Project Sparta (The Xander Whitt Series Book 1) by Gallagher B.B

Author:Gallagher, B.B. [Gallagher, B.B.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-09-11T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

The Compound

March 12th 2011

Xander collapsed in the street, screaming into his hands as the fire blazed over Ezra’s house. He smelled the rotting of the house and the burning of flesh. His eyes met the torched corpse and he heard the cries from the others.

Xander turned and squinted through the floating soot up to the windows looking out over the Compound and spotted a silhouette. An ominous feeling that came over him at the sight; a knot twisted in his gut. A pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him away from the perimeter—they belonged to Seamus. Xander snapped. He threw an elbow and caught Seamus in the windpipe. Seamus released and he hit the ground hard. He turned again to the window but the silhouette was gone.

Xander found his feet and started running toward the house. He was within twenty yards when the gas line exploded, sending one more violent blast through the Compound. Xander flew through the air.

Xander woke up in a sweat. He bolted up in bed and looked around in hopes of finding his way back to reality.

It had been three months, the new year had dawned, and nothing had gotten better.

Xander’s speculation grew wild despite Hardy’s announcement that Ezra had committed suicide. Hardy’s words during the memorial service echoed through his head.

“Ezra was troubled. The pressure—that you all face—got to him. Ezra took C-4 from the Armory. Judging by the wreckage, he planted the explosives next to the gas main in an effort to take out his whole house and him along with it. You all should consider yourselves strong for making it through where another has faltered. We have to be there for each other in this dark time in Project Sparta. This loss will help us grow closer. This loss…will make comrades out of us,” his voice trembled. Xander sat despondent, numb to everything around him. He remembered his initial thought upon hearing the news.

Did he really kill himself? Or did they dispose of him, knowing that he had mentally and emotionally checked out from the Project? They wouldn’t kill a dissenter, would they? But then who was that silhouette? And why did they seem calm and not alarmed or surprised by the explosion? Was that Ezra’s murderer?

Xander’s trust in his surroundings and the program had dwindled to a faint apathy. He mostly kept to himself, attending mandatory trainings and immediately retreating to his house afterward. The memory of Ezra’s death had replayed over and over like the hard drive of his brain had a glitch. The image of the charred corpse through the rubble of the house surfaced again and again, haunting him. His anger toward the instructors and the program itself was growing. He found himself adopting Ezra’s sentiments of the Project before his death.

They are completely manipulating us.

Over the three months since Ezra’s death, Duke had seized the opportunity to climb the leaderboard as Xander’s name descended like a bird with a clipped wing. Xander merely went through the motions of each subsequent battle.

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