Project Achilles

Noah

Once my encounter with Felix was over, I joined the other Achilles Soldiers at the training hall, where we gathered for evaluations. Which started with a large projection showing our current stats. I didn’t care to check the stats, for one, I already knew I was at the top, but I also care very little about it. There was a point in time when ranks were all I lived for, but now there were just numbers; Now I was living for something greater. “It looks like you and Evan are neck and neck,” a voice I instantly recognised as Carl spoke behind me. My body froze as he put his arm around my shoulders. I didn’t react; he’s still my superior, and I knew better than to make a scene. “He’s not too far from taking your spot,” he said, and his hand slowly trailed down my back. “You’re not gonna let him do that, are you?” I looked over at Dr Phillips, who glanced at me for a moment before returning to his conversation. I silently beg him to intervene, as I try to decipher what I must’ve done to anger him. “Alright, the evaluations will begin momentarily. All handlers, please return to your positions.” A commander announced, causing Carl to finally release me, “I’ll be seeing you soon,” he said with that sickly grin. I followed everyone else to where the commander was speaking to the rest of us, “Today’s evaluation will start with a written test to determine your mental fortitude. We will continue with a physical exam, then we will test your combat skill,” he said. The written test was passed. Once it was over, I checked to see the scores, and my name was above all the others. I looked over at Dr Phillips, who was checking these results as well. I held my breath as I tried to read his face before they called for the physical exams to start. We were seated in the waiting area. Carl walked out of an examination room with a smug smile on his face. “Next for the evaluation is Noah,” he announced. I hesitantly stood up from where I was seated, and walked over to the examination room as I heard my heart beating as I approached the door. Just as Carl put a hand on my back, I heard a familiar voice speak up, This is not the room he’ll be examined in.” We both turned around to see that it was DDrPhillips. “Noah is a candidate for the Space Exploration program; therefore, all his physical examinations are to be administered in the medical ward, by a nurse, not by a handler,” he said. Carl’s face turned to a mix of anger and disappointment. “Very well,” he said, before calling the next name. Dr Phillips called for a guard to escort me to the medical ward. Before we left, he placed a hand on my shoulder, “Congratulations on your written test results.” The physical exam came and went, and I was still in peak condition. “I will be sending your results to the test administrator,” the nurse said, “if you continue with your current regimen, you should be eligible for the bionic lung surgery in about a week, which is much sooner than I previously predicted. Keep up the good work.” I nodded in response, Thank you, ma’am,” I said before the guard escorted me back to the training hall. The combat trial came about, and I was paired with Evan. As we got into our stances, Evan stared daggers at me, no doubt our last fight being fresh in his mind. This time, we weren’t just training; this was an evaluation. Today’s match would be the biggest match of the year. Every day we’re being tested, pitted against one another for dominance, every day matters for our ranking, but today? Today, the whole company was watching; everyone who had any power over anything involving Project Achilles was watching. It matters not only for the number but for the memories of all. Evan already had a chip on his shoulder for me after I humiliated him the last time we fought, with an injured hand. Whoever decided to pair us together either didn’t know or wanted to see blood. Either way, gloves were gonna come off, and knives were gonna come out. “Ready?” The commander called, “3. 2. 1. Fight!” My usual tactic is to wait for my opponent to attack, but Evan was definitely predicting, so I took a swing at him, missing on purpose. The attack was meant to provoke him. My plan worked because as soon as he ducked to dodge it, he tried to hit me in the abdomen, but I jabbed my knee into his chest, knocking him to the floor. He gets up a few times and tries to take a couple of swings at me, but I use my oldest tactic: avoiding his hits and waiting till he tires himself out. Once I saw an opening, I charged at him, but he was ready for me. As soon as I get close, I feel a sharp pain in my side. When I look down, Evan is holding a blade he's driven into my side. Blood was blooming around the wound, my uniform soaking through with red. “Evan, you know it is strictly against the rules to bring a weapon onto the combat test!” the commander yelled, “You are disqualified from the rest of the evaluation.” Evan doesn’t look like he cares, and why should he? My win in this fight is meaningless, a win by default. On the page, I won this fight, but the real winner is the one who holds the knife to my side. I’ll be placed on leave to recover from my injury while Evan uses his training time to recover whatever points he’ll lose in this exam. This would be my second leave this month. By the time I come back, Evan will have already taken my place at the top. I couldn’t let this happen. I grabbed the wrist with which he held the blade; he instinctively let it go before I twisted it, breaking his wrist. As Evan writhed in agony, I jabbed my knee two his side before pinning him down. While he was on the ground and I was on top, I started hitting him repeatedly. “Noah wins the fight!” the