by A. A LEVINE
My hands get clammy and my stomach rolls. I know I saw them, when he was moving them behind me. I could swear I was seeing which way he was going to attack. But if I were to believe him, if it wasn’t his thoughts I was reading, or his movements I was countering, then that would mean I was in somebody else’s head, who was also trying to hit me with medicine balls. Maybe this was really a test on fairness because I dared to confront John on the way he was acting. Wouldn’t that explain what he said at the end? I made it through five minutes, but I wasn’t declared the winner, because the game was already rigged.
Xander
Our training session leaves me a little unnerved. Telepathy manifests itself in small children as an empathic ability that’s usually missing from their age group. Holli’s a twin so that bond would make her more susceptible to the feelings of others around her. Most telepath’s can only read one person at a time, it’s like watching one small corner of a television screen. But, with training, they can learn to use their powers like an antenna, boosting its signal until a bigger picture emerges, and sometimes they can affect other breakouts around them. It wouldn’t take much to set off a chain reaction and influence someone else to help her out in the ring. If they were on the same wavelength, they wouldn’t even know they were doing.
On average, kids breakout any time between the ages of ten and sixteen. If Palmer Biotech doesn’t reach them in time, the breakouts on the older end of the spectrum usually get psycho analyzed, medicated or sent to rehab, when they tell their parents or friends they made their video game console float or that they’re hearing voices in their heads.
That’s part of the reason the internship at Orion exists. We try to identify people with the potential for breaking out at an early age and bring them in for assessment. We give them a chance to be around their peers and they’re taught that they have a place in this world. My power manifested before I came here. I was twelve and using telekinesis to help myself to people’s wallets. It’s how I kept food on the table and the bills paid when my mom couldn’t. She started self-medicating when the noises in her head became too much. Social services picked me up for habitual truancy and The Institute found me soon after.
The scientists devoted to studying us theorize that people over the age of eighteen are too old to break out because the genetic mutation activates when the pituitary gland signals the start of puberty. It’s during the ages of sixteen and seventeen that they find the most success in teaching Breakers to harness our gifts.
As training officers, we’re required to report all type of unusual Psionic activity. It’s too soon to jump to any conclusions because it just as easily could have been one of her friends being overly protective of her. Either way, I’ll have to watch Holland Forbes more closely.
Chapter Seven
Holli
The birds are annoyingly brighter and chirpier than usual this morning. They’re so loud in fact that I realize I must’vefallen asleep with the window open. I rollover reaching for my spare pillow to throw at them and jolt awake when my hand closes around damp leaves and grass. It takes me all of two minutes to accept that A- I’m no longer dreaming, B- I have no idea where I am, and C-I have no idea how I got here.
Could this have been a middle of the night bunk razing by Shane and his friends? It would make sense. I’ve heard dorm room pranks have been happening all week as some part of an upper classman initiation thing. But how did I sleep through it? I run through a list of possibilities. Sedation by sleeping pills? There are a few students that roam the halls at night because they have insomnia. A little wink a little flirt and there’s nothing stopping them from handing a few of those pills of over to the class ass, Shane. I follow that thought on down to the logical conclusion that Gwynn could have helped him slip it to me. I leave my water bottle out so it wouldn’t take much to put the crushed powder from the capsule in my water when I went to the bathroom or cafeteria.
I wonder if being transported to the woods has ever happened to my instructors or any other recruits. I check my watch and groan. It’s early in the morning, and yet, it’s late enough that whenever I find my way back to the dorms, there will be people around. I need a reference point for where I am. This is another time when a phone would come in handy. I strain my ears listening for the sound of water. The lake would be a good marker. The air is empty and silent now. Not even those noisy birds that woke me are flapping around to guide my way. Oddly enough, my mind settles on the sound of Xander’s voice.
I picture him in the same spot he’s in, so many other mornings, talking to Alex waiting for us to fall into formation. It took me a day to get over being pummeled with medicine balls and now my crush is back in full force. It’s ridiculous really. Having swooning moments over a guy whose job it is to make me into a lean, mean fighting machine. But here I am, catching myself daydreaming about his eyes, or the width of his shoulders and wondering what it would feel like to kiss him.
I’ve been walking for twenty minutes and I’m no closer to figuring out where I am. My watch has a new set of scratches and a crack on it. Time to retire this puppy before it’s irrevocably broken. I debate going back the other way, but something tells me to keep walking straight. Finally, the road and field to the west of the dorms comes into view. My daydream was inaccurate. It’s John who is leaning against a tree in front of the dorms with a green toothpick wedged between his teeth. He eyes my disheveled appearance, “Uniform standards no longer to your liking recruit, or have you decided to finally do us all a favor, and drop out?”
This tool’s mic is always on. If I had a way to shut him up, I’d use it. Where’s a kinetic with a muzzle when you need one? He reacts horribly when I ask questions, and even worse when I don’t answer them. I give him a response just to keep him off my back. “I woke up in the forest.”
“Sneaking out of your dorm for a late night hookup? I’m both troubled and impressed. I’m torn with what do I do with this information? Do I report you for breaking the rules, or commend you for breaking them?”
