What made her sick to her stomach was the fact that her bosses literally wanted her to seduce him and get pregnant by him.
She had no doubt she would be greatly compensated if she did. Maybe even get a generous bonus if the child was born with the Chimera genes. But she didn’t want that. Yes, she needed the money. But the idea of making a baby for the sake of science, then giving it away to these…
“Fucking sons of bitches,” she muttered. No. That was being too nice. They were more like…
In her weary state, she couldn’t think of anything more vile or repulsive. Give her the chance to sleep on it, and she’d come up with something more appropriate.
That, and start looking for another job. I just can’t do this to N8. I just can’t.
But if I don’t, you know they’ll find someone else. Maybe not someone to pursue N8, but one of the other guys. Or they could hire a male assistant and have him try to get one of the girls pregnant.
Oh, dear God, what kind of mess have I gotten myself into?
Tears blurred her vision as her breath caught in her chest. Pausing in the hallway, she took the time to wipe her eyes and calm herself. She couldn’t have security seeing her all blubbery and snot-nosed. Of course, some of the more seasoned guards have probably seen this sort of thing countless times in the past.
Once she reached the decontamination unit, she was allowed to bypass the chamber and take the corridor directly to the front lobby. From there, she took the elevator up to ground level and exited the squatty, nondescript, one-story building.
Outside, Cydney stopped and stared up into the cloudless, star-filled sky. She took a deep breath to clear her head and fill her lungs with the fresh scent wafting off the magnolias blooming on the trees that lined the walkway from the entrance to the parking garage.
Another realization hit her. N8 and the others had never experienced the changing of the seasons. They’d never seen a real sunrise or sunset, nor the stars and the moon. They only knew of those things because they’d been taught they’d existed before the imaginary nuclear war that never occurred.
Her eyes teared again, and she sniffed loudly. “Sweet heavens, you’ve never had the chance to live!” she softly exclaimed. “You’ve never felt the wind in your face. Or the rain. Or heard a thunderstorm. You’ve never seen a real ocean, or tasted its salty waters. You’ve never even witnessed snow.”
A distant train whistle pulled her out of her reverie. Hurrying into the garage, she quickly found her car. A swipe of her key card opened the gate to let her exit, and she tossed the lanyard onto the passenger seat.
She stopped at a local market for a few essential items, including another bottle of sleeping medication. She knew she was becoming more and more dependent on the damn things, but it couldn’t be helped. If she didn’t take them, she found herself lying awake and thinking about the children. About what they were being put through. About what they knew, or didn’t know. About how their lives were that they happily accepted as normal, when there was nothing fucking normal about what lies they were being fed. Or, worse, what kind of medical tests they were constantly being put through, all under the guise of keeping them safe from radiation poisoning.
“If any of them even catch a common cold, it’s a major disaster,” she muttered. Which was why she and all the others who worked at the facility were monitored as closely as N8 and the others were. And why, every day she went to work, she had to go through decom, to make sure she didn’t carry any germs into the compound and possibly infect them.
When she arrived at her apartment complex, she managed to find an empty space close to the walkway. Parking, she locked her car and hurried over to the stairs to ascend them to her front door.
It was way late, and she was too tired, both emotionally and physically, to do anything other than jump into the shower, then head straight to bed. Rather than turn on the TV to listen the late night news, she first put away her groceries and went directly to the bathroom. She started the shower, and while she waited for the hot water to kick in, she stripped and began pinning her hair up on top of her head, when she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Or rather, the upper half.
Tentatively, she reached down and cupped her breasts in her hands. Her thumbs lightly flicked her nipples, causing them to harden slightly. A shiver went through her. Had N8 ever seen a woman’s bared breasts before? If what Bill and Dorsey had told her was true, and this was one of those rare times when she didn’t doubt them, all of the children were virgins. That included N8.
She recalled the old stories about boys learning women’s anatomies from ancient copies ofReader’s Digestand porn mags. N8 and the others never had that kind of upbringing. “For that matter, what kind of childhood did you have? No wonder you all are so close knit. You’ve only had each other to fall back on when times got bad because you understood what everyone else was going through. Because all of you were being put through the same thing.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “Shit. I’ve made the fatal mistake of getting emotionally involved in all this, and that was the company’s number one rule.” She screwed up her face. “Well, fuck their number one rule. And fuck Dorsey and Bill. Fuck them all!” Grabbing the washcloth from the towel bar, she threw it into the shower. The action allowed her to get rid of some of her anger. Plus, it was a safe response. Nothing was broken.
She snatched up her toothbrush, squeezed a little toothpaste on it, and began vigorously brushing her teeth. She continued to brush as she ventured into her bedroom and grabbed a pair of lounging pants and an old t-shirt from the hook on the back of the door, to put on after her bath. Taking them back to the bathroom, she draped them over the doorknob and returned to the sink to spit and rinse her mouth.
Lifting her face, she stared at her reflection.
It took her a second. When she noticed it, she gave a shriek of horror and stumbled away from the mirror.
Her breath came in gasps as she tried to make sense of what she’d seen.
Or had she?
Fearfully, tentatively, Cydney stepped up to the sink and moved closer to the mirror to where she could see more clearly in the light.
Her eyes were no longer blue. They were a greenish-brown.
The same greenish-brown color as N8’s eyes.
7Integr8
“Fucking sons of bitches.”
What the…
