1 Chapter 1: The Escape

The moonlight shone across the land as the wind blew, the sound of rustling leaves filled the dark night sky. It was a windy night. A lone figure stood atop a cliff, taking a deep breath, inhaling the smoke from the cigarette trapped between his forefinger and middle finger.

Exhaling, the man contemplated what to do now. It wasn't everyday that one of the test subjects would escape from the lab. In fact, he was the first one to actually do so.

There were quite a lot of them trying to escape, they all tried to flee by starting a riot. He went along with it at first, thinking it would be convenient to have allies and work together to escape.

That was until he found out that there wasn't any cooperation involved. Almost everyone abandoned their positions the moment they saw an opportunity to escape, only to be shot dead. It was inconvenient, but not unexpected.

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Not wanting to die, he quickly changed his strategy. Using the chaos to cover any noises that he may make, he ran and ducked under a metal table just as a security robot noticed and aimed its gun at him. It seemed like that was the only robot that noticed him as he could see its shadow approach the table, its gun already aimed at his direction.

The closer the robot got, the more alert the man became. He readied himself and the moment he saw the gun's muzzle, he grabbed it and redirected it towards the robot's head, where the robot's power source was placed. Just in time too, as the moment the robot registered him being in its vision, it pulled the trigger.

It had shot itself.

The man sighed and he went back to hide under the table again. Fortunately, none of the other robots seemed to have noticed his feat. It was time to regroup. He looked around. The place was in utter chaos, piles of dead bodies and dismembered parts of the robots were scattered across the area.

There were still Test Subjects fighting against the security robots, some of them using the other test subjects' bodies as meat shields. One of them managed to open one of the doors that blocked the way towards the exit and immediately began scrambling to escape.

The alarm only grew louder as more and more test subjects ran through the now unlocked door. Unfortunately for them, the exit was still three doors away. He knew he couldn't go there alone. At least not without a plan.

Amidst the fighting, the man sneakily dragged the fallen machine closer. He knew the Test Subjects couldn't use the guns used by the robots. The guns required a code which were placed on their metallic palm.

How did he know that, one may ask?

Although he was far from the smartest of the Test Subjects, he was still known as one of the most observant. It was what kept him from being executed. A lot of the tests given to them, he passed by finding out what the observers wanted to see.

Taking a look at the robot's hand, he noticed a small crack on its right arm. Said arm was also connected to the hand that held the gun.

The robot's form was lithe, nimble, which meant that the gun was rapid firing. And based on the robot's small form, the gun's recoil was most likely to be weak which also meant that the gun's range was short to medium.

He could work with that.

Due to the fact that the robot before him was one of the smaller ones, plus the crack, he was able to rip the arm off the robot's broken body. Although it was a bit awkward as he was left-handed, he placed his right hand on top of the robot's to keep its grip on the gun, making sure the code in the palm was still being scanned.

The gun's trigger glowed yellow, which meant he had only a few, maybe around 20 shots left. The guns used by the robots all looked alike, the trigger glowed green when the guns were at full power, yellow when it's in the 50 percent, and red when it's almost out of power.

From what he observed, the guns were powered by the robot's power source as well, which meant there was no reloading once it was removed from the robot.

The gun was bigger than he expected, about 3/4 the size of his arm, which meant he had to hold it in both hands to keep it steady. Although he hypothesized that its recoil was weak, he still wasn't sure.

Taking a deep breath, the man peeked and noticed most of the robots and test subjects had left the room. There were still dead bodies lying around and he noticed multiple robot parts lying around as well. The usually red glow from its eyes were now replaced with a dull grey shade, indicating that its power either ran out or its source was destroyed. Most likely the latter as almost all of them had holes in their heads.

The man noticed that a lot of the robots' hand or arm had been ripped off. The man smirked. The Test Subjects must have had the same idea as him.

There was no robot in sight, which meant they were probably chasing the Test Subjects escaping to the next area. He kept looking around as he left his hiding spot and headed towards the door, making sure there was nothing else he could use. All the other guns were either empty or broken, which disappointed him a little.

He could hear gunshots from the next room the closer he got to it. There were multiple doors along the way, which he ignored as they were most likely locked and checking every single one would only waste his time. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a faint light coming from behind a door, not only that, he heard a voice.

A scientist.

The man was surprised. He thought the scientists would have left the lab or hid themselves in an impenetrable panic room based on how advanced this place was. And yet he found one, hiding behind a door. Based on how he talked, he was nervous. And scared.

