Chapter 5

I woke up in my bed, I share a bunk with Zero. Jo and Max also share, leaving the single for Zed. We have our own personal shower and bathroom in our room. There are shelves with enough room for each of us. We are being spoiled compared to what we had in unit C.

I get up and go to take a shower, the water is soothing to my ears. I use it to escape the thoughts about what I will have to do for these people, for my planet. I no longer question them, probably from the pills they make us take with our hot served breakfasts.

"Sam, the doctor is looking for you," Jo says as she walks into the bathroom. She's wearing only a white bra and black shorts and her hair is pulled up into a bun. "Hey before you go off, In case we don't meet again. I'd definitely smash if we weren't going to war." She winked at me then got ready to steal the shower.

I quickly throw on a white t and black jeans. What the actual…. I don't want to know that, now it will be stuck in my mind. I mean, Jo is good looking, but that's not the point. I need to focus on my mission.

"Ah, I see you are ready." The doc says, pulling me from my thoughts. "We are going to my lab, when we get there I will explain more. Since you are Squad Leader, naturally you go through everything first."

I follow the doctor to her lab, quietly thinking to myself while she rambled on about something I probably should be listening too, however, my mind is still distracted.

"Here we are." She smiles. "See those weights? Can you go stand by them while I prepare?" I go stand by them now curious to what we are doing here. "So, I'm going to hook up a bunch of wires to you that will monitor your body while you lift those." She looks at the weights. She awkwardly starts putting the monitors on me then tells me to start and stop when she says. After the test, she takes a few notes. "So I have a few questions for you, for records."

"Okay," I say. "Shoot away."

"Alright," the doctor smiles. "Have you received intercourse since you've been released?"

"Er…. what does that have to do with the enhancements?"

"Just yes or no." She begins to look embarrassed. "We can't do the procedures if you are pregnant or think you may be."

"Oh okay, no."

"Have you broken any bones or possibly fractured any."

"I may have when Zed beat the shit out of me, but I was able to get up and walk so I was…"

"That's all I need to know." She interrupts. "Thank you for your time, give Jo a heads up that she will be next. Someone will be around to get her in about an hour."

They have other squads from different units who they are examining at the same time. They always do the females first, but rarely they get more than five females, so even rarer that they get more than one from one section. The test is to record the natural strength of the pupils before the strength enhancement is done.

I make my way back to my room, we don't really leave there. it feels like we are on lockdown till enhancements are completed. We get an hour to stay fit, but other than that we get to do pretty much whatever. I wonder how Jasper and Raven are, I haven't got to talk to them since I was moved here.

"Hey, jo you're next," I say as I walk in the room seeing her first. They are playing a game and she's facing the door.

"Okay. Want to take my spot then?" She asks thinking they want her now.

"Eh, no thanks. They will send someone to get you in an hour or so." I shrug then go sit on my bed. "Where's Zed?" He is the only one not in our room.

"Probably went off to work out, you know his ego," Zero says mimicking the way Zed talks. "Fuck!" The game ends.

"You got distracted little boy," Jo teases. "I win." They are playing mortal combat. Jo turns it off then joins me sitting on my bed. Zero walks over to the board that shows us what the meals will be for the day. "You any good at games?"

"Never played them." I shrug, I have no interest in it either. I want to get this war business over with so I can figure out what to do with myself from that point.

"Never?!" jo sounds shocked. "I guess that's where they had you really is a bad place." I just want her to go away, after what she did earlier and now her being this close. It is too much. "Hey, can I ask you a thing?"

"Shoot," I say in monotone. I stare directly into her eyes.

"Well…" her cheeks turn red. "When we were in the bathroom earlier I couldn't help but notice something… off." Her voice was starting to wonder as if she was still thinking about it too. "Could I take a closer look?"

Is this an excuse to get me to take my shirt off?!? I stare at her, I can't help to think that she looks like a small innocent child. "Sure, I guess." I go to pull my shirt off.

"Not here, the boys."

"Right." I couldn't help but laugh at myself. We go to the bathroom and I take my shirt of. Her eyes widen as she sees the scars.

"Can I…. touch them?" She asks. "I mean, I have some lotion that might help make them heal better."

"Sure." I laugh aloud. She grabs a bottle of lotion and squirts some on her hands. She rubs them together then gently places both hands on my back and begins to rub the lotion into my back. Her palms are warm compared to the lotion that is freezing cold on my skin.

"My mom gave me this lotion. It was her favorite." Jo's voice is low almost whisper-like. "One of the blood wolves killed her while they were out on a mission. She would be so proud of me if she was still here."

"Hey." I turn around to face her. "She may be gone, but she lives on." A tear slips from Jo's eye. "She passed her strength and bravery to you. Make her proud." I give her a small smile.

Jo wipes the tear and smiles back. "That's the first time I've seen you smile since you walked in here."

