The Day The World Ended | ONC 2024 LONGLISTER

7| human lab rats

5 months later

The rumours about the military rule had turned out to be true. 

They also had been doing a somewhat decent job so far. They had given people food—even though it was mostly canned soup and tasteless biscuits—had started the water supply again. They had even started paying for jobs like helping with the construction, giving medical treatment and joining them as guards. 

Being a guard had turned out to be harder than everything else. Many were turned down. No one really talked about what tests they had to go through and others had no interest in them either.

Mellie hummed to herself as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail with a rubber band that came with the biscuit packets. Her hair had grown a bit past her shoulders over the last five months. A single street lamp illuminated the otherwise dark street as the sun dipped below the charred building tops. Mellie remembered watching a billboard go up with Simon, Kaylyn and another bearded man. People had cheered as it lit up, the screen displaying the date. 

Now there were many of those around the cities. Not as much as there used to be six months before, but enough to be a common sight. Mellie, Simon and Kaylyn had gotten into a habit of gathering with whoever was around at the time to watch the news at night. It was the only way they could know what was happening around the world. 

It reminded Mellie of when she used to watch shows with her family on Friday evenings.

"How's it going?" Kaylyn asked as she joined Mellie next to where she was sitting on the ground, leaning against another stolen car.

"Finally I can breathe without smelling my own sweat." She leaned her head back against the car to stare at the sky.

Kaylyn chuckled. "I feel you."

They had finally gotten hold of soap after almost two weeks. Mellie had thought she was starting to lose her sense of smell by how much she smelled of sweat and dust. It was not like they had perfume to hide the smell either.

"Are we going to stay here tonight or are we moving?" Mellie asked, turning to face Kaylyn.

Kaylyn squinted at the sky, twirling a lock of her dark red hair around her finger. "I don't know. It's a bit peaceful here, isn't it? Not many people to deal with. And there's also one of those billboards around there." She pointed her thumb to her right, where the street took a left around a building.

"Well, looks like we are staying here then. Where's Simon?"

"He went to find some batteries. The torch isn't working." Kaylyn heaved herself off the ground, dusting the back of her pants. "It's boring sometimes, you know? We are not living. We are surviving. We are running for our lives, stealing from others and eating biscuits that taste like cardboard. I never thought this where I would be in my thirties."

"At least we are alive..." Mellie suggested, unsure of how to respond to that.

"Sometimes I think it would have been better to be dead." Kaylyn sighed, wrapping her arms around herself.

"I can understand what you are saying," Mellie started. "But we are not dead. We are alive. And I'm going to stay that way until I die or someone or something kills me."

Before Kaylyn could reply to that, they spotted Simon running towards them. There was an urgent look on his face that made Mellie jump to her feet, feeling panic rise in her gut. Kaylyn straightened, eyes wide in her paled face.

"You have to see this," Simon panted, stopping in front of them. In one hand, he clutched two batteries. "There's breaking news."

"About what?" Mellie asked as she and Kaylyn ran after Simon.

"Something about someone who escaped from a government facility," Simon said, turning momentarily to look at them. "I'm not sure. They said these people are dangerous."

Government facility? Mellie thought. What was that even supposed to mean? And Simon said that someone had escaped. What kind of a facility was this? And why would anyone who escaped from it would be dangerous? What kind of facility would have dangerous people? And why hadn't they heard about this until now?

Already there was a big crowd gathered around the billboard, pointing up at it and talking among themselves. Simon, Kaylyn and Mellie pushed their way through the crowd. 

"What is going on? What are they saying?" Simon asked no one in particular.

 "Something about a secret experiment they had been doing," A young woman said, still peering up at the screen.

"What?" Mellie blurted out.

"Yeah, it's pretty messed up, actually," The young woman replied. "They are saying that they wanted to make a human that can withstand all of this mess. Someone with—you know—" She shrugged. "perfect immunity, super strength, super intelligence. All of that stuff."

"A superhuman," Kaylyn commented.

The woman nodded. "The perfect human being."

"Have they succeeded?" Simon questioned.

"I guess not," The woman replied. "Look. A group had escaped. They had killed the guards and run away."

"So they are dangerous?" Mellie asked, looking up at the giant screen and the reporter in it.

"That's what they are saying."

Mellie read the big subtitles that were displayed next to the reporter. They were saying that a group of eight individuals had escaped the facility a few minutes ago and that they were nowhere to be found. They consisted of men, women and teenagers of all races and appearances. The government had no photos of the subjects to the public.

"Why won't they have photos?" Mellie asked.

"If this was a secret project, they might have thought it would be too dangerous to have photographic evidence." Simon explained. "Maybe they were hoping to kill all of them and push it under the rug if the experiment failed."

"That's cruel," Mellie muttered.

"And if they had photos and let's say they showed them to the public," Kaylyn nodded at the screen. "If people saw any of their family or friends up there, they would riot. It would be total chaos again."

"I wonder how long this had been going on," Mellie wondered aloud.

The reporter suddenly stopped talking. He seemed to be listening to someone else. Then he started talking again, the subtitles displaying what he was saying in block letters. Two of the subjects had been spotted around somewhere East. They have got CCTV footages of them.

That meant they were still around the military base. Because not every place had CCTVs like before the disaster six months ago.

A grainy surveillance photo appeared on the screen. It was hard to guess their genders or ages or even what they looked like. One of them—the taller one—seemed to be in a guard's uniform, a cap hiding their hair. The other one was in a long black coat, a black mask covering the lower half of their face. It seemed like that person had dark hair. 

Even though it was too grainy to see clearly, it was obvious that the one in the mask was looking straight at the camera.

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