by E S Richards
E S Richards
The Genetic Experiment
Book 2 in The Generation Series
Copyright © E S Richards, 2018
All rights reserved
1st edition
Ebook design by Papeair
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the copyright owner.
ISBN: 9781982936846
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 1
Zahyra froze. Heather’s words were ringing out in her head like a siren. Asher’s eyes had grown wide and his mouth was hanging open. The helmet that was still attached to his head created beads of sweat beneath the rim that were slowly beginning to run down his small cheeks.
How could he be a Gen 6? Everything Zahyra had been taught and everything she’d heard all alluded to there being only five generations of mutant. Even the elders in her camp had never spoken about a rank higher than Gen 5. There had to be something wrong with the Identifier. There had to be some kind of mistake.
Before she could start moving towards her brother a set of hands gripped Zahyra firmly from behind. One of the men who’d remained in the room after Cain had been escorted out held her fast. Cain. Zahyra panicked at the thought of now losing her brother as well. She wasn’t going to let it happen.
With all her might she struggled against him, her voice starting to scream for Asher before another man rushed over and slammed his palm against her mouth. Together they pinned her down and forced her back against the wall. All the while tears began to form in her eyes as two more men entered the room and moved over to Asher.
Heather had finally removed the helmet from his head but the young boy remained perfectly still in the chair. No one in the room seemed to completely understand what was going on as Zahyra watched Heather lean over and whisper instructions to the two new men. Uncertain looks flashed across their faces as they accepted whatever order was given and unfastened the straps around Asher’s wrists. Once again Zahyra tried to scream for her brother but was unable to create a sound. Asher himself remained silent, his eyes darting around the room until they locked onto Zahyra’s. They were filled with fear.
In one final attempt Zahyra kicked her feet out from underneath her, loosening the grip the man behind her had. It wasn’t enough though and she was wrestled onto the ground. Her eyes drooped as she felt a pinch of something being forced into her neck. Then before everything went dark around her the last thing she saw was her little brother being pushed out of the door where Cain had been taken. The door that marked the beginning of the removal procedure. The door that eventually slid silently closed and sealed Zahyra alone to her fate.
***
When her eyes opened Zahyra was back in the white room they had been held in earlier. Her head felt foggy, like she’d been hit with something but from what she could recall there had been no violence. As her eyes scanned the room she soon realised she was completely alone. The bench next to her that had been occupied by her brother and Cain only a few hours before now looked sparse and empty. The hollowness of the room seemingly expanded before her eyes as she realised the consequences the scanning process held.
Slowly Zahyra began to try and organise her thoughts. The simpler matter she had to deal with was Cain. With his Gen 4 ranking the both of them had known he would not be allowed to remain in the safe haven. But where had he been taken? Zahyra didn’t know what the people running the facility did to more advanced mutants and she shuddered at the thought of the unknown.
If Cain had simply been removed from the safe haven – as Heather had suggested – then that was at least something she could live with. With Cain outside in the world Zahyra knew one day she could find him again. But even knowing that caused her to stifle a sob in her chest.
The cruel reality was she had grown so close to him over the two weeks they had spent together. The feelings she had developed for Cain were unlike anything she had ever felt before. Memories of their conversation a couple of nights before when Cain had told her how he truly felt wrapped around her heart and squeezed like a snake. Now that she knew Cain cared for her the same way she cared for him Zahyra realised she couldn’t bare to be apart from him for very long. Even despite the difficulties his mutation presented she knew there had to be some way around it.
Perhaps she could use the safe haven to her advantage in some respect. The technology she had already witnessed in her short time there made her hope they had some sort of way to help cure Cain of his anger. To help him control it. If that obstacle could be overcome then there would be nothing in the way of them being together. Even if she had to move out of the safe haven: that was something Zahyra was completely willing to do.
In fact, as she continued to take in the vast emptiness around her Zahyra realised the safe haven was the last place she wanted to be. Not only had Cain been taken from her, but also the confusion about her brother’s result created a deep pit of fear inside her.
How had Asher been categorised a Gen 6? From Heather’s reaction to the scanning process Zahyra knew it was not a common thing. It had almost seemed like Heather was equally surprised as Zahyra had been to hear the result. Although she had lived a sheltered life – up until the last two weeks – Zahyra knew she would have heard rumours if a new generation had emerged. The camp she had lived in had been filled with gossip from wandering travellers, each bringing with them a new and almost unbelievable story about the outside world. However not a single one had ever mentioned a ‘New-Wave mutant’ as Heather had put it earlier.
