The Random

Chapter 8: Transition

          "We need you downstairs" he said, panting.

          "What's the matter?" she asked, worrying. She signaled Dr. Rubberr to follow as she made her way downstairs.

          "We found something that might be of interest to you" Dr. Rubberr said as he struggled to catch up with the Secretary General.

          The stairs opened to another large laboratory room where much bigger glass chambers were lining in the middle. Inside each chamber was an elevated platform whose walls that extended to the ground, were dotted with tubes of varying thickness. The frontal face of the chamber was a built-in monitor that displayed activities and amount of biochemical molecules present inside.

          "Here is where everything inside is recorded. Everything that happens after a total take over of the host's bodily process will be closely monitored here—"

          "Is this strong enough?" the Secretary General cut him off, her hand knocking on the glass as if trying if it was hard enough not to break.

          "We'd like to think it is, madame—during excessive display of aggression, we can use the option to eject the specimen down below—if you can just" he beckoned the Secretary General to peek at something inside.

          "Oh, okay" Heartfilia responded as she noticed that the platform was resting or connecting to another round elevated platform that looked as if it were beneath the ground. "What's down there" she asked.

          "Oh that's the Eltar Base. You see how risky and dangerous the unsuccessful randoms could be should they go uncontrolled once the unwanted codings get unlocked, so we keep them isolated there until they stabilize"

          "So what's the expected turnout for this year? I hope everyone survives the process"

          "That's why I called you here. Can we go to my desk. I need to show you something". He waved at the Secretary General to follow.

          Heartfilia followed Dr. Rubbert right away as he strode to his desk ahead. He quickly scanned through his computer and waved at the Secretary General to take a look.

          "What is it?" she asked, her eyes glued at the monitor as she sat on a stool beside the table. Shown on the screen were photos of the prospect randoms that were on training. Below every photo were numbers and codes.

          "We've pre-assessed all the developments of these kids in the past four weeks and here's what we got. As you can see here" he pointed the last percentage figures below a photo of a prospect named Katherine Michaelson. "She has a 60% of surviving the transition if..."

          Dr. Rubberr slid his finger across the screen and the figures changed. "If she'd be treated or shall I say, infected with a vampiric retrovirus. All others, on the other hand, will render her a zero percent chance of survival"

          "So what's the catch?" Heartfilia straightened up, pushing a lock of dark hair in her eyes. She signaled Dr.Ruberr to go on with a nod.

          "Well, as you may already know, a human DNA can not be interloped by all our known retroviral samples—the ones we've been using in this program ever since. Only one can render a successful affinity to our host cells.

          "We've isolated DNA samples from all these prospects—as part of the SOP of course, and have them infected with each of the three retroviruses, to know how they're be classified, to what group they only have a chance of surviving—

          "What's the problem here, then?" she cut him off and slid the screen herself with her hand, taking a short moment to examine one prospect to another.