A 17-year-old boy lay on the silver metal bed inside a freezing room. The temperature of the room was set at minus twenty degree Celsius. He was not alone. Four to five people wearing clothes like astronauts were standing surrounding him. Some held a notebook and started to note everything, but the other two, two same-age women in their early fifties, were busy investigating the teenage boy.
"How's subject 888's progress?" asked the first woman with blonde hair to the other with black hair.
"He is fine. All fine. Probably will wake up soon. I hope." The black-haired woman answered. She grabbed the boy's right hand and held it tight as if it could wake him up.
The others just stared at her and kept silent.
"Come on, Asher. It was just a bacterium. You're stronger than it. Much stronger," she whispered.
Everyone in that room knew the relationship between that unconscious boy and the lady, a son, and the mother. The biological relationship in their limited world.
The room is a special room to maintain the special breed of human. The superhuman, they can say, but the name that The Creators chose for them was The HumanBot. They were unique and strong and prepared for the one thing, one biggest thing, bringing back the glory of the human race.
"Ugh…" the boy moved his body a bit, his face expressing how great the pain he could feel now.
Her mom, Alison, held his hand tighter and moved her face closer to his.
"Asher, do you hear me? You would be fine. I got you here. Just try harder to wake up. It's been a month since you were dormant."
Of course, the boy could hear the whisperer clearly, even if he hadn't regained consciousness. He's The HumanBot, one of the 100. They got their senses upgraded beyond the human, ordinary human. All thanks to technology and science.
"Wake up now, Ash. Otherwise, they will remove your feet again hundreds of times. I know that you hate the pain."
Asher, the 17-year-old boy, suddenly opened his eyes as if he had just returned from his death. And everyone in that room was surprised.
"He's back."
"Check his condition right away."
"Come on', electric shock!"
*Tuck*
Those five people were getting back to their job. They are The Creators, of course, not only them, but they are the best of the best. And one of them just started to shock that teenage boy with a very high electricity voltage.
"Arghhhhh! Enough! STOP!" he screamed as his body felt like it burst into pieces.
"All good! Please stop it. He doesn't need it anymore!" the mother, of course, couldn't bear to see her only son scream in pain like that. Thus, everyone stopped.
"Doctor Alison, your presence here is no longer needed. Please leave the maintenance room," said the woman with blonde hair. She looks displeased by Alison's reaction.
"B-but he needs me." Alison refused.
"No, he doesn't. But you need him." The woman replied without a smile on her blunt face.
This cold woman who looks very smart with her glasses on is the second chairman of The Creators. She was the greatest and brightest, and the HumanBot would never have been created without her. Alison was bright enough, but she was still under that cold woman. People called her Professor Corine.
"You can go, Mom. I would be fine. I promise." Asher, already sitting on the silver yet cold metal bed, grabbed his mom's hand. He stared at her, trying to convince her that he would be fine.
"Ash, I just-"
"Leave. I don't want them to put you in jail again, ok?" he begged.
And thus, Alison gave him a kiss on his forehead through her astronaut's helmet and then left.
"How’s the pain? From zero to ten, which one could it be?” asked Corine, approaching Asher, who gave her a death stare.
“Eleven.”
“Eleven? What a shame.”
Corine grabbed the same metal that just struck Asher with high electricity voltage and turned the power to maximum. Before she used it again on him till he collapsed. “You are the luckiest creation, stop being the weakest and be strong!”
Although Asher could hear her voice clearly, as if it were whispered to his ear, he still could not do anything other than sleep like death. His left eye started to feel like burning, and suddenly … out of nowhere … that familiar warning appeared.
WARNING!
SYSTEM ERROR!
…
Seven days later …
“Pssst, Asher, wake up!” a deep voice whispered from a distance right in front of the maintenance room’s locked door. It was another 17-year-old boy, an African-American boy with a muscular body. His name was Tony.
Asher, who had been staying dormant for seven days, could hear the voice clearly. Hearing his best friend's voice made him force his eyelids to open. And he made it. Of course. His dormant time is up. He was no longer hibernating.
