Alarms blared and the warning lights along the hallway flashed as Thirteenth Official Allia Washington pushed the stretcher into the sleeping quarters. Twelve-year-old Mattai Jokio lay flat on his back, his skin a dark, unhealthy shade of yellow and his eyes twitching back and forth as if they were trying to watch a hummingbird flit between two flowers. Just like the others had been, which was not good for Mattai. And she’d had such hopes that this time the serum would work.
“How long has he been like this?” Allia asked.
“About five minutes now,” the cleaning lady said. She stood in the back of the room where the shadows hid all but the bright blue of her skirt.
Two other officials enter the room, including Ninth Official Yama, who outranked Allia and immediately took over. They lifted Mattai onto the stretcher and rushed him out of the main house, across the Compound and into Science Lab 5. Allia watched from the back of the room as Dr. Vos and his team swarmed around the boy. He was unresponsive. Another bad sign. Hours passed and then it was over.
They covered Mattai in a sheet and transferred the body to the morgue. Tests would be run to discover why his body had shut down, but Allia knew the final conclusion would be the same. Some combination of the DNA splicing and treatments he had been given had done permanent damage until it was only a matter of time. The serum was supposed to stop this, but their current formula had to be missing something. Mattai lasted three months longer than the others and for a few weeks Allia had started to hope, but it had been too soon.
There was a slight resignation to Allia’s steps as she walked back to the main house. It had been a long day and it was only half done. In her 58 years there had been many days like today. It never got easier, but after Britta, her last charge, had died she was determined not to get too close. Even though she had only worked with Mattai for six months, it still hit her heart like a sledge hammer to see him collapsed on the floor.
She had overheard Ninth Official Yama once say that some of the female officials became emotionally attached to the children, especially if they had also carried future contestants. Over the last 30 years Allia had lost eight pregnancies and three infants because of genetic defects and complications with their DNA splicing. Each loss had taken its toll. She had trouble coping for years and then they promised her they wouldn’t be as experimental. Yet that wasn’t enough, it was only when they also promised that her child would not be placed in the program that she agreed. It was the program that killed almost as often as the genetic complications. The children were pushed too hard.
She entered the main house and took the elevator to the fifth floor, where the nursery was located. Large glass windows lined the hall and she picked a spot near the middle almost directly across from a dark haired four year old boy. He was building a tower with blocks. It was tall, thin and haphazardly twisted from the base up so that it almost looked like a strand of DNA. Allia allowed a small smile. He was a scientist already.
Four years ago she had Brian. Although he had not removed the painful loss of her previous tries, he had softened her heart and made life worth living again. He could not see her because the glass was tinted on his side and even if he did Allia knew he wouldn’t rush up to greet her. Although he was her son she was only allowed four hours a week to spend with him. It was not enough for him to bond with her, however, it was enough for her to feel more strongly about him than she had ever felt for her charges. And she could watch him whenever there was a lull in her duties.
Brian dumped a bucket of blocks onto the floor and began sorting them by color and size. One of the other children, a blonde haired girl around the age of two came over and squatted next to him. She seemed perfectly content to watch, her small hands resting on her knees. At first Brian held a hand out to protect his tower, but then he relaxed and went back to his building completely ignoring her.
“They are so young.”
Allia glanced behind her and saw First Official Foreman.
“Which one is yours?” he asked, his gaze shifting from her to the children playing.
“Brian, the boy building the tower.”
He nodded. “Mine is Caryn, the girl watching him.”
Neither said anything as Brian’s tower fell. Instantly Caryn jumped up and started picking up the blocks that rolled too far. Brian didn’t appear bothered by the destruction. Instead, he tilted his head to one side as if it helped him think of a better way to build the next time. He picked up blocks and started building again.
First Official Foreman cleared his throat. “I heard about your charge.”
“The treatment didn’t work.”
“I am moving you back to full time in Science Lab 2 starting in the morning. I saw some of the notes you were working on and we need to make the proper coding of this treatment a first priority. We can’t afford to lose anyone else. We’re behind schedule as it is.”
Allia closed her eyes a moment. She felt exhausted, but the prospect of being back in the lab sounded much better than meeting a new charge in the morning.
“I will turn in then so I will be properly rested,” she said and turned to leave.
“We have openings in the candidate program now.” First Official Foreman’s voice was so low she almost didn’t hear it, but it made her bones freeze inside of her.
“Not for my son. I have a signed contract,” she said. She turned back to see he wasn’t watching her, but his daughter.
“I know,” he said, with a sigh. “But if we don’t find a treatment that works we might need anyone we can get.”
Allia’s mind began to race. They were considering putting her son in the program, even after they promised her they wouldn’t. She felt a flash of anger and the ice of despair race up and down her limbs. She began to shake. How could they do this to her? Without even knowing when she started walking, Allia found herself outside on the long path that circled the Compound.
Images of all the candidates she’d worked with over the years flew through her mind. She’d seen them all writhing on the ground. She’d seen their wide eyes darting and then slowing and silently dimming. They promised her that her son would never have to go through that. It was the only reason she’d agreed to have him. He was her hope. The one who had lived, who would continue to live after she was gone. He was her reason for living. How could they go against their promise and take that away?
She wanted to crumble into a ball and stay like that, but she had done that before and it didn’t change anything. It could not bring back those she had lost. And she was tired of being helpless, of letting things happen to her instead of taking control. But how could she take control of this? The Compound would never let her take Brian.
In their eyes he belonged to them, he was a product of their scientific minds and experiments. He was also one of the few who survived and they needed him, if not for the program then for maintaining the staff. She wouldn’t be able to just steal him away. They would come looking for him and they wouldn’t stop as long as they thought he was alive. Even if Allia managed to get a ride on one of the ships going to Earth or Deltan or some newly colonized planet, they would find her eventually. She had worked in the Compound long enough to know just how far and how deep their influence flowed.
Allia felt exhausted. Her head hurt and her heart ached. She wanted to do something drastic and she had never felt that way before. If only they would keep her contract intact. Then she remembered First Official Foreman had used that word too. If the treatment would work they wouldn’t need more candidates.
Slowly Allia
stood taller and straightened her shoulders. She was going to fix the treatment if it was the last thing she did. The weight she had been carrying and the weariness in her eyes flew away. With long steps she strode past the Main House to Science Lab 2. Her old station was dark, but she soon had her computer running.
The first thing she did was look up Brian’s profile. It listed all the information they had on him from his weight to his DNA. In the top corner the box for the candidate program was colored yellow for under consideration. This would last for two weeks while he was tested to see if he would survive and at the end of the two weeks the decision would be final. If he was in, there would be nothing she could do about it. But this gave her two weeks to fix the treatment. Two weeks to save her son. It would work. She would make it work.
All night Allia stayed in her station and didn’t feel a bit tired when the others arrived to start the day. The treatment was composed of three parts: One to boost the immune system, one to increase the candidate’s abilities and one to stabilize the candidate’s DNA. First she looked up all the notes on the different parts to isolate where the treatment was failing. Much of this she remembered from the last time she’d worked in the labs. Still she had to go through all their past formulas and double check the results. It was