0735

The holding cells are a terrible place to be for any subject. Of course, being called an outcast is worse.

Inside of a dimly lit room stood two men, both dressed in lab coats, eagerly scribbling on clipboards. In the center was a single desk where a young boy sat, a backpack slung over his shoulder. He was staring blankly at the sheets of paper in front of him, looking like the average teenager in a high school testing room. He leaned his head to the left, glancing up for a moment before returning his stare to the paper. It looked as if he were listening intently to someone talking behind him. He tilted his head to the right almost like someone else behind him had started talking. He shook his head before looking back at the paper. The boy turned his head completely, a gesture saying that the imaginary person behind him had abruptly yelled something rude.

The two men scribbled harder, muttering to each other for a moment. The boy lifted a hand and ran it through messy locks of hair that resembled the color of snow. He leaned back in his chair for a moment, watching the men who were so intent on taking notes they were hardly paying attention to what was actually happening. A tiny black creature emerged from the open flap of the backpack and was making it’s way across the floor to where the men were standing beside the doorway. The creature, barely the size of an eraser, jumped up, landing on one of the men’s clipboards before it grabbed a pen and made a run for it. In one swift jump the tiny creature landed on the boy’s desk before flipping back into the backpack. The boy could not help but grin as he picked up the pen with his tanned hand and began to write on the papers before him.

The man who was left without a pen to write with stood still, his mouth agape, unsure of what to do. He clearly could no longer take notes on the boy he was watching and was left to really just stand there. There would be no proof of what he saw except what his partner managed to capture.

A large murmur began to fill the silence of the room, overpowering the quiet sound of a pen scratching on the paper. The boy glared backwards to the peach colored backpack and the murmur began to die down. A black figure began to climb out of the flap and onto the boys shoulder. He was quick to swat the creature to the floor where it began to protest in an inaudible screech that seemed to bother the boy. An angered stare was given and reluctantly the black creature climbed back into the pack. The murmur rose again but was quickly quieted from inside the pack. Whatever was causing the sounds clearly did not want to disturb the boy anymore. He continued to write on the papers for close to an hour in silence.

Finally, he stood up, walking over to the two men where he handed them the papers he had written on. Nothing was said as the two men ushered the boy out the hall and through the complex hallways to where the holding cells were. They pushed him into one before scurrying off, muttering unheard words to each other. “Go follow them,” the boy whispered into the pack. Three little black creatures came out and began to run around with excitement. “Hurry you idiots!” So off the three little figures went, jumping through the cell door window and darting after the men.

The boy sat down on the cot that was mounted to the wall of the room. He stared through the dusty room to the door and through the window. At the other side of the hallway was another cell with another boy hidden inside. He had never seen the other boy but that was quite alright, his companions had given him thorough descriptions. ‘He is quite short with little fat stubby legs.’ ‘Oh yes and do not forget his strange hair!’ ‘Yes there is hair everywhere and it’s grey but sometimes pink of his head!’ ‘Truth!And he has these weird hands.’ ‘His fingers are long and pink and sharp!’ ‘Do not forget to mention he only has three fingers!’ They had all been so excited when they came back from seeing him that their words were barely understandable. They often talked over each other, causing a murmur so loud even normal people could hear it. Regardless, the boy had taken quite an interest in his neighbor. It was not because of the strange description he had been given but rather it was the fact that the other boy had talked to him first.

No one ever spoke in the laboratories unless of course it was a scientist to another scientist. It was the first human voice that had spoken directly to him in his entire life. He took a deep breath and stood up, it felt odd to use his human voice considering he never needed it. The Demoses were the only things he ever spoke to so he never had to use the frequency a human would use. His neighbor spoke on that frequency though so if he wanted to feel normal or slightly more human, then he would need to use a voice much lower than one he was used to.

The boy stepped over to the door and looked out through his little viewing window. “0741?” he asked, his voice still a little high but able to be heard by normal ears. He heard someone shifting around in the cell across from his.

