Gene. Sys. (6 page)

A knock at my door wakes me from my dream. I’m
sweating and the sudden knowledge that I am about to get yelled at by Grant
doesn’t help. I rise to my feet slowly, hoping that maybe he will go away, but
instead there is another knock. I answer the door and my fear changes to
confusion when I see 80 standing in my doorframe, bandages still covering half
his face.

“Hey 80.” I step aside to let him in.

He walks in. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
     

“It’s alright. What’s up?” I sit on my bed and
he remains standing.

“I wanted to apologize for earlier.” He seems
uneasy. “And I wanted to thank you for saving my life.”

“Of course.” I smile. We both look at each other
in silence and then I realize that this might be my best chance to ask him the
question that’s been brewing in my mind. “Why is it so hard for you to want to
live?”

80’s shoulders fall. He looks back into the hallway
and I realize that he is too scared to talk here. He’s probably not allowed to
talk about this and he’s afraid someone might hear.
     

I quickly grab my blanket and lead him out my
door. We head to the library and climb up to the roof. He follows me without
saying a word. I lay the blanket down and sit on it. He sits next to me. The
sun is just now dropping below the horizon so the sky is orange and red. I have
always loved this time of day.

“What is this place?” he asks.

“It’s where I come to think. No one ever bothers
me up here. We are safe to talk about anything.” I’m trying to make him feel
comfortable.

“What is that over there?” He points to the top
of the pyramid.

I smile. “That’s the Great Pyramid of Giza. The
ancient Egyptians built it over 5,000 years ago to honor the dead.”
   

“Why would anyone want to honor the dead?” He
strains his eyes to get a better look.

That’s not something I had thought about before.
“I guess it’s so that people don’t forget them. It’s a way to commemorate the
accomplishments they made in their life. It gives meaning to their life.”

“
It’s
just life.” He
says matter-of-factly.

A part of me knows he’s right. There really
isn’t much to life. I remember about a week ago sitting out here and taking in
the size of the universe and realizing that our galaxy is nothing but a dot on
the giant cosmic map and that Earth itself is nothing more than a dot in our
galaxy. Whatever we do here on Earth or on Mars now will go unnoticed. Whatever
humanity accomplishes together will never be acknowledged, especially once we
destroy it. It makes me sad to know this but I guess that’s why I spend most of
my life thinking on a smaller scale. Ignorance is bliss.
    

“Is this why it’s hard for you to want to live?”
I ask.

The slight smile he had on his face is now
replaced with a frown. “There is no reason to live. Right now I feel like I’m
just occupying space.”

“I guess I just don’t understand why you
wouldn’t want to survive.” I’m frustrated that I can’t figure him out.
      

“It’s never crossed my mind. Until today all
that was ever on my mind was to protect you and Ev at all costs. I didn’t care
about myself or what might happen to me
. I just followed my
orders. Then, as I lay in that bed I started thinking about stuff.” He looks as
though he is processing as he speaks. He reminds me a little of the first day
after I was born. I was so curious.

“What were you thinking?” I pry.

“Why am I here? When I was part of the
Intergers
we were never taught to ask why. We just accepted
everything as it was. We protect and we die. Those are our only two functions.”
He lies back on the blanket. “It all seems absurd. We should want more.”

That was a lot more than I thought would come
from him. I had never heard of the
Intergers
before.
That must be what the drones call themselves. It is absurd that protect and die
are all they care about. Were they programmed to be that way? I never really
thought about the capacity of what the scientists in this compound can do, but
it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. I learned about the mapping of the human genome
in one of my classes, so it would be safe to assume that they could isolate
certain genes and manipulate them. More questions clutter my head but one thing
is certain, there are too many secrets in this compound and I am tired of being
in the dark. I don’t care how much trouble I get into; I am going to find out
everything I can about what they are doing here and, more importantly, why I
was created.

80
turns
to me. “What
do you think they are going to do with me?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Well, they can’t use me for protection anymore
and I’m clearly not a scientist.” He smiles at me and I chuckle. His little
joke is the most human thing I have seen him do. It almost seems like he is
evolving as we speak.

