Project 40 | Teen Ink

Project 40

October 25, 2016
By andrewfurey21 BRONZE, Warsaw, Indiana
andrewfurey21 BRONZE, Warsaw, Indiana
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

9/23/3016
That one night changed everything. The reason why my life took a left at the wrong turn. The reason why I’m in this crucial mess. We do wrong things for the right reason. That's why I'm here.
Smoke poured out of the Advanced-Genetics Lab, with employees fleeing from the building with extreme and almost deadly burns,  while others carried their fellow scientists. Crimson flames burst through the windows, the walls and ceilings caving in like an avalanche of snow. The tower, in which the lab was within, slowly leaned left, as fire engines pulled up to help the injured and the wounded. There were ten or so ambulances, which wasn't nearly enough, pouring out supplies to create more space for the needy. The wind was icy cold, blowing terribly, like a fist of hail that punched the city. Sadly this monstrosity of an experience for so many innocent scientists, was caused by one person. That one person was me.
I dashed through the woods that laid between the tower and the bridge, which would take me across the border. Trees were scattered across the area. There were dozens of oak, hazel, and pine that concealed me from the officers and detectives that showed up at the scene. It wouldn't be long until they had realised that I, Ethan Black, was the culprit of the disaster. What’s more, I will be on the run for a while, until at least they found out why I did it.
The reason why I cooked the lab was because they made a HDH (Highly Dangerous Humanoid, but I call it the Bad Egg). Of course they didn't know it was dangerous. I didn't know it was dangerous, and I made it, with other staff of course. It was supposed to help with our military, they didn't like losing cadets or other officials. They wanted to keep peace (more like keeping people from their deaths), so making humanoids was the best thing to do. Sadly, the people who owned the lab and were in control of the wonders we cooked up in there, weren't the nicest people. In fact,  they seemed to want a war for whatever reason. Killing everyone must have somehow satisfied them. They wanted to be leader, not our minister…
         Obviously I couldn't have let this HDH information escape under the surveillance of the officials. Even after the Bad Egg escaped, I tried to destroy any evidence that we had uncovered about the it. About Project 40.
I hurried along the bridge that took me over the border, giving me a chance before everybody catches up. The sun was beginning to rise, and after last night which was bitter and icy, today seemed like a gift. The only advantage I had over the bad egg was I had implanted a mini tracking device in it's abdomen. It connected to my smartwatch, which made this wild goose chase a  heck of alot easier.
As I hurried along the bridge, the other side seemed to turn into thick smoky haze. The jade green grass brushed along the sweet smelling air of freedom. The sky was azure, with sparse white clouds in small streaks across it. In the horizon I could see a turquoise lake, outlined with golden sand crawling with sea gulls. Sadly, there were thick scarlet blood stains all over the sand, and with my watch to prove it, I knew the Bad Egg had ran this way. Bloody feathers sprawled all over the shore, with unwanted bones alongside them.
I darted in it's direction, wondering what I would do once I caught it. Furthermore, how would I catch it. The project proved itself to be hard to capture. It had very pale skin, dangerous dark brown eyes and it's teeth and nails were enormous and as sharp as knives (I know because I lost an employee the very same day he was tested). There was not a single hair on his head, (making him extremely like the evil creature Golem from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy) and it hardly took a breath, it was so concentrated and enveloped in killing and eating it's prey.
Before I made any haste decisions, I decided it would be best for me to find shelter and fall asleep.
It wasn't going to be that difficult to find somewhere to sleep and stay hidden at the same time. The landscape was embedded in tall oaks. They were very climbable as well, they were encrusted with thick branches that I could put my weight on. What was even bigger help the leaves were thick, making it impossible for anyone outside to see me sleeping.
Even though the sun was still glaring down on me, I decided it would be the best for me to sleep. It was only last night the lab was enveloped in flames. My fellow coworkers, friends even must now be my worst enemies. The whole city probably see me as an outcast, and are doing whatever it takes to catch me.
I situated myself on one of the branches. That night I didn't get much sleep either. I had abhorrent nightmares that night. One of them included the whole town, armed with pitchforks and torches lighted with burning flames, standing at my tree where I was slept. Sweat trickled down my neck after I burst out of the nightmare. Full moon had risen, a cold breeze blew that night.
It took me a minute before I realized why I was here, and why. I seemed it was a long time ago when I burnt down the lab. Yet it was only yesterday.
