Jane Doe's real name is Danielle Clark. She marked the first official interrogation for Sanders and me, and it couldn't have gone any fucking worse.

I enter the gym on base, grateful to find it empty. It's 3 a.m. and I can't sleep again. I make my way into the locker room and set my bag down on the floor. Reaching inside my locker, I grab the tape and wrap my knuckles. I pull off my t-shirt, shove it inside, and slam the locker door shut, making a beeline for the punching bag hanging in the center of the room. I need to beat the shit out of something. I'm still unable to push the events of Danielle's interrogation out of my mind.

I step up to the bag and begin my assault. My mind immediately turns to Danielle. She's seventeen years old and had been on the run for the last year and a half, leaving behind her father and twin brother. Like Maddie, she gave no indication that she planned to run, but unlike Maddie, she didn't run alone. Danielle ran with her best friend, Amanda. The two girls made a pact early on that if one of them started their period, they would run together. Amanda began hers just days before they left their homes, which were located on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Shocking them both, Danielle started her period a few months later.

Life on the run was not easy, but Danielle said adjusting had been especially difficult for Amanda. In fact, she loathed it, and after only three months she wanted to return home and face the consequences together. Danielle said they fought for days as she tried desperately to change her best friend's mind. Feeling angry and betrayed, the last thing she said to Amanda was that she was a coward, and she would never understand or forgive her if she went back home. The following day, Danielle woke to find Amanda gone. She had left without any goodbye.

Danielle said she was pissed off at Amanda for a long time, but eventually the anger faded and was replaced with regret for how things had ended between them.

"We might fight like hell, but at the end of the day, she's my best friend. Nothing can change that. Even if I never see her again, I just need to know she's okay."

Her words hit way too close to home. I thought of Maddie, and as the ache I've grown so accustomed to feeling began to rise within my chest, I had no other choice but to tell her that I would find out what I could about Amanda. I intended to keep my word.

Danielle may have the same physical attributes as Maddie, but that's where any commonality between the two ends. Danielle has a rough edge to her personality, while Maddie has always had a softness about her. I wondered if Danielle had always been a bit hard or if life on the run made her that way.

What will Maddie be like when I finally see her again? How much will what she's experienced change her? These thoughts prompted me to ask Danielle if she'd come across any other runaways while she was out there. She quickly said no, but the more time I spent with her, the clearer it became that she's the type of girl who would remain loyal to anyone who ran, whether she met them along her way or not.

"I'm part of a sisterhood," she said, "who believe that forcing pregnancies on young women is absolute bullshit. We run in protest, because what you're doing here," she waved her hands around the room, "violates our rights, not only as women but as human beings, and you should be fucking ashamed of yourself for taking part in it." She was absolutely right, but I said nothing in response.

Completely shifting gears, she then asked, "So are the rumors about Hunters true?"

"Rumors?" I replied as I leaned back in my chair.

"Yes, it's quite sad actually. Even sadder for someone as good looking as you I suppose. A cruel joke, really," she responded.

"By all means, please continue, Miss Clark, enlighten me," I replied.

"Only if you promise to verify the rumor's accuracy, Lieutenant." She was baiting me.

I bit. "I'll see what I can do."

She leaned into me from across the table, and lowering her voice, she continued, "Ya know...that all you Hunters have extremely tiny dicks." The mock sympathy that played out across her face quickly morphed into a sarcastic grin.

"Is that so?" I chuckled in response as I shook my head.

"You have to wonder, though," she added, "are men with small penises assholes because they have small dicks? Or did God give them small dicks because she knew they were going to be assholes? I'm going with God on this one. It just shows she has an unbelievable sense of humor. Priceless really, don't ya think?" She then broke into a fit of laughter and began to apologize as she regained control. Placing her hand upon her chest, she said, "I'm so sorry. How insensitive of me." Once she composed herself, I continued with her interrogation. It was the first of many insults towards my manhood to come.

Danielle could hold her own and wasn't one to be easily intimidated or outsmarted. She failed to give either myself or Sanders any information the Militia would find useful, or anything that would help me in my search for Maddie. I couldn't help but admire her strength and determination.

