21st of September 2015

  Years had passed. The laboratory configuration had been changed to accommodate a small room up against the back wall. It was a prison cell. The front face, containing the door, was made with reinforced glass. Inside, the girl called Mavis, who was now 17 years old with long blonde hair and green eyes, lay on the floor, dressed in a dirty light-blue gown.

  The team of scientists that had used to work here had all but disbanded, and now only 3 people remained. Two of them weren’t even part of the original team. John, a 52 year old man, the one who had been there from the start, was now the lead scientist. His haughty eyes spoke of an undying curiosity for discovery, a yearning for the unknown. It was a passion that still burned brightly within him despite his age – a passion that he was willing to do anything to satisfy. He was working in the lab, tending to some of the equipment and testing samples. He passed by Mavis’s cell and she noticed him, getting up.

  “I'm hungry, can I have some food?” Mavis groaned.

  John ignored her, continuing to busy himself with the lab equipment.

  “Hey! Listen to me!” Mavis banged on the glass to try and get his attention.

  John found what he was looking for and began to make his way towards the door, continuing to ignore her.

  Mavis banged on the glass again. “Let me out of here!”

  Annoyed, John turned around to confront her. “Mavis, behave yourself” he said sternly.

  Miriam then entered the lab, carrying a tray of food for Mavis, as scheduled. Miriam was around 33 years old, the second most senior scientist on the team. She had been at the top of her class and achieved her PhD in neurobiology only a few years earlier, at which point she had been lucky enough to land her current job due to her parent’s connections.

  “Stop, take it back - she doesn't deserve anything today.” John stopped Miriam in her tracks. Miriam was slightly taken aback but she didn’t question him. She began to go back out the lab, taking the tray of food with her.

  “No, please! I'm starving!” Mavis moaned. Miriam must have still been able to hear her, but Mavis’s cries were ignored.

  “See Mavis, you need to learn that unruly behaviour has consequences. Now shut up and stop causing such a ruckus.” John scolded her. Mavis slunk back to the ground defeated, clutching her stomach in hunger. She would get through this. It was not the first time she had skipped dinner.

  ??????

  In the breakroom, John made himself a cup of coffee at the espresso machine. It was just a small room with a kitchenette and Miriam was seated at the small table in the centre with a glass of water.

  “Why do we keep her locked up in there?” Miriam asked John, though it was a bit of a ridiculous question and she knew it. But she just had to say something to appease her conscience.

  “Who - Mavis? You know she's not human. Looks can be deceiving” John mused. “She was created as a weapon - good thing it turned out she was no longer needed. I suppose we still keep her around as a curiosity for study.”

  “But she doesn't look dangerous.” Miriam said. Since Miriam had joined the team a number of years ago, Mavis had grown a lot – now she was even taller than her. Back then, Mavis had been just a child. At the time, Miriam had been so filled with expectations and excitement at the kind of projects she would get to work on here – cutting edge, top secret research. But she had been ignorant and naive. Here was this girl, about 12 or 13 years old, and instead of going to school and spending time with friends, she was here in this lab, confined practically 24/7, having never been outside to see the sunlight. At first it was a bit of a shock, but then Miriam had gotten used to it. Day in day out she had just followed John’s orders – it had become routine for her. Though she had tried to do what she could to help Mavis learn about the world, the guilt of the situation she was placed in never left her.

  “Oh, she's not dangerous. She's completely harmless. But the research we're doing here is what's dangerous.” John took a sip of his coffee and smiled. “You ever heard of Dolly the sheep?”

  “Yeah - the first mammal to ever be cloned.” Miriam replied.

  “It lived only half the normal life expectancy of a regular sheep. Some issues with deformities.” John tilted his head towards the other room down the hall where Mavis was situated. “I wonder how long she'll last.”

  ??????

  Francis was the third and youngest member of the team, around 24 years old. He had never aspired to be a scientist. He had always wanted to be a field agent in the CIA like this father, but had been kicked out of the training academy due to poor performance and issues with his peers. It had been difficult for him to make friends, and in a line of work where confidence and charisma meant everything, this was not seen as a good sign for him. When he was assessed as not possessing the right skill-set to continue with the program, his father was greatly relieved. Not only because he had long known his son wasn’t suitable, but because field agents had a much lower life expectancy – and even those who did survive, kept both physical and mental scars from the work. He knew from experience. Francis had been greatly disappointed though. And although his father tried to hide it, Francis could tell he had been relieved when he had failed. At the time, Francis couldn’t help but contemplate if it had been a conspiracy which his father had orchestrated. This had led him down a dark path, and so to get his mind off things, his father had sent him here.

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  Carrying a tray of food, Francis skulked down the hallway. Reaching the door to the lab, he swiped his access card and entered. Mavis was forlorn in her cell. She noticed him come in and cheered up slightly, rising to her feet as he came over to her. He swiped his access card beside the glass door and opened it, releasing her from her confinement.

  “Thank you.” She said shyly as she slowly stepped out.

  “Shhh.” Francis handed her the tray of food. They went over to sit on stools at one of the lab benchtops. Mavis began to eat. Ordinarily, she would only be given food through the secure opening in her door and was left to eat it in her cell by herself.

  “Oh, I've got something else for you.” Francis said quietly as he pulled out a small chocolate candy bar from his lab coat. “Ever had this?”

  She shook her head as he handed it to her.

  “It’s called chocolate.” Francis said.

  She opened the wrapper and took a bite.

