Prologue Part Three

He and the other kids were taken to a remote town in the middle of nowhere. The houses were built in a mixture between the surrounding clay and wood and were guarded by men with assault rifles.

They were ushered into a house, caged off from the rest in the dark. He was used to being in the dark, his room was the only in the house where the lights didn't work, so he could see perfectly fine. He could make out ten other kids of various ages, and he guessed that he was the oldest.

After what felt like ages of them being in the dark, a girl who was the youngest started crying loudly. The other kids feared what would happen to her, so they tried to shush her. The oldest girl hugs the child, comforting her as she calms down.

The other children take notice, and begin to huddle around the girl as well, trying to find comfort in anything in their dire situation.

They begin to quietly talk and introduce themselves. He doesn't pay attention, because he knew what was to come and knew he shouldn't get attached to anybody.

He felt a tug on his shirt and he looked to see it was the girl who cried. She motioned back towards the group and found that they wanted to know his name.

He turns away from them. He begins to silently weep as he realizes now that in fifteen years, he never once heard his own name come from his parents' mouths.

The weight of everything that ever happened to him played through his mind as he continued to cry about everything. He feels an arm wrap around him, embracing him into a hug.

The hug doesn't have the same effect as the child, in fact, it just makes him mad. He pushes the kid who hugged him away into the others who were coming over to also hug him.

Fearful, the kids back away, and decide to leave him alone from now on. Since that incident, days pass without anything happening. The others go to the oldest girl for anything while keeping their distance from him.

When small portions of food is shoved into the room, he lets them eat first, and then eats whatever scraps are leftover. He was used to hunger, he would go days without food, before his parents remembered his existence and would throw whatever they didn't want his way.

But, he didn't eat for another reason. He knew something was going to happen soon, what would be the point of eating if they were most likely going to die?

Unbeknownst to him, he was right. A full week went by before the kids could hear something approaching. The door to their building was thrown open and men rushed in, pulling kids out roughly.

They were lined up outside as they saw a black Bentley leave a trail of dust in the distance. The car pulls up and a guy hurriedly opens the door in the back. A round man wearing a white suit step out as all the other men salute with respect.

He approaches the first kid, who flinches as he nears. He looks at him with disgust and moves on. Likewise, he repeats this with every kid until he makes it to the oldest boy.

The boy knew what this man represented. He was their judge whether they would live or die. A well of emotions overcome the boy as he understands that at any second, they could die.

As the man in the suit leaned forward to inspect the boy, thoughts cross the boy's mind. He wanted to punch the man, do something to him.

But he knew, that if he did anything at all to the man, he would surely die. He would die and no one would even care. He would be all but forgotten, as he himself didn't even know his name.

The boy thought, 'I refuse to die without knowing my name.' With that thought, one emotion stood out from the rest, which reflected in his eyes that the man in the white suit saw.

He saw defiance.

It pissed off the man in the white suit. Who was this kid that looked at him like this? Speaking in a language the boy didn't understand, he motions towards the boy.

Two men come at him and knock him to the ground, holding his arms as they pick him up. Two more men come and begin to beat him, punching his face and stomach as he gets head down.

The kids back away as they watch this scene helplessly. After a couple of minutes of the beating, the men stop, panting.

The boy slowly looks up at the man in the white suit, the look of defiance back once again. The beating he just took was nothing compared to the years of abuse from his father.

While the two men punched him just to punch, his father didn't hold back at all. He could remember when his dad would knock the wind out of him or make him see stars.

The man in the white suit is pissed that the boy continues to look at him like that. He smugly nods at another man, who nods as well.

He approached the boy while only pitying the kid. At least his fate was easier than what the rest of them were going to go through. Being harvested for parts was rough on everyone involved in this business after all.

The man puts a gun against the back of the kid's head, and the kid momentarily panics. He didn't mean to upset the man in the white suit, he couldn't control his own emotions at the time. If he understood the man, he would have corrected himself after the beating. Just as the kid started to cry out, a resounding bang echoes through the desert as the kid's body falls to the ground, and the other kids cry at the sight.

The man with the white suit looks arrogantly at the kid he just executed who dared to look at him so. They wrap things up and leave the kids body on the ground as they evacuate the premises. His body remains there, as the desert wind blows the red sand, as the man who shot him tries desperately to forget he just killed a kid.