I was lying in bed, staring at the clock on the wall—6:30. Breakfast wasn’t until 7:30, so why rush? I rolled over onto my side and pulled the covers up, around myself. I didn’t close my eyes. There wasn’t a chance I’d let myself fall asleep, the place where dreams awaited. But I was exhausted, so I lay there; soaking up the peace and quiet.
“Attention,” A loud voice over the microphone said, interrupting the peace and quiet. “Breakfast will be half an hour early today. Please be in the cafeteria by seven.” It was definitely a recording because it repeated at least five times, before finally shutting up.
I’d practically fallen out of bed, the voice had startled me so much, but I was awake. I took a shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed and brushed my hair, with exactly eight minutes to spare.
Down in the cafeteria, I found Vanissa, Priscila and Kendall, all sitting at a table together. But there wasn’t any food set out. And I was starving; having skipped dinner the night before, because I hadn’t felt hungry. None of them even seemed to notice it though. They all looked as if they’d had an awful night's sleep. Even Vanissa wasn’t her usual energetic self.
“Why isn’t there any food?” I said as I slid into an empty place, even though I wasn’t really expecting an answer. “I mean we lived on an island where we were hungry seventy, five percent of the time for almost sixteen years, and they can’t even manage to give us breakfast?
"And no water either? I haven’t had anything to drink since lunch, yesterday.”
Vanissa shrugged. “Well it’s not like they ever did care whether or not we were hungry.”
That was a good point. They never had and they still didn’t.
“Well if you ask me,” I said. “They don’t care whether we live or die.”
“What?” The voice came from behind me.
I turned towards it to find the lady from the platform—Challan.
“Is there a problem Miss Lockhart?”
I looked straight at her; to show her I wasn’t afraid.
“That’s a very good question. I can’t wait to see what the answer is.”
7
Challan couldn’t seem to find words, so she turned and walked away, towards the front of the room, most likely to deliver her speech.
I looked at Vanissa. “I guess she didn’t see that coming.”
“Maybe not,” said Vanissa. “But you shouldn’t say things like that. I thought we weren’t going to let it show that we don’t trust them. They’re going to be watching us twenty-four seven now.”
“Well, they probably already were anyway.”
“You're right, but I still think we should be at least a little more secretive; maybe stop asking questions that actually accuse them of something in a way.”
Our conversation was interrupted by Challan beginning her speech. “Welcome,” she said. “I hope you all enjoyed your free day.”
I felt like asking her to please define ‘free’. After all, how free can you be when locked in a building?
“I also hope you got plenty of rest.”
Sorry, didn’t quite get to that one.
“Today will be the day of, what you all know of as ‘the test’.”
The test! I’d completely forgotten about the test. The nervous feeling inside me increased as Challan continued.
“Everyone ages seven and older will be taking the test, but we might change its difficulty depending on your age and health condition. Both parts are focused on deciphering what condition you’re in. Part one, your reactions to different circumstances and how it affects your health. Part two will be much simpler; just some medical testing to make sure you’re healthy.”
Health...why would they care about our health?
Challan went on to give a brief backstory of the country and the program that brought us here. And even though I knew it could all be lies, I listened carefully; trying to sort things out in my mind. In short, this is what she told us: The country we were in was called Paciscor; meaning peace. Paciscor was in part of, what used to be North America. But many years ago, there was a war—nuclear and devastating. When eventually, the many different sides in the war came to peace with each other—the world they had once known was gone. It was destroyed by radiation and the many other effects of war. So they got together the few remaining people they could find and brought them to the least-harmed place in America and began to build a nation in the ruins of some of the north-west states.
Many years later, when the country was flourishing, strange creatures and unnatural weather began to appear in the land surrounding Paciscor. And soon, it became apparent that they were man-made—not robotic, but genetically, using technology that Paciscor did not yet have. Eventually, Paciscor was completely surrounded by a treacherous wasteland, filled with deadly creatures and inescapable traps—every part of that wilderness, designed to kill anyone who entered it. They had decided the cause was that they were not alone in the world, as they'd assumed—there was another country and they were using creaticalls, (as people had begun calling any of the man-made creatures, wilderness, or weather), to trap the citizens of Paciscor inside. Their motives were probably simple—a way of avoiding future war, possibly. So they'd built walls around Paciscor, to keep the creaticalls out—once in a while, however, they still managed to get in. The area beyond the walls became known as The Other Side.
Ever since then, Paciscor's government had been trying to find a way out. They’d tried using drones to see what was passed the wilderness and possibly communicate with the people on the other side; but had had no success. Even so, they kept trying.
Since it was so dangerous though, no one ever just agreed to go, so they had to choose people according to who they thought was the strongest, smartest and most capable. They gave them a choice to either do it or pay a price. She didn’t tell us what the price was but I could guess it was a big one. After all, people would give practically anything to save their own life.
But though nobody had ever had any luck, they’d at least managed to use drones to conceal a number of hidden cameras throughout the area. None, of course, had been able to make it near enough to catch footage of what was past The Other Side, but at least they were able to use the cameras to keep track of the people they’d sent into the wilderness.
Even though I was shocked by all this, what she said next rattled me even more. She said that the reason for the island was too complicated for us to understand now, and we’d find out someday when we better understood the country. The reason her saying that made me so unsettled, was because she’d only say it if she was hiding something from us.
“Before you can leave,” Challan said. "You’ll have to do a few simple things. They’ll take a few weeks at most.
