The Approximation

The Innocents

As I stumbled into the dimly lit room I instantly stopped breathing. 

All around me where cells, and in each one was boys and men. Some as young as maybe four years old, and the oldest where maybe sixty years old their faces younger then their eyes. 

Although what truly shocked me was the chair in the middle, and above it the lightbulb that supplied the only source of light in the room. 

But the most stunning was the person sitting in the chair. 

It was Brendan, but he looked nothing like the boy that I had kissed all those years ago. 

His beautiful milky skin was ashen, and his blue eyes looked more like a sickly gray. His lips where chapped and a peachy skin color, and his hair was coming out in patches on his scalp.

There where scientists all around him with masks and gloves, but his eyes didn't seem to register them instead they where lost almost as if he didn't know that there was a person sitting right next to him. 

"What- what is this?" I stuttered looking around the hall at all the silent bodies, completely resigned to their existence. 

"This is the lab, it was designed over forty years ago to do experiments on males to understand how they work and to test different drugs on them. Although overall it was designed to accomplish the main goal of begin able to regenerate without the use of these animals." Elena said spitting fire in their direction. 

"But now they really aren't necessary since you'v accomplished it." Elena smiled at me her lips curving into less of a smile and more of a grimace. 

"Currently we've been experimenting on these subjects, preparing to execute our end game. Come and see." Elena motioned for me to near Brendan, the room seemed to sway and change color everyones faces disproportionate. Every part of my being wanted to run away but I forced myself to stand still and follow Elena towards Brendan. 

Elena motioned to one of the doctors next to Brendan, they immediately went to their work bench to begin to prepare a vaccination of sorts.  

"This is Brendan, we've already extracted his DNA for further experiments but at the time being we are going to inject him with the unidentified sea creatures gene of combustion when he nears  light." She said as the doctor nears him with the vaccination. 

"Why?" I asked. 

"It's the easiest way to eliminate the species." She said with steely satisfaction. 

As soon as the shot punctured his skin Brendan sat up and began to scream his face convulsing as he fought against the scientists. He began to mumble but I wasn't able to understand what he was saying his words a jumble of sounds with no meaning. 

"Now that the shot has taken affect we can see if the DNA works effectively on males." Elena motioned for one of the scientists to shine a light on Brendan's face. 

He stopped moving his gaze fixed on the light shining in front of him.  

"Daddy?" He mumbled. 

Then his skin began to turn dark and inky crumbling into pieces of some sort of ash. He screamed loudly a deep guttural sound that was so loud and terrible the entire world could probably hear him. And then he stopped as the ash reached his mouth. and he slowly crumbled to a pile of ash on the chair. 

The room was silent as everyone watched the ash fall away from the chair and into a pile on the floor. 

"Amazing." Elena said her voice a beam of pure joy.