what's been forgotten

chapter 1

Trapped in an empty yet so full room. There was only a bed with neatly tucked in white bedspread that was replaced day after day. Otherwise, there were no pictures on the wall. There wasn't a dresser or a nightstand. No mirrors or even windows. It was a small black room made for sleeping in and that was it.

The children slept for nine hours exactly each night. Not one hour more not one hour less. They didn't dream. They didn't move. It was almost as if they were robots.

"I'm sorry ma'am," a man in a bullet proof vest tried settling the crying woman. "We legally have to take your child with us. They will be back." The man did not wait for an answer. He dragged the little four year old into the black van and drove away. The mother chased the van for a few feet before breaking down into helpless sobs.

Forty hours. It took forty hours to arrive at base. The building was lined with blue neon lights to constrast the glowing black coat of the place. It was very boxy and appeared tiny. But the inside was gigantic. Magical.

Contradicting to what really was going on inside.

The child was thrown out of the van once large metal doors allowed the van inside. The child was taken to a white room. There were blades of all sorts and other unrecognizable tools. There was also a small gadget the size of a nickel. It had a glossy finish to it yet a complex design visible through the see through oval that covered the inside programming.

The gadget—or as the surgeons called it "chip"—was implanted behind the child's ear. The wires connected to their brain and erased all memories of the past four years of their little life. All they knew were the emotionless faces of the men and women that controlled their every move. They had no thoughts. No life. They were a robot.

They weren't supposed to remember being stripped from their mother's cold hands. They weren't supposed to remember seeing the outside of the building where there were dozens of machines and flying crates. They weren't supposed to remember the trees or the bees, the butterflies or the daffodils.

And for the next 8 years, they didn't know a thing.

The morning bells rung at 7 A.M. sharp. The abrupt noise stung Albert's ears as they pulled themself out of bed. A hanger holding a their clothes for the day flew in by an electric railing. They removed the day clothes and replaced it with their pajamas. And once they were dressed, the doors slid open and allowed them to walk out and wait to be retrieved for daily training.

"DaSilva," a tall man in a bullet proof vest looked down at them. Albert nodded and marched behind him as they went along to the other children. There were twelve: Elmer Kasprzak, Romero Santos, Louis Baletti, Micheal Myers, Spencer Willis, Benjamin Davenport, Jorgelino Josephino De La Guerra, Henry Pierre, Mike Garcia, Ike Garcia, Tommy Christopher Elijah, and Albert DaSilva.

They all shared one thing in common. Taken from their families as children, had a chip in the same place behind their ear, and were used as defense. They were beta weapons of war. Objects. Computers.

There used to be more children. About twenty of them, actually. They were either killed, died of mistreatment and negligence, or malfunctioned. That was when the chips were first being created. Now, the chips were perfect. The children would continue training until they were fifteen, then they would be put on the battlefield. And no other country would suspect a thing. Their creation was just beginning and it was already so powerful.

Switzerland was never all that involved in military defense until they discovered what wonderful things they could do with tech. The AHLR focused on advancing their tech. Almost nothing in the vicinity was handled by a human unless it was some type of control panel or tablet.