Prologue

One of the most important events in the universe occurred on 17th of March 1987, on a backwater planet in one of the most isolated star systems in the galaxy. The significance of the event will not be known or felt for another twenty eight years. On the most intense blue, white, and green planet, a child was born, unknown of fate's plan for him. He cried for warmth, cried from hunger, and cried for the lost sense of safety he felt in the womb.

The nurse placed the child in its mother's arms, where she looked down at her son. He had the most intense green eyes she ever seen, and a head full of brown hair just like her. She held him only for a moment before the doctor yelled for clamps, and the nurse took the child away as the doctor and several other nurses went work on her. The mother couldn't make sense of all the medical terms except for one, hemorrhaging, she was bleeding out. The doctor and the nurses worked on the mother for some time, but they were not able to save her. Just before she died, she drew in her last breath and spoke a single word.

"Kyle"

In the next room, Kyle cried out for his mother.

Ten years later

His father came home drunk as usual, Kyle, suffering at the hand of his father since he was born, knew he had to make himself scarce. But before he had the chance, his father grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him to the master bedroom. Kyle knew what was coming and surrendered to the evitable. His father pushed him on the bed and, his words slurring, yelled at him to take both of their pants off. Knowing the price of disobedience, Kyle hurried to comply. After the pants were off, his father forced himself onto Kyle, thrusting into him until he came. Father slumped onto the bed and muttered,

"Finally made some money on you, you murdering bastard. Ran into couple of old friends of mine, Ron and Bob. Sold ya to them for five grand, said they wanted to make a movie with ya."

Kyle froze at hearing the names Ron and Bob, he knew them, his father had loaned his body to them on occasion, but the last time he was there, he stumbled across a snuff video starring Ron and Bob who were raping a boy Kyle met once from across the street who vanished three months ago. The video showed them raping and killing the boy,

"Enjoying the show?"

Kyle screamed as Bob spoke up from behind him and he spun around, Bob was waving the same knife he used on the boy in the video, but before Kyle could say anything, his father came in and Bob quickly hid his knife behind his back. That was the only time when Kyle was glad to see his father.

Kyle knew the kind of movie they wanted to make and begged his father or at least tried to,

"Please father, I don't want anything to do with them."

"Shut up, you piece of shit." He punched Kyle in the face, "You killed my favorite fuck-toy ten years ago. It's not that easy to find the perfect fuck-toy. She was the type that believed in the soul mate crap. It was so easy to lead her on and trick her into believing whatever I said. Now all I got is a cheap piece of crap that can't even suck a dick right."

"But I saw them fuck and kill a boy."

"Oh you mean the boy from across the street, yeah; who did you think was holding the camera? That kind of shit doesn't do a damn thing for me but I owed them a favor."

Kyle was used to being afraid, but at the cold contempt and uncaring voice coming from his father, Kyle was beyond terrified. Kyle had only met the boy once shortly before the boy died. He had done nothing but talk about his birthday which was the day before.

Kyle remained still and silent until he heard his father snoring, then he slowly got out of the bed wincing at the pain in his butt. Kyle had made the decision to run, he crept to his room, which actually was an closet, and packed what clothes he had when an arm whipped around his neck and pulled him to his father's chest,

"I don't think so," he pushed his M1911 pistol to Kyle's head, "I promised Ron and Bob that I'll bring you to them naked tomorrow, beside, they already paid me."

Suddenly consumed by survival instinct, Kyle thrashed and one of his heels managed to find its way up between his father legs. He doubled over in pain and dropped the gun to grab his groin. Kyle dove after the gun and grabbed it. His father, seeing Kyle grab the gun, lunged at him, but before he could reach Kyle, his head exploded. No matter how hard he tried to remember afterwards, Kyle could not remember pulling the trigger. The recoil nearly broke his wrist and caused him to drop the gun. He looked at his father's body and threw up all over it.

The slamming of the door opening startled Kyle, and he grabbed the gun just as Ron came running down the hall carrying yet another pistol. Apparently Ron and Bob had been waiting outside for Kyle's father to fall asleep so they could sneak in and kill him and take their money back along with Kyle.

Kyle lifted the gun and fired, he never knew if it was luck or fate, but the bullet he fired passed through Ron's chest and into Bob's neck as he followed closely behind Ron. They both collapsed, Ron's death was instant, but Bob grabbed his neck and gurgled for a few moments before he bled out.

Forgetting everything he had planned, Kyle left everything behind and ran.

One year later

The morning light shone through a crack in the ceiling of the abandoned drainage tunnel and woke Kyle from his regular nightmare. Every night since he ran away after shooting his father, Kyle was plagued by nightmares of his father along with Ron and Bob.

It always started the same, the events following up to his father death was the same, except it changed after he dove after the gun his father dropped. The moment his hand wrapped around the gun, tentacles sprouted out from the floor and wrapped around his arms and legs restraining him until his father took the gun out of his hand. His father grinned and called out for Ron and Bob, they came walking in through the living room with grins on their face. But it wasn't the grin on their face that held Kyle's attention; it was the blood bleeding out of Ron's chest and Bob's neck. He turned to his father and saw him grin before his head exploded bathing Kyle in his father's blood.

