Scarlet Harvest
Chapter One: The Doctors
My name is Natsu, it always has been and always will be. I've lived here in the lab for all of my seventeen years of life. I've grown up with the scientists here, new employees are few and far in between. They're my family, not blood related, but the love is there. They told me my mom gave birth to me here, back when the lab was a hospital, she died during childbirth and my dad was killed in a car wreck when he was on his way to see us. Doctor Sam is the one who adopted me apparently and she's sort of my mom now. But really, all the scientists here are my parents, they're all older than me by at least ten years.
I love living here, everything is automated and shiny. It's so peaceful, but I've never left the lab, I don't even know where the exit is. Doctor Lyon told me the world is horrible and cruel outside the lab, I didn't believe him, so I asked Doctor Cobra and he said the same thing. It must be true, Doctor Lyon and Cobra are some the most intelligent scientists here. Doctor Lyon is very nice, but he can come off as a little too nice, borderline on insane, that's okay though. Doctor Cobra is very irritable, say the wrong thing and he'll yell at you for hours. He and Lyon are wizards, Cobra once got very angry at me, said something,and this circle thing appeared out of nowhere. I was sick for weeks after that, he almost got fired.
Most of the scientists here are wizards, they all have their unique magic type. I've learned bits and pieces of different kinds of magic, but I'm not really attached to any type of magic. Doctor Cobra says he uses Poison Dragon Slayer magic, he tells me there are other kinds of Dragon Slayer magic, like wind, water, electric, fire, and iron. I personally want to learn fire. I am sort of a pyromaniac, a lot of the scientists here get mad at me because I love setting things on fire. I once set a book on fire and was locked in my room for two week, apparently it was very important. I don't understand why though, that book didn't have any real significance, nobody had touched that book in years. Doctor Sam didn't see it like I did.
A sharp pain in my arm breaks me from my thoughts and memories as I look down to see I accidentally poked myself with a pencil. I sigh and get up, walking around my room, everything is sterile white just like the rest of the lab. I stop in front of the mirror and look at my reflection trying to find a flaw. My pink hair is still withstanding gravity as always, my white outfit doesn't have a single stain on it. The outfit reminds me of a prisoner jumpsuit, I once read about prisons when I was in class. Well, it's not really class, it's me sitting in the library, reading books upon books. I read everything, from strawberries to some guy with a notebook that can kill people. I try to read about human behavior, so if I'm allowed to go outside then I'll be covered with human interaction.
I walk to my door and press a button, the door slides open without a sound. I step out into the hallway and I'm immediately knocked down. I land on my shoulder and I cry out in pain, I look up to see an absolutely horrified Doctor Sherry. She grabs my hand and breaks into a run, dragging me along and crying apologizes. After two minutes of being dragged, we make it to the medical wing and she shouts about how she knocked me over by accident to Doctor Ikaruga. Doctor Ikaruga just stands up and squeezes my shoulder that I landed on, she asks me if it hurt, I shake my head.
"He's fine, but be careful Sherry, you know what could happen if…"
She trailed off and Doctor Sherry nodded.
"Do want to practice magic?"
I smile at Doctor Sherry and nod happily. I can't be a Fire Dragon Slayer since there's nobody to teach me. Doctor Sherry is a Living magic wizard, I want to be a Living magic wizard too. I follow her down to one of the training rooms, this one is like a forest. We begin practicing basic spells, giving life to pebbles. I don't like the basic ones because they're temporary and the pebbles lose the life I gave them. It makes me feel horrible, like I'm killing them.
We move on to the more advanced spells where I give larger things like sticks and flower temporary sentient life. We end our lesson with me giving a tree sentient life for about thirty seconds. I was wiped out after that, Doctor Sherry laughed, saying something about how I used too much magical energy and that I should go back to my room to get some sleep. I wave and say goodbye before leaving the forest training room, beginning my walk back to my room.
I make it back and flop onto my bed, I just want to sleep. But my mind doesn't want to shut off, it brings me to the weirdest places too. It makes me wonder about what the outside world is really like and if the people are really as bad as everyone says they are, I wonder what food tastes like. I've never had food before, Doctor Sam says I don't need food because I'm special, I'm powerful and I don't need those things. Apparently I'm more powerful or special than everyone in the lab because they all eat food. I get my energy from injections of something, Doctor Cobra gives it to me everyday. He always jokes that it's actually poison, I used to laugh fully along with him, but after he threw that Poison Dragon Roar at me, I'm sure if he's joking or not. I don't laugh as fully along with him as I used to.
I look out my window and see nothing but a sheet of steel, Doctor Sam says it's to protect me from the people outside. I'm not really sure that they are as bad as everyone keeps telling me, it kinda makes me want to go out there and find out. Doctor Sam would kill me though, really everyone would kill me if I did. I would be able to survive, if a bad person tried to hurt me, I would just fight back. I'm strong, I could handle any of the people outside.
I slowly slide into unconsciousness, dreaming of beating the hell out of the bad people outside my window.