Project: 5 Rivers

by alexdemill

20 kids were taken from their homes on 01/20/2001. After 5 months, 4 returned. When asked what happened, they have the same answer: "I don't remember". 10 years later, the haze of forgetfulness dissipates. Now, with restored memories and growing superhuman abilities, will the 4 be able to survive & relive the darkest months of their childhood or will they finally succumb to evil?

1. Prologue

AN: This is my first attempt on writing fanfition so all comments are appreciated. Also, I am looking for a beta, so anyone interested please let me know.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters.

Warning: Most of the content of this story (Historical or otherwise) are non-factual and mostly based on the author's imagination. They were bent or distorted in order to create this story so please remember that this is a fictional story and should be read and treated as such. The Author has no intention of deceiving or misleading any of its readers.

Chapter 1: Prologue

20th day of January, 2001

1:17 am

Somewhere out in the desert, Nevada

Ryan Sourasta is sitting on a computer chair facing a keyboard, a raised panel with weird buttons and a wall of computer screens. To his right, a large rectangular metal houses several CPUs and cooling systems. To his left, 3 other people are fiddling with their own keyboards and buttons of the panel board in front of them. They are all wearing the same, Ryan noted; white shirt, black pants, black leather shoes and a heavy duty noise cancelling headset with an attached mouthpiece. He would always joke that they look like call center agents but somehow that doesn't seem too funny. Not now, anyway. Not now when teams are deployed and they, the 'call center agents', have to coordinate said teams.

To an average person the ambiance of the room alone would be intimidating, but not to Ryan. This is his job after all. This has been his job for the past 20 years. Before this, he was just an average hacker. Well, as average as someone who can hack through the files of pentagon. One day, when he got back to his small dirty apartment near his university, some guys wearing tailored suits and carrying guns welcomed him. He actually thought that he was going to die but instead they took him and put him inside an interrogation room. After 5 days of waiting, interrogating and more waiting, he was offered a job as a hacker for the government. He thought they were just joking but when he saw The Ark-the facility he is in now, and the room where they want him to work in, he became a believer.

Sanctuary or Sanc for short, that's the name of this room. It is every nerd's fantasy. From the super computers to the US satellite connection, this is the most technologically advance room the US military has ever funded and build. But this is the not the only room in this facility, this room is his favorite though. Being near high tech gadgets and being a nerd are not the only reasons he likes this room so much. No. This room is one of the few that does not make him vomit. This room does not smell like a sterile hospital. Those rooms do. Every time he enters one of those rooms, he could tell that someone had gone to the extreme of cleaning the place to erase whatever happened. He does not even want to know what happen. After an incident where he accidentally saw what those rooms are for, he couldn't eat or sleep for a week. He had nightmares about it until this day. He really hates those rooms.

Ryan was brought out of his inner ramblings by a crack in his headphones.

"Sanctuary, this is Charlie. Package is secure. Over." The voice from Ryan's earphone said.

"This is Sanc. Understood Charlie. Are there any compilications? Over." Ryan replied while fiddling with his keyboard.

"There was a bit of a struggle because the package was still awake when we got there, but nothing too eventful. Over."

"Understood. Clean up is en route, ETA 3 minutes. Proceed to the drop point now, Charlie. Over." Ryan said with a slight edge in his voice. Depending on what the mess was, clean up ranges from just fixing the furniture and the sheets to disposing of witnesses. He hopes it's not the later.

"Understood. ETA to drop point 47 minutes. Over and Out.",

After Charlie's transmission ended more confirmations of the 'package is secure' variety were handled by Ryan and his colleagues. At 2:53 am, 20 packages have been secured, dropped off at their designated drop points and are en route to The Ark.

"Good Job." A firm, voice said from behind Ryan and his colleagues. Ryan looked at the man and involuntarily shivered.

The man is Mr. Gessen De Mervil, the head of this facility and operation. That is not his real name but somehow, no one that works under him knows. He is a very imposing man, standing at about 6 feet 5 inches. He has dark brown hair, handsome face and a body that tells anyone that he works out. However, his eyes are what made Ryan shivered. He has cold blue eyes – the coldest eyes Ryan has ever seen.

When Ryan was still on his hacker stage in life, the name Gessen De Mervil often shows up on government files and private company files that he would get his hands on. From research expeditions to donations to hiring people to positions, De Mervil was everywhere. But what really made his name stood up is that everything that his name is attached to gets a top secret mark-these files usually have higher security making them more difficult to retrieve. Because of this, Ryan tried to track his name. Aside from donations and military and government associations, De Mervil seems to be just a typical influential person in the world.

Project: Five Rivers, that was the last government file that he hacked just before he was locked up, interrogated and subsequently hired. From what little he read from the file, Project: Five Rivers started as a private company project about a research expedition that was fronted by De Mervil a decade or so ago. De Mervil then took the project to the government but no one seemed too interested in the project until De Mervil found his partner in the form of Gen. Lawrence McKinley. Gen. McKinley is a three star general who had served the country countless of times, but had always been cast out by other generals because of his Machiavellian belief. He had always supported the continued increase in military budget and was always in the lookout for anything that the military can take advantage of in terms of technology. That was as far as he read from that file because he had classes.

Now, however, he is in deep. He is now part of Project: Five Rivers.

Automatic doors opening and closing interrupted Ryan's thought. "The packages have arrived, Mr. De Mervil." The man who looked to be Dr. Gilbert Castro, the head scientist, said.

