Every step was an earthquake. Every breath was a hurricane. The gong of her heartbeat reverberated through the empty corridor. Security lights flashed, but she couldn’t hear the sirens blaring throughout the laboratory. All she could hear was the whimpering of the boy she was leading by the wrist. He buried his face in her white lab coat as she leaned back against the wall, sidling around the corner to inspect the next long hall before crossing it in long, swift strides.
She kept her head focused on the cameras and pulled the child behind her when it finally reached its maximum rotation. They were hidden, though not safe. She had memorized the schematics for weeks; she had rehearsed this day a thousand times. What she didn’t expect was the boy.
She knew the laboratory had taken a sinister turn toward the dark arts of fringe science, performing genetic testing without the federal approval, but she didn’t realize they had actually fostered a center of genetically altered children.
Her fingers wrapped around the vial in her pocket. She needed to hurry. The vaccine was going to die soon outside the fridge. The car waiting for her was equipped to transport lab specimens, but saving the child meant losing more time she already lacked in order to reach the vehicle before the vaccine became worthless.
Her cell phone vibrated. The car was about to leave.
She knelt by the boy and looked into his face with as much motherly care she could muster. He wore a hospital gown that hung loosely from his thin frame. He was just barely beyond the threshold of being malnourished: eyes sunk behind his bony skull; thin arms outlined his bones.
He grabbed her hand with rough fingers. Inspecting him briefly, she noticed most of the skin on his arm and legs to be cracked from dryness. His lips were shriveled and his shoulders began to slouch. He drew in ragged breaths which fluttered lines of flesh along his neck.
Gills.
What have they done to you? She stopped herself from actually voicing her concerns, but she could tell the boy was in trouble. She cursed and lifted him over her shoulder. Foregoing any more time wasted with caution, she bolted from her position beneath the camera and rushed through the double doors at the end of the hall.
The heat of the sun immediately assaulted her, but it was the noise of the armed guards approaching from the sides of the building that propelled her towards the car sitting idly with its engine running. The driver reached to open the side door, emphatically gesturing for her to hurry so he could close the door again.
“Go, go!” she said as she situated herself in the air conditioned car. The panel across the dashboard displayed 120 degrees Fahrenheit. A moderately cool day. She fumbled in the backseat for the medical container, carefully yet quickly shoving the vaccine vial into a slot and shutting the lid. She prayed she was fast enough for her treason to have mattered.
“Who’s the kid?” the driver asked as he sped down the parking lot, narrowly avoiding a roadblock of spikes.
“RAB-842,” the boy said quietly. He slumped onto the lap of his rescuer. His breath grew shallow.
Snatching a bottle of water from the floorboard, the scientist poured it across the boy’s face before giving him some to drink. “Nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m Catalina. You’re safe now.”
To be continued…
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Love this. A world I can imagine and a story that has me intrigued.
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