Prologue

15000 died yesterday. They said she caught a cold...she was only five.

...-._.-._.-...

The clicking sound of heels stomping on the cold and humid floor made its way along the dorm's corridors. Well, more than a dorm, I would call it a prison. Our so-called rooms are "cells" after all. No getting out without the guardian's key. The same guardian walking behind my iron door just now.

The boots halted. An eerie silence replaced the former monotonous sound. Great. The rattling of keys echoed through the walls. My lock sprung free. "Get out" ordered the guardian. His voice was as rough and cold as ever...if not more so. Without complaining, without talking, without looking at him, without even so much as breathing, I stepped outside my prison cell. Barefoot, as always. The heels of his boots began stomping against the floor once again, and I followed suit, head down, making myself as small and unnoticeable as possible. I was useless here after all, a waste of space, the trashiest of all after yesterday. I was 14999.

...-._.-._.-...

Year 26 of the New World. Earth as we knew 26 years before was gone, forgotten, as if it never even had existed in the first place. How would I know? Because since the day I and another 14999 - I guess 14998 now - were born, we were constantly monitored, brainwashed, experimented on, verbally and physically abused in this place we call home. Well, the experiments and abuse happened mostly to the last 5000 of us...the worst of the bunch.

The higher your number, the worst your treatment. You can all imagine how I, 14999, was treated all my life. No, forget I said anything. You couldn't possibly imagine it unless you went through it. And I hope for you that you will never EVER have to go through it. I wouldn't wish it to my worst enemy...unless that enemy are the people who did this to us. They can all rot in hell for all I care. They DESERVE to rot in hell.

Anyway, our so-called home is, as you might have guessed, just a glorified name we gave to one of many laboratories across the world created 26 years ago. After all hell broke loose. After the system decimated one tenth of Earth's population in less than a minute. 26 years later, only one third of the population remains.

...-._.-._.-...

After the first massacre, they, meaning the remaining governmental figures across the countries, decided to create labs in order to preserve humanity. The labs all fell under the jurisdiction of the New World Organization, an organization founded during the same period. At its head were all the influential figures of our society. But what was an initially good idea, formed for the good of our existence, soon turned into the nightmare we have today. Each "head" of the NWO soon became more inhuman and disgusting than the next. Each greedier for power and resources than the next. If the videos shown to us during our meals, our trainings, even during our sleep were any indication of that.

I guess I should be happy that our caretaker was against the New World Organization and their inhuman acts, opposition that she didn't fail to transmit to me and some other kids. The acts committed by the NWO were, in fact, mostly hidden from the rest of the world. Such were the acts committed against me and every child in every laboratory across the world. "Acts of torture", our caretaker said. She was the only reason why I managed to resist the perpetual brainwashing we were exposed to since birth. She was the only reason why I was able to keep a sense of self and not be reduced to a lifeless tool like so many of us, ready to be used in whatever way THEY found more suiting. She ignited and fueled the deep hatred I hold against the labs, our "doctors", the NWO. And she was gone. Taken, tortured, killed by the man who makes us call him Father. The very same man the guardian seems to be taking me to.

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