The Genetic Experiment

by E S Richards

  “This heals broken bones,” Grant said matter-of-factly, leaving Zahyra stunned by his words.

  “What?”

  “Someone gets in,” he pointed to the hollow tube in the middle of the device, which on closer inspection Zahyra realised someone could easily fit inside of. “Then the machine identifies which bones in their body are damaged and repairs them.”

  “But, how does it work?” Zahyra questioned, earning a smug smile from Grant in response.

  “Honestly, if I told you you wouldn’t believe me. Or understand me. But that’s what it does. Pretty useful, eh?”

  Zahyra was a little disappointed Grant wouldn’t explain the technical elements of the machine to her, but she realised he was probably right about her lack of understanding. Most of the other machines in the medical area followed in the same suit. Grant told her what it did, Zahyra questioned how and Grant said she wouldn’t understand.

  Very quickly Zahyra realised this was just another of Heather’s ways of showing off to Zahyra. Making her aware of all the magnificent things the safe haven was home to and trying to dare her to imagine being able to survive without them.

  While Zahyra accepted whole-heartedly that the technology within the facility would make life a thousand times easier on the outside, she still knew it was possible. She had survived, along with countless generations before her. In fact with each new device Grant showed Zahyra, her feelings towards the safe haven just turned sourer and sourer. If they were only willing to share their technology with the outside world, who knew how many lives could be saved as a result.

  Zahyra had seen people die from small cuts getting infected back in her camp, something that – if it happened at the safe haven – would just require a quick five-minute check up and they would be perfectly healthy again.

  Grant also showed her how the safe haven had harnessed the medicinal qualities of many plants that grew naturally in the surrounding forests. Zahyra was reminded of how much of a difference that plant – she couldn’t remember the name – had made to Cain’s foot injury after wild dogs attacked them. She smiled at this memory as she realised that even outside the facility people were still knowledgeable enough to survive.

  As the afternoon drew on Zahyra became more and more bored with Grant’s explanations. On a couple of occasions he left her to deal with someone who’d come to the area for medical reasons, but he was never away from her side for long.

  Her mind wandered, thinking about what Cain was doing on the outside now. Whether his foot had returned to full health and he’d made it back to his cabin. She didn’t like to think of him there all alone. Before she’d met him, and even in the first few days of knowing him he had been such a recluse. She hoped her time with him would at least encourage him to go out and seek the comfort of others. If she couldn’t be by his side she hoped he could find someone else who could.

  Asher also tormented her thoughts. Was their father with him today or had he given him some time to process. It was strange thinking that two of her blood relatives were in the same facility as her, yet one she wasn’t allowed to see and the other she passionately didn’t want to. She truly hoped she wouldn’t come into contact with her father again but even she knew that was unlikely, especially with him working in the labs downstairs.

  How many times had he been next door whilst she was down there? How many times had he been down there with Asher? Zahyra had only really seen the lab her T128 trial was conducted in, but she didn’t doubt there were many more on that level. Perhaps she could get to Asher the next time she was down there, take a wrong turn on her way to the bathroom or something foolish like that. She knew Professor Welbeck would be watching her more closely, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t have the odd minute alone.

  As Grant continued to drone on Zahyra resolved that finding Asher in the labs would be the easiest method. She had considered using the ventilation ducts again but the thought made her shudder. The tight space and lack of light making her feel trapped, not to mention that she was never completely sure where she was going.

  She suddenly wished she’d returned to T128 that afternoon and had a chance to find her brother earlier but now that would have to wait until tomorrow. So long as he was still within the facility she wasn’t too worried, she had all the time in the world to find him. They certainly weren’t going to let her leave any time soon, of that she was certain.

  Chapter 13

  The next morning after breakfast, as Heather was leading Zahyra back downstairs to the labs she was clear about her plan. She would apologise to Professor Welbeck, continue with the T128 trials and then, when she found herself alone, search the labs for her brother. She knew it wasn’t much of a plan but it was the best she could do and nothing was going to stop her from trying to find Asher.

  Professor Welbeck looked less than happy to see Zahyra when she arrived in the lab. Zahyra imagined she had probably been told off as well for leaving her screen logged on and that was just another negative she was going to blame Zahyra for.

  She did her best to apologise sincerely to the professor, using her brother as an excuse for wanting to find out more information. It wasn’t a lie, and now that everyone knew she was aware Asher was somewhere within the facility they couldn’t really hold it against her.

  Professor Welbeck accepted Zahyra’s apology, verbally at least. Her body language and tone of voice didn’t indicate she was very happy with the situation but Zahyra knew there wasn’t much she could do about it. Once Heather left the room her demeanour decreased even more. She moved robotically around the lab, checking several of the screens as she went. Eventually, when Damon entered, she turned towards Zahyra, finally giving her her full attention.

  “Temperature again this morning,” she said simply, “this time decreasing.”

  It took Zahyra a second to understand what Professor Welbeck meant but then she realised. She was going to be trapped in the tiny room again and the temperature was going to change. But this time they were going to try and freeze her to death. Zahyra had never liked the cold, always wearing extra layers of clothing when other people were happy in a t-shirt. She was almost always cold so to be forcibly exposed to extremely cold temperatures was her idea of hell.

