Run. Run. Run.

Ishelle POV:

Everyone starts splitting up and running off, but I just stand there, frozen in fear.

Iris comes up to me just to tell me, "They followed you, Ishelle." "They told me they wouldn't," I say seriously, but I realise how naive that was. "And you believed them?" Iris asks me and I feel very stupid at this moment as I put my head between my hands. "I'm not running," I say seriously as I stare at the chaos of the situation because everyone is rushing through the various tunnels of the cave as they leave without anything in their hands except their friends, "if they get someone then you can all go free, so go." Iris shakes his head as he starts pulling me along with him, even carrying me as he continues running further into the forest, while he drags me begrudgingly. Soon, he groans but keeps trying to go and, then collapses. I realise that he has been shot with a sleep dart as I stand there in fear.

"Hands where we can see them," a few men say seriously as I put my hands up for them to see and when they notice it is me, then they smile smugly. My tears start to fall as I look at them, "Just let them go. You only need one of us. Just take me." "You had your chance," one of the men says seriously, "if you said yes then none of this would have happened." This causes my tears to fall even faster, as I realise that if I stayed then none of these people would be in this situation right now, but I don't have a lot of time to talk when I am shoved with a couple of others into a truck until we make it to a white building with a blue rose that looks like a fortress. It reminds me of those military bases that we used to have and I realise that it is most likely one.

As soon as we enter the gated centre, there are many guards waiting for us as we exit the vehicle and stand on the ground, but there are only 20 perfect people standing there. Blue Rose walks out of the shadows, "Ishelle, would you like to enlighten everyone as to why they are here?" I look at her with confusion until I remember what those men said and the conclusion that I drew. "It's your fault," Blue Rose says seriously, "if you had just stayed, like I told you, then none of this would have happened." "You just happened to forget to tell me that if I didn't stay then this would happen?" I ask her seriously and Blue Rose smiles smugly, "You wanted this to happen." "Get them chipped and inside the facility," Blue Rose says seriously, "let's get started with changing the world."

We are all rushed into the facility and confined to one room. No one even looks at me, instead, they huddle together with their closest friends.

I am the first one called to be chipped as they call it.

"Ishelle," a lady says and everyone turns their attention to me as I walk out of the room with the guards following beside me. As I sit down on the only chair in the room, my hands are locked automatically onto the seat and I start to tense as I start to realise the gravity of the situation. Then, the lady jabs an injection into my neck causing me to gasp, involuntarily, which surprises the woman, and the chair unlocks. The guards come into the room and take me away, then shove me into a room where Blue Rose is sitting with a smile. The room is the only room that I have seen that has red carpeted walls and floors.

"You know everyone hates you," Blue Rose says happily. "What do you want?" I ask her with annoyance. "I am offering you the chance to be the one who does all the tests first," she says like it's a kindness, "if you give us the answers, we won't touch anyone else. If you don't, we force you to watch while we do it to everyone else or things could just get worse." "I can't trust you," I say seriously, "you lied the last time." "This time you can trust that I am not lying," she says sincerely, but there is still this vibe that she is being untruthful. I nod, knowing that I rather take the chance that she is lying then cause harm to all those innocent people out there, "Fine." "You will be involved in everything," she says seriously, "I will make sure of it. Understood?" I nod, begrudgingly, "Sure." "Follow me," Blue Rose says politely as she makes her way through the facility. I see cells that are filled with white tiles and walls as is the rest of the areas that include the kitchen, food area and more. As soon as we arrive at an area that has some sunshine, she turns to me, "Here are your friends." She shoves me into an outdoor area, but everyone moves away from me as I walk to a corner to sit down and feel the sun.

The whole area is green, but an electric fence surrounds the entire small area. On one side, all the perfect people are sitting there and on the other side, there is me sitting alone and enjoying the sunlight.

Iris walks over to me, "Why didn't you agree to being the only one tested?" "She didn't tell me that," I say seriously as I play with the grass with my hands, turning them green, "she told me I had a choice. She didn't tell me the consequences of the choice." Iris sighs, "What did she ask you now?" I shrug, like it's not important, "Nothing, don't worry about it." Iris scoffs, "People cannot trust someone who doesn't speak up." He starts to walk away. "Wait," I say seriously as I don't want to be alone and be the one no one trusts, "I...agreed to be the first one tested for everything, instead of....everyone else. If she gets what she wants out of me, then no one else will get harmed." "Why is she after you?" Iris asks seriously and I notice that others are glaring at the both of us as we talk. "I....was..uhm the reason why your Perfect world came crashing down," I say nervously and sadly, but he just sighs. "That's not going to go well with everyone else," he says seriously, "sorry about everything you have to go through."

"Ishelle," a lady calls and I get up to follow her as I say goodbye to Iris, then everyone else is forced indoors for the rest of the day, "we are going to do an endurance test." I nod, "What will I need to do?" "For now, I need you to run in place," the lady says seriously, so I comply with her command, "only stop when you cannot go on anymore." "Stop," Blue Rose says seriously, before I even start, "we need a control group. Get a human boy that works here to volunteer." The lady nods, "Wait here." I nod as I wait for her to come back with the boy, so I look at the room and find that I don't want to keep on looking around anymore because I am scaring myself.

