The next several days went by in a blur. Setting up essentially a small battalion was no small feat, and thanks to Lucas’s suggestion Alex was in charge. Alex had me acting as his right hand, and trusted my judgment enough to tell everyone that my word was as good as his own. It was weird to adjust to everyone looking at us as leaders, but Lucas said we were better fitted to the role than, as he put it, a cynical bastard like himself.

We spent a long time ensuring each person had a group they felt like they belonged to, and were happy contributing to. Since this was mostly just talking it was a good way for me to sit and recover from my injury while I talked to each person. I double checked my notes for Alex on the matter as I finally concluded the task. With each team I listed names and relevant powers.

I added a brief version on the last page of the notes:

Med team: Three, the two with med school knowledge, and one who’s Oddity was healing powers that were rather limited, thus the need for the other two.

Kitchen: Six, five who enjoyed cooking/had experience working as a cook, one who was responsible for planning meals and ingredient usage for the cooks.

House crew: Six, one whose Oddity was essentially super speed and enjoyed cleaning, the other five had a knack for organizing and managing. They checked in on all other groups and supply rooms to ration everything and alert Alex and I if we were running out of something, or if our attention was needed.

Research: Three, this team was led by Isabelle of course, with two others that helped her with notes and any questions she had about their time in the prison. One had been there since the start, over two months ago, and both had been victims of consistent experimentation in the lab. They were vital for Isabelle to get the full picture.

Detection: Eight, this was headed by people like Jake with some type of heightened senses, or detection Oddity. There were four with this type of Oddity, and each was responsible for spending time in different areas of the facility, to ensure that regardless of the direction someone approached from, they would hear it. They slept in different shifts to ensure two of them were always awake and aware. The other four patrolled near the barrier in shifts, watching for anything suspicious. I added a few stars to the end of this section, feeling it was a vital team for our survival.

Defense: Three, This team was more of a temporary effort. June grew all of the trees around the walls as large and healthy as she could, then one with the power to manipulate the trees twisted them to form a weaved wall with few gaps. It was much taller and thicker than the temporary walls. Then the last member used his Oddity to manipulate the metal rows of barbed wire from the fences, and snaked it throughout the tree barrier. At this point all the group had to do was occasionally check the wall for issues and make sure it was in good shape.

This totaled twenty-nine of our eighty-seven members. The rest either stayed for protection, or on stand-by for a fight, feeling more useful there than in daily operations. Most of the younger prisoners were in the former category. They were too scared to leave, but didn’t want to contribute, and we assured them we were okay with that. Lucas spent his time communicating with each group, keeping a watchful eye on everyone, and reporting back to us. Alex and I were mostly kept busy talking to anyone with questions, and keeping up with Lucas and the heads from each group.

With my notes for Alex complete, it was time to meet with our main group to go over Isabelle’s research report. Her and her two helpers spent the better part of the last several days in the lab pouring over every document and statements from prisoners, and compiling it into one complete bank of information. I hurried downstairs in an effort to be on time for the meeting. I’d been anxious about this since we got here. Finally learning more about us was a huge step, and I couldn’t be more eager.

I bumped into Alex on the way to the lab, and he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before joining me for the rest of the walk. We’d gotten a lot closer and more comfortable with our relationship over the past few days. We finally had a chance to sit down and talk to each other. We told each other all the feelings we had bottled up over the years, and it was such a relief to have everything out in the open like that.

I also had a chance to catch up with Jake in between our many duties, and he was overjoyed for Alex and I. He told me a bit of the horrors he experienced in the prison, but despite that he seemed largely unchanged with respect to his upbeat personality. It was a relief to know that he was still himself after everything he’d been through. He spoke of the lab, how they’d grab each prisoner and spend hours poking and prodding at them while they were bound to the cold metal tables. They’d take blood, test and record every aspect of their abilities, and just generally beat them down into submission.

There were several like Jake that didn’t even have an Oddity manifest on arrival to the prison, but they were treated just as harshly. Some that had more powerful abilities had tried to rise up and stage a riot upon arrival. They wanted nothing more than to break out and free those around them, but one Oddity handcuffed inside of a cage couldn’t do much against the guns that opposed them, regardless of how strong they were. The others would never join the riot, because they’d seen time and again what happened to those that did. Each time someone tried to revolt they were viciously killed in front of the others to set an example.

