Author's Note: I just read "House of Stairs" by William Sleator. I am in love.
Disclaimer: I own Stewart, Keenan, Isaacs, and Joyce. And their lab coats. :-D
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Prologue
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"Ah, gentlemen, you made it. I was beginning to think you'd never show up."
Dr Stewart smiled grimly at the two young men coming through the doorway. They hurriedly took their seats at the long table with the other twenty or so men, all dressed in the customary pale blue lab coats. "This'd better be good, Stewart," the older man said dourly. "I was on the verge of a breakthrough—"
"Not to worry, Keenan," said Stewart, removing his wiry glasses from his nose and cleaning them against his sleeve. Once he had replaced them, he turned to the rest of the men with a pensive expression on his face. "I generally like to avoid bluntness," he said slowly, "but apparently Keenan is too busy to pay attention to me for too long."
Keenan scowled and ran his fingers through his dark hair. Stewart seemed not to notice. "In any case," he went on casually, "I must make it clear to you all that I am a person disappointed in the human race."
"Oh now there's a surprise," one of the men muttered sarcastically.
"And I have decided to act upon that conviction," Stewart continued.
Several of the men leaned forward with interest. Stewart fought back a smile. He had their attention; he always got it in the end. He reached over to turn on the overhead projector where several diagrams were displayed. "I am of the opinion that human beings as a whole are weak, both physically and mentally, and pathetic. We have become over-reliant on technology and are therefore incapable of caring for ourselves."
Keenan snorted. "How—"
Stewart didn't allow him to finish. "Therefore," he said pointedly, "I have come up with an experiment which I would like to carry out." He almost smiled. "Although we are a generally useless species, I feel that it is possible to bring us 'back to the basics', if you will."
"What — bring us back to the animal stages? Undo evolution?" Keenan demanded, one eyebrow cocked. "You're damn outta your mind, if you ask me; it can't be done!"
Stewart tutted. "Well we'll never know until we try, and I have all the calculations figured ahead of time. I've had Joyce give me the names of about thirty teenagers — all orphans, of course — upon whom we could do our testing."
"And how, pray tell, are you planning on carrying out this experiment?" Keenan demanded.
Stewart pointed at the first diagram. It was a picture of a gray-brown landscape with a leafy forest off to one side. "It's just a work in progress," he said apologetically, "but I do think that, given the time and workers, it could be quite effective. I call it 'the Island' but it could be given a better name at any time. If we were to put these teenagers — these subjects — into this alien environment and force them to fare for themselves..."
Keenan rolled his eyes. "That is the most—"
"Well I think it sounds interesting," said another man, Craig Isaacs. "Stewart's really on to something this time. I've never seen so many trees in my life; I think it would be fascinating to see how a modern-day human being would react with being put back into the wild without any technological help."
It never occurred to any of them the feelings of the "subjects". After a couple hundred years of relentless technological and scientific advances, the importance human opinions and emotions had begun to fade.
Stewart nodded appreciatively at Isaacs. "I have the list of chosen subjects," he said. "Joyce?"
A young woman with white-blonde hair hurried up to him and handed him a three-ring binder. "It's all in here, sir," she said in a quick, soft voice.
"Well, gentlemen," said Stewart, opening the binder and scanning the list. "Let's get to work."
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Author's Note: Short, I know. But it's just the prologue, and they're always short. In any case, this is my first casting call story! WOO HOO! does happy dance If you're interested, please put this information into your review:
Name (and nickname, if you have one):
Appearance:
Personality:
Hobbies:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Other:
Thank you very very much! Pleeeaase send me a review ... I gotta admit that I'm kinda nervous about this. I've never done a casting call before and I just ... don't know what to expect, I guess.
-Saturday