“The first thing you’ll do is, like I said, the test. The ones who do the best on the test will be graded with a two. The others will be graded with a one. Most of you will get a one, but don’t worry, none of you will fail. During the first part of the test, you’ll be put somewhere you won’t like at all."
By this time, the room was completely silent, and I guessed that everyone was probably getting nervous about the test—after all, it was what we'd been waiting for pretty much our whole lives.
“The amount of time it takes will depend on the person taking it.
“A black X will mark the end of the test.
"But be careful. Though it’s just a test, there’s nothing to stop you from getting hurt. So, good luck to all of you.”
*****
Kassie— I was being led to the ominous test by Kassie the tour guide. After Challan had finished her speech all I’d had time to say was:
“Goodbye. We’ll see each other soon, don’t worry.” And then Kassie was waving me over to my group. I got up to leave but Kendall stopped me.
“Wait,” he’d said. “She said the test would take a long time. What if, something happens and… what if we don’t see each other again?”
“We will," I’d said, almost beginning
to worry myself. “I promise.”
But now, as I walked through hallways and doors, following our small group of fifteen people, I began to wonder if maybe Kendall had been right in worrying. I didn’t know what the test was like. For all I knew we could be headed to our deaths.
Kassie led our group through a locked door and into a section of the building we hadn’t toured. One by one, each of the others were instructed to enter a door. Heavy and automatic, they slid open slowly, as if weighed down but a thousand pounds. I was last. Of course I was. More time to ponder the many possible things that could be awaiting me.
Finally Kassie stopped by a door and turned towards me, her curly ponytail, bouncier than ever.
“Well,” she said, cheerily. “Here we are.”
I drew in a breath. My pulse was probably at twice its normal rate. Suddenly I wasn’t sure how I could possibly walk through that door. Once I did, I’d be imprisoned, trapped with no way out. I’d be leaving Priscila and Kendall and my friends. I could be gone for any amount of time. Would I ever come back out? For all I knew there could be something waiting to kill me inside.
Just in time, as Kassie finished typing in the code, I thought of a way to calm myself. Rather than thinking of it as a prison, with no way of escape, I thought of it as a path, my only way to achieve my goal of a normal life. And then the door slid open, and I stepped inside.
I stood in a cylinder shaped room with the same colorless walls and floor, about the length of two of me while lying down. The ceiling was only a foot and a half above my head so, even though it wasn’t too small I still felt cramped. There wasn’t any furniture or decorations or anything. The door shut behind me and once more I was a prisoner.
I walked around the edges of the room in a hopeless attempt to find a door. Deep down, I knew I wouldn’t find anything. Eventually, I just sat on the ground, leaning against the wall. What kind of test was this? All I was doing was waiting. Maybe after a while the door would just open, and the test would be over. But, somehow that seemed far-fetched. This could go on for almost any amount of time. After all, the island had gone on for quite a while. I just hoped this would be much shorter.
Roughly four hours later, I was on, what must have been my hundredth lap around the room. (Of course I could’ve done a whole lot more if I hadn’t been walking at about two miles per hour.) On and off, I’d paced the room, stopping only to sit and stare off distantly, my mind wandering everywhere. The island, the upper floors of the building and especially trying to see through walls and doors, to see what Kendall Priscila were doing.
And it was then I realized I was hungry—very. And I was thirsty—extremely thirsty. I guess my mind had been too distracted to realize. I hadn’t eaten any dinner last night so it must have been over twenty-four hours since I’d eaten or drunk anything. Twenty-four hours? Had it really been that long? That was much too long to go without food and water. The dim lighting and my growing headache were preventing me from thinking clearly. There must be something I needed to do to get out of here. But what was it?
All day, I tried desperately to get my mind off food and water—especially water. But despite my efforts, that’s all I thought about.
Sometime around eleven o’clock that night my headache had reached a point that I thought it couldn’t get any worse. It had now been thirty-six hours since I’d had any food or water. Just the thought of food and water made me feel dizzy. How long could this possibly go on?
The hours dragged by and I felt worse with each passing second. Food… a wave of dizziness passed over me. Water…I knew I couldn’t make it much longer. Being hungry, (especially as hungry as I was), is terrible. Being thirsty, (in my case practically dying of thirst), is terrible. But being both hungry and thirsty was worse than terrible. It was absolutely unbearable.
My head was pounding, there seemed to be a hole, growing in my stomach, my throat was as dry as sandpaper and I had double vision. I’d never been this long without food or water. I’d never even been close. I felt dizzy, just lying on the ground. Every part of me ached and my head spun, unable to concentrate on anything. Around three in the morning I lost focus completely and began to hallucinate.
The door was opening. I saw a pool of water right in front of me. But when I reached out to touch it, it disappeared. The walls were moving and the floor shook... I felt myself floating through the air and the entire room was spinning out of control. I saw something move. Was it a door opening? I got up and tried to walk towards the sound. But in my spinning world the floor, was suddenly flying towards me, and I smacked into it with a loud cracking noise, thinking my head would shatter into a thousand pieces. Finally, I gave up and just laid there, my head pounding.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if I would die. Would they actually go so far as to let me die? They’d said we could get hurt, but… it just didn’t seem possible they’d actually let me die in such a horrible way.
Over twenty-four more hours passed like this—an entire day. And it was one of the longest days of my life. Hallucinations came and went, as did unconsciousness. