Project: Rogue (Project Series Book 2)

C
opyright © 2016 J.L
. Beck

A
ll rights reserved
. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

C
over Design by Sprinkles on Top Studio

Editing by Kim Ginsberg

Formatting by J.L. Beck

S
ix Months Prior

“
W
elcome to Channel 8 News
, my name is Jackie and we have a special announcement from President of The United States.” The news reporter spoke loud, pronouncing each word clearly.

The screen went in and out of focus for a moment and then the cameraman settled in on his angle. You could see the President standing in front of his podium, black suit tailored, white shirt underneath−crisp, and his navy blue tie in place, his face a mask to what he was truly going to tell all of us. The thing was I knew already, about the government’s secrets and the depths that said government would go through just to conceal them.

Yet, they were now exposing them. Letting them loose and free, as to make those affected by their mad scientist skills seem crazy. As always the government could never take action for the things that they did wrong.

“Thank you for allowing me to come inside your homes tonight. It is of an urgent matter that I disclose some information to the people of this nation, about the things that have been taking place behind closed doors.” There was a silent pause, and all that could be heard was the President’s very own breathing.

“In an effort to end the cancerous diseases that take millions of our loved ones every day, the government in connection with some of the best scientist in the nation created a cure.” The crowd cheered as if we had just won a football game or something. The truth was, even if this was a large feat for the nation, it was at the cost of others. At the cost of those, that should be dead.

“However, it has come at a Cost.” He spoke over the loud cheers and claps. The crowd seemed to quiet down as they waited for him to finish what it was that he had to say. The truth was right on the tip of his tongue. All he had to do was say the words and spill the truth free.

“At what cost is that, Mr. President?” A man with a USA Today badge hanging around his neck asked from the front row. Did he realize what he was asking, that this knowledge could get us all killed? Better yet, did the President even realize what it was that he was unleashing out into the public?

“It has come at a cost of other’s lives. Something we knew would happen, but decided the outcome of a possible cure was more important than someone possibly losing their life in a trial and error environment. The outcome of what we could achieve was far greater, so we went forward with it anyway. ” The President seemed saddened by the words he had to speak, but we all knew truthfully underneath the mask he wore that there was not a sorry bone in his body.

He was as much at fault as PGI corporation. The very company that discovered the cure for AIDS but, merely at the hands of those that were being treated like lab rats. When you start messing with the genetics of the entire world trying to come up with a cure for every cancer, and disease you start playing a very dangerous game of Russian roulette.

“All of the humans used in the human trials were near death at the time of their treatments for trials, the drugs used altered their genetics, causing them to become more than human. There is still very little known about these men, and women but I assure you were working diligently to get this information out to you the people of this nation.” The room was quiet, so very quiet. The lies rolled off the Presidents tongue with ease. Then the silence was interrupted, with mass chaos.

“If you knew the consequences beforehand then why did you do it?” One reporter asked right before the room grew into an uproar, the reporters in front of him all rushing to a stand as they threw questions left and right.

“Where are these people that you’ve experimented with?” Another blurted out nervously like they wanted to know the answer, but at the same time feared it.

I rolled my eyes at the TV, picking up the remote to change the channel. The truth was going to come out sooner or later.

“Is there any immediate threat to the public, Mr. President?” The question caused my finger to halt against the rubber button on the remote control.

Would he answer the question honestly, or would he lie? Then again, if someone told you that there were men and women with their genetics altered running out and about in the world how would you feel. Yet, it wasn’t as if he had told them what those people could do.

“At this time we don’t know. As far as the test subjects go, there are some that are unaccounted for, but I assure you we’re doing everything that we can to find them.” Gasps filled the room, and then more shouts and questions. I swallowed past the anger that wanted to be unleashed. That was just it. Those that were missing didn’t want to be found.

“What does this all mean, Mr. President?” You could hear the uncertainty in the reporter’s voice as well as the others. They were unsure of what was to come, and they should be. The government had been hiding more shit from them than they realized. And they still were.

