MADISON

I am not sure if I look at the girl in front of me or if she is looking at me, fully serious. Her green eyes don't leave mine while she remains to lie on the white blankets. I frown trying to decipher what's going on and she does it too, imitating me. I can see her completely, like if I were looking at her flying over the room. I tilt my head to the left and she imitates me once again, I tilt it to the other side. Same reaction.

Two persons wearing white gowns approach the bed where the girl is lying on, two men, however, I am only able to see their heads until one of them looks at me. It's my father or he looks like him just that he seems to be a little bit younger. "Dad?" I say at the same time that the girl does, but strangely only hearing her voice.

"What are you looking at?" replies the other man looking at me too, Wen. My father takes out a syringe with a pink substance inside from the gown he is wearing and hands it to Wen.

"Dad?" I try to say once more getting the girl to imitate me again.

"Stay still Madison," replies the other man and injects the substance in the child's arm causing me a little sharp pain in the arm.

When I wake up, I am lying on the bed of my bedroom, sweaty and with my heart beating a thousand beats per hour. It was all a dream, I tell myself sitting down against the bedside and try to calm down. I try to understand all that happened in my dream but each question in my mind just makes it worse.

Why was the girl imitating me? Why when I tried to call my father the other man replied? Was the girl me? Maybe all of this doesn't have a meaning. Maybe everything is a product of my subconscious because of everything I found out yesterday. Isn't it?

I take my phone from the table next to my bed to check the time, almost nine. I need to talk with Levy about yesterday, I think he could find a logical explanation to all this matter.

8:32 AM MADISON: Can we hang out?

I send the message as fast as I can and wait for the answer. "Good morning," Sarah says showing up in my room's entrance holding a bedtable with fruit and two waffles served with coffee.

"Hello Sarah," I reply staring anxiously at the phone while she places the table over my legs. My phone buzzes.

8:37 AM LEVY: I will be at your house in two hours.

I leave the phone back on the bed and look at Sarah, "why didn't you tell me anything?"

"It was something that I didn't have to explain," she says sitting down in front of me on the bed. "Plus, your parents thought you didn't have enough age to understand it."

I take a little bit of the mix of fruits and yogurt, "have you met the child?"

"I have enough with you."

"Then..."

"I can't get in there, I guess she might have her own Sarah cleaning up all her mess," she jokes and I roll my eyes limiting myself to finish my breakfast. When I am done, she leaves with the dirty dishes and I dedicate myself to get ready.

Just when I finish with my improvement routine, my phone begins to buzz letting me know that Levy has arrived. I take the phone and his work from over the desk and run to the principal door. "Good morning miss Wrestler," Teo greets me, as he always does, walking me to Levy's white Jeep that waits right outside. "Drive safe," he says closing the door and Levy nods speeding up.

Once we are on the street, the sun enters through the window next to Levy creating a golden resplendence around his side face. He is handsome, like really handsome. With his brunette skin for so many hours surfing under the sun in the waves of Malibu and his eyes and hair of a dark brown, "I have a girlfriend, Madison," he jokes when he notices me staring lost at him, "and she is your friend... she is pretty jealous, to be honest."

"I'm sorry, I didn't sleep well," I finally say giving him his work. We are parked right out of his house, which is not too far from mine, just six or eight blocks south.

"Was that all? You were just going to give me this?" he smiles. "You could have given it to me tomorrow. We study at the same place... just saying."

I let out a forced laugh and his smile disappears immediately knowing something is clearly wrong. He knows me even more than I do it myself, "you okay?" he says now worried and I just shrug.

"Last night, I finally discover what my parents do or at least I think so," he stares at me waiting for me to continue and I gulp. That enigma was something we tried to solve for years in the past until we gave up when we realized my parents weren't talking.

"C' mon, tell me I was right and they were agents for the CIA," he says pushing gently my arm joking. I force him a smile as an answer to then deny it shaking my head.

"They are Scientists or something like that," I respond and his eyes open widely when he hears the truth. Startled, just like I was yesterday. "It isn't good right?" I ask when receiving no answer from him. He turns to face the steering wheel and look at the horizon passing his hands over his legs.

"It's complicated," he finally says giving me the exact same answer my mother did when talking about this. He still doesn't look at me, "is your house...?"

