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Description
First of all I should start by saying this: I have lied to you, and for that I’m sorry. After you hear this, you will probably never think of me in the same way, but at this point you deserve to know the truth.

My very first memory is from when I was five years old. In it, I am repeatedly being shot by a machine gun. Back then I wasn’t exactly as powerful or accustomed to injuries as I am now. I find it a bit hard to explain you the pain caused by several bullets, but I hope you can imagine that it was really painful.

Most of my early youth was spent in a laboratory from a secret organization called Project Immortality run by a very amoral person called Avery Grey, which was dedicated to studying and researching regenerating powers. I was a test subject there. It wasn’t easy.

The doctor that managed Project Immortality wanted us to be compliant while getting away with submitting us to atrocious tests. We were stripped of our names, our clothes and our choices. Being so young, I was easy to manipulate. It wasn’t hard for them to make me forget the first five years of my life and believe that I was taking part in something normal, and that the tests were something to look forward to. To try to improve to make the doctors happy and produce nice results that could help the World. My past was effectively taken away from. You may sometimes have wondered what S14 even means. That was my serial number, and the way that I identified myself for a good portion of my early youth.

…Sorry if this story is disjointed, James. There is too much to say all together.

As I said, being a subject at the Project was not a pleasant thing. Suffices to say that not every regenerator was at quite the same level. The worst numbers were considered useless as soon as they had nothing new to offer, and migrated to the performance of menial tasks like cleaning or looking for food. I clearly remember S7 being a scavenger. One time he disappeared for three days. Only after that time passed did the staff look for him. Most of his lower body had been eaten by wolves. The rest was frozen. His maimed body was displayed in front of the subjects as an example of what it meant to not develop your regeneration appropriately. Back then I was too young and stupid to realize just how monstrous that was.

Seven was an outstanding hunter and a strong man… His death was naught but an excuse. This is the kind of things that you realize when you get older, James. You don’t have to be Mitte in order to manipulate and use other people… You just need to be heartless and not care about the emotions of others.

On the other hand, the best amongst the subjects were submitted to numerous, barbaric tests, varying from the extraction of limbs to a lack of nutrition lasting months. I, myself, was the absolute best. Avery’s “special girl.” And I was really, really proud of it. Thinking back, my good performance might have negatively influenced the fate of the less impressive regenerators… I have struggled to live with myself, knowing that.

…No, James, you are wrong. I am to blame. I was ignorant and stupid, but I was also proud of how “superior” I was… I raised the standards, and those that didn’t manage to catch up became disposable, like Seven…

Well, let’s return to me. Because I was so good and well aware of it, the doctor wouldn’t punish me when I didn’t do so well in the tests. After all, at my worst I was far better than most of the other subjects in their best areas of regeneration. Instead, I was rewarded positively for outperforming myself: Being allowed to use clothes for a day, sleeping on a comfortable bed, and so on. This also worked to make me believe that these were not basic needs for human dignity, but something that you are rewarded for.

At one point when I was around ten years old I earned a big prize, though. There was another subject with my regeneration level: S10. Ten was a rebel. She knew exactly what went on in the program and would have done anything to shut it down. The doctor allowed us to share a room.

It’s… unclear to me, what his motives were to expose me to a person as dangerous to the Project as Ten. I personally believe that Avery wanted us to discuss and learn each other’s mental techniques for regenerating from serious injuries. Each of us was better than the other when regenerating from different kinds of situations. Fire and asphyxiation, for instance, I have never been any good at. Ten, on the other hand, believed that the doctor was using that as an opportunity to keep her tame by having someone innocent to live with, and at the same time keep me happy and stimulated by having someone to look up to. Hers was a more interesting theory, of course, but if that was the plan, Avery made a huge miscalculation: Ten wouldn’t be tamed that easily.

Ten was different from me. She remembered her past, having a friends or a name. Memories… She told me about the World, about life and people. She taught me math and literature. She was the precursor of the techniques I used to teach you how to read and write, James. And she also told me some things that Avery Grey did probably not expect.

