PROLOGUE
D005 stood in the white, sterile-looking room; her feet spread hip width apart. The Colt she held in her right hand hung loosely at her side. Her expression said she was bored. At least that is the way she would look to an outsider. But she wasn’t. She was never relaxed. Right now every muscle
in her body was at the ready.
There was just one window in the room, off to her left side. It displayed an outdoor scene of wild grasses dotted with dandelions, towering oak trees marked the edge of a forest in the distance and a stunning cloudless sky rose up above that. It looked perfectly real, but she knew that it wasn’t. It was really a two-way mirror. They were there on the other side, watching her. Always watching her. Testing her. Everything was always a test. A test that could not be failed. Fail and you disappear. She didn’t want to disappear – although she did wonder sometimes if it might be better than the life she and the others had.
A man, or maybe a woman, sat on a metal chair in the middle of the room with his (or her) arms tied around the back of the chair. There was a black hood over his (or her) head. D005 wasn’t sure what, but something did not seem right here. Something was wrong. Commander stepped forward from where he was standing at her side and yanked the hood off the person. A man then. She could see the terror in his eyes. A gag in his mouth silenced him. The man’s eyes darted around the room before they landed on her. On her gun. His eyes widened and shot up to meet hers. His eyes. They pleaded with her. Looking into his eyes something squeezed tight in her chest. Some feeling she had never felt before in all her years. She tore her gaze away from the man, not knowing what to make of that feeling. She looked to Commander for her orders instead. His narrowed hard steel gray eyes stared back at her, assessing her. Everything was always a test.
“Kill him.” Came the simple two word order.
D005’s gaze focused back on the trembling man in the chair. Raising her arm she leveled the gun, bringing up her left hand up to join its mate on the butt of the gun. Looking down the barrel of the gun she found herself staring into the man’s eyes again. Hesitating. She never hesitates.
“Shoot him!” Commander barked out.
This is not right she thought. She isn’t supposed to think. She knows that. She is just supposed to do. Just supposed to follow orders. She never failed. Never came close to failing. But somehow she knew. She knew she would fail today.
“Shoot him!”
Blinking, D005 lowered her gun and turned toward Commander. “No.” She said firmly.
“What did you say?”
She didn’t think she had ever heard anyone tell him no before. Certainly none of them ever had. She narrowed her eyes at him. “I said no.” She repeated. She wasn’t completely sure why she couldn’t, but for some reason, after looking into the man’s eyes she just could not bring herself to kill him.
Commander strode over to her, bending slightly to push his face in front of hers. “D005 you are to follow your orders and your orders are to kill this man. Now obey your orders.” He snarled.
“I said no.” She repeated once more, saying each word carefully and slowly.
Before she knew what was happening Commander drew his own Colt from the holster at his hip and fired a round into the man without taking his eyes off her. D005 nearly flinched. Nearly. But she didn’t. She did not even turn to look at the man again; instead she kept her gaze trained on Commander. “Halloway! Chapman! Get in here!” Commander hollered, his eyes still piercing her. The two hulking guards in their grey uniforms slunk into the room.
“Yes sir?” The one on the right asked. She was pretty sure he was the one called Halloway. He was actually one of the nicer guards and was not as strict with her and the others.
“Get her out of here.” He said, inclining his head toward her. “You know what to do.”
Halloway and Chapman glanced at each other. “Are you sure sir? It is after all-“
“Of course I’m sure,” he snapped, “You know the rules. Now get rid of her.”
It looked like D005 was going to find out where everyone went when they disappeared after all because that is exactly what was going to happen to her now. She was going to disappear, just like a number of others had done over the years. She wasn’t stupid. Actually she was ridiculously smart. She knew what happened when the others disappeared. They all knew it. They just called it disappearing because it was better than admitting that someone they had known their whole lives had been “put down.” Like they were animals. That’s how these people saw them.
After a slight hesitation, Halloway and Chapman each grabbed one of her arms and tugged her out of the room after them. D005 looked over her shoulder at Commander on her way through the door. He was still glaring after her, his eyes dark and stormy. Halloway and Chapman led her through a series of hallways until they came to a stop at a door with a keypad to the left of it. Chapman reached out, quickly punching in a set of numbers. 33246. Her eyes caught the numbers despite his quick movements. The door slid open and then they were through it. She had never been this way before.
