“Are you finally willing to participate in the collection?”
“No.” Even if he had to stay in this solid white prison for the rest of his life, he would never participate in that torture again. He had already explained to Flanders that she’d removed the only motivation he had for continuing to participate when she fired Marina. Without even a remote chance of seeing her again, he had no reason to be cooperative.
“You are harming the breeding program with your stubbornness. What will it take to get you to participate again?”
Now she wanted to negotiate? It was almost enough to make him laugh. “Nothing will ever convince me to participate again. I want my freedom.”
“I can’t allow that.” Flanders motioned to someone outside of his vision. “I am certain, however, that I can change your mind about continuing to be a member of the breeding program.”
“That is something that will never change. I want my freedom.” Fear rose within him, and he fought to keep it hidden. She was too confident, too smug. Whatever she had planned would probably be as unpleasant as the collection itself.
“I think this will get through to you.” She gave him a cold smile and glanced toward the unseen person. “J643, go inside.”
She thought sending another man trapped in the facility would make a difference? Then the number sank in. No man he’d ever heard of had a J in his number.
A beautiful young woman with flowing dark hair stepped into his isolation room. She wore a robe eerily familiar to the ones the men wore to participate in the collection.
“Who are you?” Jason asked, rising from his cot.
“J643. I’m one of the breeders.” She gave him a smile that made him feel sick as she approached.
“Why are you here?” Maybe if he kept her talking, she wouldn’t remove the robe she slowly untied.
“Dr. Flanders says you’ve been feeling lonely. I’m here to offer some, shall we say, female comfort.” She let the robe slide from her shoulders, leaving her completely naked.
He fought a wave of nausea far too similar to the ones he’d felt with the images on the vid screen. He looked past her to Dr. Flanders. “Get her out of here.”
J643 glanced toward Dr. Flanders, and the sadistic woman made a shooing motion with her hand. “Go on. Do what you’re here to do.”
“Yes, Dr. Flanders.” J643 approached like a cat stalking its prey.
Jason backed away from her, determined to avoid being used. Even though the woman before him was beautiful and had an excellent body, she held no appeal for him. The only woman he wanted was Marina.
His back hit the wall, leaving him with no escape. J643 smiled as she stepped closer and lifted a hand.
“Don’t touch me.” He glared at her, letting his anger at the situation come through in his voice.
“You’ll enjoy it. I promise.” Her seductive tone made him shudder.
“The only thing I’ll enjoy is you leaving.” He watched her come even closer and spoke through clenched teeth. “Do not touch me.”
She didn’t listen. He pressed back against the wall as hard as he could, but it didn’t increase the distance between their bodies. She reached down and grabbed him through his pants, and he reacted without thinking. He backhanded her face hard enough to knock her to the floor.
“Don’t touch me!” He edged past her as she pushed herself up.
The guards entered the room. One went to the woman, the other approached Jason.
“You shouldn’t have done that, T985.”
“No, she should have listened to me.” He glared at Dr. Flanders, who stood wide-eyed in the hallway. “This is your fault. You caused this, and now you’re going to regret it.”
He dodged the guard’s grasp and darted out of the room. Although tempted to take out his anger on Dr. Flanders, getting help fighting this battle was far more important.
He ran down the hall and out of the infirmary as an alarm sounded throughout the facility. Desperation and long hours in the gym enabled him to dodge the guards still trying to figure out what was going on. He headed straight for the cafeteria, where the men generally gathered for containment purposes during any kind of emergency situation. He could only hope they would listen to him and join the cause.
The men milling around the cafeteria stared at him as he ran to the center of the room and jumped onto a table.
“Listen to me! We can be free, but we have to fight together!” Jason watched the men gather around him, and hope flowed through him. “We deserve to be treated like human beings. We have rights the people in charge of this facility are denying us. One of those rights is our freedom. We should be allowed to come and go as we please. We should be able to choose when we want to participate in the collection, not have it forced upon us day after day. We deserve the right to have women love us and warm our beds.”
Cheers echoed throughout the large room. Jason glanced toward the doors, and spotted guards rushing down the corridors toward them.
“Fight for your freedom! Resist the collection! Resist anything they try to force you to do. You must exert your rights as human beings, no matter what they threaten. No matter what they do. You must fight if you ever want to be free!”
A stinging pain in the back of his leg caused him to look over his shoulder. A guard was lowering a tranquilizer gun.
Wooziness hit, and Jason looked at the blurring faces around him. “Fight! Fight for you...”
He collapsed to the table top, semi-conscious and unable to move. Guards swarmed the area, pushing back the shouting men. Two of the guards hauled Jason off the table and out of the cafeteria. He slipped in and out of awareness as they dragged him through the facility. His sense of location vanished as they passed through corridors that all looked alike.
Then they dragged him into a large room, and dread settled heavily on his chest.
“No...” he moaned, unsure if they heard him and certain they wouldn’t care if they had.
The guards forced him up the steps to the collection units and held him upright before Dr. Flanders.
