Program 13 (The Emile Reed Chronicles)

by Nicole Sobon

  He raised his gun, pulling the trigger so that the bullet was aimed at Colton’s chest. I focused on the bullet as it soared through the air. Focus. I reached my hand up and grabbed the bullet before it had the chance to reach Colton.

  “How did you do that?” Samuel called out, his knee’s buckling as I approached him. The gun fell from his grip, smashing into the floor.

  “I’m not like you, remember?” I laughed, throwing the bullet back in his direction with enough force to puncture his foot. The other man was trying to run back down the hall, looking for the window he crawled in through. “Where do you think you’re going?” I called after him.

  “I’m not staying here!” He was panicking, unsure which way to exit.

  Colton looked over at me and sighed. “Let me do this, please. You can’t chase him as fast as I can.”

  I didn’t like the idea, but I knew he had a point. My build slowed me down. While I was stronger than a human, I wasn’t as fast as one. Colton reached down to pick up the gun that lay beside Samuel, and took off running after the other man.

  “Be careful,” I whispered, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hear me, but knowing that I needed to say it.

  There was a loud bang as their bodies smashed against the hallway walls. Plaster breaking, pieces crumbling to the ground. When the gun fired, I wasn’t sure what to do or how to react. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t Colton that was hit, but I couldn’t make my body move. I was too scared to know.

  And then he came walking from the hall, blood covering his shirt, his eye black and blue. “That’s all of them, then. Is it time to go?”

  I nodded and proceeded to grab the backpacks. “Whatever you can fit in here you’ll need to take.” The bags were already pretty full, so there wasn’t much else we could take with us besides a few outfits. Colton grabbed what we’d need from the computers in order to connect my hard drive to one of the NetBooks, being that I wouldn’t have my Pod.

  “I’m bringing this with us.” He disconnected the hard drive labeled Thirteen. “There are still some things I’d like to look into. It might be useful.”

  As he shoved the hard drive in his bag, I proceeded to activate the security doors and windows around the house. We were leaving behind a lot of items, including my Pod and a few computers. The last thing we needed were people snooping around. By people, I meant McVeigh’s men. I didn’t care if they knew we had run off. They had to expect that we would eventually.

  “Ready?” I asked him, pulling the straps of the backpack over my shoulders.

  Colton looked over at me and sighed. “I feel like no matter what we do, he’s going to find us.” His voice was full of uncertainty, although I couldn’t blame him.

  Would McVeigh give up? No, he was far too stubborn to do that. Would we ever regain control of our lives? It was possible, but we’d never have full control of our lives again – that was a given. I chose not to respond. There was nothing to argue. Colton was right. McVeigh would find us sooner or later. It was inevitable.

  “Let’s go. The house will lockdown in a few minutes.”

  We climbed out the window in the living room, just in case McVeigh already had men staked out front. As we made our way through the trail, I could hear the metal doors slamming shut, blocking off the windows and doors from intruders.

  The trail was quiet as the sun was just beginning to set. Soon people would be surrounding the house, walking the trails as they do every day entirely unaware as to what was taking place around them. In a way, I envied how oblivious they were to their surroundings, because it allowed them to live, to be carefree and happy. I remember feeling like that, back when I was one of them. It was a feeling I’d never be able to get back.

  “Where are we going?’ Colton was struggling with the straps on his backpack.

  “For now, I’m not sure, but we need to keep moving. The farther away we go, the better.”

  I still had money left from what Hayden had given me, along with the debit card, and we also had the fake ID’s he had made up for us. At some point tonight, we’d stop at a hotel so that Colton could rest and I could plug into the NetBook.

  “Um, Emile.” Colton was kicking the mulch up as we walked, his head lowered. “Don’t be mad at me, okay?” I wasn’t sure what he meant. Why would I be mad at him? “I packed the two guns that McVeigh’s men brought with them. I figure if we run into trouble, I want to be able to fight, too. You shouldn’t be responsible for me when I’m perfectly capable of defending myself.”