Once her interrogation was complete, I excused myself from the room to check with Sanders and see if the results were back from the lab confirming her fertility status. He was just hanging up the phone when I entered the room and had what I can only describe as a look of disappointment on his face.

"Positive. She's a Breeder," he said, his eyes failing to meet mine.

"I'll prepare her for escort," I replied.

He nodded, and I turned with a heavy chest, knowing that for the first time since becoming a Hunter, I was about to cross a line that would forever haunt me. How could it not? I was about to handcuff Danielle and lead her to the exact fate I joined the Militia to save Maddie from enduring. Just because I love Maddie, doesn't make Danielle's life insignificant. I couldn't view her as a means to an end or collateral damage in my quest to save Maddie, because she was neither of those things. She could very well be someone else's Maddie.

There was no way I would ever be able to justify what I was about to do. So I did the only thing I could, I pushed those feelings away to be dealt with at a later time, promising myself that someday, somehow, I would make right my wrongs. Danielle's suffering wouldn't be in vain. It would be a silent promise I would give her. I could only pray that God would forgive me.

With my emotions in check, I entered the room and explained to Danielle that I would have to cuff her again in preparation for transport to her new living quarters. Typical protocol post interrogation includes transferring the Breeder to the residential portion of the Compound. I asked her to stand and turn around. She did so without a fight or a single word spoken. I secured the cuffs and led her out of the interrogation room. Sanders was waiting just outside the door, and he took his place on Danielle's right side, with me already to her left. We proceeded down the corridor towards the Breeder residence portion of the Compound where girls are housed until successfully impregnated.

We came to a stop once we reached the security door, and I took note of the camera in the upper right-hand corner. The sliding steel door could only be opened after both Sanders and I inserted our badges into the reader, entered our numeric I.D. codes, and then placed our thumb upon the imprint scanner to further verify our identities. Once clearance was authorized, the door opened and we stepped across the threshold into the residential quarters. As the steel door slid shut behind us, I glanced down at Danielle who held a look of determination upon her face that said, "You will not break me." At the same time, red lights had begun to flash along the corridor, a sign that a code red was in progress.

Fuck.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose as personnel started racing down the hallway, girls began to scream, and cries echoed out down the corridor. Sanders and I eyed one another with looks of trepidation. The three of us proceeded down the long hallway, slowing as we took in the chaos that played out before us. Our senses assaulted, Danielle's body began to shake, and the look of determination she held only minutes ago had been replaced with what I could only describe as absolute fear.

She struggled to break free of our hold as she begged us, "Please don't do this. Please," with tears streaming down her face.

What an unforgivable piece of shit I am, I thought as I looked down at her. My every instinct screamed at me to take this girl and get her as far away from that hellhole as I could. That's when Danielle dug her feet into the ground to stop our forward motion. I knew I needed to pull it together. There was nothing I could do to change her fate. We would be caught if I tried to take her and run. They'd stop us before we even made it out the door. All I could do for Danielle was try to help her get down that fucking hallway, and as fucked up as it may sound, I told myself to be grateful. Grateful it was me and not any of the other cocksuckers I worked with, because she fucking deserved more, and I would give her more.

"Danielle," I began as I leaned down to talk in her ear, "I know you probably hate me right now, but we need to make it down this hallway. Show them you are the same strong, determined girl I met back in the interrogation room. I understand you're afraid, but you'll make it through this. If anyone can, you can, and you will."

Sanders cleared his throat, signaling me that we needed to move forward. My initial reaction was anger, but once I looked over at him, I was certain he wasn't immune to the scenes playing out before him. He felt it too, made evident by the tremoring of his hands. His shame was clear as he failed to look Danielle or me in the eyes, but he needed to pull it together, too. To expose that level of emotion could secure the end of his career as a Hunter or quite possibly within the Militia as a whole.

Sanders is unlike the rest of them, I sensed it from the start. His reaction spoke volumes about his character. Had he reacted any differently, I would have had to fight the impulse to beat him where he stood.

