The Nano Path

Daniel lay with his head against the cold metal table. He could feel the leather straps chaffing against his ankles and wrists. He still could not fathom that this was happening. As he looked at the florissant light bulb above his head he tried to contemplate the actions that led him to his current predicament.

Growing up everyone knew Daniel Gray was different from other children. When he was six years old, an age when most parents were teaching their kids to read, Daniel was looking through high school level text books. At the age of twelve, he was enrolled at MIT, working towards a duel degree in Biology and Chemistry. When Daniel turned fourteen, he was working on a Masters Degree in Genetics. At the age of sixteen when kids are learning to drive and flirting with their first crush, Daniel had received his PHD in Genetic Engineering. Daniel was the youngest person in MIT history to have his own lab and research team at the age of seventeen.

Although Daniel always had a passion for learning and a love for science, it was not his sole purpose for pushing himself so hard. When Daniel was nine years old his Father was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. Daniel witnessed the daily struggle of his father. From the radiation to the chemotherapy, the best treatment medicine could offer, was killing his Dad faster than the cancer ever could. Whenever Daniel wanted to watch television or play video games, he would picture the last memory of his father. No longer was he the strong shouldered, blue collared worker, who would show off his muscles with a goofy grin. No, he was a husk of his former self. Lying there in a hospital bed with a IV in his arm. Gone was his hair. Gone was his smile. Gone was my father. All because of a disease and a lack of a cure.

So Daniel studied hard. He decided that it was pointless to try and find a cure for cancer. He figured that though he may eventually crack the disease, there will still be other diseases out there that will kill other children's parents. His ambitions were greater. He wanted to rid the whole world of all known and unknown diseases. To do this he needed to become an expert in Biology, Chemistry, and Genetics. At the age of seventeen Daniel accomplished this goal, and was ready to use his lab and research team to change the world.

Unfortunately, five years went by, and Daniel was no closer to accomplishing his dream. After plenty of failed experiments, he realized that no matter the kind of drug he created, whether it may be genetic modifications, gene therapy, or vaccines, nothing was able to stop the development of all diseases. However, Daniel was not upset at these findings. It only meant that he needed a new approach and that he had to broaden his academic horizons. Daniel went back to school at the age of twenty-two to study materials science or more specifically the study of Nanotechnology. Most people felt that Nanotechnology would be the next big breakthrough in the Material Science field. However, Daniel had the idea to use Nanotechnology in the human body to help fight disease. Using molecular sized robots to find, attack, and destroy disease in the human body, while also being able to perhaps shape or change DNA. This was the dream and solution Daniel had been pursuing all his life.

Life moves on and two years later Daniel had learned all he could, and was back in the lab researching new results. Two more years, and the Nanobots had been created successfully and Daniel was about ready for live animal testing. With the buzz surrounding the project and with the hope of promising results, MIT allowed Daniel personal usage of their quantum computer. In order to control the Nanobots during the procedure, Daniel needed huge amounts of computing power and and a coded program interface that can accept instructions on the tasks the Nanobots need to complete.

After going through his whole life in his mind Daniel could still not understand why his research assistant would drug and then strap him to this table. It wasn't his experiment because the animal trials were going great and the results were promising. He never offended anyone because he was always so busy studying and doing experiments in his lab. So this situation really made no sense to him. He could only close his eyes and sigh.

A moment later Daniel heard a male voice that was higher pitched than most. He new it belonged to his assistant Andrew.

"You're finally awake" He said "I thought I might have used too much anesthetic in your coffee, but fortunately I was wrong."

As he walked into Daniel's view, he could see Andrew. He was a very short middle aged man about 5ft 3inches tall with a belly that easily hung over his belt. His black hair was turning grey, while his clothes were wrinkled and clearly stained with some food or drink. As he got closer Daniel could smell the alcohol on his breath as he had clearly been drinking recently.