  “Colton, I’m not mad that you brought them. I’m actually kind of relieved knowing that if anything were to happen to me, you’d at least have some way to protect yourself.” I turned to look at him, placing my hand on his shoulder. “But I don’t want you thinking that you need to fight with me.”

  “Have you always been this protective?” Colton laughed.

  “When it comes to those I care about, yes.” I shoved him with my elbow, and we continued walking up the trail. Just as we reached the end, bringing us to the main road, it began to pour. Ah, Washington, the rainy state.

  “I hope these are waterproof bags.” Colton smirked, lifting his bag over his head.

  “I’m pretty sure they are. This is Washington after all,” I joked. “I doubt Hayden would have forgotten that slight detail.”

  30 THE LIE

  We’d been walking for hours, clueless as to where we were headed. The sun had set, the rain had let up, and people were starting to fill the streets. Cars sped past every few minutes. Please don’t recognize me, I kept thinking. McVeigh had posted my face all over the news. I knew there was a possibility that someone would know who I was and that scared the hell out of me. How would I explain the fact that I wasn’t dead, when technically I was?

  “Hey look, there’s a gas station just ahead. We can ask them where the nearest hotel is.” Colton was pointing straight ahead at a Shell gas station right off the main road. “There’s got to be a hotel nearby here. Wherever here is,” he mumbled.

  We wandered across the street to the gas station and asked the cashier if there were any hotels nearby. “About fifteen minutes out, that’s where you’ll hit the city. There are a few hotels there.” The city, the thought scared me. Even more people that might recognize me, I thought. Great.

  While I was worrying over nonsense, Colton ran to grab a few snacks: Pringles, beef jerky, and water. “Do you mind? I was going to grab some from the house, but I kind of ate everything you had in the pantry during your daily Pod sessions.” He was blushing as if he’d done something wrong.

  “No, it’s alright.” I laughed, handing him a ten dollar bill. Hayden had left little food in the house since I couldn’t eat, given the whole lack of a digestive system. He had mainly kept the food for his visits, I assumed. Colton had already gone through the water, soda, and frozen meals that Hayden had left behind before we ran from the house. I knew there was no way he had been eating regularly over the past few days. There wasn’t enough food for him to do so. “I tend to forget about the whole eating thing, sorry.” I sighed as he pulled the bag from the counter and grabbed his change from the cashier.

  “It’s alright.” He was smiling, tying the bag to the strap of his backpack. “You’ve adjusted to your new life. It shouldn’t be your responsibility to take care of me. I’ve been doing pretty well over the past few days with the whole eating and bathing thing.” Colton jabbed his elbow into my side gently, not to avoid hurting me, but rather himself.

  Pushing open the door, we made our way back onto the main road, headed straight for the city. A few people had gathered out front, some to get gas, others just to talk, it seemed. I tried to keep my head lowered, so as not to let them see me. But that didn’t exactly work.

  “Hey! You over there,” a woman’s voice called out. I tuned her out and grabbed hold of Colton’s arm, trying to get away from her as quickly as possible. She was running now, her feet hitting the pavement hard, her breathing uneven. “You’re that gi
rl from the news! You’re supposed to be dead!”

  I continued to ignore her. “Colton, we have to keep going.” He reached down to grab my hand and started to run. I was struggling to keep up with him, but it didn’t matter. Her voice was starting to fade, and we were inching closer to town. Soon enough there’d be enough distance between us to consider her a memory. A horrific one at that.

  “Are you worried?” he asked, his hand brushing the hair from my face.

  “Yes.” I couldn’t lie, not when the thought had been eating away at me since we left. “If she knew who I was, what makes you think more people in the city won’t recognize me? I can’t exactly explain how I’m alive, and that’s exactly what McVeigh wants.”

  “It’s his way of maintaining power,” he responded.

  Power. That was the one thing McVeigh had never lost. I might have broken out, but he never lost his power over me. He had made a point to tell me time and again, but I was stubborn. I refused give up just to satisfy him. Not when I had so much left to fight for.

