Chasing Chances // Minho

The Creation of WICKED

WICKED Facility
Undisclosed Location
June 28th, 219

I hesitated in reaching for my mothers hand. She had become increasingly indifferent towards me I was beginning to notice but right now, at three years old, I really needed my mothers comfort. We were standing in the highest room of the WICKED Tower, they had just finished construction last month and so this was the first time I had been up here with my mother. We were looking out over the mountains. It was snowing again today, the soft flakes drifting down from the sky. It was nearly August, too early for snow but my mother had explained that weather patterns were going to be erratic for a while now.

I was only three years old but I had been doing a lot of growing up in that short amount of time. My mother told me she had first turned to WICKED to look for a way to save me. I was so young and fragile when I was first born she thought I would catch the Flare and die before I made it to my first birthday. Turns out, I already had the Flare though. The doctors thought I caught it upon first being exposed to the air in... Whatever place I was born. Momma doesn't like to talk about it.

They thought I would start showing symptoms, turn into a zombified baby over the next couple of months but... To everyone's surprise, I not only showed signs of being completely healthy but after reaching my first birthday with no ill effects from the virus, they began to run tests on me. Tests on my blood, scans of my brain and a whole other array of things. I had the Flare and I was thriving. Somehow, I was immune.

After that, they started to treat me more like a lab rat instead of a baby. I was given puzzles to solve, a prototype of of a brain scanner (later to be turned into those infamous chips placed at the back of our heads), books to read, classes to attend and all of this happened before I barely figured out how to walk. I was a fast learner though. I figured out that I couldn't complain, shouldn't cry, and was never allowed to talk back, fight or be disobedient in anyway. I thought my mother might want to protect me from WICKED's assault on my brain and body only to realize later that she was helping them. She was a scientist after all.

Before, when I did complain to her she would sit me down and tell me that I was doing the world a favor. That I was going to save a lot of people. "When the solar flares hit Mallory," She would begin. "I watched from my office building in the sky as the city burned and blazed around me. Smoke clogged the air, fire ran rampant through the city and the people... A lot of them burned alive and those that didn't, caught the disease."

"But I don't wanna fix everything momma. I'm just a kid." I would try to explain. I wanted to take naps and play with my toys and do other normal things a kid should have done. but that wasn't allowed. She would just sternly reiterate that I had a very important job. That I was a very special little girl and one day, I was going to make a lot of people better. But today, all I could think about was the promise I was given just a few months earlier.

"Momma." I whispered in a voice so small I thought she wouldn't hear. She turned to look at me, neither replying nor showing any real signs of interest in what I had to say. "You said other kids would be coming soon but they're not here yet." She turned back to the window. The snow was falling faster now. "When are they going to come momma?"

"When we're able to find more kids like you, kids that are immune."

"But I thought you did find kids."

"We did but we can't just take them from their families. We gave them notices, informed them of the service they would be doing. Their parents so far, have been refusing to give their children to the cause." I wanted to say, good. I wanted the other kids to stay away. WICKED wasn't fun and their games and puzzles weren't what they seemed. But I was lonely. I just wanted someone to play with now that my mother had abandoned me.