June 13th 2017

This was my final summative writing assignment for the course.

He awoke torpidly. His mind had just begun to recollect itself and was trying its best to tick again. The cogs in his brain refused to turn though, as if they were stuck on something. He opened his eyes slowly, then hastily shut them. There was a light above him as bright as the gaseous orb in space. He began to catalogue his surroundings. There was something plastic on his thumb and he could hear some sort of distant beeping. His ears hadn't quite caught up with him yet. There were tubes stuck in his hand as well. Was that why his brain was so slow? He peeled his eyes open again. This time he was prepared. He squinted against the light until his retinas adapted and looked around. He was in a small room laying on an old cot. He was still wearing the clothes he remembered putting on last; thank god, and it appeared as though he was hooked up to a bunch of hospital equipment. The tubes in his hand snaked up into an IV bag, and the plastic thing in his hand was attached to a heart monitor which accountable for the beeping. He focused his mind on making the IV bag fall so that it would stop doing whatever it was doing, but it wouldn't budge. This is where he panicked. Why wasn't his magic working? Before he was able to get up and pull it out himself, there were footsteps down the hallway on the other side of the door. They were getting louder. He could literally hear his heart speeding up. The steps stopped abruptly in front of the door. He heard some shuffling and the familiar clinking of keys until they had finally found the right one. The door clicked, the handle turned, and suddenly he wasn't alone.

***

He was beginning to get frustrated. He could never figure out those darn keys! There were so many doors! You would think that the boss would have enough time and money to maybe invest in a digital key card system, but apparently not. Typical. He sighed in relief when a key finally went in the lock and he opened the door to check on the subject. He was surprised to see how horrified the kid looked, and his heart monitor was wildly doing some sort of samba. He put on a smile and tried to make himself look as friendly as possible.

"Hiya kid! How ya feelin?"

The kid gulped. Obviously friendly didn't work too well.

"Come on. You don't have to be afraid of me. Could you tell me your name?"

He already knew his name, but it was procedure. Act like you're getting to know them, and don't let them know that you already know everything about them because you have been monitoring them for years.

Still no words flowed from his locked jaw.

"The silent treatment isn't going to work on me, boy."

Finally, he opened up.

"Why would I tell you my name? Or anything about me? I don't know you, and I don't even know where I am or how I got here."

He sighed. The same thing happened every time. "Look. I know this looks bad, but it's not. My name is Dr. Brannen, and I work for the MTIA. Right now you are in our main facility, and in order to get you here; you had to be unconscious. For security reasons."

He scrunched his brows at him. "What the heck is the MTIA? Why am I here?"

He huffed. "MTIA stand for the Mortal to Immortal Association. You are here because you are immortal, and we want your permission to study you so we can figure out what is so different about your DNA. Our goal is to duplicate a similar version of DNA So we can save the human race."

He crossed his arms. He was a sassy one. "From what exactly?"

"Ourselves."

He gave him a look. He was waiting for more of an explanation.

"Global warming, forest fires, pollution, poverty, etc. Would you like me to go on?"

"No. Don't you think it would've been smart to ask for my consent BEFORE you kidnapped me?"

"Why? We already know the answer."

"Oh, so you knew I was going to say no? What exactly was the point of dragging me here then?"

"Why would you say no? I'm giving you a chance to save the world."

"WHY WOULDN'T I SAY NO?!" his voice rose in frustration. "I don't know where I am, and I don't know you. Why would I agree to let you experiment on me? I don't even know what the experiments are. People lie you know. It's part of being human."

"The experiments are simple, and they won't hurt. You could save us all Titus."

"See. My point stands. How did you know my name if I didn't tell you?"

"We have you documented. We have all the immortals documented."

He huffed. "I'm not taking part in your stupid experiments. Why would I devote myself to save the one thing that is killing this planet?"

Wow. He hadn't heard that one before. "Because we have changed. We know what not to do now, We can save the planet."

"It's too late now."

***

"What do you mean the subject is resisting?"

"I mean that he's resisting. Says that he 'doesn't want to save the thing that's killing the planet' or some made up garbage like that. Can you believe it?"

"No I can't. It's very rare that we ever have a resistor. I guess we'll just have to make him stop resisting."

"Already on it, boss."

***

It seemed as though they upped his intake of whatever was in his IV, and they cuffed his hands to the bed after he pulled the IV out of his hand. They weren't happy about that. If they really wanted him to trust them; then why were they making it so hard? His mind was on a trip far away from his body at this point. It was like his body had managed to get through the border, but a surprise inspection was performed on his brain and they found some sort of illegal substances concealed inside. Dr. Whatshisface fumbled with his keys once again on the other side of the door and swung it open.

"How goes it kid?"

"I'm not a kid."

He clenched his teeth. "Fine. How goes it 'sir'?"

Well it was better than kid. "It'd being going quite nicely if I wasn't being pumped full of drugs by people who want to experiment on me."

"You're acting like we're the bad guys here. We are trying to save the human race."

"It doesn't deserve to be saved."

"And why not?"

"Because we killed the Earth! It's just trying to get even."

"But we've changed."

"Have we?"

"Yes."

"How? We are still doing all the things that killed the planet."

He pushed a button and the IV started flowing faster. "You'll say yes eventually kid."

The drugs made his lids heavy and his head lolled to the side as he passed out.

***

"It's not working. Nothing is working."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Alright. Bring her in then. I think it's about time they met anyways."

***

She didn't sign up for this. She signed up to allow them to figure out how her DNA works. She didn't sign up to waste her time talking some stupid boy into doing it as well. That was their job, and they sucked at it.

"You have five minutes," Dr. Brannen said as he opened the door for her.

She nodded and stepped in.

"Hi," she said awkwardly. She tried to hide the irritation in her voice.

"Who are you?"

"Wow. No introductions? No hi back? Just straight into interrogation?"

He sat up at that so he could see her. "You're not that Brannen dude."

"Woah. For a second there I actually thought I was. Thank you for reminding me."

He rolled his eyes. How hostile of him she thought. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to tell you that you're stupid and that you should say yes to the experiments."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I did, and look at me. I'm fine."

"You're an immortal?!"

"Yeah...?"

"Why on Earth would you agree to this?!"

"Because if I don't, everyone dies. I don't know about you, but that's too much guilt than what I can live with."

"They deserve to die."

"Oh do they? You're saying that you would let your family, friends, and colleagues die? Oh and don't forget about all the innocent children. They would die too."

He didn't say a word.

"That's what I thought. Think about it, okay? Please."

"Yeah... ok."

Brannen stepped in and motioned for her to follow.

"Wait."

She turned back to face him. "What?"

"I never got a name."

She smirked. "Tess. See you around Titus." And then she was gone.

***

He didn't sleep that night. He laid with his eyes open. The decision should have been easy. Save the world. That's what they always did in books and movies. They had to save the world, but something inside him just couldn't do it. His gut told him that it was a bad idea. Tess though, she seemed smart. She seemed to strongly believe in what the MTIA was doing. Maybe he should too. Afterall, what was the worst they could do to the planet at this point?

The next morning when Dr. Brannen walked in, Titus didn't bother to greet him. All he said was. "I'll do it." He really hoping this wasn't a mistake.

A grin grew across his face. "Perfect."