“I really don’t know. There are a lot of things
I don’t know about here but I am hoping to change that.” I really am.

80
winces
in pain and
slowly sits back up. “I’m going to head back to the medical bay. My head is
starting to hurt again. Thanks for talking with me.” He stands and walks over
to the ladder.

“I’m here almost every night. Come up any time
you like.” I smile at him and he smiles back as he climbs down.

It’s fairly warm tonight so I decide to curl up
with my blanket and sleep up here. I would rather not be disturbed right now
and a large part of me is afraid to face Grant. I know he won’t find me up
here. I look up at the vast, dark night sky above me and, though there are so
many things that could be occupying my mind, I fall asleep thinking how small
and insignificant I am.

5

Over the next three days I try to stay under the
radar. Ev and my classes resume. We learn about art and music. Some of it
doesn’t make sense and I just don’t understand. Brianna says that everything
that is artistic is subjective but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Ev.
She seemed to love everything. It even brought her to tears a few times. Our
training sessions with Grant were postponed because of all the work he was
doing in that surveillance room. In fact, I haven’t seen him since the incident
in the surveillance room. I’m hoping that he’s forgotten that he is mad at me.

80 came to visit me on the roof once. He asked
me about all the things that Ev and I had been learning and I happily shared.
He seemed to take a genuine interest in biology and chemistry. I asked him
about Breekbal. He explained that it’s a game where two teams of ten players
attempt to get balls into the other team’s pit, a
four foot
hole in the ground at the opposite end of the field. He said that there are no
rules as to how a team gets a ball into the pit and that the games would get so
physical that drones would get injured and have to be put down. The game sounds
very dangerous, which may be why I’m dying to play it.

When I woke up today though, something felt off.
People seemed to be a little more on edge and there seemed to be more activity
in the hallways than usual. Ev seemed to have picked up on it as well because
after our morning class she walks with me back to my room.
      

“Have people seemed a little weird to you
today?” she asks.

“Yes. They all seem tense. What do you think is
going on?” I open the door to my room. She walks in and I follow. Before I am
able to close the door I hear someone call out my name. The deep and slightly
threatening tone can only belong to one person. Grant. I sit on my bed next to
Ev and wait. “He’s a little angry with me. You may not want to be around for
this.”

“What did you do?” She looks at me, concerned. I
haven’t told her about my expedition to the surveillance room; if she sticks
around I won’t have to.

Grant appears in the doorway and Ev stands.
“Actually Ev, you should stay.”

 
She
sits back down and I can tell she’s a bit scared because she grabs my hand. We haven’t
really touched each other for days and I forgot how it felt because
I am surprised by how fast my heart
is beating and how
nervous I suddenly get.

I know he hasn’t forgotten about my sneaking
around so I try to diffuse the tension I’m feeling. “I’m sorry about—”

“—Atom, you need to observe boundaries and
not go where you aren’t supposed to.” He’s gentler than I expected.

“Why?” I know I’m stoking the flame.

“For your own protection. There are things that
you aren’t meant to see,” he responds.

I can tell that he is trying to remain calm and
that’s having the opposite effect on me. “Protect us from what? Why are you
hiding things from us?” I snap.

He takes a deep breath. “This is not a
discussion, Atom. You will do as you are told.”

“Or else what? You will kill me like you do the
drones? You won’t let me destroy the world with you?” My face feels warm from
the blood that has rushed up to my head. I would have never imagined that I’d
be yelling at my favorite teacher.

Grant looks at Ev. “You should tell him.”

“You tell me, you coward!” I scream at him.

He clenches his fists and holds back a punch
that I’m sure he wishes he could throw. Instead he turns to walk out. “I
thought you should know that Rene is being woken up in a couple of hours.” With
that he shuts the door behind him.
    

“What is up with you?” Ev puts her hand on my
shoulder. I know she’s just trying to calm me down.

“Tell me what?” I turn and lean my back against
the door. I am not going to let her leave until I get the answer I want.

