Zach looks intently at Marcus, not understanding why he didn't refer to his military rank, why he's here, or what happened to him. All Zach can do it nod as there are too many thoughts at once blurring together in his mind.
Marcus smiled, "You have been conscripted. You now have a job with Uncle Sam. Do it well and in a decade or two or three you will be released back into the world with a bunch of awesome skills and your whole life ahead of you. Fight this, and you will end up a drone like Bruno over there..." Marcus motioned back toward the doors where he had come from, apparently referring to the guard. "barely smart enough to remember to tie his shoes."
Without skipping a beat Marcus continued, turning to look into the lab, Zach saw they were on the 2nd floor overlooking it. "Marvelous, isn't it? This is where it all started... This lab has combined a number of major break-thoughs together to create this." Marcus held up another can of the Monster energy drink. "Go ahead I know the sedatives make people unbearably thirsty." Marcus offered the drink to Zach who didn't move. Marcus laughed, "It's already done its business, this won't hurt you." Marcus opened the can, took a big swig, swallowed, and held out the can again.
Zach was parched and Marcus had proven that the drink wouldn't hurt him... Marcus smirked at Zach's hesitation, "Son, you have already been drugged and while you were unconscious you were drugged more, tested, and drugged again for good measure. Look at your arm. If you are thirsty, here is a drink."
Zach looked at his arm and sure enough there was a needle mark and tape residue, he had an IV in him. Reluctantly, he accepted the drink and drank it.
Marcus didn't care to watch but continued with his explanation. "Where was I, Ahh yes. So the War on Terror has been quite costly on the Military. Back in 2001, events occurred that sparked what is becoming a never-ending war. For years now the media has been discussing the horrors that the brave men and women endure in their noble fight to protect our way of life. GOD BLESS THEM. But with the media coverage, People are reminded that war is going on. So enlistment drops, and has been dropping, for well over a decade now!" Marcus looked at Zach and flashed his perfect smile, "That's where you come in soldier!"
Zach nearly spit out the gulp he was taking in his shock.
"Careful there boy, that gulp is about 300 billion in technology costs."
Zach choked the gulp down, coughed, and squeaked out, "I'm no soldier. I'm 17, I couldn't join yet even if I wanted to."
Marcus cast a discerning eye over Zach, "You're right, you're not a soldier, but we will fix that."
To Zach's surprise, Marcus left the discussion at that and went back to his tour. "Bio-engineering, Gene replacement therapy, the human genome project, Nanotechnology, you have heard of these things right?"
Zach actually heard of them last semester when he took biology class, "Yeah, the future of science, I know of those fields."
Marcus gave his knowing smirk, "Future my ass, I'm gonna let you in on a secret, those fields are already mastered, at least by a select few... here... in this lab."
Zach had enjoyed the biology class and had actually done a research paper on the topic of Nanotechnology. Finding solace in this one familiar thing he began recalling its recent breakthroughs and cited the research he had found regarding what it can and cannot do.
Marcus was bemused by Zach finally speaking up and that THIS was the thing he decided to speak up about... "Fine, Fine Zach. You win. We don't know Jack from shit. Tell me, " Marcus walked down the hall to a computer console and logged in. " How old do you think I am?"
Zach balked, "Uh, 50's or 60's?"
"Good guess, good guess. You realize that that is a 20 year span right?"
Zach blushed with embarrassment. "Um, yeah, I guess. I suck at guessing ages, I'm sorry if I offended you." Zach said automatically.
"Oh, no offense taken, but would you believe I'm 26?"
Zach stared in disbelief as the mostly salt, and some pepper haired man asked strait faced. Zach examined the extent and depth of the man's wrinkles and recalled the gravel in his voice which he associated with older people... after a minute of consideration he decided to take the question at face value. He thought of all the things that could make someone wrinkle and even with drug use, a premature aging disease, and extreme sun exposure, Zach still couldn't justify someone aging THAT badly.
"No, I wouldn't believe that you are 26. No way."
Marcus smiled, "But I am." with that he pulled up a picture of some guy who could pass for being in his mid 20's on the computer screen.
"That's not you."
"Ah, but it is." he clicked a button and the photo began to age, looking more and more like the man standing before Zach, Eventually it looked exactly like him and then the face on the screen began to deteriorate as the age progression continued. There was an age counter in the corner and after 107 the age was replaced with "unadvised."
"Ok, so you use to look like that 40 some odd years ago, I don't get your point."
The picture eventually looked disgustingly decrepit and eventually cycled back to a 21 year old version of him. It made its way to 26 before he stopped it.
"Yesterday." Marcus pushed a couple of buttons and a new image popped up. "This is you."
Zach's POV
My image popped up on the screen and began aging from 17. Even though the picture was of my face, it was clear by the thicker neck this was how I currently looked. The computer generated an extremely lifelike image of me growing older. A beard shadow grew in, in my early 20's, the image actually had a beard by my mid 20's. In my early thirties the computer projected that I would begin going gray though it was only really noticeable after my mid thirties. First in my beard, then temples, then slowly going everywhere. The man looked like he could be my uncle as I saw some of my father's attributes. By mid 50s the picture had no hair color left. It was weird watching the color slowly drain from such a lifelike image. I watched my computerized avatar progress, like the image before, past decrepit, and then start over.
