Juan Ronando- The Story Begins

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Love, is it a gift or a curse?  Imagine all of that fuzzy feeling you have received and all that you have given in your lifetime. Now, imagine it all being torn from your soul and burned.  No family, no society, no light.  All you have is an empty cell with nothing but a cot and a toilet, and even then you’re lucky.  That is, unless you're one of those lucky, or stupid, enough to escape.  My name is Juan Ronando, and I am...well, was…a guinea pig.  Forced into submission by a terrorist group known as the Black Death.  They kidnapped me, experimented on me and threw me into a cage.  Day after day I was prodded with needles, electrocuted half to hell, forced onto treadmills to run for hours at a time, before being thrown back into my cage after a violent beating for not trying hard enough.  No one can truly understand pain until they are thrust far past their limit.  But I am getting ahead of myself; let me start from the beginning.  Let me explain how I came to reside in this hell-hole.



It all started about 4 months ago, in my home state, New Jersey.  I was a student at the prestigious Warenshill Jr. High School.  I was a pretty good student, A’s and B’s, a decent enough athlete, and in love.  Love, oh what an intoxicating emotion.  Never have I ever felt a time when I could just scream out of happiness.  Oh Hazel…  Uhh, so anyway, I was walking in the hall with her, daydreaming, feeling as though I had the world between my fingers, when there was this noise.  It was the sound of an engine going way too fast, getting louder and louder through the normal ruckus of the time between periods.  Then we saw the van, breaking through the trees and heading straight for the windows!  Now, these windows span for the entire length of the hallway, so everyone could see it coming. We all got the hell out of the way and backed up, soon however everyone started to panic. Cowards. As it busted through the window in an explosion of glass, I was hit on the face by a tazer.  It was like I was hit by lightning while being sucker-punched with a cinder block, it just stuck to my face and never seemed to let go.  Next thing I know there’s a metallic clinking followed by smoke everywhere and I’m stuffed into a van.  Then a needle is shoved into my neck, and the rest is dark.

I awoke next in my “special” little cage that they kept me in.  Some man came up to me outside the cage and started to speak in some middle-eastern language that I didn’t speak.  A translator arrived shortly though, and explained that I was chosen to be a…”representative” for some kind of "testing firm".  They said that my cooperation was for “the good of the people”.  I told him to piss off, and he grabbed me by my throat.  He explained that I had no choice, and left me with 6 words.  6 simple words, but stung all the same.  If you resist, she will die.  It was as if I had been stabbed in the heart, as if all that had mattered to me had just been kidnapped by these goons as they had with me.  So I stayed.  It wasn't until later that I realized the whole fiasco at the school was a front to make a message.  That I was to be the first of a long line of attacks to bring the country crumbling down.  How a single kid out of a random school being stolen would achieve that, I had no idea.  But I couldn't let then hurt Hazel, so I locked away my emotions and let the terrorists stab me, whip me, electrocute me.  I let them test away at me until my entire body was a numb blob of skin and blood.  Through all the testing, as painful as it was, something was happening to me.  I was changing.  I seemed to grow stronger everyday, faster, my reaction time grew quicker, my body grew more impervious to pain, I was truly changing. Good thing it made me a better liar too, because there was no way I was going to let these terrorists find out their methods work.  So I pretended nothing was happened, I used only a small fraction what I could really do, I withstood the pain that they inflicted, and I waited.  Waited for that one pristine moment when I could escape the hell that I had been thrown into.  Now I know what you’re thinking, if you leave, then those guys will kill your girl!  I thought the exact same thing.  But then I thought another thing, what if no one ever saw me go?  I thought long and hard and realized there was no other way.  I waited and waited for the one chance I would get, and what do you know, I got it.



One night, while I was pretending to sleep, some guard came towards my cell.  It was clear he was drunk, a crime punishable by death in this place.  Anyway, he came, and started talking to me. 

“What are you doin’?  Sleeping on such a nice little bed… I hate you!  Go eat…eat…an orange!  Yeah! Go eat an orange!”  He screamed all drunk like, bottle in one hand, and keys in the other.  He threw his keys at me, walked about 3 steps, and then collapsed.  Idiot, I though, that’s what you get for drinking on the job.  I picked up the keys, unlocked my cell, and ran out.  It was a simple matter to walk right out the front door.  Who would expect a drunken guard to hand the sole prisoner in the compound the key to escape?  Even so, I moved silent as the devil, looking for my way out.  The compound was underground, so it took some sneakiness and luck to find my way through the seemingly endless labyrinth of hallways and laboratories.  Eventually I found a stairwell that led to the surface, a small gas station that was served the purpose of drawing attention away from what it concealed.  At that point I thought I could hear people rushing up the stairs, so I ran for it.  I was probably a good half-mile away when the alarm started to go off, shortly after I could hear the sound of jeeps chasing after me.  That was about when the adrenaline really started to kick in.  I never ran faster in my life, I must have out-sped even the fastest sports car at that point.  Lucky for me, there was a lake nearby, without hesitation I dived in.  The rumbling of at least two dozen cars came and went, and I only came out once even the vaguest sounds of a vehicle were long gone.  At that point it must have been at least midnight, I was soaking wet, out of breath, and in the middle of nowhere.  It was possible I was still in New Jersey; it could have Oregon for all I knew.  One thing I did know, I was free.  It was a great feeling.  Lost, but free.  Now you're caught up, can you feel my pain?