All at the expense of other’s lives, but retribution would be served. I thought to myself as a sinister smile formed on my face.

It was time for society to find out who the Projects were.

It was time for them to understand what the Brotherhood was.

It was time for death to rain down on everyone.

K
iller

B
lood surrounded me
, the warmth of it coating my skin. The smell of copper filled the air, hitting the back of my throat as I took in a deep breath, my chest heaving with the effort it took to breathe.

What was wrong with me? I blinked my eyes open but saw nothing but darkness as my fists clenched onto soft fabric.

Where was I? The question echoed loudly in my ears causing my head to ache.

“Killer! Killer!” I could hear her screams, but couldn’t move. She needed me, yet I couldn’t reach her, no matter how hard I tried.

“Maggie!” I screamed her name as loud as I could, but no words left my lips. Instead, her name and my voice bounced around inside of my head. Darkness plagued me as I continued to hear her cries, her pleas to be saved.

I swam through dark layers of my mind trying to find the slightest trace of light that I could hold on to. Sweat clung to my brow as the memories resurfaced, confusion hitting me like a brick wall as everything around me seemed to spin.

What had happened to us? I could hear the words bouncing off the walls inside my skull. All while panic rose within me, more memories filtering in through my mind.

“Make it stop. Tell them to stop.” Maggie’s voice was barely above a beg, whimpers left her throat, and I could feel myself growing hard. Hard for her, for the pain that she was enduring for me.

But why?

“Killer, can you hear me?” A voice I didn’t recognize asked. I shook my head trying to make it go away, I didn’t want to hear the voices anymore; I simply wanted to know what had happened to Maggie, my Maggie.

Unable to speak, I grunted and growled showing them the animal that they created in me; my own anger begging to be let loose upon them.

“He’s unresponsive, sir.” I could hear the shuffling of feet over the floor and a warm calloused hand against my wrist, yet try as I may to move my hands and legs−I couldn’t.

“Brown.” The word was said with so much authority, and almost immediately pain filled my abdomen. Seconds later I was being flung through a time portal. To a life that I could only remember through memories, to a life I felt that I couldn’t have lived.

Maggie stood before me, her white sundress billowing in the wind. She was so beautiful, her dark colored locks were pinned back in an elegant way. My chest rose and fell where she started. Those deep brown eyes of hers that I loved so much were glimmering in the light, like little stars hung above the Earth.

It wasn’t until my eyes zoned in closer that I realized it was nothing more than a facade, it had to be. Maggie’s image tilted in my mind, or maybe in reality and before I could say a single word or lurch forward to stop her from disappearing red streaks appeared on her hands and worked their way up her body, stopping at her throat.

“No!” I screamed, running towards her as fast I could. My feet barely moving across the floor. All I could see was blood, and pain, and the need to stop the bleeding in order to save her life, still with every step I took towards her I was flung backward, and further away from her. I watched helplessly as blood seemed to pour from her, then she did something that confused me. She looked up at me as she wrung her hands together staring at them in understanding and awe.

“It’s what they wanted, Killer. It’s what will happen. We cannot fight the future.” Her voice was so soft, like cashmere against my skin, as the word hit me and bounced off my skin. My eyes grew wide with fear, her voice warning me and filling me with so much self-hate. This was my fault. I was the guilty one. I had done this to her.

“Maggie!” Her name resonated from deep within my throat. The scream of her name doing nothing to stop the inevitable from taking place. Her face tilted sideways as if she was trying to acknowledge me and then just like a magic trick being done right before my eyes, she disappeared. Vanished into thin air.

“Revive him.” The same unrecognizable voice said again, pulling me from the dream.

Seconds later a course of electricity zinged through me, causing my heart to jolt in my chest. My hair stood on end, and the smell of burnt flesh filtered in through my nostrils. I could hear the loud thuds of my heartbeat in my ear, and the rushing of my blood throughout my body. Confusion continued to overwhelm me. Was I dying? Or was I already dead?

“Place him back under.” The voice said again.. My eyelids fluttered, as I tried to focus on the voice, on anything that would give me a clue as to where I was and who it was that was holding me here.

