Enhanced

I

2042

As the rubber tires grazed against the black asphalt roads, no sound, not even the furious rumbling of the engines could pull him from his doze. He just wanted to be at ease, due to the rising influx of the changes in his life. Everything just felt so.. Sudden. There were no signs, no indications that it was coming. Why now? Why him? He would tell himself consistently on a daily basis without fail.

From the very first day he was told that he was forced to cease all his studies, to the day he was notified that he will have to enlist inescapably as a recruit in the National Enhanced training and Verification Regiment. More simply known as Never. The aspects of his life that built up the foundation of what it was, have come to pass. His friends, his childhood home, his whole self was parted from him the moment he buckled the belt. It was a painful end, coupled with a barbed beginning.

Miles' eyes quietly stayed shut in order to help ease himself with the destiny that lied at the end of this drive. Flickers of light protruded his sockets as his thoughts lingered. There was something about silence that he found serenity within. A place where he also found fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of those that could veil over and detach himself from his soul forever. The sound of the wind blowing against the vehicle's eccentric curves, howled through the depths of his ears. As the darkness began to seep away into nothingness, Miles pictured the image of a lone figure, standing against the luminescence of the sun behind it.

The appearance of the figure got clearer and clearer, closer and closer till it was at the edge of his sight and the tip of his touch. Once the angelic canvas began to finalize it's finer details in his thoughts, the piercing ring of his drums rattled relentlessly and compelled him to his waking. Gasping  for a single breath of air, he pivoted his head vigilantly around with a surge of adrenaline and fixated his vision to the duffel bag with the insignia of Never before eyeing his parents in the front seats.

Swerving round a smooth corner in the misty forest that they were journeying through, Miles came to his senses and remembered everything that was happening again. At least he had his twinkle of peace, a tranquility he wouldn't be able to experience for a while, he assumed.

"Why me?" Miles asked with straightforwardness. His mother slowly turned round from her seat and made eye contact with her son. "It could've been any of my friends that would've had to do this too. Out of everyone in school, why was I chosen?" He questioned wistfully

His eyes were too full of the desperation for closure and his sense of purpose was adrift. She knew what Miles lost.. And she also knew why. Sooner or later, he was going to piece together tiny bits of what he was and why he was significant. Epsu made them feel like having Miles was a tremendous and a rare opportunity to have. They tried to make them feel special. Was losing a child they've been teaching and nurturing their whole lives to the government a rare opportunity? Sure, it was. Did it make them feel special? Not under any condition was separation a speciality.

Pulling her gaze from Miles, unable to sustain that epitome of her son without feeling the regret she had for having to hide so much from him. Her breath manipulated into a earnest sigh that echoed within the vehicle.
"Miles.." She dragged, tilting her view to his father who kept the car mobile at a steady pace.

The same words were conjoined whenever he'd ask that question. What was so special about him that their own country wanted him and other kids like him to be placed into a military bootcamp without their own approval? Why was it so enforced that they ripped them out of their learning and were put aside to be a part of a protection measure? He lived a perfectly normal life, why did that have to change too?

Lamenting his thoughts in the form of a tender exhale, Miles didn't need to hear the phrase reverberate once more. "Yeah, 'it's better that you don't know'. I know, mom." He replied word for word before leaning his head back onto the jittery glass window. His mother took another glance back at him, only to see his face pulled away from sight.