In a level, but concerned voice Daniel said, "Andrew why are you doing this? Is this some sort of sick joke? I don't remember every offending you. We barely ever talked to each other."

That was the main area where Daniel was confused. Sure he had some common conversations with the man, but never anything in-depth or personal.

Daniel's words seemed to anger Andrew greatly, because his face turned dark red while he gripped his fists at his sides, he growled, "You don't remember? You Promised! You Lied to me! Because of you she's dead!" Andrew took a deep breath and calmed himself. He returned to looking at Daniel with lifeless grey eyes and said, "But don't worry, you will pay for what you did."

Daniel face just showed a look of puzzlement. He had no idea what this man was talking about. Let alone lying to anyone, Daniel didn't even have any friends. He mostly spent his free time taking care of his mother or reading new research results outside his area of study.

While trying to calm his racing mind and keep his composure, Daniel said, "Before you do anything you might regret Andrew, can you please explain to me why this is happening?"

Andrew's face once again showed a horrible anger. He snatched the cup of coffee on the table next to him and threw it across the room. The cup flew and hit the wall next to the quantum computer creating puddle of coffee on the ground. Andrew paid no heed to this and trained his angry eyes onto Daniel.

With a mixture of pain and destitution in his voice Andrew said, "Daniel Gray, the brilliant young mind of the century. Promised to cure all diseases." A bitter laugh escaped Andrew's mouth, "I signed on to work on your team because I believed in you. Your promise gave me hope. My Isabell could be cured. But there have been so many set backs, it's been almost ten years and you have failed over and over again. My Isabell, my sweet daughter, she could barely hang on any longer." Andrew paused while a single tear escaped from his eye. He wiped it away, as his eyes became hard once more, "However, the new experiment with the Nanobots have worked perfectly with the animal testing. If you just allowed human trials sooner it could have cured Isabell's ALS. But I couldn't get a hold of you. I emailed you!, called you!, texted you!, went to your house! but I couldn't find you anywhere. And guess what? Isabell died tonight you bastard!" At the end of his sentence Andrew was no longer calm and was screaming in anger.

Daniel opened his mouth wide. As he processed the information he heard, a varying amount of emotions were felt in his heart. He of course felt sorry for Andrew's loss. He of anyone knows the horrible feeling of losing a loved one to a disease. And yet, his feelings of sorrow were pushed down by the bubbling rage in his chest. It was not fair to blame him for this tragedy. He did not give the girl the disease, nor did he promise to cure her. Daniel looked at Andrew and said, "I'm sorry for your loss, but even if you were able to reach me I wouldn't have been able to save your daughter. The Nanobots have not been approved for human trials and have no data to assume they would be affective treating a disease like ALS yet. As you know the animal trials are only at the step of removing tumors and cancerous cells from the body. So could you please release me? We can pretend like this has never happened. Please don't do anything you might regret later."

However even after explaining everything, Andrew just looked at Daniel with a lifeless look and slowly chuckled, "Daniel it's too late to stop now. Since you failed to use the Nanobots to save my daughter then why not see what happens when I use them on you."

Andrew walked to a counter and picked up a huge syringe. The syringe had a needle around ten inches long connected to a glass container filled with a clear water like substance. As he carried it towards Daniel he said, "As you know the estimated amount of Nanobots needed for a human procedure is ten million, give or take a few thousand. Well, since you're the first human to get a Nanobot procedure, I thought I should be thorough so I decided to put a little extra in this dose."

Before Daniel could scream for him to stop Andrew quickly stuck the needle into Daniel's stomach and injected the Nanobots into his body.

Daniel screamed out in pain as he felt like there were millions of small ants crawling into him. It was a weird and painful sensation. Through ragged breaths Daniel said, "How many did you use? It shouldn't feel like this? What have you done?"

Seeing Daniel in so much pain and suffering, Andrew laughed in joy. He felt wonderful knowing that the man who failed to save his daughter was getting the judgement he deserved. He sneered when he looked at the twitching body of Daniel, "I just added a little bit more. I think it came out to be ten billion Nanobots."

