My Deceiving Eyes

Chapter 15

February 4th, 2273

Judith was right. There's an assembly today. How she got that knowledge is a mystery to me.

I've never had an assembly before. In fact, this is the first time I have ever even heard about it. Because we have too much staff in the facility, the assembly was split into three different times. One at 9 am for the staff working on floor 3-5, one at 11 am for those working on floor 6-8, and one at 4 pm for those working on floor 9-10 or have school. I will be attending the one at 4 pm because I have school. After school, because I have Mr. Lewis (History) last, he will be walking me to the assembly.

Totally irreverent but I asked Michael how the Binary children from Group A were going to be at the assembly because they're a carrier of the Bliss. He told me that they'll be watching from a live video feed. When I asked at what time, Michael said that they had already seen it at 11 am.

I was hoping to be able to wear something different for the special event but my idea was dismissed. It would be nice to wear something other than the same navy shirt with gray pants everyday. Class ended at exactly 4 pm but because of the assembly, I was able to leave school ten minutes early. We quickly walked to the elevator and I noticed that we're the only ones not at the assembly yet.

The assembly took place on the 7th floor. The stage room is filled with many grown adults dressed in the same white shirt. Every single inch of the room is filled and thank the lord we didn't have to watch the assembly from the crowd. Because they're scared of their precious Diamond child getting trampled to death, I'm allowed to watch the assembly from backstage.

I've never seen a real stage before and it's so unreal. It's dim and has so many things going on. People running around making sure everything is ready, talking to other staff for ideas, people looking stressed. It's so chaotic and I love it. Up ahead, I spotted Michael talking to someone.

"Look!" I pointed, "It's Michael!"

"Whoa now," —Mr. Lewis pushed my arm down— "he's one of the speakers for the assembly and I'm sure he's busy so let's not distract him okay?"

But as Michael passed by us, he gave me a smile. For some reason, I got really excited that he noticed me. There were six speakers in total. Two of them were Michael and Dr. Brown and the rest I don't recognize. When all six speakers took their place on the stage, we stood at the entrance of the stage but we're hidden behind the frame of the stage. I later learn that the area we're standing is called the Wing.

"First, I would like to thank everyone who was able to take the time to be here today." Dr. Brown began, "It has been almost twenty-nine years since our first ever attempt at creating a cure for the Bliss. In 2257, we created the first ever human that is immune to the disease. Sixteen years later, their test results never fail to amaze us but, as in recently, we have discovered something phenomenal." A female speaker clicked something on a laptop and popped up on the projector. It was a video of two kinds of blood cells on a petri dish.

"For the past fifteen years, we have been injecting all kinds of things into their blood cells to see what can destroy the Bliss cells and produce healthy ones. And as you can tell from the video behind me, it's safe to say that we have finally succeeded." So that's what they have been injecting me weekly. Next to Dr. Brown stood Michael. He kept cracking and fidgeting with his knuckles.

"The video shows blood from Andy Bakshi merging with a Drifter's blood. After a while, the cells began to multiply. Under careful observation, the previous blood of the Drifter's blood no longer contains the properties of the Bliss. After two months and four months in quarantine, I present to you, the first ever Drifter that turned human!" Across from where we were watching, a man walked onto the stage. Several gasps and whispers broke out in the audience. The man indeed looked human, nothing like Drifter. It's hard to believe that he was once one.