5 "The World of White Walls-1"

"You two... Have you scanned your I.S. Code?" Sanya said, pointing at the tablet. "I can only announce the results once you've registered."

The two girls looked at each other. The government wouldn't let anything happen to them inside, right?

The two girls decided to pursue the job. Since there are lots of funds invested in the D.M. Cadre Research Facility, they were curious too, what would be their new life in a research facility like that.

Lovely was the first one to scan her I.S. code. Upon seeing this, Gem did the same, too. At that moment, all four of them became, officially, Mutant Caretakers.

"Thank you for accepting the job. As you can see," Sanya started to explain, "there are a lot of mutants in the facility, but we have a low hiring rate... Well, you've seen it from what happened at the platform."

All applicants listened carefully to each of the young scientist's words. She continued, "We prioritize giving caretakers to mutants that need extra help with their daily activities. Hmm... Let's see..." Sanya fixed her eyeglasses and read the results of the test. "Mr. Sanno Angeldame, you will be assigned to the chameleon mutant."

"Holy shit," Sanno said, with twinkling eyes. "That's cool!"

"Ms. Gem Sayaka, you'll take care of the turtle mutant."

"Oh, seems easy to take care of..." Gem said. She sighed, relieved that she wouldn't be dealing with an agile mutant.

"Ms. Lovely Wenn, as for you... A shark mutant."

"WHAT?!" Lovely shouted. "But... that's terrifying!"

To Lovely's surprise, Sanya laughed. "Oh Ms. Wenn, do not be afraid. She's actually one of the good ones. You'll see her later."

"Oh... I see." Lovely whispered. She was thinking very deeply about why she had accepted that kind of job. Hearing that her assigned mutant was a shark mutant, she thought that she didn't want to become bait.

"Oh, this is one of the challenging ones, Ms. Brentvale. I'm surprised you got this." Sanya said.

"What do you mean?" asked Lia, trembling a little.

"The vulture mutant... He's one of the special mutants in the facility. He was born the same year as the first occurrence of animal mutants. He's a bit mysterious." Sanya said, then fixed her eyeglasses. "I was assigned to him since a year ago and scientists have a hard time extracting information on him. We'd appreciate it if you help him to voice out his thoughts and feelings."

"Ahh... The psychological test..." Lia murmured. She remembered questions in the test relating to social interactions and interacting with disabled and abnormal people. Those questions were relevant to her assigned mutant.

"Are there any more questions? Negotiations?" asked Sanya.

The newly-hired Mutant Caretakers shook their heads.

"If none, then... I'll give you a quick tour."

They stood up and walked out of the meeting room. Sanya led the way to a spacious elevator. It has a mirror above and at the back. On the sidewall is a digital screen displaying the protocols of D.M. Cadre and the map of the research facility. After three beeping sounds, the elevator closed.

"This is the main building where all the laboratories, offices, and mutants' rooms are connected," Sanya said, then she pushed the button with the number 7. "This building has 15 floors above and 4 floors in the basement. I cannot tour you in the laboratories due to our protocols. But I can at least show you my office and other rooms that are allowed to be seen by caretakers."

When they had reached the seventh floor, it seemed like they had discovered a new world. People in their laboratory coats were walking fast in the hallways. The lights were brighter than the lobby, every wall was white, and the white, chemical resistant flooring was squeaky clean.

The new Mutant Caretakers walked near each other, careful not to bump into the scientists. They cautiously followed Sanya to her office.

"Hey, Sanya, what took you so long?" said her senior, Ryzer Brown, who had always given Sanya an extra pile of work. He ran to the sliding glass door before Sanya and the others could come in. "You're still going to create a graph for my data."

"I'm sorry Dr. Brown," she replied, politely. "I was tasked by the Head Scientist to assist them."

"Oh? I wonder what you did to gain his trust." Dr. Brown said, irritatedly. Despite his 10 years as an assistant scientist, he never got a promotion, that was why he was always suspicious of employees being called by the Head Director.

Sanya was confident about her skills as a young scientist. She always seeks for knowledge and discoveries every hour of her laboratory time. In her mind, she knew that the reason why her senior wasn't promoted all these years was because of his bad working habits. Even if Sanya had only become one of the D.M. Cadre Assistant Scientists a year ago, she became eligible to be promoted to a Core Scientist.

"Dr. Brown, I was selected by the personnel selection board. They were the ones who recommended me to the Head Scientist." Sanya said as her eyebrows furrowed. She hated defending herself especially when she did nothing wrong.

"Now, now, Dr. Brown, you wouldn't want to let the newbies have a bad impression about us, right?" Dior Svenkin, an assistant scientist just two years ahead of Sanya, said as he assisted Dr. Brown back to his seat. "Aren't you going to come in, Sanya?"

Sanya was disappointed as this was a display of disrespect towards her, especially in front of the new caretakers. "I just showed them the way to our office, sir. I'll give them a tour on the other floors. Excuse us."

Just like that, Sanya gently closed the sliding door. "Sorry about that," she said as she fixed her round eyeglasses.

Lia and her colleagues understood how Sanya must have been hurt by her senior's words, so they chose not to ask about it. They thought that it must be hard working in D.M. Cadre as a scientist.

"On this floor are where all the Assistant Scientists are stationed. The floor above us is where all the Core Scientists are." Sanya said. "Because you're all new caretakers, you're still not allowed to visit the 8th floor and all other floors above it. So we're going down now."