Prologue

 The following is a prologue excerpt from a novel in progress.

By Leah M.

All he saw when he woke up was a bright light. He quickly shut his eyes again, the

brightness of the white room was blinding. All his muscles were sore. He felt like he had been

working out for hours. He could hear people talking, but the sound was muffled. They were

close by, but he couldn’t tell where.

Then he remembered:

The needles.

The scientists.

The medicine that put him to sleep.

Everything else though, was blurry. He couldn’t remember even the simplest things like

his name, his parents, or why he was here. He opened his eyes more carefully this time. The

room was still bright, but not as bad as before. He could see straps holding him down on a

table. Next to him was a smaller table with all sorts of needles and tubes. There was expensive

looking equipment on the counter. He could see three people standing about seven feet away

from him. The oldest was a male, with hair starting to whiten. The other male looked much

younger, with dark hair and nerdy glasses. The third person was a female who had blonde hair

tied up in a tight bun.

They didn’t seem to notice him yet; they were focused on something on the counter, but

he couldn’t see what. He started hearing parts of the conversation.

“...should be perfect. Everything worked very well.” Old man.

“...still don’t know the effects. It could cause…” Woman.

“...be ready for transportation? Arlo will not want to…” Nerdy guy.

He thought of a way to get out of here. Maybe he could slip through the straps that kept

him on the table. He started squeezing through, but did not have much luck. He put his foot out

and accidentally knocked over the supplies on the small table next to him.

The scientists all looked at him and started walking over. Nerdy Guy picked up the

supplies and set them on the counter instead. The old man was the first to speak.

“Hello, Agent Brixton Sarrole. How was your nap?” The old man laughed, but when no

one else did, he coughed to cover it up. “So, how do you feel?”

Brixton replied, “I am very sore. What happened to me? Where am I?”

The old man nodded. “Yes, the surgeries went well but you should be sore for a few

more hours. I am Dr. Omari.” He pointed to the woman first, then the younger man. “This is

Dr. Sabine, and this is Dr. Kasem. You are here as one of the few specially selected for Arlo’s

new program. We chose you because of your strength.”

“But what did you do to me? And what is the program about?”

Brixton had no idea what was going on. Who was Arlo, and what was the new program?

“I thought you might have a few questions. I guess that’s what happens when you wipe

someone’s memory. Anyway, we gave you artificial strength, and there may be some side

effects we do not know about yet. The rest you will find out later. Your training starts early

tomorrow.”

Brix watched as Dr. Omari undid the straps that were keeping him stuck to the table. He

sat up, and winced. He was very sore. The doctors helped him off the table.

“Your room is the second on the left. If you try to escape, you will be punished. We

know where you are at all times.”

Brixton guessed that they put a tracker in his body somewhere. It was a little creepy.

He walked in the hall and found his room. It was not empty like he thought it would be. A boy

who looked a few years older was watching TV while eating a bag of chips.

When he walked in, the boy looked up at him. “Hey, new kid?”

“Yeah.” Brix couldn’t remember ever having friends, but he might have before they

wiped his memory. He thought it would be a good idea to make new ones, anyway. Would his

(maybe) old friends miss him? The scientists could have wiped their memories, too.

“Cool. I’m Torben.” He picked up the remote that was on the coffee table, and turned

off the TV. “I bet you have questions. I can answer some, because this is my second month

here.”

Brixton was relieved. After all these mysteries, someone actually had answers. He sat

down on the old couch next to Torben.

“I am Brixton Sarrole. They said I was an agent, picked to be part of a new program for

Arlo. Who is Arlo?”

“He is our dictator. Took control of our country about two decades ago. And yes, you

are an agent. The program is for young men and teens to train and hunt down Shapeshifters.

They are very dangerous and can appear as anything and anyone. That’s why we are tracked,

to make sure a Shapeshifter doesn’t sneak in as one of us.”

“So we have to fight them? Do we get weapons?” Brixton did not like the idea of having

to kill anyone, even if they were just a Shapeshifter.

“They try to encourage just using muscle to defeat Shapeshifters, but we usually get a

few daggers and a gun. We don’t have to kill them, they mostly want us to capture them so they

can find out secrets from them. They question them to learn where the other Shapeshifters may

be. It’s not a fun job, but it’s for everyone’s safety. Plus we get paid a lot of money.”

Brixton thought this through. It was for everyone’s safety. He should be honored about

helping protect his country, but something just didn’t feel right.

Brixton woke up the next morning to Torben shaking him awake.

“Time for work! You wouldn’t want to be late on your first day!”

Brix groaned, and got out of bed. His muscles felt a bit better today. He went to take a

shower and realized he did not have any clean clothes.

“Here, you can borrow some of mine.” Torben tossed him a shirt and a pair of pants.

“When you save up, we can go shopping.”

Brixton laughed and shut the bathroom door.

When his shower was over, Torben was already gone. Brix hoped whoever his boss

was would not be too strict.

He saw a boy in the hall, so he asked him where to go.