"Oh shit!" Zero blurts out. "Lesbian action or what?!" Then he covers his mouth. "I didn't mean to say that out loud."

Jo and I roll our eyes. "Don't worry, she was just putting lotion on my scars Zero. You saw them remember."

"Oh right." He looks embarrassed still. "Well keep up the good work."

"Now you're just making it awkward." Jo throws out. "It would be totally weird if it was anything else." Neither of us actually realized that she has placed directly over my chest.

I look down. "Uhh… jo, mind moving your hand please." Jo jerks her hand back like she had almost touched a spider.

"Jo there's a…." Max covered his eyes. "Why are you shirtless!! You're like a Zero clone… but with boobs."

Now everyone is going to be awkward I thought to myself. I grab my shirt and yank it on and walk out of the bathroom. I lay on my bed and sigh very loudly.

Jo is next to leave the bathroom, she looks flustered. She glances at me quickly then rushes out of the room. Zero stays in and starts to shower off. Max comes out the look of confusion all over his face.

"Hey Sam," he mumbles to me across the room. "I don't care if you're gay or whatever, I put my trust in you to protect our lives."

"I'm not gay max."

"Oh, okay, but if you are…"

I roll over and close my eyes. Why me, I ask myself. So much for not wanting to be the center of attention, that's literally where I've just sat myself.

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"Hello son," Ezekiel says as he walks into the exercise room. "Congratulations."

"What do you want?" Zed glares at his father. "You dump me in the scum unit and ignore me and make me the scum of all the scums."

"I want to talk. Clearly, you didn't learn the lesson I wanted to teach you." Ezekiel stays stiff and aware. "I'm pulling you out of this unit." He intends on replacing his son's place with the rogue Jasper.

"What?! Fuck you!" A dumbbell goes flying towards Ezekiel.

"I didn't want to do this son." He looks to the officer standing next to him. "Take him to quarantine, charge him with attempted attack."

"You can't do this to me." Zed screeches as several officers struggle to contain him.

"Sir," Grant says. "No bad intentions, but that boy, your son, is never going to learn that we are all equal."

"I know grant." Ezekiel sighs. "Don't set a release date. I will let him out when I want." He walks away leaving Grant alone in the room.

Jasper is standing outside of the training room with Raven. They are waiting for someone to take them to the room. Jasper got tested before Ezekiel took them with him to get his son. The truth about why Ezekiel made the swap was to preserve his son's life. Despite his son being a disgrace, he is all Ezekiel has left.

"This way," Grant says walking out several minutes after Ezekiel. He takes them to the room and then leaves them standing at the door with no directions.

"Should I knock?" Jasper asks. He raises his hand to knock just as the door opens.

I stare eye to eye with Jasper.

"Well, hello stranger," Jasper says, but I just walk past him. I need to get away from this awkward place. "Or not."

I don't look back, I don't look forward, I just walk until thud. I run into someone. I look up, it's Jo. She just stares back. I hate this awkward tension. I smile then run off, I run until I make it to the door that leads outside. I stand at the door and look out, if I go out I risk not being able to get back in, they haven't given us passes to open those doors yet.

"It is beautiful out there isn't it." Jax booms, making me jump. "Here, take this." He slips something into my pocket. "Don't lose that, I need it back tomorrow. I'll stop by after supper to retrieve it." He whispers and then walks off whistling.

I pull the thing out of my pocket, it's is pass to open the door. I smile to myself and then walk out the door. The fresh scent of the trees hits my nose, it smells like redwood trees. I can see a fence slightly poking out behind the trees.

There is a path that I follow, it leads to a pond with several benches around it. There are fish swimming in the crystal clear water, they look like sticks darting around. There are lily pads floating around the edges except where Cattails spring from the depths of the pond floor.

The sun is setting. It is just above the treetops, the sky is bright blue, pink, and yellow, to the west and slowly fades to a midnight blue on the east.

A breeze starts to kick up as I sit on the bench, it brings the smell of concrete with it. I can hear a whistle from another area, and faint yelling, probably Soot yelling at her trainees that they are done for the day.

I stare across the lake, I spot a deer with its fawn. The baby is playing in the grass while the Mom is getting a drink. This is how Peace looked before it was scorched, this place, was better off without humans on it. All humans bring is war and destruction I think to myself as I remember the lessons we had learned in class.

I get up and head back in after the sun has sunk way below the tree line. My path is lit by the moon, it is quiet. I wonder if anyone has noticed how long I've been gone. Probably not, surely they would have found me.

I swipe the pass and enter the building, the hall is empty, but I could hear the sound of people talking and laughing. I quickly made my way back to my room; I sneak in and quietly slip into my pjs.

"There you are!" Zero says. everyone turns to look at me. "We saved you dinner. Jo told them that you went for a walk so they wouldn't get too concerned."

