by Thomas Shaw
DW Construction Unit 2
The name Darren Cole. I was sure that was the name mentioned by the two people I had cornered in the building downtown. I could picture him. Dark, shortly shaven hair. I was like looking through water. His voice was intoxicating, a voice that I would follow to the end. In my mind he was speaking to me, but it was hard to make out exactly what he was saying. A memory perhaps? One whilst I was in a stasis tank? It would explain the Blu-ray image and the muffled voice.
Throughout reading, I had memories of throwing up in the toilet, from insufferable headaches and seeing bright lights. Memories of my suffering I think.
The date as well, I hadn’t noticed it before, but it was back in 2107 when we joined, four years ago! Even if I could find out who I was, was there any point?
Halfway through it mentioned a "Guardian Project". I needed to find out what I could about this too. And the emails confirmed my thoughts, that we were "superior".
I was also trying to understand the outburst from the 6th of June, but it seemed at that point the scientist wasn’t replying. There were no records of murders and I couldn’t remember killing anyone. I made a mental note to ask someone about it later, see if they had any memory about this, or if it was another area of this facility.
And at the end of it all we were just left in stasis, or so it seemed. Darren left to look into this "Sentry", whoever he was, and told the scientist to keep us locked up! But at least he acknowledged that we would be useful. Maybe he understood what we were capable of but was waiting till we were needed. I needed to find him.
As I continued though the files I found interview notes between the test subjects and the lead scientist. I read them and re read them, trying to get something out of them that may hint to who I was:
Date of interview: 25/06/2108
Subject: 001C
Interviewer: Dr. Edward Wright
Testing Phase: 1.0
Dr. Wright: Charlie, good afternoon, how are you feeling?
001C: I’m ok. Not slept much but that’s normal for me I suppose.
Dr. Wright: Yes, the drug will take some time to get going. Have you noticed a decrease in headaches? Do you feel like you need to vomit less?
001C: In all honesty, nothing feels different. I hate to say it, but it feels like I haven’t even had the shot yet.
Dr. Wright: Well it has only been five days now. What we will do is administer the drug every Friday until we see some changes, ok?
001C: Ok. Am I ok to go?
Dr. Wright: Of course. We’ll see you back here on the 27th then.
Transcribed by Dr. E Wright
My name was Charlie. I had a small memory of that day. I remember it being warm but breezy outside. I remember going to the cinema straight afterwards, but the film I saw, and everything else, was lost to me.
I continued to read on:
Date of interview: 15/01/2109
Subject: 002M
Interviewer: Dr. Edward Wright
Testing Phase: 2.0
Dr. Wright: Matthew, I’m sorry I’m running late, had a bit of an issue with the higher ups, hope you understand.
002M: Whatever.
Dr. Wright: Okay then. It’s been just over a month since we last administered your dose. The cancer cells seem to have stopped growing, however we’re not seeing any signs of them disappearing. How have you been feeling in yourself?
002M: Do you really care?
Dr. Wright: Of course I care Matthew. I want to see you get better.
002M: Do you? Or do you just want to see your drug working?
Dr. Wright: Matthew, what’s going on? You don’t seem yourself.
002M: I’m sorry doctor. I just keep feeling tense and stressed. I just can’t be bothered to deal with anything lately.
Dr. Wright: That’s ok. I want you to tell me how you feel though. I need to see the side effects as well as the positive outcomes. Look, I’ve kept you waiting a long time, I’ve given you your news, you can go now.
002M: Are you sure. I am sorry
Dr. Wright: I’m sure you are. I’ll be in touch in a few days. Go home, get some rest.
Transcribed by Dr. E Wright
Another year later, and still no cure it seemed. I wondered if the failure of the drug attributed to Darren stepping down from the company. Also, it seemed Two, or Matthew, was becoming agitated with the new version of the drug.
I was cut off from reading by Four bursting into the room, “We have people” he announced proudly.
I stood up from behind the desk with a smile, “Good. Get them down here”
6
Making a drug from scratch, with no knowledge of chemistry was frustrating. I was reading it from the notes I had found, using equipment we had assumed had gone together, which didn’t ease the process. Three and Five had cooked up a large batch of the serum. And from the notes I had found this would be version 3.3.
Two and Four marched their people in. They were clearly the forgotten ones in life: scraggy clothing, matted hair. The men had unkempt facial hair, the women’s faces looked sunken and rough. I counted them as the stepped inside the laboratory. Eight men and three women. This was perfect.
The laboratory was mainly white in colour and very clean and the countertops and tables shimmered, reflecting the spotlights above. Half filled beakers and vials were dotted around the room, all containing various chemicals used to make the drug. At one end of the room was a large bioreactor that was mixing the latest dose of the drug. At the other end, the eleven men and women stood against the wall. Half looked nervous, the others looked half asleep.
I leaned towards Two, “Do they know why you’ve brought them here?” I asked him, preparing for what I was about to say.
