Generation X

Chapter Three - A Caged Bird

            .0015 lay curled up in bed, as was her wont every night, but she didn’t close her eyes. She stared off into the darkness but the images of the mission washed over her--it was like the body of the child, a red-splattered figure on the pavement below, was imprinted on her mind.

            She didn’t know why she was so affected. She’d killed--a lot. What was so different about tonight?

            She saw the looks of derision on the other gens’ faces.

            She tried to shake away the images, but one face kept popping up in her mind. .0144’s. The look of anger and hurt in her eyes had shaken her. She knew .0144 was angry at her for not jumping in the fray, but that just wasn’t .0015’s style. She was impulsive, sure, but she wasn’t suicidal.

            Still, she wanted to strangle, maim, kick or punch 3102. Or possibly do all of those. There was no doubt in her mind that he wanted to see her dead. In his arrogant third-gen world, she was just a disposable first-gen.

            She thought back to her childhood in the Corporation. She was one of the first creations, a “superior being”, they had called her. She was one of the few first-gen hybrids who had survived. She shuddered in her bunk as she thought of her brothers and sisters--those who weren’t properly engineered. The ones who died in their sleep were lucky. She had seen with her own eyes the way faulty gens died--internal bleeding, the screams of pain as something vital inside them didn’t work--the stuff of nightmares.

            “You don’t know me,” she whispered to herself, trying to justify herself in the accusing eyes of 0144. “You didn’t go through the pain of being a first gen.” Stupid second and third gens, thinking they’re always better than us...

            She swallowed a lump in her throat as she thought of the only other remaining first gen besides her. There was only her and Silver, now. She saw herself as Silver’s older sister, and knew she had to protect her at all costs.

            She fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, a sleep fueled by extreme exhaustion.

            At the crack of dawn, she was loaded into a conveyance craft by two third gens. Constrictor wires were slapped onto her wrists, and she was wrapped in a straitjacket-like suit that covered only her back and shoulders (though keeping her arms at awkward angles), presumably to keep her wings folded against her spine. Thankfully, 3102 wasn’t there, but the third gens who were with her weren’t much better. They still taunted her by making snide comments about her incompetence, and used every chance they got to smash their fists into her frame. She sat in a stoic silence, though, wondering where they were going.

            The idiotic third gen answered her unspoken question, though.

            "Do you know where we’re going, huh?” His amber eyes leered into hers as his companion chuckled and tossed her hair.

            “Bet she doesn’t know!” The female third gen flicked her sandy hair out of her face as the craft speeded up.

            “You’re going to the laboratory, 0015,” the male said, sniggering. The two continued taunting her as a cold feeling descended in the pit of 0015’s stomach.

            The lab. The birthplace of all gens, the laboratory was where they were all created. She knew this was where the her brothers and sisters, the first gens, were sent here when something “went wrong” with them.

            She wondered what was wrong with her. She began to feel the panic clawing its way up her throat, but she forced herself to remain calm. The third gens wanted to see her be scared, and she wouldn’t let them have the pleasure of seeing her frightened. She relaxed the clenched fists at her side and stared straight ahead. as the jeers of the two third gens continued.