“Why didn’t he tell me?” I’m hurt.
“I often wished he did. This is not an easy burden to carry.” She puts her hand on Rene’s glass case and looks at him.
I stare at her, hoping she will give me more. I grow anxious and I can’t stand in that room surrounded by secrets anymore so I leave. As I walk out I can see Ev sit in the chair next to Rene.
When I get out of the medical ward I weigh my options and, instead of heading back to my room, I decide to explore what I can of the scientists’ wing. I try to avoid being seen as I walk but after a while I realize that no one is paying attention to me. The drones and scientists I pass are all going about their business. Most of the hallways look similar to those in Ev and my part of the compound. I can only assume that most of the doors I pass are bedrooms. I poke my head into a couple of rooms that have ‘Lab’ labeled on them, but they are exactly as advertised. Nothing that I see seems out of the ordinary.
I’m about to head back to my room when I spot Grant at the end of the hallway I am in. He’s hustling towards a set of doors with a keypad so I decide to follow him. I make my way as silently as I can down the hallway but Grant seems too preoccupied with entering his password to notice I’m walking towards him.
When I feel that I’ve gotten as close as I can before he sees me, I duck into one of the rooms with the ‘Lab’ label and wait. He finishes deactivating the lock and walks in. I make a quick decision, knowing that if I don’t run now I might not get another chance. So I run for the door as it starts closing.
“Stop!” I hear someone say behind me. I glance back and notice a drone chasing after me. There is no turning back now, so I dive for the other side of the door just before it shuts behind me. I look back through the window of the door and see the drone run off in the opposite direction. They will know I’m in here soon so I better find out what I can.
I see Grant turn the corner at the end of the hall. This hall looks the same as all the others so I have no desire to check in the doors even though I have no idea what this part of the compound is. I decide to follow Grant as far as I can.
After turning down a couple of hallways Grant walks into one of the rooms. The hallways in this part of the compound are empty. There are no drones or scientists walking around. Somehow I get the sense that this is the heart of the compound. I walk up to the door that Grant walked through and see that it’s labeled ‘Surveillance Room’. Chills rush up my spine because I just realized that have probably had cameras on me my entire life watching everything I do. It doesn’t really surprise me but I guess that’s one secret I preferred to remain naïve to.
I take a deep breath and slowly push the door open. Luckily there is no one right there so I am able to slide into the room without being noticed. I keep my back against the back wall and am very cautious about making any noise.
What I see before me nearly makes me scream. The room is enormous. At least twenty scientists sit at various stations with monitors in front of them. The monitors are much more advanced than those in the room I was in with Hawk. The scientists swipe the screens and new images appear. All the images on the screens seem foreign to me except for a select group on the left that show the compound.
I search the room for Grant and spot him behind a small group of scientists who are frantically swiping across their screens.
“Put it up on the wall,” Grant demands. One of the scientists does a few things on his screen with his hands and suddenly the wall across from me comes to life and a giant image of Earth appears. I recognize it from pictures I’ve seen in books and holograms, but those pale in comparison to what I see before me. It’s so big and blue. It very easily could be a picture from thousands of years ago because from this distance there is no indication that life has existed. It’s beautiful.
“Let me see Cairo,” Grant says as he walks to the wall. The image zooms from that of Earth to a city in ruins. It must be near the compound because I see the pyramid as the image focuses on the city center. People run around carrying guns. Others appear to be controlling large machines. The city is overrun with trash and rubble. It is not the organized markets and houses that I read about in the books.
“Get me closer to the ground.” Grant does not avert his eyes from the wall. The giant image reduces to half the size in the middle of the wall. Smaller images frame the center image. These images give closer shots of what I saw before. I see now that amongst the rubble and trash are also sick and even dead people. I stifle a gasp as I witness the pain and loss. “Take them around the city,” Grant tells the scientists.
Almost in unison, about 5 scientists place their palms on their screens and the images rise up in altitude. Manipulating their hands in different directions, the scientists fly whatever cameras they are controlling around the city. By the screens on the wall I can tell that whatever object they are flying has a camera pointed in four different directions, covering a complete panoramic view of the streets. As they fly around, the images show that some of the people are moving in a very organized manner. They to be transporting guns and scrap metal.
Grant puts his hands on the top of his head. “This isn’t good.”
Suddenly two of the screens project something very odd. They both have dragonflies hovering in the center of the screen. I step closer to get a better look and realize that those are the cameras.
“Atom!” It’s Grant’s voice. This snaps me out of my trance and I realize that I have walked right into the center of the room. Most of the scientists have turned to look at me and Grant’s stare is somehow inflicting pain.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He storms at me and leads me out of the room by my arm. His grip will definitely leave a bruise.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” I try to plea my case but I know it won’t matter. I’m definitely going to be in trouble. He looks up and down the hallway. There are two drones at one end.
“You two. Take Atom directly back to his room.” He turns his attention to me. “We will talk about this later.”
