Attahachee County

Prologue:

Beyond the County Line 

October 17th, 2042. Omnicare black site; Location Unknown

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Noa pressed the ice pack to his throbbing cheek, the latest reward his troublesome defiance had won him, and felt sorry for himself as he laid across his thin mattress. He was trapped and alone once again, with nothing but four claustrophobic walls - the color of nothing - for company. His instinct was to think of a way out of his situation, find the flaw, and exploit it, but every option was depleted. Surrounded by a radioactive wasteland, there was nowhere he could go and no one to care. Though micromanaged and oppressive, the Facility was the only place on earth where he had people who loved him, and now they wanted to take even that away from him.

Sinking deeper into aimless misery, Noa stripped off his torn scrubs down to the security belt he was forced to wear around his waist. How he wished he could rip that off just as easily… Noa longed to be free of this place, its regulations, and its board of directors. He spent countless hours trying in vain to pick the lock mechanism fastening the device to his skin, going as far as to skim the schematics off of an Engineer Brother's tablet. Though he knew the inner mechanics by heart, studying those schematics until he could dismantle the thing in the dark, it amounted to nothing because any tampering alerted Management. So Noa attempted to make a signal blocker, which would have worked if the Requisitions Brother hadn't ratted him out. At one point, the desperate boy simply went after the metal clasp beneath his belly button with a fork. Ever since, the cafeteria has given him nothing but flimsy plastic to eat with.

Regardless of what he tried, nothing worked. None of his grand schemes got him anything more than another beating. Demoralized was at the end of the rope.

Screaming, Noa lost control of his anger and frustrations and pried his slender fingers between his skin and the metal belt in what he thought was a vain and childish attempt to simply rip it in two with brute force alone. But, almost immediately, the remote-controlled lock keeping the device in place clicked open, and the security belt clattered to the ground by his feet. Noa, shocked, brought his hands up to his face and looked at them front to back.

"What..."

"Quiet down in here, Wife N-0A. Tampering with your 'safety equipment' will result in further re-education." The voice over the intercom jolted Noa's heart, reigniting his diminished tenacity. With nothing but the belt for a weapon, he picked it up and brandished it at the door just as it slid open.

Now that it was off, he was determined never to wear it again.

But Xen, a first-generation older Brother, walked in, wearing a nothing-colored jumpsuit and matching cap. Conspicuously, there was no security belt on his hips due to his generation being deemed a 'total failure' by company standards. Completely infertile and nonviable. As a Security Brother, however, he did have a stun stick strapped to his waist. He also wore a stern look on his older face, but it gave way to something more neutral after he pushed his way into Noa's room and shut the door behind him. He couldn't call the way Brother X-3N looked at him tender, but at least the violence in his eyes was gone.

Placidly, Xen's dull eyes scrutinized Noa, who stood - shapely and naked now that the belt was in his hands - in apparent shock at the sequence of events. Emotions brawled inside of Noa, who expressed them all in his tears as he flew into Xen's arms.

"They're going to do it, Xen; I think they mean it this time…" He cried, shaking in his brother's embrace as his worries flushed down his cheeks. "Management wants to ship me off next week."

It had been so long since Noa spent time alone with anyone, much less Xen, so he took the time to appreciate every detail he could. 

Unfortunately, beautiful Xen looked the worst for wear since the last time they were together. First-generation Brothers were all masculine, square-jawed with prominent Adam's apples; they had heavier bones and more robust muscles - which was why they'd been folded into the security core after the budget cuts. However, Xen looked underweight, and his skin - which used to be a healthy olive - was clammy and grayed. Just as nothing-colored as everything else at The Facility. The memory of the strapping boy Xen used to be versus the faint echo standing dispassionately before him expanded Noa's sorrow.

"Shshshsh…I know. That's why I'm here, little brother?" Xen attempted to soothe Noa by gently stroking his back, but despite his best effort, the older boy couldn't keep the revulsion out of his body language. In a forced approximation of affection, Xen rubbed Noa's bare back along the ridges of his spine. But one might think he comforted a giant spider, not the nubile twink he cradled in his stiff arms.

