Program 13 Book One (11 page)

“Emile.”
Colton
was standing in front of me, his forehead creased with worry. “Lie down. You’re zoning out on me. Emile?” He was panicking now. I could feel him trying to move me, but it was no use. My body was fighting back, angry that I was ignoring its desire for rest. Pull after pull, my body refused to move.
Colton
grabbed hold of my arms, trying desperately to pull me forward, but instead found himself lying on his back. He was too weak to move me.

“Damnit!” he yelled. “Hold on. I’ll be right back.” I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I could hear
Colton
’s feet scampering down the hallway. What was he doing? “I’m coming Emile, hold on!”

There was a squealing sound making its way towards me, as if
Colton
was dragging something heavy from the room. I listened as the heavy item dug into the floor below, forcing
Colton
to grunt as he shoved the item down the hallway.

“This will work, won’t it?” he asked, more so to himself than to me.

“
Colton
,” I whispered, my lips hardly parting. He didn’t answer.

The squealing stopped, and I could feel
Colton
pulling on my arm again.

“Emile, I brought your Pod out here. Unfortunately, there was no way I’d be able to get you to your room, so I had to improvise. I need your help, though. Can you muster up enough energy to walk a few feet?”

I barely managed to nod in response. “Good, let me just plug it in and then I’ll come get you.” He searched frantically for the power cord. “Okay, I think I got it.”

I could hear the buzz of the Pod as it powered up. The sound echoed in my mind as if it was calling to me.

Colton
made his way back to me, and then brushed the hair from over my eyes. “Emile, I’m going to need you to push off the couch for me. Can you do that?”

I couldn’t answer him, but I knew that I needed to try and move. I pulled every bit of energy I had left in my body and pushed myself up, throwing my arm around
Colton
’s neck. Carefully, I rose to my
feet
, fighting the urge to use him to balance myself.
“That’s perfect. N
ow just keep pushing
,
you
only
have a few more steps
to go
!”

He was trying his best to help me; I only wished that I had enough power in me to say how much it meant to me. One foot in front of the other, we made our way over to the Pod. As soon as I felt the window, I pushed off of
Colton
and lunged for the latch.

The door opened, and he pushed me inside the Pod gently, making sure my hard drive clicked into place before he allowed the door to close. It’d be at least eight hours before I could leave the Pod, eight hours in which I wouldn’t be able to do a thing.

He stood beside the Pod, leaning over the window to make sure that I was alright. He was antsy, not sure how to react. I couldn’t blame him though; humans didn’t need to plug into a machine daily, but Programs did. This was just as new for him as it was for me.

“You asked to know more about me,”
Colton
began, his thumb pressed against his chin. “What better time than now to tell you, right?” He forced a laugh, but I could still see the worry that was clear on his face.

“Well, before I lost my family I guess you could say I was a troubled child. Truth be told, I’ve never truly appreciated the beauty of life until I met you, and that isn’t sucking up.” He made sure to look me in the eye
s
, a smirk wide on his face. “Anyways, I spent most of my younger years putting my parents through hell. I guess I just wanted their attention, no matter how I managed to get it. There were a lot of drugs, a few suicide attempts –
more like threats to be honest
–
and I had a tendency to run away. But that’s how I
’ve always been. When things get hard I
run until I
can’t
run anymore.”

I let his words fill my mind, creating an image of his past.

“My parents used to have daily talks with me to see what was wrong.
What could possibly be destroying their innocent child
?” He scoffed. “Back then, I thought all of it was hilarious. But if I had to do it all over again, I would’ve spent every minute I had with them telling them just how much I truly loved them.”

Colton
was beginning to tear up at the thought of his parents. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t let them go. He wanted to start fresh, but there was no denying the heart what it longed for – especially when it longed for home.

He placed his hands on the window. A tear rolled down his cheek, splashing against the Pod window. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to head to my room now. Talking about them, it’s just not making it any easier.”

Colton
pressed his hands harder against the window before pulling away.

And then he was gone and I was left alone to live in my contrived memories.

“
Emile
!” I could hear my mother calling my name from the kitchen. I threw my book on the couch and ran to see what she wanted. She was standing over the stove, a tray of fresh baked bread in one hand and a pot of sauce in the other. “Can you stir the noodles for me, please? I’m kind of out of hands here.”

She laughed, twisting her way around me. She moved like an angel, swiftly and without a sound. As I stirred the noodles, I watched my mother set the table. She placed the tray of bread by her plate and the sauce in the middle of the table before backing up to examine the place settings. Every day, every night, my mother would do the exact same thing. I laughed as she crossed her arms and her eyes zeroed in on the table. She was always convinced that she’d forgotten something, but she never did.

She never did.

And that was where the memory ended. One minute I was helping my mother, the next I was watching as my entire family stared down at me while I fell from the sky. They waved goodbye, not bothering to jump after me, not bothering to save me.

I landed on the ground, watching as they were sucked into a black mist.

They were gone again.

Just as I allowed them to live in my mind, I allowed them to die.

16
falling

I
was lying on my bed at home, my heart racing. the sound pulsing through my eardrums. Above me was my mother, a wet cloth in her hand. “Do you need more medicine, dear?” she asked. Her voice seemed to be a bit shaken. I wanted to scream for her to help me, but the words wouldn’t find their way out. She reached out for my hand, and then she was gone.

