Selector

One

"I love you."

The words took me by surprise. I hadn't expected her to make the first move. She was quiet and hesitant with her affection, and in truth we hadn't been dating for that long. Two months to be exact. I couldn't hide the grin that spread across my face. "I love you too, Serena."

She shifted her weight to the outside of her feet, "Really?"

I nodded, "Of course. I actually had something planned, but I guess you ruined that plan."

She laughed and rolled her eyes, "I call shenanigans on that."

I smirked, "Well, I guess you'll never know." I pulled her in close and gave her a goodnight kiss.

She broke the kiss, "Okay, I have to go now."

"Uh, huh." I nodded my head as I kissed her again.

She once again pulled away, "I'm serious, I really have to go. My father is expecting me home."

I smirked, "Oh, is that so? If I had known you were being serious I wouldn't have kissed you again."

She rolled her eyes, "Flint Bly, you are ridiculous." I grinned as she leaned in and kissed me one last time. "I will see you tomorrow." She smiled as she turned and walked up the steps to her home. 

Like always, her father opened the door before she reached the top step. It was the Senator's way of letting me know he was watching. But in that moment I couldn't have cared less if he was watching. I was floating up on the clouds and it felt like nothing could bring me down. I was grinning from ear to ear as I climbed into the car.

I left Serena's house and the rest of the mansions behind as I entered my neck of the woods. The apartments I lived in weren't glamorous, but this was still Sector 3D, and the hospital paid the bills. A poor kid from Sector 12 couldn't ask for a better deal. I let the gate scan my thumb print and waited for it to open. My car skirted past the gate and into the apartment complex. I found the first parking spot and pulled in.

I turned the ignition off, but didn't leave the car. Serena had told me she loved me. Serena Greyson loves me. This was unbelievable. Just a few months ago I was just trying to get her to go out with me. This was it. Everything was falling into place.

A knock on my car window startled me. I turned to see Alvero Pope standing there. I smiled and let my heart rate return to normal before I opened the door. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you Bly. I just got done with my shift and saw your car pull in."

"No worries, how is the culture coming along?" Alvy worked in the bacterial department of the research hospital. We had been friends since first year of medical school were we had bonded over muscle memorization (which we both sucked at).

Alvy dug his hands into his jacket pockets as we started to head toward our apartments, "I have officially hit rock bottom. Nothing is going right. Everything I have tried only causes an increase in growth rate. Dr. Lygand said that if I don't start producing results that I could be re-evaluated."

Re-evaluated was code for not only fired, but also blacklisted. Alvy wouldn't be able to find a job in the medical world. "Shit, Al, that's serious. What's your dead line?"

He kicked a rock that bounced off the side of our building. We paused as Alvy scanned his thumb print on the door which he then held open for me. "By the end of next week. Seriously, Flint, if I haven't found anything in three years, what makes him think I can find something in a week?"

I shrugged as I pushed the elevator, "Do you need any help? I was pretty decent at microbiology, I could-."

He shook his head as we entered the elevator, "No, it's my problem. I have to be able to fix it. I can figure something out."

The elevator opened on my floor, "Well, if you need anything, you know where to find me."
Alvy smiled, "Thanks, I appreciate it." The elevator doors closed and sent Alvy to his own floor.

I pulled my keys out as I walked toward my room. Alvy's news had brought me down only slightly. His problem was a huge issue that worried me. Alvy was a smart guy with a tough assignment. I don't know how I would handle this world without him.-

I unlocked my door and threw my keys onto the side table. My apartment was small, barely big enough for a single guy to live. But it was in a nicer part of town, and the rent was being paid by the hospital, so who could really complain? I grabbed a beer out of the fridge, popped it open and sat down on the couch.

My phone bleeped from inside my pocket. I fished it out and read the message. Then I read the message again.

"Shit shit shit shit shit." I read the message for the third time. I slammed my beer down on the coffee table, which caused it to start foaming uncontrollably. "Fuck." One mess at a time. I stood up and grabbed my keys off the table and raced out the door toward the elevator.

The hospital was a ghost town when you got to the fourth floor. Of course, not many people were ever on the research floor, especially at midnight. I used my thumb print to gain access to the genome lab. The lights were already on and my colleague, Seeley Rutledge, was running from one end of the lab to another. He stopped in front of me with a wild panic in his eyes. "Thank God you're here Flint. The sequence came up about thirty minutes ago."

"What happened?" I grabbed my lab coat off the hook by the door and rushed toward the analyzer.

"It was our last sample, Flint, and now we have nothing."

"Well, what happened? What's wrong with it?" I stared at the DNA sequence as it appeared on the screen. The DNA was white. There was no blue marks that signaled damage to the sequence. "Fuck."

"Yeah, we didn't add the dye."

"So we marked our DNA with invisible ink?"

"Dr. Lygand is coming to review or results tomorrow morning."

"We can fix this. We just have to figure something else out." I stood up and started to pace back and forth, thinking of some kind of solution to our problem. Seeley stood by the analyzer, watching me. "We have the other two samples, right? That should be enough, right?"

Seeley shook his head, "Lygand wanted a mental disorder. And that was our last sample from the volunteer with Alzheimer's. We are so screwed right now. It would take hours to find someone else."

I ran my hands through my blonde hair. I had one solution that would fix this, but it would also make an even bigger mess. I took a deep breath. "We can use me."