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

the plan. It was never really spelled out to me, but I understood. Ev and I are supposed to have offspring. I’m not sure what to ask next. My cheeks feel flush, and when Rene looks at me, I look away.

He must sense my embarrassment, because I can see him smile. “Don’t be nervous about that, Atom. It will happen naturally. Your bodies will tell you what to do.”

“I don’t want to talk about that.” I avoid any kind of eye contact, but I can see him holding in laughter from the corner of my eye.

“Do you have any other questions for me, Atom?” He stands.

I do have more questions, but I’m too embarrassed. “No.”

“Very well. Be smart, Atom. You are very important to the success of this project. There are reasons we’ve made these rules, and you need to adhere to them.” Rene walks to the door and looks back at me. “No more secrets, I promise.”

“Promise me something else,” I say back.

“What?” He leans against the doorframe.

“No more drones get killed because they can’t protect,” I demand.

Rene thinks for a second. “I promise. We will mend them and send them to work on the bunkers.”

I look at him and see the sincerity in his eyes. He smiles and walks away, but I know that I shouldn’t put too much weight on his promises. I shift my body back into a lying position on my bed and close my eyes for a quick nap.

A knock wakes me from my slumber, which must have been quite deep, as I’ve lost track of time. It feels like I was asleep for both twenty minutes and six hours. I feel refreshed even though my body feels slow. A second knock gets me up and moving to the door. I open it and see Ev.

“Come to the simulation room. Grant wants us for training.” She walks off toward the simulation room. I realize that she’s still upset with me, so I chase after her, grabbing a protein pouch on the way out. We reach the elevator at the same time.

“I’m sorry.” I try to catch her eyes, but she won’t look at me.

“Not now, Atom.” She has a very determined look on her face.

I press on. “I am. I’ve been selfish…”

She enters the elevator. “I need you focused. We don’t know what we are about to face.”

I enter behind her. “It’s just a simulation, Ev. Nothing we haven’t faced before.”

“It’s different today,” she says as the elevator reaches the bottom floor. She pulls me to the side of the elevator as the doors open. “It’s the Genetic Systems’ first time, and we are facing off against all of them.”

Through the open door, I see the simulation that we have to battle in. It’s one that I haven’t experienced before. The room is white from top to bottom, and snow is blowing heavily. A gust blasts cold air into the elevator, and I feel my flesh contract around my muscles. I look at Ev and notice that both of our jumpsuits are very bright colors. After unzipping my top, I see that the interior of the jumpsuit is a light gray.

“Turn your jumpsuit inside out.” I start to remove my pants.

She does the same. I feel my heart racing, so I look back out of the elevator as she finishes redressing.

“Smart idea,” she says.

I smile. “We are most likely going to have to hide in an open space, so it’s best we don’t stand out. Any ideas?”

“We stay close and keep our backs to the wall. That means we only need to focus on 90 degrees each.” Her eyes narrow with intensity.

“I agree. Stay low. We don’t know what weapons they have.” I crouch down and wrap my way around the elevator door and into the simulation room. The floor feels very slick underneath me. Ev joins me, and the door shuts behind her, enclosing us in an abyss of white. I have a quick flash of my dreams, but it’s instantly snapped away when I spot two figures ahead of us. Both of them appear to be men. I signal for Ev to take the one on the right as I go for the left.

We stay low as we sneak up behind them and grab our marks by their heads to pull them down. Ev grabs a knife from the hand of her pale, redheaded target and plunges it into his chest. I struggle to hold mine down as my feet slip underneath me. He has dark skin, similar to Grant’s. Just as I’m about to lose my hold on him, Ev plunges the knife into his chest. I search his body but don’t find a weapon. The shock in his eyes reminds me of how I felt the first time I was knocked out of a simulation. The jolt that runs through your body is less than pleasant.

We stand, and I look around. No one else is coming, but we still keep ourselves close to the wall and shuffle along. There are eight left.

After a few moments, Ev points to the center of the simulation. “There are four coming toward us.”

Through the snowfall, I make out four shapes approaching. They weren’t aware enough to have flipped their suits inside out, so the bright colors make them stand out. “Think they spotted us?”

“Doesn’t look that way,” she responds.

“Perfect! Go lie on the ground over there, and I will do the same over here. Wait for the first two to pass, and then we’ll jump at the last two.” We both move to our spots and lie down.

We wait as the group gets closer. It’s three girls and one guy. The first two of the group pass—a blond-haired guy with dark eyes and a chiseled jaw, and a stunning dark-skinned girl with short but thick hair. The two in the back are a redheaded girl and a girl with light skin, narrow eyes, and hair as black as night. They are both equally beautiful.

When