'452, you have successfully been through psy-ops and reindoctrination, you will now be assigned a knew unit, with whom you will train and sleep with. They will become your knew family. Your CO should be here any minute to show you to the barracks.'

'Yes sir'

They sat in silence for a few minutes before a knock was heard on the door.

'Come in'

'X5-494 reporting for duty sir'

'494, X5-452 will be joining your unit as of today. You will welcome her and treat her as part of your unit, nothing less.'

'Sir yes sir'

'Off you go then'

And with that they both got up and walked out the door.

'So… 452 huh' he asked, looking over at her as they were walking

She stayed silent and looked straight ahead, not even glancing at his direction.

'An 09er…'

Still nothing

'Not very talkative are you'

She was still silent so he gave up until they got back to the barracks

'Ok everyone, can I have your attention, we have a new member of our unit joining us today, make 452 feel welcome'

All eyes turned to max and she heard a couple of hellos, but she stood silently still next to 494.

'okay then 452 welcome to unit 2, your bunk is down the end, next to 655, lights out is in 10 minutes and we have roll call followed by breakfast at 7:00am'

452 nodded and walked over to her bed, putting her standard luggage in the drawers.

Meanwhile as soon as she walked off, the others went towards 494.

'Hey man, whats wrong with her?'

'I dunno, she hasn't talked to me at all' he replied

'Maybe she's a mute, or she lost her voice'

'What, in manticore? There is no way manticore wouldn't be able to fix it'

'Well she was in psy-ops for a long time, maybe they messed her brain'

'Or maybe being on the outside messed with her brain'

'Oh and how would it do that dumbass?'

'She could have been a druggie'

'No way she's too hot to be a druggie'

'You think she's hot?'

'For a 09er she is'

'But they were only rumours that the 09er were ugly… come to think of it who started

those rumours?'

'Dunno, but they spread pretty fast, and from the look of her they were wrong'

'obviously they were wrong, I mean c'mon, look at me, I'm a twin of one of them'

'I would have thought you would jump on the hate wagon Alec considering she's a 09er'

'yeah, but its not like we all didn't want to escape, her unit was the ones who were smart enough to actually do something about it, beside its 493 who I hate, just for the fact he's my twin.'

'I wonder what her voice sounds like?'

'what?'

'I was just thinking, you know, you never really think about someone's voice until you don't hear it'

'I've never realised how weird you are until now Eli'

'we realised it a long time ago'

'anyway, back to 452, should we tell her we have names?'

'nah, we can't trust her yet'

'I don't think we'll ever be able to trust her'

'didn't her old unit name themselves as well'

'who cares?'

'do you think she'll ever talk?'

'I spose she'll have to, but to us, she will when she's ready'

Just then a guard comes in 'alright, lights out, get to bed'

Max was lying in bed during the whole conversation. So they aren't all robots like I thought. Oh well I don't care what they think. I can't get attached if im gonna break out.

When the guard came in telling them to go to bed max knew this was her chance to scope out the place. She didn't need to sleep due to her shark DNA, so all she had to do was wait until they all fell asleep. She looked up and saw them all walking to their beds. She saw 494 walking to the bed right across from her. So he said he was bens brother, a twin in fact. Identical? If he was then that's what Ben looks like… hmmm not too bad looking. Wait what am I thinking, hes my brother.

After about half an hour later, max was certain that her unit were all asleep. She got out of bed and started walking towards the door. As she was about to open the door she heard someone behind her. She turned around quickly

'Where are you going 452?'