"Yeah, the lab," I reply and he looks at me. "The forbidden door seems to be a test room. There's a girl."

"My mother was right," he mumbles closing his eyes and tilting his head backward.

"What?" I ask confused. "Right about what? Did you know this?"

"No, I didn't, you don't understand," he says quickly. "When we tried to decipher what your parents were working on, my mother suspected that it could have probably been something related to the Scientists. I didn't believe her because she is part of a lawsuit that is looking forward to ending with these experiments. I just thought it was her being paranoic... Dammit, she would get nuts when she founds out."

A thousand more questions start getting on my mind. What lawsuit? Against my parents? That's what my mother was trying to tell me with the...it's complicated thing? What would happen if his mother founds out?

"What lawsuit?" I ask as soon as I get my thoughts in order.

"There's an association that wants to end with everything related to the experiments that involve children. It is something really hard to get, they have been trying to eradicate this for years now but the problem has got bigger with each year," I nod for him to continue and he sighs. "Years ago... the world was infested with illnesses that were very hard to control, like cancer. They ended up with millions of lives each year and there were apparently not concrete cures or something that could've really ended up with that sickness and more of them with thousands of types.

"Previously they used to use animals to test any kind of theories that could benefit the human race, like medicines. But like with everything, there were people in favor and others against it. The people against using animals in human favor got to the conclusion that animals shouldn't suffer in the benefit of humans and that it wasn't a hundred percent guaranteed that something proven to work in animals was going to be effective in humans because we aren't genetically identical.

"The case was taken to the court. They won with those arguments and animal experiments were prohibited, but the people in favor, doctors and scientists insisted on searching for the way to save lives and end up with illnesses that during that time were ending up with them all. Then, since there wasn't how to test new medicines, science started to look for volunteers that let them experiment on the different treatments. Of course, they knew they could or couldn't work and therefore they could even die of the sickness or for the same treatment they received.

"This method lasted for a long time with ups and downs but without full success and still with people that were against those experiments too. Then a few years later, it was finally able to understand fully the human genome and with that, a scientist came up with a revolutionary idea and the solution to all those problems that could make everything better once and for all."

"To use children?" He nods.

"Kind of. With his technology, he achieved to modify the DNA of an embryo making it fully healthy and immune to any disease. He assured that he was able to modify any gene of a human embryo. He could do them more intelligent, stronger, or as he said before resistant to any disease, he could change anything. Based on that, he took the decision of selling his technology to science and with that create children for the exclusive use of experimentation, changing on them whatever was needed to test. He said he could make children with cancer and that way making it possible to find a cure and guaranteed it would work in humans without risking the lives of people with loved ones or even animals."

"And they believed him?"

"Everyone thought that it was only going to help humanity. They were children without any other mission than to be used for science. Children without families, except for the woman in charge of delivering it. Children of, to and for science."

"But if they did found the cures, why didn't they stop creating them?"

"For what moves the entire world, Madison. Money. Thousands of millions of dollars were invested globally on these beneficial experiments. They created laboratories worldwide, maximum one per city. Everyone was convinced it was something good. But once they get rid of the problem, from where they were going to gain more money? Because of that, the scientists got to the conclusion that these children could help them understand better their own species. They sold that thought to the world saying that they were going to be able to comprehend and measure the intelligence, the resistance, and strength. An infinity of stuff that until now, they are still supposedly researching on them but that is completely useless.

"Did no one opposed them?"

"At the beginning, everyone had in mind that the end justifies the way they use to get to an objective and that it was worth the sacrifice of one person to save the life of thousands. The majority agreed with that, but when the experiments and results have proven themselves to be absurd, unconformity began to rise and some people get in mind that the children used, receive no protection at all. They suffer, and in some cases, they even die. That's why they formed this global association that began to suit the labs and ending with hundreds of them, there are countries where they aren't even legal anymore. Many labs got closed, that's why they are hidden now, like your parents' one. The government is still financing their investigation labor and it protects them because that way they obtain more resources for the country. However, they still run the risk of falling if being discovered."

"Wow, it's too much," is everything I get to say while trying to process all of this. "But, why do they hide the children?"

