by Patra, CS
“We’ll let you go once we find your sister out here. Where did she go?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered. “We split up. That’s all I can say.”
“Leave Crystal alone. She’s not the one we need.” He heard someone else say. “When the time comes, we’ll go after her. Right now, we have the one we want.” Ash looked up and saw a woman approaching him. “You can rest easy, Ash. We don’t want much from you.”
“Get your goons off me first.” He could feel one of them press down on his arm and it made him wince. “Please…get off…”
It was a terrible sight. They had managed to pin Ash down while Crystal was hiding in the corner. Ash could feel that he was growing short of breath and was praying that this wasn’t an asthma attack. Someone had their knee buried into his side and he could feel the empty spot where his tooth had been. It was salty inside of his mouth as he tasted the blood. People were talking all around him and he could feel someone trying to pull up his shirt. He punched blindly and ended up hitting whoever was doing that.
“Leave me alone!” He snapped. “I swear to God, I’m going to…”
“Stop squirming so much, Ashton, and maybe things will go easier for you.” The woman stepped in front of the group and looked down at him. It wasn’t Dr. Chang, but he could tell that she wasn’t trustworthy. He still struggled despite how much pain he was in. He tried to control his breathing as much as possible. He couldn’t have an attack now. He would never be able to reach his inhaler in time. It had fallen out of his grasp and was too far for him to grab.
“Who are you?” He asked the woman. “What do you want with me?”
“It’s all right. I know everything about you, Ash. I know more about you than you know about me.” She said, brushing aside the hair on his forehead. He tried to move away from her hand. “I’m not going to hurt you...if you cooperate with me, that is. I’ve been watching you since you were created. I never expected you to grow into a handsome yet incredibly brilliant young man. Your brain is truly something worth marveling at. Your creativity is astounding.”
“I’m flattered,” Ash muttered. “I don’t think your goons attacked me for that reason though.”
“I want to make a deal with you.” She went on. “I know you were spying on the conference that night. I know you were there. Here’s the thing; I don’t like to kill anyone that’s as smart as you. You have far too much to offer. You are worth so much more than your brothers and sisters are. This place could use you even though you are young. You are of the age when you can legally work. Work for us and you’ll be safe.”
“I won’t,” Ash glowered at her. “I’m not giving you anything.”
“You didn’t even think twice about it. If you won’t work, then you can offer to hand over some of your inventions. They could help mankind. You would be well known for everything you did. Think about it, Ash. You’d finally get the respect you deserve.”
Ash didn’t want to think about it. “I am not letting you have any of my inventions. I won’t work for you. You can beat the crap out of me all you want. My answer is still no. Do what you want.”
“I was afraid you would say that,” she sighed. “Oh well, we can always make another one of you. All we need is a little donation from you.” She nodded at the woman who had the giant needle. “We can get that easily, with or without your consent.”
“You want to take my blood? How’s that going to help you?”
“It’s not your blood we’re after. You’ve got something more valuable in your bones.” Ash suddenly realized what she meant and tried to scream, but someone ended up covering his mouth. He began struggling and could feel an attack coming on. He was trying to reach for one of the smoke bombs. If he could just set one off, he could escape. ”You can scream all you want. No one is going to hear you.”
“Should I extract it from his pelvic bone?” Someone asked. “We need to numb him down.”
“No, don’t.” The woman said and Ash’s eyes widened at that. “Let him feel the pain. That will teach him not to spy on people.”
He could feel someone pull up his shirt and looked down at his side. “What is this? What do you have on your belt?”
Ash didn’t bother answering but he knew what they were talking about. Those spy-der’s were clipped to his belt but he couldn’t reach them. They were feeling around his waist and pelvic area. “What are you doing, you perverts?! If you don’t let me go right now…”
“Relax. It’s not what you think it is. We just want a little something from your pelvic bone. If you don’t squirm so much, this won’t hurt…too much.”
He needed to get out of this. If Crystal was going to save him, now was the time. He had given her one of his smoke bombs but she hadn’t used it yet. He could feel the sweat dripping down his forehead as they found his pelvic bone. The needle was large and he knew it was going to hurt. He tried hard to wiggle out but they had him pinned down. In the end, he was not strong enough and he could feel an attack coming on. If he didn’t get his inhaler, he was screwed.
“Now let’s see what lies inside of you…”
The smoke bomb went off at that moment and everyone pulled off his body. They were all coughing and he began to wheeze as soon as the cloth was off. Someone put the inhaler in his mouth and started to drag him away from the scene. He had no idea who it was or where he was going. He just needed to breathe. He clung to that inhaler for dear life and was pleased when he saw that they were in a clearing.
“Just breathe normally, okay?” He looked up and saw that it was Marie. This was the girl who had bought them all together. As of now, he knew very little about her except that she was also an experiment. She knew more about the Project 99 than anyone else. She was their only ally who had answers. “You are very lucky.”
Ash nodded, finding himself breathing normally again. He pulled the inhaler out of his mouth once he was sure he was fine. “Where did you come from?”
