by CS Patra
The video was suddenly cut off to reveal a woman talking to the camera. Judging from her state of mind, she was not well. She coughed and looked at the camera. "Do not go to the Bradley Institute. If you are getting this video, do not listen to what they say. Everything is a lie. Everything is a lie. Everything is a lie."
"Who is this?" Crystal leaned forward and stared at the video. "Why is she repeating herself?"
Before anyone could answer her, the girl went on. "You don't know what is happening here. They tell you so much... and they don't keep promises. I cannot stress this enough. Do not go there! This is my final warning."
Without saying anything else, the girl took a gun, put it to her head, and blew her brains out.
Chapter 8 – Pam
Pam was not expecting to see a suicide on the video when Ash popped it in. As soon as she realized what was happening, she reeled back and covered her eyes. She regretted it a minute later, realizing she should have covered Misty and Ash's eyes instead. These were young children who didn't need to see this. Both of them were shocked by what they had seen. Misty even jumped back and Ash closed his eyes when she pulled the trigger.
"You should have given us a warning!" She scolded Nikhil once the tape was over. "You told us that it was just an orientation video!"
"I'm sorry. I popped in the wrong tape." Nikhil apologized, taking it out. "In all honesty, I didn't go that far in the video either."
"You mean you haven't seen the whole thing?" Doug asked. "How could you make us watch it without seeing?"
"That bit at the end wasn't what I wanted you to see. I wanted you to see the orientation video. I have no idea who that girl is or why she said everything is a lie." Nikhil murmured. "All I wanted to do was show you who Dr. Chang was and let you hear about the Bradley Institute."
"Well, clearly you should have watched this ahead of time." Ren said. "No one wanted to see that. You've got some underage kids in here!"
"It's okay." Misty cut in. "I'm all right. Really. I've seen shows and movies with a lot worse in them."
"Same here." Ash added. “I’m curious if anything. Who was she? Was she another Perfect Human or someone that fell in too deep with all this?”
“I wish I had an answer to that, my friend.” Nikhil said. “She didn’t give a name or anything. I’ve looked at the websites and she doesn’t appear to be in any of them. I don’t think she’s a staff member at Bradley Institute. My guess is that she was an experiment, but something happened so she had to end her life.”
“Are you afraid that’s going to happen to us as well?” Crystal asked.
“It could.” Nikhil nodded. “As long as we stick together, we’ll be safe. So far, Project 99 hasn’t come after us. We haven’t done anything to alert them of any danger. We have to keep playing dumb for now. Since the hour is almost up and some of you need to go home now, I suggest we meet up again later this week. Do some of the research on your own.” He handed everyone his business card. “Exchange numbers with each other. I have a feeling this is not the last time we will be in a room together.” He nodded to them. “I’ll see you out the door and show you how to get back the arena parking lot. Misty, you can call your sister from here.”
They disbanded and went home to think about what they knew. Nikhil saw them all leave and hoped that they would come back for more answers. He also hoped that he would have some for them. It was a long night and he needed the sleep.
Pam decided now wasn't the time to mention this to her children. After all, Aiden was seven and Adriana was five. They were in school when she was at work and her parents took care of them on the days that Pam went to her classes. This was a degree that she wanted so badly. She had gone to college like everyone else, but when her father fell ill, she had to leave it behind and go back home to help her mother out. It also meant having to go to work and earning some money. They didn't have a whole lot of money for her to keep going to school at the same time. In between all that time, she began taking courses at the community college and earned her associates degree in business management. It was enough for her to get a nice job as a receptionist at the dentist office even if it didn't deal with her degree. She was there from eight to five and then she would pick up the children from their after school activities to take them home. The night belonged to them and she would make their dinner while they took their showers and did homework.
By the time she got in the house, the children were asleep. She picked them up from her mother’s place and apologized for taking a long time. She lied to say that she had no idea how long this was going to take. Her mother didn’t ask any questions regarding that. She let Pam take the children home and asked that her daughter leave a message if she was going to be late next time.
“I will.” Pam said as she got the children in their seats. “School has been tough, Mom. I knew it would be hard to go back, but this is stressful.”
“You want that degree, don’t you?” Her mother asked.
“I have to finish it, yes.”
“Then finish it. You’re almost there. You’ll be done before you know it.”
