Chapter 40

"Have you lost your complete mind?" Keller stepped over the dead soldier. His feet falling in blood saturated gravel.

"No." Asia sneered. "I'm going to get my brother back."

"Brother?" Oliver croaked inching closer.

Asia looked at them realizing they didn't know all the things she learned. "I met our mother." She gestured to the dark warehouse. "We're test-tube babies...and we're all siblings." Ethan blankly stared at her; Eric furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and Oliver's jaw dropped. "But not him." She turned back to Keller. "He's the jackass that won't tell us where our brother is."

"I had a crush on you," Oliver told and then gagged.

Eric snarled at him.

"I don't understand any of this...my brain hurts already." Ethan rubbed his face then dropped his hand. "You know where this...Factory is."

"Yes." Keller plainly stated.

"Then why won't you tell us?"

"Because...one does not just go to The Factory," Keller said. "And come out."

"Okay." Asia looked at Shaka sitting down by her feet. "So, we'll have to fight our way out."

Keller rolled his eyes at Asia and she rolled her's back. "You're not following...once you step through that door. You're in. You don't come back out." He gestured. "Not you...the you, you are right now. They take over your mind. Erase it all and make a new you. A controllable you."

"Are you talking about...mind-altering?" Eric asked. "Is that a...real thing?"

"Yes!" Keller frowned at their unbelieving glares. "Tell me...do ya'll remember anything before you were twelve." He folded his arms tightly. "And think real hard."

A minute passed and they came up with nothing.

"I don't—" Oliver covered his mouth before he finished his statement.

"You don't remember anything but waking up in your childhood home." Keller finished for him. "It's because you were at The Factory."

"What are you saying?" Asia asked the question even though she was putting the pieces together herself.

"What I'm saying is..." Keller rested his hand in the crook of his neck inhaling deeply. "In The Factory...we are created. In The Factory, we are born. In the Factory, we are trained and then a month before our thirteenth birthday they take us to Lucid and wipe it all away." He gestured, waving his hands out. "Then a day later we graduate to The Mirage where they give us new memories and then once that is complete...in two days time...while we're still under the serum...they transport us into a house we never lived." 

Keller swallowed hard remembering the pain he felt when he was told the truth about his life. "In the morning, we wake up believing that that bedroom is ours. Believing we hung that poster on the wall or picked those clothes that hang in your closet." A pink tint shaded his eyes. "You go downstairs and see people you think are your family...mom...dad...brother or a sister. Then you meet friends you just click with." He gasped drawing in a deep breath. The boys looked at him blankly while Asia stared off in the distance. "An instant bond that you can't explain. But those people aren't your friends. They're your progeny...your real family."

"And that's why we have to get Denver back," Asia spoke silently but clear. She let the tear that fell from her eye and trickled her cheek as it rolled down. "They think they own us...Ares, I mean. Ares...thinks they own. That they can do whatever they want to us. Take whatever they want from us. They beat Ashlyn. Bombed our house while we were still in it."

"Killed Jordan and Yasmin," Eric told.

Oliver wiped at his eye. "And Chris, Emily, and Kylie."

"I..." Ethan took a breath still feeling the box that held an engagement ring. "I don't know where Leslee is." He tried to blink away his tears.

Asia wiped at the trail the tear lifted, "Denver is our family. Leslee will be." She nodded at Ethan. Remembering Denver's words when they were in the hallway you uttered, "I don't care if I have to go through hell...I will get them back." She eyed Keller.

"Where's The Factory?" Ethan asked.

Keller held Asia's gaze. "You already know where it is." He turned to the guys. "It's hidden in plain sight."



Where do you think the Factory is?

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