Subject A7

Chapter One

None of us remember what life was like before we ended up here. Here at Arcane where they've brought a lot of young people here, some who were like me brought as a baby while others came as different ages.
Those of us who grew up here were taught to never speak to the those who came at different ages as they grew up in the world of horror and lies. Punishments were given if you disobeyed and I've disobeyed a quite a few of times, it was never good. In fact, its left me with nothing but nightmares for weeks.
We have Four rules within this facility.
Rule number one: Never speak to those who have come from the outside world.
Rule number two: Never disobey orders.
Rule number three: No attacking members of the facility.
And rule number four: Never go to the outside world.
The punishments were always different but still frightening.
I sat in my room reading a book when one of the guards opened the door.
"Avery" the man's name was Vincent, he has been here for about a year or so now and he always spoke with such kindness to each of us which is why we all liked him. "Doctor Cleo has requested for you, will you come with me?"
I nodded closing my book and putting it down on the table.
Following Vincent through the corridor, I looked at each of the rooms.

Subject A10

Subject B1

Subject B2

That is what they call us, giving us names were too hard to remember for them as they said to us before but I was one of the lucky ones who was able to be named before they decided to just stop it. Even though I was Subject A7, I was still referred to as Avery by some of the people working here.
As we approached the elevator, Vincent pushed the button and we waited.
"Do you know why doctor Cleo wants to see me?" I ask him curious to know.
"I believe it has something to do with your eighteenth birthday that is coming up," Vincent says.
Oh that's right, I had forgotten that in about a week it'll be my eighteenth birthday. Which means that I will be able to come use to them instead of wasting my time with studying, reading and exercising.
"I'll finally be able to help them," I smile as the elevator doors open. We stepped in a Vincent pressed the level four button. "I wonder if they'll finally explain why our eyes glow that bright blue." I could not contain my excitement.
Vincent gives me a weird look but I was too busy thinking of crazy ideas that would happen.
"Avery, I have to ask but have you ever seen the outside world?" he asks.
"No, the only thing we've ever been able to see is the sun" I was surprised by his question but answered honestly. "I have seen pictures in the books I read but never actually seen the outside world before."
"What if you were given the opportunity to see it?" he asks. "A chance to be free?"
I frowned and looked at him he was already looking at me, he looked serious. "But that is against the rules... why are you -"

