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Results ready.
PKU: Negative
Cancer: 3.0%
Alzheimer's: 0.2%
Heart failure: 2.0%
Alpha 1: 0.1%
Sickle Cell: 4.3%
Huntington's: 6.0%
Cystic Fibrosis: 5.1%
Asthma: 9.7%
Chance of Mutation: 67% INVALID._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
A doctor clad in the usual stark white lab coat tore off the print out slowly; reading it as h picked it up.
The would-be parents were waiting a few feet away.
The doctor let out a sigh before turning and evenly walking back to them. He gingerly slid back behind his desk and sat down. With an emotionless look, he placed the result page face down on the desk and slid it towards the couple.
Looking concerned the man first gripped his wife's hand then reached forward to retrieve the result page. His eyes drifted quickly over the first few results, but stopped when he came to the final item.
He glanced back up at the doctor; handing the report to his wife.
"Is there any way the test could be wrong?" He asked, still holding on to a shred of hope.
"With Mutations? Of course. Plenty of times it simply never shows up. Your son could just be a carrier." The doctor replied. More and more these kinds of results were showing up; he had the excuse drill down pat.
The man looked over at his wife; then turned back to the doctor. "He would still be an Invalid, though?"
The doctor nodded. "I do realize that this is your third try. May I remind you that though you two are both carriers of the gene- we could always engineer one for you. We can always 'borrow' someone else gene for the now, can't we?"
The couple shared another quick glance. The man tightened his grip on his wife's hand.
His wife gave a small, tight-lipped smile and then nodded.
They both turned back to the doctor, "We're going t keep it this time. Thank you for your trouble, Doctor."
The doctor nodded as the couple stood up and left.
'Another pair of fools,' He thought.
* * * * * * * * * * *
16 years later….
Oh bloody.
Waiting in line to enter his school -already late – fifteen-year-old Brian Tandon silently cursed as he saw at the entrance there was another random search going on.
One by One the students in front of him passed through, inserting their fingertip into the small, handheld machine that withdrew a quick drop of blood. On the screen of the machines the usual message would pop up; with the students face, information and in large, bold print wither 'Valid' or 'Invalid'.
Of course, his was always marked 'Invalid'.
In case one didn't know, Valid was the term for the elite – genetically elite; that is. InValids, such as him were the ones with problems, flaws. Perhaps they had a high rate for disease, an early death, or even mutation. Brian hadn't yet officially fallen into the physical aspect of being an Invalid – for all aspects he was just as close to being perfect as any of his classmates. Except, he unlike them was marked to become a mutant.
You'd think the school would simply remember his condition by now, he thought, moving closer and closer to the front of the line. It was his second year in high school, so unfortunately he was used to the searches.
With that he came to the front of the line and with a sigh he slipped his finger into the machine. A slight whir came from the small silver box before the lights on it began to flash bright red and beep loudly.
The bored security guard looked down at it, surprised, then at Brian, then back at the machine. A moment later, when his file came onto screen, the guard was able to see underneath the marking of 'Invalid', there was a brightly marked note in red. It stated he was under mutant watch.
The guard turned back to him. "Move along, freak," He barked out.
Brian was happy to do so. He grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder before walking inside. He could feel the glances of the other students on him. Well, mainly stares from the ones that didn't already know. Most everyone knew by now though, the school board called for these searches once or twice every few months.
On the way to his locker, Brian considered his status for a bit longer. Really, it wasn't that big of deal, most people either didn't care or simply assumed he was lower than them. Usually the latter was the case.
It didn't matter he did just as good academically as most of the other students, he just wasn't 'perfect'. The really annoying thing was that there wasn't even anything wrong or different about him. Yet.
Behind him the bell rang.
Brian groaned, then took off running towards his first class.
Hours later, Brian was opening the front door of his house.
His family wasn't particularly rich or poor; both his parents worked at a typical biotech company.
Hearing him come in, Brian's mother curiously emerged from the kitchen where her numerous papers were currently spread all over the dining table. "How was your day, Hon?" She asked, studying him.
Brian tossed his backpack down on one of the bottom stairs and shrugged. "We had another tests today." He mumbled, turning to head into the kitchen.
His mother followed. "Oh? What class? Math? Biology?" She guessed.
Brian grabbed a can of soda from the fridge, then wordlessly turned and held up his marked finger.
His mother's face fell. "Oh, Brian. " She said, sympathetically. "Just don't worry about it, or get mad, or..or anything, Ok?"
Brian nodded before heading back towards the stairs. "I have homework." He said flatly.
His mother stood behind in the kitchen, watching her moody teenage son walk away from her. Often she wondered how different things would be had they just opted to let the lab create him for them…
Although, She could never say she regretted it completely.
Upstairs in his room, Brian sat down at his computer. Logging in, He quickly checked the news for any important developments on the treatment of mutants.
It was kind of a strange habit he'd picked up, starting back to a old English teacher who had commented that one of these days all the mutants were going to be locked away. Of course that was before she knew about his…condition.
Scanning through the mainstream news sites took only a few seconds, no major news really had happened for a while.
While in the middle of reading an article on the cause of mutation- hoping to find a way to avoid it- an instant message popped up.
It was a friend he had met a few weeks ago in a chat. Her name was Julie; a mutant. He was always asking questions on how she became a mutant – in hopes he could avoid it.
He wasn't really in the mood to chat with the upbeat mutant at the moment so he quickly told her goodbye and signed off.
After a moment of consideration, he closed the Internet browser and stood up. His room was a mess; littered with clothes, books, and other things. Brian casually cleared off a bit with his foot and walked over to his bed. Throwing himself into it, he grabbed his Biology textbook and lazily flipped through the pages.
It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.
He dreamt of watching himself floating in what appeared to be an ocean. Then he was in a train, one that was speeding out of control. Frantically he looked around and saw a short girl with a spiky haircut he assumed was Julie. Then the train stopped instantly with a jolt, throwing him and Julie from it. They tumbled onto a hill, well, more of a field. The field was covered in dead, parched grass that had long ago turned brown and crunchy. Then they were running, faster than he though able, until him and the girl grabbed each other's hand and leapt over a cliff that came from nowhere…
With a start, Brian woke up. He looked up to the clock on hi wall. He hadn't even been asleep for five minutes.