  We kept walking, the sky turning a light shade of gray. Rain fell gently from the sky. We were approaching a city full of people. I had hoped that the rain would keep them inside, but it didn’t. They continued going about their day, oblivious to the weather.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Colton asked, his eyes jolting back and forth between the strangers surrounding us. “There are a lot of people here, Emile.”

  “I don’t think we have a choice to be honest.”

  What were we supposed to do? Keep hiding, hoping that McVeigh wouldn’t find us? It was obvious he would. Even now, there were no guarantees that his men weren’t lining the streets, eagerly waiting for us to pass by them. We could both sit by and wait to die, or we could try and get on with life. There was no need for a choice, because it had already been made. Still, we needed to try.

  Colton tightened his grip on my hand and took in a big breath. “Here we go,” he said sarcastically.

  I could feel their eyes on us as we made our way to an Extended Stay Hotel, but no one said a word. So far, so good, I thought. That was until I ran into her. She was exiting the hotel, a roller suitcase dragging behind her, her hands digging through her purse for some sort of item, most likely her keys. It was Tommy’s mother, Nadine.

  My elbow grazed hers, causing her eyes to dart up to my face. “Excuse…” She paused, her mouth opening wide in shock as she took in my face. “You… You’re…You’re supposed to be dead!” Nadine’s face turned pale white as tears streamed from her eyes, forcing her breath to become uneven. “What did you do to my boy? What did you do?”

  She was lunging at me now, her fists aiming for my face. Colton pulled her away, trying to stop the crowds from gathering around us, and most importantly trying to keep her from hurting herself. “Ma’am, I think you should try to calm down. I’m sure this is all some sort of misunderstanding.” He didn’t know who she was, but it was obvious I knew her. He had to know that. He had to know she was a person from my past.

  Colton pulled Nadine back inside the hotel, bringing her over to a nearby bench. “Look, I’m going to go get us a room. I think that both you and Emile need to sit down and have a discussion. Things are not what they seem, miss, I promise.” He brushed his hand against her cheek before walking over to the front desk with the envelope Hayden had left him in his grasp.

  “You’re supposed to be dead.” She was still crying although her breathing had now returned to normal. I wanted to tell her everything right there, but we were still in public. There was only so much I could say for now.

  “Nadine, I promise I will explain everything to you.” I tried not to picture Tommy or the times we’d spent at his parents’ house. I needed to focus, to erase the memories just for a moment so that I could think. “Just please – I need you to calm down.”

  She reached inside her purse and pulled out a tissue. “Can you please just answer this for me at least, did you hurt my Tommy?” The sound of his name echoed in my mind. Tommy. He had no clue what was taking place.

  “No.” I paused, debating if I should tell her the truth right then. Colton returned with the room key in his hand though, so I decided it could wait.

  “Can you just come with us? I’ll tell you everything.” I reached my hand out, helping to pull her up from the bench. Colton had already grabbed her suitcase and walked over to the elevator.

  “What choice do I have? You’re all I have left of him.”

  The elevator ride was quiet, although I could feel Nadine staring at me with anguish. I reminded her of Tommy. In her eyes, I was all she had left of him. His death had made headlines along with mine, but not once did she ask me if he was okay. She had to know. She had to be aware that he was gone.

  When the doors opened up, she grabbed hold of my right hand and followed Colton out the door to our room. It had been months since I’d seen Nadine, or Tommy for that matter, but she was the one person from my past that I had in my life still other than Hayden. I found comfort in that.

  “Why are you here, Nadine? Why aren’t you back home?” I asked, puzzled as to what led her so far out from home.

  “After he died, I just couldn’t stand to stay there anymore.” Her lips quivered as she spoke. “I needed to start over. That’s what they kept telling me. They said it’d be best if I moved on, but how do you move on from something like that?”

  They. She must be talking about McVeigh’s men. Who else would persuade her to leave? Were they keeping an eye on her, too? Did they know I’d find her? “You don’t,” I responded after noticing Nadine was staring at me, her eyes desperate for answers. “You can’t walk away from it, that’s the problem.” There was a double meaning behind my words, one I was thankful she wasn’t able to pick up on. Colton did though, and he shook his head in agreement.

