The Jenetix Program

Chapter 4: Just Following Orders

When Dr. Damon said 'downstairs', I figured he meant one floor. But no. I must have been in the elevator for at least ten minutes. On my way down, I got to have a good look at the guards that were escorting me. They had thick masks on their faces, only a small strip for them to see out of. One of them had dark brown eyes while the other had faded blue. I knew I must have looked creepy staring up at them, but there wasn't much else to do. I saw their eyes flicker down at me a few times, probably out of discomfort. They held huge guns in front of them, occupying both of their hands. The rest of their attire was completely black and bulky, what else would you expect? I wouldn't be surprised if they had bullet-proof jackets on underneath, these guys looked like they were prepared for anything. They probably were.

The elevator doors opened up into a large, split-leveled room. The first thing I noticed was the walls which were occupied by hundreds of different- sized screens that tinted the whole room blue. There were desks stationed all over the room with all sorts of futuristic- looking gadgets on the tables and on the floor. Despite the immense amount of speakers that were scattered around, the only sound came from the hundreds of people working at their desks. I noticed they were talking into microphones while staring at the screens on the walls. In curiosity what they were looking out, I looked up to see what was on the screens.

On one of the largest screens was, what seemed to be, a live-stream of a boy with their back to a tree. It was dark, and he was dressed in black bulky gear, similar to the guards who worked here, except he had no mask or helmet covering his face. He can't have been older that Noah, and he didn't look that different from him either, except my brother had brown hair and this boy had light blonde, from what I could tell anyway. He was holding a large gun, leaning over it and crying.
The guards pushed me further into the room and I didn't take my eyes off of the screen.
I jumped when the boy shot his head upwards and started shooting at something in the distance. I couldn't see what he was shooting, but the intensely panicked and petrified looked on his face showed that whatever he was shooting had to be a large threat. A shadow began to loom over the boy and just before I could see what it was that was causing this panic and fear, the cameras shut off and static appeared on the screen.

What the hell was that?

The whole screen went black before words appeared in bold:

#2903 OUT. DEPARTMENT: 8-10

Wait, was this war footage? I knew there was one going on, but this 'war' didn't seem like one as much as a predator-and-prey documentary, at least from what I could infer of the 15 seconds of footage I had just watched.

"What the hell is this?" I yelled at the guards, aware that all I seemed to be doing lately was shouting at people for answers, but I don't really think you could blame me.

They continued to urge me down the ramp that lead from the entrance to the middle of the room. If my grand entrance hadn't gained the attention of some people in this room, my little outburst sure did. The guards didn't say anything, and with the guns they had, I didn't want to push it either.

"I think I can help you with that." Said a lady's voice at the bottom of the ramp. I swiveled around to be met with a very wealthy-looking, covered head to toe in jewelry and make-up that almost disguised her aged face. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and a small smile on her face. She definitely did not fit in with her surroundings, everyone else was in dark uniform and did not seem as relaxed as she did.

"Who are you?" I asked, without hesitation.

She leaned against the banister of the ramp, staring at me intensely.

"I'm Ms Bellemore, I just need to ask you some questions if you would like to come with me."

"You need to ask questions? Why can't you tell me where my brother is?"