I just stay in my thoughts for the whole time that it takes her to come back.

After a few hours, a boy around my age walks into the room and glares at me. I can feel the anger radiating out of him and I know we are not going to be friends.

"Start running in place," the lady says seriously, "only stop if you feel like you are about to collapse and only then." Both of us nod as we run on the spot at a fast pace, but I feel bad for him even though he chose to do this. I keep glancing at him as we run and every time he catches me looking at him then he glares at me.

Soon, the boy starts sweating and panting. Soon after, I start to feel the same, but I don't feel like death yet.

The boy shouts in pain and collapses in a matter of minutes, but I keep on running for twenty more minutes or so until I fall to the floor in pain as well. The boy smiles at my pain, which causes me to glare at him because I felt sorry for him and his pain, but he wishes for my pain and suffering. The jokes on his though because my pain disappears quickly.

"Cyclamens," Blue Rose warns, "enough. This is an experiment, not a battle. You can both leave."

Cyclamens starts to walk towards the door and I follow after him because I am afraid he might attack me if I am infront of him.

"If people like you didn't exist then we would have no problems," he says seriously. "There were problems before Perfect people existed," I say seriously, "and because we exist, you need us so you can be like us, so why are you acting like you are better than me when this experiment has the aim of you wanting to be like me." Cyclamens stands there with his mouth hanging open, but I walk off to stay in the main area of the facility where everyone could roam freely indoors.

As I sit there, they give us a proper meal, but I am the only one that sits alone until we are forced to go into our cells for sleeping.

When I arrive at the cell, I see two bunk beds, so four people in a room.

None of them are occupied yet, so I choose to sleep on the top bunk on the right-hand side of the room.

Soon, a boy around my age walks into the room and jumps onto the top of the other bunkbed. When he notices me, he glares at me and I roll my eyes as I try to stare at the ceiling instead.

Another girl walks into the room and waves at the both of us, she looks to be four-years-old.

"Hi everyone," she says kindly and my heart breaks as I look at her so I smile sadly at her as I wave. "See," the boy says as he smiles at the little girl, then turns to glare at me, "instead of just you being here by your lonesome, there is a little girl stuck in her to be treated as an experiment instead of running freely." I sigh deeply, "You don't know the whole story." "I know all there is to know," he says seriously. "Shut up," a young girl says kindly, "you guys are annoying. Can you not scare a four-year-old girl?" We both sigh and nod.

"You should respect your elders," the boy says seriously as he looks at me with a smug smile and I turn to face the wall that the bunkbed is laid against in order to sleep, so I can ignore him and soon the lights go out for everyone to sleep.

Rian POV:

As I walk through the Perfect area's streets with my letter in hand, Lilac and Petunia walk alongside me with their letters.

I show the letter to the army standing guard there and they give me a look as well as look at the girls.

"Rian?" they ask me. "Yes sir," I say politely and he smiles. "You all need to come back within the time specified in the law and bring your identification next time," he says seriously. "Yes sir," I say kindly and he let's us leave as we walk to our destinations.

"Bye Rian," Lilac says kindly. "Remember," I say seriously, "use sir and ma'am only. It doesn't matter how you feel. It's better to be here then to be in one of the facilities. They will be giving us a tour of that place soon. Don't give them reasons to keep you there." Lilac nods and Petunia nods childishly which worries me as we split ways.

As I walk with Petunia, people look at us funny ass we start going further into the Imperfect area. Kids point at us and Petunia starts to feel uncomfortable as we continue to walk down the streets calmly.

As soon as we arrive at the designated farm, a man and woman come out of the home with their children.

"Where is the other girl?" the man asks seriously, "we asked them to reassign her here. Did they not tell you?" "No sir," I say politely, "must I go get her, sir?" The man nods, "Here is a permission letter and run." I nod, "Yes sir. Petunia be good please."

I rush off to get her and people look at me like I am a criminal, but I don't stop for anyone as I rush through the streets to find Lilac running, hurriedly, in the opposite direction so I change direction.

"Lilac," I say seriously and she stops, "Come, you are in the same home as us." She nods as she follows me at a running pace as we make it back around the late morning hours.

When I go into the home, I find Petunia picking up fruits and vegetables alongside a few other little ones, so I make my way to my duty after making sure Lilac gets into the home safely. I clean out the stables, feed the horses, give them water, clean their feet and ride the ones that need the exercise if I am asked to.

At around 5pm, we finish our work and start making our way back to our sorta home. We rush to make it before the 6pm curfew, but we see many standing in a line to get in so we assume that as long as we are in the line then we are okay. As soon as we reach the gate, not talking to any of the other people there, we walk in just as the time hits 6pm so we head to our home, eat and rest up.

I head to bed with the girls, as we have to share a bed, and I think about how much I miss staring at the stars, sleeping on the grass and feeling safe and secure. My heart breaks as I watch the girls sleeping soundly only for them to have to work for basically no pay.

I wish we could do something to make sure everyone was treated the same. I just wish they could figure out how to make others perfect.