  Professor Welbeck continued to set up the experiment in silence after giving Zahyra that little snippet of information. Damon helped where needed but for the most part he kept out of her way. The atmosphere within the room was frosty at best and Zahyra sensed this was not a good day to disobey any of the professor’s orders. It was a shame that was exactly what she planned on doing later.

  The small rubbery-walled room was already colder than the rest of the lab when Zahyra stepped into it. She was only wearing a long sleeved top as usual, the rest of the safe haven being temperate enough for her to survive without a sweater.

  She wondered when she’d be given a grey uniform like everyone else. Not that she particularly wanted to look the same, but she was growing tired of people staring at her as she wandered around in a different outfit to everyone else. If anything it would just let her fly under the radar a little more, something she desperately yearned to do.

  As the whirring sound started like it had done with increasing temperature, Zahyra this time felt a cold breeze sweep in around her ankles. She wriggled her toes inside her boots, glad that she’d continued to wear them rather than the canvas shoes that had been provided. Already she could tell she wasn’t going to enjoy this trial.

  Within a minute she could see her breath in the air when she exhaled. As a child that had been the only part of cold weather she enjoyed. She used to pretend she was a dragon: a mythical creature she’d read about in books from The Before Time, and had been breathing fire everywhere. When Asher was old enough to understand that tale she’d told it to him, breathing out in extended gusts to demonstrate her dragonly powers to him.

  Another minute passed and Zahyra was shivering. Her muscles had begun to feel heavy and stiff and she constantly tr
ied to tense and un-tense them, keeping the blood flowing around her body. She folded her arms so they were across her chest and placed her fingers underneath her armpits for warmth. Then she hopped slightly from one foot to the other, shifting her weight around and trying to focus on the movement.

  For about five minutes the temperature didn’t seem to decrease any further. Her need to shiver decreased and she relaxed her movements slightly, feeling more at ease in the small room. Then all of a sudden, as she tried to inhale her breathing hitched. She sucked at the air for oxygen but couldn’t seem to find any, gagging on the cold atmosphere of the room.

  She stared wide-eyed at Damon, who was watching her from the main lab and tried to speak, tell him that something was wrong. He mumbled something to Professor Welbeck, but the woman just waved her hand in the air to the side of her, not even bothering to turn away from her screen.

  Zahyra sank to her knees and the coldness of the room returned to her. She tucked her chin into her chest; wrapping her arms around her face and trying to take short, shallow breaths. She found oxygen eventually; her breathing relaxing slightly so she could absorb it. But then the cold grabbed her again and she was struggling.

  She couldn’t remember where she was, or why it was so cold. She knew she had been in the desert, but it was supposed to be warm there: how had the temperature dropped so much. Maybe it was nightfall, but the area around her was definitely light so that couldn’t be correct. There was a man staring at her quizzically, and another man – no, a woman – who was rising to her feet. Zahyra hugged herself tighter, trying to restore some normality to the situation, some sense of reality.

  Then a door opened and she was buffeted with hot air. It attacked her chest, making her wheeze and gasp for air. She felt dizzy and light headed, but she knew she couldn’t let these people harm her, not before she figured out where she was.

  The man knelt down and put his arm around her. Zahyra batted it away with one of her own but the movement caused another wave of dizziness to hit. She struggled to stand and the man helped her with that too – Damon – the name flashed before Zahyra’s eyes. Was that the man’s name? She thought she knew him, but she couldn’t be sure.

  The place they were in didn’t look right. It was too pristine, too organised and calculated for this world. No, this couldn’t be right. Zahyra fought against Damon once more before her strength gave out and she collapsed unconscious into his arms.

  When Zahyra came to she was lying on the bed in one of the office like rooms adjacent to the glass-walled lab. She took a moment to remember what had happened, still disorientated and confused. Everything had been so cold and there had been a strange man… Damon. She had been in another of Professor Welbeck’s T128 trials. Her mind still felt fuzzy as she tried to remember all the details from her time in the safe haven.

  She had arrived. Asher and Cain had been taken away. Asher. Zahyra’s mind was suddenly clear again as she thought of her little brother. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and paused, waiting for dizziness to strike. It didn’t. Filled with relief she stood up and looked around the room. It was definitely where she’d had her earlier meetings with Professor Welbeck, but aside from herself it was empty.

  Being careful not to make any noise Zahyra crept over to the door and tried the handle. To her sheer joy it turned and opened, creating a small crack into the corridor on the other side. Maybe the professor had believed she would be unconscious for a lot longer.

  After checking her timekeep on her wrist Zahyra calculated that little over an hour had passed since she arrived there that morning. She wasn’t sure how long she had been in the cold trial for, but it couldn’t have been long. She had no idea how much time she would have before Professor Welbeck came to check on her, but she knew she had to make every second count.