In the next instant, I could feel my body clinging to the side of a pool the cold stone beneath my hands as my nails tried to dig deeply into the stone. Dark water was surrounding both sides of me. The water was so murky and cold that my lips began to quiver as a shiver worked its way down my spine. The sound of my teeth chattering against one another was the only thing that could be heard.

“Maggie!” I yelled her name without thought but heard nothing back. It was as if I was living in my own personal hell trapped inside my own mind with no way out. She wasn’t here with me. This was all inside of my head. It had to be, what else could be happening?

Death. A life without Maggie.

There was no warning as my grip on the side of the pool went slack, and I sunk deeply into the icy water. I flailed against the freezing water, my arms and legs kicking as hard as they could so my lungs could get the oxygen they desperately needed. None of it mattered, though. My attempts of escaping were getting me nowhere.

Instead, numbness was taking over my limbs as the last remainder of oxygen left my lungs. My legs, and arms, as well as back scraped against the bottom of the pool, just as I thought it was all going to be over an image began to form above me. I blinked slowly, focusing in on the man that had simply appeared out of thin air not understanding how I could see him crystal clear,yet be surrounded by the dark murky waters that separated us.

I stared at the man for a long time. I wasn’t breathing. I wasn’t speaking. I was simply watching, and waiting. He looked vaguely familiar, but at the same time unrecognizable to me. His presence alone caused fear to strike within me. My heart rate skyrocketed, beating furiously against my ribcage so loudly I was sure he could hear it.

Who was this man? A rush of anger zinged through me, and just as I opened my mouth to yell, to say something−anything, I could feel the warmth of light enveloped me and within seconds the darkness faded away again.

“Stable, sir.” The voice was back; the memory being interrupted before I could get an answer to who the man was. Rage like I had never felt before threatened to consume me.

“Good. Now, I want you to contact them.” The man’s voice grew colder with each word that was spoken. I had never wished for my voice to work so much in my entire fucking life. To ask questions, to get answers. To threaten lives, or even take them, if it came down to that,

“I will let them know, sir. Do you also want me to let them know that we have the girl?” Without hesitation, my eyes popped open at the mention of a girl.

The girl? Who was the girl? Anger festered deep inside of my chest, as my head snapped towards them bringing up the girl, but didn’t understand the meaning behind it.

Rage surged through my veins and I took my surroundings in as fast as I could, as I tried to get my body to catch up with my brain. My eyes zeroed in on every single object in the room from the floor to the walls. I picked up on every scent, and noise as my entire body tried to digest everything that was going on around me all at once because I knew I needed to take in as much as I could before they forced my body back under. Back into the darkness.

I was lying on a bed, the walls before me were a stark white color, spotless and uncontaminated. My eyes drifted to the three men closest to my bed, they held clipboards and wore lab coats that mirrored that of the walls in color, their faces frozen in shock as I lifted a hand grabbing onto the cords, and tubes they had placed in my body. With a flick of the wrist, everything was removed. The snapping of the tubes and cords was the only sound that could be heard aside from the loud gasps coming from the doctors.

“Where am I?” I ordered them to answer, my voice hoarse and raw. It was then that a thought hit me. Why had I stopped to ask questions?

I should’ve been destroying anything and everyone to get to her. To the girl. Yet, I felt that I needed answers, that I needed something to tell me all of this wasn’t a nightmare. My own personal hell. I lifted my nose to the air to see if I could get her scent, anything that would point me in the right direction, but instead all I could smell was the disgustingness of antiseptic and bleach. Another reminder that if this really wasn’t real I wouldn’t be able to smell, taste, or feel anything as if it was real.

“You’re being treated for your injuries.” One of the men in a lab coat said, his voice startled and his eyes refusing to meet my own. I stared at him blankly, knowing that he was being deceitful. I could practically see the lies written on his face and the next set forming in his mind.

