Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
“Were you an ADHM baby too?”
“Yes, but they cured us early of that.”
She approached him slowly, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Cured you? There’s no cure.”
“The cure they used on us had too many side effects. They discontinued it. It cured us, but it caused many other problems.”
She reached for the kit of supplies on the floor before speaking. “Yes, the medication I took was the same. But it kept us alive longer, so the effects were deemed worth it.” Autumn carefully removed the old bandages he’d kept mostly dry in the shower. Her gaze was focused on her work, and it was easier to talk to her about this while her gaze was averted. “Why did they have you chase us?” She speared him with her gaze suddenly.
He couldn’t look away from those dark, soulful eyes, the ones connected to the beautiful mind that had come up with so many beautiful words and ideas.
“Because they were trying to make us strong.” Vicious. “And you were weak and dying anyway.”
He saw the pain in her eyes before she moved her gaze back to her work. Even so, her hands remained gentle. He realized that she could tell someone what he’d just disclosed to her if she wanted to. But no one would believe her. Most of the kids she’d lived with were probably dead. The ones who’d been out in those woods were certainly dead. He’d seen the ground staff removing some of the bodies. Of course, he wouldn’t tell her that. He couldn’t. The hospital was closed. So what did it matter if she knew the basics of why?
“They were trying to make you strong,” she repeated. “How so?”
“We’d survived a disease that most didn’t. But that and the medication that cured us caused a lot of damage. Some things had to be replaced, so we underwent many surgeries. Dr. Heathrow believed that he could not only heal us but make us better and stronger than ordinary people.”
She was silent as she worked, clearly processing, clearly troubled. “So they used us as…what? Bait?”
He thought about that. It didn’t seem like quite the right word. They’d never been told precisely what to do with the kids they left in the woods, except to wait for them to wake. Then they could capture them and do as they pleased. Anything they wanted. Sam didn’t know all of what pleased the others, only that they came back with a shine in their eyes and blood splashed on the front of their clothes. And he’d heard the screams. Yes, he had at least some idea of what pleased the others, but he chose not to consider it too closely. “No,” he said finally. “As practice. As training.”
Her hands, applying ointment to his wounds, stilled. “Practice? Training?” Her voice cracked on the second word. “For what?”
He couldn’t tell her more than that. He wouldn’t. He had been created to be a monster, and she could see that from looking at him, but she didn’t have to know the extent of his purpose. The gruesome details. She didn’t have to know that he was even more monstrous on the inside. And, he told himself, it’s dangerous for her if she does. “Practice hunting, chasing.” He looked away.
“To what end?” she asked.
“So that we could join militaries and be special forces with unusual and superior skills,” he said, which was sort of true but not the whole story. He tensed, grimacing as though she’d hurt him, and she focused her attention back on applying the bandages and tape. Gentle hands. So gentle. The world wasn’t made for gentleness like hers. Who knew that better than he did? She still seemed troubled but mostly sad.
“So the military was involved?”
“It was mostly research work. I don’t know the specifics of who funded it. What I do know is that I’m not supposed to talk about it. The program or the research.” Plausible deniability, they called it. If he was captured before he could take the cyanide pill, it was better that he not know any details. The only name he knew was Dr. Swift, but he’d never seen so much as a photo of him.
Autumn’s brow dipped again. “Research. On kids.”
He heard the distaste in her voice, and he didn’t disagree entirely, yet for some reason, he felt compelled to defend the program. “They saved us first. We had a special mission because we had strength others never would. Never could.”
She was quiet for a few minutes. “Did you want that, Sam? To be in the special forces?”
“Want?” He’d never thought about what he wanted. And no one had ever asked him. He’d been lucky, he was told. Lucky to be one of the chosen. Lucky to have survived and then to have the opportunity to become more than any other man. More special. More important. More purposeful. They were called for the greater mission because they were greater men. And women. “It wasn’t a matter of want. It was a matter of gratitude. And of duty.”