9. Infusion

'Secret Base,' Nevada. United States. Earth.
34 Years 10 Months AC.
12:21 PM.

Symb was standing in a large, mess hall-type room, with a clipboard in hand. On the clipboard was a list of all of the candidates for the injection. It was just like a bunch of people giving blood, except instead of the plungers of the syringes being pulled out, they were being pushed in. There were five rows of five candidates in each laying on a medical bed. They were all wearing hospital gowns and had about fifteen different colored wires attached to them, with monitors and the like surrounding them, all of which were keeping track of their vitals as they were being injected. There was at least one nurse stationed at each bed watching over the process as a small team of doctors went around administering the shots.

The process was pretty quick. They had a large group of the nurses and doctors come in. Three scientists going around injecting twenty-five people would have taken way too long. Plus they weren't professionals at injecting patients. Hence the doctors.

Symb was walking around, along with Shadows and Swift, checking on each of the patients. Her clipboard displayed the names of all the patients. She walked around putting names to faces. She tried not to get attached to anyone, she knew that only one-fifth of these people would make it to the final stage. And the chances of the incredibly cute guy she was hovering around right now making it all the way to the end was very slim. She frowned and walked away, down the aisle.

After all of the patients were injected. The scientists were told to leave the floor and meet in the atrium of the building that they were currently in. Once there, they began questioning the next stage.

"What are we doing next?" Symb asked.

"Next we wait," replied Swift, clearly not trying to hide the annoyance emanating from her words.

"Yeah, I meant after the waiting part," replied Symb, as if she were talking to a child.

"After the waiting," Shadows interrupted, "we start testing them, both physically and genetically."

"How are we going to test them physically?" Symb asked.

"Have you not noticed the entire boot camp training course outside?" Swift asked sharply.

"I guess not," Symb replied. She was starting to get sick of the shortness that Swift had with her questions. She was really starting to get on her nerves.

As the next few weeks passed, Swift did not get any easier to live with. In fact, she got worse. Her attitude continued to be choleric. She snapped at everyone constantly. Luckily, Symb had a mess of results to go over. Those helped to distract her from Swift's annoying behavior.

Slowly but surely, people were being thanked for their participation and sent home. They were all affected by the serum but most of them showed a significantly lower reaction than the others. They were down to twelve now. But the full affects have yet to kick in. The only things that they saw were the basics; a small increase in strength, a small increase in stamina, and a very subtle increase in speed in all but one of them. One subject was significantly faster than the rest. He seemed like one that would stay. But, unlike the twenty rats, the really big stuff had yet to emerge. They continued to test and test for it.

The twelve had been broken up into groups of four and had to systematically report for training in three separate areas of the base. A day in the life of an injectee came down to this: Wake up, eat the first meal. Then, group one reports to DNA and genetic testing to see if their genes or DNA had changed and how so. Then they would report to physical training. There they would be tested on their stamina, speed, strength and overall physique. This training was achieved through the use of various obstacle courses, such as climbing walls, crawling under barb-wire, the usual military things. They also ran a timed one hundred meter dash, along with weight lifting, and a couple other physical tests. They were extensive.

They were then to report for lunch with the other groups. Finally, they had mental and psychological testing. They were given various scenarios and brain teasers and critical thinking challenges to test their creativity, mental reaction time, mental capacity, and stimulation. One girl showed extremely promising results. Her mind was firing off completely different things than the rest of the group. Different than most human beings. They were all increasing rapidly in brainpower, again, some more so than others.

Within another week they were down to the five that they required. These five were the best in the program. The other seven were great, but in the final stretch, these five's powers really started emerging, while the others started to hit a ceiling. These subjects had no limitations, so said the testing. Symb predicted that their power would continue to grow exponentially over time. Never hitting the ceiling that the others did.

What was better, and that made Symb very happy, was the fact that the team was made up of three guys and two girls. The really handsome guy didn't make it, but the fast one, and the girl did, so that was a blessing. She really liked that there were some females on the team. She had hoped for just one girl. Just one girl and she would have been content, but she was granted two, and for that, she was grateful. They were ready to get down to the nitty gritty now. They had their team. Symb just had to review the documents and find out what their powers were. Once they did, and they gave the team the means to control said powers, they would be ready to go on their first mission.

Symb had talked to one of the suited men. They told her that she, along with the other scientists would be in charge of the team. They didn't get to dictate what they did. No, technically the people were actually owned by the U.S. Government. But Symb and the rest were in control of training them and building a relationship with them. When they were doing a mission, it was her and the scientists on the communicator talking to them.

The man had also said that the government was aware of the problem that she had brought up about the hit zones. They were making it a point to run an investigation in each of those places. The man seemed surprised that Symb had pieced the whole situation together, all by herself. She thought that that little bit of impress-ment would grant her team the rights to run the mission she had in mind. She was hopeful.

But now she had some research to do. Now she knew which five people she would be spending God knows how long with. She had five huge dossiers sitting on her cot ready to be read. These dossiers covered everything she could possibly want to know about these people (and somethings she'd rather not know), right down to favorite color and mother's maiden name. She had quite a lot of reading to do.

(A/N) So, I've figured out just about how many chapters this will end up being. Expect roughly mid-twenties (vague term so you don't know exactly where it ends 'cause I'm mystical like that :D) I'm so excited for you all to see what's coming up(: the twists, the turns, the romance, (that's right!) it's going to be such a fun adventure. Review and let me know what you think! The next chapter is back to Sabine, and the faster you read and review the faster it goes up (and it is Ah-maz-ing), so what are you waiting for? Talking squirrels? (They could be in the future chapters!)? But you'll never know if you don't: READ & REVIEW!