Of Freedom's Fall (Death Prediction Project #3)

I stood back in the camera room. I touched the tattoo on my neck nervously as I watched Pigment kick Ryker in the stomach. I tried to hide my wincing but it was hard. Harrison Mercer our commander had just sent Andy away, back to the Tech room, leaving him, me and, Thomas Caliber in the camera room. Caliber’s winces were a lot more obvious. He’d been in the military a year less than I had and had clearly never tortured anyone to get answers out of them. He also clearly wouldn’t have had the guts to do it either. I didn’t know if I would have either. Tom looked away from the cameras at me, as if he wanted me to stop it. As if I had the power to stop.

Harry was in charge, it ended when he said. If fewer things were on the line for me maybe I would have spoken up for the kid, that’s what Ryker was, an innocent kid. But so was my brother, Kyle who they were holding. I’d seen my parents killed in front of me when they refuse to give me up to the military at eighteen. I was determined to save him, he was only eleven.

I’d even gotten a tattoo of what I was as if it was supposed to show how loyal or proud of what I was, the truth was, I despised what I was and that tattoo.

My parents were brilliant scientists but when they got involved in the Death Prediction Project they had no clue what they were in for. I was born three years after the start of the project in 1999. The adult trials had been stopped and shut down and they had one child subject, Remi at this point who was thriving, I wouldn’t call it successful because they couldn’t tell at the time what was happening. But the others demanded I be a subject, I was born at the perfect time for them and the wrong time for my parents.

The DPP ended up taking me and locking my parents up in a mansion somewhere so they couldn’t spread the word to the public and cause an uproar. I was returned to them six years later when the government shut them down again in 2005. I had no clue who they were, I was an infant when I was taken so of course, I had no memory.

Life went back to normal, four years later they had Kyle and everything seemed to be fine. We’d moved to Arizona, everything was looking up. We thought we were safe, we thought we were free. Everything seemed perfect. They explained a lot of it to me as I got older, but we thought it was all done, over with, and in the past.

The day of my eighteenth birthday rolled around, I was three weeks away from graduating from high school and the doorbell rang that morning. Nothing seemed off, it was a normal morning. My mother went to answer the door. I heard the door’s hinges squeak and then a loud bang like a gunshot. I got up from the kitchen table to see what was going on. My father rushed down from upstairs. My mother was lying sprawled on the ground, not moving.

Was she dead?

“Leslie, get your brother, go. Out the back door, quick!” my father shouted blocking the soldiers from me.

I took off back to the kitchen and grabbed Kyle who was only eight at the time, off of the wooden kitchen chair. His bowl clattered on the table as I heard a second gunshot. I open the back door and sprinted out into our backyard towards the back gate. It was awkward and hard, carrying an eight-year-old.

“What’s going on, Les?” Kyle asked trying to look behind us.

I made it to the back gate and set him down to unlock it. I opened it and pushed him out into the alleyway behind our house. I follow behind him, closing but not locking the gate as we didn’t have time.

“Walk,” I instructed him.

I had no clue where we were going and I wasn’t given long to think. Someone came around the corner and grabbed Kyle around the waist. He struggled in the stranger’s arm but it was clearly futile.

“Come with us and the boy lives,” stated the soldier pointing his weapon at Kyle’s head.

I caved, my parents were most likely dead, Kyle was all I had left.

I knelt down on my knees and put my hands behind my head. Another officer came and cuffed my hands. They explained where they would be taking me and what I would be doing. They said if I obeyed, I’d get weekly calls to talk to Kyle and monthly visits, both would be monitored. I held on to everything I could get. Kyle kept asking where mom and dad were and I didn’t have the heart to break it to him. He still didn’t know.

Ryker reminded me of Kyle, he was obviously older but he was a victim. His adoptive mother was dead, he didn’t even know his real parents which was probably worse. But if I wanted to see or talk to Kyle he was the sacrifice.

My mind came back to the camera room.

We still had no clue who had leaked the information to the Freedom Brigade, which was what the free subjects and whoever was helping had thoughtfully been called. I watch Julian leave the concrete prison and Ryker examine his injuries and attempt to lie down to rest. If he did know, he probably wouldn’t last long. He’d probably give it up in a few days.

I didn’t understand why they thought he knew, he had no access to technology and all his visits were monitored. Unless someone was sneaking in, or it was John. He had been taken care of so we didn’t have to worry about him anymore. I don’t know if I wanted them to find the mole either, if it meant they’d let us go, I would sign the petition and protest with the public but I was stuck on Staten Island most of the time and the only time I went off of it was to look for Soren or see Kyle. I was always with others then, my patrol group or personal guard, I was never alone.

I hoped whatever plan the Freedom Brigade and the mole had it worked. I wanted to see Kyle without looking over my shoulder worrying about how much time I had with him.