Page 2 of The Program

‘Shall I bring her in here? She was previously partnered with this subject, correct? Maybe keeping her more comfortable with someone she knows would be beneficial.’

‘You think the nanites are responding to her distress?’

‘It’s a possibility we are looking into. Being around this subject’s offspring may incite a desire for a baby herself. If the nanites are responding to her emotions then it is possible they will recognise this desire and allow us to inseminate.’

‘Then yes, bring her here. But keep a close eye on them. I don’t want them getting ideas about running away again. We cannot afford another blow like that.’

‘I’ll prepare her for the transfer.’

The female left the room with a click as the lock engaged automatically behind her. The male leant over me so I could see his face.

‘I’m going to remove your restraints so you can hold the offspring. If you try anything, we will remove it from your care immediately and you will face punishment. Nod if you understand.’

I nodded, eager to get my arms around my baby. The desperate need to protect them was sudden and overwhelming. I wasn’t about to start anything with the risks rebelling now posed.

The restraints fell away with a clatter, the metal banging loudly against the table. The noise disturbed my baby who began to fuss as he unlatched from my breast. With my arms now free, I cradled them against me and gently urged their head back towards my nipple. They latched back on without any further issue and the suckling started again.

I was too busy staring in awe at the sweet little thing in my arms to pay attention when the door opened again and the female returned. My baby was a boy, I noticed. I had a son. A son with a face full of wrinkles and cute chubby cheeks. His arms and legs were chunky and curled into his body, a position I imagined he must have been used to from his time inside of me.

They wheeled another table beside mine, but I refused to look away from the angelic little face of my son for even a moment. Not even when the scientists left did I look up. I couldn’t stop staring. This little boy was mine,and there was no way in any existence would I allow anyone to hurt him. The urgency to escape was greater than ever before.

I hoped and prayed that we would be able to find A; that she had managed to build a life for us outside of these cement and cinderblock walls. If we could just find her, she could help me keep my baby safe. We could raise him together, just like we’d always imagined. The two of us would become three, and there would be hope for a brighter future.

I just needed to figure a way out first…

‘L?’ a soft, scratchy voice spoke from beside me. It was familiar, filled with elation and warmth. A voice that I wondered if I’d ever hear again. The only voice that could have dragged my attention away from the beautiful baby boy in my arms.

I looked up and met the eyes of the only family I’d ever had up until now and breathed out a single syllable.

‘A?’

CHAPTER 1

Artemis

One solar later…

My throat was hoarse from screaming. It felt as if it were bleeding, the red liquid trickling down my oesophagus, though it could have just been my imagination. My face ached from clenching my jaw, and I was pretty sure I had chipped a few teeth with the force I was using to do so. Pain covered every inch of me, from my skin to my muscles, my teeth and my bones. Inside, outside, it didn’t matter. It felt like my entire body was on fire.

Suddenly and without warning it felt as if I were being torn in two, my front half separating from the back half of my body. I didn’t know if I was screaming out loud anymore. My ears were ringing with white noise from the echo of my screams inside my head. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I was paralysed as every atom that made up my very being exploded and turned to ash after the nanites shredded them to pieces.

I knew it that moment that I was going to die.

I wanted to.

Instead, I sank into the deepest recesses of my mind and disassociated from my physical senses. It was a trick I learned when I was younger to escape the pain of the experiments.

For the majority of my young adulthood to the present I would imagine the most beautiful pair of burgundy eyes, the same pair that would peer at me from over a gas mask. The same pair that would gaze down upon me with tenderness and concern, or a fondness I later began to wonder if I’d madeup. The same pair that belonged to the man that left me to flounder in the unknown before putting me right back where he’d helped me escape from.

Now, their previous beauty was tainted and thinking of them only led to a different kind of pain deep within my chest. That ache echoed another, only this time the betrayal was mine. That dark red I was so used to imagining faded and bled into a smooth purple and the single pupil split into a stacked pair. These eyes were from a different man, a man I had come to care for against all my better judgement. A man that was true to his feelings and fought for what he wanted and never backed down from what mattered to him.

This man created an ache in my chest for a completely different reason, one I needed to resolve. I needed to fix the damage I had caused, and though I knew he would probably never love me the way he once claimed all those months ago, he deserved the truth. He deserved closure.

Hiseyes were now the ones that eased my suffering as the scientists used my body for their own gain. He was my anchor, my saving grace. The simple knowledge that a man like him existed out there, so warm, kind, and wonderful, kept me from giving into the darkness that threatened to take me hostage.

So many times I wanted to sink into that darkness, to let it take me and never let go. To find freedom in the loss of my mind. To find numbness in my senses. Even now the purple clashed with red as they fought for dominance, mingling in the middle to create a marbled maroon. Which would prevail, the good or the bad? Compassion or greed? Kindness or cruelty?

But they weren’t the people I had to think about. I thought of the ones I was here for. Libby, with her once bright, bubbly personality that had been dulled and reformed into a fierce protectiveness. Her beautiful son with his adorable chunkiness and those stunning green eyes that gazed up at both of us with such trust and adoration. He was not yet old enough to understand his predicament.Ourpredicament.

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