Jake tried his best to remember how many had been killed this way, but he couldn’t remember the sheer number of them. He’d cried when he first told me about it. They had to just watch helplessly as people were slain in front of them, and he felt like a zoo animal most of the time. The soldiers seemed to enjoy getting to put down a rowdy prisoner, they’d smile and laugh. The lab techs would treat it like an experiment, calmly taking notes as the ordeal unfolded. The prisoners were nothing more than specimens to them. I had many nightmares about his vivid stories since he told me about it all.

I realized I’d been zoning out again, and blinked a few times to refocus myself. We were nearing the lab and Alex had walked a few strides ahead of me to catch up with Jake. When we walked inside Lucas, June, and Isabelle were already waiting. Isabelle had dismissed her two helpers so we could have the meeting in private before briefing the rest of the facility. I took a shaky breath as I desperately tried to ease my nerves. Jake was looking around the lab with disgust, clearly reliving some bad memories. He hesitantly took a seat in the corner of the lab, and I sat next to him in an effort to comfort him. Alex remained standing next to Lucas, while June hovered in horror near the fridge full of blood samples.

Isabelle closed the door behind us and cleared her throat, “I found out more than I thought I would, are you all ready?”

She walked back to the desk and grabbed a large manila folder, banging it against the desk to straighten the papers inside. She set the folder down in front of her and opened it to the first paper. ‘ORIGINS’ Was written across the top of the page in bold red lettering. She looked at us all and began piecing together the puzzle for us. She wove a tale that was almost unbelievable, backing up each part with proof from documents that she’d stop to show us as she started a new topic.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Isabelle told us that all the Oddities we knew were created by accident, but that the facility we were inside of was intended to house and train Oddities. The facility was part of a secret experiment founded by the army. It had approval from the Texas Governor, but she wasn’t aware if the federal government had any knowledge of the experiment.

The scientists had tested a set of chemicals meant to be injected into the bloodstream on a series of animals, before moving to testing on soldiers. The hypothesis was that upon injecting the chemical set, the targeted genes would rewrite themselves, changing the genetic structure of a person, and resulting in Oddities, which would then be trained as an elite military unit. They were trying to manufacture super soldiers. The tests went on for many months, and the project was largely abandoned when it failed to produce any results.

The lab neglected to follow protocol for housing the chemicals when the project was abandoned, and most of it ended up in the sewers as run off. This eventually entered the Dallas area’s water supply because the chemicals were too stubborn to be properly dissolved when the water was treated. Upon hearing about the strange incidents in Dallas months later, the lab was reopened to study captured Oddities, and figure out why it was working now when it wasn’t before.

Apparently the scientists got a few things wrong. 1. The method of delivery needed to be ingestion, not injection. 2. It took several doses over a long period of time to fully absorb and process the chemicals, thus rewriting the necessary genes. 3. The brain couldn’t be fully developed, as it would then resist change. This was why it took several months for abilities to start showing themselves, and it was only in younger people. The initial experiments had only been conducted on older, higher ranking, members of the military.

All of this combined led to a massive amount of the general population being exposed to highly classified chemicals meant only for elite soldiers who had already been sworn to secrecy. The Governor was furious upon being briefed of the lab’s accident, and ordered the military to work with the CDC, police force, and media to orchestrate the cover story we were now familiar with. Select military and government officials were the only ones that actually knew the extent of what was going on. The other agencies involved only knew that it was a threat to national security, and to do what was ordered of them with absolute secrecy by threat of imprisonment.

Military communications experts were given control of all social media platforms, and banned certain phrases from seeing the light of day. They worked around the clock to make sure nothing that would expose them gained any traction. The news stations were given false stories to report on, and asked not to question their legitimacy. All of these people were either threatened, coerced, or completely in the dark. Very few people actually knew this information.

The military units were told to secure the area around Dallas, citing terrorist threats. The story they were told was that a foreign government developed and planted the Oddities in an effort to take down the US from the inside. They were told to kill any terrorists (us apparently) that posed a threat or tried to escape, and capture any they could safely restrain, sending them to the lab to study the foreign technology. In their eyes we were spies, terrorists, and evil. It was no wonder they had no pity for us. They had no idea who they were actually tasked with exterminating: Innocent kids, who were just victims of the lab’s failures.