And I was falling, my body closing in on the ground below.

“Mother,” I cried out. But there was no response. I slammed into the concrete below me, warm blood oozing out from my skull.

When the Pod door unlatched, I realized it was all part of another false memory. I flung the door open and ran from the room, wanting to get as far away from the Pod as possible.

“
Colton
,” I yelled when I noticed he wasn’t in the living room yet.

But there was no answer.

I looked down the hall only to find his bedroom door wide open. I ran to his room and found him lying in the middle of his room in the fetal position, shaking. There was confusion and pain in his eyes.

“What happened?” I asked, picking him up carefully so that he was in a sitting position.

“Have you seen the news today?” he asked.

His question was random, and I didn’t understand the meaning behind it. Staring back at
Colton
puzzled, he shook his head and then continued. “You were on the news this morning.”

No, not this,
I pleaded.
Anything but this.

“They said you were dead, that you died in a freak car accident last night. The news even showed your photo and pictures from the scene of the crime. The caption read ‘Emile Reed, 17, killed in a car accident.’”
Colton
was shaking, tears running from his eyes. “But that wasn’t the worst part, Emile. I saw them.”

As I took in
Colton
’s words I began to realize what they truly meant: He saw his parents. Which meant that McVeigh knew that
Colton
was with me. That fact scared me more than knowing they announced my death on the news…months after it actually occurred. Vesta Corp was desperate to find me, so desperate that they needed to create the illusion that I was killed in an automobile accident the previous night. It was smart on their part, as it would make life a bit harder for me now.

But what I forgot was that it wasn’t just my life this would affect, it would also affect the way
Colton
lived
his life from here on out, too.

“You saw who?” I asked
Colton
after I was finally able to relax my body. I knew the answer, but I needed to hear him say it. I needed to hear it from him.

“I saw my parents, Emile. They were in the background of the accident coverage,” he whispered. “They looked like normal people. They looked alive.”

They had to know
Colton
was with me
. Programs were not sent out into the human world if their family remained behind. The fake death, the fact that his parents were there…it was a set up to draw us out of hiding. It was a trap and I wasn’t going to take the bait.

“It’s a trap,
Colton
,” I whispered, trying to remain calm.

“What the hell do you mean it’s a trap?” he screamed at me, his anger winning over.

“Think about it,
Colton
.” I shot up and looked over at him, grabbing hold of his hands. “Why do you think they announced my death on the news? Why do you think your parents were there? It wasn’t a coincidence. It’s because they know that you’re with me. They are trying to lure us out so that they can find us. We can’t let that happen.”

“And why’s that?” He tried to pull his hands from my grasp. “Why can’t I see them?”

“If we go back there, you will become one of us,” I sighed, allowing what I was about to say next penetrate my thoughts. “The minute we go back into the city, McVeigh will know and he will send his men to find us. And when they do, because they will, you will become one of us. And I will be deactivated.”

Silence filled the room as
Colton
realized I was right. We couldn’t go back. We would need to keep running if we wanted to stay alive. And I needed to keep
him
alive, at least.

Hours later, when we were both able to come to our senses, we made our way out to the living room. The news was still airing their report of my death. Part of me was curious as to whose body it was being taken away, mainly because I feared for that person. I feared that they’d become like me, something I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.

“How do they get away with this stuff?”
Colton
asked, making sure to avert his eyes from the television. The last thing he needed was to see their images again.

“Unfortunately, I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “Part of me thinks they are in cahoots with the government. I mean, how else could they get away with collecting dead bodies, and turning them into Programs? It’s not like they only bring in a body every now and again; it’s a daily thing. Someone in the government has to be involved. It’s the only reasonable explanation as to why they haven’t been discovered by the general public, yet.”

Colton
nodded. “It’s just sad to know that these people think they are fulfilling their loved ones’ wishes by donating their bodies to science. They have no way of knowing that they are allowing them to become lifeless machines.”

He was right. Their families thought they were doing the right thing. If only they knew.

“Screw it,”
Colton
demanded. “Why don’t we just expose them? People need to know.”

I wanted to tell him, okay, because I knew that he was right, of course, but I knew that we couldn’t. The second we put our faces out there, we’d be dead. Plain and simple. There was no way around it. We would need to sit back for now and try to live our lives to the fullest extent possible, no matter how hard it might be.

“I’d love to expose the scum just as much as you want to, but we can’t. Not yet.” I shot him a stern glance. If I could, I’d tear them to pieces this instant, but this wasn’t a war that could be won overnight.

“So, for now we run?” he asked, although he wasn’t actually looking for an answer.

“Yes, for now we run.”

And we did.

I closed my eyes, allowing the next spliced memory to fill my mind. I was in an alleyway, a car’s headlights shining on me from behind. My first instinct was to run. As I ran, the car sped up, keeping pace with me perfectly. When I turned to look back, I saw my body lying lifeless on the ground. There were no witnesses, no one to tell my parents I was hurt. It was the perfect scenario for a crime of this nature. The two men, Charles McVeigh and Douglas Todd, got out of the car and lifted my lifeless body into the trunk.