Free Project Apex by Michael Bray

carrier of something great which will represent the next stage in human evolution.
    Joshua had said nothing, still firm in the belief that even evolution and the wonders of science were the work of God. How could they not be? Genaro had set the vial of Joshua’s blood aside and told him he was done for the day.
    "I thought you said I was to become a vessel?"
    "You will, Joshua. All in good time."
    It was after a further two weeks before Genaro called him back. Joshua entered the small office, detecting the faintest hint of antiseptic lingering behind the smell of lavender air freshener. Genaro was barely able to contain his excitement as he set a syringe on the table which was half filled with a clear liquid.
    "Is that it?" Joshua asked, his throat suddenly dry.
    "It is."
    "Is it time?"
    Genaro nodded.
    "I’m afraid." Joshua had said, for the first time considering the magnitude of what was about to happen and the consequences if it went wrong.
    Genaro had smiled at him and walked around the table, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You have nothing to fear, Joshua. I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if I didn’t have absolute faith in the project’s success probability. This will make you into something nobody else can be, into someone who can make a real difference in this world. Of course, you are under no obligation to continue if you don’t want to. There is still time to back out."
    He shook his head. His parents were so incredibly proud of what he was doing, and he couldn’t let them down. "No, I’m fine, it’s just nerves. Go ahead and do it."
    Genaro picked up the syringe and jabbed it into Joshua’s shoulder, sending its contents into his bloodstream. He had waited for some kind of rush, some kind of euphoria. When nothing came, he stared at Genaro, who smiled at the confusion in Joshua’s eyes.
    "I don’t feel any different." He mouthed the words again along with his memory as he lay in the darkness of his grave.
    “You won’t, not yet at least. Soon you will. Believe it or not, as you sit here, you are a changed man."
    "So what happens now?"
    "You come back tomorrow and we give you another injection. We can’t do it all at once. It’s like building a magnificent structure, we have to do it one brick at a time."
    For the next six week’s Joshua went to see Dr. Genaro. Usually on a Thursday morning, sometimes he would have to go again on a Monday. At first, he felt no different, and then, in the same way winter creeps up on summer and steals away the daylight, subtle changes were noticeable. His eyesight improved to the point where he could stop wearing his glasses. Asthma which had plagued him as a child was cured. He started to develop an incredible memory which was almost photogenic. New languages were learned in days. Like a sponge, he soaked up information. As his new bond with Genaro's medicine grew, the more he started to see the world with disdain. The more aware he became of the true possibilities which were inherent in the human body, the more it sickened him to see his fellow man throw away their precious existence. Worse, was the way they wantonly maimed the planet as if they owned it, rather than accepting their place in it like the parasites they were. Much like his time spent in his current underground solitude, those first months of bonding with the Apex virus seemed to change the way he perceived time. The more of it that passed, the more his hate for humanity grew.
    It wasn’t long before it became absolutely clear to him what he had to do. To what lengths he would have to go to in order to save the human race from itself, even if it meant doing something so radical, so extreme that it would change things forever.
    That thought process had led him to where he was now, half comatose in the blackest of black, comforted by the chill, caressed by the crushing pressure of earth all around his private haven. The deprivation of his senses had let the bond between virus and host