Subject Zero (Book 1)

Chapter 14: A Year Ago Today

Thursday, December 2, 1983
11:55a.m.
Cherry Street [on] Rannoch Oak (Neighborhood)
(One Year Ago)

Third Person's POV
Jesper was running as fast as he could, his bare feet stepping on branched and dried leaves.

He was in a hospital gown, his dark brown hair appeared very short, and his left earlobe looked sore and swollen.

Since he had been running for a while, he begins to feel extremely worn out. He felt exhausted and dehydrated, but he ignored those feelings and proceeded to continue running anyway.

A few minutes later, his vision began to blur. He knew he had approached a neighborhood, and had just appeared behind the woods at someone's house. He planned on running back into the forest to avoid being seen, but before he had even been given a chance to, he slowly stopped running, fell onto the ground and grunted once he hit the rough dirt. He fainted once he started to feel dizzy.

Inside one of the houses, LeAnna Olsen heard a thump coming from outdoors behind her home.

She was in the kitchen, in the middle of making an omelet. LeAnna hesitated before stepping back from the kitchen counter.

She walked over to the living room and looked out the window, seeing someone laying on the ground. Her eyes widened once she realized it was a child.

LeAnna stepped out of the back door that was next to her on her right, jumping off the two stairs and running over to Jesper.

She quickly said, "Hey, hey, hey, kid, are you alright?"

Then once she kneeled down by him, she noticed he had fainted. She didn't say anything, and instead lowered her head a bit to hear Jesper's heartbeat.

LeAnna sat back up and started to shake his right shoulder, trying to wake him up. "Kid, I need you to wake up!"

Then, she started to hear faint, unfamiliar voices, then began to see figures behind the trees, still near the two of them.

Behind the trees, she saw a tall man, who had dark raven hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a white, long sleeved, buttoned shirt, a dark red tie, black pants, and shiny black shoes. He seemed to be in his late twenties or early thirties. It was Dr. Rallane.

Next to him was a child who looked like the boy that was laying right in front of LeAnna currently.

LeAnna appeared the most perplexed she had ever felt, mostly because these people appeared out of thin air as though they teleported, and yet no one else in their homes have come out to see what'd been going on.

"I'm sorry, One. Truly, I am. But you know what has to happen. You've been disobeying orders for a week," said Dr. Rallane, standing next to two other men.

Jesper's figure, standing next to Dr. Rallane, immediately shook his head. "No- Papa, I can't go back. Don't make me go back-"

     "One, I know it's not a good place. I know exactly how you feel, believe me. But it's protocol."

LeAnna had recognized the man, and, looking at the boy, she was thinking, One?