Chapter 5: Waking Up Surrounded by Other Grunts

"Good morning, Subject... No... Grunt No. 703."

In front of the large test tube in which I was currently submerged stood a female scientist. She was a beautiful blonde-haired woman, to be precise, as I strained to force my eyes open while enduring the hollow pain in both my head and chest.

This beautiful scientist exuded confidence, standing tall in the dimly lit laboratory with her heels. Her fair skin glowed slightly under the dim light source of the laboratory, complemented by her blonde hair tied into a large bun behind her head. A square pair of spectacles framed her lovely yet confident face. Her buttoned-up long lab coat hugged her well-endowed figure quite nicely. She embodied the image one might conjure when imagining a sexy female scientist.

Unfortunately, the malicious and mischievous expression that she was showing me placed her firmly in the mad scientist category.

I wished I could gawk and appreciate her somewhat alluring charms, but I was too preoccupied with trying to suppress my pain. I had hoped for the dose of anesthesia that her underling scientists had nearly given me, but this woman was withholding it, which irked me to no end as I shot her a glare. Judging by the mischievous look on her face, she knew it too and was purposefully toying with me.

'Damn it... What is it with me and mischievous and malicious-looking women recently...?' I thought to myself with annoyance. That 'Witch' had also worn a wicked expression to me as she branded me with her so-called "token". If I knew any better, I'd believe I was becoming a defective chick magnet that was only capable of attracting troublesome women.

This scientist woman, Victoria or something, then started to get closer to my test tube. Her eyes turned serious as she used those same eyes to carefully observe me, submerged in this test tube, as if I were a piece of meat hanging in a butcher shop. I wasn't sure how to respond nor did I know why the sudden interest from her, as I was still fighting through the pain emanating from both my head and chest.

As if satisfied with whatever she observed, she showed me another mischievous smile. "Grunt No. 703," she suddenly called me out with the title matching the number label on my chest. I could only muster another glare in response, which seemed to further amuse her. "You are quite an enigma, I'll say," she commented on me.

'Enigma...?' I pondered her words with confusion. I wasn't sure why she was suddenly calling me an 'enigma.' Seeing my confused state, she giggled, further adding to my confusion.

"Yes. An enigma," she affirmed, as if she knew what I was thinking. "Well... we'll leave it at that. You can try to figure it out yourself. But for now..." She then fiddled with the tablet in her hand. Immediately, some sort of new liquid began to flow into my test tube from the top. I panicked a bit as this unknown liquid started to enter my "breathing," but... the pain in my head and chest started to disappear... and I began to feel sleepy...

"Good night, Grunt No. 703." Scientist Victoria bid me 'good night' as my eyes grew heavier and heavier. The last thing I saw before my eyes shut tight was the same mischievous smile she had shown me.

Then... I lost consciousness once again...

< | X | >

"... should we wake him up?" A feminine voice could be heard...

"I don't know... He looks pretty mean..." Another voice chimed in. This one belonged to a man, but he sounded quite meek...

"We are grunts, idiot! We are supposed to look mean," another man's voice chastised the previous meek one.

I heard the sound of people talking... Slowly, I was regaining consciousness... I opened my eyes... and the first thing I saw... was three people with dark gray full-face masks looking down at me.

"Ah, he woke up himself," the feminine voice of the three stated casually. I could only stare back at them as they also stared back at me. There was a silent pause between us...

Then I quickly sat up in a panic, surprising the three of them.

"Woah! Big guy! Calm down, man!" One of them, the guy who had chastised the meek one, tried to calm me down.

My heart was beating fast, and I was breathing heavily. I tried to feel my lungs, vividly recalling how I had been "breathing" inside a liquid-filled test tube.

"Hey, man. You okay?" The meek guy asked me with genuine concern. I didn't answer his question, focusing instead on scanning my surroundings.

I was inside a large and elongated room. The room itself was quite... futuristic. The walls were clean, simple metallic structures with a few markings indicating its high-tech nature. One of the most distinct markings was a large letter 'M' painted in black on a few of the walls.

However, the inside of the room and its inhabitants presented a stark contrast.

I saw two lengthy rows of futuristic "beds" neatly lining the walls. Each row was positioned facing the other, resembling the layout of a mass bedroom in a hospital ward, but larger and with more beds packed closely together, leaving almost no room for privacy. Of course, I was currently sitting on one of these beds.

There were a lot of people here in this room, though I found it hard to call them normal. They all wore skin-tight suits ranging in color from dark gray to black. The suits covered them from head to toe, much like the people in the dimly lit laboratory. But, now that I could see them quite vividly, I saw that many of them had a few unique white to light gray markings on each of their suits, creating a distinct appearance for each of them, especially around their eyes.

One thing for sure though was that every one of them had a number label on the left side of their chest, most likely indicating the subject numbers that were assigned to them. Just like mine...

They were scattered around the room, some standing around, some sitting on the white beds, some engaged in discussions. Some even watched me with curiosity, but they all averted their eyes when I looked back at them.

Then I directed my attention towards the three persons who had woken me up. When they received my attention though, they all got startled and backed away a bit. These people's reactions toward me were confusing. 'Do I look scary or something?' I thought to myself, wondering if there might be something wrong with my appearance.

These three people were also wearing dark gray skin-tight suits like everyone else. Since their faces were fully covered by the dark gray material, I couldn't exactly see how they looked. However, they all had pretty distinct body characteristics that I could at least differentiate between them. Of course, I could also tell them apart by the number label on the left side of their chest.

Two of them were males. They were quite normal-looking guys (except, of course, for the whole skin-tight suit thing) and both of them looked pretty athletic. They also had white or light gray markings on their dark-gray skin-tight suits that were unique to each other. Another thing that differentiated them was their demeanor.

The meek-looking guy was No. 702, while the other guy who was acting cautious towards me was No. 704. Now that I think about it... Weren't these two guys that were beside me in that same laboratory?

On the other hand, I then directed my attention to the only woman among the three, which startled her even more. She was also wearing a dark gray skin-tight suit that hugged her lean but athletic figure quite nicely. Again, I couldn't see her actual appearance other than the unique white marking on her skin-tight suit and around her eyes, and of course, the number label of '711' on the left side of her moderate chest.

Though I gotta say... the way this skin-tight suit was hugging her figure made her look almost completely naked. Without me realizing it, the woman in question started to feel conscious of my intense staring, and she tried to shield and hide her figure from my "preying" eyes.

"Hey..." I tried calling out to them, but they all got startled instead. They even began to slowly back away from me. This was getting kind of annoying... So better just go straight to the point with these people.

Before they all retreated from me, I immediately threw a question at them. "Can you guys tell me what's going on here?" I inquired. I was still confused about this whole 'grunt' thing, and from what I vaguely heard from their earlier conversation, it seemed that they would know more about this than me.

All three of them looked at each other, seemingly trying to confirm whether they should answer my question or not. 'Seriously... do I really look scary?' I thought to myself with annoyance.

Soon after, they all nodded at each other and then returned their attention to me. The No. 704 guy then stepped forward, volunteering himself to answer my question.

"Haha, yeah, man. I could fill you in..."