He had a brother and his brother had become his best friend. His brother changed everything; he had a name now, he had a reason to want things to be different. He didn't want to do the same thing without question anymore. Manticore was keeping him from his brother and that was not ok with him.
Every night he would sneak out of his room and meet Ben in the supply closet. They would talk about anything that popped into their heads. He always talked way more than Ben did, but his brother seemed to enjoy whatever he wanted to say even though most of it wasn't very important. He would go on about the guards and the unfairness of keeping them apart and how lame his other unit mates were. Ben would tell him stories about the Blue Lady and how she kept them safe.
He liked the stories even though he didn't think they were true. He didn't tell Ben that though; Ben seemed to really believe in the Blue Lady, and he didn't want to crush his brother's beliefs.
He snuck down the halls, now very familiar with his route and the guards' patrols. It felt good sneaking down the halls by himself. He didn't like being around his unit anymore; they were dull and boring. None of them talked to him and when he tried to talk to them, they told him to stop. He really liked talking and now that he had someone to talk to, he didn't want to stop.
He made it to the supply closet and quickly closed the door behind him. He scanned the small room for Ben, but was surprised to see that his twin wasn't already there. Usually Ben beat him here every night; it was weird that he was first tonight. He was pretty sure Ben left his bunk as soon as the guards brought them back. He always had to wait until everyone fell asleep before he could sneak out. He was sure that if anyone saw him sneaking around they would tell on him. That would earn them brownie points with the other guards.
He sat down on an empty bucket and waited. He wasn't really a patient kid, but he would wait for Ben to get there. Ben probably just had to wait for a guard to pass by or maybe one of the others in his unit had wanted him to tell them a story.
It had nearly been an hour and Ben still hadn't shown up yet. They had agreed upon waiting 30 minutes, but he just couldn't bring himself to give up on his brother. They had met up every night and he could give Ben a few more minutes to get there.
After another 15 minutes the door to the supply closet finally opened and Ben slipped inside and shut the door behind him.
"Finally," Alec complained, "I was just about to give up on-" He stopped abruptly when he noticed Ben was shaking, his eyes were wide with panic, and his face was whiter than a sheet. "What's wrong? What happened?" Alec asked quickly, running forward and grabbing Ben by the shoulders. "Are you ok?"
Ben nodded that he was and Alec led his brother to the abandoned bucket he had been sitting on earlier. Ben slowly sat down and Alec crouched down in front of him. Something had happened, that much was obvious; he just needed to get Ben to tell him what it was.
"Ben, talk to me. Tell me what happened," Alec begged. He didn't like not knowing what was going on and he wanted to help if he could. He wanted to make everything alright for his brother.
"He shot her…" Ben breathed out, his eyes still wide with panic.
"What?" Alec wasn't sure if he'd heard Ben right or not, and if he had then he needed to know who had shot who.
"He shot her," Ben repeated.
Alec huffed; he hated not knowing and it was annoying that Ben wouldn't get to the point. He had to know what was going on to be able to help. "Just tell me what happened."
"He shot Eva."
At least he got one name this time. "Who shot Eva?"
"Lydecker," Ben whispered.
Alec pulled away slightly from Ben in disbelief. He didn't know who Eva was, but he assumed she was in Ben's unit. But that meant she was an X5 and Lydecker seemed to care about them. He punished them sometimes, but he also looked out for them. It was a weird relationship he had with them, but he would've never shot one of them.
"Lydecker? Are you sure?" Alec asked.
Ben nodded. "Max got the shakes and we tried to hide her. They took Jack away when he got the shakes and we never saw him again so we knew we had to hide her. But one of the guards saw her and was going to take her away so Zack attacked him. The gun got away from them, but Eva picked it up. Lydecker came in when she picked it up and he shot her!"
Alec put a comforting hand against Ben's shoulder. He really didn't know what else he could do. He still couldn't believe that Lydecker had shot one of them. It just couldn't be true, but he knew Ben would lie to him.
Ben stood suddenly and Alec scrambled back to avoid falling over. Ben grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.
"C'mon, we've gotta go," Ben said urgently.
"Go? What? Where?" Alec asked confused.
"We're leaving," Ben stated. "Tonight. Now, actually…I told them to wait for me because I had to come find you. We're getting out of here."
"Where are we gonna go?" Alec asked slowly. He really wasn't convinced that they should go in the first place. Manticore sucked sometimes, but there wasn't anywhere for them to go. This was it, and if they left then they would be tracked down and they'd be punished worse than ever before. He didn't really know what would happen, but it couldn't be good. No one had ever escaped before and there had to be a reason for that.
