Chapter 1. Life and Death
The screen is black. You hear panicked heavy deep breathing. Its a female in labour. She's begging and pleading for her tormentors to stop. "N.. noo ... no please....... Please stop."
Screen opens to show a female in labour. She is the rabbit kind. The wasted. One of the hares. The ones who don't belong. They were driven from society during the reformation. The reformation that transformed the world as we know it, from the chaotic disgusting mess marked by war and blackness to a new clean, orderly kind. This is what the Leaders teach us.
Back to the female. She is young. Too young to be this pregnant. Too young to be raising a child... if that were even possible.. Which it's not.
Screen pans out to display her tormentor. Looking straight into the camera. He is old. A doctor or scientist with a stereotypical white lab coat and glasses. He is from the legion of great Hogs who led the reorganizing of what we knew.. Into something else.
He is clean shaven.. Bearing the wrinkles of time across his face. His eyes look at you, but there is seemingly nothing there. Nothing natural is left. A deadness in his countenance that shouldn't exist on the faces of the living.
In his hand he holds a syringe. Calmingly he reassures the female that this and only this is the path to redemption.. To becoming clean. "Soon" he speaks lightly.. "Soon you will understand. It will all make sense.. You are.. So important."
"Please sir.. Please.. I'm in so much pain.. Please don't do this" she pleads.. Knowing full well it is futile to even attempt to bargain with this race.. These.. Leaders. She knows the unspeakable horrors they have inflicted on her kind since far before she was born.. Long have they feared this race.
He turns his attention to another spot in the room where under the lights there is something like an aquarium. There are tubes running in and out of it. Inside under a thick layer of mist there appears to be something very alien looking. Almost like a wild fungi all twisted and gnarled around itself. The fruiting bodies look nothing like any fungi she has ever seen on god's green earth. This was something very different.
Beside the aquarium is a small cage with a rat inside. She cannot understand the rat's language but she can hear the terror in its screams. The doctor reaches into the rat's cage with stainless steel tongs, forcibly snagging the rat in its clutches. The rat is screaming as he opens up the aquarium with the mysterious lifeform inside, dropping the rat in and quickly shutting the door.
The rat looks around for any sort of escape. He is sweating pure fear.
Suddenly a dark cloud of mist emerges from the lifeform, hovering just above the floor of the aquarium, wrapping itself around the poor animal.
The camera zooms in towards the rats eyes and we see tiny tendrils of the mist coalesce around the rats eys, seeping violently now into the rats body. Seizures overcome his little body thrashing about as blood is ejected from his mouth and eyes. The seizing gets more and more violent until just as quickly as it started, it stops.
Peace quickly replaces thrashing and a sudden calmness takes over the rat's body like a strong dose of anesthetic. The rat's eyes have become a cloudy white, yet he appears to see with full awareness.
It is at this point that the doctor reaches back into the aquarium, yet now only with his bare hands and gently lifts out the now gentle animal. There is nothing but quiet compliance on the face of the animal as the doctor places him on a small stainless platform. Taking the syringe, he inserts the needle deep into the rat's abdomen. There are no cries of pain. No hesitation.
He draws a full syringe of blood from the rat's body cavity, but... something is wrong..
What should be a deep crimson red blood is instead an opaque white, almost milky substance.
After completely retracting the needle, the new compliant animal just stands there. No emotion. No urgency. No panic. Almost as if it were dead though it looks fully alive.
Turning his attention back to the pregnant female who is shackled to the hospital bed, he walks towards her as a look of horror captures her face. the awareness of what is truly going on hits her like a bullet to the brain.
Lifting the towel that was covering her abdomen, he reveals her swollen pregnant belly.
"Please.." she whimpers. "Please dont hurt me...please dont hurt my..."
She is panicking.. Breathing fast and heavy "No.. no.. no no nooooo"
Slowly, methodically, and without any hesitation, he pushes the needle into her belly, piercing the skin and driving downward, through the uterus, directly into the little body inside, emptying the syringe completely.
Her breath catches.. As if frozen.. She can't suck in any air
Terror has overcome the girl now and she blacks out. Nothing is written. Nothing is recorded
She awakens the next day still tethered to the bed, but a weakness has taken over her body. A deep powerful nausea erupts inside her and she violently empties what little contents were in her stomach off the side of the bed. Her eyes are deeply hollowed. She somehow looks like she has aged 20 years
She is dying. She knows it. She would pray to god, but she knows that if he was listening he surely didn't care..at best.
At worst she would be talking to a cosmic sadist who delights in the suffering of little ones.
A few hours go by and quickly she deteriorates.
The doctor returns to the room followed by assistants in lab coats.
"Prepare unit dash two seven for immediate extraction. Both of you restrain the patient this time. Only the infant's life matters. Once complete, transmit the specimen to immediate life support, and dispose of the surrogate as always."
Walking directly to her bed, they restrain her, but there is little to restrain.
Surgery is started immediately to harvest the child from her uterus before she expires. They use no anesthetic to dull the pain.
As they cut into her, her eyes barely register the pain.
She bleeds out. She is gone.
The still child is breathing, but there is no crying or panic. He is transmitted to an incubator by the assistants. There are others in other incubators. Many others.
Cut to black
It is the middle of the night. About 2:30AM. An explosion thunders through the laboratory. The lights flicker as armed, masked figures lunge into the laboratory urgently pouring flammable liquids all over the floors and tables. Destruction is the goal. Complete destruction.
One of the figures walks towards the incubators peering inside... only one body inside is still moving. Immediately they are recognized as infants. The figure pulls their mask down. She is a young female.. the same kind as the child's mother. She looks down at the baby inside the incubator, recognizing it as her kind.. She is overcome with pity and rage as it floods through her emotions looking at all the dead.
"THIS ONE IS ALIVE! ITS STILL ALIVE" she screams to the others, breathing heavily
They all gather around the incubator as she picks up the baby, wriggling in her hands. He is still so small.
"But how?" Some of the others ask. "This has never happened,,It can't happen. It shouldnt be possible.." they talk amongst themselves.
The camera is focused now on the woman holding the child. It pans up from the child in her arms to her face.
"I knew it would happen..i begged god.. I begged him. I didnt think he would say yes... thank you... god thank you" as she tears up with joy
Fade to black