Russian researchers in the late 1940's 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.





   So did the whispering to the microphones.






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 should 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!"





   The subject smiled.






"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..."