“You have caused more than enough trouble, T985,” she said, her voice icier than ever. “Your behavior has jeopardized the human race, and now you have created discontent in what was a peaceful facility. I will not let you get away with shirking your duty any longer.” She focused on the guards holding him. “Take him to the unit.”
Jason tried to struggle, but whatever they’d shot him with rendered his efforts futile. Tears filled his eyes as they dragged him toward the collection unit with a waiting attendant. He might not have any hope left, but maybe his words and determination had been enough to convince the other men to take on the cause of freedom.
Maybe they would be able to save themselves before it was too late.
9
Marina followed Senator Healy and two special observers from the government into the facility. Dr. Flanders had sent a pair of guards and a young supervisor named Anika to acts as guides for this little tour. The quiet of the rooms and hallways they passed through bothered Marina as the supervisor spoke about the facility’s attributes. The lack of men wandering the building bothered her more. The place had become a ghost town in the four days she’d been gone. Her concern for the men grew the deeper into the lifeless facility they went.
When they reached the library, one of the most popular rooms in the place, without seeing a single non-employee, she turned to their main guide, Anika. “Where are the men?”
“Uh...” Anika’s face reddened, and she looked away. “There was an incident yesterday that forced us to put them on lockdown. I’m afraid they’re all confined to their rooms until further notice.”
“What?” First Jason faced confinement, and now every man in the place was isolated?
Senator Healy cleared his throat. “I think you’d better explain what happened.”
Anika shifted her weight and looked as though she wished she were anywhere else. “One of the men had an episode in which he incited
the others to violence. Our guards quickly put a stop to the riot, but Dr. Flanders felt the men should be kept separate until everyone has had a chance to calm down.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised she’s the one who isolated them from each other.” Marina sighed and stared at the supervisor. “Which man had the episode, as you called it?”
“I’m not sure I should—”
“Was it T985?”
Anika’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
That was all the confirmation Marina needed. But what had caused Jason to incite a riot? It seemed so out of character for him. She leaned close to the senator and whispered in his ear. “Ask for the surveillance footage of the incident.”
He kept his gaze on the supervisor. “We would like to see the surveillance footage of this episode and the ensuing riot.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t have the authority to allow that.” She glanced toward the guards, but they offered no support. If anything, they appeared as nervous as she did.
“Who does have the authority?” Senator Healy asked.
“Dr. Flanders would have to authorize it.”
“Then I would suggest you contact her immediately. In fact, why don’t you ask her to come down here? We have several questions for her.”
Anika stepped away to make the call, and the guards stood a discreet distance away. Senator Healy and the observers gathered close to Marina.
“I take it this is not a common occurrence,” the senator said quietly.
“No. In all my time here, we never had a riot nor did we have to put the place on lockdown. The occasional fight wasn’t unusual, but it never involved more than two or three men and was easily calmed without isolating the men completely.”
“This T985 you mentioned,” one of the observers said. “He is the one who initially made you aware of the concerns surrounding the men’s care?”
“Yes, and he prefers to be called Jason.” Marina fought the rising tide of emotion. “We need to find him and make sure he’s all right. Considering his so-called episode yesterday, I’m afraid he might try to harm himself or possibly someone else. His emotional state was not good when I last saw him a few days ago.”
Anika returned, her demeanor more skittish than ever. “I’m afraid Dr. Flanders has been detained, but she has agreed to allow you to see yesterday’s surveillance footage.”
“Good.” Senator Healy walked beside her as she led the group toward the security office.
Marina spoke softly to one of the observers. “You might want to get someone to watch Dr. Flanders. I have never known her to agree so easily to anything, especially if it could make her running of the facility look bad.”
He nodded and pulled out a cell phone. She left him to his call and fell into step with one of the guards.
“Where are they keeping T985?”
“Can’t tell you.” He gave her an apologetic look. “Wish I could, though. He was a mess.”
Fear for the man she loved stabbed her heart, but she kept her face impassive. “Who could tell me?”
“Try Michaels.” He indicated the other guard.
She joined him. “I hear you might know where they’re keeping T985.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t look happy.
“So, where is he?”
“Flanders stuck him in an isolation room in the infirmary.”
“How long has he been there?”
“Since the day you left.”
Suspicion briefly overrode her concern. “Then how did he start a riot yesterday?”
“He escaped.”
Marina puzzled over that for the rest of the walk. The isolation rooms didn’t have any escape routes. Unless someone had left the door open for him, he would have been trapped with no way out.
The guard on duty in the security office pulled up surveillance footage from the cafeteria as everyone gathered around the monitor. Marina watched as Jason raced into the room and jumped on a table. The blaring alarms made it hard to hear, but he was clearly shouting about freedom and encouraging the others to fight for their rights as human beings. He hadn’t been there long when guards arrived and shot him with a tranquilizer dart. As soon as they dragged him from the room, the other men started fighting the guards and demanding their right to freedom. The guards eventually managed to subdue the riot with a minimum of minor injuries.
