Contests!

Contest 4 - WinnerS

Winners. Yes. Winners.

I picked two.

They tied for first.

I just couldn't pick between them.

Harbies and princesspruny

Here is Harbies work

It was supposed to be a year of new beginnings, the year the nanites would have finally rid the planet of the toxins that had ravaged it over the past decades and the year all would be pure once again. The new technology developed in late 2025 enabled the field of science to explode, cancer had been cured, planetary space travel reached new horizons and the blind and deaf were healed. A new chapter of the human story had been written and was now ready to give way to the next. In a way, it was the beginning- of a nightmare.

They called it the Reckoning day, the day the nanites malfunctioned. The very instrument that was meant to save the world was now the tool of its demise. Instead of replicating oxygen and other non-toxic particles in the atmosphere, they began to duplicate the harmful CO2 gasses. In the process, something changed; an additional particle attached itself to the CO2 particles and made it unable to be absorbed by Earth's vegetation. Plants could no longer photosynthesize and began to die off. Without the oxygen they produced, the air grew thin for the remaining creatures.

Within a few months, scientists found a way out, but not in a way anyone expected. They created a new breed of human, some referred to them as androids and others thought them monsters, abominations. In truth, they were human, only enhanced, as biological engineers put it. They were called 'BATs', Biologically Altered Trans-humans; part human, part machine. Their DNA had been rewritten; nano tech had seemingly saved the human race once again.

Unfortunately, there were unexpected...side effects during the trials. Each of the three thousand participants experienced various complications. Some developed extra extremities, others had terrifying new abilities like telekinesis and astral-projection while others could control machines and mentally hack the systems of the globe. Only three demonstrated the desired traits that could bear humanity into the future.

***

Subject 16 woke to the rattling of her cell door, the morning retriever most likely. She groaned, rolling to her opposite side and settling comfortably on her small cot with her sheets pulled up past her ears. Dreams still lulled within her mind, beckoning her to succumb to the enticing realm of sleep once again. Much to her dismay, any attempts to return were quickly dashed by another crash at her door; this one was much louder than the previous.

"Now Sixteen, get a move on!" A man's harsh voice demanded. She cursed under her breath, resisting the urge to scream back at the man.

Forcing herself upright, she took a few hazy glances about the room; the pale, bland, white-washed room that she had lived in the past three years. No art hung on the walls and the only furniture in the room was a small, white desk, black chair and her cot that rested against the back wall. Her room was much larger than the others however, not that it made any difference, she was a Bat, government property now, but a lab rat would be closer to the mark.

Each day was the same: wake up, be dragged back to the lab and forced into a poisoned chamber that resembled the now hazardous atmospheric conditions and afterwards, have yet another physical examination. It was a daunting routine and one she had always had since she was altered. Subject Sixteen was one of the only three of the three thousand Bats that had been remotely successful, the desired product of the experiment.