“Please sit, Atom, you’re making me nervous.”
She moves further down on the bed and I sit on the end.

I take a few deep breaths and try to calm myself
down. “Please tell me everything. I don’t want to have any secrets between us.”

“I don’t either.” She grabs my pillow and holds
it up to her stomach as if to protect
herself
. “What
do you know about the end of the world?”

“Just that we are the ones who are going to
destroy it.” I turn to face her to make sure that I can see her eyes. I want to
make sure she doesn’t lie.

“Well that’s not entirely true. It’s Rene and
the other scientists who intend on destroying the world. More specifically,
they plan to wipe out humanity.” She’s been struggling with this information
for a while.

It still doesn’t make sense to me. “Why?”

“I asked Rene the same thing and what he told me
was that the human race was driving itself extinct. Wars, disease, famine were
all taking their toll on humans. He said that in the last 100 years the
population had been cut by more than half because the ice age forced the hand
of chaos. He believes that the only way to truly save the human race is to
start over.” She grips my pillow tighter.

“Is that what you believe?” I’m not sure what
answer I want to hear.

“I don’t know. I didn’t think so, but that
attack on the compound a few days ago has made me reconsider. They were such
savages. Not just the outsiders,
but
everyone. The
drones, the scientists, everyone.” A couple of tears roll down her face and she
wipes them on my pillow. I wonder how many tears have graced her pillow.
  

“What about us?” I’m afraid of the answer I’m
about to get. Whatever it is, I don’t believe it will be what I want to hear.

She looks deep into my eyes. “You and I, and I’m
guessing the other Genetic Systems as well, we are the restart. When everything
and everyone else is gone, we are supposed to find E.D.E.N. and start the human
race over.”

Suddenly I’m scared and I don’t feel comfortable
around Ev anymore. She and I are supposed to restart humanity? Why? Does it
have to be her and me? Now a lot of things begin to make sense. All the
education and training was intended to help us survive and pass along our
knowledge.
The constant watchful protection by the drones.
All of it to make sure this project is successful. I am suddenly struck with
the fear of failure. If we don’t succeed humans will become extinct. Everything
that ever was will be forgotten and unless the colonies on Mars have survived
since communication was lost nearly 100 years ago, the Solar System will be
devoid of intelligent life.

“Where is E.D.E.N.?” I ask.

“Rene didn’t say exactly. He just said north,
under the ice and snow,” Ev replies. She looks like she’s had a huge weight
lifted off her shoulders. She places my pillow down and stands. “I think I’m
going to head back to my room and rest my head before I go see Rene. Are you
going to be there?”

I think for a second.
He is
still my father
,
I should be there
. “Yes.”

“Good.” Ev leans in and kisses my cheek before she
walks out. I’m glad she left because I can feel that I have turned bright red
and I let out a high-pitched sound I’ve never heard before.

My mind struggles with the idea of Ev and I
being created to restart humanity. If I can’t even handle a kiss on the cheek,
how am I supposed to do that? I look down and see that my left hand is shaking.
I try to stop it but it won’t. I’m too anxious and need to relax so I walk into
my bathroom for a hot shower. I lay on the ground with my eyes closed and let
the hot water hit my body. I try to picture myself lying on the roof of the
library and the warm rain hitting my body.

Just as I’m about to doze off, I hear a knock on
my door. Part of me wants to ignore them and lay here until morning, but I
realize that someone has probably come to take me to Rene. I shut off the
water, dry myself and throw on a clean outfit.

When I open the door I see a drone with an eye
patch covering his left eye. “80?”

He taps his eye patch. “You like it?”

“Yeah. It looks bad ass.” I’m happy to see him.
I would rather it be him that brings me to Rene.

“Follow me.” He walks off towards the library,
away from the medical ward. I don’t question him; I just follow. He leads me to
one of the doors before the library and out into the open field between the
main buildings and the wall.

