The dinning hall -cafeteria- is where morning role call happens, as each of us pass by the massive doors it quickly scans our wrist making the frame light up. "229019" it says. I later found out it says that to mark me alive. If you miss role call they can assume you're sick or dead and go to you to check what's up. I walk over to where the robot-human hybrids - Romans, as the kids call them- who are in charge of the food. I say hybrid and not cyborgs because they are breed differently from the rest of the mutants and can't be classified under cyborgs. They are older that the majority of the other mutants, the only ones 20-24, and from the information I've gathered in the little time I had I got to know that all of their major organs are removed and sold on the black market, only to be replaced with robot parts, their minds and memories are wiped clean with only basic knowledge like walking and talking left unscathed. Then they are pumped with all the best knowledge of how to kill someone and practically programmed to not be able to touch certain designated people. They're basically like robocop without his memories, him being a bad guy and having no family members because they were all personally killed off by mikado himself.
Lovely.
I stare at the array of foods, from different nationalities, its practically an all you can eat breakfast buffet. After a lot of considering, I decide on omelette rice and scan my band over the mini scanner on the glass to pay. 229019. -10tks. It read.
My captor had generously given me a couple hundred tokens to start, so I could buy food and water. I twist my wrist upwards.
Only 500tks left.
The token system is quite simple. It works basically the same as money, only, to get any decent amount yo either do something for someone with a lot of Tks -Tokens- than you or you succeed in training or spar with someone and win. The more you win the more you earn, it also depends on the difficulty level. For example those who get a distinction in intellectual training, distinction marks are 95 to 100, will get paid. Those who pass, pass marks are 80 to 94 will get nothing. Those who fail with OK marks will get a warning, OK marks are 75 to 79, three warnings and you start paying. Those who fail, fail marks are 0 to 74 will pay depending on how bad they fail.
Warnings are reset every month.
The dinning hall is a huge area embedded in the rock of this massive island to unite both halves of the asylum. Top side is for those with people with mutations that don't need or have anything to do with water. Bottom side is for people with mutations that require or have something to do with water, each side has a training arena modified to fit the types of mutations that exist in each half.
Nico's ability allows him to breathe in both water and air, drawing oxygen from either, he is an amazing swimmer, one of the those who have the abilities of both sides. His dorm is in top side but he goes to bottom side to train his water based mutations and stays in top side to training land based mutations.
Training. Right.
I still have to get used to hearing that a 7 year old is being trained as a weapon.
I sat down in one of the empty pool seats ( designed for water based mutations that need to stay in water)
In the madness that is the asylum, I find bottom side mutants, however low their rank is beautiful. A lot of them have scales and skin that shine like sunlight glistening over the ocean.
The fact that none of them are older than 20 I later realized to be a testament the high rate of deaths. The older you are, the less likely you are to survive your mutation.
Funny.
I'm 27, where does that leave me?
They started taking me down to the labs yesterday. Now I feel even worse knowing just how much pain they're in everyday.
Each of the mutation chemical are named after flowers. They rank you according to how powerful you are in combat and which variant of the substance you were given.
According to what I gathered before I blacked out from pain. I was given a substance called the lotus, the variant was pink, which is it's weakest variant. Lotus pink- as it's called- was given to me apparently because since I'm a lot older than the rest, they wanted to give me something they're sure wont kill me immediately.
Nico was given lotus black, the strongest variant of the lotus. I can tell the difference between his and mine because I know for a fact I didn't grow scales and I don't have gills.
Trust me I've checked.
However it's only been a day so I doubt I'll see changes other than the excruciating pain that seizes my entire body from time to time.
The children rarely show any emotion. They try though, especially for me, but the only thing that comes out is sarcastic pity. I hate pity. But I try to push down that hate as I know it's not mine. I have never hated pity enough to feel like ripping out a child's throat, only despised it, so I'm sure- by a quick personal mental analysis- that this is a side effect of lotus pink.
The loud chattering in the hall stopped abruptly, throwing me out of my re-collection and giving way to the voice that caused the sudden quiet.
"Is she up yet?"
The entire auditorium turned to me. Including the Romans.
"Yes 229019 is up, she looks well, and has gone to eat with the children"
"lovely, when she's done eating, bring her to my office I have a special surprise for her."
"Will do sir"
Special surprise.
