Section 56: Cultivate The Young

Caleb pinned me on the cold floor, tattered with papers and dirt he looked into my scarlet eyes directly. He pinned my shoulder on the floor as he slowly unbuttoned his white t-shirt.

"Wait, Caleb what are you-" my face flushed in red when I could see his collarbone.

He pulled his collar and revealed a tag on his collarbone. It was painted in black ink, with a barcode below the experiment label.

EX0010

After showing his collarbone, he frowned in despair. He leaned on the shelf as he lowered his sorrowful gaze.

"I'm one of their experiments, I'm experiment number ten" he frowned. "Vladimir was one of the people that's responsible for my body experimentation".

He released his hand from my shoulder and returned to his former normal self. He offered his hand to me, I grabbed his hand as he pulled me upward. That looks dangerous, what he did almost made my heart jump. I could only exhale that nothing embarrassing happened between us.

"You're pretty brave to push me down like that" I smirked. "You should have pushed your girlfriend, Elizabeth".

I teased him on the spot, but what I get is none other than silent treatment. All I could assume is he's angry at me. However, when I take a closer look at his face it's not anger. He's embarrassed when I mentioned Elizabeth, his face going red, it even reached his ears.

"Caleb, are you-".

"Stop right there, it's unrelated to the case" Caleb coughed awkwardly. "Let's focus on the current cases".

"Whatever you say, leader" I nodded to him.

My nickname seems to irk him, despite that he keeps his calm composure and starts explaining the incident.

"Project Alpha Omega is a talent cultivation project that the government secretly executed for a while now" he added. "They recruited teenagers, children, and young adults as their lab rats. Of course the participants themselves don't know if they're used as experiments".

"They don't?".

"Nope" he replied to me solemnly.

His expression shows regret as if pondering about something in the past. He later continued his explanation with a frown on his face.

"Elizabeth's code number is EX0009, she registered first before I did" Caleb lowered his gaze from mine. "She was also one of the participants".

I see, so these people are the survivors from Project Alpha Omega. Caleb seems more depressed as he tries to urge himself to talk, I shouldn't push his limit. He must have endured a painful experience.

"You know, you don't really have to tell me the full story" I answered, worried about his current expression.

"Yeah, but you already told us about Vladimir" he pondered. "It's only fair for me to tell you about our relation to Vladimir".

Since he insisted there's nothing I can do when he was about to continue the sound of a creaking door snapped both of our attention. A little girl came inside, carrying two bottles of water and a plate of crackers.

"Snacks, it's from Elizabeth" she smiled kindly at us.

It's the girl that has been fussy over the haunted archives room, claiming that she's seen someone shadow. She bowed to us before she made her exit, Caleb waved his hand at the little girl.

"Her name is Vanya, she's EX0013" he commented. "She is one of the project participants".

"I see such a young participant" I frowned as I imagined the terrible experiences they must have endured at an early age.

He opened the stack of boxes and rummaged through the papers. He skipped the earlier pile of papers and pulled the one in the bottom.

"This one is the summary about the potential of the project" he showed it to me.

He placed the paper on my lap, I took the paper and read it carefully to understand the content. Project Alpha Omega is a talent cultivation project for young adults and below to boost the younger generations' potential for a more prosper advanced city.

"Where have I seen this word before?" my head turns fuzzy as I read the report.

The dizziness made my head become heavy as a boulder, I experienced this symptom before during Vladimir's foolish tournament play. The dizziness also happened when I saw a stack of drones and a dead man hanging on the wooden plank.

"Are you alright?" Caleb asked me.

My visions turned blurry, I couldn't see him clearly. This is bad, my head feels like it's going to split into two.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked again, uncertain.

However, I fainted on the ground as the darkness embraced my vision once more.

* * *

"Hey! Are you alright!" I felt someone tapped on my shoulder.

I blinked a few times to adjust to my surroundings. I'm still inside the archive room, and Caleb is in front of me with a concerned gaze. He gives me a glass of water for me to drink, which I received gladly. He helped me get up and drink the water gently.

"I'm sorry, I haven't asked your name yet" Caleb apologized to me politely. "What's your name?" he asked me again with a tender voice

"It's Aria, my name is Aria Schneider" I replied with a stutter.

"I see, nice to know you Aria" he replied worriedly. "Maybe you should take a rest, did reading the files make you dizzy?".

"Yes, maybe I'm tired" I groaned as I felt my head throbbing in pain.

"Well, it looks like you don't mean any harm" he smiled at me more loosely now. "I'll carry you to our warehouse, we sleep on the carpeted floor".

'"I noticed" I replied back.

"Yeah, sorry if it's too uncomfortable! I'll try to search for a vacant bedroom, I'll move you there soon" he carried me bridal style right on the spot.

My face reddened in a few shades of red as he carried me gently on his arm. He's unlike Ender who has a firm grip and a more possessive posture. Caleb carried me in a gentler way as if I'm a fragile object. However, my focus on his bridal carry distracted when I felt a droplet of liquid on my forehead.

I touched my forehead to see what the droplet was, and it surprised me.

It's someone's blood, coming from the window frames on the roof.