More Than Human

Chapter 2

June 7th

My whole body was entirely relaxed. I didn't want to move muscle. Not even open my eyes. I was happy.

Until I heard footsteps. And opened my eyes. And saw that I was in this white room so bright that it made my eyes water. What? Where was I? Was this dream?

A woman in a lab coat leaned over me. "Hello. Madeline Evans, I presume?" she asked in a factual manner. I didn't have the energy to nod. "I'm sorry. We may have given you too much sedative."

That cleared away the fog of confusion. I remembered my kidnapping. "Wha?" I murmured, too softly for her to hear. I closed my eyes and kept listening.

"You're probably wondering why you're here. We'll be experimenting on you and your friends too compare the differences between genetic modification at birth and genetic modification at age 13. If I recall correctly, you turned 13 very recently. Two days ago, am I wrong?"

Wait. My friends? Fay and Lea and Gloria were here too? And two days ago? My birthday was on the fifth, but we went to the beach on June sixth. So today's the seventh?

My mind was too groggy to think properly. I surrendered to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke twice during what I guessed was an operation, and it terrified me.

The first time there was a horrifying numbness around my stomach and rib cage.

The second there were a bunch if doctors talking all science-y about genetics and rates of mutation. They were also talking about my chances of survival. I'd rather not think about that number. But it scared me more than the numbness.

To say I was terrified was a understatement. My one phobia is drugs or people that do things to change my body. Don't take this the wrong way, because however many wrong ways you can interpret this, IT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN.

Vaccinations freak me out a lot. I don't even like taking cold medicine because it's designed to do things to me.

So having people do things to my genes?

Pure. Terror.