Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

PROLOGUE

May 3rd, 2020.

"You really think one of us is next, Lance?" a man meekly asked as he sat down on the metallic, colorless floor. His body was bathed in dim, yellow light as his messy hair obscured his eyes. He sported a standard, camouflage military uniform and blood-drenched combat boots.

"I...I don't know, Alex." The man by the name of Lance sobbed, leaning up against the steel door, repeatedly banging on it with fist lightly as he hummed.

Alex had figured that his brother's mind had already devolved into a zombie-like state. They'd already experimented on him. He'd watched this madness take over his friends, driving them all crazy, draining them of sanity. He knew, for it was happening to him as well. It wouldn't matter, though. The further they were mentally gone, the more they were valued.

Here, inside these walls, one had to be useless in order to be useful.

The countless corpses that surrounded him were proof of that.

He didn't know how long he'd been on the inside. Days were weeks. Weeks were hours. Hours were months. Time was an abstract concept. Fresh out of high school, Alex had come to serve his country, to prove to his father that he was no coward. His younger brother, Lance, had opted to come along with him, as the two of them had always been close.

He hadn't come to be treated like some lab rat.

His father's suspicions had been correct all along. This world really was corrupt. Hope was now a figment of Alex's imagination, for no one was coming to save him from this living hell. There were no heroes. Heroes were a pipe dream.

"The bad men are coming." Lance began faintly singing in an eerie tone, proceeding to knock harder and faster. A manic grin engulfed his face as his bloodshot eyes widened.

Alex's heartbeat sped up. He knew that something bad was going to happen. It always did when Lance made those noises. The faint sound of heavy footsteps began increasing in volume. The door was flung open as a small group of 3 soldiers entered.

He despised them. Not just that specific trio, but the entire organization. Primus Industries had taken everything from him. His home. His friends. His family. He'd joined them to protect the innocent, yet he was the one who ended up needing protection.

He glared at them in an amalgamation of rage and fear as bullets of sweat swiftly traversed his angular features. Their suits were black, with a purple tint, obscuring their entire bodies.

"Subject AP-156, you're up." One agent snarled as he and his two comrades pulled him out of the room, thrusting him into a tube-like chamber a few seconds later. By then, he'd already accepted his fate. He'd seen what happened to the people who entered those chambers. They never emerged from them.

Tears should've been streaking down his cheeks, but Alex had cried so many times leading up to this point that it just wasn't possible. He corrected his posture as he was commanded, beginning to feel a burning vibration within his spine. His skin cells began to rapidly oscillate as he attempted to breathe, but he couldn't.

His shrieks struggled to pierce through the wall of the capsule as his entire anatomy was picked apart, atom by atom. His eyes slowly burned out of his head as the last of the man's body was disintegrated, leaving a thick pool of blood inside of the cylindrical containment unit.

"Failed, yet again." The agent stated in an annoyed tone as he pressed a silver button. Blood flooded out onto the floor. "Send in the next one."