Tom Daley: Mr. Perfect

Chapter 14: The strangest way of getting back together

The entire room was white, that was the first thing I noticed. It was full of tables. I walked over to the first table in front of me.

It was covered in organized groups of test tubes. I picked one up. Inside it was an eyeball. Green and blue, very beautiful colors.

Just looking at that eye, I realized what this place was.

"A genetic engineering lab." I muttered. I looked at Tom and he nodded.

I stared in awe at all the test tubes as I walked by the tables. There were some organs for transplants, but there were a lot of just body parts. I saw a perfect nose. A perfect toe. A perfect butt and perfect breasts. I saw muscles to be inserted under skin. And some liquid labeled "Fat removing."

Aside from the organs and the things that make you look "pretty" there were even worse stuff.

"Superhuman" the table was named.

It held a super smart brain. Blood that is rich in oxygen making you have plenty of energy all the time. Eyes that can see twice as far as a normal human.

Tom was still in the corner, watching me explore. "What do you think?" He asked.

"I can't believe this." I said. "It's fascinating and horrible. This is illegal?"

He nodded. I just started at him for a second, and then I said, "This has got to be the strangest way of getting back together after a break up."

He laughed. "We're back together? You're not mad about this?"

"Why would I be mad at you? This isn't your lab, is it?"I asked.

"No, but look back there."

I made my way back to the counter. It was also filled with test tubes. I picked one up. A skin colored blob was floating inside. I turned it around, trying to decide what organ this was. Finally I noticed something moving... Like a heart in the middle of this skin. It was beating. Then I saw it's face. It's tiny, deformed face. Looking at me.

It was an embryo.

The tube slipped out of my hand and broke on the floor. I gasped and rushed to pick it up. I wasn't wearing rubber gloves or anything, but I just picked up the embryo.

The dead embryo. It's heart was no longer beating.

"Tom!" I gasped. "I killed it!" I felt like crying. I was in this horrible place surrounded by organs that had grown from these little humans. I looked down at the dead embryo. What would this one have turned into? But it felt so strange to be holding the beginning of human life. One of our earliest forms. I was this tiny once. So fragile and small.

Tom put his hands on my shoulders. "It's okay, let's clean this up."

He mopped up the glass and liquid while I looked for a place to put the embryo. There was a box that said, "Disposal" so I opened it. Inside were a bunch of rotting organs. I gagged at the smell, then held my breath as I put the little embryo on top of the least decayed liver.

When I got back to Tom I was crying. "This place is horrible. Why did you take me here?"

"Because this is why my opinion is so complicated. I've been here many times, they asked me to volunteer and that's why I'm in Utah." He paused to look at me. I tried my hardest to keep a straight face and focus. He went on, "That's why I was at the hospital when we first met. I was giving them organs. That hospital has been working with this company for years."

"This can't be happening. What is the world coming to? This is sick!" I said, loudly, and looked around at all the test tubes. "I need to get out of here."

Tom grabbed my hand as I tried to walk away. "Wait!"

"Please, can we go somewhere else."

"But there's something really important." He was still gripped firmly to my hand.

"Let's go in the parking lot. Anywhere but here."

"Zoey," his voice was so calm and inviting. I turned to him and decided to listen.

"Zoey, I was born here."