Chapter Three

Ron's POV

I had never felt so excited before, with my decision to send Victor to school. I had a feeling that he'd do great and learn more about how the real world works. He needed to leave like a normal teenager and have a normal life.

As I jumped into the car to drive back home, once j was done with his admissions paper suddenly, I could sense something bad was about to happen. " did I do the right thing, exposing him to the world?" I thought to myself as I turned back and gazed at the entrance of the school hoping I'd see him just to be sure that I was doing the right thing, he wasn't there.

I heaved a frustrating sigh as I turned on the ignition. I didn't think this is the time for anything to ever go wrong, Victor is yet to maximize his full potential and I trust he would protect his true identity from this cruel world.

It had been my mission for the last ten years to make sure I protect him and guide him to the right path. I wouldn't want him to end up in the wrong hands, just like I did many years ago.

No matter the speed of time, it can never outweigh the guilt of one's mistake. It's been eighteen years but it still felt like yesterday, when I was hired by the US Military on an experiment I was working on, mutating genes of living organisms. My hypothesis was still unverified until I got the job offer to create a lethal weapon, to help fight war and bring peace to civilization. As a young scientist, it was a dream come true for me, working undercover with the military was such a huge deal for me. I was inclined to do anything just to prove my capabilities as a Geneticist.

I never knew that I would be presented with the most arduous litigation of my entire life. But before that I was paid three hundred thousand dollars in full, the military had my wife and two daughters relocated to an adequately and facilitative environment. Better than the tiny apartment we lived in. for a man, his family's happiness is paramount, and knowing that my family was happy and comfortable, I was ready to take on the yet unknown task, Without stressing too much about why I got such exceptional treatments because I thought I deserved them and even more.

They were two of us and the other guy was assigned to work as my assistant. My life couldn't get any better than this, but it got worse when I was presented with the test subjects I was supposed to work with.

" Infants!" I turned and looked at my assistant who seemed to be as shocked as I am. "No. There is no way I'm doing this. I can't experiment on infants."

I could not believe what my eyes had seen, little infants in their cribs lined up like some lab rat ready for an experiment. I was beyond disappointed with myself and the human race. I never thought we would get to a point where we buy or heaven knows how they took custody of these innocent children for their selfish purpose. I swore never to be a part of the inhumane operation they were about to carry out.

" Sir, I think you need to speak with the commander. Even I don't want to be a part of whatever that is going on here." My assistant Frederick suggested and I conceded with his advice to go speak to the military commander.

When I got to his office, he extended his head from his computer, forthwith my sudden presence, he had a smirk pulled up at the corner of his lips.

" have a seat Doc. You seem like you could use a glass of water. Serg! He raised his neck and called out. Get the doctor a tall glass of water."

At this moment, I could tell he was aware of my reason for coming to his cabin and he was fully prepared and awaited my call.

" Sir, with all due respect I don't think I will be able to work with the test subjects I saw in there. I hope you understand that this is beyond my work and human ethics. I'm sorry but I can't experiment on children."

While I explained to him, he was busy chewing gum and staring at me with no interest in what I was saying.

" A deal is a deal, Dr. Ronald Bridges. And when you signed a contract with the military, you are under a pledge to commit to whatever you are asked to do, no retreat and no breach of contract." He announced getting up from his seat as the sergeant he had sent on an errand had returned with a tall glass of water. He took it from him and the sergeant saluted and left the cabin at once.

I could feel anxiety running through my spines down to my legs as they quivered in the suspenseful scene.

" But I was never told what I was going to be experimenting, Sir."

" No buts, Doc. You have signed a contract and all I need from you is for you to put on your big boy pants, act like a man and do what you were called here for. Or else, he leaned forward on his office table and stared dead into my eyes. You will live to regret your choice. The door is open, you can choose to walk outta here and lose everything or stay back, that's your choice to make. Now if you excuse me, I have a meeting to attend and you can have your glass of water to get you going." He took his military headdress from the office desk and placed it on his head before he headed out.

I sank into the chair, lost in my thoughts and about to be swallowed by my desperation. What have I landed myself in? I mumbled as I gradually forced myself up from the chair and left his office.

They say every choice we make in life, has its consequences. When I was presented with a choice to pick between my family and the innocent children, I chose the man I am today, I chose my family. I chose to be a murderer than to lose everything that I had acquired in those few weeks.

The experiment was to use stem cells from unique creatures to cultivate a genetic mutation with the infants, by injecting the stem cells into their blood vessels. For someone of science like I am, I never believed in God but carrying out such tests on those infants, I prayed in my heart for it to be successful.

After injecting about Fourteen of them, there wasn't any sort of reaction, apart from mild fever. I took it upon myself to attend to them and make sure nothing goes wrong. My assistant and I didn't get any sleep as we watched the children.

Twelve hours was about to strike on the clock when I thought of taking a coffee break. just a few minutes after leaving the research lab, I heard my assistant calling out my name and I quickly dropped the coffee mug and sprinted back to the lab, to find out what the problem was, but met with my worst nightmare. The children were bleeding from all parts of their body, their eyes, nose, mouth, and through their ears as well. Initially, it was five infants, but in an hour, we had lost half of them. And by the end of the day, there was no survivor.