouring over it.

"What's this gig? Where did you find this?" I blurted, before he grabbed the sheet back from my hands.

"Shh, not so loud," he said, finally turning on the engine and blasting the A/C. "So," he continued, cautious of the few other students still milling about our school's lot, "Danny Packer on the swim team got connected to this online. It's a research study that's going on a few towns over, and they're looking for participants."

All of the excitement that had been coursing through my veins moments earlier suddenly drained. Research sounded dangerous.

"Oh, someone looking for lab rats? Pump us up with drugs?"

"No, it doesn't look like that. They say it's just a national survey of teenagers, trying to collect data on different parts of our lives. Nothing medical. And entirely voluntary. Here."

Convinced that I wouldn't be blabbing off anymore, he passed the flyer back, and glancing through, I confirmed what Adrian had been saying. The flyer specifically was looking for 18 year old guys to assess their health and readiness for college and adulthood. Specifically it noted that participants could leave the study at any point, and would be compensated for whatever parts of the study they completed. Plus the seal in the corner, a goat surrounded by some latin words I didn't recognize, seemed pretty official. Suddenly things were sounding even better--if I figured out how much I needed for a car, I could even leave the study partway through. But one thing didn't make sense.

"Okay, that makes sense. Sounds great. Actually sounds better than great. But why the secrecy?"

Adrian shrugged. "I don't know why they're so secretive, but Danny was given a unique ID code. Was told only him and one friend were allowed to come. If anyone else used the code, then they'd all be booted out of the study. That it risks breaching some sort of double-blind transparency."

"But now Danny can't do it?"

"Yeah, he just found out he has to fly to Denver for a surprise birthday for his Great Aunt. I was going to go with him, but now he passed his ID on to me."

"And you're offering to partner with me." I smiled, and Adrian did too, a hint of our constant connection once again. "Dude, I appreciate it. You have no idea. Ten grand would be huge."

"So," he said, his smile turning to a grin, "You're in?"

"I'm in? Free money for nothing? How fast can we make this happen?"

So we made our plans for the following Saturday. The flyer said the study would take place overnight, to be able to track sleep habits, at a large facility several miles out of town. We figured our parents would have too many questions about us participating in a research study, even one that seemed as benign as this. Instead, I used Photoshop to make a fake brochure for a college prep retreat, and we told both our parents we'd been given scholarships to attend for free. We didn't hear any arguments about us finally taking our education seriously.

[> time.reset: current(day_of_study)]

Danny picked me up that Saturday and we drove out to the facility together. The address that we'd been given was pretty far out of town, so we made a bit of a roadtrip out of it. I'd cooked up a playlist on my iPod, and pumped it through the speakers of his car. It was a warm April day, and we rolled down the windows. It wasn't long down the highway until we were laughing and joking.

As we ribbed and teased each other, the topics eventually turned to girls. Adrian gave me updates on his latest exploits, girls from our grade he'd gotten blowjobs from since we last talked.

"Yeah actually, uh," he said, getting uncharacteristically a bit awkward. "I was at Kesley Dorner's house a few weeks ago at a party, and after everyone else left, we uh, well I finally banged her."

"Woah, nice," I replied, trying not to sound too jealous. "Finally tore up your full V card, huh?"

"Haha, yeah. Ripped that sucker to shreds." He laughed it off. "How about you man? Any updates?"

The second he asked the question, I could tell we both regretted it.

"Heh, well, you know how it is, not really," I tried to play off cool. "My card is still perfectly intact"

"Come on man, really?"

"I mean, when you're not superstar Adrian Dice, weight-lifter muscles and six-pack abs..."

"Oh, come on dude," he cut me off, "You gotta stop being like that. I mean, you're a good looking guy. You've got that whole skinny-but-deep-singer-in-an-emo-band vibe. Your hair even does that flippy thing! Girls should be throwing themselves at you!"

"You sound like my mom, man," I ribbed. "At this point, I'd be satisfied if a girl tripped and fell onto me, let alone threw herself."

"Okay Ryan, how about this," Adrian said, his voice signaling his entry into plan-of-attack mode. "Do you know who you're going to prom with yet?"

Adrian spent the next half-hour trying to put together a plan to ensure I'd finally get laid on prom night, rattling through lists of potential dates and how we'd engineer the evening to go. I appreciated the effort, but batted away his suggestions at every turn. All the girls Adrian could come up with were his friends, and neither knew me nor had any particular reason to go to prom with me, let alone sleep with me.

He was still rattling off thoughts when the GPS guided us to a parking lot in front of a giant building, mercifully cutting the conversation short. If we hadn't been looking for it, we'd never have given the space a second glance. Just a large, generic warehouse, the type we saw dotted all across the landscape as we drove down the highway. Several stories tall and no windows or other noticeable features besides a set of glass doors smack dab in the center, where we assumed we should head.

We didn't see any signs or banners labelling the building, other than a large brass seal of a goat next to the door, matching the one on the flyer. With only a little bit of caution, we pushed the doors open to the building.

[> participant.move : LOBBY]

We found ourselves in what seemed like a lobby, nearly as minimal inside as the building was outside. The whole room, floor, ceiling, and walls, was covered in clinical white paneling. In the center were a half dozen kiosks, lit up with teal screens, and a few guys our age standing over them. I looked briefly for anyone we knew: everyone had kind of a similar face, but that was just because we all looked like teen guys of the same age. But strangers, still.

Adrian and I approached a terminal, flashing [TAP TO BEGIN], so we did. White text came on the screen, and a female voice spoke to us.

"hello." she stated, as captions and a number pad appeared on the screen "please enter the unique access code you've been given."

Adrian pulled out the flier and entered the code.

"thank you," the voice replied, and began walking us through several more basic setup directions. Adrian and I were each instructed to enter our names, date of birth, and snap a headshot through a camera embedded in the terminal.

