January 14, 2036
It was early morning, before the sun had risen. A young man, only twenty years old, was doing sit-ups in his small, modestly furnished New York apartment while the TV blared in the background.
"Today, Dr. Goldberg's final appeal came to an end," the news anchor reported. Though the hour was early, the news which the whole world had been waiting on could not be delayed.
"The Special Grand Jury assigned to investigate Dr. Goldberg previously found him guilty of the charges which the government had levied against him: that Dr. Goldberg conducted illegal and inhumane experiments on over 2,600 children between the years of 2025 and 2027 during the so-called 'Genesis Project.' A vast body of evidence proved that, of these thousands of children, not a single one survived the experiments.
"Despite these horrific crimes against humanity, New Yorkers turned out in record numbers to protest these charges, supporting the former researcher as a hero, not a monster. It is, of course, a popular opinion that the horrors of the Genesis Project should be forgiven, due to its role in the creation of the Hunters.
"Nevertheless, Dr. Goldberg has been found guilty. The Supreme Court—which at first seemed unwilling to even accept the defendant's petition for certiorari—has finally rejected the doctor's appeal at the highest level. In addition, the President, despite the will of the people, has chosen not to pardon Dr. Goldberg."
The reporter paused, seemingly overcome by emotion for the briefest moment. When he spoke again, his voice was completely flat. "Dr. Goldberg is sentenced to death by hanging. This sentence will be carried out in three days."
The young man paused, sweat beading on his forehead, and stared at Dr. Goldberg's face on the TV. He finally pulled his attention away from the TV and returned to his vigorous sit-ups, trying to focus on his workout.
But no matter how much he exerted himself, his thoughts kept drifting back to the doctor whose fate had just been dictated by a handful of people who fervently believed they were bringing justice to a world that had very little justice left.
The young man's name was Alexandre Hautville. He was the only survivor of the experiments which had earned Dr. Goldberg his death sentence.
The people of the world had become self-righteous in the last couple of years. During the Great Wave, when Virus Z's zombie horde threatened to devour the entire world, the world governments had eagerly pursued virtually every method proposed to fight the plague, including nuclear weapons and the rising field of biotechnology.
The Genesis Project had been one such method—and had been heavily subsidized by every remaining world government after the entirety of Afro-Eurasia fell to the Great Wave. In the face of total annihilation, the world had thought nothing of using children as the subjects in new biotech experiments.
Even though, of the 2,600 children who were subjected to these experiments, Alexandre was the only survivor. He'd been only eleven when the procedures on his body began.
The world didn't know he still existed. He wanted to keep it that way.
Though they'd been happy to fund Dr. Goldberg's research when it seemed the world was about to end, humanity proved to be quite fickle. When the Great Wave finally stopped in 2027 and humanity started to recover from the threat of Virus Z, the governments of the world realized they could no longer publicly support a man who experimented on children—though they would still happily make use of the saviors which these experiments had created.
After all, the "Hunters" that could now be created from the Genesis Project's biotech research were the clear path forward for humanity to redeem itself.
These superhumans wielded a variety of incredible powers, but their most interesting trait was their immunity to Virus Z. This was especially astounding because of Virus Z's unceasing ability to evolve, making the infected stronger, more agile, and more animalistically intelligent, all with the sole aim of spreading across the entire world.
But though everyone was exuberant at the existence of the Hunters, that didn't always extend to the man who was, after a fashion, their father.
Indeed, many ordinary people felt only shocked hatred toward Dr. Goldberg for what he had done.
Yet, many others saw no reason to demonize him now: Dr. Goldberg had done what was necessary to ensure humanity could survive. The lives of 2,600 children were a small cost compared to the three billions souls who had already been devoured by zombies.
A small cost compared to the 85,000,000 square kilometers of Afro-Eurasia, three massive continents which might never be inhabited by normal humans again.
But even still, there was more to Dr. Goldberg's experiments than even the indignant public knew about: when the world governments began their campaign against Dr. Goldberg, they also made Alexandre an offer: if he kept silent about what he'd seen in the labs, they would provide him a comfortable home in the depths of Canada, along with a pension of several thousand dollars per month.
But Alexandre had rejected this offer.
The only thing he wanted in exchange for his silence was a new identity, a blank slate from which he could forge his own fate.
The day he made this decision was the day he'd chosen the name Alexandre Hautville. In his mind, it was as though he'd been born anew.
***
The decades-old digital clock hanging above Alexandre's TV beeped, announcing that it was now 6 AM.
"It's time," he muttered to himself, and rose from the dingy floor of his apartment's living room. It was the big day—the day he was going to become a Hunter! At long last, the excitement of the day's coming events filled his mind, allowing him to push away the thoughts which the TV had planted in his brain.
Alexandre quickly showered, grabbed a sandwich, and left his apartment for what would be the last time in a long, long while.