I wake up with my heart beating faster than it ought to. Yesterday I did something really stupid. But I don't regret it, I see it as saving an innocent life. That's right I have not done anything wrong.
I walk across my room, pull on some sweats and a grey t-shirt. Go to the washroom and brush my teeth harder than required. Put some water on my face, hair and there you go, I'm all set.
Set for what? Set for training. Everyday we have training unless we are on a mission. Sometimes I train with the other numbers and sometimes it's individual. Yesterday was the first day ever that we did not have a training session. I wonder what they're going to do to me. I'm scared but I did break a rule. That is something we must never do. There will be consequences and I'll have to come to terms with that.
Now that I'm done washing up, I leave my room. A door closes behind me while another opens up in front of me. Out comes a boy who looks a few years older than me. His body structure is not what I would call muscular but it definitely isn't lacking in any way either. His blond hair is spiky, always spiky, I bet he wakes up like that. He's wearing shorts as usual; he gives me the biggest smile ever.
Before I can reply with a smile of my own, he puts me in a headlock.
"Jason, you little runt! How can you hog all the fun, it's not fair. You should've taken me with you, we would've kicked even more ass," says Will.
With some effort I break my head out of his iron grips and give him a friendly kick on his behind. Will always cracks me up, I love him, he's my brother from another mother.
"Shut up Will, I'm so fucked, what do you think they're going to do to me?" I cry out.
"I dunnoe but is it really that serious? You saved someone's life, they may just give you a warning."
"I doubt it."
"Anyways man, what's your limit now? I'm at 30, cool right?" Will says proudly.
"I'm at like 25.��
"HA, I'm higher than you!"
"Well obviously you're number nine," I say.
You might be wondering why we need to train when we are already so strong. It's true, we are really strong. My base strength is 10 humans while Will's is 20. Wendy aka number eight; her base strength is 30 humans. It keeps going like this until we reach Miranda, number one. Her base strength is 100 humans. She has everything: strength, looks, a nice personality, a nice body, a nice ass, a nice… okay I should stop. Some things should just stay in my head.
That's not all, base strength means what we were experimentally born with. But just like how a regular human can get stronger by training, we can get stronger too. Right now I'm at about 25 humans. It takes 25 humans to beat me provided that I can not use any strategy or any weapons or anything like that. Basically if I was trapped in a room with 25 average strength humans, we would probably kill each other. That's exactly how training goes. We fight robots in a room, each robot has the strength of an average human. We fight them day after day after day; year after year after year. Really slowly, we get stronger. I went from 10 to 25, Will went from 20 to 30. Who knows how strong the others are by now.
That is why training is important. I like training, everyday is a chance to improve. I'm just not looking forward to it today, it'll be punishment today, not training, I'm sure.
Will and I walk down the corridor towards the training platform. We make a turn and there she is, a brunette girl with blue eyes. She's wearing a pink combat gear, ready for action, ready for battle, ready for anything. As soon as I see her my heartbeat goes up ten folds. Don't be stupid, act casual, act cool, act I don't know just don't fuck up. But before I could say anything, she speaks.
"Jason are you alright? I heard what happened, you should be more careful," Miranda says.
"Uh, um, yeah I'm fine," I somehow manage to get that out.
Miranda genuinely looks worried. That makes me feel bad, I don't want to make her worry. Why is she worried though? There's no way number one has feelings for number ten. Don't be dumb Jason, she is worried because her friend Jason might've got hurt. Or because the numbers are publicly known to everyone now. Just be glad you can see her everyday like this in training.
"That's a relief, I'm glad you are fine. I can understand why you did what you did. Saving an innocent life should definitely be first priority. Don't worry, I'll vouch for you," she says.
I nod, unable to do anything else. We continue on our way to the training platform.
When we arrive, I notice that everyone else is already here. We line up beside the others. The others peek glances at me. Usually they don't care much about number ten; I guess I really messed up if they are paying attention to me now.
In front of us, Tyson is glaring at me. Tyson, our coach. He's very smart but he can't take the numbers on, no regular human can. You'd need like an army to beat us. But still, I am spooked by his expression. He looks like he's about to do something he really doesn't want to do.
"Before training begins I would like to get something out of the way. The higher ups have spoken; we have decided on your punishment, Jason. You did a honourable thing by protecting an innocent life but everything has its consequences. Do you accept…," Tyson was saying when Miranda interrupts.
"Jason did nothing wrong! You can't punish him for this," Miranda complains.
"I can and I will. Law breakers must be punished so others don't follow suit. Jason, your punishment is as follows: you will take nine shots from a gun straight to your brain. Each shot will be separated from the next by taking a five second pause each time. When all nine shots have been fired, your punishment will end," Tyson concludes.
"Why just nine? Isn't this loser stronger than his base strength of 10 by now?" asks Marcus aka number two.
"A normal human can get stronger but it still takes only a bullet in the right place to kill them. Same with Jason; he is certainly stronger now but it'll still take ten shots in the right places to kill him," explains Tyson.
Miranda was about to blurt something out but Tyson gave her a stern enough look to make her quiet. She looks like she'll start crying any second. I'm making her sad and I hate that.
"Any objections, Jason?" Tyson asks.
"None sir," I respond.
"Good, now stand at the end of the firing range," Tyson instructs.
The most bullets I've ever had in me at the right places (brain, heart) is four. That happened in a mission a couple years back. I don't know what to expect from nine bullets. All I know is that I'm still glad I saved that little girl.
I'm in position now. Tyson is a 100 meters in front of me, holding a gun in his hands. He positions himself accordingly; aims the gun straight at my head.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
That stung, I guess.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
That hurt, I guess.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
That actually hurt.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
Getting real uncomfortable here.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
Mom, I just want to say that I love you.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
Is this what death feels like?
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
OW OW OW OW OW, LIKE FUCK, OW!
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
MOTHERFUCKING TYSON I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU IN THE CRUELEST WAY POSSIBLE AND FEED YOU TO A PIG AND THEN… OWWWWWWW CAN'T THINK WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BANG!
I black out.