Gaju - One

Chapter 2 - Day - 1

Gaju submitted his written test results with 10 questions that he did wrong intentionally. Gaju wants to look ‘normal’ like his other colleagues. But he does not yet know the definition of ‘normal’ because this is their first test.

Why does Gaju want to look ‘normal’?

The reason is only one, Gaju wants to stay alive on the Island. He doesn't know if the other kids know what he knows, but Gaju remembers the experience that night.

In this place, on the Island, there is absolutely no timepiece telling Gaju and the other Candidates about the current date. Gaju and his friends had no idea what month it was or what year it was.

The Management tells them to use their day of arrival as a reference to their own dates. They called it Day-1.

And what Gaju experienced in Day-1 is what makes him a child who is easily suspicious and always closes himself to hang out with other Candidates. Simply because of the experience he remembered that day, the first day Gaju and his friends woke up and arrived on this Island.

\=\=\=\=\=

A boy felt a little pain in his arm, but before long his head hurt like it was about to explode. With reflex he held his head and rolled around on the bed that he did not know where.

A man wearing a nurse's shirt and wearing a plain white mask with two small holes in his eyes approached the little boy and held his hand, “you're aware huh? Calm down huh? The pain will only be felt for a moment,” the voice of a young woman is heard from behind the mask, compassion and pity is clearly heard from the tone of her voice.

The little boy still continued to whimper and roll over on his bed, but he could still catch there were many other sounds similar to himself around him, the moans and screams of children the same age as him resounded in this vast room.

Amid the frenzied sounds of screams and cries of the little ones that the boy heard the voice of a man echoing from the corner of the room, “let them practice as hard as possible. Let them develop feelings between them. In the end they all had to kill each other to determine who was the strongest.”

The boy felt the pain in his head grow stronger after hearing the man's voice before the little boy fell unconscious.

After that, the next thing he remembered during Day-1 was when a nurse wearing the same clothes and mask as before was now sitting next to his bed.

“You've realized yes?” ask the masked nurse in a flat tone.

It was then that the boy came to his senses, the nurse in the same uniform and wearing the same mask turned out to be two different figures, the boy no longer heard the worried voice of the first nurse before he fainted.

And the boy finally gained his second precious experience in this place after he came to his senses. They are not expected to build any personal relationships with the people wearing the masks. Nor would he ever know if the person wearing the mask was still the same person or would change at the next encounter.

They are functions, exist only to fulfill their duties, not a personal existence where they should be invited to interact. And the boy finally decided to give up on approaching the masked men, on his first day on the Island.

The Nurse just let out her breath, “I don't care. Your name is Three Seven. You're 8 years old. This place is called Island. From now on you will stay here. Previously, you had received an injection of a genetic serum called Memory Eraser. That's what gave you a headache and fainted earlier.”

“So don't expect too much to remember your past. From now on, you are the Three Sevens and you are one of the Candidates of the forty people we chose for this Program,” the Nurse continued in a flat and expressionless tone, it was as if he was just reading a news text.

Without waiting for confirmation from the little boy who is now called the Three Seven, the masked nurse left the boy who was still holding his own on the bed in the all-white room.

\=\=\=\=\=

Gaju gained two valuable experiences in Day-1. Therefore, Gaju will do anything for the sake of survival. Including pretending to be stupid and weak though. But later on when the time was needed he would strike back with full force, making all his enemies lose unprepared.

Gaju did not realize that his analytical and thinking skills far exceeded the capacity that an 8-year-old should have. And Gaju also did not realize that in this first test he would make the Supreme Leader on the Island interested in him.

Gaju walked slowly leaving the room where the written test was held. The building is called Classroom. The one-story building consists of several separate rooms and is located in the middle of the Main Complex.

There are several other rooms in the Classroom such as Lab, Workshop, Audio Room and various rooms that have their respective functions. But to the Candidates who had only been in the Island for two months, the rooms were like a place they had not yet reached.

Gaju walked in a long corridor that connected the Classroom with the building on his left, Canteen. As the name implies, Canteen is the place where the Managers provide food for Candidates.

Canteen was led by a cook named Koki. Just like the other Governing Body, Chef also used a mask to cover his face. In addition to the Chef, in Canteen there are also five Servants who help the Chef to carry out its functions. All the servants also used their masks.

After two months, the Candidates including Gaju, were already accustomed to the existence of the Society and its masks. They consider masked humans to be like a robot or a door, table or chair. They exist because of their function.

When we want to sit down, we find a chair. Just like with them, when they were hungry, the Candidates would go to Canteen and look for the Chef and Servant to give food. There will be no rejection, any time, no matter what.

Just like a chair that will never refuse and choose who occupies it.

That rule also applies to all Managers in the Main Complex. The Guards, the Teachers, the Doctors and the Nurses, all of them.

They are functions.

Therefore, Gaju was sure, had he broken the ban and fought the Guards, they would have shot him mercilessly. Because its function is like that.