by Candice Lim
“We’ll increase the recommended dosage!” snapped George.
I cringed. A growing coldness engulfed me. I couldn’t believe I sat in George’s lectures and listened to someone who dreamed up a pandemic in his spare time.
“But Cash might need it.” Edmund shrugged. George looked away and wiped his hand over his mouth. “Hershey’s right. Lest we mess up, we’ll have a backup.”
Hershey’s eyes gleamed with hope.
George spun around. His eyes passed between the two scientists and fell on Edmund. “I cannot fathom why you are still so negative about everything, Edmund. For sciencesake, we’re already at this stage now. There’s no time to worry about things not likely to happen.”
“I say we’d better ask Cash. It won’t take much of your precious time,” insisted Edmund.
George’s face darkened as their eyes met in hard stares. “Fine.” George sighed and turned to their prisoner. “Don’t worry, Hershey. You will get to witness the glorious days of MAD.” When he waved at the screen, a metallic sound clanked. The vents hissed back to life, refilling the glass tank with gas.
Hershey struggled for a few seconds. Her scream and her struggling with her restraints faded away as the mist filled every last space in the glass tank. Hershey fell into deep sleep again. The vents slowed down to gentle wisps. The emotionless, peaceful trance settled on her face.
“We’ll see her now.” Edmund’s voice was stern.
George turned away from the glass tank. “Why can’t you call that woman?” Every word dripped with growing impatience for his colleague.
“She’s upstairs. And what if someone is tapping our call?”
George rolled his eyes. “Fine. Let’s get going, then.”
The last shadows of the scientists melded into darkness as the door was shut. I kicked the metal door open. It clanged noisily as a fresh gust of air breathed into the cabinet. Another second in the cabinet would have choked me to death.
I stretched my legs and arms, reaching out as far as they could, resuscitating every muscle that had gone numb in the limited space. Once I regained my composure, the reality of the situation sank in.
The EXIT sign flickered for attention, enticing me towards it. My eyes stilled on the glass tank. It felt as if something greater than gravity was pulling me down. As if roots had grown through the floor and clung around my ankles, weighing me down. Something terrible was happening.
George and Edmund were to bring about a pandemic. How could I pretend nothing had ever happened and just flee? And what? Pretend nothing happened and attend their classes in the morning?
I groped in my brain, for ideas. Call someone? Call who? No one could help me.
I hopped and waved my hands frantically in front of the glass tank, trying to conjure the blue screen. It took me a while to realize all my efforts were in vain. Nothing appeared. Not a sliver of light. Not the slightest beep or meep. Everything was still as the night.
I sighed and looked around when my eyes fell on the tablet. The one subjected to formatting. What was inside? Why he wanted to destroy it so urgently?
Every passing second put me closer to danger. My mind was a piece of blankness. I realized I was incapable of making a decision. That was why I’d failed as a scientist. I could never pave my own way, always needing someone to tell me what to do.
I sucked in a breath and took a leap of faith. I whipped out my tablet and fused it with the one on the bench. My fingers danced off the second screen, but all I could hear was the beating of my own heart.
“Transfer data to device? Y/N.” Y.
Strings of codes filled both screens. “Estimated processing time: Two minutes.”
Every second, I expected death to take shape at the window and drag me to my doom. I looked at Hershey in her Zen-like countenance.
Who is Cash?
How does this thing―this human-size container―function?
A ping broke my trance. “Transfer completed.”
I tore the devices apart and placed Hershey’s tablet back to its original position on the bench. Catching one last glimpse at the glass tank, I ran out clutching the tablet close to my heart, feeling the tablet’s heat against my chest. Wind beat in my ears, my surroundings a blur.
Adrenaline shot through my system, coursing through my veins. The images and conversation in the Underlab replayed themselves in my head but I had to shake them off until I reached relative safety. The security lights in the corridor came on and temporarily blinded me. I blinked until I regained vision.
I was at the top of the stairs, back in the silent hallway. I ran to my left, fear spurred me on. I hurled myself forward despite my aching muscles.
I reached another fork when I skidded to a halt and closed myself to the wall. I gasped in relief and threw myself out and into the hallway. I did the same for two more corners.
I saw the exit of the university. Amber light bathed the three revolving doors. I couldn’t be happier. I hit the jackpot, and freedom was the prize. I reeled through the door into the welcoming arms of the night.
The half-moon, hanging high up in the velvet sky, smiled at me. Silver diamonds sprinkled across the black expanse. My thoughts were still back at the lab. The glass tank. Cranax. Pandemic. Hundreds of innocent lives. All these and more whirling in my head.
