2 The First Stage

Opening his eyes, Simon found Lily sleeping by his side. It was already morning and his body was still hurting from the shots. What was worse was his mind as it felt foggy and Simon couldn't focus like usual.

As Simon was rubbing his head, Lily woke up and hugged him tight. Simon couldn't read her mind his telepathy wasn't working at all anymore. He felt shocked and a little fearful as his plans relied on his ability but calmed down after hearing Lily's tiny heartbeat.

"Thank you." Lily said as she held Simon tight.

"What are friends for right?" Simon replied back.

Lily smiled even brighter before the large doors were opened and in came a man dressed in green. He looked african american and he had a mustache on his face that seemed to be trimmed short. As the man walked to the center of the large room with dozens of kids, everyone woke up and stared at him.

The man pulled out a megaphone from his pocket before yelling out. "My name is Sergeant James and I will be your drill instructor. For one week, I will break you and make you anew for this project. Follow me!"

Everyone got up from their hard beds before following the crowd. Simon followed along with Lily behind him like usual and soon they were out in a large track field. The sun was blazing down with no shade in sight as well as no water. Once there, the drill instructor stood in the middle of the field with his megaphone in hand.

"Today you will run! Run! Run! Run! Only those who have gone around this track one hundred times before noon will have lunch! The trackers on your wrists will keep track of your laps so hurry up and move!" The man yelled, the kids starting to run.

Simon also began running alongside Lily despite his physical condition. He had seen within Nina's mind how the serum worked and the effects differed from person to person depending on how damaged a person was physically. If a person was near death with many damaged cells, the serum would make that person stronger by many times compared to a person who wasn't damaged. Though the fatality rate was still above ninety nine percent for those who didn't undergo the first and second tests.

After running three laps around the track field, many kids were walking and taking large heavy breaths. It was only Simon who truly understood that to be able to eat lunch, he would need to on average run twelve minute miles. The time when they started was seven in the morning, noon was twelve which meant five hours. One hundred laps were about twenty five miles and running twelve minute miles would mean Simon would finish in five hours.

Of course there was a problem as the laps continued for Simon, Lily was beginning to lag behind. Her breathing was becoming more erratic and soon she collapsed onto the ground.

"Lily!" Simon yelled as he turned back to her.

"I'm ok, I just need some time." Lily said but Simon knew time wasn't something they had.

"No, we need to keep on moving or else we won't be able to eat." Simon said before explaining what he knew.

Lily was in shock before she smiled and said. "You go ahead, i'll be ok."

Hearing this, Simon growled before picking up Lily onto his back. "I'll carry you."

"No, you might get in trouble!" Lily said in worry.

"Don't worry, he only said for us to go around one hundred times. He never said how someone could go around one hundred times." Simon smiled with sweat dripping down his body.

Minutes passed with Lily on Simon's back before she started running once again. This went on for hours with the time Lily could run becoming shorter. Some of the more athletically gifted kids were already in the lead while others were behind. Simon himself was quite gifted physically but with Lily on his back, it was getting harder and harder with his feet being blistered.

Sweat poured down his body but Simon kept on running. His throat and nostrils burned, begging for water and his legs felt like jelly. He only had five laps left with some others already completing the one hundred laps. Though many others had already failed, passing out on the track with their bodies being thrown aside.

Lily watched Simon with a strange expression as this had never happened to her before. Simon had already done so much for her but he hadn't even asked for a single thing in return. Even risking lunch and his body for her safety.

"Finished!"

Simon after completing the last lap fell onto the floor with the drill instructor glaring at the the two kids. Walking over, he yelled. "Stand up!"

Simon forced his body up with Lily helping him before she was once again pulled away from him. Simon stumbled due to this but stood up nonetheless after a few tried.

"Why did you help her! You heard my command!" The man demanded to know.

"I did what you said and so did she. We went around the track one hundred times." Simon said with the sergeant chuckling.

Within a second, Simon was backhanded back onto the ground.

The sergeant nodded. "You're right, but talking back isn't something you should do. Because of that, the two of you will be punished!"

Simon instantly glared at the sergeant before the man smiled. "But i'm a nice guy so i'll give you an two options. The first will have you two go through the failed groups second exercise, the before noon workout. This will involve fighting and those who win will have lunch, those who lose will be killed."

"And the second?" Simon asked, only to be kicked.

"You don't get to ask questions." The man said before continued speaking. "The second is for you to take the before noon fight alone, but with the pain serum you experienced yesterday."

