July 24, 2256 – DCC Main Laboratory in Frankfurt, Germany:
“Doctor, we’ve done it!” proclaimed the lab assistant.
“You’re right. This discovery will greatly revolutionize the world,” Dr. Antonio responded.
The doctor and his assistant were in the Disease Control Center main laboratory. They’d made a bewildering discovery, the cure for the so-called ‘incurable’ disease, cancer.
Louisville, Kentucky, USA:
The date was August 23, 2256. A new discovery had been made a few months ago. It was a serum that allowed people to live for 100 extra years from their original life length. This was not all; it prevented people from getting old and wrinkly.
Meanwhile, our protagonist, Albert Gander (Alby for short) was a 10th grader going to Dakota Public School. At the age of 15, his life was pretty busy (according to him, that is). He was your average high school student, nothing particularly unusual about him (emphasis on particularly.) He had a very idiosyncratic-looking birthmark. He normally could hide it under his shirt though. No one mentioned it often. However, he was completely unaware of the great fate that awaited him in the future.
August 23, 2256 – DCC Main Laboratory in Frankfurt, Germany:
“Pass the hydrogen peroxide.” Dr. Antonio said to his assistant.
“Here you go sir.” The assistant said.
Now, you must be wondering how Dr. Antonio was still alive. Well, it was because of the newly discovered long-life serum.
Dr. Antonio was working on improving the cure.
“KABOOM!” an explosion came from the test tube that Dr. Antonio had poured the hydrogen peroxide into. The chemicals spilled and went into the sink. Slowly, it went down the drain. While the water was being refined, the chemicals did not go away. The contaminated water was returned to the water supply. When people consumed the water, the chemicals got into their bodies. More and more people consumed the water. More and more people got infected with the chemicals.
Something very coincidental happened the next day. A few scientists studied the chemicals and found a new substance, which they named, Hetropyronite. More analysis was done and an even more intriguing discovery was made. Hetropyronite atoms penetrated the body cells and ‘hacked’ into the nucleus. They substituted the cell’s hereditary material with their own master particles. Their particles ordered the cell to start using all the bodies’ resources to make innumerable atoms of hetropyronite at a rate of 1,000,000,000,000 atoms per minute. This transmogrified the victim of the disease into temporary hetropyronite statues. After 24 hours, the victim’s body became mobile again but it was still composed mainly of hetropyronite. They called this disease, Hetropyronitiosis.
The substances in the chemicals actually expedited the spread of cancer. That was only the beginning; the disease was now miasmatic. It was spreading so fast, that it was uncontainable. Slowly, it spread and spread until only 1% of all the humans on Earth were not the victims of Hetropyronitiosis.
The scientists and leaders of the world could not cope with this. They put all their resources and wealth together and established an organization known as DSOOR (Disease Stopper Organization of Researchers) to make an attempt to stop major outbreaks all over the world. They appointed Dr. Antonio as the leader of DSOOR. Since the man was the one who indirectly caused the major outbreak, many people did not like him being the leader.
“Only an idiot would appoint the guy who caused all this chaos as the leader!” many people were saying.
However, Dr. Antonio would not be so bad of a leader after all.
He ordered for the non-infected people to be evacuated into the most heavily protected places in the world. These were called SAFE buildings. Fort Knox became DSOOR’s HQ. Other SAFE buildings were constructed in Area 51, Cheyenne Mountain, the Doomsday Seed Vault, Federal Reserve Bank, the Alcatraz of the Rockies, Haven Co, the Acropolis in Greece (rebuilt), and the areas inside the Great Wall of China (also rebuilt.) More protection was put in the locations of the SAFE buildings. Each of the SAFE buildings was given a number.
Now, you’re probably wondering about Alby. He was also evacuated, along with his family. Luckily, they had sufficient food and water, but many people were crammed into small rooms and had to sleep on the floors with blankets sometimes. Alby’s SAFE building was named SAFE #958.
There were only a few beds so all the residents took turns sleeping on them each night. However, construction work was going on to make all the SAFE building more appealing to the people who lived there.
