Specimen

“Yes.”

He nods and takes a deep breath.

“Crops were failin’ left ‘n right. The ground was just too rough, and we didn’t have enough water to go ‘round. Mills started sending in soldiers, as if that would make any difference.”

He looks to Merle, but Merle only gives him a slight nod of encouragement.

“They were rough men,” Hal says. “Mebbe they thought they were just lettin’ off steam, but it got out of hand. They started goin’ house-to-house, farm-to-farm, slappin’ folks around. You knew they were comin’ closer to your place.”

He pauses and wipes the back of his hand across his brow.

“Ya didn’t give me the details,” he says quietly. “Frankly, I’m grateful not to know. I only know that when they got to your place, a couple of the soldiers got hold of your sister.”

Pressure rises in my chest, and my eyes begin to burn. My fingers tighten around the empty plastic bottle in my hand, crushing it. Hal continues in a soft voice.

“She was raped and killed right there in yer own barn. A week later, ya ended up in a military barracks with a shotgun. Ya shot dead the two men who had done that to yer sister.”

The dreams I’ve had for months fall together. Everything makes sense now—my fear for my sister, the tanks, the sound of her screaming for my help, my inability to do anything about what was happening to her, images of bodies as I held a gun—it all makes perfect sense.

I drop my head into my hands, trying to force back the tears with my palms.

“You remember some of this, don’t you?” Merle reaches a hand out, and I flinch. He sits back in the chair and nods. “The implant Errol said was malfunctioning—I bet it’s allowed some of your memories to leak through. What else do you remember?”

I don’t answer him, and he doesn’t push me.

“Do you want to know, Galen?” Merle asks. “Shall I tell you how you ended up where you are now? Do you want to know how you really got to the Mills facility?”

I swallow hard. I’m not sure I want to know any more, but I say nothing, and Merle keeps talking.

“You were tried and convicted of the murder of those two soldiers,” he says. “I don’t think you were even trying to deny anything, and they weren’t too interested in what happened to your sister or your need for revenge. It didn’t matter; they had a confessed murderer right there in front of them—a young, strong male right there in their hands. Your punishment was to become one of the specimens.”

Chapter 15

My head is spinning.

I can’t process the information I’ve been given. I don’t want to believe a word of it, but Hal’s story fits perfectly with my dreams. Was I forced into this project as a punishment for a crime and not as a volunteer as Riley told me I was? I don’t care if I am guilty of murder. Even the details of my sister’s demise are unfathomable to me right now. There’s only one thought replaying over and over again in my head.

Riley lied to me.

If another comet were to fall on this prison cell right now, my world wouldn’t be any more tumultuous.

If Riley lied about me being a volunteer, what else is untrue? Did the Mills Conglomerate actually start the war? Was I forced into servitude of that same corporation after my father was murdered? Who really killed Riley’s father? Had he truly been assassinated? Could I trust any of the political propaganda forced into my head?

“What about the doctors at the facility?” I ask.

“What about them?” Merle replies.

“Do they know where we came from? Do they know we were all prisoners?”

“I couldn’t tell you that.” He shakes his head slowly. “It’s hard to say what information is shared and what isn’t.”

She said I volunteered.

Could Riley have known the entire time? Could she have done what she did to me, knowing how I had really come to be there?

“I know this will be hard for you to believe,” Merle says. “You’re programmed to believe her, to trust her. You’ve probably had little interaction with anyone else. Have you noticed how quickly she can calm you down when you get upset?”

The question is rhetorical. I blink as I look at him, saying nothing.