I heard a rustle in a bush, only to right of my tree, several feet away. For a few seconds, my impression on the rustle was that it was only a squirrel, or a rabbit. I peered over my branch to observe the animal. It hadn’t come out of the bush yet so I  which held back. The rustling had stopped. For a moment I thought I had saw a set of eyes, marine blue. The reflection of the moon were in it's eyes, sparkling away. I jumped off the tree and landed into a mound of leaves, and headed toward the bush. I pulled back the front of the bush, to see a small boy.
His  blonde hair was dirty and greasy. His eyes had great, pale bags, sagging under them. It was as if I saw a skeleton; his skin was tightly stretched across is body. His eyes were bloodshot, he was crying not to long ago. All he had was a brown shirt (which I thought was supposed to be white), shorts, and shoes without laces. He laid in a ball, his eyes wide open, staring up on me. He had millions of little bloody cuts all over his body. He seemed to have covered the thicker ones with bandages which he had covered with leaves.
He stared at me. He had no response to my existence, all he did was just lay there, innocently. I kneeled down trying to grasp his attention. I tried to say something to him, asked him questions. All he did was moan. He fell asleep quite fast, and I waited there for his awakening but no sooner had he fallen asleep , I collapsed as well.
When I had awoken, my stomach rumbled. I crawled to my backpack. All I had in my pack was a few apples, a grenade, and sticks and a bundle of string. I had picked the apples off my table in my office three days ago. I plucked them out. They were soft and hazel colored, and warm from sitting in the bag for three days. As soon as I had pulled them out, the boy had sprung to life, as he sniffed the air. I handed him an apple and he devoured it almost instantly.
“Where’d you get these?” his voice croaked as if he used it too much.
“Doesn't matter, the place is long gone. Where's your parents?” I asked him, his apple was completely eaten already, and I handed him another one.
“Dead,” he sobbed munching a lot slower now. He hardly had any muscle; it seemed to be that he was literally skin and bone.
“There was a fire at the City Lab. My parents worked their. It's gone, everything's GONE!” the boy cried.I forgot to mention how small the city was. It was hardly a city. Creek, which was it's name, circulated around the lab. There was only a few buildings that supported jobs, and the City Lab owned these.
In a much more simpler way, the City was a town. The town had three or four jobs. The population never reached 1000.
“My name’s Jason, Jason Majyk,” he uttered. He looked up at me, as if to ask what was mine. I couldn't tell him. He probably knew who Ethan Black was.
“Mine’s George Sullivan. What did you mean by, everything, is gone?” I had a feeling his answer wasn't going to be a nice one.
“Stupid Ethan Black burnt down the lab. The fire spread. Creek is GONE! I found my friends dead, my mom dead. The place was abandoned. Fire was everywhere. I'm surprised I didn't die of heat stroke. I ran for the border, and here I am now….” I felt so sorry after what I had done. I had been raised up there for as long as I could remember. I can't even begin how much damage I could have done to Creek. I tried to ease his conscience, he seemed to be extremely distraught, with what all he had destroyed under the time of one night.
“It's gunna be okay, Jason,” his eyes sparkled as the sun rose slowly. I looked to the horizon, where Creek City stud. Smoke was slowly beginning to stop. The fire was over. Death had ceased. My actions were wrong. But they were for the right reason...
I had completely forgotten the reason why I crossed the border in the first place. The Bad Egg was evolving, I knew that. It had shown very low intelligence at the beginning of his life, like an infant would. Yet it tricked the entire lab, and managed to escape. It gained distance over night which wasn't something I liked. It had just passed a city, meaning that he had slayed a few people before moving forward. He seemed so quiet and young as a small humanoid, I could never have perceived his future as being a terrorist.
“Jason, I’m on….a mission you could call it. If you wouldn't mind, I’d like a bit of company?” it did seem rather lonely out here in this thick forest. He stood up, barely, his body still malnourished.
“Sure,” he replied, his legs trembling. He had hardly any energy in his body, so we set off on search for food.
There were many animals here; squirrels, raccoons and rabbits. Jason grabbed some string from my pack, and I picked up some wood for snares to catch rabbits. The forest was hustling with them, red brown black fur, you name it. The branches stocked up with leaves above our heads blocked most of the sunshine out. It was hazy, no wind disturbed the animals that were running around, getting ready for winter.
The snare was about ready when we heard a howl. It was a strong kind of shrieking wail, bellowing through the woods. Then there was another, and another. The animals stopped what they were doing, and turned to listen to the terrifying sounds. Jason looked up at me, his body trembling even more than it did. The only conclusion I could come up with was: wolves.
