Page 12 of The Program

No, no, no… Make it stop. Not like this. Not with him.

An unanchored voice trickled down through my rising panic. ‘I can’t wait to have you..’

???

A crunching, grinding noise breached through the silence and dragged me from my unconscious state. At least, I thought it did. I lay there immobile, listening for any sign of movement, but there was nothing.

I must have imagined it.

But just as I closed my eyes to save them from the sting of the dust, I heard it again. And this time it was closer and followed by faint voices.

I breathed in preparation to shout, but all I succeeded in doing was inhaling dust and choking on it. My coughs were weak and quiet, more like a whisper. My energy was still depleted, and I wondered if my lungs were too damaged to work properly now.

The voices sounded clearer now, and I thought I could make out them calling my name. I tried to make noise by banging on the rubble, but they pinned me too well to move. So I tried shouting again, but there was still no air.

I coughed and I coughed until I eventually passed out again, unable to breathe.

???

‘Good. You’re awake.’ His smooth voice was slightly muffled by the blindingly white surgical mask.

‘Who are you?’ I asked despite already knowing he wouldn’t answer, my words slurred.

‘I am your master, and you are my subject,’ was his infuriating answer.

I scowled at him as much as I could manage with the drugs coursing through my veins and paralysing my muscles. ‘You’re nothing… to me.’

He only chuckled, his amusement dark and cruel. ‘You must move forward from your delusions, Subject A-173. Here you lie at my mercy. You may have escaped once, but there is nowhere we can’t find you.’ He ran a rubber-clad finger over my brow and over my cheek. Further down it went, flicking my earlobe and caressing the tender skin of my neck before finally coming to rest at the hollow of my throat.

‘You’re mine, don’t you see? Mine to do with as I please…’

???

‘…mis… Art… emis… Artemis…Artemis!’

The voice was familiar. Though her tone was filled with panic and I hated it when she sounded like that, I took comfort from her presence regardless.

‘A, wake up. Come on, Artemis. You need to wake up now,’ she begged, and then a repetitive sharpness whipped across my cheeks followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh. She was hitting me.

Why?

‘Please, A. Please wake up. I need you.Please.’

My eyelids fluttered as I attempted to move them, but as soon as they cracked open my senses were flooded with a bright, burning light and I squeezed them shut again.

‘Oh, thank fuck. Yes, that’s it. Come on, A. You can do it. Wake up for me. Open those big brown eyes.’

I tried again, this time with a little more success as the nanites helped my eyesight acclimate to the sudden change in brightness. When they finally blinked open enough for me to see, the first image in my line of sight was the blurry form of a person. The blurriness quickly sharpened and I found myself looking up into the haggard face of my best friend.

‘Libby?’ I croaked, my voice scratching my throat as it exited.

‘Hey, A.’

‘What’s going on?’

‘You levelled the entire fucking facility with yourself inside it, you crazy bitch,’ she chastised, and though I knew she was trying to make light of it she couldn’t hide the shake in her voice.

‘Sorry, not sorry,’ I said while she helped me into a sitting position.

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