• I opened my eyes slowly. I saw the same old thing I saw every morning.
    Nothing.
    I stretched, feeling no pressure. I just floated. My hair was wet. I couldn’t see anything but black. I yawned, and it morphed into the liquid I was floating in.
    It was weird. I could breathe. I felt nothing. It was a big pit of nothing.
    AKA, an isolation tank.
    It was kinda home to me. Sad, huh? I lived in an isolation tank in some lab. I was 14, or maybe 15, or maybe 12. I don’t know. I don’t know my name, my age, my parents…
    Nothing. I knew nothing about my life.
    Suddenly I was taken out of the retched tank. The light felt like knives, and I screamed, but shut up almost immediately. The sound near burst my ear drums. Large hands grabbed me, but of course, being the clumsy asses they are, dropped me. I curled up into a ball, sorta shivering. I was naked, and it was freezing. Plus my mind was going insane.
    “You dropped her, fool!” “Get her! Get it! C’mon!”
    More hands. I screeched again, feeling more able, and swung wildly with one hand.
    “It scratched me!” Some weenie screamed, blood trickling down his face.
    I saw one of my fellow experiments, a girl about 7 years, snicker. She was smacked instantly by a man in a mask and long doctor’s coat. A boy, about my age and stark naked, growled and lunged for the man. He was held back, and shot with tranquilizer. He passed out, wrapped in a blanket, and lay on a wooden bench.
    “Get up. Walk.” Someone commanded me. I did. I was given a towel to cover myself.
    “Follow me.”
    I sneered, but did it anyway. I could see, and felt much more like myself. The light still hurt, but it wasn’t like knives were going through my pupils. I followed the man into a room that looked like it was used for business conferences. The man closed the door.
    “Sit there.” The man told me. I did, still sneering. I felt like myself. This man was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, but had a long white coat like all the others covering his arms. He had a warm face and light sun bleached hair, tossed around every which way.
    “What do you want?” I asked, making myself seem as dangerous as I thought I could. He was unfazed. Crap.
    “Sweetheart, I just want to ask you some questions.”
    “Like what?” I hissed.
    “What’s your name? Have you decided?”
    I thought. I could tell this guy I didn’t have the faintest idea what the hell my name was. Or I could make something up.
    “Kade. Now, what do you want?”

    Chapter two

    The man blinked a couple of times, but nodded soon. He had bought it. What a sucker.
    “Right. I already told you what I want. We just want to know more about you.” He said.
    “Psh. I lived in a tank for my life. How much could I possibly know?” I rolled my eyes.
    “Listen honey, its okay. You can trust me.” He smiled.
    “Don’t call me honey. I can’t trust you. Your one of them.” I sneered again.
    “Why should that ever matter? I want to help you.”
    “You sound like a sleazy rapist.” I told him. I saw him wince, losing his patience. I smirked.
    “I really do want to help you.”
    “Yeah, and I really want to lick a cats butt.”
    He bit his lip, trying not to lose his patience. I smirked again.
    “Kades, please listen to me. You have to break free from here. This is a lab, and their trying to make you stronger and stronger. You were pre-mature. All of you were.” He nodded towards five other children. All of them were being wrapped in towels, and were sneering at the people around them. “But they thought if they kept you in these tubes you could live and be strong and perfect. Soon they realized you had a lot of potential-”
    I cut him off. “To do what?”
    He smiled. “I don’t know. But they’re going to keep running experiments to see how you react and whether you live.”
    I sneered. He sighed.
    “Listen, just take this backpack. It’s full of supplies and things handy for survival. Clothes, for instance.” He said, looking at my sagging towel. Pervert.
    I snatched the pack. No ticking. No nothing. It seemed safe. I put it down by my chair.
    “You can leave. You can escape with your friends at 3:00 today when they put you in the fields for testing and be alone and survive. Or you can stay and live in that tank some more. It’s your choice Kades.”
    I looked away.
    “You can go now.” He said warmly.
    I rolled my eyes and got up. I walked out of the room, towel barely clinging to my body.