The second man looked between his partner and me, something secretive passing between the two of them. I knew then that he was about to try and feed me another lie just to keep me quiet, and I refused to be fed lies. I shoved off the bed with little effort, my fists clenched together as I felt the distinct urge to release the inner beast in me on them. He would get the answers out of them that I desperately needed.

“They lie! All humans lie!!” A growl erupted from deep within my chest, causing all of the men to take a cautious step back.

“Why don’t you sit back down on the bed and we’ll help you figure everything out. Okay?” The third man who hadn’t said or done anything yet stated calmly. It was a facade, though, I could hear the fear and panic rising in his voice with each word spoken.

I shook my head in irritation and decided I would give these people one more chance, one more second to explain things truthfully to me. Otherwise, they were all as good as dead.

“Tell. Me. Where. I. Am.” I screamed each word my voice growing louder with every single second of silence that surrounded us. They needed to understand just how close to death they were. I was on the verge of crumbling, my vision fading to black. I had one urge, and one urge only, and that was the need for answers and if bones had to be broken, and blood be shed to get those answers then so be it.

“I…” Lab coat wearer number one stumbled over his words, while the other two seemed to have pulled their balls out of their assholes. This caused a bubble of hysterical laughter to form inside of me as I watched them take a stance of dominance. If they weren’t shaking in their fucking boots now, then they would be the second I wrapped my hands around their throats and squeezed the ever fucking life out of them.

“Killer? If that’s even what you would like to be referred to as…” Number two spoke to me directly, as if he was trying to give me control over one simple thing, such as my name. My muscles ached with pent up rage, control was not something they had given to me as a gift. It was something I took.

“You won’t have enough time to say my name, let alone remember it once I rip your body apart so my name doesn’t really matter now does it?” I tilted my head at them in questioning.

“Of course, I’ll start with your throat because I hate it when my prey screams as I rip their limbs from their bodies.” I sneered continuing as I tried not to lose focus on the important things here. Things like the girl and finding out where it was that they were holding me.

One of the men smirked, still seeming nonetheless unfazed by my anger, “I’ll just call you Killer since we have no paperwork on who you are.” He stepped closer to me, hands up in a way that said he didn’t want to scare me. I could’ve laughed had I not been so pissed off. Like he could even do that.

I forced my fingers to move backwards, to grip the sheets just to hold back the urge to wrap them around his throat before I could get answers. Still, my body refused to react. It was as if I was in some sort of trance.

“You’re a killer, right? Made to create death and mayhem, isn’t that correct?” His eyes narrowed, and in them, I saw a hate that mirrored my own, it lingered and festered like an infected wound.

“To rip people to shreds, to maim and kill, and not care that you’re doing so? To be relentless by nature, to rip the life from those that you seek unfit of living?” He was mind-fucking me. Trying to get me to spill something, a secret, an answer, anything. Did I not just tell him I would rip him from limb to limb? Or did he need an example?

My mind and body told me to lock everything up, that I needed to hide inside myself, but I had never been a runner, a person to hide from the dark that lingered around every corner.

“I don’t think you really know who I am at all.” My teeth ground together, and somehow I had managed to bite the inside of my cheek. The taste of blood filling my mouth caused a haze to fall over my mind everything inside of my going dark for a moment.

“Because if you did know who I was, you would’ve been running for the hills already,” I whispered to him, making sure he understood the finality in my voice. I would end him and his pathetic life the second I could get my body to follow through with the actions I wanted it to do. My hands wouldn’t move past gripping the sheets, If only I could get the blood inside me to move to other parts of my body that I could take back full control of myself.

“I’m not scared of you, Killer.” A smile formed on his face. “No one is.” He finished, and I could feel his voice drifting off in my head, the darkness pulling at the far corners of my mind.

“You will be.” I snarled trying my hardest to fight against the darkness, that wanted to pull me under. Fighting against the unforeseen force was pointless because as soon as it’s claws sunk into my chest everything faded away and I was thrown through a time portal.

A voice filled my head but sounded far off in the distance.

“Where are you?” The voice questioned repeating itself many times. Try as I may I continued to shake my head over and over again ignoring the voice as much as I could.