Project 43

I remember not sleeping. No one slept. Two men sat on their cots chatting softly about what they had seen, they kept glancing over at the fourth cot with an older woman who laid there, her cheeks flushed with fever.

As soon as the sun started to rise, I went over to the window. The warmth felt amazing on my face and as it slowly began to rise, I felt a sense of clarity rush over me. "People are going to think we're crazy." The thinner pale one said. His name I had learned from their conversation was Mark. The other was short and stout, his beard wild and red. He didn't look like a Harvy, he reminded me more of the butcher from one of my favorite books I read with dragons. Just a lot nicer.

"What if we are crazy. What if it's just some drug that got released? Or like a gas leak?" Harvy said thoughtfully raking his fingers through his beard.

"I saw it too." My words came out hoarse, my head turning towards them. I don't know if they even heard me.

The door burst open after my words- each of us directed to stand towards the wall with our hands up. None of their guns were trained on us though. Instead, the man that seemed to be in charge had one pointed at her head, his blue eyes cold and hard. "Gag her and take her with the others."

"This is inhumane, she's sick!" Harvy- much nicer than the butcher from my story.

"She's been exposed. You all have." His voice was all business as they bound her. The woman who I still don't know the name of was carried off quickly and didn't put up a fight. None of us really did. "The sooner we process you all the sooner you can be removed from quarantine."

"Yeah, but what were we exposed to? Are any of you going to start explaining what we saw? There where people attacking other people! I mean-" Mark. I remember his name because he got an elbow to the face at his words and had a mark on his left eye because of it, a giant black eye in fact.

"Your questions will be answered in due time for now-no stupid questions. Just cooperate with us and you will be released as soon as possible."

The door slammed shut, the sound echoing through the room like a death sentence as Mark spit on the floor glaring. "Cooperate and release us. They're going to put us in a hole where the sun doesn't shine to make sure we don't talk. Fucking military."

"I resent that statement." Harvy grunted. "I was in the service for three tours."

Mark rolled his eyes now focusing on me. "You. What did you see? Do you know anything?"

Do I know anything? There was plenty I could say, but telling them I'm a lab rat for the military was not it. Even if I was genetically built to save them from whatever this infection was. Right?

At least that's my assumption now...

There is without a doubt I was bitten. Why else would I have been brought there?

"My mom and I were walking and this woman's husband got sick. Like he got really sick. She said something about quarantine and then..." I swallowed hard trying not to be sick. Even though I hadn't eaten in hours everything about the situation was making my stomach roll from anxiety.

I still have questions that went unanswered and might until the day I die... Where's mom? What happened to her? Did anyone know where Trinity had brought me?

"So, there was a quarantine before!? What the hell did they let loose? Why isn't it on the news?" Mark yelled kicking his bed with his foot. Harvy was the calmer of the two- disciplined where Mark seemed to panic already pacing like a trapped animal. I knew that feeling.

"You keep blaming them like they're the bad guys. For all you know this is bio terrorism." Harvy responded stretching a bit.

Bio terrorism. Maybe that was why I was... made? Created? Engineered?

It's strange to think of myself as being dissected before even born...

"They're just restricting our movement and probably some fundamental rights to keep us all safe and the world safe since obviously there was an oversight in quarantine the first time."

"An oversight!? Those things weren't even people anymore!"

I tried not to think about it as I laid down pulling my knees to my chest looking out the window with the sun shining on me. At least this window showed a full sky. Mark continued to freak out and Harvy didn't even bother to rebuttal him after a point with his theories.