“Wake up!”
Screaming, a shooting pain, frantic hands shaking me… I woke disorientated and in time to see his feverish eyes rolling back as he pushed a bloodied note into my fingers and sank to the ground. I sat up, flinched; in the half dark I noticed the shattered roof of my capsule, a large glass shard protruded from my side.
What the fuck’s going on? I smoothed out the dead man’s note:
“Year 2125
10 alive
Close hole
We shouldn’t have…” he didn’t finish.
Shouldn’t have? Which hole? I scan the room. A large rod gaped through the roof. Climbing out of the humming tube, I limped towards a window. The world outside’s in a squalid state. Across the street faded graffiti gave answers; “Take your immortality to hell!”. Below it, a spiky bacterial icon triggered my memories; we eradicated ageing, viral infections, even cancer from our genes; but while ‘playing god’ as the fanatics chanted, we left them a powerful weapon. Looking at my CRISPR lab’s roof and back at my open wound, the bacteria filled air felt cool against my skin; I sank to the floor — it was over.
—
Photo by Jacob Boavista on Unsplash