Good.

"76!"

The scientist yelled, falling off his chair as he saw one of the Test Subjects aim a gun at him. Now that he wasn't muffled, his voice was much more recognizable. The man, now known as Test Subject 76, smiled wickedly.

The scientist he was facing was one of the worst ones. Not only did he lack the intelligence to be a proper scientist, messing up the experiments and surgeries he was involved in, he also abused his power quite often. The Test Subjects under him were frequently seen with cuts and bruises.

Although that happened almost every time the scientists did an experiment, at least the other scientists made sure to keep the Test Subjects healthy. This one was just negligent.

76 closed the door behind him with his foot, keeping the gun aimed at the scientist. The door closed with a click and without hesitating, 76 shot the scientist in the leg. The recoil was, as expected, that of a small gun that could probably be held by one hand. 76 patted himself on the back at the fact that he guessed right.

The scientist screamed in pain, which made 76 worry a little. One of the robots could have heard them. Not wasting any time, 76 removed the scientist's face shield and shoved the scientist into the floor before shooting him in the head, killing the scientist in an instant.

He had planned to make the scientist suffer, but his main priority was to escape. It was disappointing really, he had the opportunity to get revenge on him in place of the other Test Subjects that was under the scientist's care. He wasn't close with any of them but he knew how painful the experiments were, even without an asshole of a scientist leading them.

76 looked at the corpse. The scientist was about the same height as him, which made him one of the taller ones among their kind, although 76's build was still bigger.

76 knew that his comrades were already ahead of him and that there were probably more robots coming as reinforcements. He didn't know if this would work, but maybe he could fool the robots into thinking he's one of the scientists.

The scientist from the lab wore hazmat suits when meeting the test subjects as some of their experiments usually involved injecting radioactive materials into them or putting them in a hazardous situation. This meant that they probably weren't planning on meeting the test subjects as this one was wearing a white button up shirt and black pants.

'This asshole had no fashion sense... Though I can't say I know what fashion looked like in this environment.'

A scowl formed on 76's face, now realizing that this was the first time he saw the face of a scientist. He immediately looked away, not wanting to see him as a human being. To him, the scientist was one of the monsters that kept them here, cutting them open and putting stuff in their bodies that wasn't supposed to be there...

76 froze.

He reached under his shirt and touched the scars on his chest. Scars he got from surgeries.

His heart started beating rapidly as his hands moved across his body, searching for more scars. He didn't know for sure what they put inside of him, but he can't ignore the possibility of a self-destruct device in case something like a riot happened, which actually did happen. Whatever it was, it could possibly kill them all. How that worked, he had no idea. He wasn't planning on finding out.

Gritting his teeth, 76 searched the dead scientist's body. Keys, cards, anything to gain access to a room that could give him information. In the corpse's back pocket he found a yellow card that had the name Harold Skye. 76 covered the picture with his thumb and turned the card around, there he saw a code that could be used to scan.

Jackpot.

76 removed his clothes, which consisted of a white shirt, white pants, and white sandals, were now stained red from the blood of his fellow test subjects. Keeping the scientist's face covered, he removed his own clothing as well.

He changed into the dead scientist's clothes. It was a bit tight, he could see the fabric stretch out to accommodate his size. 76 made sure to cover up the hole and bloodstain on the pants by wearing the lab coat that he found hanging on the scientist's chair.

Before leaving 76 searched the whole room in case there was anything useful. He made sure to check the computer the scientist used and saw a whole list of the test subjects under him. He frowned. This monster had over a hundred test subjects die under his care, most of them were from malnutrition and suicide.

Rubbing his temple, 76 groaned. He knew that guy was bad, but not this bad. Malnutrition he expected, but suicide? All of the test subjects had an Iron will, that was a given for all of them. He could only imagine what this monster has done to have them want to kill themselves. 76 sighed.

'At least that's one less monster left in this world.'

After making sure that there was nothing important that he may have missed, 76 immediately began deleting all the files from the computer. It might be a decision he would regret in the future, he knew that, but he also knew that the scientists were crafty. The possibility of there being an encrypted message in there kept him alert.

76 was not an expert on technology, but he at least knew how to completely erase data from a computer, provided that the data wasn't shared prior to the deleting.

