"If you're lucky to have the finest of genes, then you're perfect."
Paragon is known to be the haven of perfection. A society built on walls, dividing different cities for people with different genetic levels.
Perfect citizens will be automatically...
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A light smack on my cheeks jerks me out from the depth of my slumber. I moan in pain as my eyes flicker open to the fuzziness of the darkened surroundings.
"Hey, wake up, kid. We gotta get our asses moving." I hear someone said. Its gruff tone brushes my earlobes with a tingle.
"Who are you?"
"It's me," the unknown man replies. "Idiot."
When my obscured vision has finally adjusted from the dimness of the room, the first thing I saw is Harvey's ragged face. The scathed, wounded, and scraped face of a soldier, of a survivor. The choice of words are particularly fitting for only one person. Brewed with harsh and straightforward manner, nobody could ever top this guy. No doubts about this.
"W-what happened, man?" I ask.
"Thomas escaped," he snarls. "We must catch up to him before he could reach out to the Bureau."
Still stuck in a daze, he pulls me up to my feet and let my unshackled hand dangle over his shoulders. He escorts me with slow and careful steps. I limp heavily, and together, we hobble towards the door.
Then, in a split second, everything that has happened came rolling down in me. I remember very vividly how Harvey and I were patrolling the darkest hours of the night. The moment we got captured and tortured and most importantly, the scream I've belted out before fainting. The raw and fresh memories are circumventing inside my throbbing head.
We walk slowly and lightly to avoid creating any noise. However, without fully being aware of it, I accidentally step on a puddle of water. I glance down and my mouth falls open. What I mistakenly thought for water are actually thick, sticky smears of vermilion liquid. The floor is nothing but a sea of blood.
My eyes hurriedly clock the surroundings, and there it is. Dead bodies are laid out flat on the ground. The room may be dim-lit but the multiple fresh wounds on their bodies isn't that difficult to see in crystal clear details. Their eyes are bloodshot. It's gleaming with thin red veins.
I gag.
Never to this day have I seen something this horrible, brutal even. With these bloody lumps of flesh everywhere, the room resembles that of a slaughter house but with human corpses as a replacement for animal meat. Their face, from what I could remember, is still perfect and intact. But now it's different, dreadfully different.
"What in the world..." I mutter under my breath. "What the heck happened when I was out? Who killed them?"