Simon shivered as he still remembered the pain he felt. He looked over to Lily and she seemed to want to say something but he shook his head.

"I'll take the second option." Simon said.

The sergeant smiled before motioning for Simon to follow along. Simon did so only after he turned to Lily. "I'll be fine."

Only after turning around did Simon show a hint of fear on his face. Following the failed group, Simon found himself in some kind of colosseum like a gladiator ring in movies. The ground was covered with sand filled with blood, teeth and shards of metal.

The sergeant after seeing all of the failures enter the room closed the doors and looked at them with a glare. "In this room contains forty subjects, only ten may leave alive to have lunch. The rest will be killed, you will all kill each other until ten remains."

All of the kids were in shock as well as Simon. No one had killed, no one had even thought about killing before and now they had to kill themselves. Simon looked around before he heard a scream from his right. There on the ground was a girl with a boy on top of her, beating her face in. Punch after punch, the girl slowly stopped breathing, the stress from running nonstop and the beatings had killed her.

The boy who did this was around Simon's age as he turned to the others. He was large and Simon knew this contributed to his loss in the first exercise.

"I'm sorry." The boy cried. "But I want to eat!"

The boy tackled another girl before he started beating her up.

One of the boys beside Simon spoke. "Stop him!"

"Why don't you stop him!" The other boy yelled back.

The two boys after some yelling began to beat each other with tears in their eyes. Soon everyone except for a few people were fighting. Simon watched as this happened before he felt something hit his back, the same cold feeling he didn't want to remember.

"This serum was specifically created for you subject S-0075. Have fun surviving."

Pain shot throughout his body from his heart once again at maximum as Simon fell onto his knees, clutching his chest. This time without the need to be silent, Simon let out everything in a loud roar. Every kid in the room turned to Simon before some ran over, wanting to kill him after seeing his weakened state.

Barely able to concentrate, Simon looked up to see a kid's kick hit his face. The pain intensified from this and Simon yelled out in pain once again. Any movement caused pain to Simon and as he looked up, he could see another person appear to kick him. There were now three kids unlike the others who cried, these kids had smiles on their faces.

"Bullies?" Simon whispered as he could see into their thoughts.

"I'll kill him first!"

"I never thought killing would be fun!"

"I need to kill!"

Simon after hearing their thoughts yelled as he punched one of the kid's feet. The blisters only caused more pain but Simon didn't care. Simon no longer wanted only his pain to stop, he wanted the bullies to be hurt just like he was. Being able to read their minds, Simon was able to know all of their next moves. Rolling away from them, Simon growled like an animal before he charged at them.

Their punches were missed, their kicks only hit Simon's elbows which made them squeal and when they were on the ground, Simon killed them. Killing one after another,within ten minutes Simon was soon one of the ten who were still alive. The only difference was that he was bloody from head to toe with not a single clean spot.

The sergeant who watched this was in awe as he had never seen someone kill like an animal under so much pain. Shaking these thoughts out of his mind, he lead them through the halls and into the lunch room where the others were at. All of the other kids watched as they walked and sat down to eat food like an animal.

Simon was still under intense pain but he was slowly starting to get used to the pain, albeit slowly. After walking for a few seconds in a random direction, Simon felt someone touch him and this enraged him. He was about to lash out to whoever grabbed him until he saw that it was Lily who was silent with tears down her cheeks. She hugged Simon tightly and he could sense her worry and guilt.

Calming down, Simon tried to lighten the mood. "Don't hug me too tight, I might break a bone."

Lily softened her hold before bringing Simon over to a table, feeding him after noticing that any movement caused intense pain. Like that, the morning and before noon exercises and test was finished.

----------

"Wow, did S-0075 really do this?" Nina asked as she reviewed the video footage.

"Yes ma'am, while under the influence of your specially made pain serum." the sergeant answered.

"Amazing, that serum was about five times stronger than the last one. I wonder how he was able to even focus to kill those other subjects. She should have died?" Nina said before another plan appeared in his mind.

"I just thought of something nice. I'll use this subject as a guinea pig on how much pain a human is able to adapt to before death. Since I know he's only suffered this much for subject L-0076, i'll make him a deal." The mad scientists smiled. "Every time he takes a new version of the pain serum, I will only make the girl do ten percent of what is needed for the first stage of this program."

"Are you sure." the Sergeant asked.

"Yes." Nina answered, wondering how much longer subject S-0075 will be able to live.

