Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

EIGHT

Squinting, he could see the letter 'G' encapsulated within a small, silver circle on the left pectoral area of the man's suit.

"Nice to finally meet you, Dylo. Some of the researchers didn't think you'd wake up." the second man chuckled, ceasing motion at the foot of his bed as he flashed the blond a reassuring, welcoming grin. "My name is Elijah Callan, the current CEO of Genesis Industries. But you can call me Director Callan if that's more your speed. Anyways, you're probably wondering what in the world happened on that field trip of yours."

"Yeah, no kidding." Dylo replied, his mind beginning to settle down-but not by much. "How long have I been out?"

"You were in a coma for a little over two months."

Dylo blanched. Two months?

His shoulders slumped. Though school was the absolute last thing he was worried about, two months worth of missing assignments wasn't good for anybody-even if he did already have an 'F' in most of his classes. His uncle was surely going to have his head when he got back home.

Well, if he got back home.

"Well, why am I in these straps?" Dylo asked in an accusatory tone. "What happened to the others?"

"You'll be relieved to know that all of your friends made it out fine. Some haven't woken up yet, though." Callan chuckled as he eyes the straps restraining the boy. "And as for those straps on your bed, we thought they were a necessity to prevent you from moving around in your sleep-and we were right. You tend to do that a lot."

"You guys watched me while I was sleeping? How comforting." Dylo sarcastically stated. "So what, was I sleepwalking or something?"

"Eh, more so... sleep-running." Director Callan smirked, see-sawed his hand. "After our squadron of agents extracted you and your friends from Ajax's soldiers, we put you to bed at about ten o'clock. About five minutes later, though, we sent a nurse back to your room to monitor your vitals, and you were gone. We ended up finding you three wings over on the other side of the facility."

"But how's that possible?" Dylo asked, bewildered.

"After some extensive DNA tests and blood samples, when my researchers reported that Genodium was present in your systems, I had a pretty good feeling of what happened." Callan explained. "Genodium is a relatively new element, and according to it's molecular structure, it doesn't seem to be native to this planet. If exposed to abnormally high amounts of heat, it's molecular structure will compromise and become extremely unstable. In it's unstable state, the element seems to alter the genetic makeup of whatever living organism it comes into contact with."

"It seems that your changes occurred instantaneously when you were struck by the wave of Genodium. Your ACTN3 gene was mutated into a more... complex... variant. It now seems to produce vastly higher amounts of alpha-actinin-3-a protein that controls and fuels fast-twitch muscle fibers-than the average person's would."

"I'm just gonna pretend like I know what any of that means." Dylo replied, scratching his had as the nurses continued to unbuckle the straps on his bed.

As he got off the table, he felt much lighter than before, moving his body with ease. However, he still didn't believe what the doctor was saying. While he'd always been hyperactive, he'd never really been interested in sports or exercise, besides Parkour. While he wasn't skinny, he definitely was much more lean and slimmer when compared to his classmates. Though, whatever mutation he'd undergone had seems to put a little bit more muscle on him.