Bliss has a price

Troy sat looking at the mountains. The car was quiet and it seemed to last an eternity. The mountain where showing signs of change. They made preparing for hibernation, without challenging the winter. Troy felt off, the seen almost mocked him. The sight was so still, yet in his sole it brewed and bubbled. How did he not noticed anything being off in his perfect little world. His life wasn't perfect but to him it was ideal. He believed what he wanted to believe. His world was crashing down around him.

Troy tried to think back on that day him and Reese fell. His mind was blank. In fact he couldn't remember much about it at all. He remembered very little from before his accident. He decided a long time ago it was because he hit his head. He started to question, if there was another reason. Had he gone into hibernation himself. Just doing the motions and not asking questions.

Tell me about why you saved that girl. He asked, trying to find the missing pieces. Why did his mother risk so much. To him she was vermin in his life. He didn't understand. This girl had taken so much from him.

why did everyone treat her like a princess or a goddess? Why did they risked so much for her? Why was her cover, more important than free will or his own family? What was He missing? Who was or is she to him?

Troy would sell her out to have his family whole again. Yet there was something he couldn't put his finger on. If he hadn't met her in person, It would be simple to have a solid option. Who was she to him? Why was there foggy images in his mind after all these years.

Ann didn't make eye contact she kept looking at the oranges and yellows that spotted the mountains side. she was baring all her sins and praying for forgiveness. She would settle for acceptance.

Ray was my best friend. She spit it out, like he needed to knew the connection between the two of them. It was the glue of the story and her righteous downfall. She was smart and funny. She was the first person who didn't ask me questions. Not about my family or what i did as a job. She simply enjoyed my company and i enjoyed hers. She made me feel comfortable and she became a sister to me.

I got her a job as a technician it paid well. She had a hard home life and money wasn't plentiful. I knew she would do a great job and I loved to see how happy she was. This job gave her something she valued more than anything. It gave her confidence, self respect and faith in herself.

I was a researcher at the same company. I told her it was a simple technician job. Truth of the matter is, I used her. She was bright enough I could train her, dumb enough that she wouldn't figure out what was going on.

I was planted into the company as a mole. My mission was to find out intel and report it back. They where doing shady business. It was my job to tell my authorities if they stepped over the line. Plus let them know of their progress.

Ann didn't want to give too much information, but she knew that if she kept too much a secret, Troy would see right through her. She continued by redirecting the conversation to Ray.

Ray met one of the doctors that worked for us. He was a consultant, they hit it off. They hit it off so well, they eloped. No one knew of their relationship except her closest of friends. Even us only found out hours before she was wed. The company frowned down on relationships in the workforce.

She was pregnant immediately. I was excited for her. It was her dream to be a mother, she was normal looking. She always thought she would grow old alone. I was already a mother i couldn't wait for our children to grow up together. She was the last to marry in our small group. I guess, I wished for her to have a happy ending.

There was an incident where Ray dropped a vile. Ann took a small deep breath. She got a small sliver of the glass in her finger. She didn't tell anyone. She was afraid, she didn't want to lose her job. Her whole life revolved around that job. So she switched it for a different vile.

She didn't know we where doing human research, it was kept very hush hush. She didn't even know, what the research was for. That was kept secret only a handful of people knew. She thought it was a pharmaceutical drug. Heck I told her it was a pharmaceutical drug.

Then she marked the new vile as unresponsive and placed it in the new samples. She was told it was a three stage process, the first set was to be tested with live cells in a dish. We where using three different markers to determine who would receive which strand. Normally there wouldn't have been an issue, exactly not in most labs it would have been tossed out. These vile where past the tossing phase.

The problem was more to do with the nature of what was in the vile. Also that they where testing to see if they would react with human cells. It was tested by another technician and put into rotation.

Like i said Ray was very much to herself in regards to personal matters. That is what made her perfect for the job. The fact is if she had told me, I would have had to of reported the situation by protocol. She would have been put in quarantine and tested for markers. I wouldn't have reported her though. Her job was the least of her worries. If she had told me it would have been easier to cover it up in the beginning stage. Maybe i could have saved her life.

We started to worst stage of the experiment. Only one person lived. I will let you figure that out yourself. Troy knew why it was because the vile was switched.

Ann continued the story, when we started to study the blood work of the dead and living people, it showed a different strand. I went to Ray and i asked her what happened, she told me in secret. She was one of three people who handled the vile. But she was the only one who reported a vile that wasn't responsive. It wasn't easy to switch vile but the strand was almost exactly like group L. Group L was one of our stands that had been shelved a couple times back. The biggest problem was that the test subject was the worst person possible to receive that shot. He was the directors son and he was a terrible person.

She didn't tell me she got a small sliver from the glass vile. So i covered it up and i didn't think twice about it. I had you at home and i wanted that for her so badly. I loved her like a sister and i didn't want to destroy her career. I always felt guilty to have what is considered forbidden in my line of work. I had the ability to have it all, Family, career, loving husband. I wasn't going to give that up. So i kept the information from my supervisors.

With this new information i gathered regarding the switched vile it gave me a brake. The company still wanted us to keep going with the project and they expected results. Some people you don't cross. Thanks to super boy or corse. I was happy when his serum wore off. But it had an odd reaction and this is why it was shelved. He stopped being able to learn new things. It was why it was shelved in the first place. But he was already so intelligent and physically capable most people couldn't tell.

All the men died except for one and they still wanted us to keep going. It was sad because he wasn't even the best candidate. The biggest problem was that person wasn't even on the list either. It put the company at serious risk as well as human lives. I went back to work and i made a cross between the two vile. I convinced myself that she had done me a favor. I covered her tracks and it worked. Or at least that is what i thought.

Until she gave birth and she healed in matter of hours. She had received such a small does of the strongest potency. It didn't take long for them to figure it out and they killed her. I had to keep my cover or you and your father would pay the price. I was on the team and i watched it happen. It is my largest regret.

I hid our relationship from them and in the end i betrayed her. I saved the baby, it was all i had left of her. It almost killed me seeing her dead. I planned to drop the baby off at firehouse or a hospital. She was only a few hours old. She looked just like her mother. It tore me up inside.

I saved her husband by deleting his file and giving him a new papers new name. He became my first person i came clean too. I arranged a new identity, but i couldn't place them together. In honesty i don't think he would have been able to deal with the loss of Ray and care for The baby.

Instead i faked doctor appointment and records and gave her to a close friend of ours. Her father agreed all he wanted for her was to grow up being loved.

The lady couldn't have children and the husband knew of the situation. He was smart. He figured it out when i started messing with the strands. He was a close friend and he knew it probably had something to do with Ray. He was also my first target to get close too. I introduced him to his wife. I had never really had friends before so it was kind of a drug to me.

We did the babies blood work and both of us where confident that the baby didn't have any markers. In case she did this was the best place for her. We said goodbye that day. He switched to a new company and we never talked for a few years. I changed his name in the data base and used a false photo for the company directory. I then replaced him back into the system as an independent adviser.

A senior researcher was going over the files. They noticed the discrepancy and came to question your father and myself. The only other person who knew that currently worked at the lab was your father. He told them that he covered it up. I stood there speechless I would have rather taken the blame myself. I would have came clean and removed all other parties.

Your father went on to explain, that once he realized what happened it gave him a breakthrough. That no one knew that she was exposed and that she herself didn't know. He decided it was probably inhaled. That she died from childbirth, that her placenta had ripped from the wall and she bled to death. That the cerium must have warn off and the baby must have been linked to her. They did an emergency C-section to save the baby but the child died too, unexpectedly. He was aware of the strike on Ray. We also couldn't expose ourselves that is what her report read.

So who killed Ray. Troy became confused. His mother was being vague and not giving organization names. It was the organization that hired me to keep an eye on the research. At first i thought the lab was evil but after they killed Ray. I realized that they wanted to still the information. That they had planted Super boy in the study. Man i hate that kid.

Ann continued and redirected to her story. This set the whole research in a new direction. Before human trials where scheduled for the inhalers. your father came to me. He told me the test subjects would become crazy. He had done it on rats and for lack of better description they became immortal zombies.

He sent his report into headquarters and they refused to change the exposure date. He had been working for months on end to solve the mess he had gotten himself into. They would die and come back to attack each other again. They didn't eat or sleep they just ran into the glass over and over again. He had to burn them cage and all.

We decided to burn the lab with all the notes along with it. We staged his death in the lab. We felt it was a our duty to humanity. If it was transferred like how the earlier samples where, they could possibly have dead people walking around crazy and full of rage.

The worst part is i am still on the project. I have been working from partial notes trying to rebuild what was destroyed by my own hands. I know the formula by heart as does your father but i won't let them get their hands on it. I have changed one major and element that was a breakthrough in the beginning.

Troy was speechless, how was his mom a caricature from a movie. How did she get all caught up in this. Who was she, that simple question resignation through his sole. It was answered second later she was his mother.