Fireproof // H.S.

34. Decisions, Decisions

Dr. Chen removed a small bottle from his bag. He opened it to remove a green pill. "This pill," Dr. Chen said, holding it up for us to see, "contains a compound that will permanently reverse the methylation of Sequence X, which you all probably know is responsible for your special abilities. All you need to do is take one pill and it will all be over soon."

Everyone gawked at the pill like he was carrying a rare, ancient artifact. It amazed me how one simple pill could change everything.

"You're going to have to tell me more about this pill before I take it," Liam said. "Is it really permanent? What are the side effects? Is it even safe?"

"Those are good questions, Liam. I'm sorry--I should've explained more. I thought you were all eager to take the pill but it looks like you all have some reservations. This pill contains a compound called 'Element X.' I hope you appreciate the name because we named it after you guys. Element X is a synthetic compound that Dr. Hopkins and I created in the lab years ago. We were able to test Element X in pill form on mice, and within a week, the mutant mice started to behave like typical mice--they weren't stronger, faster, and more intelligent--they were just normal. We were able to carry out our experiment for two years max--that's the lifespan of a typical mouse. Not a single mouse showed any signs of relapse. We repeated this experiment seven times just to be sure. The effects seem to be permanent, but as you know, things can be different in humans. As for side effects, the mice experienced confusion, which was only temporary. We believe this confusion stemmed from losing their special abilities. And for your last question: is it safe? We monitored the health of all mice and found no differences in health between the treated mice and control mice."

We all sat in silence taking in the new information; no one wanted to speak. A question suddenly entered my mind.

"Do we have to take this pill?" I asked.

"Do you have to? No, of course not! I'm not going to force you to take a pill you don't want to take. I understand that some of you are happy with how things are."

"The government is okay with us not taking this pill?" I asked incredulously.

"From my understanding, yes. They just want you to know that there's another option if you're not happy with the way things are." For some reason, at his words, I lost it.

"If you're not happy with the way things are?" I repeated angrily. "For your information, we didn't choose this! If you think this pill is going to fix everything, you're wrong. I lost my whole family and my aunt because of this. Can that stupid pill bring them back? I don't think so!"

"I'm sorry to hear that but--"

"We deserve more than this stupid pill! We deserve an apology! We deserve--" I couldn't finish my sentence. Instead, I just broke down and cried. Harry quickly held me.

"I'm sorry this had to happen. In fact--sorry isn't enough to encompass the damage we've done to your lives. I admit it--we screwed up. We shouldn't have experimented on you but curiosity got the better of us. We learned our lesson and we'll never do it again. That's why I spent the last ten years of my life trying to fix this and we even had to pay for it with our own lives. What more do you want?"

"A full pardon from the government. We know the government knows about us. We just want to be left alone and treated like normal people."

"I can arrange for that to happen. That's the least I can do. We won't give Zayn and Louis the same rights because they're murderers. We want you to follow some guidelines, of course. First, do not use your supernatural powers to take advantage of somebody. Second, do not--under any circumstances--tell anyone about the secret experiment. And last but not least, do not tell anyone about your powers--not even your loved ones and those you dearly trust."