“These are the ones that didn’t scream or run away. They’re either extremely high, or extremely desperate because when I told them why we wanted them, they joined, no questions asked”
“That’s a good thing” I said with a smile. I stepped forward and addressed our new volunteers, “My name is One. I have brought you here so we can make you new, make you better people. My friends and I have been transformed into the next step in human evolution. We are giving you the same gift”
A group of uninterested faces stared back. I felt like talking to the lab equipment, I would’ve probably got more of a response. I sighed and asked them to get into line. They did, slowly shuffling into some sort of order. I had Three injecting them as they stood and then Five walked them out of the corridor, down some stairs and into a room that himself and Three had found earlier containing more stasis chambers. They had found rows and rows of them. It seemed that the room we awoke in was an observational room, for seeing how the cure was developed. This looked like the room that they would use to cure the public, should the cure have actually worked.
I rubbed my eyes and sighed at the blatant unthankfulness of the people as they walked out without muttering a single word.
“Did you see them?” I turned to Two, “We offer them thus gift and they look at us with no respect!”
“One, you seem agitated, is everything ok?” Two said facing me.
“Really? After everything we’ve been through? The troubles we’ve gone through to get this far, Of course I’m not ok!” I snapped.
Two flinched slightly but took a breath, “You need to calm down”
“I need to calm down?” I scoffed, “Maybe you should just-“ I stopped suddenly. What was wrong with me? It was like the people’s rudeness had triggered me into some sort of rage. I placed a hand gently on Twos shoulder, “I’m sorry my friend. This lack of sleep gets to me”
“Me too. What would you have us do?”
I thought for a moment and looked at the bioreactor, “How much have we got there?”
“Enough for at least twenty more doses”
“We need more people, we need our numbers to grow. Go out with Five. Gather more”
Two nodded and headed out. I was aching all over and very st
ressed. My heart was beating hard and I needed something to get this energy out of me. I thought about the drug me and Seven had found and remembered he had taken some from the lab. I wondered if he had anymore, it helped me to sleep, maybe that would calm me down.
Seven was sat in the middle of the surveillance room on a swivel chair, which was much too small for him. Three of the four walls were just screens. Various security images were displayed, showing multiple views of New London. Seven didn’t turn his head when I walked in, but he knew it was me.
“How goes the experiment?” He asked with a hint of distraction. He was fixated on the screens as they changed to different angles.
“It’s going well. We’ve managed to copy the formula and have already administered it into several test subjects”
Seven snorted, "Test subjects. You sound like them”
“If I sound like them it’s because I can actually see what they were trying to achieve. And how do you know that’s how they sound?”
Seven turned to me. His face looked sinister in the dark, with only the light from the screens, “I’ve read their files too One. Did you think I was just sat up here looking at the footage all this time? I’ve been trying to remember who I am. But I can’t. Nothing comes to mind like the others. What about you?”
“My name is...was Charlie. There was something wrong with me that they were trying to fix”
“There was something wrong with all of us. And now it’s something even worse”
I thought Seven understood. I thought he had my back with this, “Worse? Seven look at us. We have strength, power and amazing reflexes. We are more improved than ever”
“If what you’re saying is true, and you believe it without question, then why are you asking people if they want this power? Shouldn’t you be giving it to them so they can experience it”
I smiled, “Yeah, they would wouldn’t they”
“Then focus on that my friend. You won’t get anywhere asking and being nice. You have to act like a leader” He said and then he turned back to his screen watching.
I stood, still by the door, watching the back of this mountain of a person.
“Seven. Do you have...”
Without turning he answered my question, “Any more of the drug? No”
I left the room and looked down the dark grey corridor towards the end of the hall. I thought about going back into the room to ask Seven if he remembered anything about murders. However, if he couldn’t remember anything like me, then I doubt he would have any knowledge, and the way he cut me off made it sound like he was busy. I set off down the hall, to find out what had become of our "guests".
Back down in the lab, I walked amongst the containment tanks, looking down at our new subjects. Their skin was turning pale, as ours had been before we awoke. I assumed that was just a side effect from the testing. I turned to Three who was still stood in the doorway.
“What do the results looking like?”
Three cleared his throat nervously, “Well, as you can see, they’re not getting as big as we are, in fact we can’t see much muscle growth at all”
“We should wake one up” I suggested to Three.
He gave me a peculiar look, “One, they’ve only been in there for a few hours, give it some time”
“We haven’t got time. I need to see results” I stormed out of the room and headed back to the scientist’s office.
I turned the computer on and opened a random file. All the files were images of scanned bits of paper, letters and notes. Underneath the images was a transcribed copy as a lot of the documents were difficult to comprehend. There was one which mentioned the Sentry Programme:
The official mission statement for the Sentry Programme is:
'To find people with unique abilities who will aid in defending and looking after the planet'.
Superhero’s. Mike is talking about superhero's. It’s laughable really, he’s completely delusional.