“Tony.” Asher jumped from the bed, and his eyes could instantly find where Tony called him from. He smiled lopsidedly. It’s been a while since his meeting with his one and only HumanBot mate.
“Over here! Come out!” Tony waved his big hand happily. He knew that he could wake him up.
Asher looked around to find the clothes. He was naked, totally naked. Inside the room, the temperature was as cold as the freezer. The cold never bothered him anyway. But yeah, it helped his dormant state.
After grabbing a weird shirt that he could find in that room, he immediately left the room and gave Tony a high-five.
“What’s new from you?” Tony asked while staring at Asher’s body from head to toe. He looked a bit jealous, but still, he couldn’t see anything different from his best friend after more than a month.
“You would never like it.”
“What’s that? Show me!”
The thing that they talked about is the last surgery that Asher got from the Creators.
“They would never stop, didn’t they?” Asher didn’t look happy with Tony’s question. After all, he could remember the pain he got from the last surgery. All of them.
“I’m sorry, my friend. It must be hard being the luckiest one.” Tony grabbed Asher’s shoulder.
“The luckiest one? Sounds more like the broken one for me.” Asher walked through the hallway. He didn’t want to look back to the room that he most hated.
“I’m sorry. Can we just not talk about that? I come here to invite you.” Tony moved his face closer to him. “We have a party!”
It stopped Asher from walking. He stared right into Tony’s eyes in disbelief, “You tell me that I got invited?”
“YES!” Tony couldn’t hide his excitement.
The party they were talking about was illegal. The party was held by The HumanBot without the permission of The Creators. But yeah, The HumanBot was just a normal teenager, by the way. They loved to party as if it had already been planted in their DNA.But as Tony’s said … Asher was known as the luckiest one. The luckiest HumanBot. And what it meant by the luckiest is that all the modified DNA planted into his body was expressed very well. Not like the others.Being created from technology and science, the more modified DNA expression, the more perfection they got. Although Asher became The Creator’s favorite when he was born, still … he himself hated his destiny to the bones.Being the luckiest makes almost all of The HumanBot jealous. None of his race likes him except Tony, of course. That’s why he never got invited to any party.Also, having many modified DNA expressions in his body made him suffer. Those expressions made a complication that almost always reappeared every three mon
As the humans started the new life under the ground, they tried hard to increase their population. They needed to reproduce, and they made it. But, the babies could not live longer than seven years because of the conditions under the ground. Their tiny lungs could not compete with the adult to get the low oxygen supplies.Humans tried to solve that problem by bringing the baby to the ground's surface. But, of course, the radiation killed them within a second. It was really frustrating at that moment. Although they can produce, the babies cannot live. And thus, the population decreased by time.And one day, a group of scientists who labeled themselves as The Creators discovered something that might bring back the glory for the human race. It was the HumanBot breed. They were not just ordinary human babies.“Hope? Why?” Aaron looks displeased.Hope, the girl, jumped into the conversation. She didn’t smile a bit. The expression on her face would always be the seriousness.“I have importa
Neo was laid on the metal bed once again. But this time, he could hear voices surrounding him. Not only one but many. He forced his eyes to open, but it seemed like those eyes of his were not under his control anymore. Realizing that, Neo focused on increasing his hearing system and tried to hear what the conversation was about.“What did you do to him? You promised me he would no longer suffer. But, what was this?”A woman's voice. It was very soft and gentle. Neo could feel the emotion from her, a thick emotion. She was crying while speaking.“You can have my word. He’s fine. It was just the side effect of a special weapon implant. His immune system is too strong, it rejected the weapon.” Neo breathed slowly. He remembered the second voice. It belonged to Corine, the only woman he could remember.“I would never sign that agreement if anything bad happened to him.” Said the crying woman. Her presence close to Neo brought a warm feeling that Neo couldn’t understand. It comforted him.
