Chapter One
I wake up in a room that resembles a hospital. However, I see no doctors or nurses; instead, I am surrounded by what appears to be a team of scientists, circling me as a flock of vultures
would circle a carcass. None of them speak directly to me, but as they observe me, writing down notes, I catch small snippets such as "Clearly superior-, " "Survival of the fittest all over again..."
"Excuse me", I interrupt politely, "but could you please tell me what is going on?" One of the scientists stares at me for a moment, frowns, and says, "Please stay quiet, we're trying to do an analysis." Suddenly, he injects a needle into my skin. I wince, and the needle draws out my blood. He pours it into a small Petri dish, and puts it under a microscope, and goes on to examine it. Then, another scientist cuts out a small strand of my hair, and a third asks for me for an imprint of my fingertip. They also record my hair color, eye color, and skin tone. Finally, the scientist that drew my blood looks up and says, "You may go. Go to the seventh floor, room 22-you're expected, don't worried about an invitation." I nod, and one of the scientists directs me to the elevator. I suddenly am very self-conscious about my appearance, and I realize for the first time that I am wearing nothing but a pale green hospital gown and slippers. Eventually, I get to the seventh floor, and once I get to room 22, I knock on the door. The door opens, and a man nods when he sees me. "Hello, Miss Hope. I've been expecting you...why don't you make yourself comfortable in my office and have some cookies and tea as we chat?", he asks, his voice cool and polite. I nod. He ushers me into his office, and it's very clean, not to mention big. His desk is an elegant and sophisticated, made out of glass, completely free of any excess clutter, except for two teacups, a teapot, and a plate of cookies. "Sit", he instructs, pulling out the chair in front of his desk. I sit cautiously. I'll admit, he seems nice enough, but there's something in his tone that I don't like-it's the sort of tone an adult would use with a child when they are about to tell them something that might affect them badly. I sit, and he pours tea into the cups. He offers me the cup, and I accept it. He looks at me. "Miss Hope...can you remember anything before you awoke in that room?"
I think. To be honest, I'm kind of freaked out. I don't remember anything before this...did I have parents? Where did I live before? Where am I now? And why am I here? Since I can't, I shake my head.
He nods. "Well...my name is John Batcher. I'm pretty much the boss of all those scientists, and well...before you blacked out-way before you blacked out-we decided to do a little...experiment. Basically, we rounded up everyone in the world, and changed their DNA to make it...stronger, more equipped for, say, an apocalypse or mass extinction. We changed your parents as well."
My mind is spinning, and I'm feeling all sorts of moods. Are my parents dead? Was there an apocalypse and did it kill them? If they're dead, who will I live with now? Am I having amnesia, since I can't recall anything, except for my name?
In the meantime, I'm upset at this scientist and his team who thinks that humans are nothing but a bunch of lab rats. What gives them the right to play with our DNA as if it were a toy and nothing else?
"However", Batcher (aka Mr. Jerkface) interrupts my thoughts, "we decided that only one person wouldn't get their DNA changed, and that person would die, obviously, if a mass extinction or apocalypse occoured. So, in seventeen years, we decided to create an apocalypse, see what would happen. And I won't lie: your parents and everyone else died. Your DNA was the one we didn't change. And somehow, you are the only survivor."