Chapter Four: The Old Man and The Bully

"Genetic Booster F3 Class"

My eyes immediately landed don those words with complete disbelief. The shock is so big that I immediately looked around nervously as if I expected someone to be observing me or stalking me. Most people would find it confusing and they would think it is a terrible brand name for an energy drink which by the way, were not very popular these days as they would be in the future. In simple words, these name should not exist in this moment of History.

- "I need to talk to that senior"- I said to myself as I walked to the door, but then the bell rang again indicating the end of the break.

- "Ok, children! Sit down please"- a female teacher entered and grabbed me by the shoulders, making me turn around and pushed me gently to my seat.

I had no choice, but to sit down and attend the class. However, my mind wandered elsewhere trying to understand the current situation I was in. I knew this medicine called "Genetic booster," since it had been a very famous drug created in the future with miraculous properties that people would not be able to believe.

- "Nuclear fission should still be in diapers right now…"

The current level of technology was limited by a simple and clear aspect: "Energy," many inventions and theories were limited since it was impossible to create sufficient energy to apply them and so many great possibilities had to be scrapped or stored until the correct time. The only way to create a lot of energy was by Nuclear fusion. However, this method only let scientists use a minimum part of the energy and most importantly, it created a huge amount of radiation which made it very impractical. However, in the search for a better way to use the potential of nuclear energy, a new method was discovered and perfected: "Nuclear fission," this method not only reduced the radiation levels to the minimum, but it also multiplied the energy obtained by ten times in comparison with Nuclear Fusion. Once this method was used formally, it led humankind to the pinnacle of human technology in digital, robotic, and genetic research giving birth to incredible results.

- "The future is now!"

Any Steampunk fan would be living the dream since you could see people walking in the Street with neurolink hardware connected directly to their nervous system in order to have direct Access to internet, social media and games with a simple thought. The implants and prosthetics reached a level in which they vastly outperformed any natural limb could. Of course, the military still had the monopoly on the best implants and the mythical "super soldier" was a reality, reaching levels of reaction, movement and speed and strength so incredible that they would leave any comic super hero in ridicule. This was also complemented by the use of combat armor so advanced that only super soldiers modified with the last body and genetic modifications could control them. I once saw a squad of super soldiers in action and even now the scene caused me shivers. I said saw, but in reality they were more like a blur clearing the field of dozens of thugs which ended in literal pieces scattered and spilled all over the place. Only 5 soldiers ended a small army without any effort. When they finished, they just left flying just like Iron Man.

Without the limitation of fuel, the new model of cars especially from Tesla, created vehicles that used nuclear energy which made them far more potent than their previous electric cars. They also started to create the dreamed flying cars and other vehicles like better planes. They were so fast that they could make the trip from USA to Europe in matter of minutes. Talking about Space technology, a new race which had not been seen since the Cold War began, and this time many countries were also competing apart from the original USA and Russia. Now, China, Korea, Arab Emirates and dozens of private companies like SpaceX or Starliner were trying to surpass each other in creating better suits, tools, software and space vehicles. The goal this time was Mars.

- "Who could put the first person in the red planet?"

Due to the competition, the technology born, especially in space vehicles, had nothing to envy a thing from classics like Star Wars or Star Trekk. In the end, the winner of the race was a private company. SpaceX had beaten the rest of competitors by far and had obtained the rights to create a colony there. Just some months before the End started, they had already been preparing the grand opening of the First colony in Mars and many people had already signed in to go as settlers. The president of the company Elon Musk, and his family even travelled there and sent videos of the construction of the colony and how they had started with the process of terraforming a segment of the red planet. Once the End happened though, all contact with the astronauts in Mars was lost so nobody knew what had happened to them. Most people believed they had died due to shortage of in resources, while others believed they had started with the colony and humankind would continue in Mars after the life in Earth perished.

- "Settling in Mars: Was it a tragedy or a lucky struck?"

