24B96X

Thea

I sit bolt upright, drawing in long deep breaths, my eyes closed as I compose myself. My heart flutters in a panicked frenzy, and a gentle roaring starts in my ears. I have to get up. Carefully, I try and and pull myself into a standing position. As soon as I even get to kneeling, my thoughts cloud and lights flicker across the back of my eyelids. Not good.
"Stop that! You need to rest. Lie down and keep still."
A voice I don't recognise lights up the haze, and as my vision clears, I see a youthful face staring with concern at me. Her dark chestnut eyes are wide, giving her features a sense of innocence. Though, judging from her attire, she is anything but.
Nurses are not innocent. They are cruel, cold and unforgiving. Ruthless.
"Celeste, leave her alone. Come and help me find some pills in the cupboard. I'm sure there were some around her somewhere."
The girl sighs, and makes her way over to another nurse who I recognise. Elle.
I shuffle away from them slightly, wincing as my a sharp pain floods my brain. Whatever was in that needle was definitely powerful stuff.
"Here we are. Protein... And carbohydrate pills. Celeste, see whether you can see any water supplements, please?"
"Okay..."
Elle starts walking towards me, and I let out a strangled shriek.
"Don't you dare come anywhere near me."
I try to speak as confidently as possible, but my voice quivers at the end of the sentence.
"I'm won't hurt you. You need food."
I don't answer her, instead pulling myself up against the wall, in a sitting position.
"Okay then, if you won't let me give you them, take them yourself."
She throws a box of pills at me, and stalks off towards the opposite side of the office. I reach over, wincing slightly as my muscles strain with the effort, and grab the box. In colourful, raised lettering,
'Dr Clarence's protein pills!' is written on the front. I take a sheet of the pills, which are wrapped in silver foil, and pop one out of it's individual bubble. It's about the size of my little fingernail and is bright pink, with flecks of some greenish substance scattered throughout. I place it on my tongue, and immediately cough, spitting the pill on to the floor. My face contorts as the full blast of the bitter pill hits my tatsebuds. Celeste covers her face with her hand and giggles, which is met by a glare from Elle.
"It's bad at first, but it gets better, trust me."
She walks over a passes me another pill.
"Here, you need it. Without the Rank three nurses, we can't access the life support machines, so you'll have to take these until something happens around here."
She pauses, and glances at Celeste, who by now has stopped giggling.

"What happened?"
I blink, confused at the sound of my own voice. Not having anyone to talk to for nineteen years, I didn't see the point in talking, so now, it comes as a shock.
Elle furrows her brow in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"What happened to the other people? Where did they go?"
Elle shuffles uncomfortably for a while, then sits down next to me. Celeste follows, and sighs gently, her liquid brown eyes dull with sorrow, or pain.
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"Yes. I think so."
"Okay, then.
Ages ago, when I was a child, something happened. Nobody really knows why, or even what exactly happened, only that the human race was in danger. The higher ranks, the Sevens and the Eights, had got some hereditary disease, that had been dormant for so many years, and had been triggered by something. Apparently, the gene pool was growing smaller and smaller every day, and people were dying. The government didn't want to allow inter-caste marriage, so they came up with another solution. This place.
Labs where they could breed the perfect humans, with genes that could withstand the disease. All the Rank twos and ones were shipped off, to be tested. At the time, my mother was still alive, so we were safe. As rank Threes, we were evacuated to the outskirts of the city.
But then it happened, Rank fives and fours got it, and threes. It was everywhere. Laying dormant for so long, something must have triggered the virus then, like some kind of radiation or mutant cells, or something.
They were dying. Everywhere. People coughing up blood, choking, bleeding to death in every street, every house, every family."
Elle pauses and I can just make out the beginnings of a tear in her left eye.
"My mother was one of the unlucky ones. She died two days after it started, and I was reclassified as a Rank one, an orphan. They sent me here, and chose me to be a Nurse, because of my mother's healer background.
Then, everything was normal. There were still the rumours of life outside the lab walls, people were still tested, people were still killed. About... Two years after I arrived, section M of the labs was shut down.
Section F was not so lucky. The genes they needed were not present in the female chromosomes.
That is, until you were born.
They shutdown the labs immediately after, and took me and Celeste with it. All the Rank Two and Three nurses were sent to some evacuation bunker in the city, and no one's heard of them since."
"What about my mother? What happened to her?"
Elle glances at Celeste who nods gently and stares at the floor.
"Thea, she's... dead."
My heart stops for a second, and I stare at Elle in desperation.
"No. She can't be..."
"She is, Thea. They killed her after you were born. I'm sorry."
A tear slides down her cheek, and she leans against the wall, her eyes closed. I bow my head, the hope that I could one day see my mother again vanished. Silent tears fall, and a deathly silence hangs in the air of the lab.
She can't really be dead. Not really. Maybe this is all a mistake, and I'm not the solution. Maybe this is all one big hoax, and tomorrow when I wake up, she'll be there, with everyone else, yelling "Surprise!"
"Where's my dad?"
"No one knows. Rumours say that they're killed, or that they're released into the outside, but nobody knows for sure."
"Oh. Okay."
I pause for a moment, then speak again; "I'm sorry about your mum."
"It's okay. I know she's somewhere better now, at least."
Silence fills the empty space once more, and we sit against the wall, our heads bowed in sorrow.
Minutes pass, and the silence grows peaceful, tranquil even. I open my eyes and stretch out my legs, reaching for a protein pill. Elle stands, and starts to pace the length of the room.

"Here!"
The door bursts open, to reveal a woman and several guards. Lydia Waters.
"Celeste Ryons. Her."
Lydia points at Celeste and the guards march over and grab her arms. I sit in shocked silence, too terrified to move.
"Ah. Miss Darcey, I presume? Stay still or you'll be next. Move a muscle and Celeste dies."
Elle gulps, and glances at me in desperation. I shrug my shoulders, and continue to stare at Lydia.
"Take her away. Lab 242X, you know the place."
The guards march out of the door, and Lydia follows, pausing only to turn around and speak to us one last time.
"Nightie night, Girlies."
A hissing fills the air, and all too soon the familiar dizziness begins. Seconds later, my head hits the floor and everything goes black...