REIGN ON ASHES

Chapter 1 Nova It hurts. My body. It hurts a lot. My eyes gradually flipped open, colliding with the light that shone directly into my eyes from the ceiling. Ugh. A horrible smell filled my nose. What was that? “What are we going to do with them?” “The same thing we do.” “What do you mean the same thing, they are kids!” “Weapons! Failed experiments! That is what they are.” “Exactly, failed, doesn’t that mean we should allow them to live their lives? The one we stole from them?” “Shut up, we didn’t steal anything, we are just security officers and basically the ones that take care of the mess they made.” I heard voices, voices I don’t know. What are they talking about? Who are they talking about? What experiment? What weapons? Who is They? “Shut up and align the bodies.” One said to the other who grunted. I was weak but I wanted to see their faces. I wanted to ask them what they were talking about. I wanted to find out the horrible smell that was messing with my nose and most importantly I wanted to know who I was and why I was covered in blood, paralyzed, and bruised. “What are you doing to us?” I heard a little voice, different from those men mumbling together. The voice was calm, small, and filled with nothing but anguish and pain. But what drew me to look, was how familiar her voice sounded. I know her. I know her. Who is she? How on earth can I know her if I don’t know who I am? I shift my body slowly, tracing her gentle shaken voice. “What have you done to my friends? Why is the lab broken?” She asked, my eyes settled on the little dark-skinned silver-haired girl, she should be around 8 years old, covered in blood, and bruises. My heart ached instantly as though a knife had driven into my chest. I couldn’t breathe, my lungs were burning, my mouth opened but words could not come out. And then an excruciating headache started pounding on me. The pain traveled through every nerve in my body, adding to my paralysis, it was as though I was having a seizure. And then it stopped and I remembered. I remembered everything. That little girl was Claire, she was brought into the Lab five years ago when she was just three years old. And me, My name is Nova, the genius, the successful experiment, the chosen one or so I thought. This lab is called Exodus, a place for little children to be turned into weapons. We live here and train here but that is not all. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we are in the OR and the scientists are busy drilling our brains out, trying to ignite something, trying to create something. Something, I don’t know, something we never consent to. It was painful. It hurts, it always does. I remember crying and begging them to stop because they never sedated us, we experienced every pain, we experienced how the tip of the drilling machine dived slowly into our flesh and then fought its way into our thick skull, it was excruciating, it was maddeningly painful. Every day was a nightmare and today was the tip of the iceberg. There were gunshots, explosions, and screaming. The children were screaming and crying. I rushed out of my cell, watching the people who experimented on us, told we were the future of the country, I watched them gun us down, both young and older children. It made no sense… Why were they killing us? Why? I was only 19, Marco said when I turned 20, I would be the first successful subject so why were they doing this? I needed to find Claire, she was the most recent subject and I grew to love her because I was about her age when I was brought in. The funny story is, that I never knew how I ended up here, I never recalled my parents. But it wasn’t just me, all 100 subjects of us, remember nothing about the life we had before going into Exodus. Did our parents sell us out? Were we kidn*pped? My questions were not answered because a bullet went through my skull and I crumbled to the ground before I could find Claire, forgetting everything until now. Claire was standing in front of the guard who had a gun out, pointed at Claire. Please don’t. Don’t pull the trigger, please don’t She is just a kid! “Get. Back!” The guard grunted “What did you do to us!” Claire screamed, her voice echoing through the room, causing the objects in site to tremble. “I said Get back!” the guard warned, his eyes dead, he was going to blow her head off. He would l. Claire, stay down, please stay down. “You took us from our parents, turned us into subjects, drilled our brains, and forced us to fight amongst each other, we have done everything you’ve asked! We have done every f*****g thing you’ve asked! We have accepted this life, so why? Why are you doing this!” Claire broke out. The guard still had the same look, he didn’t feel remorse or guilt about any of this. How could he? Claire took another step forward and the guard didn’t blink twice before pulling the trigger, hitting her three times in her head. No! No! No!!!! Claire!!!!!!! Anger consumed me, and hate-filled my heart. All my pain came together, squeezing my heart, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. I lay there with tears rolling down my eyes over and over but I still couldn’t move, I wanted to get up and rip his head off, I wanted to drive my hands into his chest and rip his heart out, I wanted to break every bone in his body, I wanted to make him pay but I still couldn’t move, I was still paralyzed, all I could do was lay there and watch like a f*****g loser. “What are we going to do?” The other guard asked. “What the f**k do you mean, the same thing we have done to the other labs, we burn it to the ground, wipe its existence!” “What about Subject Zero?” That was me… I was Subject Zero.