My heart sank. That only means he has a new way to torture me. Perhaps… NO hopefully I'm wrong and it wont come to that. But knowing Mikado, it's likely exactly that. HE IS GOING TO GO AHEAD AND ACTUALLY RAPE ME NOW ISNT HE?
I stopped eating. I was only half way through, but I couldn't bare to eat while my mind roamed around the sick idea that my surprise was that he was going to take my-. he didn't do that before, I thought maybe those inappropriate touches were all he was going to do. Maybe he was too disgusted by me to do the actual thing, right?
"Miss su?"
"shhh be quiet Nico, I'm pretty sure she already knows what horrible thing ' special surprise' means don't ask her about it that's rude!"
"Is it?"
"I don't know, I asked the Roman who guards my floor he said in t
He outside world it can be considered rude"
"ooooh, wait we're allowed to ask the Roman guards questions about the outside world?"
"yeah you didn't know? Well as long as the question cant aid an escape you are allowed to ask, but be careful, everything you ask is sent to mikado so I suggest you don't ask about family members, if they're still alive on the mainland and you ask, you're basically sending them to their doom."
"oh ok"
I stared at the older boy, he seems about 11 talking to Nico.
"How long have you known Nico?" I asked.
They lifted their heads up. Now staring directly at me. They all seem to do this by nature. An intimidating gaze from a predator to a prey. It is what they're trained to be, and soon what I might be trained to be.
"Oh, about four years. That was when he started coming from the minisylum." another nickname they have. But I quickly understood this one as the decoy asylum, the mini asylum.
"back then, I was just about leaving the minisylum, I saw him a few times but then never again until he came in with the Romans about a little more than a week ago"
The week I saw him.
"It was then I realized he was mikado's 'special surprise' for me"
"how so?"
"He's my step brother."
"Oh" That's a family ripped apart.
"Yup, My mom died, so my dad married again having him, 4 years after I was born. But I was 2 when I was taken by the Romans, so I suppose dad moved on from me and mom pretty quickly."
"I am so-" I didn't realize the random conversation got me eating again, but my plate was now empty, and a guard had come to take me away.
"229019, time to go"
"Why cant you ever call me by my name I have a name you know!" I shut my mouth, not realizing when I even opened it. Just before the roman shut it for me with a slap.
"229019 Is your name, or do you prefer whore? You haven't been branded yet that's probably why you're still talking. Let's move 229019"
Branded??? was all I could think as he threw me over his shoulder. Then I realized. None of the kids wear this band, then scan the tattoo on their hand, not a band.
But tattoing children? Some of them aren't up to 4 years old!!!
My thoughts were interrupted by the door.
"229019, goodbye"
He took me down to a room I hadn't quite seen, far beyond the labs. There, standing in the center of it, staring at a tablet, was mikado.
"why did you hit her?" he said, without looking up at the roman slowly putting me down.
"She was misbe-"
" is that for you to decide?"
"N-no sir" that was the first time I'd heard them stammer. But it was probably going to be the last time. I know this because in the next second there was a steel pipe impaled in the roman's chest. Blood and some other greenish liquid pooled out onto the floor.
"Now that he's taken care of. Hello my lovely lotus, nice to see you're alive and well, I wasn't sure you'd live to get my surprise."
I was too distracted by some addictive scent to snap back at his remark. It was so enticing, like candy to a little kid, or probably more like alcohol to an alcoholic. Cocaine to an addict. And I am the addict.
"ah, glad to see your blood lust came just in time. I was beginning to think it wouldn't work at all. You have a slight immunity to things do you know that? I mean, I put nearly the lethal dose of blood lust in your delicious omelette rice and it's still only affecting you now, you're quite a treasure you know"
All I could hear is that I've been drugged, the smell of blood is making me feel like a cat in heat and that it was all done by the man I didn't even notice was now standing between me and the door. But when did I get to the bed?
"you put what in my rice?" my words began slurring, my thinking was muffled. All I can see is this man with dazzling skin and glowing eyes ripping off my clothes.
No. No dammit no! Why is my body not answering me? I was right. But I didn't anticipate the drug, it's too late to run and he's too heavy to push off. My body isnt answering me.
No. No no. NO.
All I can hear is him laughing at me. "Oh I'm going to enjoy this, very , very much"
No no no. Get off me!
NO!
NO
No
no
it, it wasn't supposed to be like this.
No. Dammit. I cant move.
No no no no no no.