“How did it go?” A voice asked back, scratchy and unused. The boy could not help but laugh. Regardless of how much the two talked, it always sounded as if 0741 had not spoken for years.

The boy took a second to listen to a few of the Demoses shouting out their opinions before he spoke himself, “They didn’t even bother to give me a pen. I’m not sure what they expected so I stole one from them. I think that lowered my score some but I feel like I’m going to get out.” He smiled to himself. The outbursts of the creatures caused him to quickly lose his smile. They wanted the credit for stealing the pen even though they all knew 0741 was oblivious to their existence.

“That’s really good to hear man. When do you find out the results?”

“I get them whenever they are done just from cheating, but they never told me when they are going to officially tell me the score. I think I overheard one of them saying it would be tomorrow morning after this ‘batch’ is finished testing.” He sneered out the word batch, clearly showing distaste for what the scientists called them.

0741 let out a laugh. “0735, I inspire to be like you.” He continued to laugh even though he had no information on the boy at all. The neighbor knew nothing of his looks or his abilities and only knew the stories that he told. It was a strange relationship but it was a friendship alright. The closest those two would ever get to one while they were in the holding cells.

The boy smiled, listening to his friend’s laugh until three creatures, bleached white and panting climbed onto the ledge of the door’s window. “One second, I’m getting my results,” he said before changing his voice to one unheard. “So what happened?”

The three figures slumped over each other, catching their breaths and slowly returning to a darker color. ‘They- They said,’ ‘...your stealing…’ ‘uncalled for’ ‘unhuman’ ‘not good’ ‘they tore up’ ‘did not even read it’ ‘burned it’ ‘they said’ ‘outcast.’ The tiny creatures were so breathless it took all of their strength to pipe out a few words, each one finishing the others thought process until they got the entire message out. He stood in shock as the creatures began to move about normally, finally restored to their true selves after the journey.

He stared at the wall for the longest moment as a roar of anger rose from his backpack. The Demoses were furious at the fact they had not even read his writing. He barely even noticed the noise, his ears were still ringing with the last word he had heard. Outcast. It was the most painful thing anyone could ever call him. An insult so it made him want to break free and run away. His breathing began to come heavy and uneven, filled with rage.

After minutes of the roar of the creatures and the angered breaths of 0735, the friend finally spoke. “0735? You still there?” The sound of a normal voice brought him back. With a scream, he broke free from his shock, sending his fist flying into the door. The sound resonated down the hallway. The black figures began to jump from his pack, crying out about freedom and anarchy and rebellion. “So no good?” came the familiar voice, rising above the creatures.

“I’m the most normal of everyone here. I look human. I am human. I’ve got s**t hair and that’s the only thing that sets me apart from them. I should be free. I am not an outcast.” He shouted out the tiny window.

“You don’t age either 0735. Your paper probably reflected that you would not blend in when others started to age. Or maybe you didn’t exhibit the proper skills to wander at the right times. You’ll get to the basement and be the most human one there and they will adore you.” He was trying to be a comfort, but the neighbor was only fueling the anger growing inside of the teenager.

He let out a laugh, filled with insanity. “They didn’t even bother to f*****g read my paper. They tore it up and burned it.”

Silence filled the holding cells. 0741 had run out of comforting things to say. The Demoses had retreated into the pack, fearing the anger their master was showing. The only thing that could be heard was the angered breaths of the victim.

Outcast. It was all he could think. How could they dare call him that? How could they dare label him with such a slur when it was obvious he was human? He dropped his backpack on the floor, receiving cries of anger from the creatures at the impact. He honestly did not care anymore. His body slumped over in the corner beside the cot. Outcast. Perhaps the humans were right. Perhaps he was an outcast, forever condemned to live in the basement, if that was even a real place. There had only been rumors that it was an actual place to live. It had been discussed that perhaps it was a slaughter house and there hundreds of bodies piled high. Failure after failure from the scientists.

