B-2754, Ryker

When I woke up there was restraints. Instead of fighting, I closed my eyes trying to remember what had happened.

The test. I passed the physical. Yet I must have failed the other four sections. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.

Three people I’ve never seen before, two men and a woman, dragged me out of the building. When the alarms went off they began panicking.

That was it. After that everything was black until I woke up. With a loud coughing fit, I carefully glance around my surroundings. Noticing the woman sitting near the door.

“How badly did I fail?” That was the only thing that mattered anyway. What they forced me to do after this was my own fault, I should have studied like my mother told me.

“You didn’t fail. You got hundreds ‘cross the board.” Her voice was rough, as if she was in desperate need of something to drink.

“What do you mean?” I could feel the added anger in my voice, the way my muscles tensed at her next few words.

“We saved you.”

That was when the screaming began.

Fits of rage were common when I was a child. At first they were merely annoying to my family members, but they became more dangerous as I grew up. I grew stronger and I knew it. I would take out my anger on cement walls, chairs, anything not bolted down.

When these fits happened, I saw nothing. It was like being submerged in a blood red sea and fighting for my life.

At that moment though, I could see. I could see the rusted chain of the handcuff coming away from the bed to free my left hand. My right positioning itself to swing the cot I was stuck on in a perfect arc against the floor.

Wood shattered.

With hands free I made my advance towards the woman who ruined my life.

The woman who made me a nobody.

The woman who was probably just the messenger.

I was on my back again. These restraints however were human, two men pinning down each arm and a woman sitting flat on my knees. As much as I would like to admit that I gave up then and listened to everything they said, I did not.

I jerked every limb, screamed, thrashed, looked for anything to injure.

Fighting like this, it’s tiring. Exhausting even.

Slowly I ran out of steam, flopping my head back onto the ground to allow a puff of dust to spark up. Huffing through clenched teeth as my eyes focused on those around me.

Two men. One older with a few gray streaks in his otherwise mousy hair, the lines around his mouth and eyes evidently coming from squinting or smiling too much. The younger seemed to be just my senior. Matching the other man as if he was a younger carbon copy.

The now two women sitting on my legs. One with long hair blonde tied into a high bun, everything about her sharp angles and muscle. The other seemed to prefer her hair braided back, more curvy than the blonde but also just as terrifying.

In the doorway, staring on in silence was the most confused looking girl I had ever seen. Her long brown hair disheveled with sleep, yet her green eyes containing the emptiness that came when one did not get enough sleep. Her frame lacked the sinewy, muscled look the women on my legs had. Just below her hairline, when she tilted her neck in curiosity you could see it, there was the end of a bruise. She must have been hit also, resting on the ground he could feel the lump on the back of his head pulsing.

“Get off me.” The words came out harsher than what I expected, but the leather clad people on top of me seemed to understand I wouldn’t try to run. “Your call name is Ina right? 2764?” My voice took on a softer quality. Knowing that if I spoke to her much harsher she may just cry.

Her cheeks still had streaks of tears from when they pulled her out. No doubt she had been the sobbing I heard moments before my own abduction.

“You would by Ryker.” Her voice didn’t leave room for me to question objekt. She was stating a fact. “2754.”

My head seemed to nod before she finished the statement, unsure why I was agreeing with everything she said. But for some reason, calmness radiated off of her. Any nerve that was still twitching to fight seemed to want to pull me in for sleep instead.

That was when I noticed it. Everyone else in the room had the same dumbfounded, serene expression on their face. The only one who remained stone faced was the younger man. He seemed on a warpath straight to her. His hand quickly grabbing onto her wrist, and as contact was achieved the feeling of calm went away. Leaving me once again wanting to run and escape.

“No that they are both awake, you should tell them everything.” The ravenette obviously disliked the older man’s method of revealing information, and for once I agreed with the all too perfect man.

“Maybe ya should. You talk all nice like they do.” Smile lines merely shrugged, making himself a chair out of carefully balanced pieces of the ruined cot.

Just as content for story time, angels and curvey sat down on the hard packed dirt. They all left Mr, Perfect to introduce them.

“It seems you two already know each other.” Mr. Perfect sighed, pointing a finger at each person as he spoke their name “Ina, Ryker, Finn, Kane, Quin and Hail.” My eyes followed, landing on the women and men who now had names and nicknames could be forgotten once again.

“Now to begin, you both know you scored perfectly on your F.B.E’s.” Finn seemed to enjoy to start a story with past events and old news, but I didn’t dare interrupt. “Now the only people who can score perfectly in every section are Jinxed.”

My eyes quickly darted up to Ina, knowing her mind was racing to the same image mine was.

Jinxed were people who were poorly affected by the most recent chemical war. They often were stillborn, but those who grew older were known to have physical or mental alignments.

Famously know to drink human blood to prevent their own insanity.

That was when she began screaming, ripping her hand from Finn’s and quickly landing several slaps on his face and chest before fighting once more against his grip. For some reason, everytime his skin left her’s I was unable to move. Serenity seeming to cover everyone in the room even as she screamed and fought.

I was jinxed.

Maybe I would enjoy human blood.