by America long ago, and now they use it specially to test their inventions. The citizens were all staff members and the government had kept a lot of normal people to create an artificial society for the test subjects. Almost every part of the island was under the government's watch. Ironically the island was called Light Haven, although the government had deemed it Hoax Haven. The land was mostly flat, but there were some hills up in the northern part, but nobody lived on them, as they were very pointy and steep. There was almost no wildlife there. Before every experiment, they changed or rebuilt some parts of the island. They recently made a whole new town just for this experiment. The 10 subjects were scattered around the island. 3 days had passed since the subjects were sent to this 'Haven'. In one particular house in the middle of Hoax Haven, was test subject number seven: Ethan. He was around the same age as Aiden. Ethan was researching about the island. As he began typing, his fingers began smashing the keys at an uncontrollable pace. Somebody rang the doorbell the moment he stopped moving his fingers. He got up and was out of his room and downstairs in a second, tripping next to the door. He opened the door in haste. There were two policemen standing outside. One of them had a short moustache and black hair, he looked older than the other one, who had very short brown hair and was clean-shaved. He nervously said, “Good morning’ officer, how can I help you?" The older one said," Good morning, we just came here because your neighbour had reported that he could hear loud banging. Is everything alright?" "Yes everything is alright. I think the banging he heard was when I fell down the stairs. Sorry about that." "Okay then, be careful kid. I don't want another complain from that neighbour." "Neither do I." After saying that, Ethan closed the door and sighed. The loud banging was not of him falling down the stairs, it was when he was trying to control his super-speed but kept banging the walls and kept falling. That was the reason he did not leave the house, as he was afraid that the other subjects would find him. But now he could speak normally and sometimes even walk normally if he concentrated hard. It was very easy for Ethan to figure out his ability, as it was a very obvious one. His super-speed created a lot of friction through his feet and ruined his sneakers, so planned on going to a sports shop and buy a pair of running shoes that could handle extreme friction. He walked normally for some time at his house to practice, and then he went out, locked the door and started walking. The shop was just a couple of blocks away, so it wouldn't be very difficult for him to concentrate. He went to the shop's 'running' section. There he saw dozens of things that can be used to increase speed. He saw a super fast treadmill. He decided that it would be very useful to practice. Then he saw lots of running shoes. He liked one with a dark blue colour; it also said that it could sustain a lot of friction. He didn't have to pay for anything as the government had given him, and all the others a special credit card. So he bought the treadmill and the shoes. After reaching back home, he placed the treadmill in his little basement. Then he tried on his new shoes, they were pretty comfortable. Afterwards, he tried the new treadmill while wearing his shoes, as he wanted to test them out. He knew he could run really fast, but he couldn't control it and often got really tired after running for a couple of minutes or sometimes even seconds. He was a brainy runner back in the US. So he knew what precautions he should take while running this fast, as he had researched about them. He put half of the top speed and started to run slowly. It was hard for him to control his speed and he often was too fast or too slow when he got tired. He noticed that although it was hard for him to control his speed, it was still a lot easier thanks to the shoes. He continued for about an hour or two, and then went upstairs to have supper. He was extremely tired and went to sleep straight after eating. It was the 3rd of June; he had 27 days left to live. "4th of June" Ethan read in his calendar. He was feeling nervous as it had been four days and he still didn't have a clue who the others were. He was siting on his couch, eating energy bars and thinking what he should do. That was when the occurred to him, "what if they already knew where he lived and were planning on a surprise attack to kill him?" So he decided to buy some weapons to defend himself in the worst case scenario. He knew a huge weapons shop, but the place took about 15 minutes to reach on foot. He first practiced for an hour on the treadmill with the lowest speed, so he wouldn't look like a complete weirdo having a tense face while walking. After he was finished, he took a five-minute rest, then took his credit card and started walking towards the store. On the way, it was easier for him to walk normally; he had almost perfected it but still needed to practice a couple of times before he