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Recruitment

David Fledburgh was his name. The same name that claimed that life was so worthless. The same name that got bored with everything and resorted to murder as a means to entertain himself.

Twelve victims. That's how many it took for the police to finally catch on. He willingly admitted to his crimes and was sent directly to death row. That's when he learned about the Foundation.

"Hello, sir. Do you mind if I speak with you?"

A man was escorted to the door of his cell. The most distinguishing feature that David noticed was the official-looking outfit; a blue shirt, jeans, and a long lab coat with some kind of symbol on the chest.

"Yeah, sure," he responded, sitting up from his sleeping bench. "What's up?"

"I am guessing that you are Mr. Fledburg, correct?" he inquired, pulling out some papers from his coat.

"However did you guess?"

There was a moment of silence, the man looking intently at the papers in front of him. Suddenly, he looked up and began speaking again.

"I am here to make an offer to you, David. You can either wait for the timer to your death to reach its end or do a month of special service. At the end of this month, you will be allowed out of prison."

"Military service, I'm guessing?"

"No, not at all. We have a foundation that needs volunteers. Of course, you don't have to accept the offer. There has been some talk of mildly dangerous work being done there"

David was puzzled, but interested at the same time. Potentially dangerous volunteer work for a month didn't sound inherently bad. It would be better than being cooped up in a cell for years just to get a life-ending shot. He thought for a few minutes before finally coming up with an answer.

"Why not? It sounds like it could be fun."

He made a small bow. "Thank you for volunteering, sir. You will be transported to your respective site soon enough. Goodbye until then."

"Yep, see you."

He ate his evening meal soon afterwards and was dismissed back to his cell for lights out. Normally, he would be able to get to sleep with no problem; he was practically falling asleep for most of the day, anyways. However, tonight was different. Sleep seemed so hard to obtain. For some reason, he felt so awake. Restless. Excited. He tried to search within himself for the source of this inability to rest, but there was nothing. He reasoned that it was just one of those nights and, eventually, there was nothing.