"They don't hide them, they isolate them from society since they are born so they could study them completely in a supposedly objective way. This children don't get physical contact with any person except for the moment they are tested, they don't get affection or even an explanation about the outer world, since the more they know the more they rationalize and most probably the more they would defend themselves or even deny to continue and when that happens, the experiment must be suspended."

"Why?"

"They are still humans. They feel. And fear can affect the results they try to obtain. I don't know, it's part of some code between labs or something. When the child starts showing unconformity with what goes around him, everything must stop and pitifully they die."

"Die?!" it startles me and he nods. "They die for trying to defend their own lives, that doesn't make any sense."

"Scientists don't care if it does or doesn't have sense. Those children are born with that purpose and if they aren't useful for that then they're not necessary. At least not for them," I get a lump formed in my throat and my eyes must have got full of tears because for some reason he looks at me with pity. "I told you it was a really hard subject, that's why they want to end up with this."

I nod and look out the window thinking of everything. How would I be able to look at my parents the way I've always had knowing what they really do? What would happen with us if they get to discover the lab? "Why don't you investigate more on your own and answer your doubts? I'm sure that the internet is going to explain better all of this," I nod and he starts the van again.

"Levy," I say before we get into the street getting him to look back at me. "You can't tell anyone about this."

"What?!" he says surprised. "Madison, but -"

"I know it's pretty complicated. I get it all, but Levy they are my parents, I can't only uncover them and that's all... it's their job," I interrupt him before he gets to say anything else. "I need to find out what is it that I want to do with what I know so far, they didn't told me for a reason, promise it to me," he sighs when I finish and then nods with any other alternative.

"I won't say anything."

The road back home I only think of the poor little girl of the room, without anyone looking up for her and living terrible just for what she has in her genome. Locked up like a mouse in a cage. As soon as I get home I run upstairs and enter to my father's office, turn on the computer and quickly search test children. In less than a second, there appear hundreds of links about these children. I open up the first I found and quickly it shows me the full info.

The children used in laboratories are children specifically created for that, which means these kids' life isn't useful in society but exclusively inside this "beneficial" experiments for science.

These children are created out of a person using machines that modify all the genes and give them characteristics such as hair color, eyes, gender, etcetera and to this they add special characteristics, like if it is going to be weak or strong among other things depending on the tests previously determined to be tested once this is born.

Once the genetic code of the future embryo has been modified, it would be implanted on a woman or bearer that would be in charge of carrying out the pregnancy process with a very close follow-up by the scientists assigned for the child. Once the development of the baby is over, the labor will be induced to later apply the Initial Test, in which every part of the child will be analyzed observing if it will or won't be useful for future tests.

If the result is negative, the baby would pass to be "liberated" as it's commonly said, when in fact the child stops existing. In the other hand, if the result is positive, the child passes on to the stage of isolation where it will pass the rest of its life.

Commonly, these children don't receive any kind of human contact. Their full life would be primarily characterized by injections and pokes with tact through plastic gloves.

The tests are practiced by specialized and selected people for that child. Usually three: the creator or owner of the child who is the head of the experiment and two helpers. The creator decides and applies what would be practiced on the little one and the helpers are in charge of the childcare as well as applying its particular treatments or the injection of nutrients (food). Depending on the test to be tested, it could involve more people during this one, usually students or medical interns.

This children's mission ends up when their number assigned of tests is over or when it's relatively old. It must be noted that scientists don't measure themselves at the moment that they do the tests, they are practiced one after the other in the child without thinking on what this one feels because, in the end, that's the reason for what it was born.

The maximum age of these lab's children is undefined since it depends on how risky the tests are. However, there's a parameter about the age of these kids, since eventually they get mature and become capable to understand what surrounds them which can complicate the end of the experiment. The cipher varies between the 0 months to 7 years old.

If a little one gets to get to the maximum age for some reason, it would get injected with something that sleeps him or her indefinitely or in some cases they would be submitted into a Final Test were the chances of the child surviving is of 0.99% and the ones for dying of 99.9%.

The creation of these children hasn't been banned globally even though it should be since these children suffer too much during the tests and there's no mercy to none of them till the failure of these ones or the loss of their lives. This practice is allowed under the well-known quote of "the end justifies the way" understanding the way as the increment in the known of the human science and that way getting to extend the existence of the human being on earth.