Acid Reign : Genesis
Chapter 3: William

The walls of the Theonicorp Medical Facility were white, sterile, silent, and William hated them. Before, the silence had always made him feel safe, but now the walls mocked him. Murderer, Coward, they whispered.

He had walked down this corridor every day for the last three years, but this was the first time he noticed his reflection in the polished metal door at the end. Moving closer, he watched the distorted figure transform into someone he barely recognized. His shoulders slumped as if his spine could no longer allow him to stand up straight. His eyes were dark and hollow. There wasn’t much life left inside the man looking back at him. At the beginning, he had so much hope and passion for his work, but now his countenance proved there was nothing but turmoil and shame.

The insurgents, known as Catalyst, promised that they were working on a way to free him and his family. They insisted there was a plan, but for now, he would have to continue to stall. He feared Yeong was suspicious, and William was running out of ways to give the appearance of progress without actually finishing his work.

He wished he could just turn around and go home to his wife and daughter and forget about what he had created, but if he stopped now, they would be killed. All he could do was trust that the insurgents would follow through with their promise and get him and his family out.

Clutching the security badge, he closed his eyes, let out a slow breath, and reluctantly held it against the panel. The door silently slid open, and William walked into the waiting room where two fully geared Nucrean guards with assault rifles stood motionless on both sides of a double door. The guard on the right leaned in and opened the door just in time for William to walk through.

The main room was dark except the lighted glass cubicles that held pale, hairless women and men. They were each strapped to a bed with optical cables running from the ceiling to the base of their necks. Some of the beds were rotated so that the patients were face down with their arms extended to the sides.

William’s project had begun with the promise that there would be solutions to the effects of the Fringe. There would finally be the possibility of living a life outside the walls of Nucrea. There were promises of a longer life, enhanced abilities, little to no effects from the radiation in the Fringe, and also a large amount of credits for each participant upon completion. After three years of the volunteers’ imprisonment, all the excitement, and the expectation of these promises had vanished right alongside their freedom.

William used to spend time with each one of the volunteers daily. He would reassure them of how their enhanced future would be the beginning of a new earth. After a while, he was sure they all knew they were never going home, but they seemed to feel better listening to his vision of a better future anyway. Eventually it became clear that there was not going to be that type of future, just one of slavery, and there was no reason for any of them to pretend anymore. There was resistance from some of the patients, but that stopped when soldiers had killed them in front of the others. Slavery seemed better than death.

William walked between two rows of the glass holding cells towards a woman who was waiting under a light outside the main operating room door. He stopped and stared blankly at the empty holding cell on his right. She expected him to keep coming, but William just stared at the empty medical bed and dangling cables.

“Doctor.”

William didn’t hear her, and if he did he was not ready to acknowledge her.

“Doctor?”

She smiled at William as he slowly came out of his trance. Stoically, he looked her up and down. She had straight brown hair, soft hazel eyes and even softer lips. She was tall and thin, and to him, her smile couldn’t be more annoying. Her white medical uniform looked as if it were impossible to move in, but she somehow gracefully moved closer to greet him. William stopped just short of running right into her and ignoring her outstretched hand.

“Capener, right?” he asked without looking at her and reached for the crystalline tablet she was holding.

“It is a pleasure to work with you, Doctor Glastow.”

She waited for a response as he took the tablet from her, but it never came. William swiped through some medical charts and graphs, still not saying a word, and then handed the tablet back to her.

“Has he been prepped?”

“Yes.”

“After you, then,” William said, making sure she was aware of his annoyance.

The room was small and mostly crowded with machinery, displays and cables. In the middle of the room, a man was suspended vertically on one of the medical beds. Restraints held his limbs and head tightly to the frame.

William adjusted the controls for the bed. It twisted smoothly on its vertical axis, and then the base slowly slid upward. The bed stopped midway, with the man facing the floor. William sat on a small stool next to him, and removed the gauze pad from his neck. There was a tattoo of the Korean word for slave, and in the middle of the tattoo, bright blue lights blinked around a metallic ring.