Neo was startled by those notifications again. Suddenly he remembered the thing that he had read before he collapsed. Something called the mutant system. One thing that, so far, still hasn’t been explained by Corine.“What’s happening? What are you waiting for? We have to hurry.” Corine looked back to Neo after she couldn’t hear any footsteps behind her.Neo stared at her, thinking. Then, he decided to ask. After all, he somehow believed that Corine knew everything.“Where can I get DNA essence?” he asked carefully.But Corine didn’t give him an answer right forward. She remained silent and looked like she was battling with her own mind.“What are you talking about? DNA essence? Did I make another mistake during the upgrade, causing you to start talking non-sense?”The answer he got made him even more confused. But, before Neo lost his memory, in his past … he was already known as one of the brilliant HumanBot.Neo was sure that the notification he got before passing out was different
“INFINITY!” shouted Neo.Of a sudden, all those empty eyes glitched. Shining-red lights blink from their robot eyes as if the code just reactivated their system. Everyone started to grasp their breath. Many of them looked terrified, but the remaining looked calmed down.Neo just watched what was happening in front of him and stayed silent. He felt relief when he saw Tony back to normal, breathing easily while his eyes found him, then smiled.However, although everyone there had received their consciousness back, they didn’t move from their line as if they were still under the control of the program or something. Neo looked at Corine. His expression clearly hid many questions.“What was that for? The code?” Neo realized that the code Corine’s gave was somehow activating the HumanBot as if they were under his control. Knowing that fact, Neo once again felt that Corine was just using him and the HumanBot.“An army should work properly. Somebody should give them an order. And that somebod
Corine left all the HumanBot inside the hall without any more words coming from her lips. She walked out like a ghost while Neo was still trying to push his body to move like he wanted. But he couldn’t.Neo found out that his body was controlled by someone else who was not himself. The same fate that all the HumanBot also faced. It was strange, but remembering the latest upgrade that he still didn’t know the detail, made him feel robbed. Not only him but all the HumanBot. They lose their freedom before they even realize it.“Neo, how you doing?” Tony ran to Neo. After the metal door hidden on the wall closed entirely, all the HumanBot were suddenly free to move on their own.Neo stared at Tony from head to toe as if he was investigating him and trying to find what’ things had changed. But as long as he could remember, Neo couldn’t see any changes in Tony’s physical.“Do you get it too?” asked Neo, a strange feeling made his throat itchy. It feels like it’s been a while since the last
Zink!Zink!Zink!The hall suddenly became noisy because of the sound of alarm rumbling from every corner of that giant room. The enhanced hearing system that almost every HumanBot have causes them to struggle to stay balanced while standing on their feet. They tried to cover their earlobes using their bare hands to reduce the annoying sound from the alarm.Neo seemed to be struggling a lot. He fell to the ground while lying on the wall, trying to manually reduce his hearing system because he was the most sensitive HumanBot in terms of that system.“Arghh …”[Mutant body received damage from unknown object]Another notification popped out and confused him.[Warning!][The host might collapse]“What was that for? Arghhh …” Neo complained on something that he could only seen from the notification on his robot’s eye.“Neo, are you okay?” Tony ran toward Neo and gave him a hand. He held Neo’s arm to push him to stand.Zink!He turned it off, and suddenly, he could not hear anything. Even
Neo and the others couldn’t see anything inside the darkness caused by the black smoke. As the training section has been officially started, Neo, who already set the hearing system back to the highest level of sensitivity, began to hear the short breathing system of the HumanBot hidden inside the darkness.“Transformer, do you think the infrared gonna work?”“I have activated the Infrared’s eyes.”Immediately, Neo’s eyes color changed to red as the infrared function had been activated by Transformer. And now, he could see everyone in the darkness, including their facial expression right now when they were lost in the dark and didn’t know what to do next.Neo knew that not all the HumanBot have the infrared system planted in their eyes. Any kind of superior system that normal humans could not have was planted in HumanBot. Still, not all of their body could accept it. Some rejected it, and thus, the system could not work correctly or could not even work.In front of Neo was Hope. She lo