“You should have done as you were told kid.” Halloway mumbled under his breath to her, his eyes remaining forward.
“I couldn’t.” D005 whispered back.
Halloway grunted in response. “Don’t think they were expecting that from you.”
She didn’t answer. No. They did not expect that response from her. She had always excelled at everything they had thrown at her. She didn’t think that made her any more special than any of the others. She just pushed herself harder because she didn’t want to have to deal with the punishments that some of the others had to deal with because they were slower or screwed something minor up. Or whatever. Life sucked as it was. She just didn’t see the point in making it harder for herself.
They were coming up on a larger, open area. Her eyes flicked around it, taking it all in. Analyzing. A large, enclosed desk area was off to the right of the hallway they would be exiting from with a dozen computer monitors. Each flickered from one scene to another, showing room after room, hallway after hallway. Security. The chair at the desk sat empty. Underneath the counter of the desk was a red button. Wait a second. That last scene on one of the monitors had been of the outside. She was sure of it. Maybe- She quickly took in the rest of the area. There was one hallway off to the right of the desk, leading back further into the facility. One hallway directly across from the hallway they would be exiting in thirty seconds. And then-yes that is what she needed. Off to the left was a set of heavy-duty glass doors. Ten seconds. She sent a silent apology to the two guards at her sides. She would try not to hurt them too much. After all they didn’t seem too bad compared to some of the others.
With that she slammed herself into Halloway, pushing him into the wall. Choosing him first as he was the larger and more experienced (she was pretty sure she could remember him far back in her memory) of the two. There was a loud crack as his head hit the solid wall and his hulking form crumpled quickly to the floor. Lying still where he fell. Well that had been easier than she had expected. Chapman was already bringing up his stun-stick from where it was holstered at his hip and she moved quickly to disarm him. She flew across the gap between them. A kick to his wrist and the stun-stick fell from his grasp - useless. Grabbing his wrist with her left hand D005 yanked his arm back and up, swinging her body around behind him while bringing her left foot up and down right behind his knee forcing him into a kneel. Simultaneously her right hand came up around Chapman’s neck, her fingers closing in and pressing in on his carotid artery. He fought back of course, but his efforts were in vain. She held him in check. Despite his size, she was stronger. Her movements were quick. Graceful. Effortless.
It was not long before he was out. Just unconscious – she did not want to kill the man. Then D005 was flying to the desk, throwing herself over it and slapping her palm against the red button under the counter. Then she was back over the desk and flying to the glass doors, pushing them open. Her feet pounded against the dirt on the ground that was in a slight incline as she ran through the tunnel outside the doors. She heard shouting from inside followed by an alarm sounding. She forced her feet to move even faster. There was an opening up ahead and she soon flew through it. The sound of running feet and more shouting could be heard from behind her. Dogs barking. Casting a glance around D005 took in her surroundings. She and the others had rarely been outside. It was dark out. Night time. The opening she had just emerged from was at the base of a cliff. There was a small clearing off to her right and directly in front of her leading to the opening was a dirt road. Around the clearing and on the other side of the road it was thick with trees.
Briefly D005’s thoughts turned to her biological brother back inside. He would be fine really. As long as he obeyed his orders and didn’t fail. She bit her lip. She didn’t want to leave him behind, even though they barely knew each other since she and the others were seldom allowed to talk amongst themselves. Her heart still felt heavy with some emotion, some feeling she did not recognize. She would have to come back for him some how. Right now she had to get away. If she were caught they would just kill her. And she would be of no use to anyone. She heard the dogs barking. They were getting closer. With that she turned to her right and took off into the forest.
She flew around the trees, ignoring the branches that tore through the nylon of her uniform, biting into her skin. She was not sure where she was going. She just knew she had to get away. Crashing behind her let her know that the guards had entered the forest as well. The dogs would be getting closer now. But she was faster.
