Page 49 of The Program

A second glance towards the women showed they were advancing on me, the threat in their intent clear. Even Junior took a step back, sensing the danger and searching for the comfort of my presence. Confused but cautious, my body snapped into a defensive position without any conscious thought. All I knew was that these women wanted to hurt me and I couldn’t let that happen.

Suddenly, Libby’s voice cut through the tense atmosphere, her tone high with panic. ‘Wait! Stop! Don’t hurt her! She didn’t mean it!’

She pushed through the congregation of bodies to stand protectively in front of me and that triggered my own instincts to protecther.Whensomeone snapped their teeth at her, the act one of pure aggression, I shot into action, pushing her behind me and growling right back. The sound that tore from my chest was low with an almost mechanical quality compared to the other woman’s gravelly, animalistic tone.

Everyone stepped back, a couple even stumbling in their efforts to get away from me. Even Junior scampered away, though he quickly changed course to hide behind me. The fear and shock in their wide-eyed expressions made me pause.

Libby tried to get around me to address the others again, but I held out an arm to stop her. When she kept trying I caged her in by backing her up against the curved stone wall of our room. Realising she wasn’t getting past me she decided to shout over my shoulder instead.

‘Guys, you need to back down! She’s just trying to protect me now, but she didn’t mean anyone any harm, I swear!’

My head tilted to the side at her words. I was still ignorant to what had caused all of this in the first place and it was past time I got to the bottom of it.

‘What’s going on? Why are they here?’ I directed my questions to Libby, not wanting to interact with the women who were threatening us. My voice maintained that same mechanical quality as before, and I wondered if that was something I needed to be concerned about.

‘You were screaming in your sleep,’ she began. ‘Christine and Grace got here before I could stop them. You reacted the same way you usually do and tossed them on their asses. They got hurt and the others stepped in. Artemis, your skin…’

I examined my arm and, sure enough, my skin was encased in that metallic substance again. I also noticed the area surrounding me was lit up by a blue glow that seemed to be emanating from inside me, too.

Understanding dawned and I knew I would need to do some damage control to earn these women’s trust back. What little I’d had, anyway. I relaxed my stance and watched with fascination as the metal receded and, for a lack of a better description,meltedback into my skin. Then I raised my hands, palms out, in the universal sign of surrender.

‘I’m sorry,’ I told them. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. But you can’t wake me up because, well, thishappens. It’s a defence mechanism I developed along time ago to stop the guards from trying anything while I was sleeping. I thought you all knew…’

‘It’s our fault!’ The blonde I recognised as Christine stepped forward. Blood was dripping from a head wound I couldn’t see under her hair and she was cradling her right arm that was bent at an odd angle. She was joined by her brunette friend – who must have been Grace – in equally bad shape, though she was favouring her left foot. Both were dripping blood all over the floor, tiny puddles forming at their feet, but I couldn’t see exactly where they were injured.

Guilt swarmed me and I took a step forward before I could stop myself. I didn’t know what I intended to do. I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable with medical needs, but I felt the urge to try and fix the damage I’d caused, nonetheless.

At my movement the others tensed, but Grace and Christine stood tall and confident and showed no fear.

‘We know you have nightmares and react defensively when your sleep is disturbed. We just heard you screaming and wanted to help. We didn’t think. It was our fault. Please don’t be mad at Artemis,’ the brunette pleaded. I needed to make more of an effort to get to know these women on a personal level, especially after I’d injured them when they were only trying to show kindness and compassion.

‘Are you okay?’ I asked them, concern filling my voice which I was pleased to discover no longer sounded so robotic.

Christine smiled at me kindly. ‘We’re fast healers. It’ll be like nothing happened in a couple of days.’

I blinked at them, confused. ‘It takes that long for you to heal?’

They blinked back, a little stunned, but grim smiles stretched across their faces. ‘Well, we don’t heal quite as fast asyou,but we’re not that far behind.’

I shared a look with Libby that confirmed the lack of understanding for both of us.

‘Don’t the nanites heal you within a few hours?’ she asked them.

It was their turn to share a look of befuddlement. ‘Nanites?’

My jaw dropped to my chest. I thought the scientists had implanted the nanites inallof their subjects. That’s what my research showed.

‘You don’t have nanites?’ I asked, needing to check my information was correct.

They shook their heads, slow and wary. That wasn’t good news. All the files I’d downloaded throughout the solars spent inside The Program claimed that each and every one of their subjects had nanites. Either these women were lying or they were unaware of the implantation. Or they really were telling the truth and the information I had gathered thus far on the topic was incomplete. If that was the case, we were in even deeper shit than I thought.

‘Theyonlyfocused on your DNA?’ I asked, unable to stop the insensitive question from leaving my lips.

‘Of course…’

Libby and I shared a look filled with unease.

‘What did they do toyou?’the bleeding brunette asked. ‘You’re like… a robot or something.’

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