Chapter 1

I have no name. That's what he tells me anyway. I have spent my whole life locked away in the same room with the same blank dirty white walls. There is no window, no anything. The only contact I have with anyone is the cold, cruel, evil person who feeds me once a day and tells me that I will never amount to anything.

"Eat," comes the familiar deep voice. The food dish clanks on the ground. "Dreaming again? I've told you a million times you will never amount to anything. You are a worthless piece of garbage."

I sit up, blinking my eyes. The food is spilled on the concrete floor, it was nasty looking brownish soup-like food with brown chunks of something in it.

"If you don't eat, I am going to have to punish you," The big man scowls. "You've already been punished enough this week."

Still, I sit here, I refuse to touch that nasty soup; it is the same thing that had been brought to me yesterday. I didn't eat it so he took me to another room, blindfolded and struck me across the back with a whip ten times for each time he told me to eat. The same thing would happen today if I refuse.

"Don't test my patience subject one-hundred," he paused. "If you eat at least half of that then you will be moved to a new room with a bed." I spit at him. Without any warning, his boot collides against my jaw, and I am sent spiraling to the floor.

"Sir," a new voice comes from the door. "We do not treat them like that."

"It was being disrespectful an…"

"I don't want to hear it, I saw what happened. Maybe if you were nicer, she would do what you told her to."

"She has given us trouble since she got here."

"As a fighter that doesn't surprise me. She put up one heck of a fight while trying to catch her." The big man storms out leaving me alone with the new man hovering over me. "No need to pretend to be passed out subject one-hundred."

I open my eyes and look up at him. "You said I was a fighter. How did I get here?"

"In time." He squats down and holds out his hand. "Please, eat. Tomorrow we are going to get you out of here." I take the food from him; it isn't the nasty soup, but bread with cheese and meat.

After the strange man in a white coat leaves, I take a bite of the sandwich, and goodness, it was delicious. I rest on the cold ground and close my eyes, and soon everything just goes black: no sound, no light, no strange people, just myself.

"Rise and shine. Time to move," a large hand grabs my arm and drags me to my feet. "Let's go," the big man drags me to the door.

"No, not with you," I claw and scratch at his arm with my free hand. "Let the other person take me." He only ignores me. It is the same man who is always there.

"Welcome to your new room," he shoves me in and slams the door behind me.

"Of course." The room has white walls, there is a small barred window. The floor has a carpet and there is a bed with a pillow but no blanket. There is also an old wooden desk and a chair opposite the bed.

"How do you like your new room subject one-hundred?" a gentle, yet firm hand rests upon my shoulder.

"Oh, um, it's empty." I turn around. "Who are you?"

"Apologies," He smiles. "I'm Doc." He is wearing the same white coat, his hair is messy, and he stands just a bit above me.

"Oh. Well, I would introduce myself, but you seem to already know me. Who is the man who always feeds me?"

"Never mind him, he's been, reassigned…" Doc lingers awkwardly for a moment. "We do apologize for his violence, it is not supposed to be tolerated."

"Reassigned? Like a new job?"

"Do not worry about it," Doc says hinting irritation. "You have the freedom to roam here, there is a library, cafeteria, outdoor activities, and a few other things. Restriction for quiet time is from eight p.m. to nine a.m. and you will be subjected to your room for any theft or any kind of unacceptable behavior."

"Okay," I am so confused. So many questions explode in my head.

"Oh, and from ten to five you have training and tests and classes." He holds out a paper. "We ask you to pick a name from this list or come up with your own. It is required for what is to come subject one-hundred."

I take the paper and look at the list: Alisha, Bea, Crista, Danielle, Edna, Frida… "You said I can choose my own name?" I read the list one more time. "How about Sam?"

"Sounds perfect, Subject Sam." He takes the paper and gives me another. "Fill out what you know. I will be back soon."

I walk to the desk and look over the paper, it is mostly just asking if I remember any information about before I was in here: my birthday, my parents, my age. I can't remember any of it. My earliest memory was a strange room then passing out and waking up in the cell. The other paper I haven't noticed at first, has a schedule on it. There is also a clock on the wall I didn't notice.

"Hello," Doc says making me jump. "All finished?" He picks up the paper that I was supposed to fill out. Instead of frowning, he looks up from it with a huge grin on his face. "This will do perfectly. Subject Sam meet Subject Zero. Zero will show you around the place and show you how things work, but before that, we have to do a check up to make sure you are okay with all the abuse that happened." Subject Zero nods his head. Then walks out of the room. Doc shuts the door and locks it.

"I am going to ask you to take your shirt off. I've heard from others you were whipped. Correct?" He stares coldly into my eyes. "If it makes you more comfortable I can call for a female doctor."

"No, its fine," I close my eyes and take my shirt off revealing what seems like endless scars and ten fresh marks covering my back.

"My god," he bursts out in rage. "I am going to make sure he never comes back here. We never treat recruits this way ever." He clenches his fists before roughly doing a quick exam. Without saying a word, he leaves with an angry fire burning in his eyes.

"Ready for your….. I'm so sorry," Zero covers his eyes allowing me time to pull my shirt back on.

"You are fine," I sigh. "Sure, show me around."

Zero walks two steps ahead of me the whole time. Pointing out things and saying that this or that was an okay zone or that area is restricted.

"Hey Zero, is Zero your number or your name?"

"It's my name, I like the number. My number is ninety-nine," he stops and looks at me. His hair is jet black and he has golden brown eyes. He seems familiar, like from a dream, but that is impossible because dreams aren't real. "We should head over to get your uniform so you are not running around in pajamas."

I follow Zero outside and towards another building. The two buildings were fenced in along with us. The sun is high above in the sky and it is hot.

