Why are they doing this to me? To create a better future. But why chose me? Simple, you're expendable. Human life is not expendable. Ah, but your not human are you?

Matthew Williams woke up with a start. Why did he always have to have nightmares whenever Gil wasn't around. He turned to look at the clock. It was a little past midnight, Gil wouldn't be up for at least another hour. That dream always warded off any chance of a good night's sleep, and Gil had already been gone for a week. There would still be another three days before Gil would be close to done with helping his brother. Why in the world did he have to stay here in Canada instead of taking time off to be with his best friend? Oh yeah, they needed him to work a good ninety hour week, because so many people had called out sick. What was it with people calling out sick anyway? It wasn't flu season and it was July for maples sakes! There was no point in arguing now, the fact was Matthew Williams had a 90 hr week ahead of him and there was nothing he could do about it.

Matthew left his house after a sleepless night, well more like a sleepless morning. The building where he worked was only a twenty minute car ride, but man with so little sleep Matthew was finding it hard to stay upright even in the car. There definitely reason for a large cup of coffee with extra sugar. The car was in relative silence, that is until the phone rang. Matthew was jolted awake by the annoying ringtone. He could tell by the tone who it was, why in the world had Gil decided to use the theme from the Lego movie as his tone? "Hey Gil, what's up?" "Birdie! What's with you you sound like you haven't slept in days!" Matthew sighed, That's cause you left, and now I can't sleep for fear of nightmares, "just some paperwork Gil, nothing to be worried about". "Right, I'll check on you during lunch OK?" "Yeah, I'll be waiting". Before the line went dead, Matthew could hear the faintest "I love you". Probably just my imagination. It wasn't like Gil had never told Matthew he loved him, just it usually went without saying.

Matthew got to work way before he wanted. Not like I could have delayed it, they would have started worrying and then there would be a whole new problem. So begrudgingly, Matthew left the car and entered the office building he worked at. Course he had to take the elevator to the bottom floor. Can't take the chance of to many people finding out about me. Matthew had an office on the same floor as all of the government scientists. It wasn't spacious like the labs, but Matthew liked how quiet the floor was. Hardly anyone ever came to visit him and his secret was safe, only a few of the even scientists knew him, and even less knew his secret. The work wasn't hard, the pay was good, and he got to travel around the world every few months. Just a normal job, almost like an office worker, but just a little separated. Sure all of the work he did was classified and needed the highest security clearance, but it was work and it gave something back to the country he lived in.

There was a knock on the door. It was only about noon so it couldn't have been anyone else like him, they all were scheduled for after five as to give them some time to get used to the change in time zones. Must be more paperwork then. Matthew got up from his desk to open the door, the visitor surprised him. "Hello Matthew dear," one of Matthews few friends downstairs was the receptionist by the elevator, "Hey Mollie, something I can do for you?" "Just here to drop off a note, didn't mean to interrupt your lunch". Matthew gave her a polite smile, "No problem at all, I was just finishing up". This was the same kind of conversation they had every time she visited him, just mindless chatter that gave the feeling of some sort of relationship. The time passed, five or ten minutes, then Matthew excused himself on account of have some more paperwork to do. Mollie left but not before promising to save some of her next batch of cookies for Matthew. The blonde man smiled in delight. Then their exchange was over. Leaving Matthew in a silent office with a note in his hand. The day always seems better when Mollie visits, now if Gil could come home a few days early life would be great. But seeing as that's not the case, I'll just have to deal. Matthew walked back to his desk, note forgotten till he sat down. Oh that's right Mollie said someone left me a note. Wonder what it says?" Matthew carefully opened the note, the message read clearly, "Science lab 6, knock twice, 6:45pm". Weird, whatever guess I'll look into it. Matthew spent the rest of the afternoon finishing paperwork and counting down the minutes until he needed to be to the lab. Alfred is the impatient one in the family, not me. It's probably just some extra work to do or something. At about 6, Matthew was done with all of his work for the day. There will probably be more tomorrow. Well might as well head to the break room and find a snack before I go to the lab. So off he went, by 6:30pm Matthew was already done his snack, some chips, and headed to find the lab. As it turned out, Science lab 6 was exactly 15 minutes away from the break room. Matthew got there and knocked, twice just as the note had said and waited. Two or three minutes passed before Matthew started to think about how dumb he looked just standing there. Much longer and I'm going home. As if on cue, the floor dropped out from under Matthew. Everything went black.

Matthew came to in an army issue bed. At least the mattress is soft. He looked around and the first thing he noticed was a heavy feeling in his legs. Well not entirely in his legs but more on them. He hadn't noticed at first but there were some sort of large machine on his legs doing something, and man it was starting to hurt. "Oh good you're awake, I was worried the sedatives were going to kill you." Matthew looked around for the source of the noise, a man in his early twenties was standing with his back to Matthew. He wore the clothes of a lab technician, but with a hoodie underneath. He either was playing a prank on Matthew or was experimenting on him. "So I see that your leg is killing you, I could give you some pain killers. Do you think you can hold down something?" Matthew was starting to believe that this man could be trusted, but he was still worried. The stranger moved to the machine, pressed a few buttons, then the pain stopped. The stranger turned back to his charts, making marks here and there, never once turning towards Matthew. The pain had stopped but Matthew was starting to get drowsy, his instincts told him to stay awake with this stranger but his body betrayed him. Once Matthew was snoring lightly the stranger turned around, "Good he's finally asleep, now I can start".