Chapter Three

The house is quiet as I get dressed and rummage through my cupboard to find my tatty old satchel from when I was moved to this home after Aaron’ so called death. Brushing off the dust to peer inside. Oh yuk, I take it over to the bin, tipping out the mouldy contents of a half-eaten sandwich and a sticky lump that may have been a packet of fruit jellies.

Opening the drawer to my bedside cabinet I grab a bottle of water and a bar of chocolate, the food parcel smuggled out of the dining room at teatime along with the map I printed off yesterday evening before I crept into the deserted kitchens and took a large sharp knife. A change of pants and socks, along with a spare shirt, are shoved inside along with my most precious possession, my drawing book, and small art box containing my pencils and water paints. Moving across the room, I look out the window at the snow. It is heavy now. This is my only chance if I want to escape undetected as the snow will hide my footprints.

She has lied about everything; I don’t have to have this life, and once I find Aaron, we will go to Ireland. According to an article I found online, there are people there that help boys like me. No wonder they monitor our every move, restrict our access to computers and the internet. Grabbing the spare blanket from the top of my wardrobe, I zip my jacket up.

I reach the back door to the house without incident, swiping the card over the sensor. The light turns green, but as I push the door open, an alarm goes off. Damn. The flood lights swiftly followed this coming on one by one. Briefly immobilised, sweat on my forehead even though my body has turned cold. I haul in a cleansing breath, blowing it out. My legs obey, my brain moving into shadow just outside the light's reach. Somehow sticking to the plan and instead of making for the fence, I hug the walls of the house and make my way around to where I know the tool shed is. Pulling the latch, I slip inside, only just though as it is packed with rusty old lawn mowers with a window on one side and tool bench littered with bits of wood, rusty metal. I carry on past it towards a set of drawers hidden at the back of the shed. Inside the second from the top drawer, I find what I am looking for, a relatively intact pair of wire cutters.

I hear voices; the guards are coming. Instinctively, I drop between the lawn mowers and attempt to crawl under the desk while simultaneously making myself as small as possible. Momentarily, the shed is flooded with torchlight as two security guards peer through the window into the shed. My heart pounds as I am convinced that they can see me.

‘It’s empty. Come on, they are by the back fence, I’m telling you.’ The guards move on, and I am plunged into darkness. I wait still for a moment in case they come back, and then climb to my feet and leave the tool shed.

If they are going to the back fence, then I will have to escape out of one of the other sides. Fortunately, the snowstorm has gotten worse, and visibility is down to less than five meters now. I cut my way through the fence without incident and squeeze through; unfortunately, the woods that would cover my escape are at the back of the house, while I find myself now stood at the edge of an open field. They will catch me out here, running along the edge of the fence and into the woods.

****

A hand grabs me, pulling me against a tree. The suddenness of the action stops me from resisting.

‘Damn it, I knew it was you,’ my Mother glares at me. ‘Who else would hack my account?’ Seeing her sad and mostly annoyed expression, my apology is on the tip of my tongue. Until my indignation barrels forward.

‘You have been lying to me.’ Accusation wraps around every syllable.

‘For your own good, why couldn’t you just accept everything?’

‘Who in their right mind would accept their imminent demise?’ hissing that sentence out between my teeth as anger seeps into my stance.

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‘Oh Adam,’ she sighs, I may have won this argument. Now I must persuade her to let me go. That may not be as easy.

‘I am not going back,’ straightening my spine and pushing back my shoulders, trying to use my height advantage.

‘Don’t be ridiculous, you have no idea how much danger you are in out here,’ her gaze is unwavering, despite the twitch under her eye. Aaron and I called it her mad witch twitch.

‘Well, explain it to me why don’t you, all this danger, most the population is now sterile, so I am no use to them, am I. If I should come across a girl, I could make babies with, she will be more cautious than me, won’t she? In case Gen-Corp catches her and used her in one of the breeding programs. Or was that all a lie as well?’ my tone is challenging as I wait for her answer, one I know she won’t give me.

