Across the Wildlands (Book One: The Wildlands)

Episode One: The Virus

Year: 2065 CE

Location: 'America'

Mechanical arms were busy at work. An assembly line of moving parts, putting together synthetic material into a puzzle, piece by piece. Once assembled, the material would grow and flourish into a carefully crafted human being. It was the miracle of life, broken down into purposeful combinations. Creating a living person had never been so beautiful.

"Dr. Choi." Fingernails tapped impatiently on a tablet. "Dr. Choi!" The shrill voice rang out once more.

The reflection of a woman flashed in the window Dr. Choi was looking through. He pulled his eyes from the assembly room in front of him and turned around.

"Miss Grace, what are you doing here?" Dr. Choi questioned, as if the woman wasn't always attached at his hip. "You know this portion of the process requires my full attention."

The woman fidgeted with her glasses and pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Strawberry blonde, a fascinating product of the mutation in her MC1R gene. Dr. Choi had always appreciated the simple things. He admired the color of her hair while she visibly organized her thoughts.

"He's coming," Grace managed out. Her posture turned rigid, a line of sweat forming on her brow. The poor girl was petrified, and rightfully so.

Dr. Choi frowned. He turned back around to the window and sighed loudly. "Our work isn't done yet. We still have so much left to do." He paused as he took a moment to mourn the work in front of him. "Destroy it all."

"Sir?" Grace asked. She stepped closer to the window. "You want to destroy all of it? This is the last facility we have operating. Ending this place ends our program, which means what we've built the Code into will be lost. Your son is out there. Without the facilities operating, he will be on his own."

"We have to destroy everything. Wipe the rest of the virus, burn the unfinished Keepers, and make sure none of our work gets into their hands. My son is out there with one of the most adept fighters our Keeper program ever created. I wouldn't have put my faith in just anyone to take care of him."

Grace chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes darting between Dr. Choi and the room on the other side of the glass. She glanced down at a tablet in her hands and typed in the order. A blast shook the observatory, vibrating the window, and fire erupted in the assembly room.

Once done with inputting another command into the tablet, Grace lowered the tablet to her side. "The virus no longer exists outside of the hosts."

"Good." Dr. Choi nodded his head. "Let's meet our guests, then."

The door leading out of the observatory took them to the programming room. Monitors lining the rows of desks were flashing red with error warnings. Grace's kill code had wiped every bit of memory from them.

A dozen workers still sat at their desks, faces white and sweat on their foreheads despite the cool air in the room. None of them moved from their stations. The error warnings reflected in their wide eyes. They attentively watched Dr. Choi and Grace walk through the room.

Dr. Choi strode with his head high, hands folded behind his back. The woman keeping step beside him was less confident in her posture. Grace was shaking like a leaf.

The pair stopped short of a staircase leading up to sealed elevator doors. Dr. Choi slightly turned his head. "You sent out the failsafe program before shutting everything down?"

"I encoded it to five hosts' nanites. Any more and it would put too many at risk. If there are any remaining field workers left alive out there, they will know what to look for," Grace replied, voice wavering.