William pulled down a suspended cable from the ceiling, and held it just above the metallic ring. Groups of small fiber optic wires pushed their way out of the cable and connected to the ring. The monitors and machinery turned on and began to analyze data. William looked over the readouts, and after being satisfied with the results, took a small box out of his pocket. Inside was a computer chip made of more fiber optics and an organic platform that looked like a mixture of skin and glass. The frame was made of quartz and a pewter colored metal that matched the ring that was embedded in his neck. After he typed in a short command on one of the monitors, the biological chip activated, and neon blue dots raced in random directions.

William turned to Capener and waited until she finally stopped staring at the man.

“Sorry, sir.”

“It’s fine. Has the link to the remote chip connected?”

She checked the tablet against the readouts. “It’s connected,” she said with excitement.

William gently pulled the cable away from the man’s neck, withdrawing the optical strands, and held the biological chip in its place. A pattern of circuitry moved around the outline of the tattoo and then conformed to the same shape of the tattoo. The lights continued to race in random patterns, as he let go of the chip. It held in place as the blinking lights slowed into a solid pattern.

William typed in a code that connected his tablet to the patient’s nervous system. A holographic display generated a group of DNA strands that began to spin slowly. He manipulated the DNA stands one by one, pulling them apart, changing the strand sequences, and then closing them back together. After the last DNA strand on the hologram had been manipulated, he inserted a replicated shell strand that bound itself to all the others.

“Real-time genetic manipulation,” Capener whispered in complete shock. “How is that possible? Even before the Fissure, no one was even close.”

“The Theonium laced DNA shell allows the strands to be recoded without interfering with the processes.”

Just as he put the last strand back together, the man on the table jerked. His hair changed colors from a light brown to black, and then to white. His eyes opened, his pupils dilated to an almost impossible size.

“Where am I?”

He tried to look around, but couldn’t because of the restraints.

“Where the hell am I? What are you doing to me?” The man tried to break free. “Let me go,” he begged, squeezing his eyes shut, fighting against his restraints.

“You’re safe. We’re helping you Amon,” William said, halfheartedly as he focused on the monitors.

“I don’t need help. I want to go home. I don’t want to be here anymore. Let me go.”

He fought against his restraints again, which looked as if they might not hold him.

William and Capener watched him struggle, her in awe and William in mild disinterest. Amon grit his teeth hard, breaking some of the tips.

“Let me go,” he whispered, beginning to cry.

Capener felt she needed to help, and walked forward, not knowing what exactly she would be able to do for the man. William shot out his hand to stop her.

“The cycle needs to complete itself. Will you note that we need to use mouth-guards in the future?”

Capener looked at him for a moment trying to gauge his response. William dismissed her concern and motioned for her to write what he asked and turned back to observe the man.

Amon burst into maniacal laughter then let out a long soft breath as monitors flat-lined.

Capener panicked. She looked around at the monitors hoping that they weren’t accurate.

“He’s dead?”

William didn’t act surprised. He calmly stood, walked next to the man, and put his hand over the man’s eyes.

Capener looked at William searching for some kind of answer. William knew this would happen. He knew that this man would die, and he didn’t need to answer to her for it.

Footsteps broke through the tense silence. William pulled his hand back and looked at the monitor as the footsteps came closer.

Corporal Eloy Santez had dark, cropped hair, and dark, piercing eyes that matched the black Nucrean Guard uniform perfectly. He had dreamed about being in the Guard since he was a boy, not to serve his city, but because he loved control. He pushed past Capener who was standing at the door and inspected the man on the table. He looked at the displays, then turned back to face William. His eyes narrowed.

“Commander Yeong wants to talk.”

“I believe I know what is going wrong. I just need a little more time,” William answered, avoiding eye contact.

Eloy put his hand on his pistol, unlatched the safety strap, and sucked his teeth sharply. “I am not here to take messages. You need to follow me.”

William took a deep breath and held his hand out to Capener. She looked confused for a moment then realized he wanted the tablet. She handed it over quickly and retreated to the corner. William quickly skimmed through charts and information on the tablet then set it down casually on the dead man’s back.

“I remember when you had just joined the Guard. Skinny, scared and looking for some way to prove your worth to this city.”

Eloy pulled the gun halfway out of the holster and moved closer to William.

“Take it easy. All I’m saying is that it is good to see you have found your place.”

Eloy hesitated but holstered his gun.

“I won’t tell you again, let’s go.”

Eloy opened the door. William wanted so badly to take the gun from his holster and kill him, but he walked through the door, Eloy on his heels.