Survival of the Fittest

CHAPTER ONE:Charlie

"Test Subjects; Charlie Erickson, Lizzie Strone, Aaron Lockwood, and Lola Misa please come to test chamber number 87," came the electronic-like voice from the intercom. As Charlie got up, he looked at everyone else. Like him, they all had name tags with their name and an animal that the scientists used as their codenames.

Charlie decided to go look in the mirror one last time at his normal body. Charlie was a boy of an athletic build. He had black, tousled hair and strikingly green eyes. His Caribbean tan was natural and his skin glowed. He was the star of his Soccer team, The Titans, and was adored by all the girls in his school. His name tag animal was a cheetah and his name was written in flowing script.

As he looked at the other test subjects, he realized that they all looked like they had been popular at their school, but they also had a sad look about them. Like someone they loved had just died or they went through a really bad break up. To be fair, Charlie wasn't a particularly happy young man either. He had lost his parents at a young age due to a car accident involving a drunk driver. He had been the only survivor. He was five at the time and could still remember the sound the cars made as they collided. The harsh noise would've been enough to scar him alone, but as the firemen pulled him from the wreck, he saw his mother, dead, her blood gushing from her head and onto the black pavement. He screamed, and then tears flowed from his eyes as he realized that the world was not nearly as wonderful as he once thought it to be. The image never left his brain, and he doubted that it ever would.

Charlie turned away from the mirror, and back towards the other Test Subjects. He was ready to start over, to begin a new path, however challenging it may be. He just wanted to escape the horrors of the accident.