Humanity's Hope: Book 1 in the Saving Humanity Series

CHAPTER 1

Caleb grimaced as the nurse jabbed the needle into his vein. The prick of pain and seeing the almost black liquid fill the glass tube made his stomach cramp. It brought back visions of more blood. Images of death and destruction. Thoughts of self-harm. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Go to the light. Stay away from the dark.

"Okay. All done." The nurse pulled the needle out and pressed a cotton ball onto his arm, placing a band aid over the top.

Caleb opened his eyes and pressed the strips into his skin, making sure they were secure. He stood from the chair and headed for the door.

"See you next month," the nurse called after him.

Caleb waved from the door before heading back to his desk. Taking a seat, he turned on his computer and typed in his password. His eyes drifted to the band aid at the crook of his arm. The ache drifted up his bicep to his shoulder. He was sure blood was oozing from the hole and soaking the cotton ball in crimson. Soon, it would drip down his arm onto his keyboard. He shuddered, then shook his head. That wasn't going to happen. It was a routine blood draw. The room wouldn't be covered in blood. Not again.

"I see you already made your monthly contribution to further science." Samuel slid his chair across the aisle between their cubicles, rolling his sleeve down over his own band aid. "It can't be legal for them to take our blood like that and run experiments on it. Just because we work here doesn't give them the right to experiment on us."

Caleb turned to face his coworker and leaned back in his chair, gripping the arms of his chair both for balance and to direct his irritation somewhere besides his voice. He wasn't in the mood to be social. It was taking all of his energy to keep the darkness at bay, but the conversation would be a welcome distraction. Perhaps it would even lighten his mood.

"Explain to me how they are experimenting on us."

Samuel held his hands out to his sides and straightened up. "Hey, just because they aren't experimenting on us directly doesn't mean they aren't using us. Our blood contains everything they need to recreate us. How do you know they aren't cloning us and then zombifying the copies just because they can?"

Caleb blinked slowly and refrained from smirking. "Don't you think there are enough zombies in the world to experiment on? Why would they need to create more?"

Samuel waved his hand dismissively through the air. "You know just as well as I do they aren't allowed to touch those creatures. The law forbids it. For a clone, however, they could argue it doesn't retain its human qualities. They could do what they want to them before testing it out on the real zoms."

Caleb clicked his tongue. "What about all those rumors floating around? The ones that claim Zomtech collects zombies from the ghetto. If I've heard those rumors, I know you have."

Caleb felt slightly bad about goading his coworker on. Samuel really believed in the conspiracy theories. Caleb found them irritating and childish and was making fun of him, which was mean. But at the same time, it was a welcome and entertaining distraction.

Samuel shrugged. "Every rumor has a kernel of truth. Legal or not, it wouldn't surprise me if they were conducting experiments on them. But clones would be fresher. Not as desiccated."

Caleb shook his head. "I highly doubt science has advanced far enough to clone humans."

"That's exactly what they want you to think."

"It's standard company policy to draw blood. With all of the hazardous things floating around, they want to make sure no one gets infected. And if they do get infected, they want to take care of it before it gets out of hand. It was in your employee contract. If you didn't agree with it, you shouldn't have signed it."