Everything changed when she met Lug. He was more robust and adapted to cold weather than the other boys. He did horribly in school, but was the best running back the football team had ever seen. He ignored the rules of decorum the others obsessed over, like trendy clothes or utensils for his food.

I knew the effects of my last dose, taken by syringe early that morning, had begun to wear off. The implications of what we were about to do had begun weighing on me again.

F-ward housed the dopamine embeds, the featureless slugs of DNA and tissue that were supposed to output enough golden eggs to inhibit the entire district. I scrambled through the remains, but there was not a single usable drop remaining. Security had ransacked the place.