At the lab, the Oddities were studied around the clock to figure out how the genes had changed, and compare it with their initial hypothesis. They still had plans to resume the initial experiments and go forward with the development of their elite units once all of this had been handled. We were just a bump in the road to them. They developed the blood tests and were going to round up each and every last Oddity to either kill or use for research. The issues with the water supply had already been handled, and no new Oddities would develop on accident. Anyone who didn’t test positive now was safe.

Isabelle wrapped up her findings and tucked the assortment of documents back in the folder, placing it back in the desk drawer. Her eyes left the desk for the first time in a while as she scanned the room, waiting for us to speak. She was met with complete silence. All of us were stunned at the news. We looked around at each other in disbelief.

My face went red and started to tingle, and my ears were ringing. My anger was so severe I couldn’t process it, and looking around it seemed like everyone else felt the same way. It was disgusting. The lengths they went to for some elite unit when we weren’t even at war. The total disregard for human life as they butchered their own citizens to bury their mistakes. I couldn’t believe it. I tried to swallow but found my mouth was too dry to accomplish the feat. I was unable to speak at that moment. I looked at Alex desperately, and he finally broke the silence.

“Give us a day or two to process this, and we’ll discuss the best way to tell the others, and form a plan of what to do next. For now just continue with business as usual. Dismissed,” Alex choked out angrily. Everyone got up to leave quietly, no one seemed to be in the mood to talk about the matter more at that time.

“Lucas, hang back,” Alex called suddenly. Lucas spun around and raised an eyebrow at Alex. I joined the two of them and we walked off to a quiet area of the hallway. I stood next to Alex, shifting my weight around on my feet restlessly while I waited for him to speak.

“This is likely going to get worse before it gets better. I can try to think of a way to handle this diplomatically but we can’t depend on that. Isabelle has a detailed catalog of everyone’s abilities. I want you to take that and work on training anyone who’s up for it. Combinations of powers like how we used ours together would be best. But any cohesive fighting formations you can teach are good enough. If they want an elite force we’ll fucking show them one,” Alex growled.

Lucas mocked a salute towards Alex, “Sir yes sir. I’ll be the best damned commander you’ve ever seen. Give me a few days and they’ll be ready. I’ll report to Angel once it’s handled.” Lucas grinned wildly and turned on his heels, keeping up the military act for a few more paces until he rounded the corner.

I turned to Alex nervously. “Are you okay?” I asked softly. His outburst had rattled me.

“Are you?” he fired back angrily.

“Good point,” I squeaked out.

Alex finally realized that I was scared of him in that moment. I couldn’t meet his eyes and I’d stepped back a few inches. As much as I told myself I was over what Drew did to me, there were certain things that brought it back in full force. The anger in Alex's voice was too much for me. I felt the same way of course, and I knew deep down it was silly to be afraid, but my body was acting purely on instinct.

“Shit sorry,” he said, his voice softening. He wrapped me in a quick hug and mumbled into my hair that he didn’t mean to scare me. I nodded, relieved that he was back to normal. He released me and I gave him a soft smile. That was all it took to set my heart at ease.

We walked to the cafeteria to get a quick lunch, and talked like normal. During our meal several people came to speak with us. We got updates from different groups; the barrier was good, the detection group had nothing to report, all supplies were good for at least another two weeks, clothes had been washed and distributed. All the usual interruptions. It was taking time to get used to leading such a large group of people, but it was getting more ordinary each day. We made a plan to retreat to our room early tonight, and brainstorm on what our next steps were after the groundbreaking meeting.

Lucas made an announcement once most people were in the cafeteria for lunch that anyone interested in fighting or training could meet him in the basement at 2pm today. He said that if anyone was worried about it interfering with their regular duties they could report to the organization crew and they’d work to fill in any schedule gaps for them. He said once they had met in the basement and gone over groups, powers, and the basics, they’d be meeting at the same time each day in the yard for training. Anyone was welcome to join at any time if they changed their minds.

I listened intently to Lucas speak, and took a careful look around the room as he finished and walked off. Everyone was discussing the announcement with excitement. There were smiles and laughs in any direction you looked. People were happy now, even though they’d been through so much just a few days ago. I vowed to take my position as a leader seriously. I’d protect each and every one of them. They deserved to keep this happiness.