She suddenly broke out from the trees and skidded to a halt before she ran herself over the cliff side whose edge was just ten feet away. There was nowhere to go. She was about to try slipping back into the trees and try going in a different direction when the dogs emerged from the forest. All six of them snapping and snarling at her, advancing on her as she backed up. Slowly they got closer and closer to the edge. The guards came crashing through the trees shortly after with Commander in the lead. There are eight guards plus Commander. Their faces were all red and they were breathing heavily. Half the guards had their guns drawn and the other half had their stun-sticks out. Commander held his Colt leveled at her, his gaze steely as it locked on hers. D005 suddenly knew that there was no way she was going back. Not alive anyway. If she were to die, it would be out here. Not that she wanted to die. She really didn’t. She just felt suddenly like she needed, wanted more. There had to be more to life besides the constant training, the orders, the rules, having every move you ever made watched and recorded. There had to be more. More what she didn’t know, but she wanted it. She glared back determinedly at Commander, matching his steely glare with her own.
“What do you think you are doing out here D005?” Commander practically growled, his lip turning up in a snarl. “You do not belong out here. Now you are going to march your ass back through that forest and back into the compound.”
D005 pressed her lips firmly together, crossed her arms over her chest and took another step backward in response.
“Right now D005.” Commander said firmly, fire shooting from his eyes.
Cocking her head to the side and quirking an eyebrow up she asked, “Why?”
There was a collective intake of breath from the guards gathered around Commander and their eyes darted between him and D005. Commander’s eyes narrowed at her and his jaw tensed. “Why? Why? You do not get to ask that. You follow your orders and that’s that.” He took a couple of steps closer, the guards following close at his heels. D005 took another big step backwards. There was the sound of rock falling against rock behind her and D005 knew without looking over her shoulder that she had come to the edge of the cliff. “You are coming back with us now.”
“Go back with you so that you can kill me anyway, right? I don’t think so.”
His right eye twitched as he glared at her. “You do not get to think.” He snarled. Commander’s eyes flicked down just slightly, his Colt following the movement.
The movement was barely noticeable, but D005 quick eyes caught it and that was why when the gun went off she dodged right and the bullet missed her leg by a hair. She was not so lucky with the next bullet that lodged itself in her left thigh causing a burning sensation to radiate in the surrounding area. D005 stumbled backwards at the impact and in surprise. She had been in pain before, but she had never been shot. Even with her surprise and the pain she would normally have recovered quickly. She had been trained to ignore pain and to work through it after all. The problem was that while she stumbled in surprise, she had forgotten that she was at the edge of the cliff and she found herself falling backward. She heard Commander cursing and him shouting orders that D005 wasn’t really paying attention to at the guards; she heard more shots being fired and the sound of feet running forward.
D005 felt the impact of more bullets but she was more focused on the rocks on the face of the cliff that her body careened towards after going over the side. She fell down and down. Crashing and sliding into and over boulders and branches that stuck out of the cliff. She felt darkness closing in on her as she suddenly flew away from the cliff side and plummeted down, breaking the water’s surface below just as her vision darkened completely.
CHAPTER ONE
Voices. Getting closer. A slight breeze brushed against her cheek and she could feel the heat of the sun beating down on her. She was outside? How did she get outside? She was laying on top of something – wait - more than one something sharp and hard. Shifting to try and get more comfortable, pain shot up and down her entire body. Gasping, her eyes popped open, but the pain was so great her vision was blurry and she could not make anything out. Why do I hurt so badly? It hurts just to breathe. She squeezed her eyes shut again.
The voices got louder. They sounded young. One boy and one girl. “Hey Brianna! Get over here!” The boy shouted from nearby.
“What is it Reid?” This from the girl.
“There’s someone down here!”
There was the sound of feet running over rocks and then the girl gasped. “Do you think she’s alive?”
“I don’t know. Can’t tell from here, but we should probably see if she needs help don’t you think? I mean, we can’t just leave her there.”
The girl must have agreed because the footsteps came clamoring towards where she lay rather than away. She opened her mouth to call out to them, but her throat did not want to cooperate. All she could manage was a moan. They must have heard her because their footsteps came faster. Their arrival next to her was announced by the crunch of rocks under their feet. As she sensed them crouching down next to her she suddenly felt vulnerable. Exposed. Get away! Get away! Her instincts screamed at her as her body tensed, ready for whatever she asked it to do even as
D005 stood in the white, sterile-looking room; her feet spread hip width apart. The Colt she held in her right hand hung loosely at her side. Her expression said she was bored. At least that is the way she would look to an outsider. But she wasn’t. She was never relaxed. Right now every muscle
in her body was at the ready.
