Subject Zero: CONFIDENTIAL (Short Stories)

[REDACTED] (1)

Part One: The Kids Aren't Alright

Third Person's POV
The scientists at the laboratory had five subjects: Twenty-Six/Alexandria, Twenty-Five/Teddy, Twenty-Four/Arlo, Twenty-Three/Ryuzaki, and Twenty-Two/Chandler. They gave them all abilities — "gifts," they called them, although they were anything but.

They even began an experiment, that would allow the five children to feel each other's pain and emotions. But that experiment has been going horribly wrong. Alexandria can feel all of their pain, their sadness, their despair, while the other four were losing their pain and sadness; beginning to become dull.

So the doctors wanted to retry their experiments. But they couldn't do anything more to the subjects, they couldn't take more children from their homes, but they needed new people.

They even allowed five college students to sign up for the program, $15 per session. But they only knew they were going to go through a few psychedelic tests — "expanding the boundaries of the mind" in a safe way; as far as they knew, the doctors were only doing simple tests on their minds.

November 12, 1950
10:30a.m.
Norwood's National Laboratories

A young adult walked up to the building. Her eyes were bright, and she had a nervous feeling.

She was very beautiful. She had short, black hair that reached her shoulders, in a pageboy hairstyle (the general shape was that of straight flat hair on the top and sides, with a tightly rolled bottom and front edges facing the neck). She had fair skin, bright blue eyes, and a shiny, pearl earring on both ears. She had on round glasses and was wearing a white, shirtwaist, going-out dress.
Her name was Kuriko Nakano. She was eighteen-years-old, a freshman in college.

She stepped into the building, and the doors she walked through led to the lobby, where three other young adults were waiting.

A doctor walked up to her and asked, "Mornin', miss! You here for the program?"

She nods her head and says, "Yes, uh, I'm Kuriko Nakano."

"All righty, you're on the list. You can go ahead and sit in a seat, while we wait for the rest to arrive," the doctor said before he walked away.

Kuriko turned around and sat in one of the seats, two seats away from the other adults. She felt awkward, so she just sat in silence for a moment.

And the woman sitting closest to her seemed very relaxed. Her resting face made her seem curious. She had deep brown eyes and a few freckles on her nose. She had light brown hair and had on a white headband. She had on black cat-eye glasses and wore a black pencil skirt with a red, long sleeved blouse. She was holding onto her coat. She seemed like she was the same age as Kuriko.

The man sitting next to the light haired woman seemed very nervous, anxious. He was very pale with dark blue eyes, and very faded freckles. He had dark circles under his eyes and he had black, gelled hair. He had on a warm jacket and grey pants. He was nineteen.

The other man sitting next to the pale man seemed very bored. He had dark copper hair, and light brown eyes. He had light, almost tan skin, and his resting face made him seem kind. He was wearing black cotton pants, a white collared shirt, and a patterned sweater. He was also nineteen-years-old.