Rafter Fiction is short stories based on songs by Rafter. I am starting the series with the songs from his newest album, “Terrestrial Extras”.  This is the song, “Brains Define Me.” Buy the album here

“Hey…Adam…Adam…Wake up.” He feels Peter nudging him, and after deciding he cannot ignore him any longer, Adam’s eyes flutter open. “We have to go. We have to get out of here.”
“What?” Adam does not understand what Peter is saying because he has not left this building, this lab, for as long as he can remember. “Leave?”
“Yes. We have to go. I’m driving to the airport.”
Adam sits up and rubs his eyes. “What about Father?”
“He isn’t your father, Adam. He isn’t your father.”
This new pushes Adam backward. He shakes his head. His mind starts to speed up, the enhancements and technology making it spin faster and faster. He zips through all of the things that he has ever been told, ever been shown, every scrap of information he has ever seen or heard. “I have no information that tells me you are correct.”
Peter says, “You don’t have information that tells you otherwise either. You have to trust me. He is not your father, and he is in trouble. They are coming for him. They are coming for you. We have to escape.”
“I am confused.”
“It is okay,” Peter says. “You will learn quick enough. Right now we have to disguise you.” He reaches across and pulls Adam’s hair. The short wig pops off, and Peter stares at all of the microchips lining Adam’s cranium. “We have to do something.” Peter helps Adam put on a Detroit Tigers hat and a hoodie over the hat. “This will have to be enough. Now follow close and don’t make eye contact with anyone.”
Adam nods and stands up. “Wait. Why should I trust you?”
“You should not trust anyone, but you have no choice. We have to go.”
Peter throws some of Adam’s clothes into a gym bag. Adam watches and thinks about everything he has ever known. He knows that he is not really human anymore, that he is special, an experiment, one that Father, or not Father, says he has worked on his whole life. Father says he has found the potential for infinite brain power and that Adam is the prototype. Father says that he has loved him from the day that he was born and that he will never let anything happen to him.
Peter turns and hands him the bag. “Let’s go.”
“Wait. Where is Father? Shouldn’t he be here with us?”
“Something bad has happened, Adam. The military has come in and people are getting arrested and killed. I have to get you out of here and to a safe place before they get their hands on you.”
“Why would they want to do that?”
“Because you have power, and they want to turn you into a weapon.”
“Oh.” He followed Peter out into the hall and through some of the corridors. Adam does not get a sense that anyone else is awake, but the sleeping quarters are a long way from the lab. “I don’t hear anyone moving around.”
Peter pauses for a second. “They are all detained. They’re working their way toward us. We have to be really quiet to make sure they can’t hear us.”
They sneaked down the corridor toward a fire exit. Once Peter punches in a code, he pushes it open, and the night air hits Adam in the face. A car, a Lexus sedan, is idling at the curb. “This is the car.”
Peter helps Adam into the passenger seat. “You should duck down so they can’t see you.” Adam listens, and before he can protest, they are squealing out of the parking lot.
Within minutes of driving, Peter’s phone starts ringing. Adam notices the display before Peter turns it off. “Dr. Legranda.” He knows Father’s real name but does not know why Peter would not answer. “You should get that.”
“No,” Peter says. “It could be a trick. It could be the military using his number.”
“It could also be him wanting to make sure we escaped.”
“No. He knows.”
Peter turns the car toward the highway. After a few more minutes of driving, Adam starts to hear a voice in his head, “Adam…Adam. It’s Father.” He knows that this is not him making up Father’s voice, but his actual voice in his brain. “Listen to me,” he says. “I need you to think of the place where Peter is taking you. You do not have to say it. You do not have to do anything but think of the place. We will be there to meet you.”
“He says you aren’t my real father.”
“Adam. Adam. Adam. Of course he would say that, but we both know this is not true. I love you and you are my son. Just let us know where you are going. You are in danger.”
“He says I’m in danger with you.”
“No, son. He is the danger. We have to get you back before he destroys you.”
Adam thinks for a second. “What if he is not taking me to the airport?”
Father says, “Read the street signs. We will find you. Nothing bad can ever happen to you.”

“Promise?”
“Promise.”