commander called, prompting my punches to come to an immediate stop. Evan looked at me with a mix of rage and hate in my eyes, “Evan, for that clear violation of code, you are not only disqualified from the exam, but you will also be placed under temporary suspension until Noah returns to training.” Infuriated and with blood dripping down his broken nose, Evan stormed out of the training hall. I was then escorted to the medical bay, where I was stitched up and then given my own hospital room to rest. I lay alone on the world’s most uncomfortable bed, and my mind went back to last night and then this morning. The way his skin tasted when I ran my lips against his neck, and how it felt beneath my hands, the softness of his lips, and the taste of his mouth. The way he chanted my name like a prayer, the warmth of his body wrapped around me. I pulled out my radio and turned it to channel 15, “Felix, are you there?” I said. “Yeah, I’m here,” Felix’s voice spoke on the other side of the radio, “only been ten hours since the last time you fucked me, and now you want me back,” he teased. My face burned red before I spoke again, “I wanted to make sure you were okay. I meant to go to the prison complex to check on you, but I ended up in the infirmary due to an injury,” I explained. The mischief of Felix’s tone was quickly replaced by concern, “shit, you okay? What happened?” “My opponent brought a weapon during the combat exam,” I said, “that doesn’t matter, I just wanted to check to see how you’re doing”, I said. “I’m doing good,” Felix responded, “same as always, what about you?” “I’m fine, Felix,” I responded, “I’ll see you in the morning. A couple of minutes later, the door opens to see someone in a masked guard uniform; the person closes the door behind them before lifting their mask to reveal themselves as Felix. “You’re lucky I saved the uniform I stole last night,” Felix smirked. I couldn’t say I was surprised, and as much as I didn’t like him putting himself at risk like this, I couldn’t say I didn’t like his presence. “You didn’t have to come here, I said. Felix shrugged before he shrugged off the jacket of his stole uniform and started walking towards the bed. “I didn’t have to,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure you wanted me to,” he teased. I sat up on the bed, I wrapped one arm around his waist before I pulled him into my lap, “I suppose that I did,” I responded. Felix chuckled as he straddled me, before wrapping his arms around my shoulders, “Didn’t know Hastrod’s perfect soldiers were this horny”. “Whenever you’re around, I find myself losing all reason,” I whispered back “I never knew I had so much passion inside me” my hands traveled under his shirt, feeling the skin that was not covered by his binder, “ever since that first night, all I can think of is how good you felt” I whispered into his lips “you’re like a drug to me, Felix” my fingers hooked on his pants and underwear, ready to pull them down. He leaned in to kiss me, as I slowly started pulling down his pants on underwear, leaving only his bare thighs. My hands ran up and down the bare skin; my fingers gave a squeeze to the plump flesh beneath my hands. As the night continued, I tried to sync movements with his. He moved slowly and carefully. At first, I tried to match his rhythm, but each gasp, each sound that came out of him was like a siren’s song, fraying at my self-control. The speed at which I was thrusting up started increasing, earning more noises from him, egging me on to go faster. I was so lost, I didn’t notice when the door opened. Out of nowhere, Felix was violently shoved away from me, before I had time to react, a hand picked me up by the collar and pinned me to the wall. Once I gathered myself, I was able to identify this attacker as Carl. “I try with you, and you push me away, and now you fuck some tree-hugging bitch!” Carl demanded, “What, are you too good for me? Don’t forget you were mine first!” before he could continue any longer, Felix picked up a metal tray and smacked it across the back of his head. Carl turned around before dropping me and then grabbing Felix but the throat and pinning him to the bed. I could hear Carl chuckle and make noises that made my skin crawl. Before I knew what I was doing, I picked up the scalpel that had been dropped on the floor and then ran up behind Carl, before jabbing the tool into his throat. His eyes rolled to the back of his head before he fell limp on top of Felix. I pushed the corpse off of him. Felix sat on the bed, covered in the man’s blood, as he stared at him wordlessly, his body shaking. I walked up to him, pulling him into my chest in a tight embrace, which he sank into, “Go wash off the blood, I’ll take care of the rest.” I said before kissing the top of my head. He nodded before dressing himself back up and leaving me alone in the room. The first thing I did was sneak his body back to his dorm, with gloves. I grabbed a clean scalpel, stained it with his blood, and then put it in his hand. I then snuck over to the security room, which is usually unguarded, and then erased any footage from the past two hours, before freezing the camera for another hour, making it look as if nothing happened. After I cleaned my room, I settled back into bed and closed my eyes, successfully selling the image that nothing had happened. That handler who’d been preying on me for years tried to attack Felix, and now he was dead. I no longer had to worry about that old pervert. For years, I’d hold myself every time he came by to touch me, knowing fighting back was futile, and Dr Phillips was gonna protect me anyway. But attacking Felix was something I couldn’t allow to happen. He had to die.