"Thanks, but you didn't have to Jax knew where I was." I show them the pass. "Has he been here?"

"Has who been where?" Jax asks making me jump. He steps in and closes the door behind him. "You lot look like a family, that's good for teams." He looks around the room and flashes a smile at all of us. "I came for my pass, and to inform you, Zed is no longer part of the team. He attempted an assault which resulted in his arrest and well you get the rest." I hand him the pass, he takes one last look around then leaves.

"Jerk deserves what he got, attempting to attack a general, that will result in losing everything," Zero says, thinking out loud.

"That may be true," I add in. "But he was still one of us. Whatever he did will reflect badly on us now. We are all going to have to be on our best behavior and take whatever comes our way." I feel bad for the dude, sure he has an ego, but he probably just wants to impress his father. They don't appear to have the best relationship in the books.

"And this is why you are the leader and not me," Zero says jokingly. "If he'd insulted my face like that, I would have never been able to say he was 'one of us'." He crinkles up his nose.

"So, Jasper." I look at him causing everyone else to look. "If Zed is gone… then you must be the…"

"Replacement." He says nodding his head. "Ezekiel or whatever says I was the best replacement you could have." He looks down. "I guess this is happening now. I want them to know." He was speaking directly to me. "I want them to know my history, truth makes trust, and trust is important to teamwork."

"Go ahead," I say. "I don't think anyone here will mind." I look to them, my eyes linger on Jo a little longer than the others. They look at Jasper in anticipation. (Except Zero, he already knows.)

Jasper takes off the shirt he is wearing, exposing the faint red w on his arm. "If you can't trust me because of this it's okay, I won't hold it against you. I'm tired of war, I just want to protect my wife and child." He looks back to the woman sleeping on the bed. Everyone is slightly shaken.

"Well, if Sam trusts you, then I trust you," Max breaks the looming silence. Of course, he would say that. That is when it hit me, these people, they are my family now, and I hold each of their lives in my hands. I am responsible for the lives of nine other people, plus a pregnant woman. It is a lot to take in.

"Welcome to the squad, Jasper." Zero says, in a happy tone.

"Family." I blurt out. "We are family, not a squad." They all shoot me a smile. It is bad to be attached to people, and there is no saying any of them would even make it, but it is too late now, I say to myself.

The week ends quickly, now we are being moved onto phase two. They will be testing our mental abilities, followed by our speed and agility(phase three), and lastly, they will begin the surgical part(phase four). That scares us the most, that's when the losses will rack up. None of us wanted to die. I suck it up couldn't let it show; I need to be brave so that they could be too.

I make sure we focus on being the first team to have all members survive, at least the five of us in this room. I don't know how the other five are, they aren't allowed to come into our room and the same goes for us. I hope that they are trying as hard as us. I want them to make it too.

As part of my plan to get us all through the procedure I decide to make them cut back on snacks, I also suggest they get plenty of rest and request the cafeteria to serve us balanced proportional meals instead of having whatever we want. It's probably not fair to the team, but they know I'm just attempting to help us get passed stage four so they put up with me bossing them around.

Others in the unit noticed and started to do the same, well, that's according to Jax. He is proud of us and invited those of my squad to join his if we make it, of course, I told him that it will all depend on how many of us make it and whatever my 'squad' decides is best.

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"Today's the day." A woman's voice says as a light comes on blinding us into awakening. "Phase four." The woman has a stack of clothes in her arms. She hands them to another person who passes them out to each of us. "Please put these on then join us in the hall."

Soon, we join the other five, they are in the same white uniform as us. The material is silky and has zippers everywhere. Most likely to be unzipped for the surgeries so we wouldn't have to be nude.

We walk into a white room, everything is white: the chairs, the walls, the floor. The woman puts on a white lab coat then takes us through another door where there are more people in white coats. They start counting us off, splitting the group of us into smaller groups. There must have been thirty of us in these white zipper uniforms.

I get separated from everyone in my group except Jo. I hold her hand in comfort and whisper we'll make it. We walk through a door into a blackish grey room. There are walls separating the operating tables. I look around and realize that the room is round and I can see one of the other groups to the left. Zero and Max are in that group, they are looking for us.

Above us is a glass mirror, it's probably a one-way window. This room smells like a doctors office, it's very clean and organized. The doctor who is leading our group begins strapping people to the beds. Then gives them a shot that causes them to go into an induced sleep. He explains that every four hours or so they will give us another to make sure we don't wake up during the surgery.

It's my turn, I get on the table, I feel the cold straps tighten around my wrists, ankles, and stomach. I feel the needle pierce my arm, the liquid is cold to my body. My vision begins to go blurry and the doctor's voice becomes fussy and distant until I can't hear it anymore. The last thing I see is Jo, she looks terrified, but now there is no light, no sound. Everything is black but it's kind of peaceful.