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         Sleep can do wonders to your mind.  It can recap the days, bring back your deepest fears, and, in this case, bring you back to monumental events in your life.  It was as if I was back in Warenshill.  The hallways, the windows, the people, and, and…her.  Oh, seeing Hazel, even in a dream, made me feel all the emotions I had sealed up for so long.  It was as if there was a hurricane inside my heart, bursting with joy to see her again.  But the emotion didn’t last.  I then went through the noise, van, and tazer scenes all over again. But this time, I noticed something I didn’t before; I saw the face of the one who attacked me.  It was…no…no, it can’t be.  It’s not possible!  He’s not that kind of person!  The person…the person in the dream…holding the tazer…he’s…he’s not like that.  His name is Timir Zakihv.  He’s not a trouble maker, just a racist jerk who thinks that Russia is the greatest country ever.  He’s not one for violence, and yet there he was, standing in the van with a tazer shot at my face.  I didn’t want to believe it, but it had to be true.  Having so many different drugs in my system made my dreams clearer than the cleanest crystal, and more accurate than seeing the event with your own eyes.  Timir had given me to the Black Death.  He traded a life he had no right to give and for what?! Money?!  Power?!  When I get my hands on him, he’s going to be the late Timir Zakihv, because there is no way I am going to let him live this down.  Or live at all.







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         When I woke up, I started to think about what I should do. Should I go to the police? No, what would I say? Help, I was kidnapped by terrorists and now I have super powers?  I would be put in straight-jacket and sent to the "happy hotel" in nothing flat.  Out of options, I decided to just run forward and hope I reach some form of civilization.  So I picked a direction and just ran.  I ran…and ran…and ran.  Soon enough, I stumbled upon a road, and I could see buildings in the distance!  I sprinted to the little derelict town, and picked a newspaper out of the trash.  It said The Pennsylvania Examiner at the top in big bold letters.  PENNSYLVANIA?!  That’s way too far away for me to walk back to New Jersey!  But then I remembered that there were trains in Pennsylvania.  So I walked into the nearest convenience store and asked where I could find a train station.  The man at the counter said that the closest one was about 5 miles east, but were very expensive.  At that point I rushed out and ran the 5 miles.  Maybe 5 minutes later (yes, I am that fast) I reached the town that had the train station.  The train had just pulled into the station, and I would have to hurry if I was going to make it.  But the minute I tried to pass through the gate, I was stopped by a worker.  He just said one thing to me, No ticket, no train.  As he turned to leave me, I slipped past him and jumped onto the train.  I hid in one of those cargo-hold-things that you put your luggage in, and toughed out the ride.  It was going to be long, but worth it. I could only imagine the satisfaction I would get once I saw Timir on the ground, begging for mercy. I chuckled at the thought, and feel asleep.



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         I swear it must’ve taken days for that train to pull back into New Jersey.  I’m going to skip all the things I did to get off that train and not get caught, it’s very boring, so I’ll skip to how I got to the rat who sold my soul.  I had the good fortune to be right by a taxi service, so I told him to drive to my home town, East Berrville.  Let me tell you, a 3 hour taxi ride in a cab that smells like cigarettes and feet is ANYTHING but enjoyable.  Once we got passed the “Welcome to East Berrville!” sign, I bailed out so I wouldn’t have to pay.

         Berrville, oh sweer Berrville, how I have missed thy!  I wanted to do nothing but embrace that fact that I was home, but I had a job to do.  There was an evil lurking among us, and he had to be crushed like the bug he most certainly was.  It was relatively simple to find the school, it was getting in without being spotted that was the problem.  I snuck in through a back door near the gymnasium, and broke into the boys locker room.  I opened a locker and changed into the cloths.  I stole a gray hoodie and jeans, the normal attire of the "riff-raft" of the school.  To everyone around me, I was just another troublemaker who didn’t care for the rules.  So I put my hood up, snuck back outside, and waited for school to end. 



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At last, the end bell rung, and the school buses piled into their predetermined spaces along the perimeter of the school.  I waited by my old bus, waiting for that jerk to come.  A minute passed, then five, then ten, and still no Timir.  I began to worry, did he change buses?  Did he transfer?  Is he still with the terrorists?  But then I saw him, with his fancy suit jacket and smug grin on his face.  It made me want to break his nose.  I approached from my spot in the shadows and confronted him. 

“Hey Timir, gotta second?”  I asked.  He glanced at me sneered.

“Oh please,” He spoke with a spoiled Russian accent, “Do you really think that I would talk to someone like you.  You’re probably a good-for-nothing prostitute who sells drugs in his spare time. Now get out of my sight.”

