Exp. 001's POV
My name is Max. Well, actually, my full name is Maximum Ride. Or experiment 001. I am 14 years old, and I was created in a laboratory called the School, in Death Valley, California. I'm 2% Avian and 98% human, so I guess that officially makes me a mutant. But I look, and probably act like any ordinary kid. The only physical difference between myself, and normal human kids, is that I have wings, I have air sacs instead of lungs, my muscles are slightly bigger than an average human, and my heart is stronger. Plus, I've never been officially taught how to talk, or do basic kid things, so I'm pretty unsocialized.
I've lived in a cage my entire life. I've never met a kid my own age. The scientists that made me don't let me see the outside world at all, so I figure the whole world doesn't even know about me. But they're always telling me how special I am. They say I'm the most successful, most advanced experiment they ever created. Every time I go back to my cage, I see other experiments, failed experiments, dying. I've grown up with it, so it doesn't really phase me anymore, and I can handle blood and gore, but it makes me angry at the scientists every time another one of them is stuck in my room. Why don't they just stop creating these unsuccessful experiments? They're torturing them!
Well, they torture me every day. I'm dragged out of my cage, early. Probably like five in the morning or something, and immediately brought to the examining lab. They do a routine physical on me every day. They check my air sacs, heart, eyes, reflexes, everything. They poke me with needles, draw my blood, feed me some measly food, and put me into an arena. If I were a normal kid, I guess you could call 'the arena' my gym class. They stick some of their more successful, but still not a sophisticated as me, experiments, into the arena with me. It's kill or be killed in there. The scientists won't let you out of there till you've killed, or knocked out every one of the other experiments. When I was very little, I used to loose a lot of the battles. They'd drag me out of there, patch me up, and send me to my cage for the rest of the day. But eventually I got really good, and they didn't have to drag me out any more. I'd be the one experiment left standing, and I'd be allowed to go back to my cage, early. They'd give me something for a reward. Usually something educational, like a book, a toy, or something to keep my mind occupied. But then I'd fall asleep, and I'd wake up early the next morning to it happening all over again.
This day was really not much different. I woke up, they dragged me to the examining room, then they stuck me in the arena. As I walked out onto the court, I didn't see crazy experiments gone wrong. Instead I saw five scared kids. Or rather, four scared kids, and one kid who looked like he was trying to protect the other kids. The oldest boy (the protector), was glaring at the scientists up in the window above our heads. He was tall, had dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin that contrasted his other dark features. The glare he was giving the scientists, made him look like the angel of death! The next oldest kid, (another boy), wasn't looking anywhere in particular. And judging by the way his eyes were fogged over, I could tell he was blind. He was just the opposite of the dark boy though. He had blonde hair, blue clouded eyes, and was also very pale skinned. Behind him was an African American girl who stood by two younger blonde kids, a boy and another girl. The two youngest looked like siblings.
Anyway, I was confused. What were these normal humans doing inside the battle arena with me? Where were the mutants they wanted me to defeat?
I looked up at the scientists' window, and pointed to the kids in front of me. They nodded and said through a loudspeaker, "Yes, Experiment 001, they are your targets today."
Why would they possibly want me to defeat these innocent kids?
As if they read my mind, the loudspeaker sounded again, and they said, "You must learn survival, even if it means killing the innocent."
I shook my head no at them. I wasn't going to hurt, or even kill these innocent kids. They were probably kidnapped or something, and just wanted to go home. Not get their butts kicked by a mutant freak!
"Do it, Experiment 001! Or we'll motivate you to!"
Then they sent out real experiments. Part wolf, part human. They called them Erasers. I would gladly take down an Eraser any day. So that's what I did. I body slammed into the nearest one, and it immediately fell to the ground. Thank you extra muscles, I thought to myself. Then I round house kicked another one in the face, and it went down too. I punched, kicked, bodyslammed, bit, and elbowed every one of the Erasers, and then all that was left in the room was myself, the unconscious, or dead Erasers, and the innocent kids, looking at me, stunned.
"Finish the humans, Experiment 001!" they shouted again. Oh boy.