Existence - Millennia to Mars

I

Samuel couldn't take the constant battle for survival any longer. One day they had enough Hydra to stay hydrated and survive; yet the next day they wouldn't have any for days. It was hurting his body to go through a state of constant dehydration and rehydration. Hydrotics Ltd liked to think that they were helping the Earth, but the truth was that people were still dying every day; there were just less deaths, more hidden deaths.

15 years ago, when Hydra was created by a team of scientists who had been trying to find a solution for the world wide water drought; the people of the world, and even himself, had thought of it as a miracle solution. However, as the years passed and he began to go through his teenage years drinking Hydra, Samuel began to notice some side effects. He wasn't the only one noticing side effects either.

There were still underground protesters, although they were so secretive that it was hard to get information on what was going on in the underground news systems. But Sam had a friend who's father had been protesting Hydra since it was introduced, and he knew things. Dark things.

His friend, Matthew, had told him that his dad was on the scientific team that discovered Hydra back in the day. That was over 40 years ago now.

Matthew's dad, Marcus, had been a young gun, fresh out of University with his Masters Degree in Health Science. He came from a part of North America that hadn't been as harshly affected by the draught; they still had the rich quality of life the had prior to the draught and were able to function as a society and maintain educational institutions.

Marcus had been taken under the wing of one of his professors, a man who was working with a group of scientists on a secret project that they hoped to one day make a lot of money off of. Marcus was eager to work with older scientists, and had high ambitions and a level of genius that made him a valuable asset to their team.

Marcus's professor had seen these qualities in him throughout the years of his schooling and upon graduation, right when things were heating up for the science team's project, his professor invited Marcus to become involved in their group. Without a moments' hesitation, Marcus agreed.

The team was working on creating a machine that could turn atmosphere into air. The called in "Project Water". The draught was taking over the world, had already killed billions of people, and someone needed to find a solution. They created a proto-type of an atmospheric air pressurizer, calling it by it's abbreviation of 'AAP', and planned to go to the government to get funding for the creation of it.

That's where Marcus had intervened.

He explained to the team that if they went to the government for funding, the government would take over the project in an attempt to save the planet. He proposed instead that they seek out privatized funding for "Project Water".

Marcus himself came from a wealthy family, as did a few of his colleagues. Keeping "Project Water" hush-hush, the team sought out private funding and managed to raise 1.3 million dollars in partnerships in order to duplicate their proto-type.

They had success with every recreation of their original AAP proto-type. The team had created a machine that was capable of turning air into water. It was an intelligent system, and every test they ran gave them incredible results. The private funders were thrilled, and gladly donated more; turning out their pockets as they realized what they were sitting on. It was a gold mine.

The Earth was running out of water, and here they had created something that would change the need for fresh water forever. The only problem was, that the Earth hadn't run out of water yet.

The team and it's partners held a meeting and decided to wait to release the water source to the public. There was disagreement amongst some of the original team; the creators of the AAP. Some of them fought to have it released immediately, arguing that there were people dying of dehydration all over the planet, and something of this caliber needed to be shared with the population immediately, so as to prevent further death and decay.

However, the majority of the founding partners were greedy, they were business savvy and they understood the need for supply and demand to turn a profit. The majority ruled that they would keep "Project Water" under wraps until the Earth was all but dried up and the government and the population had given up hopes of survival.

Marcus was one of the people who agreed to keep it silent. At the time, all Marcus could think about was the money he would make once they went public with "Project Water." However, looking back on those days from where he sat now, he wished he had done more to save more people. Too many had died without enough water, and he had sat on that source for years; not saying a word.

As the Earth had dried up more and more, and the government had started cutting the rations of water until there was nothing left; the team created an official name for their project. What the world need more than anything was hydration, and what was the one thing that could replace water?

Hydra.

The marketing team went into overdrive, turning Hydra into a money magnet. The world was a swarm of bees and Hydra was the honey. There was nothing stopping the team and it's investors from becoming the richest people in the world.

Except one tiny detail. One small issue that had come up closer to the release date. There had seemed to be some funny tests that were coming back from the labs where they were feeding Hydra to lab rats. The rats had been surviving on nothing but Hydra for a few years now, and they had been fine.

Then the tests started coming back with odd results.

Some rats were going into depressive states, not eating and instead of thriving as they once had, they began to die of starvation. Others were having anger problems and attacking other rats. Some were losing fur in patches and becoming blind, a progressive blindness that started slowly and then spread out fast; claiming their eye sight entirely over a matter of days.

Worse still, tests showed that other rats were developing cancerous growths on their bodies. Cancers that were entirely new to the science world. They had somehow created new strains of cancer cells through the consumption of Hydra.

Marcus ran tests and re-ran tests, desperate to find an alternate solution to the illnesses and cancers that were affecting the lab rats. Yet each test he ran only proved more and more that it was Hydra that was causing the sickness; Hydra was creating cancers.

Through his own personal research into how this was happening, Marcus discovered that it was the harmful toxins in the atmosphere itself that was causing the illnesses. The AAP used the atmosphere's air and compressed it in a pressurizer into a water form. That water, Hydra, was essentially loaded with incredibly harmful substances; everything that floated around through the atmosphere over the past thousand years was being pressurized into it.

Marcus went to the team and begged them not to release it. He asked for more time, told them that there must be a way to remove the toxins from Hydra and make it safe for the population. Though, after showing them his findings, the team concluded that it would be impossible to remove the toxins from the air they were pressurizing, and that attempting to do so would change the structure of Hydra entirely, possibly making it undrinkable.

The team instead decided to shift the  focus to the fact that there were still many rats that were perfectly healthy. They argued that the illness may only affect a small portion of the population, and that any cancers that were formed wouldn't be discovered for many years.

Marcus was entirely against the idea of releasing something that was essentially a poison to what was left of Earth's small population, so he quit. Throwing out his shares in their company, Hydrotics Ltd, Marcus went into hiding; fearing that his knowledge of the truth about Hydra would have him killed.