Page 81 - Expression 2020

THE SEARCH

I was the last person on earth, walking across a desolate wasteland. One day, for the first time, a voice came through
my walkie talkie.
“Hello?” asked a determined young female voice. “Is anyone out there? Does anybody copy?”

“My name is Alan Parker.” I reply to the communicating device. “I copy.”
“Oh my God! Yess!” she said, frantically with a tinge of excitement. “Whoever you are, wherever you are, could you
please come to me? I’m in one of the buildings of the Ricin Company in Sector 42. There is a white cloth draped on
one of the East Wing Tower balcony. That is where I am at.”
Ah, the Ricin Company, the root of all problems that I face today. Or should I say, ‘we face today’, considering I’m
not the only man alive on this planet anymore. Though in hindsight, I think it was very arrogant of me to think that in
a world of 7 billon people, no one had the ability to stay alive and make it out of the Apocalypse except me.
“Okay, I’ll be there.” I reply before I start walking towards the direction of my new destination.

January 3rd 2645, the day one mother defied the words of the world and created the cure for all sorts of disabilities in
the human body. Its funny how parents refuse to leave any stone unturned when it comes to giving their children the
best life they can. When you have a child, you have responsibilities. But when you have a child who cannot walk,
whose entire life seems to be permanently situated on a wheelchair, your responsibilities increase tenfold. So with
all the responsibilities, and the pain in her heart, Dr. Miranda Turing turned to the only thing, she trusted to help her
find a cure- science. She worked and worked and worked until she finally created a serum which could help her
lovely daughter Amanda walk.
So the serum named, VX-12 was injected in her. And the results were marvelous. Not only did she gain her legs
back, there were other improvements in her body as well. She could now bench-press 20 tons like it was child’s play
and her IQ had increased as well resulting in her being able to solve difficult math problems in fraction of a second.
She had really become the ideal definition of a human being.
Results like that, got Miranda a lot of buyers for her product and in the end, she sold the formula of VX-12 to Ricin
who mass produced it for the general public. Now, that’s where all the troubles began. The people started to ask that
why should only the disabled people have the privilege of gaining such abilities. Riots and Protests broke out all
across the Planet. The public would rather burn their world down to the ground than let their greed dissipate. So the
Leaders of the world had no other choice but to make the Serum available for all.
Demand like that brought Ricin a lot of money, which was used in improving the serum. They thought that if they
improve the formula further, the public will come back once again for their product. They created VX-134 and
started human testing after the animal test subjects gave a promising result. Unfortunately, what worked on the
animals did not have quite the effect on humans, resulting in the human test subjects being turned into Mutant
Abominations. Ricin tried to terminate the VX-134 program and keep it off the news papers, but before they could
initiate termination, the test subjects declared dominance and took over the company. After all, they might be
deformed abominations, but they were deformed abominations who were tired of the vivisection that they were put
through.
With the combined super-strengths and the twisted brains of the five test subjects, they managed to bring an already
wounded planet to the brink of death by waging war on the people who wronged them, before the poison in their
blood brought their lives to an end.
After that war, famine and pestilence took over. It was ironic how the world once hungered for power that they didn’t
need, and now it was dying due to starvation.
I only survived because of my military training and the fact that I belonged from a rich family and didn’t have to
worry about food or shelter. Though the only reason I am being able to survive now is my training. Our commander,
in the army, taught us how to live through even the direst situations in life. And that’s what I did. I lived through the
Apocalypse.