Even with his body spasming he still was able to let out a gasp of shock, "You madman! You killed me. No human can survive with that amount in their body!" Daniel couldn't believe he was going to die like this. His goals, his research, his poor Mother, everything was over. He never even got to live a regular life, perhaps start a family.

Andrew walked in front of the laptop with the interface program that controlled the Nanobots. He opened the program and typed in,

[Remove right leg to hip bone, No bleeding]

As he pressed enter, the quantum computer turned on, while the program interface popped up the message,

[Treatment Initiated]

Daniel felt a burning sensation starting in his right toes. It was the most excruciating feeling he has ever felt in his life. It felt like his leg was made of candle wax and someone had just lit the wick. He looked down towards his foot and saw something horrifying. His right leg was slowly disappearing inch by inch. His mind couldn't process what was happening. Eventually, the pain was so bad that Daniel passed into unconsciousness.

When Daniel woke up his eyes were bleary, he tried to blink his eyes but he found that he could not use his eyelids. He felt that it was strange. He then tried to use his arms to wipe his eyes, but found that he could not move either of his arms. Feeling scared and confused, he attempted to scream for help but only a harsh gargle left his mouth. He then realized that he could not feel his tongue in his mouth. His eyes finally cleared and he could see his body. His eyes bulged wide and he started to make screaming noises from his throat. His body, or what was left of it, was a head, a neck, and a chest that stopped just below his heart. Nothing else was left.

Andrew watched as the murder of his daughter suffered in terror and anguish. Now the man knew what his daughter felt. Living in a body that slowly rots away. He could have saved her but he didn't. He killed her. He killed her. Damn!

Andrew didn't know if Daniel was still cognitive or if he could even still hear him, but he still asked, "Do you believe in God? Or perhaps a higher plane of existence that we go to after we die? Some say that our soul is reborn and we start a new life as a new being." He paused after talking.

Taking his time he typed while talking once more, "If any of that is true, I will make sure you are not around to enjoy it!" Andrew pressed enter on the keyboard.

[Destroy Daniel Gray's Soul!!!]

The quantum computer started to vibrate while making a whooshing noice.

[Processing...]

The quantum computer started to vibrate so fast that the air by it started to be displaced. Even the casing housing the quantum computer started to have small cracks in the frame.

[Processing... System Error... Searching for Solution...]

Next to the quantum computer, a small puddle of coffee was resting calmly. suddenly, the air around the coffee puddle started to vibrate causing it to trickle slowly towards the quantum computer. When the trickle of coffee finally toughed the edge of the quantum computer it seeped into a crack in the frame. A small spark ignited, causing a chain reaction. Electricity shot through the wires connected the laptop. Andrew didn't even have time to react nor scream before he was hit by a bolt of electricity. His body immediately shot back, flying across the room and hitting the wall. He was dead. Burned to a crisp, more charcoal than human.

The laptop was somehow still functioning with wild amounts of electricity coursing through it. On the screen the program interface showed,

[Searching Body for ?Soul?...]

[Computing Power Levels Rising....More Nanobots in Patient Activating...Joining Search for ?Soul?...]

[10,000,000,000 Nanobots activated...]

[System Error...]

[Sytem Err%^$#@*^....]

[SOUL]

The quantum computer started to overload. The next second a huge explosion shook the room. Quantum waves started to rip through the very fabric of reality. One such rip in space occurred over the body of Daniel Gray.

Eventually, the room returned to calm. Shockingly, there was not much damage done to the building or room. Fire and Rescue soon got to the scene and conducted their investigation. They concluded in their report that there was a shortage in some electrical equipment, causing an electrical storm killing one individual, identified as Andrew Jones. No other casualties or Injuries.

Two days later a missing persons report was filed for Daniel Gray.