Talking about medicine, in just 5 years, most illnesses got a cure or at least treatment. Even Cancer and AIDS were treatable and not mortal anymore. Once the things like illnesses were out of the way, now scientists started to experiment with genes and enhancers which would not only give you permanent boosts in strength and speed, but it could also increase the lifespan of a person. After the creation of these enhancing drugs, there was a scandal with the Olympic games since the world records were broken every time a new enhancer was placed into the market. In the end, there was the necessity of creating new rules and competitions to measure the new human potential. Previous records held by Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps were now considered the minimum any human should do to be considered fit. Even fitness freaks could run 100 meters in less than 8 seconds and high jump 2 meters in the air. Imagine, professional athletes, police officers or military personnel which already had top notch genes and now had access to the best enhancers. Some people now believed humans had transcended their own mortal limits and were ready to ascend to the next level which included the lifespan. According to the scientists with the enhancers, now a person would be able to live 200 or more years and even more with the higher grade drugs.

- "We are in the summit of human potential!"- many had already started to dream about their long lives, especially since the boom in new employment that the factories and new space stations were hiring.

However, the End put an end to these dreams since most people did not die naturally, but in gross and violent ways. It did not matter you could live 2000 years if a bullet pierced your cranium. Also, new illnesses started to appear due to the enhancement prosthesis and drugs. Strange conditions like "Techno Decay," which was the product of using software directly in your nervous system making you crazy, or "Enhancement mutations," due to some people rejecting the drugs and making them transform in literal monsters were not unheard of. There were of course many other things but there was no doubt that humankind was having its best moment.

- "Nothing is perfect in the end..."

This was of course limited by the quantity of money you could offer. Nothing had changed, since the rich could live healthy and long lives while the common people could only have access to the lesser drugs which would never offer the same results as the high degree ones. If I had had the money, my mother would have been able to survive and heal completely. However, the medicine and treatment were just out of my reach. I even offered my body for testing of new drugs in order to get sufficient funds, but it only permitted me to maintain her alive for two years. The memory made me enter very gloomy place so I tried to avoid that and continued my original line of thinking.

- "Money, money, money"- I said remembering the prices that the high grade drugs ended up costing.

This specific type of drug for example, was designed to improve the mental and physical capacity of a human being. It did not matter if you had a weak mind or body, this drug could alter your organism at a genetic level and you could have access to the potential of geniuses of certain Olympic athletes or Nobel prize intelligence. Of course, certain medicines were tightly regulated by the government and could only be accessed with the coirrect connections and the drug had different levels or ranks which also varied the pricing. The results were also completely different, but even the most basic of these drugs would give you palpable results. You would become faster, stronger and even your thinking process would become sharper and clearer.

- "It's a low grade one, but in these times, this would be considered an elixir and most people would pay millions for it"

Grade F was the lowest Rank, so the effect was not very potent. However, considering the age of this body, plus the reaction of the organism for the first time of consumption, it was the most ideal one. It would put a foundation in my stamina, muscular and bone structure. It would not make me a super human, but it would eradicate any imperfection at cellular level that I could have. Of course, I was blessed with a healthy body, so the drug would not get wasted in correcting any defect and would give all the potency on developing and strengthening my body.

- "Still, how is a drug that is supposed to be created in 15 years here right now?"- I wondered with great curiosity

Other thing that was bothering me was the identity of the so called "relative" who had left this message. The most obvious assumption was to think that the person who sent this message was in the same condition as me. They came from the future and if my gut was right, they had more time here than me and had access to more information and technology than me. Did this mean there were a lot of people that like me, regressed and were now trying to get the technology early in the past? If that was the case, this enhancer should be a prototype and maybe they wanted me to be a test subject.

- "If that is the case, why do they not just appear in front of me and ask me directly?"- I wondered trying to find a logic to the situation- "It is obvious they knew who I am and what my situation is."

There were many questions and the answers were locked by this piece of paper in front of me. I could choose to ignore it, but the reward was just too good to let it pass. Even if it was just a low grade prototype, my body had been tested in the past and it was found that it had an 84% of absorption capacity, which meant that it was close to impossible to develop any type of mutation. Letting this opportunity pass was definitely not something I was ready to do. There was also the possibility that this was a test and if ignored they would just never contact me again or in the worse situation they could try to get rid of me. There was also the possibility of this being a trap and me doing as they wish would doom myself. I crossed my arms and then started to touch my chin caressing my nonexistent beard as I usually did when I had to take a big decision. The risk / reward ratio was huge and I knew that the decision I was about to make would definitely affect me and my family. In the end though, I knew I had to dive into the situation and test the waters. I had to surpass a wall first though

"You must defeat Luis Ferandis."