"This is the yard." He points to the space around us. "The dorms and accommodations are located in the building we just exited, and the academy is there. Which is where everyone is right now, you start tomorrow."

We walk to the academy slowly so I can observe my surroundings. What is this place, and how did I get here? Why can't I remember?

"Here you go," Zero drops clothes into my arms. "I will wait here while you go put those on."

I go to the locker room to change. I have black, skin-tight pants, a grey t-shirt, and a black leather jacket, the exact same thing Zero has on.

"Wow," Zero smiles, "Looking good in those."

"Does everyone wear these?"

"Yup. Let me show you," he walks up to a closed door and looks in before stepping aside. "Take a look if you don't believe me." Sure enough, everyone has the same uniform except the teacher.

"So, what does this place do?" I ask, still not sure what is going on.

"They are training us for combat and doing experiments on us to make us better than the enemy."

"Experiments?"

"Yeah. They call us into the "lab" knock us out and then make enhancements to our bodies."

"Oh." Enhancements to the body? This doesn't sound right at all. "Do you remember before here?"

"Before is a forbidden topic anywhere but in the classroom." Zero states as if I have just said something revolting. "They just say we were rescued from very bad people."

"Zero and… Subject one-hundred," a woman says behind us.

"It's Sam."

"Don't interrupt me," she says sternly. "Subject Sam, we need to take a physical with you on the challenge course. Zero, we would like you to assist to show her the ropes since you will be Captain Zero in the future if you do your job and training correctly."

"Yes, ma'am. We just need to get Sam into the trainee suit."

"Be at the course in twenty minutes. Don't be late or else." Then the woman walks away arrogantly.

"Quick. We don't want to be late." Zero grabs my arm and runs the same direction the woman went. "Especially with her in charge, to her, late is when you arrive on time."

Zero hands me more clothes and a bag then heads into to other locker room. I change into tan army pants and a dark green t-shirt which I tuck in my pants and then secured it in place with the belt. I pull my hair up into a ponytail then headed out the other door where Zero and the woman are waiting. This field is a lot bigger, there are tires, wood walls, ropes. and wire everywhere.

"I am Sargent Soot. You will only speak when I speak to you, any back talk or misbehavior with me will result in longer and harder courses. Am I understood?"

"Yes ma'am," I say. Soot looks like a very intimidating woman. Someone I definitely don't want to be enemies with.

"Alright. I think I am going to like you, Subject Sam. Zero, show her how to run the first course. We will see how far she can make it on her first try"

Zero guides me over to the first course. It starts off with tires placed like footsteps in the sand, then a wall in which I can't see behind. He shows me what to do and i copy him as best as I can across the tires. He runs to the wall, jumps and grabs the ledge then pulls himself up the rest of the way and turns to watch me as I ran and jump.

What happens is not what I had expected. My face rams into the solid wood wall and I plummet to the ground. Part of me wants to just stay there and die but the other part says to get back up and try again because people are watching you. I scramble to my feet and try again. This time I got the ledge. Zero grabs my arm and helps me get the rest of the way up.

Next are rope monkey bars followed by a pit of wires. I did just fine on the monkey bars, but not so great under the wires. My shirt got ripped in several places and I had blood from cuts oozing into my shirt. I could feel my sweat. My clothing is sticking to me and I am hot. Don't give up now, not yet. After a quick break under the wires, I finally manage to drag myself out. Exhausted, I fall into the dirt which sticks to me. It gets everywhere.

"Impressive." Sargent Soot says her voice drawing nearer. "Most new recruits can't even make the wall. Zero, take her to the doctor to take care of those injuries."

Zero guides me to the doctor. It is Doc, he is messing with instruments that he has on the desk.

"Hey Doc, can we steal you for a second," Zero asks, grabbing the doctor's attention.

"Sure, how can I help you?" He turns around to look at us. "Holy wow, what happened to you?" He looks me up and down covered in my own blood and mud.

"Sargent Soot."

"That woman." Doc shakes his head. "She pushes the recruits too hard." After a while, Doc sends us on our way with me all bandaged up.

"You hungry?" Zero asks. "Also, I just want to add, that was badass how you handled smacking into the wall. The last kid who did that just stayed there and cried."

"Who's the newbie?" A young boy comes up blocking the path. "What's wrong with her face?"

"Nothing compared to what I'll do to yours if you don't mov.." I blurt out.

"What did you say to me? I'll whoop your ass little girl."

"Try me," I size him up.

Without any hesitation, the boy swings his fist. It misses, I dodge out of his reach before jumping at him tackling him to the ground. I raise my fist above him, other kids around us begin shouting fight over and over. I just shake my head and get up.

"That all you got? Chicken," He snorts. Seconds later, he's curled up in a ball and I am walking away trying to shake the anger, Zero on my heels.

"That was badass, he deserved that, but you shouldn't have done that. Who knows what the head officer will do."

"He shouldn't have insulted me."

"Who are you?" Zero asks while trying to hold in the laughter. "Seriously though, god only knows what is going to happen to you."

"Like he will tell. What kind of boy wants to tell the commanding officer that he got his ass whooped by a recruit?"

"He would, he's the son of the officer. He is different from the rest of us."

"That explains his arrogance. Who is he anyway?"

"His name is Zed. His dad put him in here to train him to be a respectful soldier but he just uses his 'class' to get whatever he wants."

"Oh," I laugh. "I know it's forbidden, but I really would like to know about the place before here."

"No can do. Sadly," Zero looks down. "I used to be like you, curious about the before. It doesn't matter though."

Zero leaves me standing alone outside of my door. Why is the before forbidden? Why couldn't we talk about it? What is this place? I had so many questions that I can just tell are not going to be answered.