Beaten

Nathan Werner just got drafted. They give him a couple weeks to get his affairs in order–easy when you’ve dropped out of school, alienated your friends, and never had a job or a family life to begin with–then it’s off to basic training. Now he’s a pacifist without a cause and the drill sergeant’s personal punching bag. He spends the next three months failing to stay out of harm’s way, failing to make friends, and failing to get himself sent home. Getting thrown through a shatter proof glass window doesn’t even buy him a day in the infirmary. He’s stuck, and his pathological inability to shoot other people is making things harder by the day. Plus the brass keep “clarifying” that they’re not actually in the Army. And there’s this high pitched tone that’s keeping Nate awake at night. And people’s veins keep turning black…right before they go on murderous rampages. It seems Nate and his non-buddies are victims of an experiment, the next great advancement in “defense” technology, and he could become just another suspiciously obedient bloodthirsty berserker at any moment. Faced with the prospect that his creators intend to make more like him, and use them to kill more people, Nate is forced to decide if he should keep his hands clean or become a disobedient type of killer. As the very blood in his veins darkens, he fears the decision is being made for him. This edition also contains the prequel short story, "Break."