Gene. Sys.

by Garcia, Aaron Denius

  We cover the basic structural components needed to build the shelters, things like the importance of weight bearing support beams and the need for ventilation shafts. Apparently the shafts help circulate the air in the shelter and also help keep the shelter standing in the case of high winds.

  We also cover intangible things like what direction to face the doors and other openings—East to west in cold climates so that the sun shines through and north to south in warmer regions to avoid the sun.

  For the last part of the lesson, Dr. Cicca has us each work with a simulation hologram to build our own shelters. The lesson has been fun and for the time being, I have completely forgotten about everything else that has been going on. Hydro and K also seem to be having a great time. I wonder if the other Genesys are enjoying their lessons as much as we are.

  After we finish our shelters, Hydro, K and I head out to the hallway and towards the simulation room.

  “That was better than I expected,” Hydro says.

  “Yeah! I’m so glad you didn’t put me in one of those engineering ones,” K adds.

  “I’m glad I’m not in any of those either.” I laugh and they join in.

  “Do you really think we might have to use dead bodies and bones to build a shelter?” K asks through her laughs.

  “I hope so! Just to see the faces on the others when we tell them to gather as many bodies as possible,” Hydro answers. K and I both look at her and then we all burst out laughing again.

  Our laughter simmers down as we get to the hallways that used to have the girls’ bedrooms. I had seen them last night, but I don’t believe that either Hydro or K had seen them since right after the attacks.

  K looks at me. “Do you mind if…”

  “Go ahead.” I give her a comforting smile and find a sturdy spot on the wall to lean against.

  Both Hydro and K go into their respective rooms. I can hear gasps and some sniffles from both rooms and I remember all the emotions I dealt with when I stepped back into my room. They hadn’t lived in their rooms as long as I had, but I’m sure they still developed a few memories.

  After a few solitary moments, the two girls walk out and join me back in the hallway. Hydro wipes her cheeks with her hands.

  “Are you two okay?” I ask, trying to be as gentle as I can.

  “Yeah,” Hydro responds. K nods her head in agreement.

  We walk the rest of the way to the simulation room in silence. I figure that they want to be alone with their thoughts in order to process what they just saw. Besides, I need to think a little more about this Hologram Battle I’m about to put the Genesys through. I really don’t know what to expect.

  When we get out of the elevator at the simulation room, I see that everyone else has already arrived. Their classes must have ended early, but by the looks of it, they all enjoyed them. They are all enthusiastically sharing the information they learned with each other. It’s not until I pass them that they finally quiet down and look at me.

  I take a deep breath and look at all of them. “I hope you all enjoyed your classes.”

  They all mumble affirmatives. I look at Fe and then Ev and both of them have smiles on their faces. Fe adds a wink when I look back at her and I try not to let it affect me as I begin to speak. The last thing I need is to be blushing while I introduce the Hologram Battles.

  “Okay, today we are doing something different, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t really know what it is,” I start off.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” Sil blurts out.

  “Grant didn’t reveal anything. I’m assuming that it’s going to be a battle against holograms,” I say.

  “Thanks for stating the obvious, genius,” Titan says as he nudges Sil. Sil and Sodi laugh. A few of the other Genesys stifle their laughs with smiles.

  I glare at Titan but I can’t help but smile a little as well. I really did just state the obvious. “Anyway, all I can do right now is just turn the simulation on and see what happens.”

  “Are we splitting up into teams?” Al speaks. I look over and he and Hydro are already leaning on each other. They are starting to straddle the line between cute and vomit inducing.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I believe we will all have to work together on this,” I say as I turn to the control panel. “Grab your preferred shorthand weapon and long range weapon.”

  The Genesys all move towards the weapons cache and equip themselves. Fe walks over to me. “Hey, Atom. What can I get you?”

  I look into her eyes and feel the beating in my chest quicken. I can’t help but smile. “A rifle and my chain. Thanks.”

