Read Online Gene. Sys. by Aaron Denius Garcia - Free Book Online

team gets a ball into the pit and that the games would get so
physical that drones would get injured and have to be put down. The game sounds
very dangerous, which may be why I’m dying to play it.
    When I woke up today though, something felt off.
People seemed to be a little more on edge and there seemed to be more activity
in the hallways than usual. Ev seemed to have picked up on it as well because
after our morning class she walks with me back to my room.       
    “Have people seemed a little weird to you
today?” she asks.
    “Yes. They all seem tense. What do you think is
going on?” I open the door to my room. She walks in and I follow. Before I am
able to close the door I hear someone call out my name. The deep and slightly
threatening tone can only belong to one person. Grant. I sit on my bed next to
Ev and wait. “He’s a little angry with me. You may not want to be around for
this.”
    “What did you do?” She looks at me, concerned. I
haven’t told her about my expedition to the surveillance room; if she sticks
around I won’t have to.
    Grant appears in the doorway and Ev stands.
“Actually Ev, you should stay.”
      She
sits back down and I can tell she’s a bit scared because she grabs my hand. We haven’t
really touched each other for days and I forgot how it felt because I am surprised by how fast my heart is beating and how
nervous I suddenly get.
    I know he hasn’t forgotten about my sneaking
around so I try to diffuse the tension I’m feeling. “I’m sorry about—”
    “—Atom, you need to observe boundaries and
not go where you aren’t supposed to.” He’s gentler than I expected.
    “Why?” I know I’m stoking the flame.
    “For your own protection. There are things that
you aren’t meant to see,” he responds.
    I can tell that he is trying to remain calm and
that’s having the opposite effect on me. “Protect us from what? Why are you
hiding things from us?” I snap.
    He takes a deep breath. “This is not a
discussion, Atom. You will do as you are told.”
    “Or else what? You will kill me like you do the
drones? You won’t let me destroy the world with you?” My face feels warm from
the blood that has rushed up to my head. I would have never imagined that I’d
be yelling at my favorite teacher.
    Grant looks at Ev. “You should tell him.”
    “You tell me, you coward!” I scream at him.
    He clenches his fists and holds back a punch
that I’m sure he wishes he could throw. Instead he turns to walk out. “I
thought you should know that Rene is being woken up in a couple of hours.” With
that he shuts the door behind him.     
    “What is up with you?” Ev puts her hand on my
shoulder. I know she’s just trying to calm me down.
    “Tell me what?” I turn and lean my back against
the door. I am not going to let her leave until I get the answer I want.
    “Please sit, Atom, you’re making me nervous.”
She moves further down on the bed and I sit on the end.
    I take a few deep breaths and try to calm myself
down. “Please tell me everything. I don’t want to have any secrets between us.”
    “I don’t either.” She grabs my pillow and holds
it up to her stomach as if to protect herself . “What
do you know about the end of the world?”
    “Just that we are the ones who are going to
destroy it.” I turn to face her to make sure that I can see her eyes. I want to
make sure she doesn’t lie.
    “Well that’s not entirely true. It’s Rene and
the other scientists who intend on destroying the world. More specifically,
they plan to wipe out humanity.” She’s been struggling with this information
for a while.
    It still doesn’t make sense to me. “Why?”
    “I asked Rene the same thing and what he told me
was that the human race was driving itself extinct. Wars, disease, famine were
all taking their toll on humans. He said that in the last 100 years the
population had been cut by more than half because the ice age forced the hand
of chaos. He