The Genesis Saga

Stanley left the room and watched the door shut behind him out of the corner of his eye. The guards escorted him down the hall towards the elevators. The doors opened and Stanley was greeted by his reflection. He noted the circles under his eyes and the slight gauntness of his cheeks as he entered.

He stood in the center of the elevator while one guard used their key to choose their destination while the remaining guard kept a trained eye on him. This time, they went two floors down. Stanley did nothing, said nothing, while they descended.

The doors opened and Stanley was greeted by a single, long corridor. The walls were an off-white metal with a grey tinge to them. Along the middle of each wall ran a thick, blue line that gently pulsed. He noted that the lines resembled the ones he had seen on the first floor.

There were no decorations adorning the walls, nor were there any plants. The floors and ceiling were made of the same white-grey metal, topped with bright fluorescent lights, leaving the corridor feeling sterile.

A cold breeze left him chilled, goosebumps appearing on his arms. The guards, with all of their equipment, seemed unaffected by the change in temperature.

Stanley was brought down the hall, passing by numerous white, wooden doors with tarnished gold knobs. They stopped in front of a seemingly random door somewhere near the middle of the hall. Looking around, he had no idea how the guards were able to determine which door to choose, as they all looked identical and had no obvious distinguishing features.

A guard knocked on the door before opening it inwards. Immediately, Stanley noted the two guards standing on either side of the door once he entered the room. The room itself was a modest size and resembled a clinic.

In one corner of the room was a small bed with white fitted sheets for patients to lie down on. Several meters away was a desk that adorned with a computer, various medical supplies and a silver tray with two objects on it.

A nurse sat behind the desk, patiently waiting for him to enter. As he approached the free chair opposite the nurse, Stanley recognized her as the nurse who had given him his tattoo the day before.

She looked over Stanley’s shoulder. “You are dismissed,” she ordered the guards. Without any protest, all four guards left the room, closing the door behind them. “Report, agent,” she said, once Stanley had settled in to his chair. “Tell me, why did you have us change up the candidates’ rooms?”

Stanley’s demeanor became serious. “I believe to have gathered those who are a potential problem together in the same room.”

“Why do you believe so?”

“After successfully infiltrating the transport as one of the captives, I spent my time observing those who were onboard with me.”

“I understand that, agent. You have yet to answer my questions,” said the nurse, whose patience was wearing thin. Based on the tone of her voice, Stanley knew he needed to produce an answer quickly.

“I believe that the group that I have gathered consists of the people I deem most likely to be dissidents,” Stanley clarified.

“I’m sure they’re all dissidents, especially after what we’ll be doing to them. What makes this group so special?”

“They have shown me an incredible adaptability to their surroundings, as well as the ability to take initiative.”

“All this from inside the transport truck, in the dark?”

“They were the only ones to have a conversation on the way here. There were no conversations occurring prior to that group arriving onboard the truck. After seeing one of the captives get shot, the typical response would be to keep quiet. Instead, they were making jokes.”

“After a captive was what!?” the nurse barked in outrage.

“Murdered, ma’am.”

“Explain. Now.”

“At the last pickup site – the one where the people I have grouped together were picked up – one of the captives jumped out of the truck and made a run for it. He didn’t make it very far before being shot in the back by one of the traffickers.”

“Those bloody imbeciles! Do they not know how painstakingly difficult it is for us to acquire test subjects?” she scoffed. “Why would they kill one? The captive must have been in chains like the rest. They should have been able to just walk up to him and drag him back!”

“I don’t know. It happened so fast. I figured it was best not to stand out given the situation, so I stayed in the back away from the action.”

“Good,” the nurse pinched the bridge of her nose. “Well done, even if the outcome was less than desirable. You’re of no use to us if you’re dead.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Continue your report.”

Stanley nodded at this before continuing. “Being able to laugh and joke in this kind of situation is remarkable. After it looked like they were bonding, I inserted myself into the group in order to become one of them.”

“Why not just split them apart then, like they were going to be initially before you tampered with the process?”

“I believe that each of these people will eventually begin planning some form of escape plan and are the most likely ones to actually attempt to carry them out.”

“You positive of this?”

“Already, there are grumblings about escaping between group members and they haven’t even been here a day yet. I’m pretty certain that this will evolve into something more.”

“I see,” the nurse said, pondering. “You believe these people specifically to be a potential problem and not the others?”

“That’s correct. By having them together in one place, they’ll naturally become a part of each other’s escape plan. We’ll be in a better position to stop them all at once when they attempt to escape, rather than risk having to deal with multiple attempts.”

“In that case, we shall gamble on you bet, agent. May you be correct.” The for your sake went left unsaid.

Stanley gulped nervously.

“Now then,” the nurse continued, reaching over to the edge of her desk from where she was seated, “on to business. First things first, it’s time for you to get a shot.” She picked up a syringe filled with a yellow liquid.

Stanley frowned. “Why am I getting an injection when I’m not an actual test subject? Shouldn’t I be kept free from potentially harmful substances so I can best do my job? Getting experimented on is not in the job description.”

“It’s because of these,” the nurse said, motioning to the pair of metallic bracelets that sat on a silver tray in the middle of the desk. The bracelets were a matte silver. “These are the monitoring devices we’re giving to the other candidates. Don’t worry, it’s just for your vitals,” she added. “It would look strange for you to be the only one not wearing them, so we’re going to have you wear a pair.”

Stanley looked at the bracelets dubiously. “That still doesn’t explain what the injection is for.”

“It’s part of what the bracelets detect when they monitor your vitals,” she replied.

He thought for a moment. “I get your logic, but can’t you just give me a pair of fake bracelets instead?”