He can take a situation and make it worse better than anyone I know. “It wasn’t a hookup. I must’ve been sleepwalking.”
“Do you have a history of sleepwalking? Because that’s something we would like to have known on day one.”
Did I say make the situation worse? I meant unbearable. He makes being in his presence feel unbearable. "This is my first time.”
I can see that he doesn’t believe me and I don’t care. Hell, I’m not even sure if I believe me. I remember waking up in the backyard a few times when I was younger and just like, I never remember how I got there. Whenever it happened, I’d rush in the house and dad would remind me that I asked to sleep under the stars. I always had a blanket around me, so I never had a reason to suspect that he wasn’t telling the truth. This morning I woke up without a blanket or shoes. I doubt I walked to that forest on my own.
John’s still talking but I stopped listening to what he was saying two sentences ago. “You’re gonna be late recruit, which suits me just fine, because it saves me the trouble of having to write you up for something as complicated as a medical issue.”
I dash up the front steps and into the hallway, taking the stairs two at a time. I make a quick trip to my room to grab my shower caddy and robe. I’m in and out of the shower and back in front of the building before Alex starts her morning brief.
It’s been three days since I woke up in the woods. I’ve been more careful about leaving my drinks unattended but it’s still nagging at me that I might be sharing a living space with someone who has it out for me. Gwynn comes into the room and does what she always does. Mean mugs me, sucks her teeth, and mumbles under her breath that I need to get a life.
“Did I do something to you?” She scowls at me because I’m interrupting what I know to be her meditation time. “Seriously. If there’s something I did to tick you off, I’d like to know about it.”
“Why would it matter? If you did something you can’t take it ba
ck.”
“I could apologize.”
“Which fixes nothing.”
Either she’s making this hard on purpose or she’s practicing her debate skills. “We’re roommates and in the time we have left here, I’d like us to be friends.”
“That’s your problem.” She cracks one eye open. “We’re not friends. Nobody here is your friend. We’re all competing for the same lucrative spots so everyone- including that little group you hang with- everyone is your competition. The minute your realize it things will seem less confusing for you and you’ll lose this pathetic desire to get along with everybody.”
A whole litany of putdowns and these are probably the most words she’s ever spoken to me. Too bad they’re dipped in hypocrisy. “You’re suggesting I can’t trust my friends but I don’t see you kicking yours to the curb.”
She snorts. “Please, I wouldn’t trust any of them further than I can kinetically shove them.” She puts her ear buds in and I stay quiet so she can reach whatever higher level of clarity she’s seeking. It’s just as well, I won’t admit, but something about her words resonates with me. Maybe it is naïve to think any of us can truly be friends right now. Maybe that’s what’s holding me back, wanting to be on good terms with everyone. John and Alex seem to hate everybody and it’s widely known that they’re two of Orion’s top agents. Xander too, although he’s not that big of an ass to me anymore.
Chapter Eight
Holli
This morning’s alarm is a different from the one that’s set on my clock. It’s a piercing screech that’s part fire alarm, part tornado warning. I hear banging and slamming doors and instructors yelling that we have ten minutes to get ready. I jump out of bed and throw my clothes on shoving my feet into my sneakers. I keep a spare tube of toothpaste in my nightstand and do a quick brush while I watch my roommate practically spin around in circles trying to figure out what’s going on. She’s not a morning person. Of all the things I’ve learned since coming here, moving quickly and being prepared for the unexpected in the morning, is at the top of the list.
I also keep peanut butter crackers on hand in case I need a quick snack when I can’t get to the cafeteria. I shove a few crackers my mouth to coat my stomach and leave them on my desk in case Gwynn wants some. I’m in front of the building falling in line before the ten minutes expires.
“It’s nice of you all to join us.” Xander greets us as he weaves through each rank of recruits. I look around noting there are still people missing. He looks at John and Alex and they seem to come to some a unanimous conclusion. Then my favorite time of day begins when he says, “Let’s get going.”
The pace of our run is the same as it’s always been. Too fast for my comfort. I’ve improved a lot, but I’m still considered the turtle of the group. Only today, I’m not running alongside anyone like the human version of a pace car. I’m in formation just like everyone else. Today we stop at mile marker one and Alex takes over the talking. “I think you are all smart enough to realize, that today things will be a little different. That jog was just a way to warm you up, without wasting precious time with our usual jumping jacks and pushups.” She looks beyond our group and frowns. “For anyone just joining us at the twenty minute- thirty second mark, I regret to inform you that, you are thirty seconds late and be points will be deducted from your final score.”
Thirty seconds? That’s means anyone who wasn’t in formation at exactly ten minutes is automatically being penalized. Chloe is one of those people. Today, I take a good long look at everyone here. All the teams (A through Z) are here and I grasp the magnitude of how tight the competition is. While those of us with a healthy dose of worry try not to think about what could happen today, and what it will mean for anyone who gets sent home, the four musketeers look cocky as ever because they’ve been in the top thirty this whole time.
