Hey there guys, this is the first time I've really dedicated a large portion of the preparation for writing to plot development. There isn't any action in this "scene" (I write in scenes, not chapters) but there is plenty to come if I get some interest! Thanks, enjoy and critique!
EDITED: With the suggestions of the first two posters. Thanks!
EDITED Mk. 2: Had to change the title so I could organise it as a novel.
It was there. Right there, plain as day, in front of him, it was there. At first, he didn’t believe it. Most of them had never thought it possible, but there it was. Was he getting ahead of himself? Yes, the scientist inside him said that there were definitely things that needed to be retested, re-examined, confirmed, before he could rush such conclusions. For now, however, he placed his glasses down and wiped his brow. Tomorrow he would begin in the journey to start anew, something no one had ever done.
They had isolated a specific gene. The gene that everyone wanted but only a select few had. It was the gene for success, the gene for power, the gene for perfection. It was their common purpose and the sole thing that divided them from the disillusioned world outside.
“We’ve done it,” she said, standing at the door and leaning against its frame, smirking. Here sharp features caught the fluorescent light and threw edges of shadows across her high cheekbones. Shoulder-length, brown hair bobbed as she spoke.
“We may have,” he said, looking down. Despite her friendliness, Veit couldn’t help but be intimidated by her very presence.
“We have more tests to run, tomorrow we will know for sure.”
“We are so close,” she said. She stepped inside the door and picked up a model skull and examined it but really looking right through it, “So close.”
His reply shattered her idealistic sentiment, “Not really. This is phase one of three, we complete it tomorrow and we’re just a third through. We cannot ease off or take liberties just because the first hurdle is overcome.”
Victoria straightened, “I understand,” her British accent threw him and he didn’t know how to read her inflections or tone. He couldn’t tell if she was angry, upset, offended or just being polite and respecting the chain of command.
“I’m…”
“See you tomorrow Veit.”
She left brutally, without another word or glance toward him. As he stood alone in the lab he looked about. Two chimps slept in soundproof cages on the wall and a dozen rats squeaked and sniffed in cages on a table. This had become his life. His best friends were animals and he worked 12-hour days only separated by sleepless nights spent staring at the ceiling.
His colleagues, his comrades, were so focused on their work that not even their common purpose united them. Veit stood in the same spot and swayed for a moment, mimicking the swaying of his conviction to the cause. Of course, he reminded himself, that it was the right thing for him to be here. His seclusion from the outside word was for his benefit, and that he was protected from the vile degeneration that the world faced, he was glad.
He walked out the door, locking it with his ID card, and moved through the pristine white hallways with sharp knocks of shoes on tile that cascaded up the walkway before him. Veit was not as self-centred as everyone out there. He and his colleagues understood that humans thought the world was dying, that they were killing it. It wasn’t true, the world was fine, and it was simply changing, changing to become a new world that would not accommodate human life. Humans were not killing the world; they were only condemning themselves to death in a world of their own blind creation.
Veit passed many doors like the one to his lab. Some were marked with green lights, meaning some people were inside working diligently and probably in complete ignorance of the time. Others were marked with red, the sign that their occupants had since left. Most of the doors towards the end of the corridor were marked orange, the sign of labs not yet in use.
“Soon,” Veit said as he climbed the stairs to leave the lab. He came out of the door and into the cold wind that howled beneath the overpass. He locked the door behind him, tucked his coat tight against his neck, and walked away.
Gender:
Points: 4279
Reviews: 40