could walk at a normal speed again. He was shocked to see so many people on the street where the weapons shop was. There were huge shops on both sides of the street. He got nervous, so he went straight to the shop, while looking for any suspicious people around him. The shop was divided in to different sections; there were sections for melee weapons, small firearms like pistols, grenades and other stuff. He went to the melee section first, as he knew that melee weapons were the simplest weapons to defend himself with. There were baseball bats, axes, chainsaws, pocket-knives, throwing knives, brass knuckles and more. He always liked to be prepared, so he bought a pair of brass knuckles and five throwing knives if the opponent was far away. He didn't buy any firearms, as he didn't know how to use them. He also bought a target board to practice throwing the knives. Ethan covered his eyes while the bright overhead sun blinded him as he slowly walked out of the store. Someone bumped into him as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the brightness. He caught a glimpse of the hooded-man who had bumped into him, standing still in the bustling crowd ten feet away and looking directly at him. Wasn’t he just next to me a second ago. Ethan tried to concentrate on the face, but as soon as he did, the guy turned in the opposite direction and faded into the crowd in a blink. Ethan got nervous and started panicking. He paced his way back home, checking every angle to see if the mystery man was following him. He locked the door and crashed on the couch. Walking at a normal speed for so long exhausted him mentally and physically. He couldn't be another subject right? Right…?, he wondered. He placed the target board on one of the walls of his basement. Then he went five steps back, and started throwing the knives. He noticed that because of his super speed, he could throw the knives really fast with a lot of force, but he needed to work on his aim quite a bit. He practiced until it was time for lunch. Subtle signs of improvement started to show, and now he could hit the target from ten steps away. He ordered a pizza, even though he knew how to cook. After eating, he decided on going out to explore. He took the pair of brass knuckles and 2 throwing knives just in case.
Chapter 4
Colorful people with cheerful smiles walked past Ethan, giving out positive and joyful vibes, which was the complete opposite of Ethan’s state of mind at the moment. Shackles of fear had started to bind Ethan; it slowly began to creep into his face. For him it felt like a volcano of panic that he had been trying to control suddenly erupted. His breathing turned from slow and calm to fast and heavy like a machine gun’s firing. Sweat trailed down from his forehead to his chin like raindrops on a window; partly due to the blazing heat, partly due to the immense stress of being killed any moment. He was walking through a shopping street, and by his side was an enormous glass building that acted as a mirror reflecting the sun’s rays. Annoyed by the constant sweat, he took out his handkerchief from his right pocket and began wiping his face while still walking in the same direction. When he looked up again, he noticed that everyone was frozen still, and they were all looking directly at him. “Why do they all look staggered, did they just see a gho-” Ethan instantly turned around. This can’t be happening. He gasped as he realised that the huge glass building, which was right next to him few seconds ago, was now five blocks behind him. He had triggered his super speed unconsciously. I-I have to get out of here. He was too terrified to even think of anything else, so he took off, even though he had almost zero control over his ability. While running, he saw someone swiftly step into his path. Ethan tried to slow down and change direction, but was too late and now the man was just a few steps in front of him. Ethan slammed into him and heard a popping sound as his right shoulder dislocated. He fell on his back and screamed with agony as a jolt of pain ran across his shoulder. He was running at the speed of a racecar, maybe the reason why he felt like he had crashed into a concrete wall. He looked up to see how the civilian he bumped into was. “I’m so sorry, are you…” the words trailed out of his mouth as he saw that the man was simply standing at the same position as he was before Ethan crashed into him. How’s this even possible? He didn’t even budge? The man turned around to face Ethan. His herculean figure completely blocked out the sun’s rays and left Ethan in his humongous shadow.
"I have never seen anyone running that fast", he chuckled and then said, "Damn, never thought it would be that easy to find one of you. Guess it’s my lucky day." He suddenly clenched his fists. Ethan stayed frozen still. His mind was repeatedly screaming for his body to move, but he remained there, lying on the ground, too scared and confused to do anything, like a deer in the headlights. The man's face tensed, muscles bulged
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