“This is embarrassing to say, but we simply didn’t have any prepared for your mission. It was an oversight on our part. Because of that, you’re stuck getting a real one. And since you’re getting a real one, we might as well make use of it. We’ll be able to know if anything goes wrong so we can extract you.”

Stanley made a sour face, annoyed that they forgot something as simple as a prop. He had to admit though, he liked the thought of them being able to tell when something goes wrong so they can step in. He mulled it over. “Tell me what’s in the vial first though,” he demanded.

“It’s a harmless concoction with sensors inside. We use them to monitor you. You might have a bit of a sore arm after, but that’s about it.”

He pondered this, before finally agreeing. “If it’s harmless, then I guess that’s fine,” he said. “I don’t want to get any injections from now on, however.”

“We’ll see what we can do,” the nurse reassured him smoothly. She rolled up the sleeve of his white t-shirt and disinfected his arm with a swab. She then administered the shot.

Stanley doubted for a second. Was something that colour really harmless? Before he could dwell on it, the nurse had already finished injecting him with whatever substance had been in the syringe. Resigning himself to the outcome, he kept his mental fingers crossed that his superior had told the truth.

He felt a tingle spread along his arm, starting from where the injection had been. It quickly disappeared, but he swore he could still feel the faintest whisper of a tingle throughout the rest of his body.

“Alright, there we go. All done,” the nurse said, placing an empty syringe onto the desk in front of her. Deftly, she disposed of the parts into the assorted containers on the side of her desk, near the wall. “Now it’s time for the monitoring device.”

Stanley took his first good look at the bracelets. They were sleek, silver, matte metal bands. Each one had a pale blue glowing line running the length around the bracelet through the center.

At six instances around the bracelet, the blue line appeared to split and run off the edge down the sides, giving them a segmented look. he didn’t miss that the glowing blue lines in each bracelet resembled the walls in the corridor.

“How do you know if they’ll fit me?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about that, you’ll see. Now come so I can put them on,” the nurse unclasped each cuff, surprising him. He hadn’t seen any clasping mechanism on the cuffs before when he looked at them.

Squinting, he saw what he thought was small spikes along the inner band of the bracelets. Bracing himself, he held his wrists out in front of him towards the nurse. She clasped on bracelet at a time in quick succession.

Not feeling any sting, he looked closely at the bracelets and saw that they didn’t fit perfectly. They hung loosely on his wrists, the bracelets a tad too large for him. “Well that wasn’t so bad,” he began, “but aren’t they a little big?”

The nurse chuckled. “Give it a moment,” she said cryptically.

“A moment? What do they nee-” Stanley was cut off when the bracelets suddenly fastened around his wrists tightly. He didn’t have the time to be surprised when all of a sudden his wrists were jabbed by a myriad of needles that extended themselves from the bracelet inwards.

He winced at the sharp stab if pain. “Now that was unpleasant,” he said with a pained expression. He looked over his wrists. The bracelets were now seamlessly wrapped around his wrists. There was no hint of what might have caused them to act the way they did.

Despite the pain, no blood dripped from either bracelet. Stanley flexed his wrists. Each movement brought about a fresh sting of pain as the needles dug into his moving flesh. “What on earth was that?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“Merely some new technology we use here,” the nurse said evasively. “If that’s all for your report,” she continued, the air around her turning serious, “let’s move on. Maintain a connection with your cellmates. Learn of any information that might be used for an escape plan or that might disrupt our research here, Relay what you’ve learned once you know enough. You are dismissed.”

Stanley stood and saluted her, before leaving the room. The two guards that were waiting outside came back in, making room for him to pass after they did so. One of the guards closed the door once he was out of the room.

“Ashford, McLough,” the nurse said, “place extra care when dealing with cell 406. Dismissed.” The two soldiers saluted the nurse and left silently, leaving her alone in the room.

Meanwhile, Stanley made his way back to the elevator under the escort of his original guards. Entering inside, they did not return to the floor where the rooms were located. Instead, they went down one floor.

“Aren’t we going back to the rooms?”

“Nope,” the guard grinned as the elevator descended, “you have to look the part. That means you need to actually participate in some of the tests.”

***

“That’s three down now,” Lily said quietly from her bed. She was sitting against the wall with her knees pulled to her chest. “Soon there will be no one left.”

They had come for Adam not long after Stanley had been taken. The man had been quiet and obedient when they called for him, evidently pleasing their captors if their satisfied expressions were anything to go by. Now, the only ones left in the room were Lily and Adrian.

“They’ll come back,” Adrian said.

“How do you know that?”

“After all the trouble they went through, offing us on the second day seems a little slim.”

Lily curled tighter on her bed. “What if something awful happened to them? What if something awful happens to us when it’s our turn?”

“I don’t know, Lily. I’m guessing. Until one of them returns, we won’t know anything.”

Lily said nothing more as dark thoughts took over. Adrian left her alone, not knowing what else to say to reassure her. Frankly, he wasn’t feeling so confident himself that everything would be fine.

John returned to the room as abruptly as he had left. He was pale as a sheet, face full of sweat and shivering. On his wrists were the two bracelets that Adrian expected to see.

John mutely went to his bed and lay down, getting under the covers.

“John, are you alright?” Lily called out. “What did they do to you?”

John shifted under the covers, turning to look at Lily. “They injected me with something when they put the bracelets on. I’ve been feeling off ever since. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be fine in a little bit,” he said weakly.

“You coming back looking awful is becoming a common theme.”

John chuckled humourlessly. “I’d come back looking better if it they stopped using so many needles.”

“What happened to you after you left?” Adrian inquired. He never got the chance to hear the answer to his question as the same guards returned, looking to take another person away. They glanced between Lily and Adrian before speaking.

“Candidate ADR-BX17-008, come.”

Adrian gulped. It was finally his turn.