World Ender

Chapter 1

I-156 was woken up abruptly, like all mornings. Men and women alike in white lab coats prodding him, poking him, jostling him awake, and ushering him into the nearest lab room. He'd hardly understood why this was necessary.

Every day was the same in The Lab. First was his morning check-up where they tested his vitals, took his temperature, checked his heart rate.

Then he got to eat breakfast with his friends. At least he thought they were his friends. They always sat together at mealtime so he assumed they were indeed his friends.

Every breakfast was the same. Always some mushy grey substance in a bowl packed full of everything the Lab Men said they needed to survive.

Then everyone was rushed off to lessons. They were taught to read. To write. To do basic maths. To speak.

And then it was time for lunch.

During lunchtime, he sat with different kids because he was grouped with some of the older kids. Sometimes they talked about class. Sometimes they didn't.

And then after lunch was the Testing Period.

During the Testing Period, I-156 was put through daily endurance tests, blood tests, and sometimes, usually once every month, operations to see how they could improve his "quirk". He was not allowed to use his quirk. Some of the Lab Men nicknamed him "the golden one". He didn't know why. He just knew he wasn't supposed to use his quirk until the testing was completely over with and he was stable.

If he wasn't scheduled for an operation, he was allowed to play with his friends in the designated Play Area. It was a larger area with a small play structure that included a slide and one of those plastic walls with shapes cut out of them.

But when he had an operation scheduled he usually awoke in his room afterward. A small square-shaped space. Everything in the room was white. The walls, the bed, the dresser, the clothes inside of the dresser.

I-156 often wished for some color.

And then it would be dinner time.

Dinner was the same as lunch and breakfast, except at the end of every week, they would provide a desert. Sometimes it would be a cake, sometimes it would be cookies. It was never the same thing, but it was most of the kids' favorite part of the week.

And after a long day, I-156 would return to his room and write in his journal.

Every day was the same.