1 Prologue - Life and Death

It was the middle of the week, the sound of commuters and vehicles filled the air. The sun was shining brightly through the cloud covered sky. It was humid, the air smelled earthy. The rain had just cleared up and people filled the streets once again rushing to their jobs and appointments. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the busy metropolis, a young man with a defeated look on his face is seen sitting on a park bench. Dressed in a royal blue suit and tie soaked from the rain, holding a large coffee in his right hand and a broken hard drive in his left hand, he stared off into space.

This man's name was Charlie Lin, a twenty six year old Chinese-American scientist, and he was the most unlucky man in the world. When he was born, his biological parents accidentally took home the wrong child. The child that they took home was actually abandoned by their parents at the steps of the hospital. A couple days later when the hospital called to inform them of their mistake, they simply said "Oh, it's okay we prefer this baby anyways" and with that they hung up. Thus, Charlie became a ward of the state before the age of one.

As an abandoned orphan, he bounced around from orphanages and foster homes throughout his childhood. Experienced abuse that would make the most seasoned war veterans cringe. Neglected and left to fend for himself, he was more motivated than ever to prove everyone wrong. He took up multiple sports, learned to play several instruments by himself, and became one of the top students at his schools. He eventually got into one of the best Universities on the western hemisphere. It wasn't easy to do for him though, his tests and homework were frequently 'misplaced', his borrowed instruments would break suddenly, and his application for his top college choice was 'accidentally' shredded.

Nonetheless, he persevered and became a successful scientist at a young age. As a researcher for a large company, he was at the forefront of genetics research. It seemed like his luck was turning around with no severe mishaps in several years. However, as he woke up this morning he found that his computer containing several years of research had a corrupted hard drive. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, since anyone with half a brain would back up such important information, but as luck would have it while Charlie was rushing into work this morning it began to rain. He ran towards his office building with the external hard drive in hand, attempting to protect it from the rain. As he was running, an old man fell over in front of him. He couldn't stop on time and tripped over the old man on the ground. The hard drive fumbled out of his hand and straight into a puddle in the middle of road. Charlie panicked but he reassured himself that it'd be okay if he just put it in rice or something to let it dry off. Then all of a sudden a car drove over the drive shattering it into pieces. On top of that, the old man started screaming at him saying that he would file a lawsuit against him for bodily harm. Charlie just sat there on the sidewalk for a long time, the light leaving his eyes as he saw his life's work destroyed before him.

As he snapped back into reality, Charlie stared up into the sky declaring to himself and to God that he wouldn't give up, if necessary he'd start all over. "Okay, I can still fix this situation." He mumbled to himself. He was never one to give up all hope at every inconvenience otherwise he would've killed himself a long time ago. He bit his lower lip out of frustration, got up off the park bench and patted himself down. He started walking over to his office building. The park that he had took a break in after the incident was only a couple blocks away, Charlie would frequently go there during his lunch break or after work to clear his mind. It was his only escape from the busy atmosphere of the city life.

He waded through the seemingly endless sea of people, looking down at his watch. It was 8:05A.M. and he was already late for work. The streets were too flooded with people, it would take him forever to get through. He decided to take a shortcut through the alley near the bakery that he normally goes to for a quick lunch in order to avoid all the foot traffic. As he stepped past the bakery, a loud sound filled his ears.

BOOOOOOOM!!

"What was that?!?" Charlie exclaimed turning around to take a look, his mouth gaping in surprise. Unexpectedly, something flew into his mouth. Charlie fell to the floor struggling to breathe. He couldn't get the mysterious foreign object stuck in his throat out. He panicked as he looked around desperately trying to get the attention of someone for help.

"Somebody.... anyone.... please.....!" He said gasping for breath.

The street was filled with people but they all turned their heads as they walked past him, not wanting to get involved.

"Why is my life like this....?" He thought to himself as his vision grew dark. He had died.