I was back in my bedroom on floor fifty. Letie had given me a stack of books to read. She said it would help pass the time. I looked up from the book I was reading to the top of the file cabinet. I’d put the axolotl up there, to remind me of tonight's events. The fact that I didn’t have control over myself or my mind was unsettling. I had no way of knowing if the thoughts I was thinking were my own, or ones the Elite wanted me to think. I looked around my room. One of the worst things about this place was that there were no windows. I had a clock, but time became somewhat meaningless here. The only way I knew it was night was because I’d just been outside. All the meals were roughly the same. There was no way to distinguish between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I thought of a riddle that someone told me when I was young. ‘What is something you can’t eat for breakfast?’ The answer was ‘lunch or dinner’. I remember being upset with the answer. My argument was that someone could eat dinner foods at breakfast time. Who even decided what foods were good for breakfast and which ones were for dinner? It made no sense. I looked at my clock. It read, 3:24. With a sigh, I climbed into bed. All I wanted was for this day to disappear.
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I jolted awake, and a searing pain filled my head. I felt something touch my foot. Looking around at the floor, I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. But then I saw a mouse on the floor. What was I supposed to do with a mouse? Then, something shot out from under the bed and pounced on the mouse. That was when I realised the mouse was fake. It was a toy. The thing that attacked it was not. The animal looked up at me and jumped up onto my bed, holding the mouse it had ‘caught’ in its mouth. “Why is there some random cat in my room?” I shouted. I heard a laugh coming from the door to my room. “How long have you been standing there?” I asked. “Eh, long enough,” Jade responded. “I thought I should do something for you, after everything that happened yesterday. It was kind of all my fault, and your first time in the field isn’t easy. I remember my first time. It had to have been nearly two centuries ago.” My eyes widened.
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“You’re more than two centuries old?” Jade nodded. “Yeah. You will be too, by the time the Elite decide they’re done with you. I’ve been getting these injections every month to keep me alive. I stopped going out in the field probably a hundred years ago. That was a fun day. Since then, I’ve been living here. Letie convinced Eleit to not get rid of me.”
“So, you were like me?” I asked. Jade sighed before saying, “I was much better at my job than you. I snuck into one of the control rooms and saw some of the footage of you. You were just running all over the place, stumbling over your own feet. Then when people got in your way, you just, like, killed them. It was awesome.”
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I flopped back down on my pillow. It was too early for this much new information, and my head was pounding. The cat climbed up onto me and laid down. I groaned. Now I couldn’t move. Well, I could, but I didn’t want to disturb the creature. “I’m going to ask again because this conversation has gone way off the tracks: why is there some random cat in my room?” I asked. “Oh, I brought him to cheer you up or something. He’s mine. I don’t really know where he came from, but I found him wandering around a couple of months ago. So, I named him Milo and he’s been living with me ever since.” I softly stroked Milo’s back. Jade whistled and the cat jumped up and ran to her, still clutching the mouse in its mouth. “Oh, and I think you deserve a warning: Letie and Eliet are coming over here in a minute.” I groaned and climbed out of bed. “Thanks.” Jade and Milo left and the door slid closed.
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I pulled on another set of plain black clothes. I started scrambling for something to do. I didn’t want it to look like I’d been waiting for Eliet and Letie. I grabbed a book, leaned against the wall, and flipped to a random page. The door slid open again. “Well, hello there. To what do I owe this pleasure?” I asked, turning the page of my book. “I’m glad you did not pursue a career in acting,” Letie sniffed. “Your book is upside down.” I looked at the book. She was right. I set the book down. “Fine. What do you need?” I asked. “We need to talk to you about the events of last night,” Eliet said. “Do you remember anything?” I thought for a moment before saying, “Barely. I remember being on the street. It was snowing. Everything in my mind was jumbled up. It took a few minutes for things to start making sense.”
“Wonderful. We must take you down for screening. It’s required for everyone after their first time in the field,” Eliet said. I nodded and followed them out of my room. Before I left, though, I grabbed the axolotl. It would be my emotional support while I was here. Maybe I’d be able to take it with me, if and when I ever got home.
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Letie and Eliet walked me through the halls. I felt like a dog on a leash. After a minute, Eliet said, “I have to go. Letie, can you get him to the screening room?” Letie nodded. “I’ll be sure to get a copy of the tests back to you,” she told him. Eliet nodded and took a right at the next corner while Letie and I went left. Letie brought me to a room that looked like a doctor's office. There was a big metal machine in the corner of the room. Letie handed me a shirt and pants, made of a material similar to paper. She left, and a few minutes later, another person entered. She wore a white coat with a stethoscope around her neck. “Hello, Elias. My name is Dr Miller. I’m going to run a few tests. None of them are designed to inflict harm, though sometimes complications can occur. Are you ready?” Dr Miller. I had no choice but to nod. Dr Miller had me sit on an examination table, covered in thin paper. I placed the axolotl next to me. “So, Elias, what I’m going to do is I’m going to move this machine over you. It won’t hurt you, but it might feel a bit warm. Is that okay?” When I nodded, she said, “Could you please lie down?” I laid down on the table, the paper was scratchy on my exposed skin. I wasn’t hot or cold. I couldn’t even feel the air. It was a very strange sensation. But then Dr Miller picked up the machine. She held it a few inches above me and slowly moved it from my feet towards my neck. I wrapped a hand around the axolotl.
