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Our first place High School winning entry is by Chloe Suh, who attends the Briar Woods High School in Ashburn, Virginia. |
As my eyes slowly blinked open, the darkness flooded with light. I gradually became more aware of the footsteps that surrounded me, growing clearer and clearer. The brightness of the light was overwhelming, so I squinted my eyes. Ahead of me, other people were walking around. I couldn’t tell if they were good or bad guys. Looking around some more, I realized I was sitting on the floor with my back propped up against the wall of the room we were in. The wall was cold, and so was the floor. A pair of shoes appeared in front of me. They were attached to...
“Ruby!” Selena shouted down at me. She fell to her knees and pulled me into a hug, squeezing me tightly, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
I returned the hug to my dear older sister and asked, “Selena, what’s happening?”
She sighed, “Just another war... I knew we’d be caught up in one eventually. I didn’t think it’d be World War Eight though. After the French caught us running away, they captured us here with other US citizens. I don’t know where we are though, since they blacked us out.”
“What about Mom and Dad? Are they okay?”
Selena hesitated to reply. “I... I don’t know where Dad is. Mom is here though, she’s being tested for her blood, weight, age, all that stuff. Although I’m not sure why France needs that information. You’ve already been tested while you were unconscious.”
“Oh...” I responded, “Do you think Dad’s okay?”
Selena opened her mouth to speak but after hesitating for a long moment, she closed it, looked down, and said, “I hope so.”
She stood up and helped me onto my feet. I glanced around the room. It had walls of some sort of metal and a floor of smooth concrete. On the ceiling, which was also made of concrete, four cameras with laser guns were propped on each corner of the room, and a huge trapdoor was in the center. It was well out of reach. The rest of the ceiling was spotted with blinding light bulbs. One of the walls had a large window with an intercom speaker mantled above it. The room was filled with about ten or fifteen other people. Some standing around, some pacing back and forth, some crying others sitting against the wall. Their faces were glum and presented fear.
The intercom buzzed, and a distorted voice came through.
“Good evening, everyone. You have all been chosen for a very special project,” The voice sounded monotoned yet ominous, “We, the French, want you to help us win this war. We’ve collected information, stating that China is planning on attacking us in four months. France has four months to come up with a counterattack. For years, we’ve been working on creating a very deadly gas, a gas that kills humans and turns their corpses into beasts.”
A gas that turns people into beasts? I couldn't believe it. I mean sure, we’re living in year 6576. We’ve got talking animals, custom species, settlements on floating islands, but a gas as deadly as this was just unheard of
The speaker continued, “Within the next four months, you will help us finish the project by improving the prototype. How will you do that, you may be asking? We’ve run the tests, and we know none of you are doctors or scientists. That’s because we extracted the people who are, and you are their first guinea pigs.”
That’s when it hit me. Dad was a scientist. He had his own laboratory in our basement, and he’d spend hours on end down there. Selena and I loved helping him with his experiments. Was he really going to test this gas on us? I looked at Selena, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing. Her face was pale.
Through the window, a group of people presented themselves shoulder-to-shoulder. I recognized Dad in the line... He was looking straight at me and Selena. His expression was colored with fear and stress. The areas under his tired eyes were wet with tears. He was shaking his head, mouthing “I’m sorry”. Selena’s tears began to stream down her cheeks, her pale face looked like a boat with leaks. I could feel my tears spilling as well. My vision started to blur.
“Let’s show you what our prototype can do, shall we?” The evil voice said through the speaker.
A horrifying buzz sounded from the trapdoor above us. Everyone scrambled away from the center of the room, as if we were ants fleeing from fire. The door opened, and a woman landed on her back below it, squealing in pain. It wasn’t just any woman though, I had her dark brown eyes, light brown hair, and I had her nose. She was my mother.
“Mom!” I screamed, starting to run towards her.
Selena grasped my arms and was pulling me back to the wall. Everyone watched as opaque, cactus green gas flowed downwards from the trapdoor. It spread itself over Mom’s groveling body, submerging her. She groaned in agony. Her groans shortly turned into screams. A few seconds later, her screaming abruptly stopped, as if something was interrupting them. The green smoke cleared out and revealed Mom’s limp figure. Her eyes had turned a dull shade of green. Her skin was glazed and bubbling like boiling water.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The whole room was dead silent, until I started to scream. Selena’s grip grew tighter around my arms as I struggled violently to free myself. My piercing screams escaped my lungs faster than I could inhale. Breathing didn’t seem important anymore. Tears blurred my vision, and Mom became a melanged blob. I collapsed on the floor at Selena’s feet and felt her release me. Mom... what did they do to her? What did any of us do to deserve this?
