Created (Book 1 of the Created) (31 page)

We all sat around in our various homes chatting. Veronica
and I moved from home to home talking until the twosome had grown to the whole
of our group lounging around Logan's house. The conversation was light, and
though not forgiven by the group for my actions, there was a friendliness that
was natural. The jokes and stories by the others had ended at lunch time by a
small contingent of soldiers asking us to each return to our own house. Saying
our goodbyes, we all went home to wait.

Settling into my chair, I began reading the Farm Guide which
I was finding was an underused tome. The Farm Guide was a lot of things
presented in a dry instructional format, but interestingly there were snippets
to interacting with humans and the other creatures that I found priceless. I
had started reading before, but was bored to tears. Today was different. Today,
I was finding parts that would be invaluable.

My studying was interrupted. A knock, a wet dog smell and a
low, moaning howl at my door told me there was something unique to my visitor.
Opening the door, I was greeted by a wolf of considerably size standing
upright. The creature was scraggily and tall, and I was unsure of the
generation. The body was all
wolf
. The face was human
except for the canine teeth and ears. The mangy hair that was covering the wolf
was long and black. A silver collar dangled around the beast’s neck with an
inscription in a language of which I had no memory of knowing. The wolf did not
speak, but stood at attention staring back at me until he handed me a notice.
The notice was reminiscent of the one I had found in the box the night before.

It had become a long weekend and it appeared it was going to
be a longer week as a wolf messenger stood in front of me issuing a menacing
stare at me.

I took the card as I said, "Thank you, sir."

Flipping the card over between my fingers, I noticed
instructions upon it on both the front and the back though I wasn't going to
take the time to read either as long as the wolf was present. A few seconds of
awkward silence ensued then the wolf bowed to me gracefully and ran from the
porch of my house to Darby's.
 

I muttered sarcastically, "That will most definitely
scare her to death."

I could hear the knock at her door. I started counting
quietly to myself as I heard her bouncing through the house.
"5,
4, 3, 2 and 1."
Then there was a scream and a loud growl in return
followed by the slamming of the door. I laughed louder than I had thought I
would. Then the wolf knocked again. It had been funny the first time. I was
tiring of this game and surely she wouldn't scream again.

I entered the house and closed the door. Resting against the
door, I read the card aloud, "You are requested at the convening of the
Pit. You should arrive at seven thirty pm. A guide will be assigned to you as a
guarantee to your prompt arrival."

The clock on the wall displayed the current time as two
thirty. I was sure this was part of my own doing. This world of monsters had
more rules than the human one we masqueraded in during the days off base. Maybe
if I survived the first year then I might understand how not to fuck everything
up. I shrugged and smelled of the fresh blood on the card as I rested against
the door thinking of what was to come next. This blood's scent was calming.
Remembering there were more words on the card, I turned the card over. On the
back there was found the single word: Participant.

My only reaction was a succinct thought that rolled around
my mind, Shit.

Guards of human and zombie were placed on station shortly
after the messenger departed from the last home. Suppressing the thoughts of
what I was selected for this time, I chose to stare at the ceiling from the
less than comfortable couch. A restless mind had tried an attempt at a nap
unsuccessfully. There wasn't even a chance that the nap would happen.

An hour passed with me counting the ridges on the dingy
ceiling as I wondered what
Sunnie
was doing today. She
surely had to be wondering what the hell happened to me. Thinking less of me
and more about what kind of thing I could be was a distinct possibility.
Thankfully, I was saved momentarily from the dullness of creating my own
insanity when someone arrived at me door with a thunderous knock.

Not bothering to look out the window to see who was calling,
I opened the door to find Liam in a tuxedo standing before me with a black
garment bag slung over his shoulder.

"What's up man?" I queried.

Liam responded slowly as he handed me the bag. "Not
much. A guardian delivered this to my door about a half hour ago along with
Logan's."

"Come in and have a seat. I am taking it that in the
bag is my tux too?"

He sat on the edge of the couch. "You might want to
take a look for yourself because yours is special."

There was none of the good natured, but mischievous guy I
had grown to like. Liam was worried. His normal dumb grin was gone. His hands
were shaking nervously. He tried to hide his anxiousness by shoving his hands into
his pants pockets.

Unzipping the bag, I found an entirely black suit and pants
with a traditional necktie as opposed to the bow tie worn by Liam.

"Everything alright?"
I
asked.

"You know what you are getting into don't you?" He
responded with a question of his own.

Putting down the garment bag "Don't have a clue and the
way you are acting it must be pretty bad."
 

He refused to look at me as he answered, "The Pit is a
sporting match for the rich who help secure funding for the research that takes
place on the Farm. The same people also hunt the lesser generations on occasion
for a fee. It acts as another subtle reminder that we are not one of them. We
are just machines to them that were created to protect the way of life outside
these fences that surround us. Tonight, the same people will be watching as you
are honored for your heroism. Of course there is a twist."

"Of course.
Nothing here is
ever as simple as hey Ethan thanks for killing a rogue Hunter who was unleashed
upon the world," I retorted as I disrobed to begin the process of getting
ready.

Liam sounded pissed at my flippant attitude as his voice
rose higher and louder. "Before you pat
yourself
on the back for being the reason that the Hunter was sent out in the first
place.
Before you pat yourself on the back for putting us at
all at risk.
Before you pat yourself on the back for
falling for one of them.
Before..."

"Before you say anything more.
I get it, alright? I get it," I knew I had overstepped.

Rising from his seat, Liam paced the small expanse of the
living room. "The world that is real to us needs you to pay for your
stupidity so the council decided to mask our celebration of your selfish
accomplishment by forcing you into combat versus the person responsible for
sending the Hunter against
Sunnie's
family."

