《Code 072》


 1. Code 072

    Bzzz...


    The speaker in the room buzzed for a while before a deep and clear voice came through, "Attention all codes. Proceed to the dining area in an orderly fashion. Tardiness will not be tolerated. Your five minutes starts now."


    After that, the speakers died down as the lights in the room were turned on and the door smoothly slid open.


    The florescent light brightened up the room. It was a small room that was overlaid with clean white tiles that had an acrylic feel to it.


    The room had a single-sized bed, spacious enough for a child, and a small bathroom, leaving little space for other furniture.


    Drowsily, the boy sat up on the bed as he readjusted his vision to the bright white light. The boy was adorned in a speckless white pajamas with an electronic device cuffed on his ankle. He was around thirteen years old with a pair of big blue eyes and long silky black hair. On his neck however, was three numbers, 072.


    Once he got accustomed to the brightness, he immediately ran towards the opened door without the slightest hint of hesitation.


    Upon running out to the corridor, he was joined by around sixty other children as they ran out of their respective rooms and headed for the dining area.


    As they were running, a girl suddenly tripped and fell. In the midst of regaining her footing, she was accidentally knocked down by the others behind her.


    Unable to get up due to the constant wave of children behind her, she could only shout for help in between her cries.


    "Help..."


    The boy heard a faint whimper and turned back to trace its source. When he finally found it, he saw a girl with a short pony tail, lying on the floor with tears flowing down her cheek.


    As if she sensed someone was looking at her, the girl wiped away the tears that were blocking her vision and looked at the boy as she plead, "Help me..."


    The boy wanted to help her as he reached out his hand. However, he suddenly thought of something. ''Father say I cannot be late. If I help her...''


    He glanced behind the girl and realized there were only a few children left. ''If I help her, I will be late.''


    He made a decision and retracted his hands as he sprinted down the corridor. Behind him, the girl''s cries intensified when she realized that she was going to be late.


    ''There it is.'' After making a few turns, the boy finally arrived at the dining area. Just like their room, the dining hall was radiated with white lights as the benches were organized in an orderly fashion. The hall was enough to accommodate a hundred of them. However, there were only sixty of them, making the hall less crowded.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    After the children settled down, a man dressed in a white lab coat sauntered in from another door, he was accompanied by six armed soldiers with ten chefs, each pushing a trolley of food.


    Instantly, the children stood up as they greeted the man in white in unison, "Good morning, Father."


    The man, known as Father, had a clean shaven face and a high cheekbone, his hair styled neatly to the back. Father smiled amicably as he said, "Looks like my children made it..."


    Before he could finish, the door that the children came in from opened. Standing there was the girl from before. Her leg was bruised as she continued crying, not from the pain, but from the fear of being late.


    "On time." Father finished his sentence as he calmly walked towards the girl by the door.


    He then squatted down and wiped off her tears as he gently asked, "My dear..."


    He glanced at the number at her neck and continued, "089, why are you late?"


    The girl with the ponytail, known as 089, answered timidly, "I got knocked down on my way here and my ankle is painful when I walk."


    "I see, I see..." Father stroked his chin.


    "As punishment for being late, you will be denied of all meals for today. There will be no next time," Father calmly spoke before walking away.


    "W-wait, Father, I''m sorry!" Code 089 panicked as she grabbed on to Father''s lab coat.


    "Sorry? My dear 089, if sorry can amend for you mistakes, how about I cut off one of your fingers and say I''m sorry? That''s not how it works." With that, Father pulled his lab coat away from her grasp as he gave out orders to the chefs.


    "No food for Code 089 today."


    He then glanced at the children before saying, "Thirty minutes. Finish your meal in thirty minutes."


    With that, hestrode out of the hall with his troop of soldiers.


    Each child had a tray of food, on it was a dry soft bread with a cup of warm milk, like always.


    Once the food was served, all the children hurriedly dig into their meals, while keeping in mind of the thirty minutes duration.


    Just when the boy was about to eat the dry, soft bread, a person sat in front of him. He looked up and saw that it was the girl from before. She was staring at his bread, unknown of the saliva drooling down her mouth.


    The boy felt a strange feeling inside him as he watched the girl stared at the bread. He felt guilty about not helping her earlier. He knew that sorry won''t cut it.


    After struggling with the feelings inside him, the boy tore the bread in half and handed the other half to the girl.


    "Ah..." Surprised, the girl let out a small yelp.


    "For me?" The girl asked quietly, her eyes doubting the scene in front of her.


    The boy nodded plainly and the girl happily accepted it as she ferociously swallowed the bread. Due to eating the dry bread without taking the time to chew, the girl choked on it as it got stuck in her throat.


    Seeing that, the boy pushed the cup of warm milk towards her. She immediately drank it and felt the choking feelinghas subsided.


    With a half eaten bread in one hand and a cup of milk in the other, she thanked the boy, only to realize that he has walked away. He has finished his breakfast, after all, it consisted of half a palm-sized bread.


    Mysteriously, the boy heard her and turned back to give her a silent nod before continuing on his way.

 2. The Chosen Ones

    "Ah, you must be Alan, the new member. Welcome to the TrixLab." Richard extended his hands as he welcomed the bespectacled lean guy standing formally in front of him. Richard was none other than what the children referred to as Father.


    "Thank you for accepting me! I will work hard from now on!" Alan gratefully said.


    Richard gave a casual glance at his watch as he called for the lift, "It''s about time... Come with me."