A gust of wind blustered, rippling the hem of my shirt over my exposed skin. I shivered and hugged myself. I had to tell someone about this, someone I could trust my life with and would believe this crazy ass story. Everything was too surreal, even I wondered if I was tripping.
A hoarse cry sounded in the distance, breaking into my reverie. A throng of silhouettes flitted about a few blocks away. The sound of glass smashing, shattering into shards rang out, followed by guffaws.
I broke into a run.
2
VAXINE
Vaxine slid along the wall and knelt under the window on the door where she peered into the Underlab. With the CCTV now disabled she peered in at Hershey who looked like a doll in a cylindrical display-cabinet. So close yet so far. She wasn’t alone.
George and Edmund were there too, talking to each other. Their faces were tense. Frowns creased their foreheads. Their voices, full of rage, were muffled by the closed door. Vaxine wanted to barge in and jump the two men. She clenched her fists as the growing urge pricked at her skin. The denizens of the Underlab were so caught up in their discussion, they would make easy prey. Vaxine’s muscles tightened in anticipation.
Hershey would have advised Vaxine to hold her horses and only strike when she was ready. Like conducting experiments. You don’t rush through the procedure. You study the steps and make sure you got everything you need first. Vaxine nodded to herself and focused on her task at hand, to retrieve the genes and data of Project Cranax. As much as she wanted to, no way she could get Hershey out without sounding the alarms.
Advancing footsteps cut through the white noise. Shoes scuffed the floor with every step. Vaxine dove into a dark corner and held her breath. The door hissed open. The two men wheezed past her, urgency thrusting their feet forward. They were too engrossed in discussion to notice Vaxine, who was only inches away.
Vaxine’s gaze tracked them up the stairs until they were out of sight. Until the tapping of their shoes faded into silence. She heaved, broke cover and made for the door. Her fingers were reaching for the handle when her eyes sensed movement from inside the lab.
The cabinet door in the Underlab swung open with a creak and someone stepped out. A girl.
Vaxine clenched her fists and glowered into the window. She made a mental note of her subject, especially the lustrous crimson curls trailing down to her waist. The girl’s face lit up by the blue screens, was pale with fear. Redhead swerved around as if she was looking for something.
Years of experience in research had trained Vaxine to take note of every single detail. She pressed herself against the frame of the door. Her shoulders relax
ed. Judging by her look, Redhead would not notice Vaxine. She was too busy worrying.
Who was she? Should she confront her? She looked like an easy mark. Vaxine glanced back at the stairway. George and Edmund might return any time.
Redhead jumped up and down and waved maniacally at the glass tank. Vaxine frowned. What the hell was she trying to do?
Redhead gazed up at Hershey. Her emerald eyes were full of anxiety, and maybe a tinge of compassion. Nothing spelled out ill-will. She hung around the bench. Redhead grabbed something off it.
Hershey’s tablet.
Redhead produced another one and merged them. Whatever she was trying to do, it lacked self-confidence. Like she didn’t know what she was doing. Like she hated it. Her lack of enthusiasm evident in each action.
Redhead can’t be on Cash’s side, then. Who the hell was she? Vaxine didn’t have the answers for now. She felt like barging into the lab to wrap her hands around Redhead’s neck.
Redhead stopped at the door.
Vaxine drew back.
Redhead looked deep in thought. She turned to the bench and tore the two devices apart. She ran for the door and whooshed past Vaxine, rushed up the stairs and disappeared.
Amateur. Vaxine turned around and glided through the open door. She stood in the middle of the lab and scanned around. When her eyes connected with Hershey in the glass tank, anger rolled afresh in her.
Cash will pay for this. She clenched her fists, veins bulging under her skin. Vaxine spun around and crouched in front of the trash bin, where she started digging through it.
“Gotcha!” A jubilant smile broke out on her face. She dropped the two vials into a silver self-freezing case and shoved it in her pocket.
Whispers broke out from the door. Vaxine spun to the door, where a shadow bloomed. She muttered a cuss. Vaxine circled around and noticed the lab coat cabinet where the door opened in welcome. With a resigning sigh, she climbed inside it.
“Did I stammer when I said ‘Destroy every single trace of Hershey’s data?” A familiar voice pierced the silence. There was no mistaking the displeasure of Cash.
Cash’s hair was in a pixie cut, red as flame. A long coat streamed down her height and flounced at her knees. The clicking of her heels resonated off every wall as she glided in. Two men hovered behind her like bodyguards.
Vaxine’s wrath burned anew. She sat in the lab coat cabinet where Redhead had just been and closed her eyes to listen as their discordant voices started up like an amateur orchestra.
“Edmund doesn’t seem positive about the project.”
“My only concern is the mutation. We cannot control it. Apart from that, I have full confidence in this project.”
