"When I was a kid, my father was enlisted in the Marine Corp and my mom was a prosthetic surgeon for the military. When I was about two, my father had been honorably discharged for being a war hero, but I was just happy he was home. I mean, he didn't show his affection, but it was nice to know he'd be...there," Zaine started as he positioned himself against the corner's wall and I sat adjacent to him because I still didn't know how we were. He could be opening up his life without considerably dating me. "About a year later, Macintyre came and questioned my parents about this new branch in the military they could be part of...which was the makings of SSAS, but more scientific. The years went by and then after my first year in school, they started testing me...and my sister...and I started questioning myself. They didn't find anything they wanted within my sister's genes, but they were ecstatic finding mine."
"Why did they test on you?" I questioned. Of all the people in the world, why a five year old?
"They thought beneficial mutation—what they called it—could be done externally, but they went back to biochemistry to realize that you can't change genetics. So as a sample, they tested me and my sister, but my genes were...a more prominent sample, they called it? But the funny thing was that they couldn't test anything but my saliva because syringes couldn't pierce my skin after months of proving my strength. They had me literally bite my tongue hard enough so that I could give them blood—all the while I was being trained as a soldier. If a toddler could pick up a car, of course he could be mind controlled into a perfect soldier...
The testing and training began under everyone's watch; I got to fourth grade and realized that my sister was having a life out of all this. She didn't know anything because they never included her. To her, it was a perfect family and her brother was so special he had to be homeschooled. No one knew anything and I wasn't going to ruin that. She didn't question it, but she still loved me. She was my best friend. Then, when I was maybe eight, I went to the carnival with her; we had gone every year and we always liked the Ferris Wheel the best. We went on Friday and her boyfriend was there—I didn't know they were boyfriend and girlfriend until then because I had only seen him for the first year my sister was in middle school. But anyways we didn't get the chance to ride the Ferris Wheel and I was glad because I saw what the other couples were doing on there and I was too protective of my sister. So Saturday we went on the Ferris Wheel and her boyfriend got us food and when we were going up she was so excited about everything and she was just so happy for school and sports and dances and when we reached the top, something clicked and I looked down at the world beneath me and I wondered why I was different...why I couldn't do what anyone else could or maybe vice versa. And then I figured that if everyone knew I was different, I could do anything I wanted without the secret..."
He paused as if this was the hardest part, even though there was passion in his voice about being himself—or finding himself back then.
"Then what happened?" I found myself whispering to him.
"I jumped," he answered. He...he jumped.
"You...—"
"I jumped...or at least I thought I jumped," he nodded. "From the highest point on the Ferris Wheel, I hit the ground because I wanted to prove that the only thing special was my strength and impenetrable skin. However, when I hit the ground, I heard the cement crack and there was no blood from anywhere, but my vision was blackening and I was already seeing crowds of people questioning why a little boy just tried to seemingly commit suicide. And as if she followed me, my sister was at my side, trying to get me up. She tried her hardest to get me out of there, but she could barely carry me. By the time we reached her boyfriend, he didn't need to know what was going on. He just threw my arm around his shoulder and he carried me away from there. I didn't know where we went, but my consciousness was going in and out. I realized I was sitting with my head swaying back and forth as I wanted to sleep, but I felt a pinch of pain and woke up to realize her boyfriend was holding a lighter to my arm and he was pressing it to my skin. He pulled it away and said 'Damn, you are painless'. I looked between him and my sister, trying to piece everything together and all my sister was telling me was that I couldn't go to sleep just in case I had a concussion.
It was only a matter of time before we got to his house and the news was talking about a boy who had jumped and survived from a Ferris wheel fall, a girl who had followed him in the speed of light, and another boy who had escaped. That was us, and I had a feeling we would be in trouble. The park had checked the seat of the Ferris wheel and it was perfectly fine. There was no possible way I could've jumped because of the railing. But I felt as though I was free falling with nothing beneath me. Either way, it wasn't good and my sister knew that because then she started zooming around the house to tend to me and we all started to leave and then they set the house on fire.
He knew he had blown his cover, so why even attempt to go back there? They started walking off with their hoods up, but miles down the road, I stopped following them and thought about this. How exactly they got away with not being tested. How...she hid a secret better than I did. She noticed there was something wrong when we were a mild patch of forestry to cut through an interstate, so she told him to go on because we could see the road now. She started talking to me as if she had all the time in the world and truthfully I was scared...just like I am now, but I couldn't show it because I couldn't make sense of it. I saw a fire lit further up as if her boyfriend was setting up camp before we got to an actual destination, so when we started walking and talking that way before we realized in the clearing, there was in fact a fire started, but there was no one around. My sister called out his name and he didn't answer and that made me worry. Then, three SUVs pulled up and a small army of soldiers presented themselves. I saw him taken hostage and with guns over their shoulders, I stepped in front of my sister. She grabbed my hand and cried because they were pulling him away and shoving him into the truck. Before they could even close the door, the whole thing lit on fire and he escaped. He ran, barreling through people to reach us and cover us by pushing us to the ground before the SUV exploded. In the shock, the three of us stood up and ran.
