That was probably not a good thing for me. Being a lab experiment usually denoted some sort of inhumane treatment. I would apparently have some nice superpowers though. When the world started to materialize around me, I saw that there were dozens of people in here. They all seemed to be teenagers like me. They ranged from all the scrawny 13-year-olds to the big and husky 18-year-olds and everything in between. I myself was a pretty average 16-year-old highschooler in real life. Looking down at myself, I had pretty much the same physique that I had in the real world. We were all disoriented and looked around in confusion. I knew that I was in some huge lab experiment, but it was a pretty large and sterile auditorium. There was not a single adult that seemed to be in charge or any researchers here. I just walked around and a kid about my age came up to me. He put his arm around my shoulder. "Hey. My name's Tobias, but people like calling me Tobey. What's your name!?" he said. I told him my name was Gregory. He smiled and said "Let's hang out." We walked around together.
Neither of us had much to say to the other. We were both just trying to see what was going on. He pointed out some cameras to me. I whispered about some malicious looks we were getting. There were others in the group that were moving around, but we were among the most active. It was like we were both being sized up by some of them. "Let them stare if they want. What the hell are they going to do to us?" I just shrugged. "As long as we have each other's back's in here we'll be fine." I said. It was an invitation to team up. He slid his eyes to me. "Yeah. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." he said with a smile. His arm wrapped a bit further over my shoulder. The gesture was obvious, but he did not say anything about it. Tobey just went back to looking around. There was something to that, but I let it go. I would find out later. There was a time and place for everything. After a few minutes of walking the perimeter, a creaking noise from a speaker started. I guessed that the experiment had to start at some point. "Hello, my contestants. You are in the running for something good." it said.
Everyone was looking around to see where it was coming from. It was impossible to tell with the acoustics of the auditorium. That was probably by their design. The loud voice continued speaking. "You have all been selected from our big city because you are all neo humans. You had the poor luck that no one cares much about you. For those that are not orphans, your guardians signed you over for a pretty penny." All the other subjects in the hall began to speak up and complain. Some even threatened the owner of the voice. When a lull had fell over the group the voice said "Are you done whining? Alright. Now to tell you what you will be doing for the next few days. We want to train gifted individuals for our new task force. In that vein, we have decided that out of your cohort of 100, we need 6 finalists." "How the hell are we going to get that far!? Just let us go already." one of the older boys said. Looking closer, there were no girls here. Sure there were those with feminine demeanors or girly figures, but the rags we were in showed they were male. We were all in boxer briefs and a tank top.
Ratty clothes aside, the room was neither too hot nor too cold. That told me that this facility was under extremely controlled conditions. "Now that you have asked, I'll tell you. To get down to the 6 you will have to eliminate all the others. Kill them." There was a deep silence in the auditorium. The voice was uncaring and without emotion. A look at Tobey told me that he was getting creeped out. "You're here in the auditorium. More parts of the facility will open up when 10 of you are eliminated. Those of you that are doing your best in eliminations will be given more privileges. The next area to open will be the cafeteria." the voice said. Tobey leaned in my ear and whispered a brief and low. "This is going to be a bad time, huh?" I just nodded. "While I've enjoyed this chat, this will be the last transmission before the cafeteria address. I wish you all well." was the end of the voice. I pressed my forehead close to Tobey's and grabbed his shoulders. His eyes went wide in surprise. "We swore that we had each other's backs. This is a death game. I need to know it's something we can rely on." I said.
