Wanted Mutants

“Kari, I’m going to show you where I work.” The woman grabbed Kari’s hand and led her through a door, “Mama says you aren’t supposed to bring me here.” The woman bent down and patted the five-year-old brown hair, “What your mother doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Now come on, I have plenty of stuff to show you.” Kari held her teddy bear close as they entered the lobby. The only sound that filled the room was the footsteps of other doctors and scientists as they scrambled about. The woman walked over to a counter and signed her name onto a piece of paper. Grabbing a clipboard, she reached out to the girl. “Alright Kari, come with me sweetie.” She grabbed Kari’s hand and gently pulled her along, but Kari had dropped her teddy bear. “No my teddy… I have to get my teddy.” She pulled her hand free and ran to pick it up, but just as she grabbed it a man had already grabbed the other side as well. “Is this your teddy bear?” He picked it up and dusted it off as he handed it to her. “Thank you.” She slowly grabbed it, turned around and walked back over to the woman, reaching for her hand. She turned to glance back at the man, but he was gone, like unseen dust in the wind. “Kari don’t run off like that, okay?” Her vision blurred for a couple of minutes, but then it cleared. “Auntie Susan, what is this place?” All around her Kari saw people walking around with white lab coats and some were pushing carts with colorful jars while others were walking around with clipboards. “Well, this is my job. I work for a company that tries to make the world a better place for everyone by making medicine, or genetic reconfiguration…” Kari tugged on her aunt’s lab coat. “What is genetic recon… recon…?” She looked down at Kari. “Oh, you mean genetic reconfiguration. It allows us to replace or enhance one’s genetic material or, in a five-year-old's words, it makes one a better person.” Her aunt pulled her along when someone stopped her Aunt. “Um Kari, sweetie, I’m going to leave you with a friend of mine, and she’s going to take very good care of you until I get back.” Her aunt scurried off with a couple of other scientists while Kari stood in the middle of the room holding her teddy bear tightly. She looked around trying to figure out where her aunt’s friend was, but she never showed up. Kari slowly walked over to a door, and she gently pushed it open. Inside she saw a room full of machines and computers and in the center of the room stood a giant tube of liquid with a small capsule in the center. She slowly walked over to the tube and placed her hand on it. It was cool to the touch and then her vision started to blur as she began to see strange blurry objects and muffled voices and then everything went black. She woke up drenched in sweat, “Why does this dream plague me? I don’t even benefit from them.” She ran her fingers through her long white hair, “I need to figure this out.”