This Was the Begining

[hungercity_hellhound]

The Ministry geneticist had disappeared and Damien panicked. Just a week free from the prison, this was a dangerous time for everyone. Damien knew that was true because he had lived through it too. After searching the Chase, he walked out and stared down all the roads that led away from the base of the building. How could he even figure out where to go? He didn't know Dominic well enough to even guess what might grab his attention.

Slowly, he started to walk and a couple of the guard dogs that slept with the horses came trotting after him. They were constant companions and ran ahead into the tall grass that had once been the park around the bottom of the Chase buildings. Damien followed along, aimless because he wasn't sure where to look. The dogs plunged off into the flowers and toward the garden Jack had put in several years earlier.

Soon the dogs were back and whining for his attention. That was when he saw it, the figure stretched out on one of the stone benches that was bathed in the early afternoon sun. He could see Dominic had a few of the flowers which he was looking over with curiosity and intensity. There must be a hundred things going through the mind of a man who loved science and had never seen flowers in person, never touched them, never been in nature at all.

Damien had remembered that statement clearly when talking to the other member of his breeding program. He never left the buildings. Never had windows to look out and see the sun. Damien had spent his first 10 years or so in one of those buildings. That was too much. But, Dominic had spent at least 40 years in one of those windowless tombs.

Dominic sat up and Damien decided to go join him. The other blonde looked up with the fear and confusion still lingering in his gaze. Dominic had faced things that even Damien couldn't fathom, and Damien had seen a lot in his time.

“I thought you wandered off.” Damien mentioned when he sat on the bench beside him.

Dominic hook his head as he sat the flowers aside to pet the dogs who had come over. “You sleep differently.”

Damien hadn't thought about that but without windows, who knew what kind of day and night schedule they kept Dominic on for all those years. It could be anything.

“I wanted to see the sunrise.” Damien looked up at the sky. “I've never seen one before.”

Damien gazed up too then looked away. He could remember the shock of freedom but he knew that was nothing comparatively. Dominic had so many issues to face. They had started the reprogramming but it seemed that he had resisted much of it. He had all the isolation to overcome. Damien didn't even know what the man had endured yet.

“What did you do inside that building?” Damien asked cautiously.

“I didn't live or work where you found me.” Dominic was staring away into the distance. “I was in the Ministry center, in the MiniLove main building.”

Damien shuddered but it also meant that Dominic had a lot of information the Dogs could use. With time, like Damien, he would become a resource to these people instead of something to fear. First, this man needed time to get out from under the Ministry. They still had a hold on him, even here in another city far from their view.

“You said you were the head genetic scientist for our project. Did you do anything else?” Damien was curious about Dominic, maybe because it was finally someone like him.

“I was bred for children in the 6th generation.”

Damien pulled away and felt his skin crawl and fire blossom in his body. He was furious about that aspect of the project, forever would be. Eventually, he looked back to the other blonde and his questioning expression must have been noticed.

“I was already nearly the lead geneticist by the time I hit puberty.” Dominic spoke about this all like it was the most normal part of life. Damien felt it absolutely was not. “They started to breed me not long after, maybe two years later?”

Time, Damien had discovered, meant little to Dominic. His own ideas of his life and the time frame was skewed but Dominic's even more so since he didn't see people, didn't have new missions, did see the sun. He had lived with nothing to track time. Besides, the first thing that seemed to get scrambled when they attempted to rewrite you seemed to be your sense of time, and the flow of time before.

“There aren't any others still alive from my generation, I don't think, so I must have fathered most of the next generation.” Dominic was playing with the flowers and speaking like someone might about what they had eaten and the errands they had done the day before. Damien felt his skin crawl and shiver again.

“What happened to them?” Damien couldn't hold back that question. It came out before he thought about it.

“Before your generation, there was a lot more genetic modification.” Dominic explained but his eyes were on the flock of pigeons that was flying between the buildings. “My generation had the most. We were modified for both intelligence and strength... and all the things your generation still has. By the time we were teenagers, most of us were listed as a danger and either decommissioned or reprogrammed. I was.... smart enough and subdued enough.. I was useful. Especially when they discovered I was good for breeding.”

Damien didn't want to hear any more of this but he knew he needed to for both of their sakes. He leaned over and touched Dominic's arm with instantly had the blonde jimping. He forgot the lack of contact and pulled away. Damien sat quietly for a long time, watching Dominic take in the world.

“I have someone I want you to meet. I think he can help with... the programming.” Dominic offered gently and only went on when Dominic's expectant gaze turned to him. “We would have to travel far from Hunger City but I think it will help.”

Dominic nodded and then stood up. “When do we go?”

Damien stood up and chuckled. “I have a few things to do with Jack, tomorrow morning?”

Dominic said nothing more and wandered off into the garden.