In Vitro

Angela Lanza finds herself in a dark strange place where people do experiments on her and she wants to get to the bottom of this and escape her fate.

In vitro

“My name is Angela Lanza and I’m recording this audio message to let everyone know that Project ACER is a fraud.” Angela says to the webcam in Dr. Harrison’s top secret office. Was that convincing enough? She starts over.

She turns the webcam on again and adds, “Project ACER was established in 1996, their motives were publicized to cure diseases, accelerate human’s evolutionary patterns to fight off diseases but what they really did were�"” She begins only to be interrupted by a hand over her mouth.  The mystery person injects a huge needle in her arm and her eyes widen until they start to close. Her shoulders relaxed but she can faintly hear muffled voices say, “She knows too much,” “What do we do with her?” “Hold on maybe we should…”  Then, she passes out.

 Angela wakes up in a dark, cold, gray room. She pulls herself up from off the ground and mutters to herself “Déjà vu much?”

About four months ago, Angela woke up in the same position, in the same room. She woke up suddenly when she heard an automated voice recite, “Angela Lanza. 26 years old. 5’5”. Brown shoulder length hair. 134 pounds. Green eyes. Hispanic.” She blinked her eyes open and squinted up at the blinding white light above her head. She raised an arm to shield her eyes but noticed writing on her arm, “74520”, in black ink. Her brows furrowed, she tried to smudge the writing off and rubbed her arm frantically. It didn’t come off.

Tattoo? Where the hell am I? What happened last night? She tried to remember what she did the day before. Drove Karla to school, went to work, picked Karla up from school and drove her to dance, went home, threw keys on the counter…. Damnit, what happened after that?

The automated voice came on interrupting her thoughts, “Subject 74520 has risen from slumber. Slightly accelerated heart rate. Pale face. Confused emotion.”

Angela flinched at the sound. What is this place? She picked herself up off the ground, she felt a draft. Where are my clothes?  She instinctively covered herself with her arms and shivered. Her stomach churned.

“Clone number 74520 to be removed from her cell.  Clone number 74520’s readings show that she is in early stages of pregnancy. Immediate hysterectomy must take place.”

“Clone? But, I grew up here in Amityville my whole life. I think you have a mistake. I’m not pregnant?” She called out to the automated voice as if it would answer, as if it would stop the guards from dragging her away, as if it would stop them from injecting her with a sedative.

The next thing she knew, she was in a hospital bed with IV’s attached. Without her even realizing she was pregnant yet, these strangers took her unborn child. Angela cried until Dr. Harrison came to visit her in the room.  That day, he explained that what they were doing was all in the name of science, that she was part of a brand of newly evolved humans. He called her superior, special, and crucial to the project. Project ACER.

Angela ends up in that same room again, four months later, feeling defeated. What she discovered in Dr. Harrison’s office will mean nothing. They probably erased her webcam video that she couldn’t even finish. But she knows now, how she scientifically is considered a clone, how some girl named Ashley Hendrickson was the first child who was born as the first “clone” through stem cells. But, first, Angela needs to get the hell out of this place, somehow.

The automated voice comes on the intercom again, “Angela Lanza. 26 years old.  5’5”. Brown shoulder length hair. 134 pounds. Green eyes. Hispanic…. To be terminated at 23:59. No longer classified as crucial to the project.”