Subordinance

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

The papers litter the floor, ashes from a conflagration of truth. Lies and truth become muddled; clarity goes up in smoke.

I'm not sure what I am anymore.

I sink to my knees, my fingers brushing over the wisps of paper. Neat black symbols march their way across the sheets, uniform in their organized rows. The orderly way in which they are typed almost seems to be mocking the jumbled mess of my thoughts. My fingers close over the edge of a sheet, slowly lifting the surface to my eyes. Lines swim into focused ideas that confirm what I'd seen before.

Basic Information marches across the top of the blood test paper. Below is a list of the compounds making up the blood stream. The normal elements of blood like oxygen and iron are typed in bold print, found in both Purebloods and Subordinates. It's the chemicals listed below those that are so frightening to me.

Blood Type S it reads in bold, thick black letters titling a bulleted list of information below. Subordinance Chain B it states, a small but detailed drawing of the genetically engineered compound printed next to the word. Amoris Inhibitor scrolls directly underneath, the image beside the word showing molecules blocking certain nerves and what must be brain waves. Descriptions of the elements making up the bioengineered substances are listed next to them, even more compounds and chains listed beneath the top two. I stare blinking at the words, unable to move or speak, locked in a trance of realization.

This is what makes us different.

This is what makes me different.

I've seen blood tests of Purebloods before; in the time I've worked at the hospital I've ran blood samples of two Regiment Officers and a Quadrant Officer, and both times have I seen the basic information on their blood. They were always blood-typed A or B or O. Never S. They always had the same list of elemental compounds. Never were any genetically modified chains listed. And there most certainly was never any kind of inhibitor listed in their blood samples.

I always knew I was machine-made and that Subordinates didn't live as long as Purebloods, but I never thought that we were made with a different genetic code, designated with different modifications to our most elemental makeup. If our blood is different from the normal-born humans, than what else is? My brain? My heart?

A bone-chilling thought occurs to me.

Am I a different species from humans?

With shaking hands I pick up another sheet of paper laying on the floor, the neat lettering ominous in what it is capable of holding. The truth it could reveal should I choose to read it.

The lines swim into focus and form the words Foreign Substances in the Bloodstream. I pick up on the poisonous chemicals introduced from the bullet the Subordinate had taken, but below those read another alarming discovery. Obedien28 is listed with a description of the elemental compound beneath it. From the title I can guess what it means, though I really wish I wasn't able to. It's disturbing in the truth of it all.

The watch on my wrist vibrates, startling me with the motion. I check the surface and am unable to read it for a moment before my eyes decide to focus on the screen. It's a notification from the doctor I'd been collecting the blood test for, asking where I am. I shuffle the papers together with trembling hands and swallow the bile, stacking the files in a neat pile and shakily proceeding down the stairs. My rubber boots echo oddly on the metal flooring, the padding sounding louder than it should as I approach the doctor's open door.