"I don't know, but we need to go. Now," Ben said adamantly. Ben started pulling him to the door, but he dug his heels in and stopped him.
"Ben, let's think about this for a second," Alec pleaded. "If we leave, they're gonna be after us. We'll get caught, and then they're gonna punish us worse than ever."
"Then we won't get caught," Ben replied. "But we have to go."
Ben started pulling him again, but he yanked his arm free. He didn't want to crush his brother's hope, but this was the only way. He had to get his brother to see reason before they did something that would get them both killed. "There's nothing out there! There's no way we could survive out there by ourselves! There's a reason no one's escaped before, and that's because it's hopeless! It's stupid to even think about!"
"Alec, please," Ben begged. "Please, we have to go and I'm not leaving without you. This is something I'm not going to let go. We need to leave. Even if there is nothing out there, we'll die here if we don't leave and now is our only chance!"
Alec scanned his brother's eyes hoping to find what he should do. Usually he was the one with the drastic ideas, but he didn't really plan on carrying them out. He didn't want to leave, but he didn't want to lose Ben either. If anyone heard him talking about this then it would be the end for his brother. The only way he could protect Ben would be to go with him. This was crazy; no, it was more than that, it was suicidal. But he wouldn't let his brother do it alone.
"Alright. Let's go," Alec said with a nod.
Ben breathed out in relief and grabbed his arm again. "Ok, we have to hurry. I don't know how long Zack will wait before he makes the move."
"This is crazy…" Alec muttered as Ben drug him along.
"We can do this. We just have to stick together," Ben said. That was a no brainer. The only reason he was doing this was so he could be with his brother.
Alec didn't argue; he let Ben lead the way through the halls. He still thought this was crazy, but he'd made up his mind and there was nothing he could do about it now. He wasn't going to lose his brother, so he would just have to follow him on this crazy endeavor. And if they died doing this then at least they went out with a bang.
"Hey!"
Ben and Alec both froze when they heard the yell. They turned to see a guard had spotted them. He was a tall man with dark hair and his uniform said 'WINCHESTER' on his left chest pocket. He quickly held his hands up to signal that he wasn't going to hurt them.
"Don't run away," the man said. "I'm not going to hurt you, ok?"
Alec wanted to run, but his legs weren't listening to him. He was frozen and Ben was frozen next to him. They needed to run so they wouldn't get in trouble. If Ben really wanted to get out of here then they needed to take this chance instead of just standing here and letting the guard catch them.
"I want to help you," the man said softly.
He took a step towards them and it was like a signal had finally gone off in his head. Ben must've had the same signal, because they both took off at the same time. Alec glanced back at the guard, but was surprised to see that he wasn't chasing them. That was weird for a guard. Guards were ordinary, but they always chased them.
Alec shook his head and forgot about the man. He had to focus on what they were about to do. He had to keep himself and his brother safe, and they couldn't get caught.
Ben skidded to a stop in front of a closed door and quickly pulled it open. They both went inside and Ben immediately closed the door behind them. Alec scanned the room; everyone was looking at them, but no one seemed surprised to see him. The only one that he recognized was Max, but he figured he wouldn't know any of the others.
"This is Alec," Ben introduced. "He's my brother."
"Is he coming with us?" A boy asked. Alec assumed this was Zack. Ben had told him that Zack was their CO and he would probably be the one in charge of the escape.
Ben nodded, "We're ready to go."
Zack motioned for the others in the unit to take their positions. Alec followed Ben to the window and waited for the signal. This was his last chance to back out of doing this, but he was already committed. He couldn't change his mind now; he just had to go through with it and hope for the best.
They shattered the windows. Alec stuck close to Ben as they both jumped to the ground far below. An alarm instantly sounded as the children all jumped and landed in the snow. He wished he had more than just the oversized t-shirt to wear, or at the very least he would've liked to have his combat boots. But they hadn't stopped for fatigues; they really should've thought this through more and come up with a better plan. Or not try to escape at all.
He couldn't do anything about it now; it was too late. Now he had to run.
Soldiers were already chasing them as they ran from the compound. Alec stayed with Ben every step of the way and Ben kept glancing over at him to make sure he was still with him. The snow was hard to run through, but they were genetically enhanced so they could manage. He just hated being cold and wet.
They ran to the forest; he hoped the trees would give them cover for when the guards started shooting. He knew the guards would start shooting them if they couldn't catch them. It would be imperative that they didn't get away. If there was more out there besides Manticore, then no one could know they existed.
Ben swerved after a while, and then they stopped in a small clearing. Zack was there already and a group of the other children in Ben's unit were there too. Max broke through the forest after another minute and everyone in the group looked to Zack. He pointed to two and motioned for them to go off in one direction. He did that with another pair and Alec realized he was splitting them up. It made sense to split up; it would give them a better chance to get away.