There was just one window in the room, off to her left side. It displayed an outdoor scene of wild grasses dotted with dandelions, towering oak trees marked the edge of a forest in the distance and a stunning cloudless sky rose up above that. It looked perfectly real, but she knew that it wasn’t. It was really a two-way mirror. They were there on the other side, watching her. Always watching her. Testing her. Everything was always a test. A test that could not be failed. Fail and you disappear. She didn’t want to disappear – although she did wonder sometimes if it might be better than the life she and the others had.
A man, or maybe a woman, sat on a metal chair in the middle of the room with his (or her) arms tied around the back of the chair. There was a black hood over his (or her) head. D005 wasn’t sure what, but something did not seem right here. Something was wrong. Commander stepped forward from where he was standing at her side and yanked the hood off the person. A man then. She could see the terror in his eyes. A gag in his mouth silenced him. The man’s eyes darted around the room before they landed on her. On her gun. His eyes widened and shot up to meet hers. His eyes. They pleaded with her. Looking into his eyes something squeezed tight in her chest. Some feeling she had never felt before in all her years. She tore her gaze away from the man, not knowing what to make of that feeling. She looked to Commander for her orders instead. His narrowed hard steel gray eyes stared back at her, assessing her. Everything was always a test.
“Kill him.” Came the simple two word order.
D005’s gaze focused back on the trembling man in the chair. Raising her arm she leveled the gun, bringing up her left hand up to join its mate on the butt of the gun. Looking down the barrel of the gun she found herself staring into the man’s eyes again. Hesitating. She never hesitates.
“Shoot him!” Commander barked out.
This is not right she thought. She isn’t supposed to think. She knows that. She is just supposed to do. Just supposed to follow orders. She never failed. Never came close to failing. But somehow she knew. She knew she would fail today.
“Shoot him!”
Blinking, D005 lowered her gun and turned toward Commander. “No.” She said firmly.
“What did you say?”
She didn’t think she had ever heard anyone tell him no before. Certainly none of them ever had. She narrowed her eyes at him. “I said no.” She repeated. She wasn’t completely sure why she couldn’t, but for some reason, after looking into the man’s eyes she just could not bring herself to kill him.
Commander strode over to her, bending slightly to push his face in front of hers. “D005 you are to follow your orders and your orders are to kill this man. Now obey your orders.” He snarled.
“I said no.” She repeated once more, saying each word carefully and slowly.
Before she knew what was happening Commander drew his own Colt from the holster at his hip and fired a round into the man without taking his eyes off her. D005 nearly flinched. Nearly. But she didn’t. She did not even turn to look at the man again; instead she kept her gaze trained on Commander. “Halloway! Chapman! Get in here!” Commander hollered, his eyes still piercing her. The two hulking guards in their grey uniforms slunk into the room.
“Yes sir?” The one on the right asked. She was pretty sure he was the one called Halloway. He was actually one of the nicer guards and was not as strict with her and the others.
“Get her out of here.” He said, inclining his head toward her. “You know what to do.”
Halloway and Chapman glanced at each other. “Are you sure sir? It is after all-“
“Of course I’m sure,” he snapped, “You know the rules. Now get rid of her.”
It looked like D005 was going to find out where everyone went when they disappeared after all because that is exactly what was going to happen to her now. She was going to disappear, just like a number of others had done over the years. She wasn’t stupid. Actually she was ridiculously smart. She knew what happened when the others disappeared. They all knew it. They just called it disappearing because it was better than admitting that someone they had known their whole lives had been “put down.” Like they were animals. That’s how these people saw them.
After a slight hesitation, Halloway and Chapman each grabbed one of her arms and tugged her out of the room after them. D005 looked over her shoulder at Commander on her way through the door. He was still glaring after her, his eyes dark and stormy. Halloway and Chapman led her through a series of hallways until they came to a stop at a door with a keypad to the left of it. Chapman reached out, quickly punching in a set of numbers. 33246. Her eyes caught the numbers despite his quick movements. The door slid open and then they were through it. She had never been this way before.