Her mother was right about this. Pam decided to go get her bachelors once Aiden started school. This time, she was going to finish that engineering that she had started on so many years ago. Business was fun, but she wanted to head towards the sciences now. There weren't too many women in her field of chemical engineering so she stood out. However, she stood out in a good way and had made straight A’s her first two semesters. She was well on her way to completing that degree now. It didn't matter that she was in her forties and studying with a bunch of younger students. She was making it. She finally had enough money to buy a nice townhouse, enroll at the local university which had a nice engineering program, and have enough money left over to start college funds for the children. Life was where she wanted it be right now.
However, this new information had her reeling. Seeing a girl kill herself on tape was bad enough. The fact that they were all part of some experiment scared her even more. She had no idea what they really were or how they could fuse with each other. The only thing this information made her was curious. She wanted to know more about her past. The one person she had to talk to was her mother.
Her father passed away shortly after she returned home, but her mother could have the information she needed. She would learn what she really was. She looked down at her hands as she thought about what she had seen. She had almost skipped out on going to that arena, but something made her go down there. She saw someone kill himself and it made her feel guilty. She felt like she could have done something, but that was clearly not the reason she was there. She was led down there to the arena to find out the truth.
I can't be some freak of nature. She told herself. I can't have been sold to science. This doesn't make any sense. I'd believe it if it was someone else, but not my family. They would never do this to hurt me. They can't do that.
All the same, she had to learn everything. Once she put the dishes in the dishwasher and checked up on the children, she decided to sit at the computer and do some of her own research on the Bradley Institute and Project 99. She also wanted to find out more about the woman who killed herself on that video. What did she mean by everything was a lie? How many more people killed themselves like that?
She decided to check out the Bradley Institute website first and saw that there wasn't very much on it. They had the same orientation video without the suicide in it, but that was all. There were the same promises that people could pick what kind of children they wanted. They could pick out the gender, race, and other traits they wanted their child to have. It just seemed so strange. Pam was happy with the two children that she had and she didn't want to pick what traits they should have. Clearly, others were more interested.
The next thing she looked up was Project 99. Apparently, the project was closed off fourteen years ago and they were now looking forward to Project 100. Project 99 was supposed t
o be the last group of Perfect Humans. They were the last ones who were supposed to be able to fuse and become a stronger human. However, the fusions weren't perfect. According to some of the comments that she read, many of them became monsters who could not split up again.
"Good God." She whispered as she stared at some of the pictures. "What are these things?"
"Mom!" She heard Aiden call from above. "I need help!"
Pam quickly closed the browser down. "I'll be there in a second!"
She tried to regain her composure as she thought about what she had seen. The Bradley Institute was real. Project 99 was real. Perfect Humans were real. All she really wanted to know was where she fit into this big picture. She didn’t want to believe that she was a lab rat.
One thing she did see about Project 99 was that about thirty-five years ago, some of the experiments became incredible aggressive and the results weren’t perfect. Anyone that was born then and afterwards was infertile. It explained why the hell she was able to have children as she could have been created before the aggressive experiments. She just wondered if the others knew about this.
It had been a while since she had studied genetics in school, but this was making her want to switch majors. She couldn't do this now since she had come so far and it would be terrible to change. She didn't even know how many of her credits would transfer over. What she could do at the moment was do some research on genetic anomalies. She didn't know if this was what she would classify herself as, but that was what she felt like.
She found a few articles on them, but it didn't seem like she had any of the problems that some of these people had. She had always been healthy. The worst was being just a tiny bit overweight, but she was fine otherwise. Her blood pressure was good as was her cholesterol. Both of her pregnancies went well. The doctors were surprised by how smooth everything was handled. This was the first time that she had heard that she could possibly be different.
Once she found an article regarding people made by Project 99, she was surprised to see that many of the experiments had health problems. Some had been born with respiratory problems and others developed them over time. Having asthma was not uncommon among them. Also, the experiments that had children could pass their genes down to their kids.
So what does that mean for my kids? She wondered, looking up at the staircase. They were still chatting and moving around so they were fine.
But how long was that going to last?
Chapter 9 – Doug
Doug had not gone down to that arena expecting any sort of trouble. He had been headed in that direction because of the message. A young girl showed up at his office and told him that he needed to be there. He didn't understand why, but she told him that it was necessary. It had a lot to do with his past. Normally, he would have ignored this message, but he was also very curious. He decided to stay for only a few minutes and then go home. If nothing happened, then things would be fine.
On the way to the arena in the underground tunnel, he came across a second-hand bookstore. They were having a small sale where a lot of books were a dollar. He did a little browsing around until he found what he was looking for. Hidden in the midst of all the romance and erotica novels was a copy of Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. He couldn't believe his luck when he found it. He bought that along with a small book of Lord Alfred Tennyson's poetry. If this battle ended up being boring, at least he had some books to keep him company. He could spend his time reading.