  We stopped in front of the room. Room 32. Colton lowered the handle on Nadine’s roller suitcase and inserted the key into the lock, opening the door. “After you.”

  He let Nadine enter first. I followed in after her. His eyes met mine for a split second, it was clear he was angry. I’d managed to bring the past with us without even trying. He had every reason to be upset, after all this was exactly what we were trying to avoid.

  “You said that you would explain it all to me. What exactly does that entail?” Nadine was staring out the window, her hands shaking, and mascara was streaming down her cheeks.

  “Let me ask you something first.” I took a seat on the bed. Colton pulled out the office chair from the desk, taking a seat, and turned to look at Nadine. “You blame me for Tommy’s death, correct?” I asked Nadine. Colton’s eyes widened with surprise at the mention of Tommy’s name.

  Nadine turned to face me, walking towards the bed hesitantly, and taking a seat on the edge, as far away from me as possible. “I don’t want to, but-”

  I cut her off before she could continue. “You don’t want to, but you do.” Nadine nodded, ashamed of her thoughts. “In a way, his death is my fault, but I can promise you I did not hurt Tommy.”

  “I don’t understand a word you’re saying, Emile.”

  I was about to respond when Colton stood up from his chair and lifted his hand to stop me.

  “There’s a lot you probably won’t understand, ma’am. What Emile is trying to tell you is that your son was killed because he was a part of her life. He was someone she cared deeply about. Charles McVeigh knew that by killing Tommy, he’d be able to send a warning to Emile.”

  “McVeigh?” She was shaking her head, reaching for something inside her purse. “You mean this man?” She handed Colton a business card: Charles McVeigh, head scientist at Vesta Corp. We give hope for the future was his tagline.

  Colton laughed, handing the card over to me. “Yes, it’s the same man.”

  “You’re trying to tell me that he killed my son?”

  Neither of us responded. What were we supposed to say? That he was using the people he murdered to build a bet
ter society? She wouldn’t believe us. She’d probably run off, and although that might have worked in our favor, I couldn’t let her leave without answers.

  “Oh, no.” She began crying again.

  Colton sprang to his feet and took a seat beside her on the bed. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head onto his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  “He told me that Tommy’s body would be donated to science research. Was that part true?” She needed to hear the truth. I couldn’t deny her that.

  “His body would be used for research, yes, but not the way you were led to believe. He would become like me.” I pointed at myself. “He’d become a Program.”

  “A Program?” she asked, baffled.

  “Remember how you thought she was dead?” Colton asked. She nodded, still confused as to what we were trying to say. “Well, she was. Charles McVeigh used her body as a host for a Program – a computer.”

  “So you – you’re not human?” She reached her hand out to touch my arm. “Oh.”

  “He’s trying to create a perfect society using his Programs. They have no true identity, they become whatever he wants them to become.” I walked over to the window. Nadine pulled out of Colton’s grasp to join me. “Hayden saved me, though. He brought me back.”

  Colton sighed. “And now we’re going to need to run in order for her to live, in order for all of us to live.”

  Nadine looked panicked. “Let me help you,” she whispered. “I bought a house nearby. It’s under an alias. They don’t know it. We can stay here tonight and head there in the morning.”

  I knew it was a terrible idea. We were supposed to be leaving our past behind us, not fully embracing it. But she was a part of my past that I wanted to hold onto. She was my only reminder of Tommy, my only remaining connection. I couldn’t let that die, not yet.

  31 SAVING GRACE

  We were getting ready to settle in for the night. Colton and I pulled the NetBooks from our bags. He set his up on the bed so that I could use it in place of my Pod. Mine was set up on the computer desk. I’d opened Vesta Corp’s system to see what they’d been up to while we were away from a computer. They’d run a few searches to find out if we had any family members nearby the house Hayden left me, but their search came back negative. Did they honestly think we were stupid enough to run somewhere where they’d find us that easily?