“You should have done as you were told kid.” Halloway mumbled under his breath to her, his eyes remaining forward.
“I couldn’t.” D005 whispered back.
Halloway grunted in response. “Don’t think they were expecting that from you.”
She didn’t answer. No. They did not expect that response from her. She had always excelled at everything they had thrown at her. She didn’t think that made her any more special than any of the others. She just pushed herself harder because she didn’t want to have to deal with the punishments that some of the others had to deal with because they were slower or screwed something minor up. Or whatever. Life sucked as it was. She just didn’t see the point in making it harder for herself.
They were coming up on a larger, open area. Her eyes flicked around it, taking it all in. Analyzing. A large, enclosed desk area was off to the right of the hallway they would be exiting from with a dozen computer monitors. Each flickered from one scene to another, showing room after room, hallway after hallway. Security. The chair at the desk sat empty. Underneath the counter of the desk was a red button. Wait a second. That last scene on one of the monitors had been of the outside. She was sure of it. Maybe- She quickly took in the rest of the area. There was one hallway off to the right of the desk, leading back further into the facility. One hallway directly across from the hallway they would be exiting in thirty seconds. And then-yes that is what she needed. Off to the left was a set of heavy-duty glass doors. Ten seconds. She sent a silent apology to the two guards at her sides. She would try not to hurt them too much. After all they didn’t seem too bad compared to some of the others.
With that she slammed herself into Halloway, pushing him into the wall. Choosing him first as he was the larger and more experienced (she was pretty sure she could remember him far back in her memory) of the two. There was a loud crack as his head hit the solid wall and his hulking form crumpled quickly to the floor. Lying still where he fell. Well that had been easier than she had expected. Chapman was already bringing up his stun-stick from where it was holstered at his hip and she moved quickly to disarm him. She flew across the gap between them. A kick to his wrist and the stun-stick fell from his grasp - useless. Grabbing his wrist with her left hand D005 yanked his arm back and up, swinging her body around behind him while bringing her left foot up and down right behind his knee forcing him into a kneel. Simultaneously her right hand came up around Chapman’s neck, her fingers closing in and pressing in on his carotid artery. He fought back of course, but his efforts were in vain. She held him in check. Despite his size, she was stronger. Her movements were quick. Graceful. Effortless.
It was not long before he was out. Just unconscious – she did not want to kill the man. Then D005 was flying to the desk, throwing herself over it and slapping her palm against the red button under the counter. Then she was back over the desk and flying to the glass doors, pushing them open. Her feet pounded against the dirt on the ground that was in a slight incline as she ran through the tunnel outside the doors. She heard shouting from inside followed by an alarm sounding. She forced her feet to move even faster. There was an opening up ahead and she soon flew through it. The sound of running feet and more shouting could be heard from behind her. Dogs barking. Casting a glance around D005 took in her surroundings. She and the others had rarely been outside. It was dark out. Night time. The opening she had just emerged from was at the base of a cliff. There was a small clearing off to her right and directly in front of her leading to the opening was a dirt road. Around the clearing and on the other side of the road it was thick with trees.
Briefly D005’s thoughts turned to her biological brother back inside. He would be fine really. As long as he obeyed his orders and didn’t fail. She bit her lip. She didn’t want to leave him behind, even though they barely knew each other since she and the others were seldom allowed to talk amongst themselves. Her heart still felt heavy with some emotion, some feeling she did not recognize. She would have to come back for him some how. Right now she had to get away. If she were caught they would just kill her. And she would be of no use to anyone. She heard the dogs barking. They were getting closer. With that she turned to her right and took off into the forest.
She flew around the trees, ignoring the branches that tore through the nylon of her uniform, biting into her skin. She was not sure where she was going. She just knew she had to get away. Crashing behind her let her know that the guards had entered the forest as well. The dogs would be getting closer now. But she was faster.