The conflict between us was simply unavoidable. Kori definitely hated me and I also would not be happier than to send the son of a bitch to the next life. In my previous life, Kori grabbed me one day and dragged me to an empty lot where I was beaten so badly I had to spend some weeks in the hospital and worse, it left a deep trauma in my psyche. Worse was that I denied the event due to Kori threatening to use his father connections to hurt my mother.

- "Because of that fight, if being treated as a sandbag could be called a fight, my self-esteem and confidence fell to critical levels and I became a coward"- I said to myself like confessing a terrible sin- "After that situation, my mom made me change schools, but it still haunted me for years until due to the necessity of defending my family I had to grow a pair once again and hold my ground."

Even then my legs were shaking every time I had to fight and discuss things and needed all my willpower to stop myself from running away. Only after the End came and I had to fight and kill I got rid of that cowardice.

- "A useless coward would not last more than a month in that world were the strong ate the weak for breakfast"- I remembered those days with nervousness, since even though eating each other was just an allegory, it really happened in those day.

The point was that at least I could have been considered a useful coward which let me survived the first months of the End which took almost half of the population due to many things like suicide, civil unrest and the anarchy that followed to the dissolution of the government in my country. Due to my fear of a painful death and my lack of empathy for my fellow citizens, it was not difficult for me to become ruthless and emotionless in the face of death. I must say I did not kill innocent people, by that time almost every single survivor were horrible people who had done their fair share of disgusting actions. However, many times I had to witness others kill people who could be considered nice without being able to do a thing. So you could say I was an accomplice. Most of the time, though I maintained my distance with others so that I did not have any kind of emotional attachment so when they died or abandoned me, I felt nothing more than a pang of impatience for the time I had wasted on them. Most of the time I had to face the danger by myself and with every beat, hit, cut, broken bone, every lucky survival, every betrayal that I could reverse, and every escape and of course every life I took, my confidence and feeling of power strengthened and after some years my cowardice and shyness just disappeared to the point that I was sure I could take anything on the way. That was until of course I noticed there was an enemy I could not defeat no matter how strong or experienced I was.

- "Oh time, you cruel mistress…"- I said remembering a poem I had heard some time which had a phrase that was taken from a French president in the past- "Old age is a shipwreck"

It is scary to notice how your body and mind, once so strong and reliable now failed you at every time in simple tasks. You really felt like being on a ship that was sinking and there was nothing you could do except accept your destiny. Every single day you had to readapt to this new worse body that seemed to be constantly in pain even when resting and so burdensome every time you moved. I must admit though that my body did a good job for someone living in that hell that the End was so I cannot complain too much. In then every single creature must bend the knee to time and realize there is no winning against her.

- "Didn't people had enhancers and prosthesis and were supposed to live 200 years, you ask?"

Well that was true, I did manage to get powerful enhancers but even so, contrary to my expectations, I noticed that every time I became slower and took me more and more just to cope with the younger people around me. Some time later, after investigating the reason, I discovered that all those experiments I did when I offered myself as a laboratory rat to test new drugs had made my body resistant to the effects of the new more powerful ones. In simple words, I burned my body capacity of absorption with trash prototypes so the new effective ones did not have any effect in me. So my speed, strength and reaction time were already set in stone with the ones I got from the prototypes many of which were defective. Most of the drugs I tested were oriented to power, speed and reflexes so I did not have many ones directed on lifespan which meant that I had no way of extend my lifespan anymore and so I was aging normally… no, I realized that I was aging even faster since at an age of not even 50 I felt as sluggish as a 60-year-old grandpa. Maybe another side effect of my drug tester days.

- "There was also the possibility of using prosthetics and becoming a kind of android but that idea never really suited me"- I seriously thought it was terrifying- "I mean… would I still be considered human? Also, since you became more machine, it was easier to be subjected to hacking and literally becoming the tool of any hacker who could easily transform you into his personal toy."

I have seen a person which I had known previously becoming a personal attendant of a hacker. The poor bastard had used all his savings to become in his own words an unstoppable Terminator, immune to disease, aging and with the power of a God, only to become a servant of a hacker who had erased his personality and made him extremely loyal. I decided there and then that I would never fall into that path. I preferred to die as a man and not as a simple toaster, thank you very much!