  Opening the door wider she waited. When no one appeared she stuck her head around it, assessing what was going on outside. She could see Professor Welbeck in the lab opposite, staring at something on one of the screens. She was side on to Zahyra, so if she turned to the left she would spot her. Zahyra held her breath and prayed that wouldn’t happen, stepping out into the hallway. Damon was nowhere to be seen and she said a little prayer for him too, hoping he would remain hidden.

  When Zahyra had entered the lab each morning it had always been through the door now to the right of her. There was another door, of exactly the same design at the other end of the corridor: that was her destination. She crouched low and began to move towards it, using the various tables and mechanical objects in the lab as cover.

  She reached the door in seconds and paused, unsure whether Professor Welbeck had seen her. She hadn’t looked up to check, more focused on making her way down the corridor as quickly as possible. She hit the button on the wall like she had seen Heather do countless times and waited, as the mechanical door in front of her slid slowly – and thankfully quietly – open.

  The lab on the other side looked exactly like the one she was used to. One side a large glass room, the other side three smaller rooms, she imagined each one just like the one she had escaped from. Luckily for her it was also deserted.

  Zahyra immediately stood up to her full height and strode purposefully into the lab. She reached a screen with a stack of papers piled next to it and tapped the button on the side. The log in page appeared and she cursed under her breath, clearly since her break in two days ago the scientists had been warned against leaving their screens open. She started leafing through the papers instead, looking for anything that alluded to Asher, Gen 6 or the New-Wave of mutants. There was nothing.

  Zahyra began to get desperate, knowing she didn’t have much time before she would have to return to stop Professor Welbeck finding her missing. She pulled out drawers and opened cabinets, searching frantically for anything that would give her a clue where her brother was. Still nothing.

  She moved to the next section of the lab, edging further away from where she had come in and continued her search. She cursed that she didn’t understand the technology more, or that the lab didn’t have a clearer filing system. Sadly everything seemed to be stored on the screens and that was the one thing she couldn’t access.

  After ten minutes had passed Zahyra was beginning to get desperate. She tried typing random combinations of numbers into the log in page on the screen, praying that one of them would be correct. Unsurprisingly her attempts turned up nothing.

  She was just about to return to Professor Welbeck’s lab, when the door at the other end of the room began to slide open. In panic Zahyra dropped to the floor, creeping backwards and away from whoever had entered. Whoever it was was humming under their breath and the noise was moving towards Zahyra.

  She held her breath, doing everything she could to keep herself hidden. Then she identified the visitor and watched as her father sat down in front of the screen she’d just being trying to break onto. He had his back to her and went about inputting his log in completely unaware of her presence.

  Zahyra remained on the ground for a moment, watching him. With his information she could definitely find out more about Asher. The fact that he was even in this lab indicated that this was where he was working with her brother. He had mentioned performing some trials on him; hopefully nothing like the ones she had to endure Zahyra shivered, as memories of the cold room came flooding back to her.

  She watched her father for a little over a minute, debating internally what she should do. It was very unlikely he would be willing to disclose any information freely and even though she resented the man she wasn’t stupid enough to try and overpower him with force. Her only option was to either wait and see if he left his screen on or return to her own lab, hopefully before anyone noticed she was missing.

  Just at that moment fate dealt her another cruel hand and the door she had entered through slid open, revealing Professor Welbeck walking into the lab. Zahyra stopped breathing, unsure whether her absence had already been discovered.

  “Good mor
ning Delilah!” Her father crowed when he saw the woman. Delilah definitely didn’t suit her for a name Zahyra thought and began to slide further backwards in the lab towards the door.

  “Morning Emerson,” Professor Welbeck replied. Zahyra paused at the mention of her father’s name, memories flooding back to her of her mother calling him that when she was younger. She couldn’t remember it the other day when he came to speak to her but now it seemed to fit so perfectly and she became distracted by her memories for a brief second.

  “How’s your work going in here?” The professor continued as Emerson swivelled around in his chair to look at her. If he glanced her way Zahyra would surely be discovered and she scampered back further behind another table.

  “Brilliant! My boy is talented I’ll tell you that!” Zahyra flinched as she heard her father referring to Asher as his boy. He didn’t have the right to do that, not after what he’d done to him. “How’s Zahyra getting on?”

  “Could be worse,” the professor mused. “She had a bit of a bad reaction to the negative temperature trial earlier, passed out. I’m going to go and check on her in a second.”

  Zahyra didn’t have time to listen to anything more. Thankfully she hadn’t been discovered yet but if she didn’t get back to that bed immediately she was going to be. Her only problem was how to get out of the door without either of them noticing. It had closed already and although it didn’t make any sound as it opened she was sure one of them would notice it happening. She crawled along the floor until she was as close as possible without revealing her position then stared at the door in front of her, racking her brain for a solution.

  “Here, let me show you this,” Zahyra heard her father say to Professor Welbeck and stiffened. This was her chance. Praying with all her might that whatever Emerson was showing the professor was facing away from the door Zahyra rose and pressed the button on the wall. The mechanism beginning to work seemed to take longer than before and Zahyra stood perfectly still, knowing that if either of the people in the room turned an inch she would be discovered. Finally, as soon as the crack in the door was wide enough she slipped through, safely finding herself back in Professor Welbeck’s lab.