"I trust everything is in order?" De Mervil asked.

"Yes, sir. They are awake and ready to have a tour in the labs." Dr. Castro said as he led De Mervil to the back entrance of the facility.

After 2 minutes of staring at the door the two men disappeared to, Ryan and colleagues frantically followed them, eagerly wanting to see the packages for themselves.

When they are near enough from the back entrance but far enough for their superiors and bosses to spot them they crouch and waited. It didn't take long for a military man to open the door and lead the 20 packages inside and into the entrance of the labs in basement 2.

After they pass, Ryan's colleagues started their walk back to Sanc, however, Ryan was immobile. He felt sick. He knew that the packages were kids at the age or 6-10 but actually seeing them here in the facility made it real.

"Dude, let's go." One of Ryan's coworker said when he noticed Ryan frozen near the floor.

"Huh…? Yeah… Okay." Ryan said as he slowly made his way to Sanc. He looked back at the elevator that leads to basement 2 and he thought with resignation, 'Those rooms would be filled again.'

20th day of June, 2001

2:24 am

Somewhere out in the desert, Nevada

After 5 months, Ryan was here again, inside Sanc, coordinating another early morning mission. But this was different; this has never been done before. He had coordinated missions only for extraction-getting the package and cleaning up after. Never had Sanc coordinated a mission for returning the previously stolen packages. The people at the labs usually just wait for them to wilt out, die, decompose and somehow they are forgotten. Families would mourn and grieve but they would move on. They would never know what happened to their loved ones because they would never find out about The Ark, Sanctuary, Project: Five Rivers, De Mervil, Gen. McKinley. No. Only the most talented hackers in the world can do that and all of them are working at The Ark.

"This is Charlie. The package has been delivered. Over." The crack from Ryan's headphone said.

"Are there complications, Charlie? Over." Ryan asked as he typed a few commands and notes on his computer.

"No complications. It smells like a winery here though. I guess we know how the parents were coping. Over."

Ryan shook his head. That would not be good for the newly returned package. "Understood, Charlie. Come back to The Ark. Over."

"Roger that. Over and Out."

3 more packages have been returned to their homes that morning. Out of the 20 that came in 5 months ago, 4 remain. How would the part of the government who was left out the loop about the existence of The Ark handle this? He heard the news about the 20 children who suddenly disappeared from their beds one night. People were scared, angry, confused. What was going on, they asked. They turned to the police for help. Amber alerts were going off everywhere. When people found out it was nationwide, they turned to the government-the ignorant part of the government. The government promised investigations, special units were formed solely for finding the kidnapped children. But that was pointless. How could you catch the criminal if they are your own superiors? The media was having a circus. There were TV specials on who the children are, how innocent they are, how evil the men who did the crime were. They showed cute pictures of the kids on screen, hoping for more ratings. They dubbed January 20, 2001 as the darkest day of child protection.

Ryan didn't really see the kids after they were led to basement 2. He avoided the TV after watching 1 melodramatic TV special. No. He didn't see them.

…

He would deny it to anyone but he did see one kid. About, 2 months after the kidnapping, there was a situation in The Ark. A kid ran away from basement 2 and managed to get on the elevator. The Ark was on lock down while the field team sweeps every room and floor. Ryan was alone in Sanc because he was fixing some electronics when the lock down was implemented. He was sitting on the floor near the CPUs, at the back of the raised panel, when he heard the door open. He rose up and slowly peaked from the panel when he saw her. The little girl was about 4 feet, chubby, has brown hair, and a weird nose. She looked frantic and Ryan could tell that she was looking for some place to hide. The girl started moving and after 5 steps the door opened again revealing 5 military men. They approached the young girl slowly, not wanting to spook her out more. The girl started backing away from them but when she hit the keyboards, effectively ceasing her backward escape, all hell broke loose.

Ryan still can't believe what happened. One moment the girl was frightened, the next 1 military man is lying unconscious because of a blow to the neck from the girl. The other 4 men didn't seem too surprised; they even seemed to have expected it. After blows and kicks were exchanged, a taser from earlier unconscious man disabled the girl's movement. After handcuffing both the girl's hands and feet and checking if the girl was really unconscious, one of the men proceeded to carry the girl fire fighter style. Ryan's eyes were looking at the unconscious girl at the man's back feeling shocked and terrified. How could a young girl cause so much damage? He thought. Just before the doors closed, the girl suddenly opened her eyes looking directly at Ryan. Hazel eyes of rock solid determination, of agony, of strength. No innocent eyes should be that hard. No child's eyes should be that tortured.

No one knew Ryan saw the altercation. He made a story about being in the bathroom when the lockdown was implemented so everyone just let him be. He was not important anyway. He was just a selfish, coward who can't do anything, so yes, he was unimportant.

Ryan felt himself refocus when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Good job." Mr. Gessen De Mervil said. He always says that but never means it. There was never a time when De Mervil was truly happy about the work done in The Ark. He is obsessive with this project but he only wants the end product-a product that only he knows.

As De Mervil looked at the wall of screens Ryan could swear that he heard him whisper, "See you later, my babies." before he walked out Sanc's door.

Ryan gulped and thought, 'That can't be good.'

AN: The addition was supposed to be on Chapter 2 but I decided to just combine it. Hope you enjoy. n_n