The Jenetix Program

Chapter 12: The Dance- Part 2

The elevator ride was long and silent. I could feel the tension building up in every passing second, running my mind through everything I wanted to ask while I had the opportunity. If I missed something out, it would come back to slap me across the head later.

When the elevator doors finally did open, the view in front of me was not what I expected. No huge halls, no people running about or bright lights. It was fairly small, about the size of the room I was staying in. It had two cream-colored sofas facing each other with a wooden coffee table in between. There was a grey and white bar at the end of the room and the whole space was dimly lit by elegant lights that hung from the ceiling. What really caught my attention was the walls. Or the lack of them. Instead. there were tall windows with a stunning view of the snowy landscape. In the distance were green and white trees, framed by the dark blue, cloud-choked sky. We were above ground, fairly high up. Dr. Damon waltzed past me and behind the bar, helping himself to a glass of red wine.

"Those forests," He gestured with his glass. "That's where you'll be fighting." He sipped happily on his drink, staring into the same view I had my eyes locked on. I broke my gaze away from the hypnotizing scene and reminded myself why I was here.

"Why Noah?" I asked, that was all I really needed to say. He furrowed his eyebrows as I started to walk towards him.

"Why not?" He questioned, a sickening grin staining his face again.

"Jonah had Mares. Isn't that your sick way of saying that you're going to take them?"

"No. In fact, that's what happens when their genetic mutation is weaker."

"The genetic mutation from the water?" He finished his drink, digging out something else from underneath the bar. He laughed to himself and I noticed that he was helping himself to another drink.

"That was just something I came up with. We don't actually know the cause but..." He broke off into a louder laugh. "I can't actually believe you guys fell for that!" It made sense, the excuse for our mutation did seem a little weak. It had to be something else, not that it mattered much right now. I strolled over to where he was pouring a glass of something brown and slowly took the bottle out of his hand. He didn't seem to notice it and I brought him back to where we were standing before, still clutching the bottle.

"So the Mares are like a side-effect of whatever gave us a mutation?"

"There you go!" He chirped. "You are starting to get it!" I ignored him and pondered over what I as going to ask next.

"Why am I being treated, well, differently? "

"You'll have to elaborate, darling." I gave him a look which I hoped showed him that I wasn't playing around.

"I mean, what's with the guards and the weird serum I was giving which I know wasn't Lethum and the..."

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you." He slurred and weirdly, I was grateful that he had all that alcohol. If he hadn't, he may have actually been capable of stopping himself from answering all my questions. However, I wouldn't really be able to trust a word he said with all that liquor in his system but I couldn't really do that anyway, sober or not.

"You are special, Ronnie."

"Thanks for the compliment but I really need to know." I joked, allowing him a few seconds to register what I had said.

"That's not what I meant, silly! What I meant was that you hold a stronger, bigger and more powerful genetic mutation inside you." Strangely, he seemed to regain his sober-ness and straightened his back, placing his hands in his pocket. He fixed his eyes onto mine, sending me a look that showed bravery and seriousness all in one go. I didn't know whether to be worried or reassured that he was finally capable of saying something that made sense.