She suddenly broke out from the trees and skidded to a halt before she ran herself over the cliff side whose edge was just ten feet away. There was nowhere to go. She was about to try slipping back into the trees and try going in a different direction when the dogs emerged from the forest. All six of them snapping and snarling at her, advancing on her as she backed up. Slowly they got closer and closer to the edge. The guards came crashing through the trees shortly after with Commander in the lead. There are eight guards plus Commander. Their faces were all red and they were breathing heavily. Half the guards had their guns drawn and the other half had their stun-sticks out. Commander held his Colt leveled at her, his gaze steely as it locked on hers. D005 suddenly knew that there was no way she was going back. Not alive anyway. If she were to die, it would be out here. Not that she wanted to die. She really didn’t. She just felt suddenly like she needed, wanted more. There had to be more to life besides the constant training, the orders, the rules, having every move you ever made watched and recorded. There had to be more. More what she didn’t know, but she wanted it. She glared back determinedly at Commander, matching his steely glare with her own.
“What do you think you are doing out here D005?” Commander practically growled, his lip turning up in a snarl. “You do not belong out here. Now you are going to march your ass back through that forest and back into the compound.”
D005 pressed her lips firmly together, crossed her arms over her chest and took another step backward in response.
“Right now D005.” Commander said firmly, fire shooting from his eyes.
Cocking her head to the side and quirking an eyebrow up she asked, “Why?”
There was a collective intake of breath from the guards gathered around Commander and their eyes darted between him and D005. Commander’s eyes narrowed at her and his jaw tensed. “Why? Why? You do not get to ask that. You follow your orders and that’s that.” He took a couple of steps closer, the guards following close at his heels. D005 took another big step backwards. There was the sound of rock falling against rock behind her and D005 knew without looking over her shoulder that she had come to the edge of the cliff. “You are coming back with us now.”
“Go back with you so that you can kill me anyway, right? I don’t think so.”
His right eye twitched as he glared at her. “You do not get to think.” He snarled. Commander’s eyes flicked down just slightly, his Colt following the movement.
The movement was barely noticeable, but D005 quick eyes caught it and that was why when the gun went off she dodged right and the bullet missed her leg by a hair. She was not so lucky with the next bullet that lodged itself in her left thigh causing a burning sensation to radiate in the surrounding area. D005 stumbled backwards at the impact and in surprise. She had been in pain before, but she had never been shot. Even with her surprise and the pain she would normally have recovered quickly. She had been trained to ignore pain and to work through it after all. The problem was that while she stumbled in surprise, she had forgotten that she was at the edge of the cliff and she found herself falling backward. She heard Commander cursing and him shouting orders that D005 wasn’t really paying attention to at the guards; she heard more shots being fired and the sound of feet running forward.
D005 felt the impact of more bullets but she was more focused on the rocks on the face of the cliff that her body careened towards after going over the side. She fell down and down. Crashing and sliding into and over boulders and branches that stuck out of the cliff. She felt darkness closing in on her as she suddenly flew away from the cliff side and plummeted down, breaking the water’s surface below just as her vision darkened completely.
CHAPTER ONE
Voices. Getting closer. A slight breeze brushed against her cheek and she could feel the heat of the sun beating down on her. She was outside? How did she get outside? She was laying on top of something – wait - more than one something sharp and hard. Shifting to try and get more comfortable, pain shot up and down her entire body. Gasping, her eyes popped open, but the pain was so great her vision was blurry and she could not make anything out. Why do I hurt so badly? It hurts just to breathe. She squeezed her eyes shut again.
The voices got louder. They sounded young. One boy and one girl. “Hey Brianna! Get over here!” The boy shouted from nearby.
“What is it Reid?” This from the girl.
“There’s someone down here!”
There was the sound of feet running over rocks and then the girl gasped. “Do you think she’s alive?”
“I don’t know. Can’t tell from here, but we should probably see if she needs help don’t you think? I mean, we can’t just leave her there.”
The girl must have agreed because the footsteps came clamoring towards where she lay rather than away. She opened her mouth to call out to them, but her throat did not want to cooperate. All she could manage was a moan. They must have heard her because their footsteps came faster. Their arrival next to her was announced by the crunch of rocks under their feet. As she sensed them crouching down next to her she suddenly felt vulnerable. Exposed. Get away! Get away! Her instincts screamed at her as her body tensed, ready for whatever she asked it to do even as