I don’t object and I just let the drones lead me back to my room. All I want to do is lay in my bed. I shut the door behind me and lay my head on my pillow. I stare at the ceiling, my head swirling with thoughts. The things I saw on the monitors, 80, Rene, the other Genetic Systems, the outsiders, the end of the world. I find it hard to focus on any single thing. They all have me so worked up that I haven’t realized that I have balled up my hands into fists and I am digging my nails into my palms.
I must have been exhausted because before I know it I’m dreaming. I’m flying above the city like the dragonfly cameras and everywhere I look the outsiders are being shot down by drones. I fly in for a closer look and see that every face on the drones is my face. I maneuver closer still to the drones with my likeness and I try hard to stop them from killing the outsiders, but I can’t. I’m helpless.
A knock at my door wakes me from my dream. I’m sweating and the sudden knowledge that I am about to get yelled at by Grant doesn’t help. I rise to my feet slowly, hoping that maybe he will go away, but instead there is another knock. I answer the door and my fear changes to confusion when I see 80 standing in my doorframe, bandages still covering half his face.
“Hey 80.” I step aside to let him in.
He walks in. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s alright. What’s up?” I sit on my bed and he remains standing.
“I wanted to apologize for earlier.” He seems uneasy. “And I wanted to thank you for saving my life.”
“Of course.” I smile. We both look at each other in silence and then I realize that this might be my best chance to ask him the question that’s been brewing in my mind. “Why is it so hard for you to want to live?”
80’s shoulders fall. He looks back into the hallway and I realize that he is too scared to talk here. He’s probably not allowed to talk about this and he’s afraid someone might hear.
I quickly grab my blanket and lead him ou
t my door. We head to the library and climb up to the roof. He follows me without saying a word. I lay the blanket down and sit on it. He sits next to me. The sun is just now dropping below the horizon so the sky is orange and red. I have always loved this time of day.
“What is this place?” he asks.
“It’s where I come to think. No one ever bothers me up here. We are safe to talk about anything.” I’m trying to make him feel comfortable.
“What is that over there?” He points to the top of the pyramid.
I smile. “That’s the Great Pyramid of Giza. The ancient Egyptians built it over 5,000 years ago to honor the dead.”
“Why would anyone want to honor the dead?” He strains his eyes to get a better look.
That’s not something I had thought about before. “I guess it’s so that people don’t forget them. It’s a way to commemorate the accomplishments they made in their life. It gives meaning to their life.”
“It’s just life.” He says matter-of-factly.
A part of me knows he’s right. There really isn’t much to life. I remember about a week ago sitting out here and taking in the size of the universe and realizing that our galaxy is nothing but a dot on the giant cosmic map and that Earth itself is nothing more than a dot in our galaxy. Whatever we do here on Earth or on Mars now will go unnoticed. Whatever humanity accomplishes together will never be acknowledged, especially once we destroy it. It makes me sad to know this but I guess that’s why I spend most of my life thinking on a smaller scale. Ignorance is bliss.
“Is this why it’s hard for you to want to live?” I ask.
The slight smile he had on his face is now replaced with a frown. “There is no reason to live. Right now I feel like I’m just occupying space.”
“I guess I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to survive.” I’m frustrated that I can’t figure him out.
“It’s never crossed my mind. Until today all that was ever on my mind was to protect you and Ev at all costs. I didn’t care about myself or what might happen to me. I just followed my orders. Then, as I lay in that bed I started thinking about stuff.” He looks as though he is processing as he speaks. He reminds me a little of the first day after I was born. I was so curious.
“What were you thinking?” I pry.
“Why am I here? When I was part of the Intergers we were never taught to ask why. We just accepted everything as it was. We protect and we die. Those are our only two functions.” He lies back on the blanket. “It all seems absurd. We should want more.”
That was a lot more than I thought would come from him. I had never heard of the Intergers before. That must be what the drones call themselves. It is absurd that protect and die are all they care about. Were they programmed to be that way? I never really thought about the capacity of what the scientists in this compound can do, but it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. I learned about the mapping of the human genome in one of my classes, so it would be safe to assume that they could isolate certain genes and manipulate them. More questions clutter my head but one thing is certain, there are too many secrets in this compound and I am tired of being in the dark. I don’t care how much trouble I get into; I am going to find out everything I can about what they are doing here and, more importantly, why I was created.
80 turns to me. “What do you think they are going to do with me?”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Well, they can’t use me for protection anymore and I’m clearly not a scientist.” He smiles at me and I chuckle. His little joke is the most human thing I have seen him do. It almost seems like he is evolving as we speak.
“I really don’t know. There are a lot of things I don’t know about here but I am hoping to change that.” I really am.
80 winces in pain and slowly sits back up. “I’m going to head back to the medical bay. My head is starting to hurt again. Thanks for talking with me.” He stands and walks over to the ladder.
“I’m here almost every night. Come up any time you like.” I smile at him and he smiles back as he climbs down.