  Meanwhile, John was in the surveillance room and had been preoccupied looking at his phone. He glances at the surveillance video monitor which is one of many situated in front of him. It showed Francis together with Mavis who was eating – outside of her cell!

  John sighed, shaking his head. This was not the first time Francis had misbehaved like this. John left the room and hurried over to the lab.

  It didn’t take him long to get there. When he entered the lab, he was furious. “What do you think you're doing?!!” he shouted at Francis. John smacked the plate of food out of Mavis's hands, and it shattered on the floor. He dragged her back into the cell, kicking and screaming. Forcefully, he shoved her to the floor.

  “My father will hear about this!” Francis cried out.

  “Stop being so naive. The only reason your father sent you here is so that I could protect you.” John mocked him. “So that you don't become a field agent.” His tone then changed to a calmer demeanour. “Use your head for once, Francis. I won't report this incident to anyone. But out in the real world, if you tried something like this, you would end up dead.”

  ??????

  Some time later, everyone had left the lab. The mess on the floor had been cleaned up. Mavis, in her cell, wailed and banged on the glass of her cell, but no one heard her. She slowly descended to the floor, defeated.

  She was silent for a while. Then, she looked back up at the door, and saw the impossible - a crack in the glass. It was only a small linear fracture, about 3cm. She stood to face it, admiring it curiously. Is this real? She ran her finger over it.

  Then she hit the glass. The fracture grew slightly. And again, she hit the glass. And again. The fracture grew as she continued to hit it - it is now the width of the door frame, and has spread vertically as well. The fracture now covered the entire glass pane. She throws herself against it, and it finally shatters.

  Stepping out into the lab, avoiding the glass shards on the floor, she returned to the benchtop she had been seated at before with Francis. Back in the surveillance room, the idle CCTV monitor showed Mavis out of her broken cell, but no one was in the room watching.

  Mavis crouched down to the ground. There on the floor, underneath the bench - were peas that had fallen from the food she had been eating earlier, and had been missed by the cleaner. She crawled around, picking them up and eating them one by one.

  Standing up again, she saw the operating table over to her right. She despised it. She walked around the lab, towards the door which was to the left of the room. There was still silence - they hadn't yet noticed she had escaped. She opened one of the cupboards below the benchtops against the wall. It was filled with glassware. Another one contained instruments whose purpose she had no idea of. She reached the door and took a quick peek outside the small window. The hallway was illuminated by lights, unlike the lab which was dimly lit - the only light source here originated from her cell.

  Mavis opened the door. Immediately, the alarm began to sound off. From down the hall, guards were alerted and see her.

  “There! Get her!” One guard said to another. They were dressed in black tactical gear.

  Mavis ran down the hall the opposite way from them. Her heart was pounding. Now there was another pair of guards coming towards her ahead - there's nowhere for her to go. They reach her and she tries to evade and fight back against them, but they hit her and overpower her. The other two guards reach her as well and use tasers to subdue her.

  “Target is in custody. Stand down alert.” The guard said over his radio. They dragged Mavis back to the lab.

  ??????

  Mavis was gagged and tied up on the operating table. On either side, Miriam and Francis stood. John paced around them.

  “Now, Mavis, who's been a naughty girl?” John broke the silence, wickedly eyeing the shattered glass of Mavis’s enclosure, and he paused next to Miriam. He held out his hand and she handed him the scalpel. John moved Mavis's gown to expose the bare skin of her thigh. “Eh? Who's been a naughty girl Mavis?” he repeated.

  Forcefully, he stabbed the scalpel into her thigh. He was enjoying this. She cried out in pain but was gagged.

  “That’s right. You are.” An evil grin manifested on John’s face as blood began to ooze from Mavis’s skin.

  Francis saw her looking at him - their eyes met. He could see her pain. He felt sick.

  “I’m not going to be a part of this…” Francis stepped back and began to walk away.

  “Francis, don’t you dare walk away from me.” John replied. He moved the knife to make an incision of around 5cm, resulting in more screams of pain from Mavis. “Come back here!”

  Francis froze in his tracks, reluctantly going back over to the operating table. Blood was now gushing out of Mavis’s wound. John continued to cut out a small square section of Mavis’s flesh. When he was finished, he received the pincers from Miriam and used them to extract the small piece of flesh which was around 2cm square. He placed it into a beaker.

  “Patch her up.” John commanded them as he walked over to the devices at the wall.

  Francis used a cotton pad to apply pressure to the wound to stem the bleeding. Miriam prepared bandages.

  “I’m sorry” Francis whispered to Mavis.

  John picked up a telephone receiver from the wall. “It's finished. Take her to lab 2.” Then he hung up.

  ??????

  Mavis was carried down the hall by the guards, barely conscious. Miriam led them to Lab 2, where she swiped her access card and then they took her inside.

  The layout was exactly the same as Lab 1. The guards took Mavis to the cell at the back of the room and shoved her inside, closing the door. Then they left.

  Meanwhile, in Lab 1, John observed the piece of Mavis's flesh under a microscope.

  “Interesting…” He fiddled with the microscope.

  Miriam stood behind him, cleaning blood from the operating table.

  “Curious, isn't it, how DNA works. A code that determines an entire being. From how they will look, to aspects of their personality and self - all in a series of molecules.” John paused briefly before continuing. “Her DNA was just like a human's. How is that possible, we thought. What is there really, that distinguishes her from us, that we cannot see?” He turned to Miriam, a crazed sparkle in his eye. “Well, this. Now we can see it. She is maturing, evolving. The alien aspects of her being are fully coming to bear.”