A voice filled the silence after what seemed like hours. “Next week I will be down there too and maybe then we can get to know each other more.”

0735 raised his head and stared at the door. He had not thought that in the basement he would be able to have friends. Or were they all broken? After all the simple title had been enough to cause him to crumple in the corner. Maybe everyone who was down there was sitting slumped against the wall, unmoving and silent. There would be no friends in the basement. “Who would want to be friends with an outcast?” the boy finally hissed out, letting his head slump back down.

His neighbor did not have time to answer for the door swung open. Two men stood in the opening, one with a clipboard in hand while the other was carrying a large metal pole. “Miss Infinity would like to see you 0735,” the clipboard man said. The boy stared at them confused. Who was Infinity and why did she want to see him of all people? Had they heard his outcry at the result he did not have yet? Probably. The man with the pole stepped forward, a tiny spark coming out of the end. The boy jumped up, grabbing his pack and starting to follow the two strangers that had come for him.

They wandered through hallways and up staircases until they finally reached the roof of the building where a tiny house was placed out in the open. “Go in,” the pole man said, threatening the boy with his prod. Uneasy and afraid, the teenager stepped forward slowly until he was inches from the door. “Don’t bother knocking,” one of them said after he had stretched out his arm to do so. He stared at the door handle for a moment, afraid of what was about to happen. Taking a deep breath he reached forward and opened the door, an action he had yet to perform in his life. Doors had always been opened for him and he had been pushed through but here he was opening his own door. He could have easily ran away, jumped off the side of the building and been free. He was a fool.

Inside there was a single candle in the center of the main room. It hardly lit anything, making it impossible to see if anyone else was there. He walked towards the candle, wanting to get the ability to look around. The darkness around the room vanished and a woman appeared in front of the candle. She smiled, revealing a row of pointed teeth. “0735, Demoses host. It is interesting that they survived so long without you. How long was it? Eight minutes?” She laughed throwing her hand in the air as if it did not matter. The clothes on her back began to come alive, tentacles as black as the cloth flowed out of her, stretching towards the boy. “See now child, you are not human at all. You are a host and that is why we can not send you out into the real world.” The tentacles wrapped themselves around the boys shoulders and drew him closer against his will.

“You see, humans are normal and boring. They do not fit in with us or belong with us. We send those truly extraordinary subjects out into the wide world so they can bring back information for us. My scientists feel as though you would not be good for this. But you want to know what I think?” She leaned forward,  her body seeming to stretch for miles. “I think you can be a recon agent for me.” She let out a laugh and twirled herself about, making a movement to sit on the couch. “Let me show you something darling,” she sung out, sitting down elegantly.

The boy was hesitant to move. He was shocked that the leader of the whatever it was that was going on was a creation herself. She was a beast that was so enticing he only wanted to get closer, and yet he knew in his soul getting too close would result in his death. She was frightening yet so alluring and charming that it was impossible to resist. He moved and sat beside her on the couch, waiting for a sign from the Demoses that they were alive and being squashed by his leaning back but they made no sound. They had not made a sound since he had thrown them to the floor. Perhaps he had killed them. The woman began to speak after she had retrieved a book from what appeared to be nowhere. “Look at this 0735, it’s a book with all of those subjects down in the Tecrune. It is filled with people and things you will see when you visit down there. Here,” she thrust the book to him, edging him on to take it and flip through the pages.

And so he did. What he saw shocked him and caused him to avert his eyes in disgust. Many of the subjects were cruel jokes and mutation. A foot with a hand sewn on top, a trash can with legs and more so horrifying he could not bare to think about it. “What kind of sick joke are these people? Why?” he asked, closing the album he had barely even glanced at.

Infinity laughed out, smiling brightly, “They are all my children! I love each of them dearly so I created the Tecrune for them to live together peacefully and happily without being made fun of or laughed at. All of them are unique but average when placed on my scale. I pick those that come out quite extraordinary and make them my agents so they can work for me and help me. Here, a book of my agents.” She produced another book, one much smaller with what appeared to be less than twenty pages in it.

