THE ONE by Khamya Rafiq (Series 4)

Chapter 2.9 "Playing God"

KHAMYA'S POV

I woke up with a throbbing head from hours of crying. I look at the clock beside me and saw that it's still dawn. I swallowed and felt my lips dry. So I tried to move to get a bottle of water but it worsen my aching head. I massage it then tried to stand and went to my personal refrigerator, but it was empty. I grabbed my coat and went outside to have a drink and cool myself.

The dorm hall was empty, with only the cameras keeping sentry, and I hurried toward the nexus where other corridors intersected. There, I found a guard on duty, a hard-faced man I'd never seen before who was texting on his phone as he stood stationed in a spot that let him supervise all the halls. He never looked up as I moved quietly and slowly past him, turning down the hall that led to the elevators. When I reached the elevators, I realized they'd taken precautions there too—precautions that I'd completely let slip my mind. You couldn't even push the button for the elevator without first scanning your ID card. And I left mine in my room. The elevator was inaccessible to me, so I used the stairwell next to it. After few minutes, I come out with another empty corridor but I'm not sure where I am because I lose count. I'm not in my usual self. All I know is that I'm several floors down where I am before. Having no choice and wanting to quench my thirst as much as possible, I continued to walk and look for a vending machine so I could get a drink.
Laughter jerked my attention from the end of the hall and I heared them rounding the corner and come walking down the corridor—in my direction. Panicked, I flattened myself against the wall. There were no nearby corners or nooks to duck into except for the room that says OPERATIONS ROOM. The room might be locked too but I still tried to and hoped it's accessible. I guess luck was on my side, so I hastily slipped in.

The voices were getting closer so I passed one more door. Then I heard the two of them stopped in front of the operations room, I hurriedly hide in the medical closet at the corner. And tried not to make any little noise. The men who came in were talking and the voice of the other man was familiar.

"We have a lot of brilliant scientists right now, I'm sure it wouldn't be long 'til we complete the project." the familiar voice said. I thought the project they mean was the one we are working on, since it's almost complete. But I discovered that it's more to that.

"Make sure it's complete as soon as possible. Our contacts are losing their patience." the man with a hoarse voice said.

"Don't worry sir, the test subjects are ready and some of them are already submerged in Pseudotroxyl Z-90."

My ears perked up when I heard the chemical that we are using in the project. As far as I know, we didn't submerged any host yet. My brows knotted upon hearing more of their conversation.

"Just imagine if we're successful to this project, our human clones can take over all the powerful personalities in the world!" And they both laughed.

Suddenly, a phone rung and after few seconds, the man with a hoarse voice spoke. "I have a board meeting. Come with me."

"Yes, sir."