Ride or Die- Eddie Munson X OC

Prologue

Julie looked down at her watch, half past 6:00, this was her chance. She slipped around the corner, her thin slippers lightly padding the smooth white tiles.

She listened closely to her surroundings, hearing the soft echoes of the other subjects' voices through the halls, all of them heading to the meal room.

Julie took a sharp turn as she hit another wall, familiar with the stark white halls, even though they all looked the same.

She had been worried that her testing earlier in the day would make her groggy, but some benefits come with being a veteran member of the program: after a while, it all starts to feel normal.

She checked her watch again and sped up her pace, if she was going to do this she needed to be fast.

Julie slipped down a narrow corridor and scanned the wall, searching... there! She approached a white box in the wall and yanked it open, revealing the bright red fire alarm beneath. As basic of a strategy it was, it would do the trick.

Without wasting a second she elbowed it hard, breaking the glass. She immediately heard the buzzing of the alarm blare throughout the building.

Julie ran down the rest of the corridor, knowing full well the distance she created from the meal room would only buy her so much time.

As she ran, she heard the voices of guards begin to echo through the halls, some of them getting closer. Whether they were looking for her or not she didn't know, but she couldn't risk it.

She picked up her pace, making turn after turn, almost going fast enough to get lost, the place was like a maze.

Finally, she reached her destination, the first-floor lab. She had seen a safety ladder attached to one of the lower walls of the lab from a testing room a few floors above and gambled that there would be some door or passage that led to it. But the more she looked around, the less promising that gamble looked.

The room was littered with all sorts of strange equipment, and all the walls looked to be reinforced, only the large glass windows gave any sign it was a normal building and not a metal fortress.

She walked towards the window, the realization of what she had to do settling in.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Julie whipped around.

There, in a sharp dark suit, his blue eyes piercing into her green ones, stood Dr. Martin Brenner.

"Stay away from me," Julie said, slowly taking another step back towards the window.

"We've been over this Julie, I don't want to hurt you-"

"And yet you have! No amount of money can ever give me back what you've taken." Julie said, her voice shaking as she spoke.

"Julie, listen to yourself, you were the one who signed up for this, who has been with us longer than any of the other subjects, you've never once complained. I'd even say you've enjoyed it." He chuckled, "I mean One adores you."

Julie hesitated at the mention of the boy, it was true that he'd become like a little brother to her, but there was something off about him, something that was starting to scare even her. She had other things she needed to prioritize.

"One will be ok," she swallowed, "he's a tough kid."

"Julie please, let's stop this nonsense," he took a step closer.

"No, stay back!" She ordered, putting up her arm and moving even closer to the window. "You can't stop me Doc, I've had enough of this place."

She took a deep breath.

"And I want my goddamn life back."

Julie threw herself back with as much force as she could muster, shattering the glass window and disappearing over the edge.

Brenner ran over to the ledge and looked down, expecting to see a body in a pool of blood, but to his surprise, the woman was nowhere in sight.

---

Julie put her hands on her knees as she caught her breath, as much as she resented all of the tests she had been through the last six years in that lab, she had to give Brenner some credit, they worked. Her body was a lot more resilient than the average human, making big drops like that one feel like no more than a punch to the gut.

She knew he'd be losing a valuable subject in her, but she worried about how it may impact the other subjects. Would he go harder on them? Would he take out his frustration on One? She couldn't know but hoped the people who had become like family to her would make it through.

Julie looked down at her belly and smiled, placing a hand on the emerging bump. "I hope you're ready, little one because it's finally time for our lives to begin," she looked back at the lab in the distance, "far away from here."