As Max walked home, he began to wonder why the walk home seemed longer when you have someone waiting for you. He had his girlfriend to look forward to and all he could think about was her blonde wavy hair, her deep green eyes which sometimes looked grey and her unmistakeable innocent smile. Everything about this man told you he was in love; his love masked his fear of being caught by the very thing he was running away from. The Government… Max and his girlfriend, Chloe finally felt free after running away from the Government centre they were trained to be assassins. The Government set up a fake orphanage and indoctrinated the children into an army; years they kept this secret until all of the children were over the age of 15. They killed everyone the Government didn't agree with and made the public feel the 'full force' of the law. With the power however the Government became cocky and sick with power that the assassins started to rebel within. Ultimately there was a huge fight; everyone was killed apart from five assassins; who decided as a collective, to allow each other to live.
Max and Chloe were one of the survivors; they found an empty house to stay in which is where Max is walking to now. He climbed through the window and entered the house but the atmosphere was strange which worried Max so he started to frantically look for Chloe. Max felt something wet on his hand which was resting on the wall and the wetness was blood. He walked into the bedroom and he saw her. Her blonde hair ruined with blood, blood on her chest from gunshot wounds and blood on the wall which proves she put up a fight. Max thought to himself that it must have been an extremely strong person because Chloe was skilled in fighting. She was an experienced fighter even though she didn't look it; she could throw a knife into the middle of your forehead as if it was a game of darts. Max fell to his knees next to her and just held her but then he saw a note pinned to the ground with a knife. 'We're coming for you 145' the note read. Max knew then that this attack was work from the Government and he ripped the piece of paper in fury.
145 was Max's number; it was like a security key for the Government and it was to ensure that we didn't feel like people but property. There were 200 assassins in total collected over a span of 5 years; he was the 145th to be chosen and Chloe was the 150th. Although, he adopted the name Max 145 Drew later because it was more comfortable and he needed a name for his fake passport. The Government raised Max, taught him everything he knew but not lovingly with a bitter harsh hand. His first memory was lining up when he first arrived at the 'orphanage' and getting 145 tattooed on his wrist on top of his veins.
Max got up immediately knowing he was the next target and packed a quick bag of essentials though he didn't have much in the first place. He changed out of his bloody clothes to retract suspicion and placed a loaded gun in his jacket. He quickly kissed Chloe's head as goodbye and rushed out of the house. Then everything was black and after a twist of handcuffs his hands were restrained. Max struggled and restlessly tried to wriggle out of his restraints but then he was hit hard and beaten by the attackers. Eventually he blacked out.
When he regained consciousness the bag was taken off his head and he was in the presence of thuggish looking people with weapons. One with a silver pistol, another with a new edition revolver and the last with a baseball bat, Max observed and thought it was cliché. After more beating and taunting about how he used to work for the Government but now he is in the hands of the organisation the Government wanted to take down in the first place. The thugs offered him a job at their criminal organisation whose first act was to take down the Government without question he accepted. After accepting however from the beatings he slipped out of consciousness.
Then Max came back to reality realising that it was just a dream, a memory of what happened 6 years ago today. Max inhaled and exhaled lifting his head above the steaming bathwater and ran his fingers threw him hair. Exhale. Max thought to himself; that his water might as well had been acid on his skin it was so hot but he didn't recognise the feeling as pain. Though he admitted it wasn't pleasant but at the same time sickly refreshing. Max regularly had these steaming baths because it made him feel subdued and motionless under the water. His home was the one place that he felt same though he still kept a gun at the foot of his bath because you can never be too careful.
Max had a monologue with himself saying, 'Most people would say I am psychotic being an assassin and sadistic that I view people as a target and that I call what I do a job. For me? It's normal. I've been made to be lethal. I could kill you so quickly you wouldn't even notice you were hit until you were dead. I wasn't just taught how to kill though in the Government centre I learnt Geography, Maths, English, French, Italian, Mandarin and a range of combat. It would be tiresome to list but let's just say I give Jackie Chan a run for his money. Most of the children didn't survive the strenuous regime and died in combat only about 40 of us survived. Then the worse bit came. We had killed dummies and fought against the trainers in practise but then was the real thing… killing real people. That bit was awful and it never gets easier. No one understands that.'
Max traced his finger over the scars he received from training with swords, in the blood bath against the other assassins and the Government. The assassinations had a routine to them; sometimes they would be asked to perform a personal contact kill meaning the target would see them before they killed the target or they would walk pass them on the street and stick a knife into the target's back. This however left witnesses who suffered the same fate as the target. The long range kills were the cleanest not physically but metaphorically because they resulted in less witnesses. That way was subtle and was the preferred choice by most assassins. The last way of killing is the calculated kill; this could take weeks or months to plan every detail needs to be thought through before the assassination is committed. Usually, this is used for an important individual; a president, a drug cartel or an organisation leader for example. Only the best are used for these assignments, Max was asked to kill a drug cartel leader and he planned the kill for a month, killing him eventually by poisoning.
Max sighed and got out of the bath. He had been in there for an hour so the skin on his fingers was wrinkled but after the hour the bath was still steaming off his body. Max thought to himself that he feels sorry for the mirror which rains condensation after his daily baths. He left the bathroom and walked toward his bedroom with his towel rested in his waist. Relaxed, he just lied on his bed looking for another distraction. He decided to light up a cigarette and turn on the TV to delay sleeping. They were reporting about a hit and run in town earlier today; they suspect it was a planned attack. Max turned off the TV not wanting to hear the details of the person he shot today. So he finished his cigarette and lost himself to the inevitable dream that he's had for a while, the same dream every night.
It starts off with him in a car driving somewhere he doesn't recognise and he hears a thud coming from the boot of his car. THUD. THUD. 'Let me out of here! I'll pay you, please' Max gets out of the car wondering why there is a noise coming from the boot of his car and he opens the boot. Inside is a bloody body and they hobble out of the car and run for their life. The picture of pure fear in their eyes and after running about 2 metres away he gets shot dead. Max looks around in shock to see who shot the man and then realising there is nobody around he looks at his own hand. There in his hand is the pistol that ended the dead man's life and embarrassed Max drops the gun. He turns around to close the boot of his car and he sees that his boot is now filled with money. He closed the boot and started driving the car again. As if that wasn't enough, it started raining blood all over the car.
Max wakes up immediently and sees a message on his phone. Max's iPhone has been modified so when the organisation wish to contact him or assign him a mission the screen turns black and in white writing the message appears. Max normally makes notes of the assignment on a separate piece of paper on his bedside table next to his phone. With a touch of the screen the message disappears and it resembles a normal iPhone again.