“Try not to talk so much. They were going to take your bone marrow from you,” she explained. “They would make clones of you and destroy you afterwards.”
“They can do that?”
“They created us. They can take us away.” She looked at his mouth, which was swollen. “Do you need a doctor?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Where’s Crystal?”
“Right here.” Crystal came up from behind and sat down next to him. “I was the one who threw the smoke bomb. I saw that damn needle and I knew I had to save you. I didn’t mean to trigger an asthma attack though.”
“It’s okay. I’m amazed I’m all right after one,” he said. “I thought I would be dying. I seem to be getting less asthma attacks these days.”
“Your body could be changing,” Marie suggested. “That happens as we get older. Things we had in the past start to disappear.” She looked around the corner. “I think they’re gone now. They stopped looking for us.”
“I lost a tooth.” Ash felt the empty spot with his finger. The bleeding had stopped but the pain was still there. “I have no idea where it went.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Crystal said. “It’s just a tooth. It’s one of your back teeth anyway so it’s not like anyone will notice.”
“My parents are going to notice my bruises though. That’s provided they look at me.”
“Bruises can heal. You’re here and that’s all that matters. What did they want from you anyway?”
“They wanted me to work for them. Then they asked for my inventions. I refused to hand them over,” he murmured. “It might have been smarter to do that but...I put a lot of work into this! I can’t let them have it! This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I don’t want to work for them. I certainly don’t want to sell anything to them either.”
“No, you did the right thing,” Marie said. “They would have used it for their own personal gain. You would never have gotten credit for your work. Afterwards, they would have killed you and used your DNA to make more pe
rfect humans.”
“It sounds like they can clone people,” Ash said.
“It’s entirely possible that they can. If they get every bit of your DNA, they could make a replica of you. However, they are not going to do that. They aren’t looking to make clones. They just want perfection.”
“Well, I don’t feel like perfection right now. This pain is killing me!” He rubbed his cheek. “I feel so sore and there’s something in my mouth.”
“What do you mean there’s something in your mouth?”
“I don’t know.” He put his fingers into his mouth and felt the hole. There was something dangling out of it and it made him feel sick. He tried hard not to gag at this. Carefully, he pulled it out and looked down at it. “Holy...”
It was a small piece of wire. It had been embedded into his gum and now it was knocked loose thanks to his missing tooth. He could feel his vomit coursing its way up his throat. As far as he knew, he didn’t have any dental work done in years. How could there be wire in his gum?
“It’s your serial number,” Marie explained. “It was embedded in you years ago.”
“My what?” Ash asked.
“It’s how they were able to keep track of you all these years. We all have one. You just managed to remove yours.”
“Wait, he removed what?” Crystal asked. “He’s got what now?”
“You heard me, Crystal. This is proof that you were an experiment.”
Ash looked down at it, still feeling sick in his stomach. If he had never pulled this out, he would have no idea it was in him. Shuddering, he turned to the others and held it out. It was very nerve-wracking to know that this was in him. This was a label. This was how they marked him. He felt the wire between his fingertips and said the one thing that was on his mind right then.
“What the hell am I?”
Chapter 10 – Ren
Ren heard about the attack only half an hour after it had happened. He wanted to be surprised by this but nothing surprised him anymore. Ash was doing all right. Once he had his inhaler and he had calmed down, he was back to normal. He was now icing the side of his mouth to numb the pain. He didn’t care that he had lost the tooth anymore. The wire bothered him.
This was something Ren had been wondering about. He had gone through many procedures over the years yet no one mentioned a wire to him. He had also gone to the dentist for yearly checkups yet no one said a thing. Was Marie right? Was the Bradley Institute keeping tabs on everyone? How had no one else picked up such a tiny wire? He had taken X-rays in the past yet they never discovered a wire. How deep was this thing buried in him?
“Come on. How come our doctors and dentists never noticed this before?” He asked the group. “Or did they notice and they just decided not to tell us?”
“I don’t think that’s the case. I doubt all our doctors would be in this together.” Jackie said, bringing more ice for Ash. They were now sitting in Ren’s place, trying to piece together what had just happened. Ash rubbed his face and took a deep breath. “I bet these things are deep inside of us. It doesn’t matter how many operations or procedures we have. They’re going to be hell to take out.”
“I’m just glad mine’s out,” Ash murmured. “I guess you could say I’m free.”
“I just don’t get it,” Ren said. “I thought an X-ray would affect the wire somehow. Not to mention, if they are tracking us, why haven’t they tried to stop us? Why aren’t they at every corner? I swear, up until now, I didn’t know of their existence.”
“Maybe they don’t want to make themselves known,” Misty said. “Or maybe there’s something that’s keeping them from tracking every move. You said that X-rays could mess this up, right? Maybe that’s what happened. Maybe we took so many X-rays over our lives, that the wire got messed up. It doesn’t work as well anymore.”
“The only X-rays I’ve ever taken were for my teeth,” Crystal said. “Your theory kind of makes sense, but I would think Project 99 would have thought of that. They would have taken all kinds of precautions.”
“Well, whatever the case, at least we know they were keeping tabs,” Doug said, looking over at Ash. “How are you feeling? Has the pain died down?”