She told me that the numbers, the closed rooms and the lack of clothing were methods to keep us subjects in less than human conditions, thus feeling inferior to staff members and doctors. The tattoo that we got with our serial numbers was a way to let us know that we were powerless: If they could tattoo us it meant that they had ways to pierce our skin and surpass our regeneration. She told me that life was not about tests or projects… It was about being free… And we were not free.

To this day I thank her. If she hadn’t told me that, I would probably still be a stupid girl looking forward to being the best at getting decapitated.

…Me and her had a plan going on: A plan to escape. She had trained me for a while, at that point I was twelve, and she believed that, since I was pretending to be compliant, she could use the chance when the guards confidently walked into our room to take me, and kill both of them to later escape together. We did try that, and everything was going according to plan… Until I backed up, realizing that I was slowing Ten down.

I ran away from her and considered myself lucky that she didn’t notice that. I didn’t know of her until three days later, when Avery called me to his office.

Ten was there… Dead. I… I don’t think I’m emotionally ready to describe what her body looked like, but it was unrecognizable, save for the S10 tattoo in her shoulder… I don’t even know how Avery managed to keep that in there, but he told me that it was a lesson to teach me how normal people ended up when they were subjected to the fire tests… And the reason why it would be unwise to try to do what she did.

…Since I am here now, I guess that I don’t need to clarify that I did try it. I trained myself for a couple of months and then made a quick escape. Looking back at it, I’m confident that Avery had ordered his people to avoid hurting me at any cost… After Ten died, I was far too valuable to lose as well. I know that he wouldn’t be hard on me.

My first few days of freedom were less than spectacular. I had to steal a bedsheet that I used to cover my nakedness for quite some time. At that point I had no name, no past and no life, so I took up the only life that I knew and made it my own: The life of Stephanie Robins, aspiring heroine of Indianapolis.

…better known to me as S10.

Description
First of all I should start by saying this: I have lied to you, and for that I’m sorry. After you hear this, you will probably never think of me in the same way, but at this point you deserve to know the truth.

My very first memory is from when I was five years old. In it, I am repeatedly being shot by a machine gun. Back then I wasn’t exactly as powerful or accustomed to injuries as I am now. I find it a bit hard to explain you the pain caused by several bullets, but I hope you can imagine that it was really painful.

Most of my early youth was spent in a laboratory from a secret organization called Project Immortality run by a very amoral person called Avery Grey, which was dedicated to studying and researching regenerating powers. I was a test subject there. It wasn’t easy.

The doctor that managed Project Immortality wanted us to be compliant while getting away with submitting us to atrocious tests. We were stripped of our names, our clothes and our choices. Being so young, I was easy to manipulate. It wasn’t hard for them to make me forget the first five years of my life and believe that I was taking part in something normal, and that the tests were something to look forward to. To try to improve to make the doctors happy and produce nice results that could help the World. My past was effectively taken away from. You may sometimes have wondered what S14 even means. That was my serial number, and the way that I identified myself for a good portion of my early youth.

…Sorry if this story is disjointed, James. There is too much to say all together.

As I said, being a subject at the Project was not a pleasant thing. Suffices to say that not every regenerator was at quite the same level. The worst numbers were considered useless as soon as they had nothing new to offer, and migrated to the performance of menial tasks like cleaning or looking for food. I clearly remember S7 being a scavenger. One time he disappeared for three days. Only after that time passed did the staff look for him. Most of his lower body had been eaten by wolves. The rest was frozen. His maimed body was displayed in front of the subjects as an example of what it meant to not develop your regeneration appropriately. Back then I was too young and stupid to realize just how monstrous that was.

Seven was an outstanding hunter and a strong man… His death was naught but an excuse. This is the kind of things that you realize when you get older, James. You don’t have to be Mitte in order to manipulate and use other people… You just need to be heartless and not care about the emotions of others.