  She walks off and I begin to enter the necessary data into the control panel. Just before I enter the last key, I look around to make sure everyone is ready. All of the Genesys are equipped and look eager for battle. Fe brings me my gear and I wrap the chain around my shoulder and hold the rifle in my opposite arm.

  “Everybody stay close. Let’s do this!” I turn and hit the last key.

  A few gasps escape some of the Genesys as the entire room goes black. I try to look around but my eyes aren’t adjusting to the darkness. A dead silence fills the room.

  “What’s going on? Is it working?” A voice I recognize as Cal’s breaks the stillness.

  “I don’t know.” I turn back to the panel but just as I do, a giant cliff appears in front of me. I am mere inches from stepping off the edge. Even though I know I won’t fall, it is so realistic that my heart jumps up to my throat. About 500 feet below me is an unforgiving ocean.

  “Ow! What the hell?” Al screams. I turn to see that he is already on the ground and disabled. He has been taken out.

  Many of the Genesys have already scattered away but a few remain by my side. As I scan the scene before me, I see a plateau with a few giant boulders and a forest in the distance. What I don’t see is anything that would be attacking us.

  Before I can take anything else in I am thrown to the ground by a flying body. When I turn my head, I see Ox lying on top of me. “What the hell, man?”

  “Look.” He points to the forest. I follow his finger and notice a red light hovering in the darkness of the forest.

  The light flickers and, without warning, Ox rolls in front of me and is struck by something. He’s been knocked out.

  “Thanks,” I say before I run off. As I make my way to the boulder closest to me I see that Titan, K, and Sodi have gathered behind it. I slide behind it and rest my back next to Sodi.

  “What do we do?” K looks at me.

  “Yeah, leader, what do we do?” Titan adds mockingly.

  “Where is everyone else?” I ask.

  Titan points to a boulder to our right. “That one has Ev, Sil and Cal. The other three are at a boulder on the other side of that one.”

  “Ok, good.” I see that the group at the next boulder is waiting for me to make a move. I look around for ideas but nothing comes. Finally I spot Sodi’s gun. It’s a sniper rifle. “Titan, what kind of gun did you grab?”

  “An assault rifle. Why?” He holds it closer to himself.

  “Sodi, give Titan your gun so he can shoot what’s behind the red light,” I demand.

  “No, I can take the shot,” Sodi snaps back and pokes her head around the boulder.

  “I’m not asking. I’m telling you to give him your gun. He’s a better shot.” I stand firm. I can see Titan smile from the corner of my eye.

  Sodi looks at K for support. K shakes her head. “Atom’s right.”

  Sodi lets out a frustrated huff and slams her gun into my chest. I wince at the quick jolt of pain but then hand the gun to Titan. “One shot. Don’t miss.”

  Titan lies on the ground close to the boulder and sets the gun on the ground. He looks through the viewfinder and, after a deep inhale, he pulls the trigger.

  “Got him!” Titan stands in triumph. He steps out from the cover of the boulder and throws his arms up in celebration. Just as soon as his hands go up, he flies back and has been
knocked out.

  “Titan!” Sodi yells after him.

  I look around the boulder and my jaw drops in shock. The one red light has been replaced with what seems to be hundreds of red lights. Within a blink, the red lights begin marching towards us. Once clear of the darkness from the forest, I can tell that the lights are laser sights attached to guns that are being carried by outsiders.

  At the next boulder, Ev and Sil are both looking around their boulder. Ev looks at me and communicates, as quietly as she can, “What do we do?”

  I shrug. It’s probably not the answer she wanted from me, but I am not prepared for this type of simulation. That’s when I remember that it is a simulation so I can take some risks. It doesn’t seem like we have much of a chance against the sheer number of outsiders coming at us. Then again, 80 and I were outnumbered and we survived.

  I scan my surroundings and notice that there are two more boulders in our immediate vicinity. I wave to get Ev’s attention.

  “How many?” I ask, pointing to the boulder behind them.

