Children's Games: A Story of Modern Punishment

Chapter 40 - Elliot

~Elliot~

Emilia left mumbling and embarrassed. Elliot watched the spot where she had been standing, feeling a pang of guilt mixed with determination. He ran his hands through his hair, pulling his frustration out, and then his eyes flicked back to the place where she had just been, where she had also been pulling at her hair.

He crouched over the strand of her hair that she had left behind. It would be a stretch to find what he was looking for... he'd have to be quick because it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. He sat down in front of his station and got to work, clutching their hair tightly.

Extracting DNA from hair was a tricky process, and commonly useless when analysed in crime scenes. Still, it was not impossible, and perhaps easier because it was fresh and not degraded. Once extracted, the genomic DNA will undergo programmed degradation and, therefore usually highly unsuccessful. But the hair follicle, still intact in Emilia's sample, would be promising.

Elliot worked silently as he processed and extracted possible DNA from the sample, then stuck in through the PCR machine and sat back as he waited for any remaining DNA to replicate and increase his sample size. After a few rounds, he extracted his test tube, disinfected and prepared earlier... He had hoped she could do it with him, but she had stormed off like a child. Her contribution to fixing this war would not change regardless on whether she was a willing participant or not.

He stared at the test tube, opening it and looking at the mass at the bottom, ecstatic. He slowly got out his device and pulled the trigger over Emilia's DNA. A red light lit up over his face. He didn't know whether to smile or frown, his theories were proven correct. But at what cost?

Long before their mother started sending for Emilia, Elliot had caught their grandmother taking other samples from his unsuspected sister. Hair, blood, skin... He had never brought it up because they weren't allowed to talk about their parents. Even when Emilia started disappearing for months at a time away, she came back skinny and unable to talk about what she had been doing.

His emotions were a mix of triumph and dread. Again, he had hoped that his sister would take care of it, but clearly the task would be left to him.

He paced the room, his eyes never leaving the red light. The sound of his loud footsteps echoed off the sterile walls and rocked his mind into a headache. Emilia was his sister, and he would never wish any harm on her, ever. But this was much bigger than both of them, bigger than their dying pride as Australians. But have I crossed a line? He wondered if it would be easier to forget what he'd just discovered. Let the world descend into their deaths... natural selection. Mass extinction was a natural process, and the human race had been falling into its depths for centuries.

But he gritted his teeth, locked the lab and took the stairs three at a time to find Gabi or Jonny, whoever he found first. Either would be sufficient. Both of them were great leaders who she deeply respected. He could tell by the way she looked at them. Elliot was also higher ranked than her, but she was clouded by their relationship as siblings, talking back as if they were equals. He decided that at the end of the day, it didn't matter if she didn't want to, she should be made to. For the betterment of the good people in the world. She was still a soldier and wouldn't be able to resist a direct order. They were highly respectable officers, even before they came to the US.

There was noise coming from Jonny's bloc room as Elliot approached it, his mind already planning how to articulate his demands. He stormed into the room, prepared to begin strong and logical before he caught sight of Emilia.

"Elliot! I was just approving a mission to go back to Australia," Jonny introduced as he clasped his hands together with a clap and got up from his chair. "You in?"