“What do your agents do?” he asked, taking the book and opening it. Inside the creatures were less grotesque and mutated. Some even appeared human while others were robots pieced together with great care, nothing like what was found in the Tecrune.

“Well each agent has the freedom to wander between the Tecrune and the real world.” She eyed the boy for a moment, gauging his reaction before continuing, “Though every once in a while I have a mission for them to complete. Simple things like protecting my other subjects that were released into the world. The tasks have become dangerous though so you will need a few weeks of training and then mentoring from some of my best agents.” She reached her hand out and flipped to a page where a man stood, clevers in hand with a grin slathered on his face. His clothes were slathered with blood as if it were a trophy he could wear proudly. “We fashioned 0257 to be a chef for the Tecrune but when we read his test I found that he would work better as an agent for me. He truly has, saving many lives of my children.”

The boy looked up, shocked at what the woman was saying. “At the lives of how many humans though?” He did not want to be free of the Tecrune and have freedom himself, 0735 only wished to be human. He was a lab creation meant to live in the dark and what the woman was offering him, freedom to walk the earth as his pleased with the price to kill, was not what he wanted. He desired to be a human not a creation, to have a soul and be apart of a race that thrived across the earth. How could this woman think that killing people for the sake of her own race was a just cause? A race that was laughable and disgusting at that.

She stared down at him, snatching the book from the teenager’s hands. “I do not understand why you do not want to be an agent. It gives you the freedom to walk about the Earth and do as you please.”

“Why did you create us?” He asked, looking up at her evil snarl.

With a hand moving towards her forehead in distress and the other waving about wildly, she began to talk. “When I was young I fell in love with someone I could never be with. I grew older and created the facility to find a way that I could be with my love forever. At first we were just genetically altering subjects to see what would work and when nothing did, we created our own. The originals were more human looking, used to just test a few attributes that I would need to be with my love. They were sent out into the world after testing was done and so they live that way to this day. Then we got a little more adventurous.

“You see, my dear, we started to create creatures and subjects that were specialized and no longer humanoid. Subjects like 0257 were made to complete a certain job and excel at it. Most of them had no purpose except to see what went well together and what did not. It was around subject 0300 that the alterations on me were made and complete. Then I gathered my agents and sent them out into the world with the goal of finding my love so I could be with him forever. The search is still going on but my agents are often preoccupied with saving my other children.”

She leaned back, taking a moment to pause as if remembering a time not so long ago. Infinity cleared her throat and started to speak again. “I once was human and fell in love with a creature that was far from humanity. I saw the flaws and wrongs the humans had made while I was working on changing myself. After the change was successful I wanted to continue to create such wonderful children so that I could make a people who were better than the humans that plagued the world. Some were created with no purpose what-so-ever but then there are others like you, 0735. You had a great purpose in your creation design. Would you like to know what it is?” She raised an eyebrow at the boy sitting beside her.

He looked up at her strange face wondering just what she was getting at. Slowly he gave a small nod. The woman smiled and touched a gentle hand on his shoulder. “During one of the creations something went wrong and the Demoses were formed. They hoarded around a chemical we had yet to use in our lab and while they eagerly tried to talk to us, we could not understand what they were saying. We let them go but they were a nuisance and a distraction until the day one of the other subjects understood what they were talking about. They needed the chemical to live and would happily take it from us to get out of our way. We had a better plan. We created a new subject, a host body filled with the chemical. A vessel for the Demoses to live with and travel with so that they were out of our way and happily on their own way. You were a hit and a success and it seems you have bonded well with them. I am very pleased to see our family growing in such a way.” She gave a small smile, finally ending her story.

