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I halt in my tracks and turn to face a large red barn. I’m used to my sister’s whiny cries for attention, but there is something very different in her voice. My stomach turns over, and I begin to run for the barn. As I get close, I see vehicles out in front—two large, impossibly armored machines running on tracks.
No. Oh fuck, no.
“Galen! Help me!”
I run faster. I’m nearly to the door of the barn when I’m hit from behind. My vision dances with sparks as I drop to the ground.
“Leave her alone!” I sit straight up on the bed in the laboratory. My throat hurts. I’m alone, and I’m cold. There’s a powerful sense of dread in my gut, and my head is throbbing. I shove myself off of the bed and back away from the door. I press my palms against the cold mirror on the wall as my breath comes in gasps.
That wasn’t a dream. It was real.
A moment later, Riley rushes into the room. I look into her eyes, barely comprehending what is around me. I want to grab on to her. I need to feel some sort of…of stability…but I can’t make myself move. I stare at her, pleading. If I could just touch her, smell her, maybe everything would start to make sense again.
What’s happening to me?
“Sten! What’s wrong?” She reaches my side and grasps my hands in hers. She strokes the inside of my arm with her fingertips, and my skin tingles under her touch.
I’m in a lab. I volunteered to be a soldier in a war I don’t remember. They’ve changed me—they are still changing me. What am I becoming?
“Galen.” My voice is nothing more than a raspy gasp. “My name is Galen.”
*****
“This isn’t supposed to happen.”
“I realize that, but with the change to the TST formula and the additional cybernetics, we knew there could be other side effects.”
“This wasn’t supposed to be one of them.”
“We’ll get it corrected.”
I turn my head toward the sound of Riley’s voice, but I feel so heavy, I can hardly move. I had just been in the lab. I had been upset about…something. How did I get here? Where am I?
“Riley?”
“Relax, Sten.”
“What’s happening?” I try to turn, but I’m strapped down to a rolling table. A bright light pierces my eyes. I need to touch her, but I can’t move my hands.
“Nothing to worry about,” she says. Her face is covered in a white mask. “We just need to make a few adjustments to your primary implant.”
“Implant?” I remember her talking about cyber implants in my head. She hadn’t given me details. It was just one of the ways they had changed me.
“There’s a small glitch. We’re going to take care of it, and then everything will be fine.”
“I remembered something,” I say, mumbling. “There was a barn...tanks. Where’s my sister?”
“Christ, how can he remember that?” A man stands beside Riley, his face also covered with a mask. I feel his hand press something to the side of my head. “There shouldn’t have been any of that left at all. Captain Mills is going to have a fit.”
“We’ll take care of it.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting the nausea in my gut. This is wrong. I’m not supposed to be here. I strain against the strap around my chest, and my body suddenly goes stiff as pain ricochets through every neuron.
I scream. I buck against the restraints. I don’t just feel the pain; I can see it inside of me. I can visualize every neuron as it fires, sending electrochemical impulses across synapses from my muscles and skin to my spine, up my spinal cord, and into my brain. They’re bright flashes of white and blue. I scream again before everything goes black.
*****
My whole body aches, but the soreness barely registers compared to the pain in my head. I try to sit up and get my bearings, but I can’t move.