We ran as fast as we could, not looking back, and then when I wanted to...I remembered my sister. She should be a mile up the road by now with her speed, but her cries of pain were coming from behind. So I turned back and found her on the ground, tapping one of her legs as if it was going to rush the healing that was needed for the blood rushing out of it. I immediately thought to pick her up, but when I did, there were two guards in front of me. I set her down and tried protecting her the best I could. After moments of denying being captured by them, someone fired at us and at first the bullet bounced off my arm. My sister breathed a sigh of relief and told me she loved me, but then another five rounds went off and this time, while I felt no pain and only a couple of bent bullets, I felt my sister drop back and when I looked down to see the life draining from her eyes. She held her abdomen and I questioned how she could've gotten hit with her skinny body behind mine, but there was a complete bullet in her. I looked down at my own stomach and examined a hole in my shirt, but I saw the other shells on the ground. She looked up at me and she told me that she loved me and to survive this, but by then, I was crying too loud to hear anything else. By the time her eyes closed and her body relaxed, my crying was the only sound and the smoke from the SUV was the only smell. With anger and blood in my eyes, I stood up and turned to the men who shot my sister, but there was an extra man. He wasn't dressed like the others. He wore normal khaki pants and a navy polo shirt. He stood there as if the guards didn't acknowledge him and then the two guards fell to the ground with absolutely no contact.
I didn't know it was Maxwell, so I started questioning everything he was doing and everything going on. He explained the Academy and that we were special in this world. By the time we reached his helicopter that had dropped in the middle of nowhere—for good reason—Warren was already there, knowing nothing, and worrying even harder why only one of us was here. When we lifted off the ground, it was General Macintyre's car I saw, pulling up to the scene and seemingly scolding the commanding officer that did this. From there, I became who I am today for the greatest price of them all."
I moved over, grabbed his face, and put his forehead on mine as his eyes were closed. This was the real Zaine Union. The broken military brat, the loving friend...and the guilty brother. I didn't realize Warren had such a tie with him and I didn't need to be a genius to figure out that Emma was his sister. It was that painful for him—no, both of them...to even say her name. I could see why my mentioning her created such a strain.
"You were and are a great man," I told him. "No one can take that away from you, you know that? It wasn't your fault."
"It is my fault," he said. "I'm indestructible and while I was in torment for seemingly forever, Sentara pointed out that there was an entrance hold in the front of my shirt and an exit point in the back."
How could an impenetrable, diamond-hard boy let a bullet go right through him? It didn't make any sense; he knew this too, so he couldn't blame himself with something he didn't know.
"And it's worse because I have to live with it...everyday," he said in a broken voice. "When we found Warren, I was grateful because he was a survivor and important to me...but he only reminds me of what happened and he still doesn't know."
"It's not your fault. There were more of them than you and—" Suddenly, as I started pleading my case, there was a loud noise ringing through my ears and although it pained me, Zaine seemed perfectly fine.
"That's her alright," I heard through a door or maybe radio and then realized the pink shield was gone and the door was being opened. The guards, though shocked, ripped me away from Zaine as he fought as hard as he could and then the same protective trigger he had, came out in me.
"Zaine, stop," I told him. "Let me go and then they let you go."
"You don't know—"
"Pipe down, lover boy," one soldier said, smacking him in the head with his gun, but Zaine retaliated by grabbing the guy's shoulder and throwing him into the wall hard enough to leave a dent and then threw him down into the table. The soldier in charge of me had lost his attention to me and although I wanted Zaine's safety by my leaving so easily, I remembered what Cheshire taught me and quickly disarmed and wrestled the guy to the ground in an impossible choke hold that left him knocked out.
"Nice," Zaine simply said, out of breath. I heard a groan escape from the soldier he took care of and then Zaine hopped over his body to grab my hand and tow me out of the room.
"Where's Indica?" I asked.
"No time," he said because he knew she could defend herself. We ran through the halls and as guards pointed us out and chased after us, suddenly, there was a visible, red-colored explosion that separated us. It through me into a wall, likewise Zaine, but I shook out my dizzy vision and someone grabbed my arm.
"So you're Aspen," the man said and then constrained me enough to make my head feel like it was exploding when he threw me over his shoulder. I bounced with every step he took and before we rounded the corner, I saw Zaine just now moving debris off of himself, not giving him enough time to save me.