The boy looked up at her, the anger inside of him growing so quickly he barely knew what to do. “You created me out of an inconvenience?” He shouted, standing up. Anger was residing in his eyes as he shot her down. “How could you say you are better than the humans? You did not even make me with care but rather as a host for something that was annoying you! You plugged me full of the same information that you put in everyone else. You beat me down and destroyed me and now you want me to work for you? Killing people to protect your precious babies most of which you lock in the basement. Then you send others out to find your love? Why should I give a damn about your cause. I do not want to be a part of this.”

The Demoses began to crawl from his backpack, ready to fight for him. He began to grind his teeth as he turned to leave, darkness covering the room again. “It’s called the Tecrune,” the voice of Infinity echoed out over the house.

“What the hell is that even supposed to mean?” The boy hissed out, turning around to face the darkness, illuminated once again by the single candle in the center of the front room.

“Technical Escape Chamber Recreated Under-Neath the Earth.” the voice echoed out. There were plenty of questions that the boy wanted to ask. Things like the fact underneath was one word not two and how was it technical? What did that explanation even mean? He shook his head and opened the door to leave, expecting to hop off the roof and runaway. He refused to be an outcast and he refused to be an agent for a demon.

When he reached the sunlight, there was a strange greeting before him. A woman holding a notepad was looking cheerier than she probably should have been and standing beside her was a man she had seen in the smaller photo album. So these were Infinity's agents sent to push him to his death. The woman smiled and held out her hand, “Hello 0735, we are here to escort you to the Tecrune. I am your personal guide for the next few days and will introduce you to everything that there is down there.”

The teenager stared blankly at the hand outstretched before him. It was the first time anyone had ever given him a polite gesture. He gazed up at her, glancing at her features quickly, trying to find something out of place. Normal brown hair, green eyes, blue dress, leather jacket, boots, and overall normal. He focused on her face, trying to simply figure her out. She tilted her head to the side, her smile fading as she dropped her hand. The girl cleared her throat before plastering another smile on her face. “I’m 0684 and this is 0574, or at least that is what these rats call us. I prefer to go by Sappho though. After all, we are more than a number in the Tecrune.” She paused, waiting for the boy to say something.

The Demoses began to chime in their opinions of the girl and what her feature was. After all, if she was human she would not be a number. ‘She grows tentacles at night!’ ‘She eats people!’ and so on they went. “Shut up. She probably just has a hollow inside or something,” he said to them, quieting their ideas. They mumbled amongst themselves inside his pack for quite some time before eventually letting their noises die out.

Sappho bit her lip for a moment, throwing a glance at 0574. He was a much more obvious creation. His skin was coarse and a blue tinted grey with spiky hair of a similar color. He had great large boots on his feet that were strapped up to his jacket. The sound of sloshing water could be heard coming from the boots. “Shall we get going?” the girl asked, putting back on her smile. She turned to leave but when 0735 made no movement to follow her she turned back around. She furrowed her brow at the silent boy before giving a nod to her partner. “We are going now,” she said affirmatively before stomping off in the direction of the entrance to the building. The shark boy lifted out a hand and grabbed the other teenager, pulling him along.

The shark skin of the boy was painful to the touch, clearly it was being rubbed the wrong way. The Demoses host grimaced, wanting to break free of the strong grip but knowing he did not have the strength to do so. He stepped in pools of water that were sloshing out the boys boots. “I can walk by myself,” he finally said, feeling the coarse hand release his arm. And so they went through the hallways with Sappho in the lead always ten paces in front of the two boys with 0574 in the rear, staying close to the troubled subject.

The group paused as they entered a section the teenager had never seen in his short life at the labs. “We are entering the Tecrune now. I please ask that you put away all of the thoughts you previously had about what and who are. This is your new life and you are going to love it.” She put on a smile. The shark boy left during her speech, silently making his way down the dark hallways without being noticed regardless of his sloshing boots and trail of puddles. Sappho pushed her hair aside before opening the door behind her, a narrow staircase leading downward revealing itself to the remaining boy. “You will be happy,” she said with another smile, her eyes glowing a bright green before she turned and went into the Tecrune.