This is death, she thought, then closed her eyes. I am dead.

Nora conveyed the entire sequence of events to everyone. It brought about ‘breath holding’ silence as they listened to every detail she recounted.

She snapped out of that memory a different person than the one who woke up in the Genesis unit. Nora knew who she was. Suddenly she felt who she was, she felt changed, and she also knew the reality that she had a family and missed them horribly.

“This is unreal,” Meredith said. “But it makes sense. Complete sense. This is a tank. A survival tank. John, what did the real Summer Rosewood do?”

“She was a scientist. She…”

“Perfect.” Meredith cut him off. “All of us have something to contribute to society. All of us had to have been placed here because there was an event. It makes sense. We are here with supplies to wait out some sort of catastrophic event.”

Jason scoffed. “That’s nonsense. What do I have to contribute?”

“Spirituality,” Meredith argued. “We need to check every locker to find out who was here and let Malcolm get back to cracking that computer.”

“No need,” The president entered the room speaking in a weak voice. It was sluggish, thick with phlegm. He coughed and sniffed. “No need. I remember a lot now. I think I can explain it. Or try.”

FOURTEEN – The Genesis Project

It wasn’t the captive audience he wanted. President Wilfred Thomas dreaded standing before the seven people he had only recently come to know in person. On paper, he knew them well, or at least their names.

All but Nora, he didn’t know her and there was a reason for that.

His memory wasn’t spot on. He didn’t have all the logistics. He knew enough that he could at least shed light on why he believed they were all there.

When he was released from the Genesis unit, he had very little memory. They were calling him ‘Mr. President’ but he wasn’t certain of that. As hours passed it felt right. But still no strong memory.

Then as he slept, it all came back. It crushed him emotionally and with a feeling of, “My God what have I done?” he folded. He cried for his family. He cried for humanity.

“It’s called the Genesis Project. Or at least I believe that is what this is,” Will said. “Eight years ago, before I was president, a study was completed that stated the human race, without a doubt was heading for extinction. Not by any outside influence such as bombs or a comet, but by nature. Less disease, better medicine, more people. Population was on a baffling incline and at its current rate, it was predicted that natural resources would be depleted in less than three generations. The consumption, the CO2, emissions, all would contribute to the degradation of the environment. That alone would put at risk our ability to produce food. A starving population, existing merely to try to eat would be a society focused on growing what food they could with the resources they had. Technology eventually would be secondary. It is or was a crisis. Our children, grandchildren would not have any quality of life. Eventually Earth would not be able to sustain life. Something had to be done. Dr. Hassleman is very aware of this.” He looked to Meredith.

“That was a study I worked a decade on. I was working on a solution.”

“And what, doctor, was the only solution you could find?” Will asked.

“There were two. Find another planet to terraform or population control. One child law, but that would be a long process and more than likely wouldn’t work.”

Will nodded. “So another plan was devised. Mother Nature often takes care of these things. She’ll clean house every hundred years or so, but despite her best efforts, man found a way to cut her off at the pass. It was time for mankind to play Mother Nature and clean house.”

Jason held up his hands. “Wait. What does that have to do with us and…” he faced Meredith. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“I’m guessing.” She replied.

“Doctor Hassleman was not part of the plan,” Will said. “Her findings were, she was not included. She is just as much in the dark as all of you. I was onboard at first. But then I made the initiative to try to stop it.” He looked around. “I failed. With only eight of us standing here, I’d go as far as saying, the entire Genesis preservation plan failed. Let’s just hope the rest of it didn’t.”

Jason asked. “Rest of what?”

John replied “Meredith said it earlier. She nailed it. This is a tank. A preservation tank. We… all of us, were to ensure or insure, that a sampling of humanity would still be here. Forty-eight people. Tucked away… why?” He peered at the president. “What was the Genesis plan?”

“To decrease the world’s population by thirty-five percent. To do so by mass distribution of a virus. Some places in the world hit more than others. The idea was to place the human sampling into stasis until the virus has run its course. Preserved in case, by some small chance things went wrong. An insurance that life would go on.”