Ten Birds but no Stone

Prologue

"I told you Chase, I'm not letting you do it until we see what happens to everyone else." I snapped, huffing angrily, exaggerating my slouch as I stalked away from my mother. The U.S. government had just made a worldwide announcement. They were going to change the DNA of humans to make them stronger and live longer, along with other benefits, like enhanced speed, hearing, and eyesight. It would essentially enhance all the human senses and the procedure would be named HEP, for Human Enhancement Program. Plus, the government wasn't charging any money for the surgery. I am actually very responsible with money, and I rarely spend any of my birthday money! Whenever I want to buy something I would always re-think it until I end up not buying anything at all. It kinda sucks.

But it was free and it could change my life! One of my best friends, Charlie, called me yesterday, Sunday night, not soon after the announcement was first broadcasted. He was bragging about how his family was going to get the surgery, which had sent me running to ask my parents for it too. But they hadn't agreed to it, they planned on waiting until everyone else got it first, to see if it would work at all.

After brushing my teeth absentmindedly I washed my face and dried it. I hung my white towel up on the wall of my bathroom and checked the time to make sure it wasn't too early to go to school. I lived pretty close to his school, maybe a ten minute walk. Right now it was 7:13 AM, and homeroom started at 7:30 AM. I liked arriving at school early. I got to hang out with my friends, but not too early. I would have to wait outside my school, staring at the large sign at the front of my school: Evergreen High School, near Highland Park in Brooklyn.

"Mom, I'm leaving for school!" "Take out the trash while you're at it! Kill two birds with one stone! Bye!" She replied. 'Kill two birds with one stone' That was her favorite saying, it meant to solve two problems with one solution, but I think it's just an excuse for me to do more chores. I grabbed my backpack and ran out the front door. Already I could see the effects of the government's new plan, people outside were using their new powers to fix their own problems. The HEP is a good thing! It's helping so many people already.

I pushed the school doors open and took the grueling path up multiple flights of stairs. I always started strong, leaping up multiple steps at once and running up the stairs. But soon even taking only one step at a time hurt my legs. I entered my homeroom classroom early, trying to catch my breath.

More kids than usual were there. I went over to my best friend, Charlie, a boy with messy dark hair and pale green eyes. He looked the opposite of me, pale skin, icy blue eyes, and blonde hair in crew cut. He was sitting across from Khloe, a girl who had chestnut brown hair and dark blue eyes. Charlie was showing off his new powers while Khloe was forced to listen to him. 'Help, this person is boring me to death,' her eyes seemed to say as she saw me. I slipped into the seat next to Charlie. These two had been my best friends ever since he had first entered this high school as a freshman and a new ninth grader. Now, I was in the middle of my Junior year, but I still needed Charlie and Khloe to keep my spirits up.

More and more kids trickled in from the homeroom door, and I saw the teacher make checks on the attendance sheet as each kid entered. The bell soon rang, signaling that it was 7:30 and that homeroom was going to start, and our homeroom teacher, Mr. Jaxon, walked around the class, collecting assignments for his subject, math. I got my folder out and pulled out my completed homework. "Dangit! I didn't finish!" Charlie said, eyes wide in horror. I immediately passed my sheet over to him, but I knew that Charlie wouldn't have enough time to finish before Mr. Jaxon came over.

To my astonishment, his eyes switched between the two sheets of paper like a blur, and he scribbled down my answers on his paper faster than I'd ever thought possible. He dropped his pencil and passed my sheet back to me a few moments before Mr. Jaxon turned to us. Wow, I thought, I stared at his sheet of paper admirably. These were the things that HEP could provide and I was missing out, for what? Just for precautions? I'm sure mom knew by now what the effects of HEP are, we all do, it's great! Why do I have to miss out on this?

The day went as it usually did, we had long since memorized our weekly schedule, as it was nearly spring. But during the second period, when we had a boring science class about Newton's laws of Physics, someone entered the classroom. It wasn't another teacher like it usually would be, it was a cop. "Bring your class outside to the school yard, the government has made an important announcement that must be heard," he ordered our science teacher.

We were led into the hallways. Multiple standard policemen were entering classrooms, probably to give the same message to other classes that we had received. What message could be so important that school had to be interrupted? I wondered, It probably has something to do with the HEP.

The police rounded us up and brought us outside, where we merged with a large group of people. It seems like the police had rounded up almost everyone in school. I saw our principal talking to one of the cops. He turned to us and, with a microphone, said: "The president has ordered everyone to get the HEP."

"LET'S GO!" I exclaimed, the whole class was whispering and cheering, as was the whole school, but Khloe's expression looked weirdly disapproving. Well, she'll find out how awesome the HEP is after she goes through the procedure! I thought, unaffected. Now he saw a row of around ten large trucks with their windows covered. The front of the crowd of people were dividing into lines, each leading to a truck. Ohh! Now I understand. The procedure will happen inside the trucks!

Steadily, the crowd moved forwards, I followed, and got pushed into one of the lines. It seemed to take forever for the line to inch forwards. It took at least a century until I finally moved from the back of the crowd to the door of one of the trucks. It was a white four-wheeled vehicle, kinda like a mini school bus, and its many windows were covered up with white fabric. I sucked in a nervous breath and stepped inside.

The inside contained a few seats at the front, but at the back, a large space had been cleared out, and a bed was there, along with the only other person in the truck, a doctor. But this doctor wasn't like the ones in white or blue with masks and gloves. This doctor looked like a regular person, only smarter, if that makes any sense. "Alright, lay down here please," she commanded. I followed, lying down awkwardly on the hard bed. She pulled out a small syringe connected to a long tube, with a long thin needle at the tip. She inserted it into my arm, at the joint opposite of the elbow, the one that let me bend my arm. She entered some information into her computer and then pressed a button making the pixels form a DNA strand. "I'm going to put you to sleep so that you don't feel this experiment, alright?" She asked. I nodded but what else could I do? She put one of those sleeping masks over my eyes. They weren't one of those blindfolds that you could see through, so I shut my eyes and slowly floated asleep.

I woke up in nothing. I looked around, but I couldn't see anything, I could barely register that I was looking around. Everything was pitch black, like the empty vacuum of space. I was floating, but I could control where I went with ease. I looked at myself, I was still the same. Same hands, body, legs, just the same me in an empty void. I looked up and saw my body on the bed in the truck. It was like watching a video on my computer, except the screen blurred into the darkness, and the video was about my body in the real world. This must be my consciousness, right?

I tried moving, but swimming here wasn't helping, and there was nothing to walk on. Then I flew, well it was more like floating. Then suddenly while I was drifting around, my arm jerked back, anchoring me to a certain place in this void. I tried raising the hand that was causing me inconvenience. My arm bended upwards at the elbow, but the muscle above my elbow refused to listen to me, and stayed stuck to my side. I felt an invisible chain securing my arm at my side. Then my whole arm fell down like it was dead. I strained, trying to move it, but I couldn't break the chains. Then my other arm fell to my side. My head was pulled upwards, my legs snapped together like magnets. I couldn't move.

And then I fell.

I felt myself plummet downwards, panic rising into my throat as I frantically willed myself to move against my binds. I strained and suddenly, my arms and legs broke apart, like the chains had been broken. I stopped falling and floated in place. This was my consciousness, and something was trying to contain it.