“Take a left, then a right. Fourth door down.”

Brixton muttered, “Thanks,” and hurried to work.

When he arrived, everyone was standing in a line, facing a tough looking man. He

joined the end of the line. The workplace looked like a gym, with expensive training devices

everywhere. There was also a shooting range in the nest room, and a knife throwing room next

to that.

This was going to be a strange job. Brix saw the man staring at him. He tried to look as

serious as possible. The man walked up to the front of the line and pulled out his phone. He

started scanning everyone’s wrists.

“Agent Kester.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Agent Jaziel.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Agent…” The instructor continued like that until he reached Brixton.

“Agent Brixton”.

“Yes, Sir”.

The instructor did not move on like he hoped.

“You were late. Since it’s your first day, I’ll let it slide. If you do it again there will be

punishments.”

“Yes Sir.”

The instructor walked in front of the class so he could face them.

“My name is Zakai. Today we will be training extra hard because tests are tomorrow.

They will choose a select few of the strongest and most motivated men to join our first team.”

Zakai left the room, and headed into his office. Brixton decided to start with a warm-up.

He ran two miles, then moved on to push ups and planks.

After eight hours of exercising, Brix was exhausted. His muscles burned and he was

covered in sweat. He took a cold shower before he went to bed.

The next morning, Brixton made sure to stretch and be a little early to work. He did not

know what Zakai’s punishments were, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out. Brix

made a cup of coffee and put on one of Torben’s shirts.

When he arrived there, he was one of the first. He met up with Torben, who must have

gotten up even earlier.

“Nervous?” Torben was trying to tease Brix, but he could tell Torben was nervous too.

“Yeah. I’ve only been here for one day.”

Torben laughed. “Good luck.”

Brix was about to say good luck back to Torben, but Zakai walked in. He was in a black

uniform, and had dark sunglasses on. He looked like he came straight out of a spy movie.

Brixton knew they weren’t far from it. They were a secret government organization, after all.

Following Zakai were three older men. They were still very capable though, with big

muscles and deathly stares.

The men introduced themselves as Hunter, Arrow, and Archer. Brixton remembered

that Torben told him government officials picked everyone’s names. These men must have

been especially menacing.

They each explained which part of the test they would be grading. Hunter was grading

how well the men could hit a target with a gun. Arrow would be grading the running, and

exercise portion. Archer would be grading their knife-throwing skills. After the tests are

completed, the score would be added up and divided over thirty. The top five skills would be

given a uniform and welcomed to the team.

The first test Brix had was exercise. He loved running, and had the fastest score for the

one mile test. Next was how many pushups he could do in a minute. Brixton got a score of 76.

When that test was over, he went to the knife-throwing. They had to chuck a knife at a

moving target. They had three tries, Brix got the target on his third try. Archer shook his head.

“That was close. You got lucky, kid.”

His final test was in the shooting room. They handed him a pistol. He had to hit a

similar target to the one in knife-throwing. It was also mobile, but the guns seemed a bit easier.

Bang.

He hit the target on his first try. Brix had no clue how he was so good, but it felt like an

instinct. Maybe he learned before they wiped his memory.

Hunter clapped. “Well done, kid. If you did this good on the other tests, I’m sure you’ll

make the team.”

Brixton realized he was right. He did do good. The only test he had trouble with was

knife-throwing, but it seemed so uncivilized. He didn’t think he could really stab someone

anyway. Even if it was just a Shapeshifter.

Soon after the last test, Zakai and the other men stood in front of the Agents. Brixton

took his place, at the end of the line.

He had to look professional. He had to get a position on the team. It would give him

freedom, a chance to get outside of this creepy training base.

Zakai started the announcements. “With the highest score of 27/30, Agent Jett,

welcome to our team.”

Jett walked over to Zakai and faced everyone. Archer handed him his new uniform and

gave him a pat on the back.

Jett had dark hair and darker eyes. He also had a giant scar running down his cheek. It

appeared to Brix that this man liked to get into fights. He looked very dangerous, and Brixton

wouldn’t be surprised if his favorite weapon was knives.

The next to join was a man named Rocco. He had blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.

Though he didn’t look friendly, Brix would rather get in a fight with him than Jett.

The third on the team was Torben. Brixton was very happy for his friend, if they were

friends. He wondered who his next roommate would be, if he didn’t make it on the team.

He was surprised when they announced the next names. There was a tie for fourth

place.

“The fourth place winners are: Brixton Sarrole and Slater Nelson, with a score of 24/30!”

Zakai looked as surprised as Brix was. This was only his second day, and he already joined the

team.

A team of elite government workers who trained to capture or kill Shipeshafters.

He stood next to the others on the team and received his uniform.

When all the other disappointed agents left, Archer spoke.

“Welcome to the ESA! You are now official members of the Eliminating Shapeshifters

Association. We will transport you to the team’s new training facility, where you will learn skills

needed to kill Shapeshifters. Pack your bags, we leave in an hour.”