Page 33 of Born Savage

Some poor soul had lost his life because of me. Someone who looked like me. Had my father planted a double so I’d be safe? So many horrible thoughts had already damaged my mind.

Revenge. That was all I could think about, hunting down the person responsible and I’d… The rage was intense, pushing me even when the odds were against me.

Another noise broke my concentration.

I moved from the side of the structure, trying to pinpoint where the noise had come from. Across the street. Remaining in the shadows, I waited in hopes that what I’d heard had come from an animal.

Seconds later, I had my answer. The cry was definitely human, female and the sound as if the person very young. Perhaps curiosity pushed me across the street and through the debris. Perhaps even a death wish since there wasn’t a tactic the hunters wouldn’t use to draw me out in the open.

Yet I couldn’t leave without knowing for certain. With the knife stolen from the laboratory in hand, I rushed to the other side, crowding in an alcove. I didn’t need to wait long before the pitiful sound assaulted my ears.

The cry was awful, pulling against my humanity so I followed the trail that led me just inside a building almost completely destroyed.

With the sound closer, I knew I’d almost reached my target. Yet my boots crunching shattered glass drew a sharp breath. I moved closer, constantly scanning the room for any sign whoever was making the sound wasn’t alone.

When I was close, I could hear the girl’s breathing, her cries even more mournful than before. With a single rock moved, I came face to face with the source of the sound.

A little girl. She couldn’t be more than four or five. If that. It had been so long since I’d seen a child, I couldn’t be certain, but her eyes were open wide, her mouth twisted in terror.

She was in a shirt and pants, the material ripped. The waning light was unable to hide the dirt and blood on her face and arms. Huddled in the small space, she was shaking violently.

“Hello. Are you alone?” My voice echoed in the space, obviously terrifying enough she shrank back. Every clipped sound, the sheer emotional agony she was going through tugged at emotions I’d thought had been put to rest with the initial set of drugs.

Maybe because the program had yet to start in earnest, I was still able to feel anything at all.

Including empathy.

She tilted her head, studying me while her body shivered violently.

“Who did you come here with?”

Her wide-eyed stare didn’t change, and I honestly wasn’t certain if she understood me at all. I could barely see her face from the mop of stringy hair falling across her shoulders and her cheeks.

“Let’s try this again. Are you with anyone?” Time was running out. At minimum, I’d need to find somewhere secure to stay until light. There was no way I would make it back to the base before darkness fell. I’d seen firsthand what the Dwellers were capable of. One sharp knife would do little against an army.

A little headway was made when she shook her head.

Jesus Christ. How had she ended up here all alone? There was no village close because the area had been cleared out months before the project had started. That much I knew from what little I’d been told when accepted into the program.

And I doubted a child wearing flimsy tennis shoes had made it so far. She was nothing but a tasty morsel for the predatory animals in the area. That left one horrible realization.

Someone had dumped her in the middle of nowhere on purpose.

With the bunkers of the military base completely underground, there was no chance anyone without clearance would know there were any people here.

“Are you going to tell me your name?” She stared at me, still unblinking. “I’m Phoenix.” I groaned as soon as I offered her my name. On day one, my previous existence had been stripped from me. The number one rule had been to forget my past. Soo, that wouldn’t be an issue after the flow of genetically altered DNA. But until then, the subjects were more vulnerable.

Which was one reason those in the early stages of the project were on lockdown.

This was a fucking mess.

“But you can call me Rage.”

She bit her lower lip and I could tell by the crusted blood she’d been the reason for the cuts on her mouth.

“Do you know your name?”

Another shake of her head. Whatever trauma she’d been through had wiped her mind clean.