Never Be the Same

Prologue

September 8th, 2019

“Sir, we have a problem with the Genesis trials. The serum—it’s not responding as expected…”

The sound of a stylish pen scribbling on a pile of document paper suddenly stopped. The pen, held by a slightly wrinkled hand with a few moles, was placed in a plain black pen holder, joining the others.

“Sir—”

The man at the desk, Dr. Ezekiel Voss, leaned back in his leather chair, folding his arms in front of his chest. His piercing eyes drifted to the young scientist standing stiffly in front of him. There was a spark of fear in the scientist’s eyes, sweat beading on his forehead. He was nervous, more so than usual, and that was never a good sign.

“Speak,” Voss ordered calmly, though his voice had a hint of unease.

“The serum…” The scientist rubbed the back of his neck, nervousness was clearly visible on his face. “There’s been a mutation.”

A moment of heavy silence passed between them. The words carried too much weight, and Voss wasn’t sure he could hear them without going mad. “Mutation? What are you talking about?”

The scientist swallowed hard, he stammered, “It… it wasn’t supposed to happen. During the last trials, we noticed unexpected changes in the subject. The cellular regeneration is off the charts, and the immune systems are reacting in ways we didn’t predict. We’ve detected viral markers.” He let out a shaky breath, his voice trembled. “What I’m saying is, Genesis—Nexis-22—has mutated into a viral strain. It’s airborne now. We think it’s spreading beyond the facilities. We’re trying to assess how far it’s gone, but—”

Voss stood abruptly. He couldn’t believe everything the young scientist in front of him said. This wasn’t the plan. Nexis-22 was meant to create super-soldiers, not unleash a virus into the world, a deadly one, perhaps. His work was supposed to be controlled, precise, a breakthrough in human evolution. This was an error. A devastating, uncontrollable error.

“How the fuck did it get out?!” Voss asked, his tone full of anger.

“We—we don’t know, sir!” the scientist admitted. “The mutation happened so fast… The ventilation systems, the lab’s air controls–they weren’t equipped to handle it. We didn’t even realize what was happening until it was too late.”

Voss’ jaw clenched. Everything was fine before, but now he was hit by a disaster, and all because of his own work.

“Any damage by now?” he asked quietly.

“No one's shown symptoms,” the scientist said. “It could be across the city in days… maybe even farther.”

Voss took a deep breath, his mind racing. The virus was out, but it hadn’t caused harm yet. There was still time—barely—to contain it, but time was running out, he had to hurry.

"Get everyone on containment measures," Voss ordered sharply, turning back to the scientist. “Issue a Level 5 containment protocol for the surrounding cities. No one outside of emergency channels is to be informed until we’ve got this under control. Lock down every transport route out of here—ground, air, sea—everything. I want an emergency response team ready within the hour.”

The scientist nodded slowly. “And the public, sir?”

“They’ll get the story we give them—a chemical spill, natural gas leak, whatever we need to keep this quiet. But I want Hazmat teams in every surrounding city. No one leaves, no one gets in. We’re sealing the place down. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.” The scientist scrambled out of the room, leaving Voss deep in thought in eerie silence.

Voss sat back down slowly at his desk, his eyes fell on the documents of his work. The name ‘GENESIS’ was written on them. He took a deep breath, then threw all the documents from his desk. He was full of rage. Towards his workers, and especially towards himself. He never wanted to create a global catastrophe, he just wanted to push the limits of human potential. But now everything was turning into something darker, something uncontrollable.

The clock on the wall ticked quietly in the background, but to Voss, it felt like a countdown.

Time was running out.