Anti-Hero

Chapter Two

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The hidden door opened as I waited patiently. They always kept me waiting, wondering if I’d somehow failed even when I tapped with the same number of beats to signal my success. It grated on my nerves, but that was soldiers for you. 

“Hello, Captain,” I greeted as I always did. 

The young man with brown hair and skittish brown eyes gave me a look of pure loathing as he entered the play room. I’d always wondered how he wound up with this responsibility. He clearly knew what I was capable of and was terrified of me because of it. But it never stopped him from being the first to enter the room. I had to give him some credit. The captain always entered before his soldiers. 

“Let’s get this over with,” he growled, his voice low and territorial as he stepped towards the silvery haired girl. 

“She’s dead,” I told him quickly, before he could bend down to lift her body. He paused and glared at me harder. I held my ground. “The others are fine,” I said. “She just gave in too fast. I didn’t know she would do that or I would have done it faster.”

“You should be a better judge of character, freak,” the Captain retorted grimly. His voice was low and cruel, and he had no intentions of taking the words back. 

“And you should leave us alone,” I replied. My voice was calm and cool. It was the same exchange we held every time he came to collect them. 

“Back off, freak,” a voice sounded out. 

I looked to the left and a young soldier stood there. His helmet was on, unlike the others. His eyes were fixed on mine and furious. I lifted an eyebrow in response. “Excuse me,” I said softly, “but I wasn’t speaking to you, Soldier. And if the captain wanted me to back off, he’d order me out of the room.” 

It was true enough. They needed me. And the captain wouldn’t order me out right now. He needed me too much. I had to witness the exchange. It was part of the bargain they’d created when they opened the facility. It was the reason they’d recruited my parents and I; though if I’m being honest, they really only needed me, not my mother or father. 

“Stand down, Soldier,” the captain spat with a disgusted look my direction. He couldn’t afford to lose face with the men, but he also couldn’t afford to let me be harassed. They were the ones facing the flames anyway, and he knew I would be the only one to help them face the other side of the play room once they stepped through the doors. 

“So what,” he asked me caustically, “we only get five this time because you killed one?” His words were harsh, but I could sense the fear in them. The man was driven by his fear of me and everything behind the play room walls. “I don’t think that’s a fair exchange. I think you should give us someone else.” 

This was new. I looked up into his eyes and saw something else that was driving the fear. It wasn’t fear of me. I was a known element. Eight months of the same routine on a weekly basis had given us something resembling a rapport, but this was new and felt tangibly threatening. I stayed in place but wished for more than my chair between myself and the captain. 

“What do you mean?” I asked cautiously. My eyes were zeroed in on the man and watching as he flicked a hand at the men in his command. They began removing the unconscious children. I felt my throat clog up at the sight. It always did, but there was nothing I could do to stop it or them. 

“We don’t think you’re doing your part to make this any easier on us,” he spat, and it sounded rehearsed. The words were flat coming from him. “You’ve been ordered to give up all the third generations. We made it clear that if you didn’t measures would be taken to get them by force if necessary. So we’ll only say this one time: if we don’t have them all within the next week, we will come in force. We’ll be back in a week, and we’ll meet at the stadium to collect them.”