Deserted Pt. 2
Note: As this is one of my first stories, I tried p laying around with the tenses so it may sound a bit weird in spots, but please be patient.
I've got nothing better going on in my life, might as well try it, Jon exclaimed to himself after looking over a cheesy over-the-top flyer for a wanted medical tester. It actually talks about what your favorite animal is and what your favorite ability is from your favorite animal. It can't be real and you can't believe that you're going to fall for it and still apply. Bing-bing-bing bing-bing bing-bing Hello. This is Genetics in Action Corporation. If you are calling about the flyer please dial 1 and state your name, if you are calling for a specific party, please dial your extension now. Bing "Jon..." Better sound professional "...athan" More waiting on hold, I've been doing that enough lately. Eight online applications where each had its own personality survey, and four phone interviews where none of them panned out, now I have to settle to medical experimentation by a company with the biggest joke of a name that I have ever heard of, how far I have fallen. Might as well make the most out of it though. The flyer claims it is a long-term test that pays for food, housing, entertainment, and a lump sum after that. Sounds too good to be true, but sometimes things like this pan out. "Hello. This is Dr. Roberts, is this Jonathan? Hello?" a confused voice on the phone searches for signs of life. "Hello, sorry, I was looking for something and lost track of the phone. " "Oh, that's alright, how are you today, I take it you saw the flyer around town and are wondering how this opportunity is going to work?" "Yea, actually, how you know that was what I was going to ask?" "We get that a lot, no one believes it but it is all true, everything that is offered will be supplied, the catch that everyone is looking for is that it will require a long time for you to be away from your family and normal life, though if you participate through the entire experiment, you will have a large lump sum of money to walk away with plus all the living expenses you can desire, well, reasonably at least." "Sounds interesting, are there any spots left open?" "Why yes, there are a few, would you be interested in finding out more information in an interview?" "Yes, I would be very interested, I would be available at any time." "Please visit us at any time, any of the researchers can interview you and there is always at least one of us that can take some time to talk to new applicants." "Thank you very much, I will head down there today if that is okay." "Yes, that would be fine. I will be available to interview you if you come today." A few more friendly words later, I was dancing around like a fool in the living room of the apartment that I can't afford anymore. "I did it, I did it. Expenses covered living and all I have to do is tell everyone that I got a job out of state and no one will be the wiser. Assuming I get the position that is." They sounded kinda desperate to get people though so there isn't too much to worry about. Twenty minutes later and a roar down the driveway, he was off in his car to find out what this medical position was all about. Thirty minutes later he pulls in up to a rather large building in the middle of a low land, basically a desert, and steps out of the car. "Talk about isolated" He wanders to the door staring at the blank landscape with mountains in the distance and a rather peculiar modern building standing in front of him. He walks towards the doors of the building to get out of the hot Arizona sun in search of the air conditioning he hoped they had. Into the front door a wave of cold air hits him in the face and there is someone sitting in one of three La-Z-Boys just inside the door. Jon offers a helpless sounding greeting to the professional lounging in the chair. "Jonathan, I presume?" "Yea, how did you..." "You did say you were coming today and I saw your car's dust cloud, call it a lucky guess." The doctor offers a warming smile. "Oh, right, guess I am just a bit nervous, that's all." Jon smiles reassuredly to the doctor. "Don't be, I am here to reassure you and make sure you understand exactly what we will be doing if you wish to participate in our program." "Okay, so what is this about then?" "Well, I will describe to you what we are doing, why we are doing it, then maybe give a simpler explanation of what we are doing. First of all, we are going to take a sample of your skin tissue and keep it incubated to study your genetic code. Then we will take a genetic sample of the animal of your choosing and study it's genetic code. As you know, the genetic code is far too complex for this to be a simple process but we take large strands of both DNA and examine how they differ and what is linked to similar traits between the two codes. It is in these similarities that allow the two to mix. We start to synthesize strands of DNA to see if they are stable or not to the human body. How we do this is by injecting these strands of DNA in to multiple cells of your body to see if these cells multiply. With any luck and the correct synthesis, these cells will start to grow with your body and where the modified cells are more dominant then new traits will start to show themselves. This may sound like an absurd thing to accomplish but if we can get successful mixes, then we can use this technology to find strands of DNA that enable some animals to not get certain diseases that plague the human race. Do you think that you'll need a simpler explanation or does the process sound reasonable?" "It makes sense but it sounds crazy, I am still interested though." Jon answers very nervously. A lot of paperwork and a lot of medical history later, Jon now officially worked and lived at this strangely placed building in the middle of an Arizona desert. Over the next couple of months things went fine and life moved on until the experiment started to venture into areas that Jon was unaware of and he wasn't comfortable with. The scientists started to inject Jon with the modified DNA that was fused with Jon's chosen animal, a Mountain Lion, and things started to go strangely and Jon didn't feel like the same person after a while. Tired of the feeling of being someone else, Jon tried to run away from the building. He waited until he was let out of the testing area and he nervously walked around and started towards the door. No one noticed anything until he got outside and started running away. At that point, the sensors outside the building started going off and people inside started to figure out what was happening. The only saving grace for the company was that Jonathan was weak from the injection of foreign DNA and he got half a mile away before the only thing he could do was collapse on the ground and have the doctors bring him back for more studying. At this point, Jonathan understood what was happening to him, he wasn't allowed to leave and he basically signed his life away for this 'once in a lifetime opportunity' that was never worth it. He couldn't believe that he actually signed up for something like this, what kind of a fool would do this? Oh yea, I would.
Copyright for the story and character is mine. Don't distribute this without asking first, as if anyone would want to.