Zen

Imagine a world where amputation, transplants, and eventually even cancer could be totally fixed or cured. Experiment Zen was intended to help teach cells to transfigure into different types of cells that could then be used as part of surgeries and other procedures to then produce cures to major diseases. However, Experiment Zen was never meant to learn how to breach outside of the program walls. For young five-year-old Kate Cruz, it went much further than that. Her parents were two of the lead scientists conducting the experiment, but Zen, while bordering success, was one of the biggest scientific failures ever known. With no warning, the scientists put up a losing battle with forces beyond their control. Once Zen had been completely programmed, it was activated and placed under intense surveillance. The night before the observation was the last time Kate ever saw her parents alive. All that she had left to remember them by was a heart-shaped pendant that her father had given her mother to celebrate their new creation. Now, twenty years later, the world is very different from the things we learn in our history books.

Zen took over with a mind of its own; it learned to transform into things far beyond a new functioning heart, or limb as it was designed. The cells learned to morph into entire living beings. In the blink of an eye, it could become any small creature, but given more time it could take the form of other creatures too like an iguana, a bat, or even an owl. The more complex the form it attempted to take on, the more difficulty it had. In the early days, it was easy to tell if you were looking at a Zenny because the transformation normally left them with extra toes and fingers and occasionally even a tail. But as the Zen has learned, it has become better at what it does. Slowly, it learned to adapt to the exact human form.

In the early days, the people in the cities quickly became infected. What the Zen learned to do was to train a person’s cells to transform with a mind of their own. The only stipulation seemed to be that for the Zen to take control of a human’s cells, it had to first come into contact with a human’s flesh while it itself was in human form. To this day, no one is really sure why, but it does make it nice to not have to worry about any of the animals or other living things it can become. Also lucky for us, it takes time for it to transform into more complex creatures. But, it never mastered the complexity of human speech. That’s the best way to tell a Zenny from a human. Make it talk!

Now, most people stay in small groups or communities. This allows them to talk and have some form of communication amongst one another without the fear of silence from those around them. Quickly, the small groups learned to reopen radio lines and communicate with one another. Kate, now one of the youngest scientists around, has assembled an elite ZEN team or Zen Eradication Network. Here goal is simple, to help reverse the mutation in these cells that caused the Zen outbreak that cost her parents their lives. She is hopeful that with the help of the members that she has assembled, and the studies she has conducted, she will be able to honor her parents, and restore the pride in the Cruz name. With the symbol or a heart shaped pendant emblazoned as their logo, she hopes to eventually save all of human-kind. The only question is, will her determination be enough, or will the Zen hiding around every corner be more than young Kate can handle?