Durval realized he hadn’t taken a single sip of the watermelon juice Melinda had served him. He rested the glass on his casted leg, and there it stayed while Heitor recounted his illicit foray into the army laboratories where Botelho had worked.
— I’m not going to say I regretted entering that place. If it were today, I would do it all over again, but I tell you that almost 30 years later, I still get chills when I remember what we saw that day.
“We walked down a long corridor filled with metal tanks connected to tubes running along the ceiling and connecting to machines I had never seen in my life.”
“Officer Candidate Gouveia said he wanted to turn back, that he wouldn’t go on with it. I threatened him. I don’t remember what I said, but the man continued with us. I trusted Second Lieutenant De Matos, but not Gouveia; I shouldn’t have included him in that investigation.”
“At the end of the corridor, there was a double steel door. Danger, biological risk, said a sign. Unauthorized personnel prohibited from entering.”
“As I suspected, the door was locked. Gouveia sighed in relief beside me. I took the key from my pocket and opened it. I’m not an idiot; it was obvious the doors would be locked. I had gotten a copy from a soldier days before.”
“Finally, we entered. The place was dark and empty as expected at that hour. I groped for the switch. When the fluorescent lights turned on, we could see that the thing was bigger and more terrifying than we had imagined.”
“The laboratory must have been seven or eight meters high. At the highest point, there were several glass windows that must have led to an observation platform. In the center, what appeared to be two surgical tables surrounded by smaller ones with instruments. On the side, a structure descended from the ceiling with monitors, panels, and computer keyboards. Next to it, two transparent cylinders, inside of which a man could fit, connected to tubes that rose to the ceiling.”
“I descended the small staircase from the door. On one of the walls, there was a shelf full of large and small jars containing what seemed to be pieces of meat. I approached and saw what they really were. Human fetuses with anatomical deformities floated in a yellowish liquid. Some were conjoined twins, others had four or more legs or arms. I noticed that most of them had an autopsy suture running across their chest. In one of the jars, there was an animal with fur and horns. It could well have been a lamb fetus, but the half-open eyes, nose, and mouth looked very human. On the top shelf, several skulls, large and small. Some were clearly not human. Or at least not from normal humans.”
”Then I saw a skull that I will never forget as long as I live. It had wide horns like a closed fist protruding from the forehead and curling around the sides. The teeth were sharp and seemed to smile wickedly. I tell you, Durval, it was the very skull of the devil.”
“It was then that the alarm sounded.”
Episode XXXIV continues in the next edition.
JOSÉ GASPAR
Cinematographer and writer
www.historiasdooutromundo.com