After filling it out, we heard a clunk, and noticed a glow coming from a compartment under the terminal.

"these are your tracker watches," the terminal explained. "please attach them now on your dominant wrist, as they will be an important part of the study."

We grabbed the watches, each with a teal face currently bearing our names, and snapped them firmly into place.

[> study.watch_online]

[.......][

[> participant tracking paired]

"thank you. these watches will grant you access to the next room, where we will orient you to the study," the voice explained. "please proceed to the door at the far end of this room. as you approach, your watches will turn purple. connect them with the purple panel, and it will unlock the door to the orientation room. thank you for your participation."

The screen then flashed blank, and returned to its [TAP TO BEGIN] message.

Without much of a choice of what to do next, we started walking to the door at the end of the lobby.

"So..." Adrian pondered, "That certainly doesn't answer a lot of questions. What do you think?"

Truth be told, my heart was beating pretty quickly. For the first time, I realized how little we knew about this study we were about to walk into. We hadn't actually seen any adults to explain things to us, only these strange kiosks.

"Do you want to leave?" Adrian asked.

I considered it seriously. Maybe we should. But then the thought of the $10,000 compensation came back into my head. That money. My own car. The freedom to drive the places I wanted to drive.

"At this point?" I responded, "I think we gotta do it." Plus, I reasoned, if the study turned out to be too invasive, we could always make an early exit. Adrian just nodded in response. As our watches glowed purple, we followed instructions, and pressed them to unlock the door, taking our first step into the mysterious study.

[> participant.move : ORIENTATION_HALL]

After another long, white hallway, another set of doors opened up into an even larger room, about the size of a cafeteria, with rows of white benches. We'd arrived pretty close to the study's supposed start time, so this room was already full of guys about our age, of all kinds. Athletes like Adrian, tall guys, short guys, skinny guys, chubby guys, different races, different hairstyles... If the study's planners had distributed codes to get a wide mix of participants, it clearly had worked. The only constant was that it was just dudes. All dudes, trying to pretend like we felt confident, and not out of place and confused about what the day would bring.

Like us, it seemed like nobody knew more than one person here. A few loners seemed to have come by themselves. We tried to spot anyone we'd know, but quickly gave up. Adrian estimated there were 80 people here. I suspected 100, if for no other reason than it would make sense as a nice round study number. But who would have the funding for that? Giving $10K to a hundred guys would be a million dollars.

We didn't have to wonder for long, as soon a wall of the room lit up from a projector. Again, a big teal rectangle with white text. It showed a countdown from 100, and asked everyone to take a seat. Adrian and I found one on a bench near the back, and the chatter of the room died down as everyone found a place to sit. There was a nervous tension, you could feel it, that no one had any more information than the two of us about what was going to go down.

As the timer hit zero, the lights in the room darkened, and the same voice we'd heard at the kiosk spoke again, this time through speakers in the room:

"hello, and welcome to the cornea capra institute's adolescent baseline study. we appreciate you taking the time to advance the causes of science and technology by participating in this research.

we will now explain the research you will be participating in over the next 24 hours. the adolescent baseline study hope to generate and advance the understanding of young adults across the globe. in the cohort that has been assembled today, we will be assessing and measuring the profiles of the group across multiple dimensions, including mental profile, physical profile, and more."

I squirmed uneasily in my seat at the mention of the "Physical Profile." Sounded like it would be a replay of those traumatic days in gym class where we'd do pushups while the coach counted, and the weak kids got publicly shamed. Would I be in for more physical shame in front of this group of strangers?

The voice continued:

"when you arrived, you were all given smart watches that have been attached to your wrists. these must remain on for the entirety of your participation in the study, as they will be capturing and measuring many vital statistics, as well as your progress through the various activities. in addition, to avoid interference of interviewers, today's study will be entirely automated. refer to your watch and the screens around the institute for instructions on how to proceed."

So we were on our own. Adrian and I looked at each other and shrugged. It seemed weird to take all our instructions from computers, but everything seemed weird here. Almost like a video game.

"in addition, your watches will be tracking how many points you accumulate throughout the study. note that no activity participation in the study is mandatory. at any point, you may decide not to engage with an activity for any reason."

"That's a relief," I whispered to Adrian. "Even if they wanted to poke and prod us, or pump us up with some weird medicine, we can say no."

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah," he whispered back, "Plus it seems like they're just taking measurements, nothing experimental." We both breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe this wouldn't be so weird after all. We could take a few tests, waltz on through, and collect our compensation.

"while consent for any activity is optional," the voice continued, "note that holes in the dataset delay our research objectives. therefore, this study implements a progress and rewards system for choices and achievement throughout the study."

[> participant.level : LEVEL_1]

I felt the watch on my wrist buzz, and from the general chatter in the room, it seemed like everyone else did too.

"if you look at your watch," the voice continued, "you'll see that you've all just been placed at Level 1 of study progress. the bar underneath will track your progress towards Level 2, and so on. all activities have a point value assigned. only those who choose to participate will receive the points, and some activities may provide a bonus for exceptional achievement."

The screen showed an illustration that was also being paralleled on my watch, explaining how it worked. I had been right--this sounded exactly like it was going to be a video game. Good thing I'd spent many hours of my high school years mastering video games.

"in addition to your right to leave the study at any time, participants who fail to reach certain levels may be routed out of the study at determined points to maintain the integrity of data collected. if you have been removed from the study, your watch face will turn red, and doors in the institute will direct you to a designated non-testing area for the remainder of the 24-hour period. your compensation at this time will be adjusted to reflect the extent of your participation. to avoid biasing the data, we cannot reveal the study compensation based on participation level, except that anyone is free to leave now for a Level 1 compensation of $50."