I put on the shirt I was given. As I buttoned the shirt, a
button snapped in half under the unconscious pressure I exerted when I learned
the death match would be against the person responsible for the attempted
assassination of
Sunnie
. I no longer cared if I
survived the Pit. All I cared about was killing the person responsible.

I could tell Liam was looking at me as I fumbled with the
broken button in my hand. He spat out quickly as he nervously exited my house.
"I need to check and see if my escort for tonight is ready."

"Hey, you okay Liam?" I asked.

"I need to go, I will see you tonight."

I figured he must have wanted to tell me off since
Sunnie
and I had started talking. Tucking in my shirt as he
stood paused at the door I asked, "Liam, do you happen to know who my
escort is?"

He looked over his shoulder at me, "Who else, but
Veronica."

My calm had a new complexity. Hunger to kill was welling in
me as I thought of confronting the asshole that tried to kill the girl I think
I love. Deciding to give it a shot to see if Liam had any advice or knowledge
of my adversary I asked, "Do you know anything about who I will be facing
tonight?"

Liam replied solemnly, "Some yeah, but I really can't
say too much because of the rules of the event."

"Well, who is it then at least?" I angrily
questioned.

"Me," Liam answered as the aluminum door shut
harshly behind him.

The slamming noise of the flimsy material against the wooden
door frame should have ended quickly, but inside of me it lingered. Liam's
betrayal had been unseen. I had expected Chloe or a member from the other high
school group not Liam.

I felt sick. There was a huge hole inside of me that had not
existed before his confession. Reaching for the edge of the couch, I missed and
continued on to the floor. It wasn't a flop where I landed
hard,
instead it was a slow descent until I was seated on the floor with my head in
my hands. I was unsure if I could kill him no matter how pissed I was at him.
He had become a brother to me in the short time we had known each other.

"What you are feeling is the fact that we are the
generation burdened to understand the gravity of our sins," Veronica
startled me.

How she so easily slipped into my home was a mystery to me
that I didn't care to indulge at this time. However she was able to achieve the
trick, Veronica was standing before me in an elegantly designed, snuggly
fitting yellow dress that barely hung off her shoulders. In another time, I
might have commented about how beautifully she was dressed, but she was right,
I was unable to deal with tonight’s festivities finale. Facing the task of
dealing with my own anger and killing Liam to survive was overwhelming me.

Looking away, I grumbled, "What the hell are you
talking about?"

She said, "All of the generations are caricatures of
mankind. The greatest weakness of all of the soldiers that have been designed
through the years has been the lack of humanity. It remained absent from our
predecessors until our generation. The fact that we were given this curse was
luck and not science. It was a one in five million chance that it would occur.
The scientists mapped the sequence and can now recreate it when needed, but we
were the first."

I said as I wiped at my tears, "Lucky us."

Veronica walked to the fridge and retrieved a bag of blood.
"It can be a bitch, but it is the gift that allows us to control our
urges. Without the emotions, we would be prone to killing without
discrimination."

She opened then handed me a bag of
A
positive. "Drink
this,
it will make you feel
better."

Taking the bag, I took a long drink of the cool blood. The
drink was welcomed even though it wasn't warmed. I downed another drink of
blood then asked, "Why didn't you tell me that Liam was the one that
released the GV6?"

Veronica pressed at the front of her dress as she thought of
an answer. I watched the sultry vampire stall for time. Everything she did
appeared effortless. When she finished, her hair turned jet black as she began
to speak. "Ethan does it matter? The vampire and the wolf groups voted and
he was the unfortunate soul that was nominated to secure, prep and release the
Hunter to kill
Sunnie
. He was one of many that were
against your actions and tonight he could be the one to pay the price for what
you have done."

"What I have done?!"
I
screamed. "How does it always come back to me? I didn't ask for these
emotions. I didn't ask to feel what I have been feeling. I am tired of the
blame always being mine."

She was obviously disturbed by my answer. "I guess in
that case no one can blame you for how you feel, and we are all wrong about
what is best for our kind and our way of life."

Another reminder that I wasn't human.

"Whatever," I frustratingly exclaimed.

"You need to finish getting ready so we can go,"
Veronica stood in the door.

I laced up my shoes then attempted to put on my tie which
was an epic fail on my behalf. Before I even asked, Veronica had the tie in
hand.

"Turn around silly. That is one of the most
embarrassingly awful attempts to tie a tie that I have ever had to witness,"
She giggled.

She tied the tie, adjusted my collar and helped me on with
my jacket. "You almost seem right at home in this suit."

The suit was exquisitely tailored to my body. I admired my
form and felt the suit bend and flow with my body.

"Too bad it will get ruined in the fight,"
Veronica sighed as she brushed some stray lint from the shoulders, "I
would have liked to have seen you in it again."

"Maybe when Liam kills me tonight you can bury me in
it," I sarcastically quipped as I adjusted my shirt sleeves.

Veronica looked paler than she normally did. The radiant
light that had been there before had been drained from her. I think the real
possibility of my death had not been evident to her until I had joked about it,
though she knew it somewhere deep inside.

Her eyes began to fill with tears, but she held them at bay.
"I don't want to see either one of you die tonight, but there is an order
to our world here that must be maintained in order to keep the peace between
the generations. Chadron also wants to ensure we stay in line."

"Is that why Chadron and the government is willing to
risk their property getting killed or damaged for the sake that the order must
be maintained?" I asked as I lifted her chin to look at me.

"One is not enough to be called a loss. The order must
be maintained. If we were to become uncontrollable Chadron and the government
would have no choice but to exterminate the lot of us and start over. Believe
me, there are safe guards in place for a mass extinction if necessary, but by
sacrificing one for all eyes to see, then this fiction that is our freedom here
on the base is maintained, "Veronica stated as she stared into my eyes.