The U.N.I.T.

I'm sitting here in my cell, thinking about what's happened over the past few days, and as always happens, that makes me think about how I got to be here in the first place. But now, to the situation at hand, I found out yesterday that I was supposed to die tomorrow. It's not like I was planning on dying anytime soon, but I guess they finally got tired of me, and decided that it was time to get rid of me. I mean I can understand their point. I am a VERY high security risk, being who I am and all. Adam (no last name), the genetically engineered freak, or as they like to call me... the perfect military weapon.

Last night, Dr. Janet Hayes came into my room. She really looked like shit, which caused me concern as she is my only real friend here. She even once told me to call her mom. I have another friend, but I've never met him. His name's Logan, and he's Dr. Hayes' son. He's about my age, and I've been able to watch him grow up through the pictures that she's brought me. Through Dr. Hayes, I know everything about him. Or at least how a "normal" kid should grow up. NO! I don't need to get upset about that again.

I knew something was wrong, just from the way she was looking at me. It was like she was looking a condemned person. (If I only knew how right I was.) "Adam, why don't you have a seat, I have some bad news for you." I knew it was bad then, she never tells me to sit. Even when she had to break the news to me that it was time to test how well I heal. This of course meant, they wanted to hurt me, and see how long it took to get better. And, boy, did they hurt me; Everything from broken bones, to cuts, to bullet wounds. All in all, it sucked.

I took a seat and said "what's wrong, Janet? You look like your dog died or something." I was trying to lighten the mood a bit; didn't work. "I need to tell you that Dr. Marcus got a visit from the Military today. They were shut up in his office for 5 hours... talking about you." She looked me in the eye with that last part, and I felt a shiver go up my spine. I thought about what it could mean, and only one thing came up, deployment. "But..." I asked stuttering. "I'm not ready to be deployed yet. You said so yourself. "Their not going to deploy you, Adam." she said, as she looked down. "They want to terminate the project." I sat there stunned for a few minutes, until I looked up and could see tears falling down her face. I had two options at that point. Part of me wanted to break down and cry my heart out. But another part told me to do what I was trained for. To quote from the Marine Corps. "Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome." So that's what I would do. I took a second to gather my thoughts, then I walked over to the full length mirror in my room. I stood there and stared at the person staring back. Twelve years old, about five foot three inches tall, maybe a hundred pounds, soaking wet, long black hair, which was pulled back, and steel gray eyes; all in all, not too bad looking, if I say so myself, not that it matters right now.

I took a deep breath, and turned back to look at Janet. She was just staring at me, waiting to see how I would react. "First off Janet, please tell me. Is this another one of those tests? To see what I would do?"

She just sighed and said, "I wish."

"Okay, then I need to know if you will help me escape." I said, going into full command mode. She looked up at me, as if she were trying to see what I had in mind. Before she could respond, I went over, and took her hand. "Before you decide, let me tell you exactly what it will mean. You will be breaking the law. You will be hunted. Not just you, but Logan as well. If you decide to do this, you'll have to go with me. Wherever that might be. Basically, if you help me, you WILL be giving up, not only your life, but Logan's as well. Think on that before you answer."

After I had my say, I took the notebook off the desk, sat down on the bed, and started to write out a list. For the next few minutes, I sat silently, writing my list, as I let her decide. When I looked up, I saw she was deep in thought, so I went back to my list. Finally, she said "Adam, I know what it would mean for me to help you. I... I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't try to help." She looked me in the eyes with a look of determination in hers. I took the list I was writing, tore it off the notepad, and handed it to her. I said. "Okay, then this is what you'll need to do. You'll need to pack everything you and Logan want to keep. Remember, we'll be on the run, so keep it light. Second, you'll need to get your hands on as much cash as possible. No need letting them know where we went, by tracing your credit cards, and bank transactions. Third, you need to take that cash and buy a vehicle. Old, and non-descript would be best, but make sure it runs well. You'll need to pay for it in cash, with no receipts, or at least nothing with your name on it. Fourth, there's a number on the bottom there. That's for Capt. Joseph Casey. He's an Army Ranger who should be out by now, he told me last year that if I ever needed help, to call him. He won't be any help getting me out of here, but he can help once I AM out. Just let him know what's going on, and don't call from your house. Go buy a pre-paid cell phone from a store. Again, use a fake name if you need to. Actually get 2 of them from one store, and 2 more from another. Make sure to use cash." I sat there ticking off the points from the list, and she just stared at me, with her jaw on the floor. I finally noticed her, and couldn't help but laugh a little. "Sorry, just slipped into "Command Mode" for a little. Can you do this?" Again, she looked at me with determination. "Yeah, honey, I can do it. Yeah..." She said trailing off.