“So, let’s get something straight about our scoring model. Your individual scored includes your grades, and the overall average of your team, and you have been competing against the members of your geographic cluster. Today all the teams will go head-to-head and the lowest ranking person, regardless of the team or cluster that falls below the red line, may be in danger of going home.”
Home. What does that word even mean to someone like me? How many of the recruits have been coming to school here for all or most of their academic career? The campus is huge. There are a few people that I remember from grade school, but most of the students from this location showed up at the beginning of freshman or sophomore year. The New York branch of Palmer Biotech Institute includes people from Florida threw New Hampshire, and west to Tennessee. That represents one cluster. There are three more branches in the US alone and Canada and Europe. What have I gotten myself into?
After a five-minute rest, Alex announces, “Enough of a break. Let’s get moving.” The ground seems to vibrate with the steps of our feet, rumbling as the foot strikes hit in alternating patterns. Two miles, three miles, five miles. My breathing is labored, and I feel myself sliding from the middle of the group towards the back. Then, finally, inevitably, I’m trailing behind, just like I was that first day. I have to motivate myself not to give up on this run. As long as I can see them, I still have a chance. I close my eyes, take a deep breath ad apply everything I’ve learned and read about running. I time my inhalations and exhalations with the strike of my feet, breathing deeply. I shake out the tension in my arms and unclench my fists to keep my form relaxed. A cleansing breath clears my lungs and I feel my stride lengthening. Soon the last person is in view, and then I’m passing them, by a few bodies. I’m not leading or in the middle, but I’m close enough that I can still consider myself a part of the group.
Xander drifts towards the back to circle around us like a sheepdog herding the flock and then goes back to the front to run alongside the other instructors. The six-mile mark signals the end of the run. It’s not the longest run we’ve accomplished. That would be the half marathon we did last week. At the stopping point there is an instructor with a truck passing out cups of water.
“Drink up.” John snaps. “We wouldn’t want anyone to pass out on us. If you pass out you won’t be able to finish and we will send you home.” I sense him looking in my direction. “I say why subject yourself to everything that’s coming when you can just opt out now. I promise you that today doesn’t get any easier.”
It has been hard up til now and I’ve been hanging on by a thread. Today, I’m one spot above the red line, and that’s only because my grades have been keeping me afloat. They haven’t come right out and said it but we’ve all heard the rumors. Today, academic grades won’t matter.
“In case you didn’t already know, I want to explain what happens today.” John walks around the formation. “Forget what you’ve done before. Forget what you think your rank is. Today is a bit of a reset for everyone. This one day can take you from the highest rank to the lowest.” There’s a murmur throughout the formation. “That’s right, you heard me correctly. If you’re sitting on top now, you might not be when this day is over with.” He paces back and forth letting that bit of news sink in. He seems to enjoy disrupting what we already know. “And the opposite is just as true. If you’re the low man on the leader board, this may be your chance to turn it all around.”
Alex picks up the lecture. “John is correct and Orion’s guidelines say we have to tell you these things. But, let me be perfectly clear, in the years that I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a recruit plummet from the top, or ricochet up from the bottom after an endurance trial. It’s just never been done. Even though the endurance trials are designed to help level the playing field, nobody makes that big of a turnaround.” Her cold blue eyes don’t hide the fact that she’s enjoying this. “Still, we want to encourage you to try your best. Please, try your best.” She and John share a look. “Okay, we’re mixing it up for the first time since Orientation, and breaking you up into new teams for today.”
“Why?” Comes the question from
the front of the line, in violation of the rule number seven which I seem to break all the time. He spoke when nobody was speaking to him and I’m a little miffed no one has threatened him with a demerit. I’ve got a stack of penalties against me for that and it could have a hand in why I can’t seem to move higher on the leader board.
“The why is because for four weeks, you’ve become accustomed to working with the same people. You’ve learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses and have formed a system of doing things. A team bond if you will. That bond won’t do you any good today. We’re here to test what each of you is made of individually. It pushes you out of your comfort levels and reveals if you’ve been lucky thus, if you’re coasting on someone else’s efforts, or if you really have what it takes.”
Xander steps forward. “Listen up for today’s assignment.”
The recruits talk. We all know how people within our individual teams are performing, and we know who’s at the top and bottom of each group. It’s the recruits in the middle that nobody pays attention to that could knock out the competition. The word assignment is misleading. They’re not just shifting teams; they’re pairing us off. I can see the lead recruit from Team H cringing because we’re being forced to work together.
“Okay, get with your partner. Make a quick introduction, and take a moment to go to the bathroom, then we’re off to the next location.” Another training officer instructs.
I drift over to football jock they match me with and stick out my hand to say hello. “Holland Forbes. Holli.”
He looks at my hand but doesn’t take it. “Yeah, I know who you are turtle. Now let’s get one thing straight. I won’t let you bring me down, and I don’t care what they say, I’m still gonna to be on the leader board. This isn’t about a cumulative grade, it’s still every man for himself, and since I’m the man, I’m off to do this myself. Don’t get in my way.” He says before turning his attention back to his friends.