And this Cure All Programme. It’s not going as planned. Looks like we’re not going to cure cancer anytime soon.
But if we combine the two. The Sentry Programme and the Cure All Programme. Combine them into the Guardian Project, I can finally show Mike that we should be taking action, not just observing and waiting for things to come to us.
Note dated-06/02/2109. Time: 14:33.
What I was starting to understand was that Darren was intending for us to be these guardians of Earth. There was another one which elaborated a bit more on his idea:
Dr. Wright doesn’t seem to agree with me about the Guardian Project, or with what I’m trying to do with the company. However, he has agreed to go along with me and stay loyal.
I admire his honesty. Maybe it’s because just being a scientist, he hasn’t ever been out in the field, he hasn’t seen the strange things I’ve seen, read the things I have. Maybe it’s that,
I explained to him that Mike and DarkWatch may just want to sit around and watch all this stuff going off around them and jump into action when they need to, but they don’t realise we should be taking a stand, dealing with these paranormal entities, these aliens and creatures head on and find a way to make sure the Old Ones never return.
Note dated-08/02/2109. Time: 09:32
What was DarkWatch, and what were they dealing with? I liked Darren’s head on approach and this Mike seemed like he wasn’t being proactive. Perhaps if we perfected ourselves, perfected this new batch of creations, we would have a worthy army to fight these horrors that Darren referenced.
My skin started to itch and as I scratched I noticed my nails had grown significantly and were now more like full on claws. They cut me, causing blood to drip out of my arm, but not for long. The wound started to heal after a brief moment and then it was gone, with no scar. I was shocked, in a good way. I rubbed my eyes, the lack of sleep really starting to affect me now. I still couldn’t sleep though so I got up from the chair and headed off to the research lab.
I was standing amongst the desks picking up various containers of liquid. There was so many chemicals in this room, and as I looked through I couldn’t determine what the majority of them were. Maybe I hadn’t been a scientist. The equations made sense, but the chemical aspect of everything seemed quite alien. On the table next to me was a computer so I nudged the mouse, flicking the screen from black to a white one with the formula for the Cure All drug. Around the page were notes, scribbled on in different handwriting. I was about to disregard them when one caught my eye and an idea flicked into my head. I put the container down and headed off to see the others.
I gathered Three and Four in the room with the other subjects who were still in stasis.
“We can administer the drug in an airborne style”
“I saw that note but-“ Three started.
“It's ideal for what I have planned” I talked over him.
“Which is what exactly One? You don’t seem to have a plan here. Our own version of the experiments aren’t exactly going as you’d hoped, are they?” He gestured down to the closest stasis pod. Inside one of the subjects was laid, asleep (or seemingly asleep, his eyes were closed, and he was breathing shallowly). His hair from his head and beard had gone and his skin had turned almost white. He was still as skinny as when he first came with no signs of the mutations or growths that we had got.
“Why isn’t he getting bigger?”
“We don’t know. Vitals show he’s still alive, and since we’ve administered the serum, he’s lost his hair and gone pale, but in the last hour, there’s been no other changes”
I thought back to when I awoke in my tube. I was pale, almost ghostlike, “Get him up”
“Are you sure?” Four asked, “What if- “
“Just do it!” I snapped. Six's face quickly popped into my mind.
Four quickly hit a few buttons on the side of the pod and with a hiss, the glass top slid upwards. The man laid still, and slowly took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and sat up. He looked directly at me, “Where
am I?” He said with a raspy voice, “Who are you?”
“You don’t remember me from before?” I asked him. He had an uneasy look, not frightened, but more unsure.
“We have met before?”
“Yes before you-“ Four started but I held up a hand to stop him.
“No, but we’re are your masters. How do you feel?”
“My feelings? They do not matter. How feel?”
I looked at him in confusion, “How do I feel?” Why do you care?”
“Because you are my master. And I love to serve” The man stepped out of the container and bowed.
“Oh, this is much better than I expected” I smiled.
7
Two and Five had returned a short time after we had awakened our first subject. They hadn’t managed to procure any more willing people. But I had now seen what we could achieve. I sent them back out and to just take people. Whether they wanted to come or not. They would tank me in the end.
Whilst they were gone we awoke the others and just like the first, everyone was loyal to us and willing to do whatever I requested. Why they were like this intrigued me and Three mentioned that he had found notes in the records which stated that later iterations of the drug after version 2.2 had an extra ingredient to make subjects docile and compliant. Seems whatever they had pumped into our systems before 2.2 negated the effects.
Three questioned as to why we would need to make more as they were hardly better than the standard human being and nowhere near as strong as us. I explained that we needed more than just the six of us to reach our goals, so we would need a workforce. We would then be able to mass produce this drug, convince the public what it could do and eventually be revered as heroes. And their willingness led us to be able to use them as further test subjects.
We put our new minions to work immediately and wishing a few hours they had helped Five construct a device which converted the serum into a gas and then expelled it which would help greatly with the administration process.