Gene. Sys.

1-2

“What’s on your mind,

kid?” Grant inquires. I guess it’s pretty obvious that I have

something on my mind.

“I didn’t see any drones

on my way down here,” I answer as I sit on a stack of

mats.

“No you wouldn’t have,” he

says as he sits next to me. “You and Ev are meeting today so there

is no need for them to keep you from each other.”

“Why was it so important

that we didn’t meet before now?” This question has always bothered

me.

Grant leans back against

the wall. “Dr. Anfang has his reasons. I know that he didn’t want

either of you getting in the way of each other’s development. It’s

very important that you both matured to a certain level before

being exposed to each other.”

I have so many questions,

but all that comes out of my mouth is, “Oh.”

I’m not sure I will ever

get the answer I’m looking for. That might be because I’m not sure

what answer I want to hear. I stand and walk towards the elevator

door.

Grant follows me. He stops

me just before the elevator. “Kid. You are very good at following

your instincts. Always trust them. Just keep in mind emotions are

the fog that cloud your instincts.”

I push the button and the

elevator doors open. I walk in. As the doors close I hear Grant

add, “Make sure you shower before you meet her. She’s going to love

you, but not if you smell.”

His laughter fades as I

rise to the main floor. The doors open and I step out. The halls

are empty once again. I don’t like it. I can hear every step I

take. I try to silence my feet as I walk. It’s not working. I look

around and the hallway seems to be closing in on me. My heart

starts racing and a lump rises in my throat. I struggle to breathe

and know I just have to get to my room, so I run. I speed down the

hall and when I get to my bedroom I fly in and slam the door behind

me. I fall onto my bed and shut my eyes.

For the first time in the

two months I’ve been alive I feel true and genuine fear. I’ve been

scared before, but all those times there was something tangible

that I was able to attach my fear to. Right now there is nothing.

Just fear. Meeting Ev is going to change everything. I’m not sure

how, but I know it will. Resentment begins to accompany the fear. I

don’t want to, but right now I hate her. As strong as those

feelings are, it’s not fair to her that I feel this way because I

haven’t met her yet. I pick myself up and walk into the bathroom.

Hopefully a shower will calm me down. The way the hot water hits my

back and neck always seems to get me relaxed.

The shower must have put me

in a trance because I jump when I hear a pounding on the bathroom

door. I can tell through the fogged glass that there are two drones

standing in my bedroom. They are here to take me to Ev. I’m not

sure how long I’ve been in the shower but the wrinkles on my

fingers tell me it’s been a while. I shut the water off and towel

myself dry.

“You need to get dressed

quickly,” I hear one of the drones say. “Dr. Anfang is

waiting.”

They move to the doorway of

my bedroom as I dress. I don’t say a word to them. It’s not worth

it. Their speech is always short and sounds well-rehearsed. You can

never tell them apart anyway because they all look the exact

same—black hair, black eyes and pale skin. If I spoke with one, I

would not know which one it was the next day.

I look down at my bed and

see a pair of pants and a button up shirt. Only the scientists wear

these. I have only ever worn jump suits. Any nerves that I had lost

in the shower are now back.

The clothes feel very

uncomfortable and restricting. They are making me feel hot and

causing my palms to sweat. I wipe them on the pants as we walk out

of the room and down the hallway. The drones walk on either side of

me. The sound of our footsteps gets to me so I break the silence.

“What are your names?”

“137,” says the one on my

left.

“80,” says the other

one.

“I’m Atom,” I

reply.

“We know,” they respond in

unison.

I struggle for

conversation. “What do you guys like to do for fun?”

80 looks at me as we walk.

A smile graces his face for a brief second. “We like to play

Breekbal.”

“We keep that to

ourselves, 80.” 137 scolds 80.

My curiosity has definitely

gotten the better of me, “What’s Breekbal?”

80 smiles again, “Calm

down, 137. He doesn’t even know what it is.”

They obviously don’t intend

on sharing either. I try my best to imagine what that would be. It

must be some sort of game. For a few more moments my mind remains

preoccupied with Breekbal, then we turn the corner and I see my dad

standing at the end of the hallway.

“Thank you, fellas,” he

smiles through his big, white beard. “You are

dismissed.”

“Thank you, Dr. Anfang,”

the drones say in unison as they turn and walk away. I feel naked

again standing alone at the end of the hallway. Dad starts walking

towards me. His round body fills the hallway slightly more than

most of the other scientists here. He has definitely been looking

forward to this day and that makes me even more nervous.

