Generation X

Chapter Six - Realization

                    0144 was still vague about the “item” they were going to search for, but 0015 knew it was somewhere in the facility. She was back from the testing center (which she now knew what it really was), and the first night she was back in her bunk, she couldn’t even sleep. Visions of the kill  (yes, for that was what she called it now) haunted her. A fortnight had passed since her ordeal and she wasn’t given a mission yet, only the endless routine of training and general Corporation life. It wasn’t unheard-of for a gen like her to be mission-less for even a month-- especially since the Corporation was using more and more of third gens on missions these days.

                   Yet what kept her going on was the thought of stealing something from the Corporation. A kind of revenge, 0015 thought, her hands clenching at her sides each time she was reminded of the testing center.

But what was the most damning was that it was her fault. The killing of the child was her fault alone. Hers, hers, hers, chanted voices in her head. She shook her head. It wasn’t like a mission, where there was a purpose. People told you what to do, and you did it. There was no question of not doing it, after all.

You did what you did--

“0015?”

It was 0144. She had slid in so quietly that 0015 hadn’t even heard her come in. The girl was standing in front of her. 0144 had brilliant eyes that glinted green even in the dark, and her black hair looked as if it was one with the night.

Suddenly, inordinately, 0015 was mad at her.

“What do you want, you freak?”

0144 recoiled from her, eyes spitting green sparks. “What did you say, dead meat? ‘Cause that’s what you would have been, if I hadn’t told you what was going to happen to you!”

               Dead meat?!

0015 flew at her, tackling her to the ground, beating her with her fists, tearing her hair, wanting the other girl to hurt as badly as she did inside. 0144 hissed in fury and slapped 0015. “What the hell’s gotten into you?!” 0144’s wiry frame was much smaller than 0015’s, but she twisted and writhed under the taller girl, finally managing to wriggle out from under her.

0015 just lay facedown on the floor, panting. 0144 edged away, fists curled up to remind her not to give the other girl the same beating she would have been subjected to if not for her agility.

“I’ll ask again. What. Were. You. Thinking?” 0144 kept her voice low, though she was boiling inside. 0015 was still on the floor, and 0144 yanked the bigger girl up by the hair, getting a good look at the vacant, haunted eyes.

“I’ll tell you what I was thinking-- I was thinking about the poor kid I killed in that lab! I murdered him!” 0015 gasped out the last two words and fell silent. Her dark eyes flashed dangerously and 0144 backed away from her.

“Look, buddy, the scientists may have just been messing with your mind out there. Doesn’t it occur to you that they might have made you think you killed somebody?”

0015 looked at the other girl. “You don’t understand. I smelled the blood. I saw it. I saw the boy I killed.”

0144 snorted. “Welcome to technology, 0015.”

0015 stiffened. “Technology  wouldn’t have made me hallucinate seeing that poor guy being dragged off.”

0144 didn’t reply.

“And besides, Miss Know-It-All, I knew the guy.” 0015 swallowed past the lump in her throat as she voiced out the thought that had been niggling at her head. She had known who it was...