    "Yes sir," Alan respectfully replied to his senior.


    "By the way, do you know what we do here, at TrixLab?" Richard started a small talk while waiting for the lift.


    Feeling that Richard was testing him, Alan surmised the details he had read about Trixlab on the JobFinder site, "We research for ways to stop the wars, to create a better future."


    Richard smiled but did not reply.


    Diingg. The lift arrived as the doors opened.


    Standing in the carpeted floor of the lift, Richard pressed the button ''100'' and the lift jerked downwards before accelerating.


    Looking at the 102 buttons on the panel, Alan could not help but gasp, "It has a hundred floors?! I only saw a one story high building when I came in here."


    Richard sighed as he helplessly said, "Floor zero is the first floor, floor 100 is the lowest floor. It''s all underground." His tone was slightly annoyed. ''Why do I have to explain this to every new guy that works here.''


    Enlightened, Alan was curious as to why it had to be underground. Before he had the chance to ask, the lift door opened.


    Immediately, Richard strode out of the lift and down a heavily guarded corridor, with Alan jogging behind him.


    Heavily armed guards were placed at fixed intervals, until they reached a metal door. Handing his pass to the guards, they affirmed it before passing it back to Richard. After a full retinal and fingerprint scan, the metal door opened.


    "He''s with me," Richard explained when the guards were about to block Alan''s entry.


    Throughout the whole process, Alan was sweating, he could even feel that his ass was slightly wet. ''Is it too late to quit? What is so secretive about TrixLab that needs so many guards and what''s with this underground thing?''


    "This lady right here is Scarlet, she is in charge of the security pertaining to the training ground in front of us."


    Alan quickly came out of his thought when he heard Richard giving the introductions. In front of him, sat an average looking blonde overlooking a bunch of meters and cameras.


    Alan gave a quick greeting and Scarlet responded with a nod. He then looked at the training ground.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    They were in a small dimly lit room, similar to that of a control room. In front of them was a thick glass panel, with a length of roughly three meters. Beyond the glass panel was an extremely large white gap. By his estimation, it was about 10 meters deep and 40 meters on each side.


    "Lastly, this guy here is Vincent. He is well...the game master," Richard rubbed his chin as he attempted to find a suitable title.


    Likewise, Alan and Vincent greeted each other.


    Before long, Richard pressed the communication button and spoke into the mic.


    ...


    As instructed, the children were given thirty minutes to finish their meal before gathering in a small room.


    Bzzz...


    The speakers came to life again as Father''s voice resounded through it, "Dear children, we have now come to the monthly contest of survival. Only the strong will survive. Only the Chosen Ones will come out victorious. Fight! For you must! To survive!"


    Just when his voice died down, the wall in front of the children opened as they slowly walked into the big spacious white room.


    Code 072 looked up at the glass panel and thought to himself, ''Father is there watching us. Like always.''


    ...


    "W-what is this?!" Alan stumbled back as he heard the words Richard spoke and finally, seeing the children came out broke his composure.


    "A solution, of course," Richard smiled as he raised a finger.


    "A solution to what?" Alan regained some of his composure and asked.


    "To end all wars. You see, Alan, " Richard placed his arm around Alan''s shoulder and leaned in.


    He continued, "The things you see before you. They are not your typical children, nor are they human. Due to the wars that have plagued us for years, the number of able-bodied man has dwindled to a small number. This ridiculous war over scarce water supplies have to end soon. Am I right?"


    Alan nodded.


    "As you know, people die in war. We have developed a serum that brings the dead back to life. However, it only works on children who have died recently. The children, they come back to life, and moreover, they bring back with them the gifts of God. Yes, each individual displayed powers beyond human comprehension. Amazing, isn''t it?"


    Before Alan could continue, Richard concluded, "With that, we have thought of raising the perfect soldier. Ethics and morality, they are not a problem for us like-minded individuals. The real problem lies within the original hundred of children, which gifts are useless and which are not. A death battle is the simplest way to find out."


    With that, Richard left Alan as he announced the commencement of the battle to Vincent.


    ''W-w-what''s all this?! This is madness. The police, I have to report this. But for now, I can only observe and wait for a chance to escape!''


    "This is The Judge. I will be taking charge for now. The location will be the Amazon rainforest. Your abilities will be unleashed when the game starts, survive until the end. May the Chosen Ones come out victorious."


    With that, Vincent ended the com and pressed a few buttons. Immediately, the white tiles transformed in mud and trees started growing, a small lake separated the room into two.


    "H-how?" Back from thinking things through, Alan decided to act like them for now.


    "It''s a secret," Richard winked before returning his gaze back to the training ground.


    "Blitz, prepare to enter the training ground," Vincent spoke into his walkie-talkie.


    "Affirmative."


    ...


    At the other end of the room, the door slid opened as 30 armed soldiers entered the training ground.


    "Alpha left. Bravo right. Charlie straight. Surround them," Commander Blitz quickly gave out the orders as he followed Charlie.


    Under his breath, he murmured, "They are monsters. Not children. Not children..."


    ...


    When the Amazon forest appeared, the children immediately ran into the forest to retaliate. It''s either killed or be killed here.


    Code 072 took a deep breath as the sounds of footsteps, breathing and the rustling of leaves entered his ears. He then opened his eyes, taking in every detail, the specks of mud kicked up by the children, the sweat dripping down their face. With the limiter off, his perceptions were heightened to another level.


    Kicking off, Code 072 ran into the forest.