Before Marina could say anything, one of the observers spoke up. “Where did T985 come from? The alarm was already going off before he entered the cafeteria, so something must have happened before he incited a riot.”
Anika exchanged a glance with the guard on duty before speaking. “He escaped from an isolation room in the infirmary. That’s what triggered the alarm.”
“Do you have footage showing his escape?”
“We do...” She nodded to the guard, and he brought it up.
Marina watched Dr. Flanders use her cold, sadistic demeanor to try to control Jason. He showed no signs of agitation or aggression. If anything, he looked lethargic and resigned. Then Dr. Flanders sent in one of the women from the breeding program. Tears filled Marina’s eyes as she watched the woman do her best to seduce an obviously unwilling Jason. She silently cheered him on as he smacked the woman hard enough to knock her down and escaped from the room he never should have been in.
“We’re going to need copies of this and all footage pertaining to T985 leading up to yesterday’s events and everything since then.”
The female observer made a note on the tablet she carried as her male counterpart made a call at the back of the room. Marina overheard enough to know he was calling in federal authorities and requesting a criminal investigation.
She looked at the subdued supervisor. “I need to see T985 immediately.”
“I don’t know if I can—”
Senator Healy straightened his shoulders. “You can take us to him, and you will. Now.”
“Yes, sir.” Anika led them out of the security office.
The walk to the infirmary felt like an eternity. Marina’s worry for Jason built with every step, and she hoped he hadn’t been broken so completely he would never recover. Would he even talk to her now, or would he hold her responsible since she left? Never mind that she hadn’t had a choice, but he might not see it that way. His mental state had been bad before. After what she’d seen in the surveillance footage, she wasn’t sure if he would be capable of rational thought.
Two guards stood outside the locked isolation room. At Anika’s order, they unlocked the door and stepped aside. Marina slowly opened it, afraid of what she might find.
Jason was on the floor in the corner farthest from the door, huddled against the wall with his back to the room. His body language screamed of severe emotional trauma, and her heart broke. What had happened after the guards took him from the cafeteria? Seeing him now, she wished she had asked to see the footage just so she would have some idea of what she was dealing with.
“Jason?” she said softly as she entered the room.
He gave no response.
She slowly approached him, taking care to make no sudden moves. Thankfully the others waited in the hall. She had a feeling that when he realized he wasn’t alone, she would be the safest with him. He cared about her and knew she cared about him. She had no idea what he might do to anyone else.
She knelt beside him, but he gave no sign of noticing her presence. “Jason, please look at me. I’m here to help you.”
A shudder ran through him, and he leaned harder against the wall. Desperate to hear him speak or give some sign he was aware of the world around him, she touched his shoulder. He exploded from his crouched position, knocking her to the floor and pinning her down with his hands on her arms and his knee on her hip. The wild look in his eyes scared her.
“Don’t touch me.” The growl in his voice was almost as frightening as his violent reaction. Then something shifted in his eyes and vulnerability crept into his expression. “Marina?”
“Yes, Jason,
it’s me.” She fought to keep her voice steady. “I brought people with me to help you and the other men.”
“Marina.” He eased back, running his gaze over her as though he couldn’t believe she was really there.
“Yes, Jason.” She slowly sat up, afraid of startling him again.
“I’m sorry.” Tears filled his eyes, and he lowered his head. “I thought you were—” He shuddered and looked at her with a haunted gaze. “They drugged me, and then they forced me—”
He put his hands on his head, gripping so tightly she feared he would hurt himself. “Jason, look at me. What did they do?”
He shook his head and lowered his hands. Then he moved close to her and leaned toward her. Uncertain if touching him again was a good idea, she hesitantly put her arms around him. He fell against her and clung to her, sobbing.
She held him tightly and glanced toward the door. The observers and Senator Healy all watched with stunned expressions. The guards shuffled their feet, clearly uncomfortable. Anika appeared ready to cry.
“I think it’s time for Jason to leave this place,” Marina said, stroking his hair. “I also think the government needs to reconsider the purpose of this facility and the way it’s run.”
“We will be investigating thoroughly,” the male observer said.
“And Jason will be leaving with you.” Senator Healy offered a sad smile. “Whatever help he needs, I’ll make sure he gets it.”
“Good.” Marina kissed Jason’s temple. “You hear that? You’re free.”
He slowly lifted his head, and his red-rimmed eyes searched her face. “Free? I can leave?”
“Yes, you can.”
“Can I go with you?” His brow furrowed. “If you want me to.”
“I want you to be happy.”
“Is that a yes?”
She smiled and nodded. “It’s a yes.”
He wrapped her in a hug tight enough to leave her certain he would never let her go.
Epilogue
Marina looked out her office window into the courtyard below. She spotted Jason’s blond hair gleaming in the sunlight as he helped corral the children living in the orphanage wing. He had come so far since his rescue from the facility eight years ago. Intensive therapy had helped him find balance, and freedom had given him hope for the future. Having Marina by his side every step of the way had strengthened their relationship.
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