He reaches out and places

his hand on my shoulder. “You have no reason to be nervous,

Atom.”

Without realizing it, he’s

guiding me towards the door. “What do I say?”

We stop just outside the

door. My hands get sweaty again. She is on the other side of that

door. Dad squares me up to him, “You don’t have to worry about

that. Conversation will come. Just be yourself.”

“What if she doesn’t like

me?” I mumble into his shoulder.

“Well then we failed as

scientists.” He smiles. “She’s going to like you, Atom, and you are

going to like her. Now get in there before I have to drag you

in.”

He opens the door and walks

in. I follow right behind. I poke my head around from behind him

and I see Ev leaning against the wall farthest from the door. She’s

taller than I imagined. Her dark brown hair falls to either side of

her face, ending just at her shoulders. Her pale skin makes her

look porcelain and fragile. I want nothing more than to protect

her. My heart races.

Dad walks to the center of

the room. I stay planted by the door. The ability to run away if I

have to brings me comfort. Dad reaches out to her, “Ev?”

She looks up and I see her

eyes for the first time. They are green like mine but hers seem to

transcend all logic. They don’t look at me, they look in me. I want

nothing more than to be with her but my nerves cause me to look

away. She looks away as well.

Dad walks back over towards

me. “Maybe I’ll just leave you two alone.”

He nudges me towards the

center of the room as he walks out and shuts the door.

“What?” is all that comes

out of my mouth before I stop myself in the middle of the room. I

feel exposed without the comfort of a wall behind me.

I look everywhere but at

her. I’m so nervous that I haven’t noticed anything else in the

room. There is a couch and two chairs to one side. On the other

side is a table with water and protein pouches. I can feel her

watching me. It’s too quiet and I suddenly don’t know what to do

with my hands. I decide to break the silence. “What’s your favorite

flavor?”

I walk towards the table

and see movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn to look at her

and before I have time to react she has me in her arms.

I don’t know what to do. I

just stand there. Her hair feels soft against my skin and it smells

like a mix of sour apples and vanilla. I want nothing more than to

pull her closer in but my arms won’t move. She must sense that I am

uncomfortable because she pulls away.

She falls back into the

couch. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I reply as I

sit in one of the chairs across from the couch. “You just surprised

me.”

She manages to show a

little smile. “I feel like such an i***t. It’s just that … I …

well, I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time. I knew

you existed but they never let me see you. I was just so excited

and then nervous.”

Her confession puts me at

ease. “You just described everything I’ve been thinking. That’s why

I asked you about the protein pouch. I was so nervous, I didn’t

know what else to talk about.”

“Apple.” She laughs as she

leans back on the couch. It’s intoxicating; I can’t help but join

in. The air around us doesn’t feel heavy anymore. “What’s

yours?”

“Anything with vanilla,” I

respond. So many questions rush into my head but before I manage to

ask any of them my dad comes back in. As much as I didn’t want him

to leave me alone in here with Ev, now I want nothing more than for

him to be gone.

He smiles. “Looks like you

two have hit it off.”

“Not yet, Rene! You

haven’t really given us much of a chance,” Ev sasses back. She

calls him Rene? That’s my dad’s first name, but I would never call

him that. In fact, I would never speak to him the way she just

did.

This actually reveals more

about him to me than it does of her; the side of him that I know

would never let me talk back to him. He obviously treats us

differently. For the first time it exposes a duality to my dad and

I feel that he is hiding things from me.

“You’ll have plenty of

time to get to know each other. From now on you will be training

together and taking classes together.” He looks at both of us.

“Your first class starts now.”

We both stand and walk

towards him. He puts his hand on my shoulder and it feels like a

foreign object. He’s still my dad but I only know a fraction of who

he is. I know now that I can no longer be satisfied with the

answers he gives me. I need to seek things out on my own. I need to

know what he and all the scientists are actually doing. I need to

find out why we are confined to this compound. Most importantly, I

need to learn what my true purpose is. Why I was

created.

We walk down the hallway to

the end with the classrooms. Dad seems overly happy. I guess he’s

been looking forward to this day longer than we have. Probably

since before he created us. “You two are getting a new teacher

today—Brianna Lawson. She’s a handful, but you will like

her.”

“What’s the class?” I

ask.

“It’s a very important

class,” he responds. “Recent human history. It’s everything that

has happened since 1900.”

“It sounds boring.” Ev

folds her arms. Her coarse approach to my dad causes me to laugh.

She certainly carries some resentment towards him.