"Any idea how they're going to do it?" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer, but knowing I needed to. "Yeah, they've decided to be nice, and do it during an exercise. Tomorrow night." I just looked at her with a grin forming on my face. "Going to let me go down fighting, huh?" I had to laugh a little at that too. That is the wrong thing to do, if you want to kill me. "Well, according to Dr. Marcus, it'll be his one last hurrah. His last chance to get on tape what "his" creation can do." She spat that last part out, and I couldn't blame her. I couldn't stand the man. "Okay, you'd better get going," I told her "I have some things to get ready." I went over and pulled her into a warm hug. "Will you be okay with this?" I asked, as I hugged her. "Some people will have to die tomorrow to make sure I don't." I felt her stiffen, as I knew what she thought about what they made me for. "I know" she said in a strained voice. "I know... I don't have to like it, but I just have to do it" I chuckled a bit, and used the old military saying. "Ours is not to wonder why, ours is but to do or die." With that I broke the hug, and shooed her out of the room.

I lay down on the bed, and started to think back on how I got here. I was abandoned to live on the streets, at the tender age of four. One of the homeless guys took me under his wing, so to say. It worked out well I thought. He would watch my back, and I would get the money. I mean, who can say no to the puppy dog eyes a 4 year old can give? Anyways, things were going well, relatively speaking of course, until the time I was about six. Then all hell broke loose. One night while Jim, that's the guy that was watching out for me, and I was getting ready to go to sleep in one of the city's many abandoned buildings. About a block away, a van pulled up; three guys jumped out, one grabbed me, while one of the others shot Jim three times in the chest. He was probably dead before he hit the ground. They held me down while the third one put a needle in my arm, then it was lights out.

I woke up, what I later found out was, more then six months later. I had a splitting headache, and things were different. I didn't know how much different at the time, but they were. Things just felt all different. I woke up in a little room, which later became my permanent room while I was here. It was about ten foot by ten foot. It had a small bed, a small desk, a dresser, and two doors; one on the left, and one straight ahead from the bed. I found out the one on the left was a small bathroom, while the one straight ahead was locked. I sat back on the bed, and started to take stock of what was going on. It was then I noticed I was clothed only in a hospital type gown. I noticed that I had a lot of scars all over my chest, and from what the mirror showed, all over my back. I was sitting there looking at all the scars when I heard the door unlock and then open. What I saw then I can honestly say, scared the shit out of me. Into the room walked probably the biggest hulking man I have even seen. He was dressed in a military uniform, carrying a machine gun, and he had another, smaller hand gun, in a holster on his side. He looked around the room, then right at me. "Don't give me any trouble now... you hear me?" He asked, in a gruff voice. Then the weirdest thing happened. I started to smell something, and it brought up some very strange feelings. I can now look back on that, and tell you what it was. I was smelling fear from this mammoth man, and my reaction to that fear was, that I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to attack him. Of course at the time, it made no sense to me, at all, so I just swallowed hard, and nodded to him. He just gave me a nod, then he backed out of the room.

The person who came in after him was a middle aged woman with short auburn hair, and a disarming smile. I just took one look at her and I felt myself relax, some. She walked into the room, and put the tray she was carrying down on the table. It was then that I realized just how hungry I was. The smell of the soup she had brought in was almost driving me crazy. Dr. Hayes must have seen the look in my eyes, because she just chuckled and said "Go ahead, Adam, go ahead and eat." And eat I did. That soup didn't last more then a few minutes with me trying to inhale it the way I was doing. She just laughed and left the room saying she would be back in a little while. After I was done ravaging what she had brought me, I sat back down and thought about a few things that were strange.