It’s fairly warm tonight so I decide to curl up with my blanket and sleep up here. I would rather not be disturbed right now and a large part of me is afraid to face Grant. I know he won’t find me up here. I look up at the vast, dark night sky above me and, though there are so many things that could be occupying my mind, I fall asleep thinking how small and insignificant I am.
5
Over the next three days I try to stay under the radar. Ev and my classes resume. We learn about art and music. Some of it doesn’t make sense and I just don’t understand. Brianna says that everything that is artistic is subjective but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Ev. She seemed to love everything. It even brought her to tears a few times. Our training sessions with Grant were postponed because of all the work he was doing in that surveillance room. In fact, I haven’t seen him since the incident in the surveillance room. I’m hoping that he’s forgotten that he is mad at me.
80 came to visit me on the roof once. He asked me about all the things that Ev and I had been learning and I happily shared. He seemed to take a genuine interest in biology and chemistry. I asked him about Breekbal. He explained that it’s a game where two teams of ten players attempt to get balls into the other team’s pit, a four foot hole in the ground at the opposite end of the field. He said that there are no rules as to how a team gets a ball into the pit and that the games would get so physical that drones would get injured and have to be put down. The game sounds very dangerous, which may be why I’m dying to play it.
When I woke up today though, something felt off. People seemed to be a little more on edge and there seemed to be more activity in the hallways than usual. Ev seemed to have picked up on it as well because after our morning class she walks with me back to my room.
“Have people seemed a little weird to you today?” she asks.
“Yes. They all seem tense. What do you think is going on?” I open the door to my room. She walks in and I follow. Before I am able to close the door I hear someone call out my name. The deep and slightly threatening tone can only belong to one person. Grant. I sit on my bed next to Ev and wait. “He’s a little angry with me. You may not want to be around for this.”
“What did you do?” She looks at me, concerned. I haven’t told her about my expedition to the surveillance room; if she sticks around I won’t have to.
Grant appears in the doorway and Ev stands. “Actually Ev, you should stay.”
She sits back down and I can tell she’s a bit scared because she grabs my hand. We haven’t really touched each other for days and I forgot how it felt because I am surprised by how fast my heart is beating and how nervous I suddenly get.
I know he hasn’t forgotten about my sneaking around so I try to diffuse the tension I’m feeling. “I’m sorry about—”
“—Atom, you need to observe boundaries and not go where you aren’t supposed to.” He’s gentler than I expected.
“Why?” I know I’m stoking the flame.
“For your own protection. There are things that you aren’t meant to see,” he responds.
I can tell that he is trying to remain calm and that’s having the opposite effect on me. “Protect us from what? Why are you hiding things from us?” I snap.
He takes a deep breath. “This is not a discussion, Atom. You will do as you are told.”
“Or else what? You will kill me like you do the drones? You won’t let me destroy the world with you?” My face feels warm from the blood that has rushed up to my head. I would have never imagined that I’d be yelling at my favorite teacher.
Grant looks at Ev. “You should tell him.”
“You tell me, you coward!” I scream at him.
He clenches his fists and holds back a punch that I’m sure he wishes he could throw. Instead he turns to walk out. “I thought you should know that Rene is being woken up in a couple of hours.” With that he shuts the door behind him.
“Tell me what?” I turn and lean my back against the door. I am not going to let her leave until I get the answer I want.
“Please sit, Atom, you’re making me nervous.” She moves further down on the bed and I sit on the end.
I take a few deep breaths and try to calm myself down. “Please tell me everything. I don’t want to have any secrets between us.”
“I don’t either.” She grabs my pillow and holds it up to her stomach as if to protect herself. “What do you know about the end of the world?”
“Just that we are the ones who are going to destroy it.” I turn to face her to make sure that I can see her eyes. I want to make sure she doesn’t lie.
“Well that’s not entirely true. It’s Rene and the other scientists who intend on destroying the world. More specifically, they plan to wipe out humanity.” She’s been struggling with this information for a while.
It still doesn’t make sense to me. “Why?”
“I asked Rene the same thing and what he told me was that the human race was driving itself extinct. Wars, disease, famine were all taking their toll on humans. He said that in the last 100 years the population had been cut by more than half because the ice age forced the hand of chaos. He believes that the only way to truly save the human race is to start over.” She grips my pillow tighter.
“Is that what you believe?” I’m not sure what answer I want to hear.
“I don’t know. I didn’t think so, but that attack on the compound a few days ago has made me reconsider. They were such savages. Not just the outsiders, but everyone. The drones, the scientists, everyone.” A couple of tears roll down her face and she wipes them on my pillow. I wonder how many tears have graced her pillow.
“What about us?” I’m afraid of the answer I’m about to get. Whatever it is, I don’t believe it will be what I want to hear.
She looks deep into my eyes. “You and I, and I’m guessing the other Genetic Systems as well, we are the restart. When everything and everyone else is gone, we are supposed to find E.D.E.N. and start the human race over.”
Gene. Sys. Page 5
