Experiment Zero

The fluorescent lights of Braun Lab hum overhead as you lazily tap a pencil against your desk. Ten minutes. Ten more minutes until you can escape this monotonous secretary job on this secret island. Your eyes drift to the clock, then to the silent computer screen, a sigh escaping your lips.

Peter, a guard with puppy-like eyes, watches you from the corner, his silent adoration a familiar annoyance. You can’t risk a relationship here; your escape plan to leave this island, this place that took your mother, is too important.

Being a secretary for a government-sponsored lab near the Bermuda Triangle is as dull as it sounds. No one needs coffee, paperwork is non-existent – you’re just a 'young face'. A face with dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and frustratingly pale skin, a trait you inherited from your father, Dr. Cartwright, the head researcher.

The lab’s 'vital' research, the reason for this island’s secrecy, is the very thing you hate, the thing that cost you your mother. Just as you lose yourself in thought, a commotion erupts. Shouting, running feet – something is happening on the restricted lower level.

Forgetting your coffee, you follow the crowd, pushing your way to the front of the throng gathered outside a glass-walled room. Your father stands there, excitement in his eyes.

"Dad! What's going on?!"

"We've done it, Ashley! We've finally found something!"

Something? A person, secured inside the room, his intense grey eyes locking with yours across the glass. A strange pulse resonates through your chest as you stare at the muscular, shirtless man, a snarl twisting his face before he pounds on the glass, the soundproof barrier muffling the impact.

"Who is he and why is he locked up?" you demand.

Your father’s gaze is distant as he answers, "He's the beginning of a brand new experiment."

"What experiment?"

His eyes snap back to you, the excitement replaced by something unreadable. "Experiment Zero."