Kyle always woke up at that point, and fortunately today, the sunlight woke him up earlier, before the head exploding part. He sighed and got out of his bed, rubbing his hand trying to warm them up. The fire in the rusted barrel that Kyle and his alcoholic friend had lain to sleep by last night had gone out. Groaning, he grabbed some of the tree limbs they've gathered and packed into their shopping cart a few days ago; and he managed to rebuilt the fire with a little help from vodka, flint, and a piece of metal. He grabbed an long branch and poked his friend Jake,

"Jake, wake up!"

"Huh," Jake sat up rubbing his eye, "what's up."

"You let the fire go out."

"Oops," Jake looked around and asked, "Hey, where's my vodka?"

"You know, vodka makes an excellent lighter fluid. I've never seen the firewood goes up in flame so fast before."

"Oh come on man! That was my last bottle of vodka. What the hell am I suppose to drink now."

"Why don't you try water, last I hear, it was good for you."

"Go fuck yourself."

"I tried but my dick ain't long enough. Now, we need to get some more firewood and bring it in to dry for later."

"All right," Jake got up and warmed his hand over the barrel. Once they warmed up enough, they went and spent half of the morning gathering up fallen tree limbs. Once the shopping cart was full, they returned and fed the last of the dry firewood to the fire and left the cart beside the fire to dry the wet limbs.

Kyle and Jake left to scavenge for food, first they visited one of the few restaurants where some of the cooks were willing to hand out some edible leftovers. They struck out at that one, and the next three were the same, resigned, they resorted to shifting through the garbage. They managed to find enough food to last them for the day, and they shifted their attention to "scavenging".

What Kyle and Jake called "scavenging", the law would call pick pocketing and they always made sure to steal or "scavenge" from the rich only. It was one of the few rules taught to Kyle by Jake, when he came across Kyle starving and freezing to death about eleven months ago. The rich can easily replace whatever Kyle and Jake steal.

Kyle and Jake headed uptown, where they immediately went to work relieving the wealthy of their burden. Just after two hours, they already lifted ten wallets which combined give the total of two hundred and fifty nine dollars. The credit cards and the driver licenses, they tossed into the first garbage bin they came across, as their previous experience with credit cards and driver licenses nearly got them caught.

Kyle and Jake headed to their favorite mom and pop store, Pappy' and used the money to buy some non-perishable food and hung around to chat with the nice old lady who owned the store. Janelle White had opened the shop with her husband fifteen years ago, and not long after, they became well liked by the local neighbors. When her husband died two years ago, nearly the whole neighbors came to his funeral.

A year ago, a boy with brown hair and very intense green eyes that bears a terrible resemblance to those she saw in her husband's eye when he came home from Europe after World War II. She immediately fell in love with the dear boy, and came to see him as a grandson she never had. Once, she asked Kyle about where he came from, he clammed up, muttered something about having something to do and left. The next day he came in and acted like nothing had happened, and she never asked again.

Today, Kyle was drafted by Janelle to help restock some of the shelves, Jake stayed at the counter to watch the TV where the local news was showing,

"- be all we have for weather for today. Now over to our daily Criminals watch, Maxine Harrington."

"Thank you Katherine," a beautiful oriental woman spoke, "A year ago today, three men were found shot dead in an apartment owned by one of the victim, a John Weber. The other two males found in the apartment were identified as Ronald Williams and Robert Ackerman. The weapon used in the killing was left behind, and the police department discovered two sets of fingerprints on it belonging to John Weber and his son Kyle Weber. After some investigation, it was discovered that John Weber did not fire the gun. At the moment, it is believed that his son Kyle is responsible for the killing, and the police department has offered a five thousand dollars reward for his arrest."

Jake listened halfheartedly, but when Kyle's name came up, he sat up and paid attention. He was unsure if it was the same person, but when Kyle's picture came up, his eyes gleamed, and when the numbers for the hotline came up, he immediately wrote down the numbers. Kyle came out from among the aisles and Jake quickly turned off the TV.

"Hey Jake, are we done here?" Kyle asked, and Jake affirmed. Kyle turned to Janelle who thanked him for the help, he shrugged and said goodbye.

They left with Jake following Kyle, while he discreetly slipped the piece of paper with the phone numbers into his pocket.

The next day

BETRAYED! Kyle weaved through the back alleys trying to run from the police chasing him; he couldn't believe that Jake had betrayed him. A police cruiser screeched to halt at the end of the alley trying to block him, but Kyle just changed direction into one of the side alleys and managed to squeeze under the chain link fence blocking his way. That fence blocked the cops long enough for Kyle to slip down an uncovered manhole and lose himself among the maze of sewer tunnels.

Chapter 1 »