Needing to help him get his emotions in check, I fell into step behind Danielle and pretended to check that her cuffs were secure. While pulling on the metal that held her wrists behind her back, I spoke to him, my voice low and firm, "Pull it together, Sanders. Lock down whatever it is you're feeling until we are securely outside this unit." I moved back into step beside Danielle and knew my words found ownership within his mind as his tremors began to subside.

As we continued down the long corridor, still unaware of the nightmare that lay ahead, I noticed Danielle looking around as she took in her surroundings. Her new home, the Breeders residence, was no home at all. The walls that lined the hallway were lackluster gray, adding color to the misery that surrounded us. The living quarters were not enclosed rooms that offered the girls privacy of any kind, instead, they were put on display inside rooms with large windows facing the corridor.

The girls we passed were plastered against their windows, trying to see what was happening down the hallway. The further we went, the looks of curiosity and fear that we witnessed changed to ones of understanding and terror. Most of the girls closest to the code red chaos cried out with screams as they took in the scene before them, while others were sitting on the ground rocking back and forth, their eyes closed, covering their ears with their hands in an attempt block it all out.

As we approached the room responsible for the code red, it was impossible to look away. There was a girl surrounded in a pool of her own blood, a shank protruding from her abdomen. Staff surrounded her as a doctor was attempting to perform CPR.

When it became clear the girl could not be saved, the doctor stepped back and called time of death. At the same time the girl's face became visible, Danielle let out a blood-curdling scream.

"No, no, no," she bellowed as her legs fell out beneath her. The hold Sanders and I had on her arms were the only thing that stopped her knees from slamming to the ground. "No, oh God no," she screamed out in total despair, tears pouring down her cheeks, her body shaking without mercy.

And then understanding took form in my mind. The lifeless, bloody girl who had just taken her own life was Danielle's best friend. It was Amanda.

Within seconds I had Danielle's cuffs unlocked and swooped her up into my arms, breaking protocol fifteen different ways.

Fuck protocol.

As she sobbed within my arms, I yelled out, "Where's her room?"

Plowing through staff, trying to get her away from the scene, Sanders pushed back anyone attempting to come up from behind and get in my way.

When no one answered, my voice morphed into a thunderous boom, "Where the fuck is her room?!"

An orderly stood down the hall and pointed into an empty room. He stepped back nervously as I approached, and I entered the room as Sanders stood guard at the doorway, blocking anyone who attempted to enter. I reached the bed and placed Danielle upon the mattress, but she clung to me, unwilling to release the grip her arms held tightly around my neck. Picking her back up, I took a seat on the bed and held her as she cried in my arms.

"I'm so sorry, Danielle," were the words I repeated in a whisper as I rocked her and stroked the side of her head.

I heard Sanders as he spoke to the doctor who was attempting to assert his authority in order to gain access to the room. "You are not getting in this fucking room, Doc. Give 'em a minute."

Looking up, I saw Sanders move away from the door as he spoke quietly into his ear. The doctor looked over at Danielle and me and nodded to Sanders in acknowledgement.

"I can give her a sedative to calm her," he said as his eyes returned to Sanders. He then turned and walked away.

When the pills I'd given Danielle kicked in and she had fallen asleep in my arms, I laid her down on the bed. Completely silent, Sanders and I made our way back down the hall, through the security door, past the interrogation rooms, and out the Compound door. We walked until we rounded the corner, out of sight from any ears or eyes.

Sanders immediately doubled over, vomiting, his body's attempt to purge all he'd just seen and heard. Unable to offer him support, and my body unwilling to offer me the same release, I cried out "Fuck!" so loudly from the depths of my soul, I'm surprised I hadn't shattered every window within miles. The fabric of who I was forever altered, and I knew in that moment I would never be the same.

Drenched in sweat, I back away from the punching bag, resting my hands upon my knees as I try to catch my breath. I hope this time, the exhaustion will finally be enough to silence the memories that continuously assault me every time I lay my head down and try to sleep.

I just need a few hours. I need to quiet Danielle's screams. I just need a little reprieve. I tell myself it'll be okay. I'll be okay once I get some sleep.