With the card in hand, 76 left the room and began searching the rooms. He wore a medical mask and some glasses in an attempt to remain anonymous. He even made sure to change his hairstyle to make it look similar to the dead scientist.

The gun he picked up was hidden underneath the lab coat, his other hand keeping it steady. It wasn't easy, the slightly bulky gun was still visible but one would have to do a double take to notice.

As he walked towards the sound of shooting, 76 kept his head down. While walking, he made sure to scan every door just so he could check if he could access them. Some actually opened, although all he found there was a bunch of paperwork, which he burned using the lighter he found in one of the lab coat's pockets. It seemed like some of the scientists were smokers.

He saw that the next door was open, which meant there were only two more doors before they could all escape. Just like earlier, the dead bodies of his comrades along with broken parts of the security robots were scattered in the area.

Gritting his teeth, 76 willed himself to walk towards the now open door. They were dead, but he's not gonna make their deaths pointless. He knew that if he were to die now, he'd want at least one of them to escape, just to spite these monsters.

He continued to search the hall as he headed towards the next area, scanning the doors along the way. He had to find a body scanner. He had to know if they actually planted a device inside him, one that could possibly kill him.

76 hid inside a room whenever he heard footsteps coming towards his direction. Whether or not it was one of the test subjects or security robots, he kept himself hidden.

He still didn't know if the disguise worked or not. On one hand if it worked, the robots wouldn't shoot him but his comrades will. On the other hand, if it didn't, his comrades wouldn't shoot him but the robots will. There was no point in risking it unless he had absolutely no choice.

One of the rooms opened. The rooms he opened before all glowed green, yet this one glowed yellow. That would mean this room was more important than the ones he opened before. 76 immediately began searching for any signs of information about a device planted inside them, ignoring the fact that the room he entered was a surgery room.

He continuously searched the drawers, pulling out papers that contained any kind of information that involved surgery. Sure he could be wasting his time. Maybe the scientists opened them up only to check their bodies to see the results of an experiment, but he doubted it.

Like it was mentioned, the scientists were crafty creatures, surely an escape attempt would have crossed their mind. In the midst of his searching, 76 forgot about the gun that he had in his lab coat. With no hand holding it steady, the mechanical arm fell off the gun's handle. Grimacing, 76 took out the gun and attempted to reconnect the two.

His eyes flickered up before pausing. He was in a surgery room. He smiled as he got up and immediately looked around. His smile widened when he saw the body scanner in the corner of the room.

'Now this is a jackpot.'

Fortunately he remembered how the scientists used the machines in this room, after all he has been here quite a few times. He trusted himself to know how they work. Turning the computer on, he noticed that this one was connected to the surgery table, which had all the machines needed to do surgery.

There was also a camera above the surgical table. So it was through this that the scientist could perform surgery without getting too close to them. The computer was only about a foot and a half away from the table.

It was the first time 76 was greatful of the fact that sometimes, the scientists kept them awake during surgery. He remembered them saying that it was to test their pain tolerance.

76 shivered as he remembered how the machines on the table would cut him open and rearrange his insides. The pain was immeasurable. It drove him insane whenever it happened.

He shook his head. 76 refocused his attention to the computer. He tested the machines, learning how it worked, which device did what, their range... In one of the files he was checking, he noticed that the computer had the information on all the test subjects' body type, which made it easier for him to adjust the machines to his size.

Now that he knew what to do with the surgery, he went and turned on the body scanner. Fortunately, he knew exactly how this machine worked. It scanned him and he made sure not to move, closing his eyes as the scanner began to move across his head. After that was done, he went and looked at the result. It showed him all the anomalies within his body.

And there it was. A chip the size of his thumb, resting on top of his heart.

76 began to sweat. This was risky, more importantly it could possibly kill him, but now he knew he had to do the surgery. The device was connected to his heart, which meant it could possibly explode or make his heart stop. He wasn't gonna take a chance.

'There's no such thing as paranoia in this situation. One oversight can cost me my life.'

He turned the computer around and dragged it closer to the surgery table, just close enough for him to reach. He also brought a mirror next to it, just in case anything happened to the monitor.

76 laughed. He was gonna perform surgery on himself. It took a while for him to notice that he was sweating. A lot.

Oh. He wasn't scared. No way...

He was terrified.

Taking a deep breath, he made sure the door was locked. 76 laid on the table and reached for the computer. He took comfort on the faint sounds of shooting in the distance. Taking a deep breath, 76 began the surgery.