Before I could finish, the elevator dinged and the doors opened revealing that creepy man Jaxon, Jaxon was the kind of guy no one and I mean no one messed with. He was not the type of man who allowed mistakes and if you pissed him off... only god knows what he'd do to you. I was lucky to not have crossed that path yet. And no one liked him, not even some of the guards, looking at Vincent - he did not seem to like him either.
There were some rumours going around about Jaxon as well some of the girls swear that he watches them and others say that he likes to spend some one on one time with them but never has with any of the boys. The girls who spoke wrongly about him were not seen for days and only came back shaken and never spoke badly about him again.
He really was something different.
Probably because he was also quite ugly.
"Vincent, Subject" he nodded to both of us and stood aside to let us through.
"Mr Jaxon, pleasure as always," Vincent nods at him. I did not say anything, I looked down at my shoes pretending it was interesting to look at.
Vincent continues to lead the way until we finally reached doctor Cleo's door. Vincent knocked three times before entering, Cleo sat at her desk looking through some paper work, she smiled when she saw me.
"Avery, how lovely to see you," she gets up and walks over to me embracing me. "Thank you Vincent I shall take it from here."
Vincent nods and gives me one last look before leaving.
"How are you feeling Avery?" Cleo asks leading me over to sit down.
"I'm feeling good, how about you?"
She smiles. "Quite good, thank you for asking." She picks up some of the paperwork and laughs a little. "I see you haven't disobeyed orders for an entire month now, that is a good record."
I fought back a shiver. "I guess the rebel within me has finally learnt to not disobey orders."
Cleo didn't smile or laugh as I expected instead she sighed sadly.
"I really wish they did not give such harsh punishments, you are only children" she sighs. "Regardless of your age, just because you are almost adults does not mean anything. At least they don't do that to the younger children."
"Seeing an infected while strapped down to a chair really is frightening," I tried to keep my tone light as I did not want to be punished for saying the wrong thing. "The first few punishments were not too bad, I'd rather clean the toilets."
That was not a complete and total lie. Cleaning the toilets was gross but better than the infected. But at least they don't do that to the younger children as Cleo said, if I had seen that when I was younger I think I would've remained curled in fear forever.
"Hmm" she studies me for a moment. "Such a strong and brave person you are Avery ... but we need to get down to business" I straightened up in my chair finally ready to have the answers to my long list of questions.
"I'm sure you have many questions to ask me," she says, "you can ask them now since you are almost at the age of eighteen."
"Why do my eyes glow blue?" I blurted without thinking.
Cleo smiles. "Ever since the virus happened about twenty years ago, people have been having babies who have this ability to have their eyes glowing that bright beautiful blue" she smiled when I smiled. "Not many have this ability. We believe the reason why that happens is because you were born to be immune to the virus and that we'd finally be able to find a cure and save millions of people from further suffering."
"The infected," I said slowly remembering that thing.
An infected was a person who goes insane and becomes very violent. It takes about two days for the infection to fully spread throughout the body, their skin turns yellow, black veins become visible on their skin and they kill without remorse. That would explain why they would have some here than but to use them as punishments, that part did not make any sense.
"Why do you use an infected during our punishments?" I ask.
"That's quite a hard one to answer Avery," she says, "some people here think that the best way for you children to remain cooperative with our methods is by showing you the main danger of the outside world. It's horrible yes and it is something I do not condone."
I swallowed.
"What happens when I turn eighteen? No one really elaborates around here."
"Yes, everything is always a secret and that secret is revealed to those who are turning the age of eighteen. It is so we do not scare the younger children" she shakes her head.
I thought about it for a moment. "That's understandable I suppose."
"We do experiments on you" Cleo says, "the experiments are hard and could quite possibly kill you."
Whoa, I was taken back by this.
"You mean to say that you kill us?" I asked horrified by this information. That is the last thing I expected to hear.
"Let me explain," Cleo says, she rubbed her arm looking away. "Those pretty blue eyes don't only keep you from becoming an infected but it is supposed to give you some kind of gift."
"What kind of gift?" I ask her forgetting that I was scared moments ago.
"I've only seen it a few times myself, but its like healing magic. Like if you saw someone with a fatal wound, if you concentrate hard enough - you are able to heal them."
"Than why can't you heal the infected?" I ask her, "you have heaps of children to do that."
"It's not that simple," Cleo says, of course it was not that simple, "we've tried that so the next best thing is to extract blood from you after all the experiments and tests have been done ... that is if you live through it all."
"Healing magic? That sounds pretty cool" I mumbled excited that I was able to do something amazing that you could only read about it books. "What would happen to me during those tests and experiments?"
"Testing how strong your power is, how well you do under pressure, you'll be sent into a dream faze where you'll under go through some traumatic events but that part is last due to how many we've lost."
"And how many have survived?"
"None" she answers sadly.
My shoulders sagged in defeat. I have no chance.
"You are given the option to stay here and help us find a cure" Cleo says, "or if you decide you do not want to stay here, you may leave."
"Wait. What?"
"It's confusing yes but you are given a choice here, we are not animals and nor do we intend to be. If you choose to stay, you'll go through the experiments and testing to help us and you'll be spoken too by another doctor who will go through everything with you. You decide to leave, you'll be given a weapon and supplies in order to survive the outside world."
"I can't think of anyone who would be insane to choose the second option," I tell her.
"You'd be surprised, a lot of people don't want to die and choose to go out into the outside world. But never mind that, I will allow you some time to think about your choice before I call you back into my office. It is a hard choice to make sure you think about this Avery, choose the right thing."
I take a deep breath and nod.
"There was something else... how are those dreams going?"
I beamed at Cleo.
"I haven't had any for a few days now," I don't know why but I was happy that I haven't had the dream for a while.
"That's great news to hear" Cleo says with a smile. "You'll let me know if they happen again, I might be able to give you something to help you sleep easier."
"Thank you."
Cleo nods and turns back to her computer which was my cue to leave.

I did not need a guard to go back to my room, those of us who grew up here were trusted to not do anything stupid and even if we did, we'd be punished and it would take a very long time for that trust to be rebuilt. Lucky for me, I just enjoyed beating up other children and guards.
As the doors close I pressed the button to the ground level and finally let out a breath of relief.
Next week the experimentation begins and I was ready to be of use. I wanted to save millions of people and I prayed that my blood worked to kill off the virus.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened, I stepped out heading back to my room.
I walked past Subject A9's room and paused.
"Maybe I should wait" I muttered to myself but shook my head and knocked on the door.
The door opened up revealing a tall kid with short brown hair and bright blue eyes.
"Avery!" he says excitedly.
"Hey Noah," I grin.
Noah, Subject A9, has been my best friend for as long as I could remember.
"How'd it go?" he asks.
"Really good, I got some questions finally answered" I tell him "which I'll be happy to explain to you tonight?"
He glances outside his door causing me to lean back looking in the same direction as him, he sighs in relief to see that it was just he and I.
"You can tell me all about it but I can't tonight, something has come up."
"Oh really?" I teased.
"No seriously, I do" he says, there was not sign of joking.
I folded my arms confused. Since when did Noah have something to do? Unless they called him in like they did with me, or maybe he was in trouble ... again.
"I'm not going to tell you anything so stop coming up with crazy theories," he rolls his eyes.
"I was not," I lied.
"Sure you weren't Avery," he laughs. "I'll talk to you tomorrow night."
"Fine, see you later," I waved walking towards my room.