Of Freedom's Fall (Death Prediction Project #3)
Andy Frazer

I stepped into the small concrete room they were holding Ryker Rathaway in. I was scared when they first told me I had to bring him his only meal of the day. I hated being a grunt and wondered why I’d signed up for this project in the first place. I don’t know what I was expecting when I stepped into that room but it wasn’t some kid.

They had said he was their property and dangerous. I’d seen the video of the other five subjects on the internet circulating. They told us Maya was putting up a front, she was lying, they were making her do this but I saw the look on Porter Hollow’s face, the despair. I saw it in Ryker, too. The paleness, the dark circles under his eyes, and the blood that ran down his leg and over his sock. He looked defeated.

He reminded me of myself in high school. Worked to the bone, expected too much of and ready to give it all up if it meant he’d be left alone. He didn’t even move when I entered. I thought he’d do something, not just sit there. Say something, even passive-aggressively. But he just watched me come in place the tray on the bed, I was going to say something but then I remembered the cameras and just left.

I returned to my quarters to rest as I had a night shift later that day, I slept till about 3:00 am. By then, John Ricker, the man they had assigned to watch the cameras had left for the day. I snuck back into the building to the room where he watched from. Ryker seemed to have woken up from whatever fitful sleep he’d attempted and was sitting on the bed with his back to the concrete wall.

His head seemed off in space. I glanced at the microphone and then at the computer. I wanted to know the truth. Had they really taken Maya? Were they holding her against her will? Were they really any threat to society? Was everything in that video the truth? Were the government, military, and DPP really the bad people? Was I fighting for the wrong cause?

Being one of the tech specialists I could easily delete the video camera footage of me coming in here and talking to him but all it would take was one slip from him and I’d be their next target. But I needed the truth before I could go any further, I wasn’t going to follow my commander blindly into to battle without trusting him, and right now I was hearing two different stories that clearly didn’t line up in any way. So, I had access to both sides, I was going to replace out which one matched up with reality.

I flicked on the light in the room and Ryker looked around.

“Is it morning already?” he asked clearly bored and annoyed.

“I mean technically, it’s 3:00 am,” I reply pressing the button on the mic.

“You’re not the same guy from earlier,” Ryker commented.

“No, John’s gone home,” I reply.

“So, what are you, like night watch or something?” he asks sarcastically.

“Actually, I’m not supposed to be here,” I confess.

“So, what are you doing here?” he replies.

“I saw the video your friends put up,” I start.

“Video?” he asks.

I mean I guess he didn’t exactly have access to the internet in his tiny concrete room, why would he know what I was talking about?

“Porter and Maya put up a video explaining things, I guess I want to know what the truth is,” I reply.

“They’re okay?” he asks moving to the edge of the bed looking directly at the camera.

“Yeah,” I reply surprised by the life that brought to his eyes and face.

“What happened?” I ask nervously.

“What’s your name?” Ryker asks.

“Andy,” I reply, giving him my first name.

I figured there were too many people with the first name Andy on this base that if it did slip it would be almost impossible to link it back to me directly.

“Andy, how old are you?” he asks.

“Nineteen,” I reply.

I didn’t know what relevance this all had to what happened, maybe he just wanted information to exact revenge on me later.

“You’re the kid from earlier,” he finally said. “The one who brought me food.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m older than you but to be fair you would be older in experiences probably,” I reply.

He laughs a bit.

“Maybe,” he replies quietly.

“Did the video tell you the whole story? From 1995?” he asks.

“About the adult subjects who died and how eight babies were brought in and found to be better subjects for their project?” I reply.

“I think what’s worse is a lot of people lose their kids. There were eight of us. Even if our parents gave us up, they probably hoped for a better life for us than the one they could provide at the time and we weren’t given that, not at first at least anyway,” he replies.

“So, you didn’t take Maya?” I ask.

“God, you’re so in the dark. The DPP took Maya and Porter’s parents, they shot Harriet. They killed Alice. We aren’t the only victims, there are so many more people out there who suffered all so they could experiment. It’s not like I give you an accurate reading of when you’re going to die. Why didn’t they try to build a machine that could do it?” he exclaims.

“Do you know what happened to Harriet?” he asks then. “Was she in the video?”

“No, it was just Maya, Porter, and the other subjects. They held up a photo of her and you and the seven who died during the experiments and pleaded for people to ask for the truth, for your freedom. I’m not sure they know what happened to her either. I could try to replace out for you,” I answer.

“Are you sure you want to do that? You could be risking your career by doing that,” he replies.

“I made a vow to protect my country and its people. If I don’t know the truth how am I supposed to do that?” I pose.

“Following the rules and doing as your told like your buddy, John,” he replies despondently.

“If the rules involve hurting the innocent, I’d rather take my chances with the truth,” I reply.

He looks up at me again.

“Thank you, Andy,” he replies quietly.

“I gotta go, don’t mention my name to anyone, okay?” I reply. “I’ll be back tomorrow night.”

“See you,” he replies.

I take the past half an hour of the video clip and ease it and me entering the camera room and then I put the camera on a loop so I can walk out without them seeing me if they rewind it back.

Time to replace out what happened to Harriet.