Zack pointed at him and Ben and motioned to the left. Ben nodded and stood up. Alec followed his lead and together they started to run again.
He could hear motors now and they were gaining on them. Dogs barked in the distance and the sharp pops of gunfire could be heard from the right. They ignored everything and kept running. The fence was getting closer, but the motor of an ATV was practically on top of them. The ATV broke through the tree line and headed straight for them.
They weren't going to make it to the fence in time. The ATV was right behind them. Alec turned his head and saw the man bring his gun around and aim at them. Alec ran at Ben and tackled him to the ground. They rolled away from the ATV, and the machine couldn't stop in time before it slammed into the fence.
The fence bowed from the force of the impact, and then bent as the ATV tried to tumble through it. The man fired wildly around himself as the fence wrapped around him and the electricity from the fence went through him. Bullets impacted the snow around him and Ben and he ducked closer to his twin. The shooting stopped after a moment and Alec cautiously raised his head to look for more threats.
Once he decided they were ok for the moment, he pushed himself off of Ben and let him up. They both did a quick once over on each other just to make sure they were really ok.
"That was close," Alec said once he was sure Ben wasn't hurt.
"Too close," Ben agreed.
They got up and dusted the snow off of themselves. Their oversized t-shirts were soaked from rolling around in the snow, but there was nothing they could do about that now.
Alec slowly walked over to the man tangled in the fence. He wanted the sidearm that the guard was carrying. He would feel better if they didn't have to wander around completely defenseless. They were already vulnerable thanks to their clothing and their size, but if he had a weapon then at least he could protect them a little more.
"Alec," Ben warned. "Don't."
"Ben, we need a weapon," Alec explained.
"It's too risky," Ben argued. "You're gonna get yourself electrocuted."
"I am not." Alec picked his way over the wrecked ATV. He wished he had time to get it working again. It would be way easier to travel and get away from this place if they had an ATV. But he would settle for the gun if he could get it.
"Alec," Ben hissed.
Alec ignored him and crawled over to the unconscious man. He didn't have to get too close, just close enough to get the gun out of the holster. He wasn't going to bother with the machine gun; it would be too hard to hide and carry around with them.
He scanned the guard to make sure he was unconscious before he focused again on the handgun in the holster at the man's side. He reached out to grab it and just as his fingers wrapped around the grip another hand grabbed his wrist. His eyes widened and he cried out in surprise as the man became conscious again and seized him. He tried to fall back and break free of the hold, but the man had a good grip.
The man made a sharp twist and he felt the delicate bones in his wrist break. He held in his cry of pain because that's what he was trained to do, but he couldn't help his eyes watering.
Ben suddenly flew in and punched the man in the face. Blood exploded from the man's nose and he fell back, unconscious again. Ben turned away from the man and slowly reached out to inspect his wrist. He let Ben check even though he already knew his wrist was broken.
"It's broken," Ben said simply.
"We can't do anything about it now," Alec muttered.
Ben looked like he wanted to say more, but Alec was grateful that he didn't. It was his own fault that he had to go for the gun. He should've made sure the man was actually unconscious instead of just assuming he was. Ben released his wrist and turned away from him. He reached out and grabbed the gun before he followed Ben again.
He was within reach of his boys and he blew it. He knew they would be afraid of him since he was a guard, but he had hoped they would sense that he wasn't going to hurt them. But he'd blown it by moving too fast. He'd been so close to getting them, but now he had to find another way.
At least his boys were together. Somehow they had found each other and now they were sneaking around together. He smiled thinking of all the trouble those two could get into together. Sam and Dean would love them, he knew that for sure. He just had to find them again.
The alarm suddenly sounded. He threw his head back and groaned. He had a feeling that his boys just took matters into their own hands. He instantly got on the radio and tried to figure out what was going on. He needed to know if his boys had made a break for it or if it was just a false alarm.
The radio was buzzing with way too much activity. He couldn't really tell what was going on.
Lydecker suddenly ran by and he ran after him, "Lydecker!"
Lydecker turned in surprise and frowned. "What?"
"What happened?"
"One unit is making a run for it," Lydecker replied impatiently.
"Which one?"
"Doesn't matter. They'll be back again soon," Lydecker said smoothly.
He nodded and let Lydecker walk away. He knew, even though Lydecker didn't say it, he knew his boys had made their escape. Which meant it was time for him to make his own escape. He needed to find them before the other guards did. He had just found his boys, he'd be damned if he lost them now.
More soon...