  She checks and looks back at me. “Two.”

  That means that Fe, Mag or Hydro have been taken out. I figure that our best plan of attack will be to have two people per boulder shooting on either side. Hopefully the cover will protect us as long as possible.

  I turn back to Sodi and K. “You two stay here. Each of you take a side of the boulder and shoot as many as you can.”

  “Gotcha,” K obliges. Sodi just stares defiantly at me and picks up Titan’s old gun.

  I look back at Ev and point to her and then a boulder that is about twenty-five feet in front and between our two boulders. She nods her head and I count down from three with my fingers.

  The second I reach zero, I run. When I look over towards Ev, I see Sil push her out of the way and run up to the boulder with me. I reach the boulder and look back just as Ev is getting to her feet. She’s immediately hit with a bullet and is taken out.

  I push Sil against the boulder. “What the hell did you do that for?”

  “I … I…” Sil stumbles over his words. Fear glazes his eyes.

  “You cost us a life!” I scream.

  “What about Titan?” he shouts back.

  I grit my teeth. He’s right, I did hang him out to dry, but he also got cocky. I take a deep breath. “Just take that side and start shooting.”

  He lies on the ground to the right of the boulder and I lay on the ground to the left. I steady my rifle and look down the crosshairs. There are easily a hundred outsiders marching towards the seven of us who remain.

  “Fire!” I yell. I pull my trigger and the Genesys around me follow suit. Bullets fly past my head in both directions as the outsiders return fire.

  I hear a couple of grunts and screams behind me that tell me that a couple more of the Genesys have been taken out, but we are definitely causing a dent in the outsiders. About half of the outsiders have been taken out.

  “Ow,” Sil says next to me and when I look, I see that he has been taken out.

  I roll off the ground and sit with my back to the boulder. This seems like an insurmountable challenge. I look at the other boulders and see that there are only three of us left, Sodi behind my original boulder and, surprisingly, Mag behind the farthest boulder. She may be quiet but she never fails to surprise me.

  Just before I am able to get back into position to resume shooting, two outsiders pop around Sil’s side of the boulder and shoot me. The shock spreads from my chest to the rest of my body. I really hate this feeling. Not only is the pain uncomfortable, but I will always associate this shock with failure.

  As I lay on the ground, with the faint sound of Mag and Sodi’s bullets flying by, I think about what I could have done differently in this simulation. I wasn’t ready, and if I am supposed to lead them, I need to be ready for all situations that might come up. Everyone is most likely going to be taken out in this simulation, but when it comes to dealing with something like this for real, we can’t afford to lose a single one of us.

  One stream of bullets remains and, based on the direction they are coming from, Sodi is the only one left. Perhaps I should have let her take the shot with the sniper rifle. She has certainly proven herself capable with a gun otherwise.

  The simulation room goes black and I know that we failed. I failed. A loss to any of the Genesys is a failure on my part. I realize that now. Though the pressure I was already under seems multiplied now, I also feel a sense of pride. We will succeed. I will make sure of it.

  When the lights come back on, everyone gets up, rubbing their aching bodies. I walk to the control panel to be able to see them all and address the defeat. Right before I get there, chaos erupts.

  Ev runs up to Sil and pushes him. “Why did you do that?”

  “Don’t push me, favorite!” Sil yells and pushes her back.

  To my right, Fe and Hydro are getting into a heated argument.

  “You were supposed to cover me!” Fe gets into Hydro’s face.

  “I don’t take orders from you!” Hydro screams back.

  I see Cal and Al run over to them, so I pull my attention back to Sil and Ev. I run over and get between them. “Calm down. It was an accident.”

  “It was not an accident and you know it!” Ev directs her screams at me.

  Ev pushes against me to get to Sil and as I hold her back Sil gets a shove in. I turn to him and push him back. When I do, Titan comes to Sil’s side.

  “Let him go!” Titan stares at me and I pull up.

