[Highest Ranking #176 in Science Fiction]
Asia Knight's restful Spring Break vacay in the woods turns sour when the jello shots stop flowing and bullets start flying.
She's always felt different with her ability to withstand pain and lack of memor...
Asia could tell he wasn't like her. His eyes weren't glowing in the darkness of the room and his hand searched the wall frantically for the light switch. She could also feel his nervous energy. His other hand tightening on the gun, sweat collecting above his lip as he took more swallows than any normal human would.
Asia couldn't blame him. She herself was nervous. It felt like high school all over again. She remembered the last time she saw him. It was the night before their high school graduation.
They were at Denver's graduation party when he whispered in her ear, can we talk in private so she could hear him over the wall shaking music. She led him to the gazebo at the end of the Perkins property. Asia's skin stopped vibrated from the booming beats but her heart still rushed. They watched the moon's glow shimmer on the lake's placid surface and she realized she was a simple girl.
Recently, accepted into Rayford with a track scholarship with hopes of a quaint life in the future. Maybe become a teacher or open her own dog-training business and get married. So, when Zack took her hand off the wooden rail and tucked it in his, she thought one of her life dreams were coming true. She expected him to ask her a question but instead, he made a confession. He had not been the faithful boyfriend she told Ethan he was instead he was the father of Maxine's three-month-old fetus.
"How's the baby?" Asia held the knife at her side noting he still looked the same. Same low shaped Afro, wide hazel eyes and velvety umber skin. "Why are you here?"
Zack ignored the first question and ended his hunt for the light switch, "I joined the army after graduation. I wasn't an acceptable candidate for Rayford."
"You could have gone to any other college."
Zack huffed dropping his head. He rubbed his face roughly, disturbing the scruff around his jaw. "I use to think you knew it all." He focused back on her. "Now, I know you don't know nothing at all."
Asia chuckled but the burning from the gash in her hip turned it into a grunt. "I know you aren't supposed to use double negatives in a sentence."
"You're still a sarcastic bitch." He held the rifle horizontally against his chest. He couldn't see Asia's scowl and he probably wouldn't care. "Let me drop a little knowledge on you." He scratched the bridge of his nose as he forged deeper in the armory prompting Asia to take a couple of steps back. She hadn't determined if he was an old friend or a new foe, yet. "Dowling, Texas isn't just any small town and Rayford isn't just any university. It wasn't my grades that didn't get me accepted. It was my DNA...specifically it was my number of helixes. I have a double helix and you.... with your glow in the dark eyes have a triple helix."
"You know what I am," Asia stated but it came across more like a question.
Zack smiled and Asia could see his corked canine tooth. "Everyone knows what ya'll are but ya'll." Zack tapped on the gun. "And you're going to forget all of this. Once we get you back to the Factory."
"I'm not going anywhere with you." Asia seethed gripping the handle of the knife a little harder.
"Yes, you are. Either, you're going to go willingly or I'm going to pack you out." His tightened his hand on the gun, his finger floating over the trigger. "You're not human. You don't have a choice. You are a science experiment that succeeded. You are the property of Ares Multinational and since I am a contract agent of Ares—you do as I say."
"Fuck you and fuck Ares. I have a mind of my own and my mind is made up. I...not...going...anywhere...with you and I'm no one's property."
"They told me progeny number eight would be difficult. I thought, Naw, I grew up with those people. I can handle them. It's the wolf that Dr. Cummings used to make you that's making you defiant. The lone wolf." He shrugged. "But I can still break you." He put his hand under the muzzle of the rifle and aimed it at her. "Don't worry these aren't bullets. They're DPBs. You're just going to take a long nap and remember nothing."
"I'm not going back." Asia could tell from the way his gun was pointing at her that whatever was coming out of the muzzle was going to pop her in the shoulder. Still, she didn't move.
The gnawing from the hole in her thigh, the throbbing from the wretched puncture above her pelvis, and the piercing sting from the lacerations in her hand; it all halted her movement. She thought about what her father told her use your strengths and right now her body wasn't one of them. "I can't go back." She realized what Dr. Miller meant. She knew who her brothers were. They were the four boys she grew up with. The four boys she went camping with; the four boys that each claimed a corner of her heart. Ethan. Eric. Oliver. Denver. "I won't go back."
"We'll see," Zack said pressing down the trigger.
A shot has been fired. Where will it hit?
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