Day 26

[from Vanishing Point]

As the alarms sounded throughout the facility, the guards were not the only ones alerted. In another section of the cell blocks sat another, slightly older, and significantly taller girl, wearing an identical navy-blue jumpsuit that complemented her short, navy-blue hair. She, too, remembered nothing of herself. Not even the distinctive tattoo of a snake wrapped around her right arm rang any bells. There was, however, something she had discovered about herself during her brief incarceration.

Crossing to the bars of her cell, she gripped them tightly in her hands. Whatever this red alert was about, it was the perfect opportunity to escape, while the guards were distracted and the facility was in chaos. Grunting, the girl began to pull ferociously on the bars. They seemed to have been specially thickened, and would not bend, but remarkably, as she pulled, the concrete that the bars were embedded in began to crack under the strain.

Finally, with a superhuman effort, the girl ripped the bars clean away with a deafening clang, creating a gap big enough for her to escape through. This was what she had discovered: that somehow, inexplicably, her strength surpassed that of twenty men. Even with her toned, athletic physique, what she had just managed should have been impossible, and yet she had done it.

The guards had either heard the bars being ripped away, or had anticipated an escape attempt from her, for as she stepped through the gap she could hear footsteps coming from around the corner. "Secure the subject!" cried one guard. "Don't let her escape!" cried another.

Even with their weapons, the guards were powerless to stop her. As the first guard rounded the corner, the girl slammed one of the iron bars into his chest, cracking several of his ribs and knocking him to the floor, winded and in agony. The second was struck in the head with the other bar with such force that he was thrown against the bars of the adjacent cell; he slumped to the floor, blood gushing from a deep head wound.

The third guard managed to ready his assault rifle and fire, but the girl ducked, rolled, and avoided the shots, before clubbing the man in the shin with one of the bars. He crumpled to the floor with a cry of agony, his rifle clattering to the ground. Looking up, the last thing the unfortunate guard saw was the girl towering over him, eyes filled with hate, before she struck him in the head and killed him.

With a loud clang, the girl dropped the bloodied bars, and picked up one of the fallen assault rifles in one hand. Now fully armed, she strode off through the cell block in search of the exit.

"Hey! Excuse me!"

The girl stopped, turning in the direction the voice had come from. Standing in a cell to her left was another girl, dressed in an identical jumpsuit. She was almost a foot shorter than the blue-haired girl, but had much longer hair; it was bright pink, and tied back into twintails that extended down to her waist. Her bust was also significantly larger than the blue-haired girl's, and despite her currently predicament, her disposition was rather more cheerful.

"Could you let me outta here please?" asked the pink-haired girl. "I wanna go home."

Without saying a word, the taller girl crossed to the bars and, once again, ripped two of them clean out. With a squeal of delight, the pink-haired girl rushed through the newly-created gap and gave her rescuer a tight hug, her face buried right where the taller girl's breasts would have been, had she not been almost completely flat-chested.

"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed the pink-haired girl. "I was so scared, but I knew somebody was gonna save me, and they did! You did! You saved me! Thank you!" Finally letting go, the girl gestured down the corridor. "C'mon! Let's get outta here!" The blue-haired girl nodded, and the two girls sprinted off down the cell block together.

"My name is Hanako Kobayashi!" said the pink-haired girl, choosing to introduce herself at rather an awkward time. "You can call me Hanako! What's your name?"

"I don't know," replied the first girl calmly.

"You don't know your own name?" repeated Hanako, before chuckling. "You're kinda weird. But… you must have a name, right?" she added after a moment. "I mean, what do the people here call you?"

"They call me Subject 13," said the first girl.

As the girls reached the door to the security control room, they paused for a moment, perplexed. "There's no door handle," Hanako pointed out. "How do we open it?"

"Subject 13" pointed to a numeric keypad next to the door. "I'm guessing you have to enter some kind of code."

"So, what's the code?" asked Hanako.

Subject 13's response was to smash the keypad with her fist, sending sparks flying everywhere. Sure enough, the door opened, and the girls found themselves confronted by the security officer, wielding a handgun. Hanako let out a frightened yelp and jumped behind her taller companion.

 "Get back or I'll shoot!" barked the man, pointing the gun at Subject 13. Unfazed, Subject 13 raised the assault rifle and fired, causing Hanako to squeal and cover her ears. The officer was hit twice in the chest, and fell backwards onto the ground, his gun falling out of his hand.

"Come on," said Subject 13, "we have to get out of here." Seizing Hanako's wrist, she dragged the shocked girl behind her through the control centre, towards the exit. Hanako had one last look back at the dead guard, blood pooling around his torso, before the door to the cell block swung shut behind them.