DSOOR members had been scanning and mapping the movement patterns of the infected people. Red dots on the computer screens represented the infected people. The longer they had been infected, the darker the red dot was. White dots represented non-infected people. The entire area on the screen near SAFE building #958 was white. The screen showed that the infected people habitually stayed in the back alleys of cities, looking for stray animals and meat near the trash. They had enough brains left to realize that they liked food, especially meat. However, they were stupid enough to not realize that because their bodies were mostly composed of Hetropyronite, they didn’t require food.
The guards were looking at the results of the scans from the previous day when they stumbled upon something very odd. Instead of staying near back alleys, the infected people were advancing towards the location of the SAFE buildings. Even stranger was the fact that they were not scattered, but they were advancing in a menacing formation. The guard who was currently on duty informed the others about this. However, the guards did not inform the residents in order to avoid unnecessary chaos.
One of the infected people had managed to get control over the rest and was leading an attack on SAFE #958. SAFE #958 was not the only place where someone had taken control of the rest of the infected people and was leading an attack on the nearest safe building. This was also happening in SAFE #457, #278, #385, #756, #679, #107, #875, #258, #651, #364, #977, #759, and a few other SAFE buildings. Inhumane moans that were similar to the ones of zombies were heard outside the gates, but the people were safe as long as they remained behind the 5-ton gates. 8 hours passed but the mob of infected people did not recede.
“That’s it! I’ve had enough of these dumb idiots moaning like the undead outside!” Alby vociferated loudly.
“All right, I guess you’re right. It has been 8 hours and they still haven’t given up,” the head guard sighed.
The guards activated the grenade launchers and fired a few of those bad boys out there. The grenades landed with a dull “THUMP’ on the dusty pavement. A sharp crack was heard, and the grenade exploded in a red fiery flame. It would be a while before they gathered up enough courage to attack again.
This incident was reported to Dr. Antonio, who was in deep thought at the time.
“Sir, there was a minor invasion on SAFE #958; however, it was taken care of by a few grenade launchers. No man, woman, or child was hurt. The infected mob stayed outside the gates for about 8 hours but fled in terror after the guards fired the grenades.
“Is that all?” Dr. Antonio asked the messenger.
“Yes sir. That’s my report,” The messenger answered and quietly left the room.
“Hmm, I have to do something about this,” Dr. Antonio thought to himself.
The next day, the order was given: All the SAFE buildings’ residents would have to go through a series of tests. The tests were unknown for the person who was being tested was taken into a locked room and was tested in there. Nobody knew what had happened in the testing room before they walked out because their memories had been erased. After all the tests were complete, the people returned to their rooms.
The next day, the order of the DSOOR HQ was delivered to them: All the SAFE buildings would have a group of trained “warriors” to defend them from future attacks called the fighting squad. The training would start exactly 24 hours after the results of the tests were sent to the SAFE building.
At SAFE #958, the people gathered around the head guard, eagerly waiting for him to open the envelope that contained the final decision of the HQ. The head guard slowly opened the envelope, and read the names out loud. He squinted as he read out the names scribbled down on the bottom of the paper. The people whose names had been called out were perplexed.
A burst of chatter exploded in the hall. Alby, on the other hand, was shocked beyond his limits. He couldn’t believe his ears. He was part of the fighting squad.
“Well,” Alby said, a little more calmed down than before, “I guess that I can’t deny my fate, and what idiot would argue against the HQ’s decision.”
“Master Albert, you will be astounded to find out that your scores in the tests were the highest among everyone else,” the head guard apprised Alby. “Very well, he called out to everyone, you all may now return to your quarters to rest and ponder upon this decision. Just as a reminder, you have 23 hours and 45 minutes before the training begins,” he announced.
The 24 hours were up, and the muffled whispers of men, women, and teenagers filled the main corridor as they perambulated to the supposed “training” area. They reached the training area after several minutes of walking.
“May I have your attention please?!” the head guard’s voice rang out through the room.
The whispers died down and everyone stood in attention, listening closely to the head guard. He gave them instructions & told them about the training. The scientists at the HQ were working on a top-secret weapon. There were rumors that it paralyzed the victim. People were wondering about this weapon when they were shooed away by the guards. Everyone got to work right away after that.
Within a few days, Alby was way ahead of the rest of the group. He could fight with a sword, fire a gun a few centimeters away from the exact middle, the bull’s-eye, and complete the 1-mile run under 5 minutes. He was like a superhuman, but everyone knew that there was no such thing. In a week, he was an adept fighter. He was not just a 15-year-old anymore; he was a deadly, trained warrior.