The thought of Asher being thrown out of the safe haven caused Zahyra more grief than she thought possible. Having only just been reunited with her brother the idea of now never seeing him again was almost impossible to bear. He was so sweet, so kind and gentle. She knew in her mind that him being a Gen 6 mutant couldn’t be the truth. Something must have gone wrong or the results faked in some way.
He had been branded a Zero just a few days earlier – there were cases of children’s generation numbers changing in the days around their tenth birthday, but never to this extent. A Gen 1 becoming a Gen 2 was unlikely, but it happened. A Zero becoming a Gen 6 had to be a fabrication.
As Zahyra thought of her brother she rubbed the number one that was burnt into her own right arm. Would this have to be changed now? How did they even go about doing that? This world was such a mystery to Zahyra and the countless questions running through her mind didn’t make anything any easier to deal with.
She stifled another sob as she thought how she had deceived Cain with her generation number. Although she knew it was probably for the best that he hadn’t known she was a Zero, she hated the feeling that she had kept it secret from him. Now there was a chance they may never see each other again and he would never know who she really was.
She had tried to be as honest
with Cain as possible in all other walks of life. It was almost as if him being so closed off when they first met had encouraged Zahyra to open up more about her own life. A smile broke out on her face as she remembered the look in Cain’s eyes when she had told him stories about her life in her old camp. How he had looked so genuinely happy to see her reunited with Asher and then how she had seen him care for her brother as well. Even if it had been for a very short period, the three of them had felt like a family to her and that wasn’t something she was willing to give up on.
All her life she’d never had a complete family. Her father leaving when Asher had just been born had been such a confusing time and became an even more confusing memory. Zahyra still didn’t know whether her mother had made it to the safe haven. The longer she was kept alone and in the dark about the goings on of the facility the less she trusted that her mother would be safe here. Although the sad truth in the back of her mind told her there was every chance of her mother not having made it. Without Cain it would have been an impossible task for Zahyra, and her mother had spared her any and all details about how she planned to make the journey alone.
Thinking of her parents only instilled more determination in Zahyra to find Asher and Cain. At least she knew the two of them were alive and nearby somewhere. When she saw Heather she would ask – no, demand – to be reunited with them, even if it meant she had to leave the facility herself. There was no safe haven, no place in the entire world that was worth losing everyone she cared for.
With this new plan in her mind Zahyra stared at the door in the white room, hoping that someone would come through it soon. The minutes turned to hours and eventually Zahyra realised she had no idea how long she had been kept there. No food or water was brought in and the lights remained a blinding white. She nodded in and out of sleep for a while, struggling to get any rest in the demanding environment.
As time dragged her mind became less and less clear of what was really going on in the safe haven. She thought of countless explanations for what had happened to Cain and her brother, and what was eventually going to happen to her. One thought told her that she would just be left in the white room forever, forgotten about and alone. With the facility knowing her true ranking she feared what they would want to do with her.
The thing she had been recommended for – T128 – what did that entail? All her life she had lived in fear of being hunted for being a Zero. All her life she had been taught that if she were found out she would be exploited for what she was. But the safe haven was supposed to be the exception to this rule. The clue was in the name, she laughed, as safe was the last thing she felt there.
T128 didn’t give away any indication of what it would be. The numbers made Zahyra think that maybe it had been tried one hundred and twenty seven times already. A thought she didn’t wish to dwell on due to how unsuccessful it sounded. It also began to sound more unbelievable to Zahyra the more she thought of it. Could the safe haven really have over a hundred Zero’s within it? She’d never heard of more than a handful before, and finding a Zero was something travellers loved to gossip about.
Suddenly Zahyra lashed out at the wall behind her with her fist. She had hated when Cain kept her in the dark about their plans or where they were going, but she would take him not telling her something any day over the turmoil she was feeling being trapped in the white room.
The frustration and anger began to bubble up inside her and she stood up from the bench and turned to face the wall behind her. Balling her hands into fists she struck the same place over and over. Pain coursing through her arms and body as the effort she was exerting caused her still-damaged ribs to twinge.
She skin on her knuckles started to crack and little flecks of her red blood stood out brightly against the blindingly white wall. She opened her mouth and screamed as the punched. Drowning the room in a barrage of anger and violence. Tears began to fall down her cheeks, all the emotion she had been holding in over the last two weeks suddenly flooding out of her beyond control.
She screamed and hit the wall until she no longer had any strength within her. Defeated and devastated she sank back onto the bench, the blood from her knuckles dripping down the wall above her head. Then, though her tear-stained eyes she saw the door of the white room slide open in the corner and a pair of familiar boots make their way inside.