  As Titan pulls Sil away, Sil shouts at me. “Everything is about Atom and Ev. You are the favorites. It doesn’t matter if we live. We are just collateral!”

  I’m hurt by his words. We are all in this together. “That is not true!”

  Before I can say another word, a fist connects with my jaw. The second my head whips to the side; I taste the saltiness of blood. When I look back up at my assailant, I see Sodi staring me down and rubbing her fist.

  The entire room goes quiet and I sense everyone’s eyes on me. I get a quick flash to when I was in the same situation with Titan just weeks ago. They are all anticipating my next move and I know that what I do next will dictate the kind of leader I am going to be.

  I take a deep breath and then, as calm and stern as I can, I look at each Genesys. “All of you sit against the wall.”

  Shock fills most of their eyes and, without second-guessing, they all move to the wall. The tensions between them makes them all keep a healthy distance from each other.

  “If we are all going to survive, we have to work together.” I pause. An idea has just filled my head and I give myself a mental reminder to find 80 after this.

  “Not a single one of us is more important than the other,” I continue. “The goal is for each one of us to survive, not just me, or Ev. All of us. We are all Genesys. We are all the new beginning. If one of us doesn’t make it, we all fail. We were all created for the same purpose and once the scientists decide to start the Ragnarok it will be solely up to us. So we have to be a team, and if you are not okay with that, then we don’t want you.”

  I look around at the group sitting on the floor. A few of them have smiles on their faces; Sil has his head to the ground. Fe and Hydro exchange apologies and embrace.

  “Tomorrow’s training will be outside by the Drones’ quarters.” With that, I turn and head to the elevator. I drop the chain I had wrapped around me on the way. I figure they will tidy up. Besides, I have something important to ask 80.

  15

  The part of the compound that houses the drones has a static feeling to it. It doesn’t really appear different from the other parts of the compound, but the areas that have been exposed by the explosions are very plain. The open rooms I see have beds with grey sheets on them and nothing else. There are no signs that any of the rooms had decorations or any other furniture. A few drones are asleep in some of the beds and I realize that they weren’t relocated.

  I find myself getting angry with Rene a
gain. How could he so unapologetically mistreat the drones like this? I turn the corner to the open field in the middle of the drone quarters and I’m blinded by the low sun that is beginning to turn the sky orange.

  When my eyes adjust, I see a drone standing right in front of me. The sun reflects off his shaved head, making his scar even more ominous.

  “What do you want?” 13 demands. He steps up close enough to block the sun from my face.

  “I want to see 80.” I stand my ground. He has obviously been through a lot, but it’s not enough to ease my disdain for him.

  13 stares at me, thinking about what he wants to do. He lets out a long huff and turns back towards the field. “80, the chosen one wants to see you.”

  His words sting and remind me of what Sil yelled just moments ago. “I’m not the chosen—”

  “—Save it.” He cuts me off and walks away.

  A sour taste has built in my mouth. Why can’t they understand that I didn’t choose to be in this position? If I ran this compound I would do things completely different.

  “Hey,” 80 says behind me.

  I turn, half startled. “How’s it going?”

  “What do you need?” he asks curtly. My facial expression must have surprised him because he quickly changes his tone. “Sorry. I just have a lot of work to do.”

  “No worries,” I say, a smile creeping up on my face because of what I’m going to ask next. “Can we set up a Breekbal game between the Genesys and you guys?”

  80 thinks for a moment and then turns towards the field. He walks to the middle and I hustle to keep up. “Why do you want to play? It’s not really the best of times with all the attacks.”

  “I need them to learn to work as a team. I thought this would be a good way to do that,” I answer.

  “None of us have played since we were brought back.” 80 stops in the middle of the field. “I suppose it could be good for moral.”

  “Awesome!” I can’t hold in my excitement. I have wanted to play since 80 first told me about it. “Would we be able to do teams of twelve instead of ten?”

  “Sure. When?” He grabs a couple of smaller pieces of rubble from the ground and tosses them off the field.