Chapter 3: Creation
Part One
I arrived at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in the middle of the second semester. I had been delayed getting to school because my mother had passed away the summer prior to what was supposed to be my first day of college. Her death hit Elizabeth hard especially because she had been the one that had to take her to the hospital when she first got sick and would sit by her bedside day in and day out. So I put my family before myself and waited to attend until the grieving process had progressed to a point where it was viable for me to be able to leave them knowing that not only that they were okay, but that I could handle the stress of the competitive environment of that prestigious university.
The campus was so different from my tiny town in New York. It was alive with activity and people were milling about in the common areas and laughing. There was an energy here unlike any I had yet to experienced. It was electrifying but did not compare to the feeling I felt when the whooshing sound of the frosted glass doors of the experimental science building slid open and the sterile smell of cleaning agents greeted my nose.
It was borderline intoxicating the rush of power I felt as I stepped cautiously into the lab for the first time. I knew from that very moment that I would learn and do great things in this place. I studied the position of all of the state of the art equipment that I had only read and dreamed about when a voice interrupted my fantasies of actually getting to use the devices that surrounded me.
"You must be Victor. The administrative office notified me that you would finally be arriving this week. It's good to see that you have handled the death of your mother quite well. I am very sorry about that by the way." I tried to interject a word but the man just kept rambling on so he decided it was best just to let him finish his train of thought. "Oh! Where are my manners I have been talking to you like we have at least met before! You have absolutely no clue who I am! Well I am Professor Krempe of the Anatomical and Biological Research department."
"Very nice to meet you Professor Krempe. I am really looking forward to your class in particular. I am very interested in the art of and science of growing tissues. I have read a lot about it and find it absolutely fascinating that they can actually build human skin that is compatible with the existing cells." To my great surprise the Professor laughed at my declaration.
"You seriously consider growing simple tissues an art? Wouldn't rather be searching for something productive like the cure to cancer? Tissues has already been achieved and there is no way that you would of all people, a freshman, would be able to develop a way to create organs or even something as simple as hair! Please try to reconsider your field of interest." I was positively shocked at Professor Krempe's lack of sensitivity to my feelings. I had nothing more to say to him so I simple walked out of the building without looking back. He had literally crushed me in a single conversation. I had been hoping that I could do the world a lot of good with my love of creating something from nothing. But apparently my interest in growing organs and finding more effective ways of growing tissues are under appreciated.
I spent the next few days getting settled in my new dorm and meeting my floor mates. They all seemed friendly enough but I was the only Biological Medical or any type of medical major among them. They consisted of Business and Fiance in addition to a couple of English and Visual Arts. Again I was the outsider and after meeting we rarely conversed beyond the weather and news headlines. I also began to explore the campus beyond the main compound and lecture halls. It was on one of my days of wandering that I found a notice that caught my eye:
Professor Waldon, head of the Bio-Medical Department will beholding a lecture concerning new developments in the lab growth of tissues and their implication as a new and up coming field of study. The lecture is to be held in lecture hall F at 4 pm on the 2nd of February.
That made my whole world bright again. My interest couldn't be useless if the head of the department was holding a full fledged lecture on it! I marked the date in my phone calender and set off for the library with a new found pep in my step. I had wanted to check out what little books the library had on the lab production of tissues and also wanted to read some medical journals and periodicals. I searched the online data base and found exactly what I needed. I spent the rest of my afternoon that day sitting in an over stuffed arm chair by the fire reading away.
Weeks to the lecture had passed rather quickly as I spent most of my free time online in my dorm researching even further into my favorite topic so I could ask some intelligent questions after Professor Waldon's lecture. I really wanted to spend some time with him one on one discussing my possibilities in the field. I really wanted my own research lab and with every article I read on the subject my need to experiment and hopefully pioneer my own trials grew stronger. By the time on that cold wet February day rolled around for me to go to the lecture hall I was completely obsessed with growing new skin, organs, and bones. I had gotten past the point of just reading the clinical study reports of the application of lab grown tissue, I began to get into the technical side of what was involved in actually doing it.
I took my seat in the center of the front row and I remember every detail of the room and the people in it. No one really seemed as excited about this as I was. I had already placed my laptop on the counter in front of me and was ready to begin my note taking. Professor Waldon stepped out on the platform and introduced himself to the crowd of fifty or so students. And he began.
By the end of the lecture I fell even more in love with this innovative new approach to saving people. The possibilities are endless when you can make everything you need for a person to survive in a lab. No more waiting on a donor list hoping that you will get the organ you will need before you die. Bone graphs will be a thing of the past because we could just grow someone a new piece of bone and it would fit exactly and be compatible with the body without fuss. Even thinking of all that is possible with this new branch of medicine is intoxicating. I wanted to do so much good for the world but once I began thinking I couldn't stop and that is why I am who I am today. I took it too far.
Part Two
I spent most of my free time at John's Hopkins in the lab. Professor Waldon had taken a special interest in me after I came up to him at the lecture and we ended up talking for hours. He said that I was the brightest student with the most hope for a future in the innovation of human tissue engineering he had ever seen. So he offered me a private lab a little ways off campus to begin experimentation. I felt like I was on top of the world.
I began attending fewer and fewer of my non science related classes and ended up dropping them all together. I put my complete focus on my research and trials. Spending a weekly average of forty nine hours a week in the lab had began to take its toll on my body. Dark circles were a constant fixture on my face but I was the most happy I had been since the death of my mother. In those months I had perfected growing skin in little glass dishes. Each day when I checked on them and saw their success my heart soared. I moved to bigger more complex pieces like bone. Soon enough I had mastered that but I did not share my revolutionary findings with anyone. I kept them hidden away because an idea had rooted itself inside my brain and it wouldn't leave. I wanted to create an entire lab made person.
By the time spring term ended and most of the students went home for the summer I was ready to begin the process of creating my man. I had successful made all the organs, bones, and tissues that I would need to make this person and I had been storing them in a giant deep freezer. On the night of June 22nd I began to assemble my man.
I worked for days straight taking no rest and only breaks to eat a little something or drink some coffee. I grew weary near the end but I wasn't going to stop until it was finished. About a week later of endless work he was complete but not yet living. I still had to make is heart start and brain function. I will not tell you how I did this because as you can see this knowledge ruined my life and I will never let that happen to anyone else.
On the 25th of June, I finally figured out how to make him live. That night I saw his eyes open and I was horrified. I had actually slept for a little bit that day so my conscious was clearer than it had been in weeks. I saw how utterly ugly this thing I had created looked. It's eyes were yellow and soulless . It's skin was not the natural color that I had intended but a sickly pale tone with an almost translucent quality to it. I could see every major vein and artery through it's thin tissue. But even though it's ugliness was a huge factor in why I ran and never looked back, the in human sound it made was made up my mind the second I heard it. I tore out of that lab so fast you would have thought the devil himself was chasing me. I locked the door and prayed that the beast I had formed and given life to was stupid enough to stay in there and die.