As soon as Dr. Syphyr finished his speech the older men and women in the crowd began to gather all of the children into on line. They marched the line past the large sandboxes and into the grass field that extended as far as they could see. At the edge of the final sandbox a man in the front of the line began to shout.
"You will run, and you will keep running until I tell you to stop. There is a warehouse ten miles north of here, when we reach that warehouse you will be divided into eight groups. From then on you will begin training to work not only individually but as one unit. Alright boys and girls, let's move out!"
Alix and Xander started to run forward as did many other children, yet some faltered and fell behind. The handful of recruits that were slow to start were encouraged to move along by men with tasers  Alix could not help but notice the immense size of the grounds. He vaguely remembered the night he and his brother were brought to The Facility. One thing he did remember clearly was the massive stone wall and the wrought iron gate through which they entered. Looking about him now he could see no signs of the wall in any direction.
The run seemed much further than ten miles. Along the way a number of kids failed to keep up, some passed out, and others began to vomit. Alix and Xander were the first two recruits to reach the warehouse, where they doubled over with their hands resting on their knees. Every muscle in their bodies burned and ached. As more of the recruits gathered in front of the building, the man who led them began to seperate them into eight even groups. The man grabbed Alix by his arm and pulled him away from Xander to the front of another group.
"NO!" Xander yelled and ran towards his brother. Two men stepped into his path blocking him from Alix, but Xander did not slow. Instead he quickened his pace and veered to the left, watching as both men adjusted their position to intercept him. As the distance between them closed the men began to smile at Xander, he smiled back at them devilishly. One man lunged forward grabbing at him, only to miss his target. Xander threw his feet forward and slid on the ground directly between his assailants legs. Back on his feet he took three more steps and leaped into the air, smashing into the second man's chest, knocking him to the ground. Xander hit the ground in full stride, ignoring his aches and pains, and ran to his brother's side. Both men that Xander had caused to fall were now back on their feet and walking toward him, each wearing a malevolent grin. Alix moved in front of his brother and faced them.
"Smith! Degelmann! That's enough!" The man that had separated Alix from his brother shouted. "You two leave these boys alone, I'll deal with them."
"Sir, yes sir!" They said in unison, and walked away muttering to one another. Up close the man was much larger than he appeared. His towering stature, and wide set body was intimidating to the small boys. He stood over them, observing their faces with scrutiny. Both Alix and Xander worried what the man would do to them for acting out.
"What are your names?" he asked.
"Alix and Xander, sir" Alix said speaking for his brother.
"Well boys, what seems to be the problem?"
"You sir." Alix stated plainly.
"Me? What have I done to become a problem?" He asked sourly.
"You tried to take my brother away. You were going to separate us sir." Xander spoke up hoping to keep his brother from getting himself into trouble.
"I see now. Well don't worry, you two can stay together. I want the two of you with me. My name is Kevin Miller, and I am in charge of your physical training as well as the Alpha team. Get in line over here with me."
By this time all of the recruits had made it to the warehouse. Miller led Alix and Xander to a door on the far left of the building, and instructed them to stay put. The boys stood there watching as Miller walked around picking different recruits and bringing them one by one to stand alongside them.

Chapter 1, Part 1: The Awakening

Alix woke with a start as a surge of energy coursed through his entire body. A slight yelp escaped his lips as he was dumped out of his bed and onto the floor. Everything around him was blurred and he rubbed at his eyes trying to clear the haze. When his vision had cleared he opened his eyes just in time to see a boot coming toward him. A sharp pain shot through his side as the steel toe connected with his ribs.

“On your feet!” someone shouted above him. Alix gasped for air, and fought his way back to his feet. His lungs burned and his legs were shaky, he felt as if he may collapse again. Gasping for air he lifted his head and searched the room for his brother. The barracks expanded over the size of the football field, and was full of other kids and a few stern looking men. The commotion of everyone moving about gave Alix a headache. After scanning the room twice over and not seeing Xander he opted to go look for him. He donned the gray sweat suit from his locker and slid into his boots. Before he got more than a yard away from his bunk he was ushered into a line and marched outside into the cold.

Then line moved slowly giving him time to look about trying to spot his brother. As he neared the front of the line the savory smell of bacon and eggs filled his nose making his mouth water. His stomach rumbled, this was the first time he had realized how hungry he was. Upon reaching the front of the line he saw several older men eating a big breakfast. He was upset when he was handed a brown paper bag and pushed away from the line into a large field. He walked out to the center of the field, took a seat in the grass, and dumped the contents of the bag into his lap. An apple, a ham sandwich, and a pint of milk was all he got. He wiped the apple on his shirt and took a bite, opening his milk to wash it down.

He sat in the field, enjoying his breakfast while looking around, scanning the area for Xander, whom he had yet to see walking about or in line. As he was beginning to take a rather large bite from his apple he began to feel enclosed. He became dizzy, and felt as if he were looking down a long tunnel. Then as suddenly as the attack began, it ended. He had been experiencing these attacks the entire week, starting around the time he and his brother were separated, but he had always been at the facility. They had only gotten worse since then, although he felt as if he were getting used to them. He noticed a small concrete slab, off to the right, with a single podium in the center. To his left sat four large sandboxes with grassy expanses in between them. Finally Xander showed up in line rubbing his temples. Upon seeing his brother Alix grabbed his milk and paper bag and threw them into a garbage can along to way to meet up with his brother,

“Alix, where have you been? I looked everywhere for you but I couldn’t find you anywhere.” Xander said as his brother neared him. Alix opened his mouth to speak but he was interrupted by the sound of a microphone being tapped.