First, there was the feeling I got when I saw that guy. Once I thought about it, I just knew that what I had smelled was fear. I'm not sure how I knew that, but I did. Then there was my reaction to it. I wanted to taste his blood. That's what it was. I thought about it, and I thought that his blood probably tasted better then the soup I just ate. Doesn't that just brighten up your day? The food was also different. It was like the taste had been amplified somehow. I'm not really sure, but it was like it was more... there, than anything I had eaten before. I finally figured out that somehow my senses were better. I mean I was smelling things I couldn't have smelled before. I was tasting more then ever before. And I realized my hearing was better too.

I was roused out of my thoughts, by the door being unlocked and opened again. This time the big guy outside just stuck his head in, and glared at me. Almost as if he was challenging me to do something wrong. After a second, he grunted, moved out of the way and Dr, Hayes walked in again. She moved gracefully over to the chair at the desk and sat down. She just sat there staring at me for a minute or two. Finally she said "it's good to see that you're awake. We weren't sure there for a bit. I'm sure you have lots of questions, but if you could just hold them for a minute, I may actually answer a lot of them before you even ask, Okay?" I just looked deeply into her eyes, and saw caring in them. I figured I had nothing really to lose by listening to her, so I just nodded for her to continue.

"I'm not really sure where to begin, so I'll just start at the beginning. I'm a genetic researcher. What that means is I study what makes you... you. Everything in your body is made up of genes." She must have seen my look, because she started to laugh and said. "No, not those jeans, DNA. The building block of creation as it were. Anyways, what I do is study, what genes make a certain thing happen in the body. Now I'm sure your wondering, what exactly you're doing here with me. Well, that's both easy and hard. First off, you're in a research laboratory created and funded by the United States government. We are doing research here to try and help the military make better soldiers. That's where you fit in. Now, to be honest, I do not like the way that you came to be here. When I signed up, I was told that all subjects were to be volunteers with no family. I found out how you came here mostly by accident. However, it's way too late to change what's happened, so I'll just let you know that I'm going to do the best I can to make this as easy as possible for you." She stopped to catch her breath, and I just decided to stay silent. Maybe that way she'll say more then she has already. "Basically, what's happened to you is that we have preformed a number of genetic resequencings on you. Now, that's a five dollar word that means that we went in and changed your genes. We're not sure yet if it worked, but if it did, you should be a lot different then you were before you got here. If everything worked out, you should be stronger then you look, faster then you should be, and you should heal a lot quicker then anyone else. Now, we're not sure yet, but everything seems to have gone according to plan. Do you have any questions so far, that I haven't answered?" she asked, as she sat back in her chair. I thought about it for a long moment and decided to ask only a few questions. I was still not very sure on how far I should trust her. "So, you're saying that I'm faster, stronger and tougher then anyone else? Is there anything else that was done?" I asked trying to see just how much information she'd give me." She leaned forward, looking at me intently. After a second or two, she leaned back and exhaled sharply. "Well, you're definitely taking this better then we thought you would. To answer your question, yes. That should be the extent of what was done. However, it will take many tests to see just what was accomplished with this. I can say that we did a few things that we hope will make a difference, but we'll only be able to tell if those happened with time." I looked at her with a question in my eyes, she just sighed and said. "Mostly, they are just things to do with your mind. Things like better memory, faster reflexes, better senses; things like that. Well, I can tell you're probably tired, and I know tomorrow is going to be a long hard day. Why don't you get some sleep and we'll see you in the morning." With that, she got up and walked out without a word, leaving me there all alone, with nothing but my thoughts and an empty room.

That was my introduction to the "Institute" as I have come to call it. For the next seven and a half years, I had an intensive education into the arts best left forgotten. To put a not too nice of a face on it, I was schooled in how to kill people. I was taught everything from guns, to explosives, and hand to hand combat. All throughout the training, I had to endure being poked and prodded, as they tried to figure out just how much I could do. I know what the worst part was. You remember when I told you that I had better healing abilities then a normal person? Well guess how they tested that? I think I have been shot a total of five times, had most of my bones broken, and so many cuts, and scrapes that I can't even count them all. And while I may be able to heal fast, it still hurts like a son of a bitch.

