The Index Incident

Chapter 2: The Present

That was a while ago. Months? Years? Decades? I've lost track of time. They brought me a cake a few weeks ago with the numbers 15 on it. I guess that's my age now. Unless they changed my name, but I doubt it. I've been known as Subject 4 for ages now. I've only met Subject 1,2 and 3 twice now. They seem to be not much older than me, maybe a year?

The loud, harsh rattling of my door awakens me as it does every day. Every night? I don't have windows; I haven't seen the outside in so long.

"It's time for your medicine, 4." The scientist lady walks into my room holding a long needle.

"I don't want it" I say, not looking at her.

"I know. You've said that the past 9 days. Gaining an opinion, are we?"

"Not like anything's going to come of it." I turn to face her.

She smiles and keeps walking towards me. She goes to grab my arm; this time I've had enough. I grab hers first, spin her around and kick her back. The force knocks her meters away on the floor, she drops the needle and looks back at me. The look in her eyes is so intense. So familiar. I feel I've seen it before. This woman is frozen, staring at me.

"W...what is...." She whispers. "So...power..."

Other scientists rushed into the room, grabbing her and dragging her away. They looked at me with caution, as if my stare would cause their hearts to explode and their brains to melt. In their eyes, I was a monster. I never knew I had that much strength in me, where did it come from?

"JONES! What the hell was that!?" I heard yelling from outside my room, they hadn't gotten around to sealing my door properly closed again. I recognised the voice of the most feared man in this place.

"Dr Atlas! Sir! It was just- "Dr Jones tried to explain the situation, but Dr Atlas wasn't having it.

"Jones. You have one chance to tell me exactly what happened here. Understand?"

"Yes sir... Dr Chamberlain was going to give Subject 4 her daily injections. But this time was different. 4 snapped and knocked Dr Chamberlain to the floor. She still seems really...out of it."

"Yes, I can see that. We've had a similar issue with the triplets."

"When Kayla killed 2 guards?"

My heart froze and so did Dr Atlas. Kayla? Killing 2 people? No... I've only met her twice, but she wouldn't do that. She couldn't do that.

"Jones." Dr Atlas said sternly. Dr Jones was clearly in trouble.

"I...I'm sorry sir. I know better then to bring up that incident."

"That will be forgotten about soon. The only incident our reputation will worry about will be the Index Incident."

"What? What do you mean, sir?"

Dr Atlas paused for a second.

"Instead of 4's normal injections, give her vial 39."

"WHAT!? Sir, are you sure about this? It's just one little setback that's all!"

"Chamberlain's life was risked. 4 is clearly getting too strong, it won't be long before we can't contain her."

"But what if we give her the triplets' chemical? It could slow down the process, we could still use her."

"Are you insane? We can barley keep funding the current chemical for the 3 of them. Funding 4 would be asking for too much. It is much cheaper to find a Subject 5. Now go."

I had no idea what vial 39 was, but I could tell from Dr Jones' reaction that it wasn't good. What exactly did they mean by finding a Subject 5? They finally realised my door wasn't sealed and shut it properly, once again, I was left to my own thoughts for hours. This was the first time I hadn't had an injection in so long. It felt so good. The blood rushing through my veins, finally being able to heal skin without being broken again.

Hours passed; I was feeling so different. It was a good different. An amazing different. My blood rushed around my body. Our blood. The mixture of vitals they had forced upon me would lead to their demise. I don't care how long it takes. This is my body, they ruined.

My door started to creak slower than it normally would. I looked over and saw 3 girls, I knew them, and they knew me. They looked the exact same. Their hair was long and reached their waist, the only way to tell them apart was their hair colour, purple, pink and red. Their left eye was blue while the other was black. I could stare into that portal of night sky for ages.

"Ella." The purple haired one, Lizzie, spoke to me.

"Who?" I asked.

"Ella Royce." The pink haired one, Isla, spoke.

"We think it's time to leave." The red haired one, Kayla, spoke in a sweet manner. I couldn't stop thinking about what I had overheard. This girl in front of me had killed 2 people and clearly felt no remorse.

"We know what vial 39 is. It's poison." Isla told me. "We need to leave. We'll explain everything. Why you're here, the injections, your newfound strength. All of it."

Either I stay here and die of poison, or I can follow girls I've only met twice in my life. Seemed like a pretty easy choice. I stood up and followed them out.

Within seconds of leaving my room, an alarm starts blaring, people start screaming. We see security run around the place, eventually, one locks eyes with us. Lizzie, Isla and Kayla didn't look surprised or worried, in a way that made you wonder if they were even capable of feeling such things. Lizzie closed her eyes and started to hum, a nearby speaker on the wall fell off onto his head, wires exposed and electricity zapping. She was joined by Isla who closed her eyes, the security guard immediately looked like he had just gone swimming. The electricity from the speaker and the water Isla had created was obviously a lethal mix for this security guard. He screamed in pain as thousands of volts ran through his body. They opened their eyes, and we started running.

I hadn't realised just how big this place was. I could only remember the reception, my room and the room where I had first met these girls. They appeared to know their way around like the back of their hand. Kayla was punching security guards with ease, Isla was leading us around and Lizzie was clearing paths with what I could only assume, was telekinesis abilities. Eventually, we found a way outside. Kayla tore a hole in the metal wall as easy as you could tear paper. More security guards were storming us, but with their 3 abilities, it was a breeze. Kayla, once again, tore through the fence like she had done it a million times already. We kept running and didn't stop for ages.