I was dressed in my best clothes and waiting for the meeting to start, flicking my pen up before it rolled back down into my hand. I was the first person in the room because I heard the time wrong and came too early.
An assistant walked in and rested a coffee in front of me.
“Dr. Genesis, they should be arriving very soon,” she informed me, patting my shoulder gently and exiting quietly.
Then, a door opened and Veronica stepped out. She rested her folder on the table and sat down as she ordered her notes. We made eye contact, which startled her a bit.
“Lin, you are here so early,” she acknowledged, grinning at me.
“Yeah, I read the time wrong,” I replied, admitting my error.
“So, you’ve been here a long time?”
“Thirty minutes.”
“That’s not too bad. I see my assistant gave you something to drink.”
“Yeah, it’s coffee.” She put up her hair in a bun and tightened it.
“Before the commotion gets here, do you have anything you want to discuss with me? I know once everyone is here, you’ll be casted aside a bit. I respect you a lot, Lin, so I don’t want you to feel like you’re speaking on deaf ears.”
“That been happening a lot lately.” I considered what to talk about and remembered that I wanted to request being allowed to leave the base if I needed to. “Actually, I know I’m considered property to you guys, so I--”
“Who said you were property?”
“Oh, Dr. Medina did.”
“You’re a human being, Lin. Dead or not. We don’t own you and you can leave any time. I’m sure he said it to get someone off your back. I’m very aware of all the mean people you encounter in you day to day life.”
“So, if I needed to go off base, I could?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure why you’d leave base. You’re very valuable to us.”
“People don’t act like that at the base. I’m seen as a pest by most others.”
“Well, Lin, you’re important. I’ll raise your status, so you can be more independent if that’ll make life a bit easier. You’ll be above everyone.” I was shocked to hear her say that, but I wasn’t too surprised. She praised my life in a weird way.
“I don’t want to have superiority just because I don’t like having bullies. I’m grateful, but that’s not going to fix any problems I have right now. But, I want to be on the team to make a cure.”
“I’m sorry, Lin. I can’t help you there. That’s based on the head doctor’s decision, which is Dr. Cole.”
“Then, I don’t have any other requests or anything. Thank you for listening to me.”
“Anytime, Lin.”
She was a nice woman that would do anything for me if I asked. Well, anything that was in her range of ability.
Soon, the room filled with doctors and military people, so I was left to sit and listen to them talk. I wasn’t allowed to talk much because I couldn’t really get a word in, even if I tried. I got bored, so I started doodling on my notes.
“Dr. Genesis!” I jumped and met eyes with the commander. “What's the status of Jacob Medina?”
“Oh, he's still in the coma. We tried to see what would happen if we woke him up and he was out of it. So, we put him back under for now. We're working on finding a cure to see if it'll work on him.”
“All that testing, just to waist away in a hospital bed.”
“Testing?” He grumbled and rolled his eyes.
“We mutated his genes so that when he was knocked out, his body would fix itself. I guess that cursed virus was just too strong.”
“I thought that's what was trying to happen. It was only delaying the inevitable.” I fixed my hair and wrote down some information.
“Maybe we should deploy Daniel Cole again. We need someone like Medina.”
Veronica stated, “Dr. Cole has a lot on his hands. He couldn't make it today because he had to care for his patients. We were lucky enough to have Dr. Genesis here.”
“Dr. Genesis doesn't do anything but disobey rules.”
“He just causes trouble,” another doctor spoke out. I was shocked; I didn't do anything that would disrupt them.
“Dr. Genesis’ overseer has not sent in any reports of him misbehaving. Jacklyn has nothing but kind words to say about him,” Veronica responded, standing up. “I will not tolerate this immature behavior from a bunch of adults! Dr. Genesis is twice as mature as any of you and just because he's different does not mean he gets treated like a pest. He's done a lot for us. Without him, we'd have been very far from a cure. Now, it's at our mere fingertips. Give credit where it's due. Do not belittle a young man that only wants to help.” I felt nervous about it all; the boasting and the applauding of me in just a harsh tone was a bit too much for me to handle. I didn't want to be praised for anything; three years ago, I was just waiting to be dead and gone. This stuff felt unnecessary, but it needed to be brought up.
Veronica sighed and sat back down with her eyes closed. She fixed her hair and adjusted her papers.
I thanked her after the meeting was complete and went on my way back to the base. As I was walking, a fist struck me down, which was like a flash. I made eye contact with the person that did it and realized it was the commander.
“Tell your friend to fix Medina or cut the cord. We have no use for a bunch of worthless vegetables. You got me, monkey boy?” I was shocked that he would use race as a factor to put fear in me.
“O-okay.” He walked away, so I gathered my notes and got up.
That night, I went to Ivy's cage with a blood kit, bandages, and an alcohol swab. I entered it and made sure she was asleep before tying the tourniquet around her upper arm. I found a vein easily and stuck the needle in carefully. I tried to get a vial into the venipuncture tube, but she moved, making me pull out the needle on accident. She sat up and started panicking because the blood was just spraying us after she broke the tourniquet. I took off my belt and tied it to her arm, covering the hole with a gauze pad.
“Ivy, please, calm down. I'm gonna stop it, but I need you need to calm down,” I panicked.
“Why the hell are you in here?!” she screamed. “Are you stealing my blood?!” She kicked me in the chest, knocking me back. She got up and kicked me right in the head.
I hit the floor and went stiff, swearing in my head. She was startled that I wasn't just getting up and beating her up. I tried charging up to see if it would work on moving. She reached for me.
“Don't,” I grunted, lighting up. I groaned and pushed myself off the ground. I could feel the burns on my skin and moved my hair, picking it up into a bun.
“What the hell was that?”
“I'm not sure, but it's something that has happened to me ever since I turned. It doesn't hurt; it's more annoying than anything else.”
“I've hit you in the face before.”
“Because it's my face. You just slammed your boney leg into my head. Your face is skin, fat, muscles, and then the bone. The rest is skin, muscles, then bone; it's a lot closer to whatever causes that reaction.” She grasped my face and the burning went away. She averted her eyes.
“I'm sorry.”
“It's okay. You're gifted, too?”
She nodded. I noticed that there wasn't even a sign of where the needle went into her skin.
“Ivy, look, I need your blood. I've given a lot over the years; you might be a big help in this, even get to leave with Andreas if there's a cure. You're active, unlike me, so that is even more help. A mouth swab could get me a concentrated amount of the virus.” She moved her hair a bit with her fingertips. “And, if something doesn't happen soon, Andreas will lose her life and so will my friend. We have something in common: people we'll do anything for.” She thought about it and tears streamed down her face. Blood tears. I wiped them away.
“Okay, I'll do it.” She sat down and I took her blood the best I could. When she opened her mouth, I took a lot inside before getting a swab out.
“Do you have any fake teeth?”
“No, just the silver one back there.”
“There's no way that's in there securely. I'm surprised you haven't just lost it yet.”
“I'm not much of a biter. Like you said, I'm active; I don't want this fate for anyone else.”
“Let me take it out for you.” She tried to stop me. “It won't hurt that bad. I doubt any nerves are even attached to it.”
“I won't even let Andreas touch it.” I grabbed some swabs and started getting samples. Then, I hit the tooth. Like I thought, it made a pop and fell. She leaned forward and caught it in her hands.
“Was it bothering you?”
“Yeah.”
“I bet.” She dropped it in the vial I offered and I shut it. “You can have it back when I'm done with it if you want.”
“Oh, sure.” I put everything in my lab coat and hugged her. She held onto me close.
“I'm gonna fix Andreas, Ivy. I promise you that.”
“I believe you will.”
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