Under the cover of a Strategic Air Command base, a covert genetics lab known as Project Manticore was operating in the woods of Gillette, Wyoming. One of the groups of prototypes engineered by Manticore was called X5, and they were housed in Block 12 of the facility. Among other genetic abnormalities, the X5s suffered from seizures brought on by critically-low serotonin levels in their brains. In early 2009, one of the X5s, Jack (X5-417), began seizing during first call and was removed from the group. Another X5, Max (X5-452), discovered that Jack had died or been killed, and witnessed an autopsy being performed on him.

In February of 2009, when Max began seizing as Jack had, the guards came to take her away. The Commanding Officer of the X5s Zack (X5-599), remembering what had happened to Jack, attacked the men attempting to remove Max from the group. Another X5, Eva (X5-766), procured one of their weapons and led the other children into the corridor of Block 12.

In the hallway, Eva and the other X5s were intercepted by Lydecker and a number of his men. Lydecker fired a single shot at Eva, killing her. The other X5s broke through a window and ran out into the 10-degree night air with bare feet on snowy ground. Sirens were set off, helicopters launched, sentries alerted, and non-essential personnel were confined to quarters and informed that it was simply a drill.

Outside, the X5s met at a rendez-vous point and Zack paired them off, sending them in different directions with orders to clear the perimeter fence. Only he was without a pair, and he followed some of the other X5s to make sure they would make it to the wire.

Lydecker ordered his men to capture the X5s gone AWOL if possible, but if the children made it to the perimeter fence they were to be shot. Max and another X5, Jondy (X5-210), were paired together and made it to the wire. One of the sentries closed on their position and would have shot the girls had Zack not attacked him, giving Max and Jondy enough time to make it past the fence. He was subsequently surrounded and tasered, but escaped later, the circumstances of which are unknown. Max and Jondy were separated soon afterward, but both made it to the outside.

Partway through the escape Lydecker's men reported that three X5s had been wounded during the attempt and two were killed, in addition to Eva. Most of the details of what occurred after this report was given are unknown, but the area around the facility was sealed and likely more X5s were brought back to the facility. In the end, twelve X5s evaded capture that night. It is unknown if all of them were ultimately alone, as well as whether or not they ever reunited. Zack, who was arrested for armed robbery in 2011 and booked under the false name of Michael Hanover, did have contact with many of the X5s, but it seems that he kept most of them apart for the purposes of tactical security.

Three months later, in May of 2009, the Gillette, Wyoming Manticore facility was shut down and its staff, including OB-GYNs, genetic researchers, dieticians, and teaching specialists, were reassigned to other locations around the country. The facility hired new staff and changed its name in the Department of Defense books, creating a new cover. Those X5s who had remained behind during the escape or were recaptured underwent what was referred to as "reprogramming," where they underwent brainwashing designed to turn them against the twelve escaped X5s and reinforce mindless loyalty to their superiors. Lydecker's men ordered a full review into the circumstances surrounding the escape; it was suggested by Logan Cale (Eyes Only) that Zack may have had inside help orchestrating the escape, but since the results of Lydecker's review were never revealed, this possibility is unconfirmed.

At another Manticore facility, located outside of Seattle, Washington, another X5 group was impacted by the escape that occurred in Wyoming. The X5s housed there were genetic copies of the Gillette group, and it was thought by Manticore that the twins, or clones, of the Wyoming X5s who participated in the escape had a particular disposition toward escape. Security in the Washington facility around the X5s was tightened, and the twins of the twelve escapees were given to Manticore's psy-ops division, where they were closely scrutinized. For six months, they underwent gruelling psychological procedures that were referred to as "simplification," a process which broke down the independence of the mind and prompted complete obedience to mission and duty.

In June, four months after the escape and a month after Manticore was given a new cover, terrorists set off an electromagnetic Pulse which destroyed the cyberinfrastructure of the United States and reduced it to third-world status when a new corrupt government stepped into power. As a result, the twelve escaped X5s disappeared into the newly-broken country, and Lydecker has been searching for them ever since, capturing only a small number of them and managing to keep an even lesser number.

This is all that is known of the 2009 escape. Obviously, the account above leaves many mysteries, among them: