The Laboratory

A loud creak was heard. When the four of them saw a metal polished door, they immediately yanked it wide open. The white laboratory with brand new equipment surprised them.

"I thought this was a few years old already?" Luna asked, hiding behind Daniel in fear.

"Who knows…"Daniel voice trailing off while he explored the place scanning every item he could spot.

"Welcome to my laboratory." A robotic voice appeared, scaring them all.

"Who's that?" Daniel quickly held onto his friends, protecting them.

"Turn around little ones." The voice gave a little laugh. They turned around to see a computer screen that was showing a green and black screen, slightly flickering. A silhouette of a figure of a woman was formed on the screen.

"Hello, it's me. Ferrah."Ferrah introduced herself." Since you found this place you should know who I am or what I have done right?"

They were confused.

"She can hear us?" Daniel whispered into Leah's ear.

Leah shrugged. Her fear was soon overcoming her

"Yes or no?"Ferrah impatiently asked.

"Yes. Murderer you are a murderer." Daniel seemed frustrated.

"Yes yes. I admit I may have killed a few people but I did it for a reason."Ferrah gave a little laugh.

"A few? I thought it was only your sister." Amil stood in front of the girls attempting to protect them.

"They tried releasing some information, information I am willing to release to you."Ferrah's tone was too happy for a situation as such.

"You can find it here. Just search this place."Ferrah suddenly changed her expression to a serious one." Daniel, Leah, Luna and Amil right? My favourite musketeers enjoy it."

The screen suddenly turned off. Daniel's eyes widened.

"How did you know our names? Hey hey!" Daniel banged onto the laptop's screen.

"Dan she's gone. She logged off." Luna placed her hand onto his shoulder in hopes of calming him down like she always did.

"How...How did she know?" Amil asked, holding onto Leah.

"She's a murderer. Who somehow knows us?" Luna's voice was shaking.

Confusion and fear radiated from the four of them.

"We are in danger aren't we?" Luna's voice trembled.

"Probably." Daniel held onto Luna the same way that Amil was holding onto Leah, tight and protective.

"So...Now what?" Amil looked over at them, finally removing his eyes from the blank screen of the laptop.

"We search the place." Leah removed herself from Amil's grasp trying to signal that she wasn't as scared as he thought she would be.

"What if it was a trap?" Amil stopped Leah from touching the files on the desk.

"Scared?" Leah asked intimidatingly.

"Not of death, but of the pain. Yes." Amil admitted without fear.

"Why would she kill us?" Leah asked, underestimating Ferrah.

"Because she is a murderer. Who somehow knows that we would one day come here?" Daniel's irritation could be sensed.

How could Leah overlook all these dangers?

"Uh...Guys take a look.'' Luna, who was busy exploring the place, showed them a cupboard of weapons.

"Swords, A-Ks, pistols and hand knives. That's all they have?" Daniel mocked, "I don't know much about guns or swords but I do know that they have a really small variety of weapons. Not a variety that's for sure." Daniel fidgeted with the weapons.

"Look at this sword." Leah carried the sword with dried blood.

"It's bloody." Amil gently took the sword from Leah's hands."Ferrah."Amil observed,"It's Ferrah's sword." He showed them the carving on the sword.

"Weapons in a lab. How convenient." Daniel added.

"I don't like this." Luna whined on the verge of tears. She regretted opening the weaponry. Daniel held onto Luna from the back trying to let her know that she was safe and protected.

"Let's look through the files at least?" Daniel asked.

"Dan, we have seen all these weapons. Do you think that we are safe? At all?" Leah asked, holding onto Amil for dear life.

"Just standing here is already a risk. What's life without a little risk anyways?" Daniel held onto Leah's hand, assuring her.

"It's worth a shot." Amil assured Leah. Together they flipped through files, documents from table to table. The white polished floor was soon covered in yellow thin fragile papers.

"Hey listen." Amil showed them a piece of document. "Project 4793N(Recorded on Year 222). Candidates: Leah Argent age 5 born on November 4, 2222. Amil Johnson age 5 born on November 7, 2222. Luna Addison age 5 born on November 9, 2222. Daniel Grange age 5 born on November 3, 2222."Leah read aloud her voice gradually reducing in loudness as she read further. Fear engulfed them like a flame. Tension started to build up like a wall between them.

"I'm done." Amil announced, "I'm out of here."

"Amil, listen we have to find out more." Luna attempted to pursue him.

"Our names are on that. That piece of paper!" Amil yelled back his voice trembling with anger, fear and worry.

"We were experiments!" Amil continued before attempting to leave.

"Scared of a piece of paper?" Daniel intimated him. It was the easiest way to get him to stay.

"Hold on. Doesn't this make sense?" Luna stood up. "Project 4793N.It relates to our birth dates. N stands for November."

"And this helps us, how?" Amil asked irritably.

"I-"Luna was taken aback. Speechless.

"At least we know one thing." Leah added all of a sudden," that we were definitely a success. "Leah showed them the document that she had been silently reading, ignoring the chaos.

"Candidates have proven to have succeeded and can enter earth anytime they want." Amil read aloud as he started to return back to the circle of his friends.

"What the hell." Daniel responded with anger and fear.

"What?" His friends looked at him confused. He wasn't angry over the document that Leah had read aloud.

"Read this and tell me I'm not going crazy." Daniel threw a thinly stapled document at Amil.

His fast reflexes served him well. Catching the paper in mid-air, he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah you were probably crazy. Always have been." Amil then proceeded to read the paper out loud.

"Timeline: Project 8934O results, Claudia-deceased (burnt to death by earth's rays/ suffocated due to lack of oxygen) Leonard-deceased(burnt to death by earth's rays/suffocated due to lack of oxygen) Raven- deceased(Severe burns)"Amil stopped there.

"Why is he different? Raven, I mean." Amil frowned.

"He managed to return. He was the only one that survived." Leah immediately answered as she calmly read another piece of document.

"How did you know what experiment it was?" Luna asked softly but suspiciously.

"My mom used to tell me about the stories of this experiment." Leah finally looked up as she finished her sentence.

"Right…"Daniel tried not to let silence overpower them.

"Wait. Our parents. They should have known, right?" Daniel popped a question.

"Known what?" Amil looked at him confused.

"About us being experiments." Daniel tried making himself clearer.

Leah, who was reading the documents too silently, suddenly spoke.

"Oh my god…"She seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"You ok?" Her friends immediately went to comfort her though they were slightly confused by her sudden burst of emotions.

Leah was shaking uncontrollably. She did not know how to react. When she dropped the piece of document that she seemed to be reading, four pieces of letters slipped out.

"Dear Ferrah, I would like to request for the experiments you are planning on doing on our kids to be shared with the whole of the ship. This is to ensure that our kids will not be harmed in the process of such risky experiments. Sincerely, Mrs Argent. Signed on: 3.9.2218."Amil read the first letter he picked up.

The others however laid out the letters, seemingly too lazy to read them.

"It was a day before all of our parents' deaths," Daniel observed.

"Gloomy observation," Amil added.

"Do you see this?" Luna cut into their conversation."All of our parents signed the letter except for Leah. Listen."Luna prepared to read out the letter."Yours Sincerely, Mrs and Mr Johnson. Sincerely, Mr and Mrs Addison. Yours Sincerely, Mr and Mrs Grange. But here is when things changed. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Argent." Daniel and Amil who was listening intently to Luna stared in confusion. "Did your Father not know about the experiment?"Amil looked at Leah who was still trying to cool off her emotions.

"How would I know?"Leah flung her arms in desperation.

"Right, we just found out about this. Sorry."He apologised immediately as he sensed her emotions.

"But now that I think about it, it makes sense."Leah wiped her tears as she prepared to explain herself.

"Oh no… What is it."Amil's mouth hung slightly open, worried about what Leah may have to share. The amount of information they had just learned today was already more than enough.

"After mom's death as all of you know dad went…"Leah trailed off afraid to say the specific word.

"Crazy."Luna helped Leah in hope of her to continue her explanation.

Nodding her head slightly, Leah silently thanked Luna before continuing.

"He kept on repeating this: Kids, experiments, must reveal, bad woman." Everyone stared at Leah in confusion.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Daniel questioned breaking the short silence.

"I thought he was, you know."Leah twirled her finger at the side of her head.

"Crazy."Luna added again not realising that everyone already knew what she wanted to say.

"Kids. That's us. Experiments. That's project 4793N. Must reveal. That's revealing the project 4793N. Bad woman. That's Ferrah,"Amil confirmed.

"But our parents were murdered and Ferrah murders people who tries exposing her but she didn't murder them that's for sure. She was dead,"Daniel added.

"So who did?''Luna asked.

The four kids sighed as they slowly started to relax their muscles in hope of using more of their energy for their head.

"Workers."Daniel suddenly sprang up.

"Workers!"Daniel yelled,"Let's go!"He dragged everyone out of the room and ran to the hospital immediately."Slower!"Leah raised her voice hoping to be heard.

"Your sister!She is a worker! She damaged the engine on purpose to distract you! Derek told me that it was weird for engine 2 to be smoking since he had just recently fixed it and told me to tell the guards to keep an eye out! She hurt dad because he wanted to expose Ferrah."Daniel ran as fast as he could.

"She's going to kill him."

They ran as fast as they could to the medbay in hope of reaching in time for their father. The four kids who were only 16 ran as fast as they could to save their only parent even if they were not biologically related, even if he was crazy, he was their only father figure. In their eyes, he wasn't crazy but a father who was desperately trying to find ways to expose Ferrah and her workers. When they reached the medbay, they were greeted by officers and nurses.

"Leah! Sorry umm we tried to look for you. We have bad news. Your father has been murdered...by...by your sister."One of the officers who was a friend, Leo, held onto Leah's shoulders in hopes to comfort her.

"I'm really sorry."He hugged her."He needed to go anyway. At least now he doesn't have needles in him anymore."He ran off after that to handle Selene who was violently trying to escape 10 officers. As of that would work.

"Sister, did you like my work?"Selene sneered at Leah.

Leah's body went weak, Amil's body was her pillar.

"Leah get up let's go."Amil tried to support her.Leah who was distracted by her father's lifeless body that was covered in blood.

"He is all I have,"Leah's voice trembled weakly

"What?"All her friends surrounded her hoping to show her that her family was standing around her.

"Family is not one you were born into but the people you choose."Daniel hugged her trying to get her away from her father.

"He's gone. It was meant to be."Daniel tried to prevent her from blaming herself.

"No. Hadn't we found out early, he wouldn't have died."Leah blamed herself.

"Your sister is going to be executed the same Ferrah was."Luna informed walking towards Leah, placing her hands on her shoulder.

"Do you want to watch or do you want to rest?"Luna asked .

"None."Leah replied with a dead tone in her voice.

"I want to go to the lab.Answers.That is what I want."Leah signed.Luna nodded and like any good friend that many would call family, she hugged her.

"We are your family."She whispered into Leah's ear with her calming voice.