19

3 years later...

ORCHID

Armored transport rumbles over a hill, and we see it for the first time - the quarantine wall. It twists the barren landscape like a ribbon of iron and rust.

On this side of the wall is the so-called civilized world. Sure, it's no picnic, but for all its problems - overpopulation, rampant crime, pollution, depleted resources - there's nothing about what's on the other side of that ugly, metallic border.

The quarantine zone. By all accounts, it's hell on earth. And that's exactly where we're going.

I shudder to think of the dangers that await us beyond that wall - hideous, twisted mutants that rip a man limb from limb. Based on everything I've read, they'll do even worse things to any woman unfortunate enough to fall into their clutches.

Sitting next to me in the middle row of the cramped vehicle is Sara, another young SynerGen research assistant like me. I don't know her very well, as she only recently joined the team after her predecessor Eva disappeared.

When