Sitting in the waiting room of District 17 General Hospital, a young man with reddish hair watched the hours tick by on the hologram.
"How much longer will I have to wait?"
His wristband lit up, projecting a message only he could see.
"Patient 17 01273000 14, proceed to Ward 11," a voice read from inside his head.
"You never get used to the guard." He leaped from his seat and walked through the rows of benches crowded with patients, heading straight for the examination rooms.
He pressed the sensor buzzer.
"Come in, Strakh," came the voice from inside as the magnetic door retracted.
"Take a seat," said the doctor, dressed in his biohazard suit.
With an awkward movement, Strakh squeezed himself as best he could into the biohazard detection machine. (MDAB)
"It's freezing in here," he thought as his skin touched the synthetic seat of the MDAB.
Carefully, the doctor approached Strakh and secured his arms to the machine, starting at the wrists and forearms, then moving on to his ankles and thighs.
"This isn't your first time, is it?" the doctor asked as he placed the last restraint around his neck.
"That's right, I had my first checkup last year," Strakh stammered, his fists clenched in fear.
The doctor backed up to the wall, and two police officers in biohazard suits emerged from a door opposite where Strakh had entered the office.
"You're going to feel a slight pain," the doctor said before stepping through the magnetic door and into safety.
"It's just a routine checkup, nothing's going to happen," he told himself to calm down, his heart pounding throughout the room. "Beginning biological analysis," Strakh heard in his head.
The machine tightly gripped his body, the metal rings restricting his movements to a minimum. Robotic claws hanging from the ceiling extended needles that injected a pharmaceutical liquid into the boy's skin. A scanner swept Strakh's body from head to toe, and a countdown began to echo throughout the room.
"Progress 5%," the voice in the room announced.
The boy stifled his cries of pain as he writhed in the machine.
"Progress 25%."
"Someone stop the machine!" he choked back.
"Progress 55%."
Strakh's eyes slowly filled with a black liquid and then turned completely white.
"I can't take it anymore."
"Progress 89%." Beams shot from a pair of claws and entered Strakh's eyes. He clenched his jaw in fury as his face flushed red with pain.
"Process complete, specimen 99% human," the machine said, nearly causing Strakh to lose consciousness from the pain. His arms returned to their positions, and the machine released him.
"Congratulations, Strakh, you passed your biological test," the doctor said, emerging from the other side of the door.
"These officers will show you out," he said, taking a seat at his desk.
"We're nothing but rabbits for their testing labs," he sighed, walking down a narrow corridor accompanied by the police officers back to the waiting room. He walked alone to the end of the hall, and as he placed his palm on the screen of a locker, the door opened.
"I have the rest of the day off, so I won't have to go work in the meat farms." He grabbed his things from the back of the locker: a worn green trench coat, a black backpack, and a face mask. He put on his trench coat, which reached below his knees, and slung his backpack over his left shoulder as he walked toward the exit, his mask in hand.
"I should kill some time before going home." A notification in his head interrupted his thought.
—Subject: 17 01273000 14—
—Name: Strakh Strange Hunter—
—Age: 16 years—
—Health Status: 3—
—Biological Threat Category 1—
—A diet richer in non-synthetic protein is recommended (lean red meat, beef liver, blood sausage, and fish), as well as consumption of vitamin C-rich supplements—.
"What nonsense, as if I could afford meat. I can barely afford third-rate synthetic meat."
The deeper he ventured into the district's suburbs, the more the pristine buildings faded. Large blocks of black glass reflected the few rays of sunlight that escaped the kilometer-long clouds of acid rain that plagued the planet.
"Stop, identify yourself," said an officer as he blocked his path from the suburbs to the district center.
"I'm Usotsuki Donnola," the short, brown-haired young man staggered.
The officer pointed his gun at him, demanding he tell the truth. "Key Population Monitor Subject," he shouted, threatening to shoot the young man.
"Subject: 17 19082996 03, name Usotsuki Condanna Mort, age 20, health status 5, bio-threat category 2," the AI responded.
He jumped the fence and ran hurriedly to the gate that bordered the center of the suburbs, trying to climb it. "Subject 17 19082996 03, you are under arrest on suspicion of being a biological threat. Stop immediately!" the officer announced before emptying his weapon into the young man's back.
He collapsed to the ground and let out a scream of pain that could be heard from afar. The young man, now on the ground, began to writhe, and his face mask fell off, revealing a protruding jaw with long, sharp teeth. Sharp appendages emerged from his back, and he began to move across the ground at great speed.
"I need backup," the officer said as he reloaded his weapon.
The creature rushed toward him as the officers on the other side of the gate blocked the way, and those on the suburban side hurried to finish off the creature.
The creature reached the officer and, with a swipe of its deformed hand, tore off his head. The other two officers on his side of the checkpoint furiously attacked the creature.
The creature swiftly dodged most of the shots, approaching the officer on its left, grabbing his leg, and throwing him more than 10 meters into the containers of synthetic food waste.
Just as it was about to do the same to the last officer, a special agent descended from an aircraft and, with a razor-sharp whip, severed the creature's limbs one by one.
"Threat neutralized," said a female voice from inside a biohazard suit.
After an hour's wait, the access route to the suburbs was reopened. "It didn't take long for the public security brigade to cremate the body." At the beginning of the year 2000, the Third World War began, the most destructive armed conflict ever to occur. The population of that time, some 14,800,000,000 people, was reduced to less than 40,000,000 after the nuclear holocaust. 75% of the Earth's land surface became radioactive, and the nuclear winter reduced the population to less than 10,500,000.
The countries that managed to avoid collapse entered into a war that lasted for more than a thousand years for the few remaining resources; it became known as the Great Biological War. At the end of this great war, fewer than 450,000 inhabitants remained on the entire planet.
A universal government was established in power and brought order and prosperity after the war. The habitable lands were divided into 52 districts where people survived for two thousand years.
But in 2911, the first anomaly appeared: an Other, a biological monster with a human appearance, was seen in the center of District 26. It ended the lives of more than 1,600 people. Since then, the monitoring system was created, along with an AI that was implanted in everyone to keep the population under control and prevent future attacks from biological threats.
"They are among us. They could be our neighbors or friends: that child carrying a shopping bag, the elderly man going for a walk, or that young man passing through the security gates on his way to work."
"Next," said the officer. "Identify yourself," he ordered Strakh. He brought his neck close to the sensor, and a voice said:
"Subject 17 01273000 14, name Strakh Stranger Hunter, age 16, health status 3, bio-threat risk 1."
"Go ahead," said the officer as he signaled to open the gate. "This world is violent and cruel, the rich live in the district centers, while the rest of us are relegated to the suburbs; the further away you go, the worse the air pollution and the scarcer the food becomes," he thought as he watched them incinerate the body of the biological threat.