The sound of a twig breaking has my Mother swinging around, pushing me to the ground.

‘Emma, what on earth are you doing out here?’ A young woman steps out of the tree cover. Pushing the large fur edged hood down, revealing a pretty but ordinary face. Her gaze flicks toward me, then back to my Mother. ‘Ah, of course.’

‘I could ask you the same thing. Except I know why you are here, and I am not giving him up to you,’ Mother lowers her voice as it vibrates with anger.

‘Oh Emma, you were always going to hand him to me eventually,’ the stranger chuckles.

They stand squaring up to each other, circling a mere arm’s length apart. I feel fear creep over me and sweat breaks out over my body, which I could really do without, trying to use the tree to shelter me from the biting wind, watching my Mother, as I climb back to my feet.

‘Come on Emma, would you really threaten me?’ I see something glint in the moonlight.

‘To keep him safe. Yes, I would’

‘He would be safe with me after all I have had custody of the other one for years.’

‘In a medical facility. Experimented on like a glorified lab rat. They are people like us, children, not bartering chips,’ my Mother replies, knife clutched in her hand.

‘That was always your flaw. You care too much. He is just another commodity,’ the other woman jeers as she walks towards me. Hauling me roughly forward, taking my chin in her fingers, she turns my head to study me. I scowl at her, and she smiles at me, but it’s not a friendly smile.

Taking in her features, the first thing that amazes me is she is young, I mean really young, not much older than me. The next is she is plain, not beautiful, her features aren’t perfect, she has glasses on, which suggests to me they have not tampered with her DNA.

‘He is pretty, I give you that. They will pay for these looks. His genetics are exemplary. Even his daughters will be attractive, never mind the sons and of course he was the first. They will even pay to sleep with him and to be impregnated naturally,’ she laughs. Can’t say I found any of that amusing.

‘No, that wasn’t the deal you promised. If you go back on it, I will kill him.’ Mother grabs me and holds the knife to my throat. The other woman laughs. I still don’t find any of this funny.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she pulls me away from Mother and runs her hands over me, touching me. Is he a good boy, obedient?’ Her hand is between my legs, and I feel repulsed and nauseated by her. This is not funny. ‘Of course he isn’t. Running away was he. Tut tut, what a naughty boy,’ she says this with a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her lips. It takes all my training not to smirk back. Already this stranger has a measure of me. Am I that easy to read?

‘Get away from him,’ my Mother pushes her away. I stumble and fall to the ground. I see a flash of silver and my Mother gasps before stepping forward, her hand with the knife in between them. They seem to hug, and I frown at such odd behaviour after their argument. The other woman sags and Mother lets her drop to the floor. She turns to me and looks me over as she pulls me up and into a hug.

‘Are you alright Adam?’ She hugs me tight. ‘Come on, we need to get you away from here. More will follow.’ She takes my hand and leads me through the wood to the meadow. I crane my neck and look back. The person is still laid in the snow unmoving, and it is then I realise Mother has killed someone. I swallow and allow Mother to drag me through the wood.

‘Is she dead?’

‘No, good grief, what sort of person do you think I am?’

‘Well… I don’t know any more.’

‘Adam, I am here for you, that’s my job, you.’

‘You aren’t taking me back?’

‘No, not right now. That option has gone now. What was your plan? I assume you have one,’ I hesitate for a split second, as the voice in my head reminds me. She lied.

‘To find Aaron’ she laughs. Bloody hell, yeah, I am offended.

‘There is a cave on the other side of the river. You go there and wait for me, understand. I can get you back in tonight.’

‘I am not going back.’

‘Look, you stupid idiot, you will die out here.

‘I will die in there, so that argument is redundant. I would rather die out here on my terms than be euthanized on a stranger's whim.’

‘Just go to the cave, Adam,’ she sighs out as the trees creak under the weight of the snow.