“Yeah, the pain’s gone. My asthma is under control. Physically, I’m all right. I didn’t even realize that tooth was loose until it came out. I keep wondering what would happen if they hadn’t knocked me down to the ground.”
Ash kept looking at the wire that had come out of his mouth. It made sense that he would have something like this. After all, how else could Project 99 keep track of their experiments? He just wondered when this wire was implanted in him. He looked down at where the number was; 34537. That was what he was to them. He had been a number.
“The only way I can see them implanting this is when you were a baby,” Crystal told him. “You wouldn’t have any memory of it then. Did you ever feel anything in your mouth? I don’t feel anything in mine.”
“No, it was buried deep,”he said, holding it up to the light. “What do you think I should do with it? A part of me wants to destroy it so they can’t keep track of me anymore. Then there’s another part of me that thinks this holds more answers to my past.”
“Keep it hidden in a safe place,” Misty decided. “Do you think we should all get that tooth removed just to remove these wires?”
“It sounds easy but you don’t know which tooth the wire is buried under,” Nikhil said. “Ash just got lucky that his back tooth was the one that got knocked out.”
“I’m experiment number 34537,” he said. “It’s kind of disturbing that they see us as numbers and not people.”
“Who was the woman that tried to get your bone marrow?” Jackie asked. “You said it wasn’t Dr. Chang. Why wouldn’t they try to go after Crystal too?”
“I’m not sure. They said it’s because they wanted my inventions, but that can’t be the only reason. I’m amazed I managed to get out of that. I’m also shocked that my asthma attack didn’t last so long. I guess I’m starting to get rid of it.”
“I shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s like I told you earlier. Your bodies are going to change,” Marie said. “Some illnesses you had in the past won’t be so apparent anymore. On the flip side, you might also get other illnesses. That’s what happened to a lot of the experiments in the past. They developed diseases that almost killed them. In some cases, it did kill them. A lot of them couldn’t deal with their diseases or any changes. That’s why some of them committed suicide.”
“You think that might be the case with my brother?”
“I don’t know,” Marie shrugged. “Was your brother healthy?”
“He seemed healthier than I was. Of course, I don’t think I know who my brother was anymore.” Ash looked at the others. “Let’s change the subject. Did you guys find our chimera?”
“I’m trying,” Doug sighed. “She hasn’t been spotted by anyone in five years. True, some witnesses claimed to see her all over the world. However, it’s just like trying to spot Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster. None of the claims have much to back them up.”
“Do you think that there might be a phone number or an email or any way to contact her?” Jackie asked. “I can look through my records and see if a Patty DeLong ever bought medication from us. I doubt it though.”
“Maybe she’s using another name,” Misty suggested. “If I was her and I was hiding, I’d probably do that. Do you think you have a picture of her?”
“I looked on the website and there were too many pictures of different women. It’s hard to tell if any of them were her,” Pam said. “Face it. The Internet’s not going to help us. We just have a name to go on.”
“I do want to meet her,” Ren said. “I want to know how they managed to screw up my genes.”
“You know, now that Ash got that wire out of his mouth, they can’t follow him anymore,” Misty said. “You’re free from them.”
Ash blinked. “Are you sure? What if I have more wires in my mouth?”<
br />
“No, they would never waste time installing that many wires in you. They just put one in so they could follow your every movement. That’s all those wires are for; to see where you’re going,” Marie said. “You only have one serial number. That’s what you were called before you were born. Now that you’ve gotten it out, you are technically free.”
“Well, that’s just great. He’s free, but the rest of us aren’t,” Crystal said, trying to feel where her serial number was implanted. She didn’t have any pain in her teeth and she couldn’t figure out where else it could be. “I just want this thing out of me.”
“Don’t we all?” Jackie sighed. “Up until now, I had no idea we had anything implanted in us. Still, this is a good thing. Ash is free. They can’t monitor him anymore. That doesn’t mean he can’t monitor them.”
Ash perked up at that. “What are you trying to lead to, Jackie?”
“I mean that if anyone can spy on them, it’s you.” She pointed out. “They won’t be able to get a hold of you anymore.”
“Let’s take a look at these vials you collected,” Ren said, staring at the numbers on them. “14252, 23666, and 10112. They’re pretty similar to the serial number on your wire, Ash. I bet if we looked this up, we’d find out who they belong to.”
“Then let’s do that,” Nikhil said, putting himself in front of Ren’s computer. “Log me in please. Marie, do those numbers look familiar to you?”
Marie stared at them and shook her head. “They are definitely the numbers of perfect humans. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you who they belong to. I’m assuming that 10112 is a very old person. They must be one of the very first experiments.”
Ren logged Nikhil into his computer and stepped back. “All right, let’s see who all these people really are. Do you think we can find out if we went to the Bradley Institute’s website?”
“You can try. Don’t be surprised if you don’t find a thing though.”
Everyone watched as Nikhil clicked the link that said ‘Success Stories’. “I’m guessing that we can find out some names from this. At least, we might know some of the successes here.”
