After Earth's Fall | ✔ UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION

Chapter 13

"I stole these photos from her office when I enlisted as a nurse to get you..five out of the Tower," says Friday, careful of what words she chooses to say. Knowing that the wound of Anna and Brice's passing might still be a bit fresh.

"This is absurd.." Nila mumbles as she looks through the photos.

There's one of Miss Chaucer riding a beautiful black and white horse. It's coat is white with a black mane and what sort of looks like a black star on it's forehead. Another one shows Miss Chaucer laughing on an amusement ride besides another woman about the same age, her hair flowing in the wind. Nila marvels at how carefree and jolly Earleen looks. It's almost as if they aren't even the same person.

"How is this possible?" whispers Riley, his head down, staring at the images.

Friday sighs defeatedly. "I'm going to try and keep this as minimalistic as possible and you three have to try to keep up, okay? There's a lot to this that you don't know." she says and glances around the table for some clarity and eventually gains some nods. "Okay. On Mars, you would've been made to take pills, right? Well those pills served another purpose other than fighting off diseases. They were made to enhance what you're capable of, though the effect is only temporary. Which is why you needed to keep on taking them. Every person has a unique chain of DNA. Some people are better at doing certain things compared to others..the whole reason of the draw was to weed out the best of the best. Who was the smartest, the most fittest etc-"

"But why?!" Kaitlyn interrupts.

"I'm getting there Kaitlyn," Friday replies in an annoyed tone. "How..how do I say this? The scientists of the twenty-first century were always on a quest to discover the fountain of the youth. One doctor, a close friend of Miss Chaucer's discovered this by playing with all kinds of cells from animal cells to human stem cells, stressing for years on a way to "press pause" on cells from dying off, so the cell is no longer a factory working overtime to produce cells but rather a holding cell for perfectly good DNA. For ages, his test subjects usually resulted in getting Cancer as in manipulating the animal's DNA, mistakes would be produced and therefore carry on. Until miraculously, it didn't anymore. Once Doctor Phillips was confident in his method, he met with a sixty year old, anonymous woman and committed a DNA Harvesting surgery on her. With whose cells exactly? I'd rather not get into that." Friday takes a pause, lifting her head to see all three children gawking at her, hanging on to every word to her luck. It's a miracle they haven't lost track of all the events yet.

"Anyway, it was a success. The woman saw results in under a week, rejuvenating from mole-covered and wrinkly to the appearance of a twenty year old. The woman remained as mr Phillip's confidant untils she saw any signs of deterioration. He only heard another word from her until sixteen years later. Hence, the draw on Mars. When the top five were picked and finalised, they would be sent down to the Medical Centre to be harvested. Harvested meaning, their new and improved DNA would be taken and stored in a freezer until either Miss Chaucer or one of her clients would come to pick it up. Her clients are usually upper class people looking to improve their physical abilities or maybe they want to live more longer! This is what Miss Chaucer usually picks, more years to her lifeline. This is possible since her employees are now capable (thanks to Doctor Phillips) of modifying a harvested person's genes into never dying off until about sixteen years. Sort of like how the immortal jellyfish is able to reset itself to its earliest state, however, not so naturally. That is the only reason why the draw happens every sixteen years. Please tell me you understand so far?"

As she looks around, everyone holds dumbfounded and vacant expressions.

"And..wh-why was...Anna all cut up?" Riley asks, his voice just above a whisper. Everyone's gone dead silent, probably trying to process what they've just been told. Nila swears she would be able to hear a pin drop.