Chapter Five

Eventually, the nurse came back with medication, she also brought some food too. She had said something about how she knew nobody else would feed me. She wasn't wrong. I almost felt bad for not listening, she seemed nice. I just couldn't help but think about everything that was going on, like how Bobby knew Alistair is nothing but I was still a bit unsure. There had to be a reason, right?

Soon after that, I decided that I should try to get some rest. That would help me heal after all. Al agreed and pulled up a chair. I felt bad that he had to sleep in an uncomfortable chair, but he insisted. I finally got too tired and decided to sleep.

I was in a fantastic dream about me getting chosen when I heard the sound of whispers. Of course, me being me, I had to listen in.

"Yeah, earlier he said he was going to tell her. So I threatened him with being kicked out. There's only so much I can do though, you know that. If we want it to go right this time we can have something happen," a weirdly familiar masculine voice said.

I knew that voice but from where? My sleepy sate made it hard to remember anything. But it felt different than if I was tired. It kind of felt like the time I got the surgery on some part of my brain.

There was a bit of silence before another feminine voice answered, "Well if I remember correctly, the last time you had something to do with what went wrong. But as for Bobby, consider him taken care of. We can't afford to screw this up like, well, like you did last time."

The first person scoffed, "Like I said, this time is different. I mean this time I don't know her from anywhere. Last time he was my friend, but you can't say I didn't care about it."

I resisted the urge to open my eyes. For about five seconds before I snuck a peek. Their backs were facing me, so I couldn't make them out. There was also the fact that it was dark that didn't aid me in figuring out who they were.

"It is different, but you still have to be careful. We are walking on thin ice. Nobody can know about this, about any of it. But this was too close if she had killed him people would have pressed for answers. They know that everybody has to have their amygdala re-circuited now. If they knew it didn't work on some people they would revolt," the women said matter-a-factly.

Now that I listen she also sounded familiar. How did I know both of these people? I suddenly felt super guilty about listening in to their conversation. Even though I didn't understand what they were talking about. I mean I knew that the amygdala is the part of the brain that controlled aggression, but what did any of that have to do with me? I tried to make a kind of movement to signal that I was awake, but I couldn't move. I tried to speak, to say anything, but I couldn't. I started freaking out. I tried everything I could. I was screaming inside of my head, but nothing came out. It was terrifying. Then I started to hear this incessant beeping. It was fast and loud. That's when I remembered the heart monitor that the nurse hooked me up to, and thank goodness for that.

The man and women turned around noticed the beeping too.

"This is exactly what I mean," the women shouted, "I told you how much to give her and you didn't listen. Give her at least ten millimeters more immediately," she turned to me and my eyes flew shut, "We can't mess up like this anymore."

I heard the women's heels click as she walked away. My eyes shot back open and I could see the man filling up a syringe. He came over and my eyes widened.

"You aren't screwing this up for me," he said.

My eyes widened in realization, but there was nothing I could do as the sleep took over. I knew I probably wouldn't remember and that was what pissed me off the most.

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My eyes fluttered open and I let out a small yawn.

"Hey, you're up," Alistair exclaimed, "I was worried you were going to sleep all day!"

I giggled and sat up in bed, I noticed all of the equipment was out of my arm.

"Where'd it go?" I asked gesturing to my arm.

"Oh, that stuff," Alistair said, "the doctor came at about seven and took it out. He looked at your arm and head and said you were good to go. I don't know how he did it while you were sleeping, but he did. Anyway, I found out something about the next test and I wanted to show you."

My head pulsed and I felt a little hesitant about going with him. Not to mention I desperately needed a shower, and honestly some alone time. Something kind of made me want to say yes. But this time I needed to be a bit selfish, even if I shouldn't be.

"Maybe later Al," I said, "I really need a shower, and some time to just think. It's not that I don't want to hang out with you I just need a little time to myself, you know?"

I tried to say it in the nicest way possible, but I could still tell I upset him. But he didn't look upset, more like surprised.

"No, I get it. Take your time, I'll be around. Just go to my room when you want to go, or even if you don't. I'm W11. As long as I'm hanging out with you I don't care what we do," he said with a wink that made my heart flutter.

"Uh, yeah," I said awkwardly while getting out of the bed.

I waved the nurse goodbye and made my way back to my room. The walk was rather uneventful as I walked through the gray halls. When I made it back to my room I went into the closet to see the clothes I was given for today. They were pretty simple; a red shirt with my information on the back and a pair of black leggings. I brought them into the bathroom with me. I turned the water on and quickly stripped. I made my way into the shower and let the warm water drench my being. I wanted so badly to say that it magically relaxed me and made my mind clear, but it didn't. Water couldn't fix my problems, and couldn't fix the overwhelming feeling that I was forgetting something. I brushed it off and thought about the next test. It would most likely be an obstacle course like it had been in the past years. I only thought this one wouldn't change because there isn't a better way to evaluate raw ability. I don't think the physical ability test will be that much of an issue for me. I was strong, that wasn't much of a question. The only thing that might bring me down is my speed. It's not like I'm the slowest person Earth, but I'm certainly not about to win a race.

