Human Photosynthesis

At the beginning of the second decade of the Resource War, an experiment called human photosynthesis emerged. This project consists of injecting a person with nanomachines which, through commands sent by a computer, edit their DNA so that this person is able to absorb any type of nutrients just by touching the ground with their hand, whether it is fertile or sterile.

This project was based on the thesis of the same name by a prodigious scientist called Photora. Shortly after graduating from university, having barely turned 18, Photora began the practical part of this project with Noah, who was a survivor of the first bombing of the war.

For a time, an urban legend spread among the child population of the planet which narrated that a kind woman visited the places of conflict during the war to take to the afterlife those children who had been abandoned in the middle of the holocaust. This was an analogy to the initial phase of the Human Photosynthesis project, in which Photora and Noah went to different places that had been battlefields during the war and took the children who had been orphaned after the disaster. These children were taken to a laboratory where they were injected with nanomachines that edited their DNA to become a new species of humanity, called photosynthetic humans.

However, the first tests were a complete failure. The children were unable to adapt to their new way of eating, and died shortly after being injected. Photora was sad for a long time and thought that her project would not work, until finally there was a child who managed to resist the injection after nine failed attempts. When Photora saw this unexpected success, she was happy to the point of crying and continued with the project.

After that first success, Photora, along with Noah and the first photosynthetic child, continued their journey through the battlefields to continue recruiting children for their project. This time, they showed them how the photosynthetic child managed to obtain his food just by touching the ground anywhere, so that others, upon observing him, were convinced to participate in the project. This was the beginning of a golden age for Human Photosynthesis, and the birth of a possible hope for humanity.

As time went by, there were more and more successful cases of children becoming photosynthetic humans, and their population grew considerably. And although failures still occurred, they were so rare that they did not affect the progress of the project. Everything was going well.

While the children were getting used to their new life, Photora and Noah dedicated their time to looking for the families of the children they were caring for. When the children finished their adaptation to having a normal life as photosynthetic humans, they were returned to their old families. Some stayed with their biological families for the rest of their lives, others continued to be raised by Photora at the request of their parents, as they thought they would live better in a place where they had the resources to survive in the war environment of that period.

Ten years after it began, the project began to be made public, and humanity learned of its existence. Since then, families who wanted to ensure a good future for their children asked that they participate in the project. A formula was even created for adults, with which they could become photosynthetic humans and form a family made up of this new human species. Gradually, the project became more and more popular, becoming the new hope for humanity and the factor that would end the resource war. However, ordinary people would not be the only ones who would learn of the existence of human photosynthesis.

As time went by, the armies that participated in the resource war became aware of the existence of the project. And when they learned about the characteristics of this, their interest in the military field intensified, since having soldiers with photosynthetic capabilities would give them a great advantage because they did not need the food that humans consumed, and they could obtain their nutrients with the simple touch of the earth regardless of the state of it, which would mean a gigantic saving in the food resources of the soldiers and would increase the strength of the armies, since thanks to that absorption of nutrients, the soldiers would never weaken.

The armies of each country began to contact Photora so that she could collaborate in the war with her project, but she refused and told them that her purpose is to help humans recover from the current crisis and not depend on the decadent state in which the planet's resources were, not to strengthen the war and its effects. Because of this, the armies of the world had no choice but to perform petty acts to use the technology of this project in the war. They kidnapped and recruited children and adults with photosynthetic abilities to participate in the war. In addition, they managed to steal the formula that Photora used to create photosynthetic humans by hacking their systems, and implemented it in their soldiers.

Soon after, Photora and ordinary people found out about this, and the project began to degrade its recognition and prestige. As ordinary people believed that Photora was now helping to intensify the war with her project, the credibility and trust towards it was lost. And Photora lost her sanity because of this situation, complaining about how the armies were using her project to keep the war going and to save humanity, entering into an unhealthy state of stress for herself. Because of this, Photora and her collaborators thought about cancelling the project and erasing any trace of its existence on the planet. But the armies participating in the war anticipated this.

One day, the facilities in which Photora was carrying out her project were destroyed by soldiers when she was away. Her collaborators warned her of the situation, but when she arrived at the place it was too late. A huge fire was raging with the destruction of the facilities, all the photosynthetic children were affected by the event. Some were seriously injured and on the verge of death due to the damage to the place, and others disappeared escaping or being buried by the rubble. The project and all traces of it were reduced to ashes. And as if that were not enough, the first photosynthetic human, whom Photora loved and cared for like her own child, disappeared a few days after the incident. Her collaborators also disappeared.

Due to the situation, weeks after the destruction of the facilities, Photora disappeared without a trace of herself or the project. Today, it is not known if she is dead or still alive. Everything vanished due to the war. The only thing left of the project were the children and adults who are now photosynthetic and alive, whether they participated in the war or managed to have a decent and pleasant life with their families.