An Illusion of Paradise

Prologue

Blackness engulfed the boy, spattered with tiny pinpricks of golden light. He relished the light, knowing it would be his last glimpse of the outside world before his inevitable death. He'd only recently come to terms with the fact, and had since given up struggling. Of course, he didn't want to die. That was obvious. He hadn't chosen to be taken away from his family nor his friends so early. It made sense that he tried to fight the officials who'd taken them. Except, as a teenager just nearing adult-hood, he knew he had no chance against four rather buff adult men with weapons. They'd put him at gun-point with such ease that it gave the boy the sense that not everyone else who was chosen had accepted death easily, either. Although being chosen was considered an honor to most, he at least hadn't considered it such. The officials easily dragged him into the room he was in now and sat him in the chair, injecting a shot into his heart that was supposed to make it stop almost immediately after. Of course, it hadn't worked. As the realization that something had gone wrong hit him, fear began to pour into his body like milk into a bowl of cereal. If the shot didn't work, were they going to kill him themselves? A wet cloth tickled his nose.It carried the smell of something sweet, something which the boy had smelled sometime long ago.

His muscles went limp, and his eyes went shut for whatever was on the cloth had filled him with drowsiness almost instantly. The boy reached a strange state of paralysis. He could hear, but couldn't respond. Surrounded by an abyss of darkness, he lay unmoving as he struggled to catch his breath. It was only then that he realized he couldn't move as he attempted to stand, his muscles were unresponsive. It was as if he was trapped between the waking and dead world, not quite alive, but not dead, either. He felt his body get lifted up and felt as his carrier walked for a minute before dropping him into a standing position. It felt weird, not having any control over his limbs and feeling things, like his holder's silk clothing, but not seeing them.

Time passed in a haze, the boy had given up counting. The world began to fade, and his eyes finally blinked open. He was in some kind of tank, surrounded by a well of blue.

He moved his fingers, testing if he was really, truly, awake. He wondered if he was dead-was this heaven? 

The tank was filled with a slimy-gooey substance that felt almost like Jello, and filled up to the brim. He allowed himself a brief minute to contemplate why he wasn't drowning before trying to swim up.

Except he was stuck. He could move his fingers, and toes but only barely. He was trapped in the Jello. He inched his head a touch to the left. Similarly to his own, several other kids, at least 10, were enclosed in tanks like his own, all the substances inside a different color. A small girl who couldn't be over the age of 12 was nearest to him on the side of her tank lay a small sticker, that the boy could barely read Danger-Radioactive energy inside. Her tank was filled with something murky green. He realized then that she was going to either die or suffer a fate worse than death. The girl turned to face him, her face pleading a silent cry of help as she fought through her tank until she was right up against the wall, pounding on it desperately. He shook his head, longing to say something as if words could ease her pain. Horror creeped through him as he watched her body go limp and the light fade out of her eyes. He stifled a small sob as he realized what he had just witnessed.

Of course, it was at that moment that a scientist, a squat man with a prickly grey beard who resembled a porcupine in a lab coat, walked in. He smiled coldly at the girl's dead body. "Another failed experiment, tsk." He said, his voice echoing around the room as he looked around. "Dispose of her after lunch, along with any other failures." 

He examined all of the tanks then, his eyes telling more than words ever could who he thought was going to be one of them. To his relief, the boy wasn't among them.

Then, he turned to face the tanks, his voice booming out as he addressed everyone inside of them."Welcome to The Lab."