On the other hand, the best amongst the subjects were submitted to numerous, barbaric tests, varying from the extraction of limbs to a lack of nutrition lasting months. I, myself, was the absolute best. Avery’s “special girl.” And I was really, really proud of it. Thinking back, my good performance might have negatively influenced the fate of the less impressive regenerators… I have struggled to live with myself, knowing that.

…No, James, you are wrong. I am to blame. I was ignorant and stupid, but I was also proud of how “superior” I was… I raised the standards, and those that didn’t manage to catch up became disposable, like Seven…

Well, let’s return to me. Because I was so good and well aware of it, the doctor wouldn’t punish me when I didn’t do so well in the tests. After all, at my worst I was far better than most of the other subjects in their best areas of regeneration. Instead, I was rewarded positively for outperforming myself: Being allowed to use clothes for a day, sleeping on a comfortable bed, and so on. This also worked to make me believe that these were not basic needs for human dignity, but something that you are rewarded for.

At one point when I was around ten years old I earned a big prize, though. There was another subject with my regeneration level: S10. Ten was a rebel. She knew exactly what went on in the program and would have done anything to shut it down. The doctor allowed us to share a room.

It’s… unclear to me, what his motives were to expose me to a person as dangerous to the Project as Ten. I personally believe that Avery wanted us to discuss and learn each other’s mental techniques for regenerating from serious injuries. Each of us was better than the other when regenerating from different kinds of situations. Fire and asphyxiation, for instance, I have never been any good at. Ten, on the other hand, believed that the doctor was using that as an opportunity to keep her tame by having someone innocent to live with, and at the same time keep me happy and stimulated by having someone to look up to. Hers was a more interesting theory, of course, but if that was the plan, Avery made a huge miscalculation: Ten wouldn’t be tamed that easily.

Ten was different from me. She remembered her past, having a friends or a name. Memories… She told me about the World, about life and people. She taught me math and literature. She was the precursor of the techniques I used to teach you how to read and write, James. And she also told me some things that Avery Grey did probably not expect.

She told me that the numbers, the closed rooms and the lack of clothing were methods to keep us subjects in less than human conditions, thus feeling inferior to staff members and doctors. The tattoo that we got with our serial numbers was a way to let us know that we were powerless: If they could tattoo us it meant that they had ways to pierce our skin and surpass our regeneration. She told me that life was not about tests or projects… It was about being free… And we were not free.

To this day I thank her. If she hadn’t told me that, I would probably still be a stupid girl looking forward to being the best at getting decapitated.

…Me and her had a plan going on: A plan to escape. She had trained me for a while, at that point I was twelve, and she believed that, since I was pretending to be compliant, she could use the chance when the guards confidently walked into our room to take me, and kill both of them to later escape together. We did try that, and everything was going according to plan… Until I backed up, realizing that I was slowing Ten down.

I ran away from her and considered myself lucky that she didn’t notice that. I didn’t know of her until three days later, when Avery called me to his office.

Ten was there… Dead. I… I don’t think I’m emotionally ready to describe what her body looked like, but it was unrecognizable, save for the S10 tattoo in her shoulder… I don’t even know how Avery managed to keep that in there, but he told me that it was a lesson to teach me how normal people ended up when they were subjected to the fire tests… And the reason why it would be unwise to try to do what she did.

…Since I am here now, I guess that I don’t need to clarify that I did try it. I trained myself for a couple of months and then made a quick escape. Looking back at it, I’m confident that Avery had ordered his people to avoid hurting me at any cost… After Ten died, I was far too valuable to lose as well. I know that he wouldn’t be hard on me.

My first few days of freedom were less than spectacular. I had to steal a bedsheet that I used to cover my nakedness for quite some time. At that point I had no name, no past and no life, so I took up the only life that I knew and made it my own: The life of Stephanie Robins, aspiring heroine of Indianapolis.

…better known to me as S10.