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As the machine hovered above me, I felt a tingling feeling wherever it went. It was like when your foot falls asleep, but times 20. Dr Miller was right; it was a bit warm. When the machine covered my right hand, I felt something crumble in my hand. I looked over to see the axolotl was now nothing more than a pile of ash. My eyes widened and I quickly sat up, knocking the machine away. “What is that?” I shouted. Dr Miller steeled her face. “Elias, please lay back down. You’re making this more difficult than it has to be.” I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head. “No. Not until you tell me what that machine is. It just disintegrated that stuffed animal.” Dr Miller sighed and pressed a button on the wall. “You leave me no choice, Elias.” Four of the guards who had been standing outside of the Elite’s room walked into the room I was in. I shrunk back into a corner, trying to get as far away from them as I could. A hand clamped around each of my limbs. One of my left wrist, one on my right; one on my left ankle, one on my right. I kicked and squirmed. “Let go of me!” The guards forced me out of the room. “Dr Miller! Help me!” Dr Miller turned around and closed the door.
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The guards threw me into a room. I walked in a slow circle. There was a large machine in the centre of the room, with metal arms attached to the sides of it. I took a step towards the machine and placed my hand on it. When I did, a loud rumble started to fill the room. Red and white lights turned on all over the machine. “Uh, creepy guard dudes? What did I do? Hello?” I called. Dr Miller appeared out of thin air. “Elias, please don’t make this any harder than it needs to be,” she said, eyes cast downward, scanning a clipboard. “Why should I help you?” I shouted at her. She sighed, and the door opened again. Two guards entered. One held up a small handheld device that crackled to life at the touch of a button. The guard approached me, while the other stepped behind me. “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice shaking. When the device touched my skin, I tried to scream. I tried to kick it away. I tried to move at all. And I couldn’t. I couldn’t move. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgA1lj2EtfZ
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The guards picked me up and threw me at the machine. Instead of hitting the cold metal, I stopped. The middle of the machine opened and was suspending me inside it. “Wonderful. Thank you,” Dr Miller said. The guards left, and a metal arm descended from the ceiling. “I’m sure that you did not mean for this to go so far, but here on floor 50, actions have consequences.” The arm picked up a syringe from a cart. I stared at it, as it moved closer and closer to me. I tried to formulate words, but none came out. My breathing quickened, my chest rising and falling rapidly. Dr Miller looked concerned. “Elias, please try and calm down. This will only be harder if you stress yourself. It will all be over soon.” I felt something growing inside me. Whatever was holding me up inside the machine was nothing compared to the strength I possessed. I twisted my shoulders, breaking free. I dropped to the floor, keeping my footing. “No,” I said. The door opened, and a single guard walked in. I ran at the guard, and as I did, I saw he was wearing a belt. I hooked one arm around him and grabbed the back of his belt. Then in one fluid motion, I did the O-Goshi. Once the guard was on the ground, I jumped in a little circle. “I did it! If only Jade could see me now!”
“I can,” she said. I looked over to where Dr Miller stood. Next to her was Jade.
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“What are you doing here, Jade?” I asked her, the sound travelling effortlessly over the distance. “Dr Miller had me come. She said it would benefit my training.”
“Your training? For what?” I asked. She didn’t respond to my question. Instead, she turned to Dr Miller, who said, “You are nearly ready. In a few weeks, you will be able to join those above you, under a new name. You said you had chosen Teiel, correct?” Jade nodded. “A wonderful choice.” 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWGyTz8OkWX
“I’m sorry, but would anyone care to explain what’s going on?” I shouted. Dr Miller turned to me. “Jade will be joining the ranks of those who used to control her. She has been preparing and training for years and is finally ready. In a few weeks time, she will be one of the Elite.” Jade beamed with pride. “Jade, is that true? You’re going to become… one of them?” I asked. Jade and I had not known each other for long, but we clicked. We were friends. She wasn’t going to become one of the people who kidnapped me, one of the people who ripped me away from my family, one of the people who invaded my mind, right?
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Jade nodded. “Yes, I am. I’m sorry, Elias, but this is what I was meant to do. It’ll be okay, though. We can still be friends.” I shook my head. “No. We can’t. You’re lying and you know it! Just leave me alone. Let Dr Miller run whatever tests she wants, let her scan my body with a machine that’s thousands of degrees but doesn’t burn me. Let her experiment on me like I was something made in a lab. Just don’t talk to me.” I said. I sat down on the ground, cross-legged. “Elias, why are you so upset? I didn’t do anything wrong,” Jade retorted. I looked up at her and climbed to my feet. “You’ve done everything wrong.” I took a step towards her. “The people you are going to join took me away from my friends. They stole me from my home.” I continued stalking her. “In my mind, that means that you did too. You took me away from everyone I care about. You and whatever you stand for.” I felt a dark cloud of hate rising in me. “I don’t care who you are right now. It doesn’t matter, because I hate you. I hate you!” I lunged at her and fell to the ground. I fell right through her. I climbed to my feet. The projection flickered, and the noise coming from it became garbled. “Send… unit… EIR… control… 2750… unpredictable…” I blocked out the rest of it. The door opened, and Eliet entered, along with a few guards. He held the remote, my remote. The one that controlled me. He clicked a button. The buzzing filled my ears, and this time, I was ready for the change. It took only a few seconds for my mind to rework itself to the new body I was in. “Let it out,” Eliet said. The floor opened out from under me, and I was falling.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtamKvBI8Kk
