Gene. Sys. by Aaron Denius (best ereader for comics txt) 📕

I don’t look at her. “Rene lied to me.”

“He was trying to protect you,” she responds.

“I find that hard to believe since he didn’t keep the same things from you that he did from me.” I don’t feel comfortable holding her hand right now, so I let go.

She looks at me. “Like what? I don’t know what he has or hasn’t told you.”

“Did you know about the others?” I ask.

She sighs. “No.”

“Did you know that the drones are supposed to be killed if they are injured?” I press on.

She shakes her head. I can tell she is growing uncomfortable with the questions.

“Did you know about the outsiders and that they might attack?” I look her right in the eye.

“I didn’t. Atom, can we not talk about this right now?” She averts her eyes, and I know that she’s trying to avoid my next question.

“Did you know that we are the ones who are destroying Earth?” I want her to be as in the dark as I am, but I can tell by her body language that she knows.

She takes a deep breath and looks at me with resolve in her eyes. “Yes. You have to understand that he had to tell one of us what our true purpose is.”

“Why didn’t he tell me?” I’m hurt.

“I often wished he did. This is not an easy burden to carry.” She puts her hand on Rene’s glass case and looks at him.

I stare at her, hoping she will give me more. I grow anxious, and I can’t stand in that room surrounded by secrets anymore, so I leave. As I walk out, I can see Ev sit in the chair next to Rene.

When I get out of the medical ward, I weigh my options. Instead of heading back to my room, I choose to explore what I can of the scientists’ wing. I try to avoid being seen as I walk, but I realize that no one is paying attention to me. The drones and scientists I pass are all going about their business. Most of the hallways look similar to those in our part of the compound. I can only assume that most of the doors I pass are bedrooms. I poke my head into a couple of rooms with ‘Lab’ labeled on them, but they are exactly as advertised. Nothing that I see seems out of the ordinary.

I’m about to head back to my room when I spot Grant at the end of the hallway I’m in. He’s hustling toward a set of doors with a keypad, so I decide to follow him. I make my way as silently as I can down the hallway. Grant is too preoccupied with entering his password to notice I’m walking toward him.

When I feel I’ve gotten as close as I can before he sees me, I duck into one of the rooms labeled ‘Lab’ and wait. He finishes deactivating the lock and walks in. I make a quick decision, knowing that I might not get another chance if I don’t act now. I run for the door as it starts closing.

“Stop!” a drone yells, and he chases after me. There is no turning back now. I dive for the other side of the door just before it shuts. I look back through the door’s window and see the drone run off in the opposite direction. They will know I’m in here soon, so I better find out what I can.

I see Grant turn the corner at the end of the hall. This hall looks the same as all the others, so I have no desire to check in the doors even though I have no idea what this part of the compound is. I make up my mind to follow Grant as far as I can.

After turning down a couple of hallways, Grant walks into one of the rooms. The hallways in this part of the compound are empty. No drones or scientists are walking around. Somehow I get the sense that this is the heart of the compound. I walk up to the door that Grant walked through and see that it’s labeled ‘Surveillance Room’. Chills rush up my spine because I just realized that they have probably had cameras on me my entire life, watching everything I do. It doesn’t really surprise me, but I guess that’s one secret I would’ve preferred to remain naïve to.

I take a deep breath and slowly push the door open. Luckily there is no one right there, so I can slide into the room without being noticed. I keep my back against the rear wall and am very cautious about making any noise.

What I see before me nearly makes me scream. The room is enormous. At least twenty scientists sit at various stations with monitors in front of them. The monitors are much more advanced than those in the room I was in with Hawk. The scientists swipe the screens, and new images appear. Everything I see on the screens is foreign to me except for a select group on the left that shows the compound.

I search the room for Grant and spot him behind a small group of scientists who are frantically swiping across their screens.

“Put it up on the wall,” Grant demands. One of the scientists does a few things on his screen with his hands, and the wall across from me comes to life. A giant image of Cairo appears. I recognize it from pictures I’ve seen in books and holograms, but those pale in comparison to what I see before me. It’s beautiful.

“Bring me in,” Grant says as he walks to the wall. The image zooms to a city in ruins. It must be near the compound because I see the pyramid as the picture focuses on the city center. People run around carrying guns, while others appear to be controlling large machines. The city is overrun with trash and rubble. It is not