All of a sudden, I heard steady, inconsistent footsteps limp towards me. Next, I was startled by Selena’s screaming. I looked up and noticed that the blob through my tears was growing larger. After I blinked, I saw Mom limping towards me. A trail of falling hair followed behind her. Other people started screaming and backing away from her and me, including Selena.
“Ruby, what are you doing!?” Selena yelled at me, “RUN! Get away from her!”
I was frozen still, sitting on the chilly concrete floor. I could feel my tear stained face grow pale, draining of blood from fear. I trembled helplessly as the distance between the monster Mom had become and I shrank. When she came a few feet away, she raised her bubbling arms. I flinched and shut my eyes before she swung them. Another piercing scream filled the room, but it wasn’t mine.
I forced open my eyes. Selena was standing right above me, pushing away the monster. She managed to push it to the opposite side of the room. Just as she was about to force it against the wall, it grabbed both her arms and shoved her to the floor. It jumped on top of her and wrapped its hands around her throat. I couldn’t help but stare as Selena screeched and kicked with violence on a spiritual level. The creature banged Selena’s head against the concrete several times before leaning into her neck and taking a huge chomp at her artery. Her screaming and kicking instantly died with the rest of her as the creature took another juicy bite.
The laser guns on the ceiling started shooting at the monster. It let out a deafening screech and collapsed in a moment’s notice. Nobody made a sound as the trapdoor opened again and two drones lowered from it. They floated to the crimson scene and cleaned up the mess.
“That’ll be enough for now,” The intercom voiced, “Now get some rest. Testing starts first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Where do we sleep?” A voice asked within the room.
“Right in here,” replied the intercom, “Obviously not the most comfortable, but chances are you’ll be dead before sleeping a second uncomfortable night. Why would we waste comfort on guinea pig test subjects?”
The intercom let out an immoral chuckle. I was still sitting on the floor, shaking. I looked at the window and saw Dad. He was speechless, and so was everyone else. Did we just see Mom and Selena disappear from our lives? Dad and the rest of the science team got escorted out of the window room, out of sight.
The next morning, I awoke on the chilly floor of our cruel chamber, shivering.
The intercom buzzed and exclaimed, “Good morning, everyone! Rise and shine! We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”
Other prisoners around me groaned and pulled themselves to their feet.
“I know you all didn’t get that much sleep last night, and you all seem very tired. However, I made sure my new team didn’t sleep at all. They worked all night to improve the prototype gas. Prepare for testing in twenty minutes.”
The team lined up shoulder-to-shoulder at the window again. I’ve never seen my dad so tired before. His eyes were a light shade of red, dark circles hung on his eyelids, his forehead was wrinkled, and his hair was messier than ever. It was odd seeing him like this. He was a natural perfectionist. This was the first time I’ve seen him without a prim overall appearance. He didn’t even look at me. Instead, he leaned into a microphone in front of him and cleared his throat.
“Trial one,” Dad’s voice spoke through the intercom, “Project of Death, October 28th, year 6576. Attempt to increase strength of undead and decrease transformation speed by 1.2 seconds. Fourteen test subjects accumulated.”
Another member of the team stepped up and flipped a few switches near the microphone. Almost instantly, the trapdoor on the ceiling reopened. Dad and I made eye contact as the green smoke made another entrance into the chamber. He kept a straight face, yet tears were running down his worn face. What had they done to him?
Air pushed through the trapdoor, causing the olive gas to spread across the room. All the other prisoners began screaming in terror and running away from the gas, against the walls. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I’m going to die. I’m so going to die here. I pressed my back against the chilled metal wall. The gas creeped closer and closer to me. When it was a few inches from my face, I took in the deepest breath I could.
It wasn’t any use though. The gas was stinging my eyes, causing them to well up. I eventually gave up the fight and let breathed in the deadly green air. I could feel it fill my lungs and my chest began to burn. My screams came naturally, and I collapsed on the floor. It felt as if a huge truck of scolding hot metal was sitting on my chest, suffocating and crushing me. It squeezed out my screams, until I could no longer make a sound. Next, my stomach started churning and a migraine took over my head. The last thing I could feel was the skin on my limbs melting down and bubbling, just like Mom’s.
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