Scalies

The new humans escape! Developed, nurtured, and sequestered over generations in a secret government lab city in the southwestern American desert, they bolt to freedom, abandoning their luxurious self-contained project town. The very sight of them triggers mass hysteria among the public, who have enough problems keeping peace among themselves, let alone coping with the new humans' one small difference-not to mention the question of whether these new folk are "persons" with...
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The new humans escape! Developed, nurtured, and sequestered over generations in a secret government lab city in the southwestern American desert, they bolt to freedom, abandoning their luxurious self-contained project town. The very sight of them triggers mass hysteria among the public, who have enough problems keeping peace among themselves, let alone coping with the new humans' one small difference-not to mention the question of whether these new folk are "persons" with constitutional rights. Also on the run are the project's normal human staff, in violation of legally binding commitments never to leave, including a stressed-out lawyer who can't stop watching the impending disaster. And among the public sucked into the crisis is a jaded actor with a depressing day job as a funeral speaker, who ignores the crisis until he cannot. The survival of the new humans-and the rest of us-hangs in the balance, in this speculative near-future allegory of racism.