ANOTHER SIBLING, ANOTHER COUNTRY PART 2

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is a character from the Dark Times Series in this story.)


During his seizure, Riley remembered the life behind the fence of the Manticore lab in the North. 


<---FLASH BACK ONE--->

Riley was one of the top of the X7s. He was born and raised in the lab. He hated being in the lab. 
There was 24/7 military training and testing. 

Riley and the others just wanted to escape He knew of another escape by the X5s from a another
Manticore a few years ago by over hearing conversions between a man named Lydecker and
Benson.

One day he and the five others planned to escape. The other's names were Nick, Dawn, Diana,
Kaila, and Avery. 

"One thing we need is our Tryptophan." Kaila began. "We will die without it."

"We have to break into the lab where it stored then--." Riley replied.

"The soldiers would be guarding the place and the doctors are in there." Nick interrupted. "There
is no chance we will get in without being noticed."

"How about a distraction?" Avery suggested. "Kaila, Dawn, and I will create a distraction by
fighting with the others while, you, Diana, and Riley break into the lab and get the pills. When you
got the pills, we will hide them."

"Other thing with need is causal clothing." Riley told the others. "We can't wear the Manticore
clothes on the outside. We could be captured."

"We can steal some of the guard's clothes." Kaila proposed.

"The big question now is. How are we going to get out?" Diana said impatiently.

Diana was alway rushing into things without making a plan. ‘That was her weakness' the
commander told Riley and the others. Riley feared for Diana. Riley and a lot of the other seen
many of their ‘siblings' killed in training.

"We will figure that out later." Avery quickly said. "The commander is coming."

Everyone in the room stood up by their beds. The commander was followed by Lydecker and four
young kids Riley and the others never seen before.

"X7s meet some of the X5s." The commander yelled as he walked by all the kids. "They will be
staying here for a few weeks. Treat them as you treat each other."

The four X5s were assigned beds in the same room as Riley, Kaila, Avery, Nick, Dawn, and
Diana. Riley thought of this to be an advantage. "So I heard some you escaped a few years ago."

"There were two escapes." One of the X5 said. "The first one during a riot and the second during
the pulse."

"I overheard our commanders talk about only one escape." continued Riley.

"There was two." The same one said. "I was in both. Both times I was caught. They killed the
others who escaped. One of them was my best friend, the only X6, Loner."

"What are your names?" Diana asked.

"I'm Ritchie." The first one said. "This is Colin, Eileen, and Brandon.

"We plan to escape soon." Dawn announced.

"Good Luck." Brandon told the group. "You're going to need it."


<--FLASH BACK TWO-->

Riley was in the storage room Diana. They snatched the guard's street clothing from the locker
room and some guns from a weapon storage room. The X5s gave them their Tryptophan and stole
more from one of the labs. Riley and Diana were careful not to hit the alarms. A few days ago,
they found a copy of the security plans and studied them.

They made their way to the area of the lab where the vehicles were kept and met up with Avery
and Kaila. 

"Where are Dawn and Nick?" Riley whispered.

"They never made it past the guards." Avery answered. "We got to split up now. Brandon and
Ritchie told us we have a better chance to get away if we are separated."

Each of them began to find cars or jeeps with easy opening trunks. Riley finds a car that was
running. He opens the truck and crawls inside. Minutes later, he hears a door open and slam shut. 
Moments later, the car begins to move. He stopped at the gate to the lab and moved again.

When the car was moving again, Riley changed from his Manticore clothing to the clothes he stole.
Riley popped up the truck a crack to look out. Riley sees the car was pulling up to a large
building. Once the person who owned the car left, Riley climbs out and disappears into the night.

The first morning of being free was scary for him. He finds out he was in the city of Toronto. 
Many people are around him. No soldiers, no doctors, no scientists, just regular normal people. 
He hoped none of them worked at Manticore. By now, the people at Manticore would have
discovered him and others (if they made it out) were gone. Pretty soon, he would have to leave the
city. 

Riley began to stow away on trucks. He beginning to get worried about what would happen if he
ran out of pills. He knew his seizures will get worst and he would lapse into a coma then he
would die.

<--FLASH BACK THREE-->

On the run, Riley met a girl named Jondy. She was a Manticore X5 escapee from Vividyne Labs
near Gillette, Wyoming. Jondy escaped four years ago. She taught him how to get more
Tryptophan on the streets and how to survive. A month later Jondy and Riley split because it
would be safer if all the escapees knew less about each other.

<--FLASH BACK FOUR-->

Riley wanted to learn about the new world around him. He enrolled in a local Vancouver High
school. His best subjects were Phys-Ed, English, Geography, and Technology. When he was a
senior (he's eighteen years old) he signed up for a class called Geoventure. It was a class that did
camping trips, community service, and a trip to a third world country to help poor communities. 
The next year he joined Canada World Youth. Riley preferred helping people in need than his
training in the Manticore labs. 

<--FLASHBACK FIVE-->

One his first encounters with the Manticore soldiers since the escape came a year later. A group
of Manticore soldiers came out of nowhere and attacked him. Riley was lucky to get away. He
moved to Victoria, BC after that incident. He continued his World Youth Work.



Soon, Riley's seizures stopped. He left the bathroom and sat down in his seat. Max, the girl who
sat beside him, looked at him strangely. "Is it by chance those federal agents were looking for
you?"

"Why do you think that?" questioned Riley.

"By bar code that is tattooed to the back of your neck."

TO BE CONTINUED