I decided early on, that I needed to keep a few things to myself. It would do me no good to let them know everything. There were a few things that they wanted to have happen that they don't think they got, such as my photographic memory, my heightened senses, etc, and they don't really know how strong I am. I mean they are impressed with a twelve year old kid that can bench press close to twice his body weight, but what they don't know is that while it may look like I'm struggling with it, I'm not. I know for sure, I can do almost half again that much, but there was something that even took me by surprise. About the time I turned 11, I found out about two other very interesting abilities. I found out that I'm able to regulate my body temperature, as well as see perfectly in the dark.

What we call the gym is actually a room about the size of a football field. On one end you have the firing range. The rest is used as a very complex maze, in which I practice E&E (escape and evasion) tactics, as well as search and destroy. As often as not, they bring in military teams for me to go up against. Well this was to be my first time going up against a team in the dark. We were all issued night vision gear. I had been recently training with it, but this would be my first time actually using any of it. The basics of this mission were simple. I was given a three minute head start, and my orders were simple. Kill them before they killed me. We had some very realistic paint guns, and the way it worked was simple. You got hit, you're dead. Well, I went out there, and got into position. Just as the buzzed sounded; signaling that the other team was about to enter play, my night vision gear went to hell on me. I took it off, and for a minute, I thought that they had forgotten to turn the lights out. It was then that I realized that the other team that had split up into four groups of two were all still wearing theirs. I sat there in confusion for a moment, then I realized that one of them was looking right at me. He started to raise his weapon, and then he stopped. His partner asked him what was going on and I heard the other guy say he thought he saw me, but then I was gone. This really made me wonder as I knew he was looking right at me. I tested this out a few times in the session, and every time, I came out of hiding, I was not noticed. I have figured out that like a lot of my "special" abilities, it kicks in automatically, when I need it, I have also figured out, that if I concentrate, I can shut it off. Everyone was very surprised when I took out the entire team without them ever once seeing me. I told them it was all just luck.

There were two people there that helped keep me sane through all of this. Dr. Hayes, who I was told to call mom, when no one else was around, and her son Logan. Logan is about a year younger then I am, but it really feels like he's my brother. There were many days when Janet and I would just talk about anything, and I would always bring up Logan and talk about him. I knew just about everything I could about him. I knew the first time he got into a fight, and I even knew when he got hurt, and how. I knew his likes, and his dislikes. I knew his favorite foods, etc. I just wished that he knew about me, but as Janet said, I'm not even here. She has helped me through everything; even staying late on the nights that I just needed a mom to cuddle.

After about four or five hours of thinking about it, I decided I had the best possible plan there was. So I decided to try and get some sleep. About three hours after I fell asleep, I was roused by the door opening. Dr. Marcus, the lead researcher, and my personal Satan, walked in and looked at me with a cruel smile. "Well, Adam, it seems that the military would like you to put on another one of your fine performances. It seems that they want to see just how good you really are. They have sent in a full team (eight) Navy SEALS (Sea Air Land) for you to go up against. What do you think?" Well, of course, I decided to play along, and do what I have always done, play the dumb kid, a little too energetic and brash for my own good. "Well," I said with a grin," It sounds like they should've brought more." He laughed, looked at me, and with a grin said. "They even decided to let you come up with the scenario." That took me by surprise, because it basically meant that I got set the rules. "Well, what do you think? Got anything special in mind for your greatest challenge yet?" Marcus asked me, as he took a seat at the desk. He started to go through my things as he always did. God, I hated that. I mean to everyone here except Janet, I'm nothing more then a specimen. Just once I wanted to shout at people that I'm a god damned person. I FEEL everything they do to me. Every time they treat me as a non-person, it hurts. I guess Janet is the only one who figured that out. "I asked if you decided what you wanted to do." Marcus asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Yeah, I was just thinking about that." I recovered quickly, and thought for a second. "Well, I guess I would like to beat them at their own game." He looked at me with surprise. "I would like a night time scenario, with heavy fog. I think getting out the paint ball guns would be best. No laser sights. Too easy. And see how they feel about doing it with no night vision. Let's see what kinda balls they got." I said with an evil grin, trying to make it look like I was being a smart ass. Hopefully, I will piss off the SEALS enough to where they'll take me up on the challenge. Marcus just looked at me for a moment, while I grinned evilly, huffed and got up. Moving towards the door, he said, "Well, if you think your up to it, I'll tell the SEALS, EXACTLY what you said, and we'll see what they think," Still playing the dumb kid, I just nodded and grinned. And with that, he left the room.