- "I have another opportunity now though"- I said while reading the note again- "I won't have to suffer due to being a prototype tester anymore so I will make sure it's the real thing- "if I'm not the only one from the future, it means that there is a possibility for them to have more advanced medicines which could include the ones which could cure or even prevent my mother's illness. For this, I need to contact the person who signed as C.K."

It was probably a nickname and since they prepared this, it meant they were watching and they would just break contact if I did not do as they asked. I had planned to avoid the fight with Kori, but this changed the situation since this was the only lead to these people. So it was decided.

- "I will beat the hell out of Kori!"- I thought while sighing.

The rest of the class was foggy since I did not paid much attention. I had many more important things to think about than children subjects. The bell rang in no time and I just prepared my things to return home. In the middle of the road I feel myself being pulled by many arms and I am dragged to a very familiar empty lot where I had suffered so much in my previous life. It was a big space, originally bought by a man who wanted to leave something for his family. However, the man had the bad luck to own this lot which was in the center of a war of the local gangs which for some reason wanted this specific place. The poor owner was caught in the middle of this and was forced to sell his property and abandon his dreams. The rumors said that Kori's father was part of the gang who had won the lot and was the foundation of his "populist fighter career."

- "Well, Crissy… it seemed the tables had turned…"- said Kori who had been using this lot as his personal playground and arena. The location was perfect since there were no people living around thanks to the diligent work of his father's thugs.

- "Wow, I really underestimated you, Luciel"- I said while being released from Kori's underlings who seemed to be enjoying the situation and were looking forward to the beating I was supposed to receive- "I never thought you were this stupid. Doing this even after I warned you… you really are a no brainer."

- "Yap all you want son of a bitch!"-Kori said while cracking his knuckles and looking at me with the clear intentions to tear me apart- "you don't know who my father is. We only need to move a finger and you and you mother will pay the consequences. Also, didn't you have a little brother? It would be a shame if some kind of accident were to happen to him, don't you think?"

Look at this toad… thinking he had everything under his control and throwing laughable threats my way. Of course, the past me believed this and I had chosen the martyr path in the name of protecting my family. Looking back, I was really an idiot. I can't help but laugh at my past naivety. Kori did not know this tough and he thought I was mocking him.

- "I hope you still have enough teeth to smile after I finish with you!" – he said seething in fury. Looking at him, I really think it's pathetic, but at the same time a strange feeling takes over me and I am really shocked to recognize it… I am nervous

- "What the hell? Why am I nervous for a child's fight?"- I wondered in disbelief as I felt my hand trembling a little- "me? Someone who had survived in the worst hellish catastrophe known to man? Someone who had fought to death against monsters and psychopaths was scared of a 10 year-old brat? I simply cannot believe it!"

- "The little girl is afraid! Look at how he trembles!"- he said as he put off his sweater and tie and unbuttoned his shirt. His face is radiant and he obviously thinks this will be a one sided butchery. His underlings also thought the same and they were cheering and asking for blood as animals ready to jump on the fallen prey- "Now you know fear, idiot!"

I sighed and understood why I was feeling like this. The trauma Kori had caused me in my past life was a really deep one and even after having experienced so much it was still stuck in my subconscious. I remembered how many people mocked traumatized victims calling them crybaby drama queens. A trauma is really nothing to laugh about. My head told me I could easily win, but there is also another voice shouting at me to escape and avoid the danger. However, I will not run anymore. If I can't overcome this obstacle which is absolutely nothing in comparison to what will come in the future, then my regression will be for nothing and I will not be able to save my family nor carry out my plans. I have to erase this trauma here and now!

- "This will also pass…"- I whispered a mantra that I always used in these situations and immediately felt my breathing relax.

This mantra, based on what my mom used to say every time she felt overwhelmed by emotions and problems, worked as a method of auto-suggestion which always made me enter battle mode even during moments during the End when I was shaking in terror and about to wet myself.

- "Ready to die?"- Kori said with a grin as he started to jump in his place using a Tae-Kwondo stance.

The shaking in my hand stopped and everything cleared up in my mind from uselesss thoughts. This is just another battle, but this time it's just a kid who do not really have the guts to kill me. Me on the other hand…

- "I warned you…"- I said with a cold and detached voice- "don't blame me for what is about to happen…"