----------

After eating and taking a short break, everyone who was still living was brought to an arena similar to the one Simon was just in. His eyes widened in shock as he thought that Lily would soon need to undergo what he just barely survived.

"Today, you will be learning how to fight." The Sergeant said before he split the group into pairs who were then grouped together with another adult who was large and well built

After he was done and there was only Simon and Lily left, he smiled and walked over. "You're quite lucky subject S-0075, or rather unlucky depending on how you think about this."

Simon was silent as he stared at the man and the man laughed. "It seems you've learned to hold your tongue, good."

Pulling out a large syringe with yellow fluid, he held it up. "This is an enhanced version of the one you took earlier this afternoon. Doctor Nina had decided to gift you with this special deal since you like protecting that girl. Every single day before a exercise, you will be injected with the pain serum, a stronger version each time. In return, subject L-0076 will only need to do ten percent of what is needed and won't even need to participate in afternoon fighting."

Simon was shocked but within an instant he nodded. The sergeant smiled and injected Simon before the pain hit him even faster. Simon never had any time even yell before he was kicked back onto the floor. Pain exploded from where he was just kicked and the sergeant walked over to Simon.

Picking up Simon who was only about one hundred and twenty pounds, the sergeant spoke. "I'm going to be your fighting partner so be prepared for pain."

The man then slammed Simon onto the ground before kicking him away. Simon could barely breath as the pain just kept on increasing. Unlike the kids in the other arena, Simon couldn't use his telepathy to evade any blows at all. The pain interfered with his power and it only increased.

After two hours of being physically beaten to a pulp, Simon was dragged out by Lily who was once again as stoic as usual. No one knew what her thoughts were, not even the sergeant whose purpose was to only destroy the subjects' body's.

The days passed quickly with Simon being tortured on a daily basis with the serum as well as the daily killing. Each day was more excruciating than the last and Simon would have died if not for Lily. Just by being near Simon, Lily motivated him to continue fighting to survive.

By the time the week had finished, only forty subjects were alive including Simon and Lily. The rest were all dead from physical overexertion or from being killed. Today was the day that Simon knew they needed to escape as the kids would be sent off to the mental room.

Not a room where the insane went but the room where the scientists would remove all past memories and download a loyalty file as well as other memories directly into their minds. This would make the subjects masters in the any field that was downloaded such as close quarter combat, ranged weapon use or melee weapon uses.

Before everyone woke up and before the sergeant entered the room, Simon woke up along with Lily. They had planned this for the entire week and now they were escaping. Through the week of intense physical and mental pain, Simon's telepathic abilities had increased. The range, the ease of entering minds to gather information and the ability to plant orders within other minds were all raised.

Being afraid to get caught, Simon only put small suggestive orders within the minds of the guards to allow them to pass through. He didn't know how powerful this ability was or if it could be broken so this was the only way.

Last night, he had used this ability to implant orders on the guard who locked the door. The door wasn't locked due to his order to forget to lock the door. As for security, Simon had implanted the order for all three of the security watchers to use the bathroom at once. This was a success as Simon was able to sense them all leave the security room.

Sneaking past guards and stealing security cards from people who Simon had ordered to sleep on the job, Simon and Lily was soon out of the building and in a large building. Simon had a smile on his face as well as Lily, feeling lighter not only because freedom was near but also because the metallic bracelet was off of them.

Simon and Lily through the week had worn down a side of the bracelet until they were able to snap it apart. There were no countermeasures for this as the scientists didn't think kids would be smart or strong enough to break them.

With freedom at hand, the two ran away with a smile on their faces. Simon happy to have survived and having to never experience pain ever again even though he would never forget anything. Lily smiled as she would also be able to escape this nightmare with her first and only friend. But their dreams were shut down the moment they saw where they were located.

Out in front of them was the great open ocean and this was when they figured out they were on an island. Simon was confused as he didn't remember getting on a boat or even a plane. That is until he noticed a bridge past the trees that connected the island to the continent of america.

"Simon." Lily whispered, her eyes filled with tears.

Simon also had tears in his eyes as he looked out into the distance. He could hear and sense the minds of the guards approach their location. They would be caught, their memories wiped and a loyal dog would be born in their body.

"Do you, want this to all end?" Simon said as he stared down at the bottom of the cliff.

Lily smiled as she hugged Simon tightly. "Together."

Simon looked into Lily's eyes and together, they both fell off the cliff with the guards all rushing over. The first thing the two hit was the waves and the second was the rocks before there was nothing. No feeling at all except for the release of reality. This, was their end and the happiest end they could get with the current situation.