This is where the battle against the outsiders
took place. I look down and see that the blades of grass are still stained with
blood. They moved the bodies while Ev and I were down in the simulation room.
He is definitely not taking me to see Rene. “Where are we going?”

“I have a surprise for you.” He looks back and
smiles and picks up his pace to a light jog. I have no choice but to follow as
he makes it to the wall.

“They are going to be waking up Rene soon.” My
heart is pumping. Whatever 80
has
planned has got me
excited.

“I know. It’s the perfect time.” He works his
way down the wall, checking his surroundings as he goes.

“For what? What are we doing?” I mimic every
action he does as he ducks his way to the corner of the wall.

“Going to the pyramid.” He shoots a giant smile
at me and I can’t help but reciprocate. “Everyone will be focusing on and
paying attention to Rene, so no one will notice us leaving.”

What we are about to do is so wrong and will get
me in so much trouble but ever since I saw the top of the pyramid from my
vantage point on the roof I have wanted to see it up close. Before I am able to
even think about objecting I see 80 scaling the corner of the wall like a
spider. He places his hand on one stone and then his foot in another. I do my
best to follow his path as we climb the thirty-foot wall.

He is every bit as physically able as I am but
he seems to possess a lot more fearlessness. My hands shake as I look down at
the drop beneath me. One miscalculation and I could very easily fall to my
death. 80
makes
it to the top and looks around.

I’m about to reach up for the top of the wall
when my foot slips on one of the stones. My heart stops as I begin to fall and
the only thing that crosses my mind is that I failed Ev. I am snapped back into
the moment when 80’s hand grabs mine, stopping my 30 foot plunge. He pulls me
up and I regain my bearings at the top of the wall. That close brush with death
has made me reconsider this adventure. “I shouldn’t be doing this. We should go
back.”

“Stop!” Three drones are running at us from
different directions.

“Too late. Go!” 80 has ushered me to the edge of
the wall and before I know it I’m climbing down on the other side. 80
is
on the wall right behind me. We make it to the ground and
run in the direction of the first place we can find cover. It appears to be an
old metal shack that has had most of its metal rusted, stolen or blown off. We
crouch behind it, both breathing heavy and trying to catch our breath. We look
at each other and laugh.

We barely have time to think before we are off
and running again, this time in the direction of the pyramid. The bottom is
obscured by the city before us but I see more of the top than I ever have. The
city is a mix of steel and glass buildings with stone and metal huts. It’s a
plethora of juxtaposition with no middle ground. The only thing that they all
have in common is that they have been worn down, torn apart or blown apart.
Anxiety grips me, as we get closer to the border. The outsiders do not seem
like a welcoming people and we are running into unknown territory for both of
us.

“Come over here.” 80
waves
me over to a pile of rubble. “We need to change out of these clothes. We’ll
stand out to the outsiders if we don’t.”

“What would happen if they spot us?” I step next
to 80 as he bends down and grabs something.

“They’d kill us.” 80
pulls
the body of a young man from under the rubble. The smell coming from his body
is repugnant. His entire left arm is missing and his face is covered with
blood. Through the blood his dead, empty eyes stare up at me. My stomach
tightens and I look away.

“I’m not wearing a dead man’s clothes.” I try
hard to keep everything in my stomach.

“Atom, it’s the only way. Nobody outside of the
compound wears what we have on,” he says. “Just don’t look at their faces.”

I take a deep breath and turn to see that 80 has
already pulled a second body and is midway through changing. I walk over to the
first body and slowly pull off his outer layer. “How are you able to do this?”

“I have been around death since I was created.
The integers are expendable, so they wouldn’t even bother fixing someone with a
broken leg. They just replace them with someone new. I’m not the first one
named 80.” He jumps back into the rubble and scavenges.

This reminder of the lack of humanity the
scientists show towards the drones reignites my anger towards Rene. It confirms
my resolve to make it to the pyramid and defy him. These thoughts help me get
through the daunting task of putting on a dead man’s clothes. I finish changing
and 80 steps out of the rubble holding a handgun and a long staff. He hands me
the staff and conceals the gun in his pants.