The test would begin soon. The only world he knew of consisted of four walls, a transparent roof and floor. I was watched from below and above, thick concrete was encased around me and the bottom floor was thick. 

There was a larger room above that was also made of concrete. This time it had a concrete floor and roof as well with the occasional white light embedded into the stone above. He wondered just how bright the lights had to be so that they would glow through the stone. 

Slowly the floor began to rise as the glass roof began to shift. Soon the test subject was encased in a steel coffin so he couldn’t move but a small gap allowed him to see what was coming. His hand twitched in fear as the muscles in his arm cramped up fighting the clamps that kept him in place beneath the coffins outermost layer. 

The scientists would have said it “ Helped him stay still as he was quite jumpy” If questioned. 

He tried to shake his head but the metal kept him in place. He was often told to try and see the forest from the trees when his screams got too loud but that was just a pretentious thing to say to someone who didn’t know what a tree or a forest was. 

He only knew one thing and that was, the arrival of the scientist meant only pain for him even if their goal was as noble as they claimed he didn’t want to be a part of it if his part was simply pain. 

However, he had long forgotten how to walk… if he ever knew at all was something even he did not know. He often asked himself if he was the same as the scientist or perhaps he was lesser in some way, it was something he said to himself to justify his position in the world. 

It was too hard from 03 to imagine that he suffered and was forced to live for some reason like bad luck. 

“ Hello, there experiment 03 how has your day gone so far have you lost your mind yet?” 

The two scientists walked into the room, one was a meeker man while the other was more confident in his step. 

03 named them A and B, with the meeker man being B and the more confidence being A. 

B was pushing a tray filled with all manner of cutting tools and needles. There was even a power drill. The tray was more of a desk on wheels and had a special box underneath the top layer filled with ice to hold organs. 

“ Hello.” 03 could repeat the words said toward him but his meek voice probably revealed to the two scientists that he did in fact not know what a single word meant. Something he was mocked for although he didn’t comprehend mockery.

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“ You know we’re already on experiment 078, you realize that if only you act up we can kill you right? It can all be over.”  A said as he was leaning in close to the eyes of 03.  

“ Hey stop it, besides it’s not like it can understand you,” B said and he was right. 

“ Oh, right sometimes I forget he isn’t human because dam he looks like it right.” A said stepping back, his face a bit embarrassed. 

“ Anyway, why do you think this one has survived so long,” B asked A

“ Who knows. Isn’t that what we are keeping it around to find out?” A said as he scratched his chin. 

They approached the coffin and then they opened it up around the chest piece, looking at the chest of 03 it looked like he hadn’t eaten all his life, in fact his skin was tight against his ribs but also the outline of his organs below his chest. 

A drip was inserted into 03’s neck while B set up a stand for the blood bag next to the coffin. Even though the outer layer was removed metal bars had been burnt and grafted onto 03 rib bones to better hold him into place. There were other places where his body had been welded onto the metal coffin. 

There was also a great amount of long meter long thin metal nails that seemingly went straight through 03’s spine to hold it in place in such a way that it would be in near-constant pain but at the same time not permanently damage it, or in a way that they could be removed until the tips of both ends of the nail that had been also wielded into the edges of the coffin making it act almost like a bed of metal constantly pushing on his back. 

The two scientists picked up their scalps and in total silence, they started to dice up his chest before removing a single lung and half a liver and watching in amusement as 03’s chest slowly sealed itself back up on its own. 

“ Hey, why does it just shapeshift it’s way out of its cage if it’s capable of that?” Asked B as he poked the chest with his pen. 

“ Cause we remade the cage so that it would die if it did.” A said before pointing at the metal nails then at something below 03’s feet that he couldn’t see.

“Observer the wires around the base and the nails running through its back, well It's made like that so if we detect even the smallest change in DNA an electric current will run through the cage killing it instantly.” Said A. 

“ I have to admit that the engineer who designed this coffin was extremely excellent at his job,” B said.

“ Be careful if they hear you they will never let you live it down.” Said A. 

“ Healing a wound doesn’t alter the DNA then?” Asked B with curiosity. 

“ Must be that way or this thing would have tried to escape ages ago.” Said A with an air of non-compliance. 

“ Anyway… where did this one come from?” Whispered B 

“ It was sold to us by an investor apparently.” Said B in a matter of factly type of way. 

“ Really? Then what about the others? Are they all sold to us as well?” B asked. 

“ No, only 01 to 04. But only 03 remains the rest are clones of him or clones of clones.” A said quietly. 

“ About that, I heard a rumour that the newest batch of clones had a corrupted gene pool but I didn’t know they were clones of 03,” B said nervously. 

“ I heard that rumour too but it’s not our department and if they want more samples of 03 they will have to ask the upper management, someone, I wouldn’t want to anger by telling us that we… accidentally ran out of viable clones.” Said A.  

“Hmm, he seems to be healed now take down the blood bag and let’s get out of here.” Said B 

Both A and B didn’t say another word as they packed up their tools, closed the coffin and then left by the reinforced door in front of 03. 

Then there was a ding before the flood began to recede into the ground before 03 ended back up in the same cage as before where he would stay until they needed another sample. 

This had been 03’s life for the past 17 years. He was seventeen years old.