I gasped suddenly as the shampoo bottle The Town supplied fell to the ground. That always happened at the worst times. I never expected it either.

I washed the remaining conditioner out of my hair and decided against shaving, I was going to be wearing pants anyway. I turned off the water right before my time limit was up. There was a time limit put on how long you could shower now to conserve water. I don't understand why though, seeing as water travels in a cycle, but I just went along with it like everybody else. I jumped out of the shower and dried myself off. I then put on my clothes and put my hair up. That's when it hit me how hungry I was.

Here, I needed to go down to the designated eating place to have my meals. It was the same kind of thing at school. We called it a restaurant at school because we liked to pretend that it was one. We read about a restaurant in a book one time and it sounded amazing. Being able to order anything you want. It wasn't the same as in school, but it was nice to pretend. I was rather sure it was still morning mealtime, so the meal would most likely be eggs, toast, and a fruit. That's usually what it was a leisure day.

I tidied up my room a bit and then made my way down to the restaurant hoping that today's fruit would be strawberries. Those were my favorite fruit, but they were hard to find now. The Town said it was something about climate change.

When I reached the restaurant I saw some people still eating their morning meal. That made feel a bit relieved as I walked up to the tubes. I had to type in my name and then click on the little picture of me. The system then sent me my food. It was just like at school. I looked down at my plate; two pancakes with strawberries on them. This was my favorite. A sense of panic flowed through me as I picked up the tray. I walked over to the first table I saw and I noticed that I was the only person with a different breakfast. There must be something wrong with the system I thought. I walked over to the proctor watching over the restaurant.

"Um, ma'am I think there is something wrong with my morning meal. It's different," I said worriedly.

She nodded and went over to the system, "What's your name?"

I pushed a small hair out my face and said, "Evelyn Harley."

She looked at me with wide eyes, "No, that's right."

I furrowed my brows, "You didn't even type in my name, how would you know that it's right?"

She placed her hands on my shoulder and said, "Be careful."

The woman turned on her heels and walked away, leaving me more confused than I had been when I asked her.

"Whatever," I muttered to myself sitting down.

I began eating my pancakes. They were absolutely delicious. Even though I felt weird being the only one eating them it was a nice surprise. The only thing about them was they tasted different than normal. It wasn't like they were bad, just different.

Suddenly a figure sat down next to me. I whipped my head to the side, expecting it to be Alistair. It wasn't. Instead, I was met face to face with a blond-haired monster. But he didn't look evil at the moment. He looked scared.

Frantically he said, "I don't have much time and I'm sorry for what I did, but you need to listen. The Society wants you for something bad. That's what they wanted Cade for, but your little friend Alistair ruined it and now he's gone. When I saw you with him I thought you were helping him, but no. You're their new experiment. They aren't going to let me live. Please, Evelyn, make sure everybody knows. Help me."

I almost laughed at him. He couldn't be telling the truth. The Town wasn't evil and either was Alistair. He is crazy.

"Um, I don't know what the hospital gave you but you are certainly wrong. Alistair isn't doing anything wrong. If this is like some jealous thing you are going to have to try harder than that." I said standing up to walk away.

He grabbed my arm again, "No, no. You have to believe me, you heard! You heard Eve! You were there," Heads started to turn at his yelling, "Please Eve! Please!"

I looked around for help and I could see the woman that threatened me in the room coming towards up.

"Get him," she ordered the large men and women next to her.

Bobby started screaming, "No, they're going to kill me! Nobody is going to know now! No!"

A man forced him off of me and a woman injected him with something. They then started to drag his body down the halls, still screaming.

The women from the room addressed the rest of us, "Bobby's mental ability test messed with his mind severely, he can't distinguish dream from reality now. Everything he said was from his test, and I am extremely sorry we subjected you all to that. Bobby will be dealt with."

I just stood there. He seemed so scared. Did he think all of that was real? Could the tests do that to people? I mean he couldn't possibly be telling the truth. Right?

I saw Alistair running into the room. He quickly spotted me and ran over.

"I heard what happened, Eve. Are you okay?" Alistar asked.

"Yeah, I'm just confused," I said truthfully.

Alistair nodded, "That makes sense, but Bobby was crazy. You know that. He didn't know what he was talking about. You don't believe him do you?"

"No," I answered, "But he just seemed so scared. What if that happens to one of us?"

"It won't," Alistair answered quickly, "We will be fine, I promise.

I smiled and hugged Alistair. He hugged me back and everything felt right. But that didn't stop that small feeling of uncertainty from making its way into my mind. I almost immediately swatted it out like a bug.

I pulled back and sat back down to eat my pancakes. Every bite made me forget more and more. With the last bite, I couldn't remember if I wanted too.