“Oh really?” I said as I approached him, taking back my hood as I drew closer.  “Remember me?” I just stood and smiled.  His smug grin turned to a horrified expression with his mouth agape.  Apparently everyone on the bus noticed too, because the commotion suddenly subsided.

“N..no…you…you can’t be alive. They said they would use you, you should be dead!  YOU SHOULD BE DEAD!”  He screamed.

“Guess not.”

I grabbed him by his neck and slammed him into the bus, then threw him into the brick wall across from the bus.

“You selfish pig!” I stood him up and punched him square in the face before picking him back up by the throat. “Say it, say it, you son of a bitch. Tell them the truth!” The anger in my voice was nothing to the pressure I was putting on his throat. But all he did was smile, staring at me with eyes that showed nothing but disgust and pity. I tightened my grip and managed to get a muffled scream out of him.

“Alright, alright! I did it, I'm sorry.” He choked.

"But why! Out of, what, eight-hundred people, you pick me to be the one to be taken? What makes me so special? He forced a grin onto his face before speaking.

"Because you were one of the social types, one of the people who everyone knew and loved.  With you gone, everyone would be depressed, anxious, in other words, preoccupied.  It made working much more...easy."  I snapped, threw him down on the ground a few feet away from me. I slammed my fist through the wall and ripped out a pipe that was within it. I was about to jam it into his gut when a voice rang out.

“Juan, stop! Please!”  It cried.  That voice, I know that voice.  I forgot my mindless rage for a moment and looked up, and there she was…Hazel…  She was standing right at the doorway of the bus, staring at me with those beautiful eyes of hers.  “This isn’t you, your not the one to take out your anger, not like this!  Don’t let him mess with your mine! If you do, he would’ve won, is that really what you want? To escape from whatever he did to you to just let him ruin your life all over again?”  Her words melted my heart away like ice to a flame, and I dropped the pipe, and Timir slithered away like the pathetic snake he was.

         I sat down right there, and she walked over to me.  Again, she stared at me with those beautiful eyes.  Before I could say anything, she kissed me.  It was as if everything that had happened to me since the accident had just faded away. 

         “I thought you were dead, we all thought you were dead…”  She then started to cry onto my shoulder, not being able to contain this feeling of happiness anymore.

         “Don’t worry, I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”  I looked up at the bus, some people we're shocked, some were just gazing in awe, but most of them were smiling and laughing that I was still alive.  I guess they really did miss me, so I smiled back.  “Ok, let’s go home.” I spoke softly to her as I began to rise off the ground. “I have some business I have to finish.  I need to go.”  I kissed her on the cheek.  "I'll see you tomorrow.”  Then I sprinted away, and I could feel all their looks of amazement as they saw me speed away.



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         I walked up the driveway slowly, taking in the sight of which I had not seen in far too long.  Cars still parked in the front, pile of old, wet mulch in the yard, oh yeah, this is definitely my house. I knocked on the door a couple times, an the moment my mother opened the blinds she screamed at the top of her lungs.  I felt her warm embrace as everyone else came and crowded around me in five seconds flat.  Yes, I was home, and this time I wasn't going anywhere.



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         Thankfully my mom listened to my side of the argument about taking me to the hospital, it was far too risky for my "abilities" to be recorded in the system, at least for right now.  I gave her a kiss and ran off to school to talk to Hazel. I barely made it into the parking lot without seeing everyone being shoved together in the main lobby, a huge room with a skylight and window-walls to both sides.  I bursted through the front doors, a group of men with insignia on their shoulder’s turned to me.  They were Black Death, and they looked pissed.  One of them, obviously the leader, smiled and pulled someone from behind them, it was Hazel, all tied up and duct tape over her mouth.

         “We warned you boy,” He said with a thick Iraqi accent. “We told you that if you escape, she dies.”  He held a pistol to her head and started chuckling.  “I have no idea how you managed to escape the compound, but it's over.  We have eyes and ears everywhere.  You think we only operate out of that one state? That pathetic strip of farmers?  You're in for a rude awakening, and no is going to stop us.  But enough chat, I think it’s time that we showed you who is really in charge here!” That was about when someone started twisting around and tried to kick his legs.  And just as he turned, I sprinted and landed an uppercut right in his gut. The surprise of the punch made him both drop Hazel and cause him to tumble over the rest of his men.  “You little sneak, you were hiding your abilities from us! Our tactics were working, and yet you covered them up.  You can keep your little girlfriend; this puts our research in a whole new direction.”  Suddenly a helicopter descended and the skylight shattered as ropes fell down.  The men climbed up with the agility of spiders, but the leader stopped and turned to me.  “Farewell American scum, we will meet again.”  He climbed into the copter, and it flew away.  I untied Hazel’s knots and took off the duct tape.  I comforted her as I considered what was next. I looked at her, at my school-mates, at the copter fading away into the distance, it was obvious what was going to happen. There’ll be more people taken, more people changed, more people tortured. They’ll be back, and I’ll be ready.  I'll make them pay for what they did, and they'll pay in blood.