Alby was reclining on the bed. It was his turn to sleep on it today. He was thinking about what he had done in such a short amount of time. He looked at his strange birthmark under his shirt. What was this! The birthmark was glowing a bright yellow color. Alby felt a tingling sensation in his spine. His head started throbbing. A burst of adrenaline shot through him. He lunged out of his bed. A few people woke up and inquired about his problem. Alby just told them that it was a nightmare. The glow on his body had disappeared from sight. Alby decided to keep this aberrant event a secret.
Within a month, the people who were once normal citizens were now warriors. The spark inside them was ignited and burning fiercely. They were ready for anything that this cruel world sent at them. Alby, however, was bored out of his mind. He was so good at everything that he couldn’t get any better at them. Some people were a little bit jealous of Alby, but they realized that he would be very handy to have on their side. This thought was exactly correct.
One day, while training, a terrible ‘BOOM’ sound was heard. It came from outside. People exchanged worried looks with each other. The guards went to the 5-ton gates to inspect the source of the loud noise.
“BOOM!” a grenade exploded in their faces as they drew near the gates. The security cameras zoomed in to that area. There they were, right there, an insane mob of infected people with stones, sticks, metal rods, jagged pieces of glass, and grenades! How in the world did they manage to get their infected little hands on those explosives? The fighting squad could not battle the infected people when they had grenades. They had to pull out their secret weapon, the Scepter. In reality, the secret weapon that the scientists had been working on was the Scepter. It was very similar to a gun in appearance, but it was 10 times as strong. Now was the perfect moment to use them. A Scepter enfeebled the victim for months; however, it did not kill the victim.
The fighting squad was summoned to combat the mob outside the gates. There was a fierce battle between the two groups. However, blood was only shed on the SAFE building fighting force troops’ side. Whenever a weapon such as a knife or a gun was used against the infected people, they fell for a moment, and then got right back up and continued battling as if nothing had happened.
“Everyone, take out your Scepters and pull the trigger at the count of 3!” Alby hollered.
“1…2…3!” the sound of Scepters being fired cut through the air.
“BOOM!” the Scepters met their targets. Alby couldn’t believe his eyes. The Scepters had absolutely no effect on the infected people. At this, he was infuriated.
Out of his sight, the birthmark underneath his shirt began to softly glow. It slowly got brighter and brighter, until Alby exploded in rage. He personally went from one infected person to another infected person and snapped their necks like they were twigs. He returned to the fighting squad and roared. Yes, Alby roared, roared like an intimidating lion. The battle was all over now. However, this battle had cost them many lives. The triumphant soldiers walked back through the gates. The ones who had been injured were rushed to the medical center. Cheers broke out within the group of people waiting inside the gates. Alby’s parents rushed out to greet him, but there was no trace of him. They searched for him everywhere but couldn’t find him. After giving up their search, they reluctantly headed over to the main dining room to have dinner with the others.
When they reached the dining room, something unpredictable occurred. There was a blinding flash of light. A figure shrouded in white clothes rose up from the ground.
Every person gathered around in curiosity and astonishment at the newcomer who said, “You’ve all passed the test of the Patugnsisefad. Therefore, the Bind shall be released.”
At the mention of Albert, his parents gasped. The figure opened his hood. Everyone was startled by the face behind the hood. It was Alby.
“The Patugnsisefad chose me as the Representer because of this,” Alby declared in an alien voice. He revealed his birthmark. “This is not a birthmark; it is the mark of the Patugnsisefad. It gave me all of that energy in the battles. There is not a single infected man, woman, or child on your planet. You have passed the Test of the Patugnsisefad and therefore the Bind has been released. Enjoy the rest of your lives, for they will be free of misery and suffering.”
A luminescent beam of light shot out from Alby’s eyes and mouth. The same flash of light as earlier occurred. The boy, once known as Alby, the Gelid, and the one chosen by the Patugnsisefad, had disappeared into thin air.
Note: This story was written by Sumant S. Dangi back in 2013 in 7th grade as a Language Arts project in George C. Marshall School in Ankara, Turkey.