"Ok, you want to make me a soldier because people wont enlist, so you kidnapped me and are showing me your high quality age prediction software. what am I missing?"
Marcus was watching the screen, my image had progressed again to 23... I began watching it again, it had the sharp detailed quality of a time-lapse but it wasn't, nor was it a morph. It is hard to not look at something that looks like it could be you. 24, it really was captivating, I could pick out individual hairs and watch as weight redistributed, I leaned in to see if I could find when the first gray would show up. 25. Marcus paused it, pressed a few buttons. A few seconds later my image disappeared and his image was back up. He pressed a few more buttons, laughed to himself, then the screen shut down and Marcus continued talking but ignored my question.
"What you drank was a slew of bio-nano-tech. I like to think of it as super condensed calories. What you think of as future technology has already been discovered, exploited, and used, on you no less. Your town, missing its teenage males, is probably the 50th town we have gone through. As we speak, all memory of you and the other young men, is being erased from the minds of friends, family, even distant relatives. This is far cheaper than taking on liability for drug testing, and you are lucky enough to get to be the test subject."
"You are now a super-soldier, built to join a super soldier army. Movies like Captain America, Total Recall and Men in Black didn't come up with the idea of making soldiers, giving people false memories, or wiping selected memories from someones mind while creating a false background on the fly. We leaked those ideas to writers, and convinced Hollywood to buy the movie rights as a contingency, If anything ever got out it would sound like someone had a bad dream while watching a movie."
Marcus stared at me deeply, examining my face before continuing, apparently he was looking for me to be shocked, but I knew he had to be making this stuff up to impress me. "Months of basic training to get new recruits into passable shape, followed by more training, and more training after that, just to have some asshole terrorist run in with a bomb attached to a dead-man's switch."
Marcus continued talking but Zach became distracted when he noticed that Marcus' hair seemed darker, looking closer, he didn't look as weathered as Zach originally thought. How could Zach have said 60's? He was probably mid 40's to mid 50's.
"Lucky for us, we have you... a Bona-fide athlete all throughout middle school, high school, and college." With that he gave Zach a playful punch in the arm, reminding him that it was rock solid muscle. He probably did look like he was very athletic throughout his life, though he wasn't, and being so muscular probably made him look older than a teen. "You are free of any genetic malady and an excellent candidate for our rapid training program where we will download years of basic and specialized training in a day or two."
Zach felt like a slab of meat on market. Take a swig of this and he's suddenly grade A Angus on his way to a new purpose he never would have considered. He didn't make a plan for his future yet, but it seems like he wouldn't have gotten to do it anyway. If Zach tried to fight back he might be lobotomized, or his family could be hurt. If he complied, he may be let go, in decades, and still, somehow, have his whole life ahead of him??? This just doesn't make sense.
Marcus had turned away, walking down the hall, talking about the benefits of the rapid training program, and memories. Zach noticed the back of Marcus' head didnt have any gray, he had just assumed he was gray all over. Maybe he could believe Marcus could be mid or late 30's, with a really weathered face? Too much sun maybe?
Marcus had moved on to discussing how the science of one part of the project helped with the other parts, universal muscular nanites and rapid enzyme transportation facilitating enhanced regeneration or something. Marcus was still faced away from Zach but Zack noticed that Marcus' voice sounded clearer somehow. Zach scratched his arm, absentmindedly, not realizing that his body hair had tripled over the last 2 minutes.
"Come along" Marcus motioned to follow as he entered an office and stole a quick glance in a hand mirror. "Now, my good man, I think you have been missing the gravity of the situation. We have mastered this technology."
"I..." Zach began, noticing his voice sounded funny. But, his brain skipped a beat as Marcus turned towards Zach for the first time in the last two minutes. Marcus was young! No more gray, no more wrinkles. His voice lost its gravel and was clear again. That same gleaming smile appeared when he saw the shock on Zach's face.
Zach tried to say something but his brain couldn't settle on which question to ask first, so nothing came out. Zach was left silently mouthing syllables.
"Yes, yes, Man you look like you could use a drink" Marcus went into his mini fridge behind his desk and pulled out a beer for himself and one for Zach.
Zach reached out and took the beer, noticing the file Marcus had, had his name on it. Zach looked up and mumbled, "But I'm only seventeen?"
Marcus smirked, "Yeah, maybe 8 years ago." and motioned to the mirror. "or yesterday, you know how it is..."
Zach hesitantly reached for the mirror not understanding. When he looked in it he saw a man in his mid 20's staring back. Stubble was pushing its way our of his face and when he raised his eyebrows in shock he had more wrinkles on his brow than he remembered. The reality of the situation came crashing down around him as he touched his face. He was completely out of control of his life. Zach no longer had any doubt that this... entity.. could completely erase him from existence, or make his future full of adventure and unique experiences for years to come.