After Jake’s performance that he insisted was all a part of an act, and an electrifying interogation, we managed to get access to the basement door that Felix scrambled to get to.

We were running on fumes, taking too long, and I was worried that more enforcers would be on their way after we accidentally tripped an alarm system when we first opened the door.

It wasn’t just a key to open it. There was a three step process to it involving: unlocking the door, face scan, and a code.

I ran out the the front of the house while the alarm started blaring, quickly picking up one of the enforcers rifles before racing back inside.

“What’s the code?” I demanded.

We had already forced a face scan from Felix but he was holding out on the last step. Until I realised the one thing that could get him to comply. Death.

Everyone fears death right? But if you’re the head guy of an organisation that’s all about extending life, you fear it more. You’ll do anything to keep living, even giving away secrets you’re suppose to die for.

I raised the rifle and pointed it at Felix. It felt awkward as if was only the second or third time I’ve handled a firearm. He didn’t seem to notice, or care, because as soon as it raised he started acting irrational.

Talking a big game, trying to call my bluffs but cowering each time I put the barrel closer to his head.

We were stuck in a standoff type situation. He was right, I didn’t want to kill, I just wanted him to give up the code so we could restrain him again and leave him in our dust. But he wasn’t budging. I had to do something.

I took a step back and aimed at his foot.

A crack filled the kitchen following by a yelp of pain. I started to fill him with panic and thoughts of death, it was just enough to push him over the edge.

“Okay. Okay you fucking psychos. I’ll give you the code. You’re not going to live long enough to do any damage anyway,” he yelled.

Jake punched in the code while I tied Felix back to the chair, the quiet a welcoming relief from the blaring alarms.

The stairway beyond the door retained the same styling as the house as we descended down into the basement — if you could call it that. At the bottom of the stairs it took us around a corner with a long hallway. On the left were windows, giving us a peek into some of the rooms it was divided into.

“This dude has labs down here? What the hell,” whispered Jake as we continued down the hall.

Sitting at the end was a solid wooden door, thankfully unlocked.

“What the fuck, check this out Reed”

On the screen was a summary of long-term testing, outlining the success of edits over generations. It was impressive the lifespans they were able to achieve thus far, however, there was one line that stood out to Jake and I.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

‘85.5% of expiration dates fell within ideal timeframes successfully…’

Lifespan was quite literally trying to play god. They were somehow putting expiration dates into DNA edits, and quite successfully by the sounds of it.

I skipped through the pages deep into the report until I got to the referenced sections. Sure enough it was exactly what I thought. Expiration dates on people’s lives. I was interrupted by Jake before I could see how they chose which people to purposely kill but it filled me with rage.

“We gotta get this all onto the drive and get out of here,” I said, pulling out a small thumb drive that was given to me by Tai back at the warehouse.

“Do you think we’re supposed to hand it to the support guys?” Asked Jake.

“Fuck ‘em, I’m not even going to tell them we’re leaving.

“Do think you can fry this thing?” I said, motioning to the computer as I pulled the drive out.

A fizzle and pop sounded as Jake surged the computer with a touch.

“Alright let’s get out of here,” I motioned to Jake.

On the way out of the basement I untied Felix and dragged him with us toward the front door until I saw clouds of dust coming down the long driveway. We took too long and More enforcers were on the way.

“I’m guessing you have a hangar on this ridiculous estate,” I shouted into his ear as i held him by the scruff of his shirt.

“Ye—yeah. It’s on the other side of the property though,” said a shaken and faint Felix.

“Good. You’re coming with us.”

Felix tried to resist but didn’t have the strength as I dragged him to the garage.

There were so many cars I would have loved to drive in that massive garage but we had to jump in the SUV with off-road driving highly likely.

The garage doors flung open as the engine cranked over. I put my foot down taking out the half retracted garage door as well as a few enforcers.

Jake started to slip in and out of consciousness out of nowhere as I floored it toward the back of the property.

“There’s a reaper” gasped Jake.

Reapers were exactly how they sound. They were death. It was an incredibly rare and controlled ability over generations. Much like empaths, they could sense and control emotions with the addition of also being able to control things like heart rates, which is what they must of being doing to Jake.

“Alright Felix… you gotta go.”

“Wait what?” Said Felix.

“Jake when you can take a moment from not dying, kick him out of the car. It might slow them down.”

Jake didn’t even have to move. Felix, thinking being injured was the better alternative to dead, opened the door and threw himself out of the moving car.

“Huh, well there you go,” I muttered to myself.

In the distance a large white shed came into view making me push my foot into the accelerator like it was actually able to go any further. The speed we were driving along the road gave us an advantage of the large dust cloud we were leaving behind us, breaking the reapers connection with Jake and giving us some leeway to jump into whatever aircraft was around.

Jumping out of the car sent our fear soaring, we had taken a big risk going to the airfield when we weren’t even sure if any aircraft were going to be there, or the fact that neither of us had even flown a plane before.

We drove around the front of the hangar, sliding to a stop. It was large enough to house a few planes but only one small single aircraft occupied the space. It was perfect. It had less controls to learn, and meant we would be less likely to make mistakes.

“Are we really going to do this Reed?”

The propellor fired up after I successfully mashed some buttons and pulled some levers.

“Yep. Can’t exactly pull out of this one now,” I replied.

I started to play around with the controls as we made a slow exit out of the hanger.

Okay this one increases and decreases prop speed; This seems to be turning us; and this seems to move those.

“Reed!” Shouted Jake.

The enforcers had caught up now the dust had started to settle and I had to try get this plane in the air.

I pushed the throttle forward as I manoeuvred the plane to face the opposite direction down the runway from the approaching enforcers.

Our ground speed started picking up and I could see a tree line fast approaching. I was trying to take off the wrong direction, and to make matters worse, I had fiddled with the pitch too early making the plane start to erratically hop.

I managed to stabilise and gain more speed before we finally started to lift off the ground, the light branches of the top of the trees slapping against the belly of the plane.

“Holy shit!” Said Jake with a laugh, “how are we not dead?”

I had been asking myself the same question and had no logical answer for it.