Free Cryonic by Travis Bradberry

life to furthering its cause.”
    â€œOh, that is just sick!”
    â€œRoyce, please,” Alex begged.
    Alex may have been uncomfortable with my toying with Carson, but Celeste was working very hard to suppress her laughter.
    â€œI don’t feel sick,” Carson said. He was confused by the back and forth.
    â€œNo, I’m sure you don’t, knucklehead.”
    â€œWhat’s a knucklehead?”
    â€œYou’re a knucklehead.”
    â€œOh that’s terrific. Thank you.”
    I left Carson alone after that for Alex’s sake. If it wasn’t for Alex helping me escape, I’d probably have been in a reeducation camp already. Though I still couldn’t figure out why Alex had helped me in the first place. He definitely didn’t seem the type to take it to the man, and our freedom was looking like it was going to be short lived. When wefirst came to Celeste and Carson’s building, I’d actually wondered if Alex had brought us there to turn me in, but the longer we hung out, the more it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen.

14.
    The following morning after breakfast, Carson headed out to pick up their food rations for the week. I left Alex and Celeste at the table and stood at the window to watch the front of the building across the street. More soldiers had arrived and spread out in formation around the building. The street between our buildings was deserted as soldiers had blocked all vehicle traffic at both ends of the block. It was difficult to see in the few windows facing my direction, but there appeared to be a lot of movement happening behind them, maybe even some commotion.
    Celeste rose from the table and joined me at the window. She placed both hands on the sill and gazed down at the street below.
    â€œSo where you from?” I asked.
    â€œAll over, but I was living here in the city when the war started. You?”
    â€œCalifornia.”
    â€œSo how did you end up out here?”
    â€œUm, that’s complicated. Didn’t Alex tell you?”
    â€œHe said you’re part of some kind of experiment they’re doing in the lab.”
    â€œThat all?”
    â€œWow, look at the ego on you. You’ll be surprised to know that we weren’t just sitting there talking about you.”
    Her comment stung a little, but it was hard to argue with her point. Since being reanimated, I had been pretty selfish. I was having a hard time accepting that this wasn’t some kind of game, that these were real people I was dealing with.
    â€œYa, I guess I um . . . whoa! Look at that!”
    I pointed toward the entrance to the building across the street. Several wild-eyed soldiers were shuffling down the steps toward the soldiers standing in formation. The shuffling soldiers shared a similar gait, each man limping and dragging himself along as if someone had broken one of his ankles. The soldiers surrounding the building maintained their formation, with their backs to their approaching colleagues. When the first soldier from the building reached the formation, he grabbed one of the men by the shoulders and bit deeply into the side of his neck. The trailing members of the party followed suit, biting and tackling men in the formation to the ground.
    â€œAlex, Alex, get over here. You gotta see this!” I yelled.
    Alex ran over. His jaw dropped wide open.
    The attacking soldiers were decorated, and the rest of the formation had remained in their positions out of deference to authority. When one soldier couldn’t take it anymore, he turned and knelt to help a fallen comrade. A higher-ranking member ran over and yelled at him to get back into formation, but was promptly attacked by one of the carnivorous officers from the building. As soon as he went down, the rest of the soldiers broke formation, shots were fired, and all hell broke loose.
    We stood there silently absorbing the chaos descending upon the scene below. Medical personnel, workers