Decrease

Thursday - September 23

"Ted, can I talk to you?" Ted looks at me, wondering what I have to say.

"Sure," he says. We both walk over to an empty corner of the lab and Ted asks, "What is it, John?"

"Ted, why was I chosen? Why did my Uncle Gerald use me?"

I continue to look into Ted's eyes, waiting for an answer, the right answer, the truth. After a few seconds, Ted replies, "It wasn't a matter of choosing you, John. Your father, your biological father, he was the one who wanted you to be used. But your mother, your biological mother, it was she who insisted that you be the test subject, because she could no longer stand to watch you suffer from the cringing pain that you were experiencing. She insisted that Raymond inject you with the serum, even after she saw what the serum did to him. She was quite adamant that you be injected, frozen, and reborn. Your mother wanted you to have a chance to live a normal life, John."

"You said my biological father and mother. Do you know who they are, Ted?" I anxiously wait for an answer. Ted looks around the lab. I grab his arm and sternly ask, "Who are my parents, Ted? Tell me!"

Ted slowly replies, "Your father was... Dr. Raymond Dorsey. Your mother... your mother... is Ruth, your Aunt Ruth."

I release Ted from my grip and find myself leaning against the wall so as not to collapse from shock. I look around, and then I shout at Ted, "Liar! Liar! Dorsey and Aunt Ruth! You're a damn liar, Ted!" I grab both his arms this time and shake him, yelling, "Tell me the truth! Who are my parents?"

"Raymond and Ruth worked together at the CDC in the early part of the century. Sterilization was becoming a hefty political issue, John. And there were many, and I mean many, who would not allow the birthing of humans to be controlled by the government. When Ruth became pregnant, she nearly aborted you, but couldn't. She knew what the future was becoming, and the thought of a child living in a world that was to be completely dictated by the government was unbearable to her. When you were born, you were born with fibrous dysplasia ossificans progressiva. As you know John, surgery of any kind is useless and more dangerous to the victim than the infliction itself. Ruth was devastated when you were born. She asked Raymond to put you to sleep forever. Raymond nearly did. But when the time came, Ruth couldn't go through with it. Instead, between Raymond and your Uncle Gerald, they worked around the clock to find a cure. When they did, things changed drastically. The both of them had no idea what would change exactly. Because of Raymond's failure in the lab, he was dismissed from the CDC, labeled as a quack, and he retreated to a secret laboratory, the Plaza, that he, Ruth, and Gerald created. It was in this laboratory where you were injected with the serum, John. Then you were encased in a cryogenic chamber until the right moment came for you to be reborn."

"As you know from Gerald's journal, when you were reborn, you were healed John; completely healed. Your disease had been reversed, never to reappear. It was then that Raymond and Gerald knew that diseases could be eliminated. But when the cure was discovered, there was a group of elites who didn't want to use the serum for cures, but instead, to control the world's population. For they also knew that this serum, when injected into a person without any major birth defects, would also increase the aging process, causing death to occur much quicker. This is what was released two weeks ago, John. It had to be done in order to reduce the Earth's population, so that humanity could continue, giving those who remain a chance, a fighting chance, to have a life, a real life, John. Not the life that was before all this began. No one had a life then. It was a dog-eat-dog world and you know as well as I that that world could no longer exist. It had to be reduced. It was for the greater good."

I push Ted back and disgustingly say, "For the greater good? Who in the hell made you God? Who in the hell gave you the right to say who lives and who dies? Are you mad? Are you all mad?"