Oh, he didn't get any time to read during that night. He found himself sitting next to Ash Blackwell who was a lot younger, but very bright. He could see the intelligence in the younger boy's eyes and wished that they could have had a longer conversation. As soon as the battle started, a man came down and told the audience that everything was a lie. He couldn't understand what this meant. Before they could react, the man lit himself on fire and died right there. It was the first time Doug had seen anyone do that in front of him. He was surprised that he wasn't more traumatized by it.
Now he was home after the meeting at Nikhil's place. He was still feeling a little fuzzy inside as he tried to think of what happened. When he came home, his wife Susan was wondering about him. He was gone longer than he needed to be and he didn't tell her much about what happened. In reality, he was still thinking about all of it.
We are someone's lab rats. We were all born in the same lab, but at different times. He thought as he dragged himself to his computer. Susan still wanted to know what he was up to, but he tried to tune her out. It wasn't like him to ignore his wife. Susan was a loving woman and she put up with a lot over the years. She had no problem taking care of the children if Doug wanted to go up to the mountains for a weekend. She was right there to support him in everything. He was grateful that he had someone like her in his life and he never wanted to let her go. However, he had to find some answers on his own.
"Are you all right, Doug?" Susan asked him. "You look spooked."
"I'm not sure if I am okay, Susan," he murmured. "I need to do some research right now. Let me try to relax a little bit and then I'll come to bed, okay?"
Susan nodded. "Okay, Doug. You can come to bed when you're ready."
He let her go at that moment and thought about the life that he had. It wasn't a glamorous life in any means, but it was good enough. They had enough money to survive and they had raised three great children. All of their kids were educated, he had a good job at the university, and he was a minister on the side. He could marry couples during the weekend and was active in his church. He was all about the nice house with a white picket fence life. Now that life was starting to unravel and he didn't know how he could put it back together.
At fifty-six, he was close to retiring. He wanted to retire, but knew it was too early to do so. He was only teaching three classes this semester, but it felt like he was at work for most of the day. Sometimes, he didn't get home until nine-thirty or ten at night. His wife, Susan, would have his dinner on the table for him so he would heat it up, eat that, take a shower, and then head to bed. His life was mundane for the most part. Tonight, however, changed all that. He had questions in his mind that he never thought to ask before.
There was no point in confronting his parents as they were both dead now. He could never get the truth from them. However, reading about people wanting perfect children made him think about his own kids. There was no way he would ever want them to go through this. He couldn't imagine selling them to science just because they weren't perfect.
There had to be a reason why they did this. He thought, looking at all the papers that he had printed out. Much of this information was stuff that Nikhil had told him earlier. The project started a few years before Doug had been born. It was a very risky experiment, but one that proved to be a success. That was why they continued it throughout the years. His group was known as Project 99 and every baby that had been born it was given the ability to fuse and become a stronger human. Together, they would become what was known as a Perfect Human. However, no one had mentioned how one did this.
"Doug, you've been in front of that computer for the last two hours. Will you at least tell me what happened at your meeting?" Susan asked.
"Truth be told, Susan, I'm not sure what happened." Doug admitted. "I found out some things that I'm still trying to figure out. So far, I've been unsuccessful."
"Are you in some kind of trouble?"
"No, I haven't done anything. I swear to you. It's just that I found out some stuff about the past that is really messing with my mind." Doug admitted, looking down at the papers. "How well do you think you know me, Susan?"
"Doug, we have been married for thirty years. I think I know you by now."
"Yes, but what do you know?" He challenged her. "What have I told you that you can still remember?"
Susan didn't quite understand this request, but decide to rattle off everything that she knew. "Well, I know you are the oldest of three children. I know you graduate
d from college with a degree in English. You also got your masters and PhD in that as well. You love shrimp and those cheddar biscuits at that one restaurant we love. You love to fish when the time is right. You love snow though you hate shoveling it. You also hate scraping the ice off the windshield. You love climbing and hiking and being outdoors. As far as I can tell, you love me and the children."
"I still do." Doug promised her. "Do you know about my past?"
"Your past? Are you a criminal in hiding or something?"
"Susan, I'm being serious."
"So am I! Doug, it's okay if you did something horrible in the past! I'm here for you now!"
"That's the thing. I haven't done anything horrible, Susan. I'm not a criminal. I'm not hiding a criminal past. I was looking for a more... science type answer."
"Science type answer?"
"I think I'm not who I was supposed to be." Doug explained. "My parents probably knew more about me than I did. Unfortunately, I can't ask them the questions I have."