“Only for now. We will find a way.”
“Actually. That’s a blessing in disguise. The Council will offer billion-dollar grants for antidote development. You know what that means? Simply, more money lining our pockets!” The same voice grew colder. “You are not telling me you are pulling out now?”
“No way Cash. You have my word. I’ll be on this till the end.”
“Let me handle this―wait, someone was here!”
Vaxine’s eyes snapped open. She sucked in a breath. A drop of sweat slid down her face and hit the floor. Her heart thumped so hard she feared it might give out.
“Check the activity log.”
Oh, they found Redhead. Vaxine sighed in relief and gratitude. She felt the tension in the air, though. Things cleared up little by little, feeding Vaxine’s craving for answers.
Redhead wasn’t definitely one of them. She, like Vaxine, was an intruder. But what was she doing here?
“Run a full check on the student database. Find her, whoever it is.”
Vaxine shook her head. Redhead was so dead.
“Got it. Her name is Roxy Riley. What was that brat tryna’ do?”
“She’s Hershey’s student.” All eyes turned to Edmund. “Well, I added everyone on Social Sense. You know, gotta maintain a good teacher-student relationship. So yeah, she’s Hershey’s student.”
All citizens were registered on Social Sense Database from the day they were born. They could access to their private information, from their financial reports to genetic profiles, through the private portal and connect with anyone from around the nation through the social profile. One of the Council’s initiatives to unify the nation. But the conspiracy theorists claim it’s one of the government surveillance programs.
Roxy was Hershey’s student. For sciencesake. It felt like a slap to Vaxine’s face.
“And how did a student get in here?”
Vaxine pressed her ear to the door.
“We have no friggin idea! No students were ever allowed in here. What more, it’s already so late.”
“From my understanding, someone has been here.” A sigh from Cash. “Well, I am not interested in your faulty system. You two are to put an end to her!”
“Cash, she’s only a student. What can she do?”
“I am not going to put this plan at risk for anyone, Edmund. You know me well. Either you two make sure that brat disappears by the end of the day or I will take things into my own hands. And you are not going to like it when I do.”
“All right. If that’s your wish.”
“Wouldn’t have happened if you listened.”
“Wait. Do we have to take her out? We could try to talk her over or something.”
“Curiosity has a price to pay. Now destroy the tablet before someone else copies the data on it.”
One of the men dropped the tablet into a large container, where it melted into a congealed mass of glass and aluminum. And destroyed the last hope of human race with it.
Cash looked away from the container. “You two better clean up the mess before anything else gets messy. Is Phoenix here yet?”
“All yours, at the rooftop.”
“That brat couldn’t be too far away. Get her before she gets to the cops.”
“I thought you have friends in high places. Why the worry now?”
“I’m a lean entrepreneur, George. I prefer to keep things as simple as possible.”
George arched one brow, the other man nodded dutifully.
“We meet at MAD.” Cash strutted out of the lab with her high heels tapping on the floor.
Once the door closed and the woman was out of sight, George turned to his company and spat, “Screw this! Now what?”
His companion reached out towards him, his nails digging into George’s arm. “Are we really gonna kill a student? One of our students?”
“You heard the woman! Why are you so worried? Is this student on the Dean’s list?” George brushed him off.
“No. I don’t think so.”
“So, there’s nothing to worry about. No Dean’s list, no immunity. Now let’s worry about how to track her down. If this thing gets out, we are finished. That’s it. You don’t want to get exiled from the Community, do you?”
“Okay fine. We go to the control room and check the footage. We then know where she has gone.”
“That’s the most brilliant thing to come out of your mouth in a long time.”
George slapped his companion on the shoulder, and they both strolled out through the gaping door.
3
ROXY
I made it back in five minutes to the Alps, the apartment complex I stayed in. The twenty-story gray building was two blocks away from Connor University. Most of the university students who came from afar and lived away from their families stayed here as it was the nearest and cheapest accommodation they could find in town.
“Yo, bro!” shouted a familiar voice when I was at the door to my unit. My keys slipped from my trembling grip and clattered on the floor. I spun around and met my lesbian housemate Mandy Berger, stumbling out of the bathroom and pulling up her pants.
Even though Mandy was short for Amanda, she insisted on Emanuel, and happened to be one of my lucky cours
emates who got her final year project completed within two months because she got a hand-me-down project with all the optimized protocols from two seniors she’d coaxed into guiding her.
“I heard no music or TV. I thought you were out.” I scooped up the keys. Peeking into the deserted hallway one more time, I shut the door.
Mandy flopped onto the couch, folding her long legs under her. With a wave of her hand at the sensor, the cacophonous TV came alive. “You said something?”
I rolled my eyes.
