Unnatural Selection
Victoria Escobar
YA Sci-Fi
Publication Date- November 4th, 2014
I had no name. My assignment was M001/A5. Marpesia Project Test One, Fifth Embryo. I wasn’t considered human. I was a thing to be owned.
I just wanted freedom. I wanted out of the lab and away from being the guinea pig for hundreds of scientists. I wanted to see the world with my eyes not through a computer monitor.
Instead I took two bullets, fell from twenty stories and ran to save my life. From who and what I had no idea and that wasn’t important at the time. Life was important.
I had my freedom but no idea what to do with it. There’s no way to out run the past, and I had to face it. There were too many strings loose and too many people that would be more than happy to lock me in a cage again.
Life was an evolution of natural selection but thanks to human intervention I was Unnatural. I would be deciding who to allow living, and who needed to die.
Excerpt
The entrance was actually a large,
oval-ish roundabout that I imagine gave a path to the lost to turn around
without entering the school property. A wide–what looked like cast iron–gate
blocked the road leading in. Next to the gate a little guard house stood in the
same stone as the wall.
A boy–I would say no more than
eighteen–stepped out in black cargo shorts and a black button down shirt. There
was a tie tucked into the brick colored vest that covered his shirt. When I
stopped the car and got a closer look, the school mascot was embroidered on his
left breast and he wore a CP embroidered brick band around his right bicep. His
blond hair was tousled and on the verge of being considered strawberry blond.
His eyes were a gentle and friendly hazel green. I could like him, I decided,
and because he felt unthreatening some of my tension eased.
“Campus is closed for the summer,”
he began.
“I’ve been invited by Dean Donahue,”
I told him before he could go into his obviously prepared speech.
He flashed a beautiful smile. “You
must be Charlotte then. Welcome to Saint Rita’s. Give me a second to get the
gate open. Go up the road to the next round about, take the second exit, and
keep going. You’ll come to a four way stop, just go straight through. The
playing fields will be to your right and theadmission building will appear
right in front of you, park anywhere in the lot in front.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.” He went back into the
guardhouse and the gate swung silently open.
I waved to him as I pulled off and
he waved cheerily back. The gate swung silently shut behind me and I had to
take a deep breath. I reached a point of no return.
For the fun of it, and even though
the posted speed limit was twenty-five, I did forty down the lane and took the
roundabout without slowing down. It was so much fun I pulled a tight U-turn and
did it again.
Laughing like a lunatic, I made a
final rapid pass around the circle before taking the road as instructed. A pair
of motorcycles came up fast behind me, and sensing a game I probably shouldn’t
play, I stepped on the gas. I could see the administration building in the
distance, far enough away that the cycles could catch up to me.
They did, of course, and were in
nearly the same clothes as the gatekeeper except they wore long pants instead
of shorts. They parted around me and the one on the driver side tapped the
window. When I glanced at him, he gestured for me to slow down.
I did a little, but only enough that
the one on the passenger side swooped in front of me and slowed down further.
If I hadn’t been cooped up most of my life I might have ceded to his
ridiculously slow speed. Instead I picked up pace enough to bump his back tire.
He swerved, and since we were still around thirty miles an hour, he went into
the ditch. I picked up pace and zoomed off leaving his partner to stop beside
him.
Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but with the ability to claim eight states as home; Victoria Escobar writes fiction from her current home in New York. She writes whatever comes to mind and because of such has a variety of genres written including Young Adult, New Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, and Contemporary Fiction.
In spare time if not with family, and friends Victoria enjoys curling up with a book from a favorite author with music playing. If not reading or writing she spends time drawing, sketching, crocheting, or some other random art project. She enjoys staying busy, but most of all enjoys staying creative.