Chapter 2
The boots remained stationary in front of her. Zahyra didn’t need to look up to know it would be Heather standing there. She sniffed as quietly as she could in an attempt to compose herself but the evidence of her outbreak was etched clearly on the wall behind her.
After a moment the boots took a few steps towards her until they were only a couple of feet from where Zahyra sat. With another sniff Zahyra raised her head, her eyes finding Heather just as her mind had suspected. She watched Heather move her gaze from Zahyra to the blood stained wall behind her, then back down to Zahyra’s hands. She knew there was no point hiding the torn skin on her knuckles and instead balled her hands into fists once more to show Heather she wasn’t afraid.
“Did that make you feel better?”
Heather eventually spoke up in the deafening silence that had collected between the two of them. Zahyra said nothing in response but raised her head up slightly so her eyes met Heather’s. She didn’t look angry, but she didn’t look remorseful either. Instead Heather seemed completely indifferent to the situation, like what Zahyra had done had simply prolonged her being able to achieve what she came into the room for.
“Well, if you’re quite finished anyway, I’m here to settle you in. Give you a tour of the facility, show you your quarters and so on.”
“Where is my brother? Where is Cain?”
Zahyra couldn’t stop the questions from falling out of her mouth. She was trying not to show any weakness to the woman in front of her, she already knew she couldn’t trust Heather and didn’t want to give her any more ammunition to use against her.
“All your questions will be answered in due course,” Heather replied bluntly. “For now would you like to follow me? I’ll show you to your room where you can shower and change. Some food will also be brought in but in future you’ll have to eat in the mess with everyone else. I’ll show you where that is on your tour this afternoon.”
Zahyra rose to her feet without awarding Heather a response. She was curious to see more of the facility and the promise of a tour meant she would be able to do some exploring. Food and a shower were also very appealing prospects to her and for the time being she quickly realised she would have to be more compliant if she wanted to achieve her goals in the safe haven. Or to put it more simply; her goal of escaping the safe haven.
They exited through the same door as before and Zahyra was again met with a long corridor with glass walls. The rooms either side were as she remembered them: medicinal, orderly and clean. There were many people working inside again and she noticed now more than earlier the coloured armbands they wore. Most of them were black, but some people carried grey or red colours. She wondered what they meant and how they differed from generation rankings. Heather’s armband was purple as she remembered it and Zahyra mused as to whether this signified she was someone in charge.
As the two of them reached the end of the corridor Zahyra saw the large door to her right she had passed through with Asher and Cain earlier that day. Her chest tightened at the thought of it and she let out a quiet sigh of relief when Heather led her off to the left, through a slightly smaller door.
This one revealed a staircase behind it and Zahyra gazed upwards. It seemed to go on forever and she gaped for a moment at the spiral twists and turns all the way up. Heather had already started climbing, meaning Zahyra had to jog up the first few steps to catch up with her.
The two of them climbed up several floors. There were doors leading off the staircase every thirty seconds or so and Zahyra noticed each of them had a different alphanumeric code printed on it. They didn’t seem to follow any specific order however,
which confused Zahyra.
Eventually Heather guided Zahyra through the sixth door they came to, marked EH02. Zahyra made a mental note of the number in case she had to find it again and then followed Heather into the corridor behind it. The walls on this level were different, made out of some material Zahyra couldn’t determine, but they weren’t glass like the ones downstairs. The door had opened at the very end of the corridor and Zahyra could see it extended out in front of her and then veered off both to the left and the right. They didn’t reach the turning however as Heather stopped at the third door on the left and withdrew a small plastic card from her pocket.
Zahyra watched in awe as she placed it against a panel on the wall beside the door. A green light flashed and the door clicked open. Heather gestured for Zahyra to enter so she swallowed and took a step inside.
“This is your room,” Heather said monotonously as she walked in behind Zahyra. “There’s a bathroom through there,” she pointed to one of the other doors in the room, “and as you can see some food has been left for you on the table. Clothes of your size should also be available in the locker. I will be back in one hour to take you on a tour, please ensure you are ready.”
With that Heather spun on her heel, not waiting for a response and closed the door behind her with a click. Something clicked itself in Zahyra at that moment and she moved forward to try the door handle. As she suspected it had been locked from the outside. Her heart sank realising she had just been taken from one holding cell to another, her feeling of safety within the facility diminishing with every new room she encountered.
With nothing else to do but spend time in her new room Zahyra looked around and was met with more luxury than she had ever encountered. There was a large bed positioned in the middle of one wall, raised off the floor by a wooden frame. Beside it was a small table with a book resting on top of it: “Your Safe Haven” the title read. Zahyra placed it back on the table immediately, not wanting to discover what was written inside.