We arrived back at our home. There wasn’t a trace of the government in sight. I breathed a sigh of relief and entered my workshop as quietly as I could. I got my tool belt and put a few weapons and other gadgets in it.

  “Alright now let’s-”

  The government followed us here. Shade immediately ran to my side and put a protective arm in front of me. I took out a blade from my belt and held it up as threateningly as I could. A man who looked like the commander of the group stepped forward.

  “Shade and friends. You have a choice. You can either come with us willingly or we will have to force you to come with us.” said the commander guy.

  “Torshik, run and get out of here. I’ll hold them off.” Shade whispered.

  “What? No! I’m not leaving you!” I told Shade.

  “Torshik, please just go. I promise I’ll be fine I-”

  The commander shot Shade in the leg and walked over to me and grabbed me.

  “You won’t be needing this.” He said as he practically ripped off the belt, throwing it to the ground.

  “You’re doing all this over someone knowing a part of history?!” I yelled.

  “This is about protecting Heskians. The real story is dangerous. If people hear it they might view Heskians as malevolent”

  “And where’s your proof for that? Everyone here knows what the Eshkichin did yet they still accept Knicatru!”

  The commander paused, “That’s only because Knicatru’s the last of his kind! It’s different because Heskians make up 32% of the population!”

  He then threw me to the ground.

  “Cuff them. We’ll report them back to the mayor soon.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “You know what you’re doing is wro-”

  The commander kicked me in the stomach.

  “Don’t you dare touch him, you son of a bitch!” said Shade. I wondered if he realized he just swore in front of me.

  The commander yanked his head back harshly, “You don’t get to decide what I do or don’t do. Not after betraying your own kind.”

  “He’s not betraying his own kind! He’s helping them!” yelled Knicatru who was being pinned down by an agent.

  “Just load them already-”

  I managed to reach for my belt and grabbed the knife and stabbed in the bottom part of his leg that he was using to pin me down. He screamed out in pain while I tried not to look at the blood. His foot relented and I quickly got up to help Shade but then he hit me in the back of the head with his gun. I could hear Shade yelling my name as my consciousness faded out.

  When I woke up I was in some strange laboratory looking place. The room was empty and lifeless and there was a large table with cuffs on it. I immediately recognized this room. This was where Shade was given his superspeed by the government. Knicatru also got his super strength from here as well.

  “No… nononono…” I started desperately looking for a way out.

  I remembered how jealous I got when they told me I was too young for the procedure and I had to be at least 18 years old. Knowing that, if they truly wanted to do this process on me it wasn’t just me not trusting the government anymore, they could take my own life with it.

  I then looked towards the door and got an idea. I looked at its hinges and saw where it opened. I stood by the door and waited. Soon enough, they opened the door and entered the room.

  “What? Where did that little shit go?” asked a guy in a lab coat. I then quietly snuck past him and bolted out the door.

  I heard him yelling after me. Soon an alarm went off and the whole building was covered in an orienting red light. Doors started to slam shut and I could hear boots running towards my direction but I still kept running despite all of that. My legs were starting to get tired but I didn’t care about that.

  A horde of guards appeared in front of me and started charging towards my direction. I tried to run the other way but there were guards there too. I looked around and saw a door that wasn’t hooked up to the electrical system. I ran inside of it and locked it. I then looked around the room and started putting all sorts of things to block the door, shelves, chairs, and even a mop bucket. They were banging on the door and I was scared of them coming in.

  Nobody really believed in any gods anymore. Everyone treated gods we used to worship as fun stories. But I didn’t know what else to do so I prayed to Tefanna to help me find a way out of this. When I was done praying I opened my eyes and saw an electric panel. I immediately lightened up and ran towards there.

  I opened the panel and saw everything clearly labeled for me. I turned off all electrical systems except for the lights. Within seconds I heard the guards dispersing, probably to find a way to turn the systems back on. I quickly moved objects out of the way and ran out the door. Now I needed to either find Shade, Knicatru, or hopefully Ashathink if they brought her here.