Felix

I stood in the shower washing away all the blood. Noah was trying to protect me; he had to kill that guy. If Noah hadn’t acted, I’d be dead or worse. I watched the blood go down the drain as I replayed the events in my head over and over. How that fucker pinned me down by my neck, how his eyes glanced over my exposed skin, looking at me like a meal. The next thing I knew, blood was spraying from his neck onto me, as his throat gurgled blood, with a sound I didn’t know a dead body could make. His limp body fell heavily on top of mine before Noah pushed him off. Nothing happened. The reason nothing happened was that Noah stepped in to save me before it did. I thought back to that time in the bathroom with that creep banging on my door, demanding I come out so he could have his way with me, before Noah managed to work his magic to get him taken away. I remembered how helpless I felt both those times, and Noah was there to keep me safe. Once I finished showering, I changed into the prisoner uniform that I had left hidden in the bathroom. I heard a notification from Channel 15 on the walkie-talkie that Noah gave me. I immediately answered, “Felix, are you there?” he asked. “Yeah, I am,” I said, trying my damndest to stop shaking. “How are you holding up?” Noah asked. “I’m fine.” I said, “Thanks for checking,” I said. “Felix, I can hear your voice shaking,” Noah pointed out, “there is no need to be scared, that man is gone, and he can’t hurt you again.” “Yeah, I know, it’s just a lot, you know,” I responded before letting out a dry chuckle, “sorry for getting so jumpy.” “No need to apologise,” Noah responded. “I am sorry you had to witness that,” he said. “I’ll come check on you in the morning. I love you.” “Love you too,” I forced myself to say. I didn’t mean it, but I felt that I owed it to him. I snuck back to my cell, before lying down on my cot, memories of the night before still playing in my head. The next morning, I was eating breakfast at the mess hall with Maya and Tony. “You okay?” Maya asked, placing a hand on top of mine, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Yeah,” I said, “just kinda spaced out.” “You sure?” Tony asked. I nodded. We were then approached by a guard with Noah standing behind him, “I’m here for another scheduled interrogation,” Noah said, maintaining the Hastrod-approved cold tone he always uses for show. “I’ll be back,” I sighed before following Noah to our usual interrogation room. Once we were alone, Noah started ‘checking on me’, with his pants down. I let him do what he always does as my eyes drifted to the ceiling, images of last night, of the man’s blood splattered on me, flashed. I pushed them down to focus on the moment. Once it was over, and we were both back to looking normal, Noah walked me back to the commons. A couple of minutes later, Tony and I were in the bathroom, doing our cleaning shifts. There was a silence between us as Tony looked at me closely. “You know I keep noticing you getting more ‘bug bites’ on your neck every time Noah pulls you out for an interrogation,” he said, breaking the silence. “That’s none of your business,” I replied. “Look, kid, I’m not judging you,” Tony said, “I just don’t like the idea of him using you like that.” “Well, I’m using him, so we’re even,” I responded. “It’s not the same,” Tony responded, “I know you like to think you have some power in this situation, but you really don’t.” “It’s not like that, Tony,” I snapped back. “he kissed me, I shoved him away, and he still got that creep arrested.” I explained, “Even after I rejected him, he was still willing to help me; he killed someone to protect me last night; he’s serious about me. Look, I know he’s one of them. Every time I close my eyes, I remember that day. Milo, Eric, and Noel, I still remember when they all died, and I don’t know if I can forgive him, but he didn’t choose to be like this; he was born into this life and never given a chance to be anything other than a machine. Look, I don’t love him, but he loves me, and if I can use that love, I can get him out of here and show him how to be human.” Tony stared at me speechless. He took a deep breath before he spoke, “Alright, I trust you with this,” he said, “just please be careful”. I continued my day with newfound determination. I knew what I needed, and I was gonna go forward.