I flung everything into my pack, threw it onto my shoulders while carrying Jason and destroyed our snare so the wolves wouldn't know we were here. He had so little food in his body, he could hardly run. His blonde hair was matted, bowing into the wind that had just begun. A panic had stricken me. I realized these weren't wolves, but they were trackers dogs. The bosses of the lab were searching for me, they new what happened in the lab the day we created Project 40.
I dived into a hole as fast as I could, and laid Jason on the floor. He was breathing heavily, I realized I wasn't the only person scared of what might happen next. I was sure they wouldn't kill me, the bosses wanted the information that was locked up in my brain, but I couldn't strand Jason. He was like a small wolf pup that had lost his parents after a fire (which literally happened). We covered ourselves in dirt, trying to ease our scents.
Not to much longer, they were standing above our hole sniffing the ground above us. I prayed they would back off. The people at the lab would literally torture me for the rest of my life until they got the information they wanted. I knew my consequences after what I had done. The remaining survivors of the fire would hang me. The world would turn to ruins if the people at the lab got information.
I prayed.
Soon there was a man's voice the bellowed the dogs.
“He's not here, boys!” he snarled. I had a quick glimpse at his face. He had a plushy moustache, his hair was jet black. He was a rather plump man, with a blue shirt on, with the labs logo on it. The dogs ran to his direction and walked with him until they were out of sight.
Jason and I stayed there for about an hour. Chances were, there were traps around if they were searching for me. Though my stomach and Jason's rumbled, we both had to sit and wait in case they came back.
Two hours past before I even took a peek outside the hole. My trousers were soaked in mud, dirt smeared across my face. There were several holes in my clothes, they seemed to be rags hanging on to me.
I watched the forest, looking for any signs of life that we could eat. All the squirrels had dashed to their holes, and they still didn't dare to come out. It was silent, nothing moved except a calm breeze. Then I realized something. I hadn't had much thought about it since I meant Jason, who was sitting quietly outside the hole, listening intently for the tracker dogs that might come back. The back of my throat hurt. There wasn't much saliva in my mouth. It was dry, every part of my mouth. We needed water.
I looked at Jason's lips, which were scarred and chapped, bone dry and they hardly moved.
“Water….” he whispered.
“There's a bunch of animals who live, there's surely a pond…” I replied, looking around. I pulled Jason onto my back, who was so light and frail. I was surprised he hadn't died yet. To my surprise, I was actually able to lift him. He wasn't the only one losing his energy.
As I ran, I began to notice that the red light on my watch had stopped. It was a little over four to five miles, not too far. I couldn't run after it though, we wouldn't make it half way through without collapsing. Project 40 was gaining intelligence, evolving, soon I would have no chance against this beast, I needed some defense….
After a bit of a walk I began to notice that there was a rushing sound, like a rapid stream flowing down a hill. Carrying Jason, I ran to the stream. Jason had fallen asleep, at least I hope he did. The faint sounds of a stream began to turn into a river. I reached a hill, on a meadow. We passed the forest completely. This meadow was open and wide. Long grass grew peacefully as deer ate plentifully. I awoke Jason hastily, and we dived into the river.
The water was cool and refreshing. Even though I was low on energy I swam around the lake in which the river flowed into. Though his lips were still chapped and his energy levels were still low, Jason was happy to finally have someone to talk with. I knew I did some awful things to him, so it was now or never….
“Hey Jason, um, I'm not who you think I am,” I said. He stopped swimming in the water. He floated in the water and listened.
“I am….. Ethan Bl-,” before I finished my line, there was a murderous shriek over the meadows hill. Project 40, was standing up on the hill, glaring down on us.
“That's  going have to wait, George,” Jason and I scrambled to the shore grabbed our stuff and ran into the woods.
This was a worse panic then the tracker dogs.  My breathing increased, so did Jason's and we just kept on running. The Bad Egg was catching up, quickly, his speed was immeasurable. He launched up from the ground and attacked Jason. I kicked it smack in the face has hard as it could. Distracted, it locked onto me and hunted me down. As I was sprinting down the forest, Jason threw me a grenade. I had completely forgotten about this thing, I remember picking it up from my way out of Creek. Jason was watching in terror, his eyes flooding with tears. I grabbed the grenade, but as soon as I did, I felt an incredible, gut-wrenchingly painful stab at the back of my torso. My eyes were fogging up, my limbs felt numb. I was dying and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Jason, I'm sorry…” and with all the energy I had left, I plucked the ring out of the grenade, and I waited.



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