Attention!” The voice seemed to be coming from the concrete slab. Everyone in the field turned to look. There was a short well dressed man standing behind the podium, he had short gray hair that was receding a fair amount. He smiled and waited for everyone to be quiet. As the last voice faded, his voice seemed to boom in the silence as he began to speak.

“Hello, my name is Dr. Eli Syphyr. I would like to welcome each and every one of you to ‘The Facility’. You all have been hand selected by some of the best men and women I have had the honor to work with. You have met very specific qualifications and the two-hundred of you here today were chosen out of many others, like yourself, from all over the world. I am proud to inform you that after nearly half of a century in the making, you are the one and only recruits into The Vanguard Program.” The mass of children were silent, while the older men and women in the crowd clapped.

“As of this moment,” Dr. Syphyr continued. “You do not exist outside of this program. There is no record that you were ever born. To the rest of the world you simply never existed” Upon hearing this many of the kids began sobbing, others did not know how to react and fell to the ground in disbelief. Alix and Xander stood firm, feeling secure in knowing that they had one another. They looked at each other then back to Dr. Syphyr. He caught their eyes, smiled and nodded his head. “Do not fear my children; you will be well taken care of here. So long as you follow the rules. We do not wish to harm you, we wish to mold you. You will become the strongest, most able force the world has ever seen. Your training will be extensive and challenging both physically and mentally. Sadly not all of you will make it through this program, which is a great disappointment to us all. If you are determined and give it your all I can assure you that you will succeed. Now look around you.” He gestured to the whole of the crowd. “This is your new family; these are your brothers and sisters! Learn to love and trust them, for on more than one occasion you may find your life lying in their hands. I wish you all the best of luck, your training begins NOW!”

Prologue (The Twins)

The faint orange glow of a cigarette was the only bit of light visible in the darkness. A million thoughts raced through Alix’s mind as he sat on the swing set of his childhood home. This was the first time he had seen this place in almost sixteen years. Once a lively house where he and his brother, Xander, would play, was now old and falling apart. The windows had been boarded up; the railing on the porch was broken and missing in places and a layer of dust and grime coated most of the house’s exterior.

Alix had often wondered what life was like for his parents after he and Xander had left so long ago. From the looks of the house, aside from the filth and destruction of being abandoned, it seemed as though they tried their best to keep it the same as the day they disappeared. Maybe they held onto hope, maybe they expected the boys to come home. They never did. Alix missed his family from time to time, yet he had learned to live without them. Born on Halloween of 1992, Alix and Xander Fury were very unique individuals from birth, twins, who were never expected to live due to complications during the pregnancy. There were only two differences between them, the five minutes that separated them, and their hair. Alix had thick shoulder length jet black hair, while Xander’s hair was close cut and very blonde. Apart from that they were identical. Both were tall, muscular, young men with sharp features and broad shoulders.

Looking around and realizing that his brother had been gone for some time now Alix began to get annoyed. He stood up from the swing set and walked towards the front porch of his old house. “Hurry up Xander; we have more important matters to deal with. I’ve seen all I need to see, besides, this was supposed to be a quick stop” He thought to himself. He waited a moment listening carefully but could hear nothing but the stillness of the night. Finally, “Alright I’m on my way out now. I just wanted to look through some things to see if there was anything here.” His brother’s thoughts were so clear to him recently that it seemed as if he were standing merely a foot in front of him. A minute or two later Xander turned the far corner of the house and strode over to Alix.

“Did you find anything?” Alix asked his brother as they sauntered down the over grown drive. Xander shook his head and looked at his feet. Feeling Xander’s disappointment as if it were his own, Alix gave him a playful push. He knew his brother wanted answers badly, and to be honest he did as well. “We are going to figure this out. You knew this was going to be hard. We have all the skills we need, we can take care of ourselves, but all we have really ever known is The Facility.”

“The rest is just distant memories now, faded like an old photograph.” Xander said sadly. They walked in almost complete silence for a while, thinking to themselves. Both were contemplating what to do next, often sharing their thoughts with one another. Alix began to realize that they may never find out why they were chosen to be placed in the Facility. He shielded his own thoughts from his brother not wanting to him to become any more upset than he already was. He could still feel Xander’s conscience pressing against his own, the flow of emotions often made the brothers nauseous. When they were younger the experience left them weak and on more than one occasion made them ill. They had grown more accustomed to feeling each others experiences as their own over the years though.

And we are...

I am a passionate writer, and need an outlet for my work. I hope to finish the story that I have been writing in doing this. But I also want to write other shorts and pieces along the way. I’ve tried this once before and it failed miserably. Mainly because I couldn’t keep myself dedicated to posting every week like I intended. This time hopefully I will be more successful. If you have a topic you would like to see me write about shoot me a comment letting me know. I hope you enjoy.

-Austin T Smith

...moving On.