Broken Dreams(115)

“Roger was our general, and we were the recruits. There were areas in the complex for training in different skills. We trained for combat day and night. Learning different techniques: hand-to-hand, weaponry, explosives. It was relentless. It would go on for hours upon hours, with hardly any breaks for rest, or meals, or even sleep sometimes. The trainers were trying to break us and build us back up to their ridiculously high standards.

“I, being who I was, would question everything. They got sick of me so I would get tased, beaten, bloodied, and was near death on several occasions. I had countless injuries, concussions, and was hospitalized three times within those two years.”

Claire looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Nick had a similar look, but with more intensity. He had the “Angry Henry” look.

Henry had told me much of this before, but he needed to start at the beginning for everyone else. He kept shifting his weight during the uncomfortable silence. He looked over at Sophie, who looked devastated. He licked his dry lips, and continued, “Once Roger was confident that we would fit into the program, the shit became real.” I stood in silence, working on processing what would be coming up next.

Then Claire interrupted, “Wait. What happened to the ones who didn’t fit within the program? Did he just send them back to the orphanage or wherever he picked them up?”

Henry grimly shook his head. “Permanent elimination,” he whispered. We both put our hands over our mouths and gasped. Sophie tried to stifle her sobs. Claire and I suspected they saw many lose their lives to the program…or they were the ones forced to do the eliminating. Maybe they even had to eliminate their friends. Henry continued working hard not to be too emotional.

“The complex was an abandoned warehouse, which they remodeled to look like an office building. It had labs, weapons, guards, scientists, and a huge room full of caged animals. They changed our identities. Luke Richards,” Henry pointed at himself, “is dead on paper. They changed my name to Liam Henry Daniels. Then I shortened it to Henry when I came to the States because I couldn’t be Liam anymore. I just couldn’t be him.” Henry paused, and purposely didn’t give Sophie’s given name. He wanted her to decide if she wanted to share that information.

“Anyway, we spent hours upon hours rehearsing our new identities. If we so much as spoke the wrong syllable, we were beaten. Plus given extra training. This went on for few years.”

Claire interrupted again, “So where does this whole undead/true dead thing come into play? Because I really would like to know what the hell you are.” Thank you, Claire, for asking because there was no way that I could formulate a sentence right then if my life depended on it.

Then the punk ass kid bravely interrupted, “True dead? Ain’t tha’ a show or somethin’?”

“Vampires are not real!” Everyone shouted at once, and the kid stood there like a moron.

“Well, if zombies are, why not?” Claire nearly crossed the line by saying that, and Henry worked hard to control his anger.

Nick chuckled. “Good one,” he mumbled. Nick sounded angry and annoyed, but I was happy to hear his personality coming out.

Henry shook his head. “You two are so much alike.” He looked at Claire, then at me. He pointed at me. “You are just a bit more vocal.” He pointed at Claire. “And you have a filter. Usually.”

“This is one fucked-up story,” the kid mumbled to himself.

Henry snapped and grabbed the scrawny kid by his throat and pulled him close, spitting in his face as he screamed. “This is not a fucking story! This is our lives! This is what we live with day in, day out!” He was furious.

Sophie walked up to him and touched his shoulder. “Hey, put him down. He doesn’t understand. Believe me, I want to beat the shit out of him, as well.” Henry let go of the kid, and ran his hands through his hair. He continued to eye Nick, watching his every move.

He cleared his throat. “So, like I said, in the very beginning, back at my flat when all this bullshit started, I was an agent. I’m now an agent that has gone rogue. My government and your government worked together to create this super virus. Your government didn’t know that ours would be placing agents all over their country to spy on them. It was a ‘cover your ass’ deal. Our government didn’t want yours to release the virus and turn them back into the superpower they once were.” Claire was looking impatient. As for me, I still looked like I was in shock.

“Okay…to the part about why we are the way we are. During our training, they injected us with a small amount of the virus. They wanted to make us immune to it. But, after an incident, they discovered we are not immune. We can still turn into an undead. There were some side effects, obviously, and it backfired when they realized what was happening to us. They discovered that if we drank clean blood, it would bring us back.