Suffice it to say Xen's ministrations had the opposite effect. There was a time when Noa and Xen kissed in the hidden alcoves of The Facility's hallways, exploring their human bodies in the innocent way children did when their minders weren't looking. Until they looked, and the boys were caught in the act. After that, Noa was shackled by that damnable belt, and The Facility closed the older generations, all failures, off from their sexuality with inhibitor implants under their skin.

"We plan to get you out of here…all of us."

A rush of questions piled up in Noa's head, stalling the tears. The last time the boys had been this close was four years ago, on Noa's fifteenth birthday. Xen had shared his daily dessert allotment before showing Noa his first dandelion. Together, they wished to be as unencumbered as the seeds they blew into the breeze. Noa would never forget how the sun wreathed Xen's broad shoulders before crashing into his first kiss.

But too much had changed since that boyhood crush; the simulacrum standing before him was someone he didn't fully recognize. Remember, Noa thought, not every Brother was an ally.

"W-what? What do you mean? And how did you disable the belt? Why-" 

"Focus, Noa, we don't have enough time for questions." Management would come down hard if it knew the Security Brothers could loop the cameras. Xen continued. "Xak is scheduled for field research tomorrow at the Morehead base, but we need you to take his place instead."

"You want me to go outside, but the radiation-"

"Is another Management lie. It has to be you, Noa; you're the only one they won't kill if you get caught. And, assuming you succeed, you miss your plane." There was no arguing with that, but the size of that assumption was part of Moa's issue. 

"What am I supposed to do in Morehead?" Noa pictured the roving bands of degenerate mutants prowling the Cross Timbers and shuddered. Fleeing the Facility was one thing when it was just a wish on a dandelion, but now that he'd come up to the fork in the road, Noa was frightened.  

"Here, we used your skimming program to get this." As he grabbed Noa's hand and placed a button-sized data cache therein, Xen's touch sent a frisson arching down Noa's arm. Gooseflesh toughened his supple skin, and Noa's heart raced for a different reason altogether. If Xen noticed, his brusque and impassive demeanor remained unchanged. "I don't think you realized how disruptive your software is for Management. That data breach is why they want you gone so badly."

"How though, Xen? Why would these people listen to me, a stranger?"

"I don't know, Noa. Just...make them listen. Whatever it takes." The Brother's rebellion resulted from hours of plotting, trial runs, and interdepartmental cooperation, yet the ploy couldn't bear the weight of scrutiny. Xen couldn't let their lynchpin second guess himself into inactivity, so he leaned in and kissed the crown of Noa's shaved head. "You were always the clever one, Noa; you'll think of something. We'll loop the cameras again tonight during the shift change, and I'll help you and Xak switch rooms. Make sure you have his radiation suit on at 0500 hours."

"And hope they don't look underneath?" Unable to prevent a sigh of annoyance, Xen relinquished the naked teenager and snapped. 

"This is the best shot for us and the last resort for you. So do you want to poke holes, or do you want to try?" 

"I... I'll try?"

"Then speak only when you are spoken to and toe the line until you find a way to separate from the escorts." Xen checked the digital watch face strapped to his wrist, then pulled out a final gift—a collapsible stun stick. If a situation where Noa needed to defend himself arose, then the plan likely failed. But even if the Brothers were destined to languish behind the Facility's confines until humanity expired, maybe Noa could be free. "Hopefully, you won't need it, but just in case."

The escorts were always fully accoutred with automatic weaponry and body armor. Noa's plastic cutlery was likely to be as helpful. The silent truth hung in the dead air between them, and then Xen said: 

"I should go." 

"That's it? Xen, wait, please…" Displaced by panic, tears welled in Noa's eyes once again. What was on the cache? Who was he expected to give it to, and what would they do about it? There were too many questions and variables; all Xen had done was lob them into Noa's room like a live grenade and leave.

The boy was falling, and the ground was rising up too fast. Seeking comfort, Noa reached out to Xen, but there was no comfort in those torpid eyes. Just desperation. Xen slipped his grasp and turned in the doorway before the disciplinary mask of a Security Brother fell back into place.

"Please, Noa, this has to work or… Just do it for us. And not another peep out you!"

The door opened, and Xen stepped through, bolting the heavy latch in his wake. Leaving Noa to end the night as it had begun, alone and afraid of the future.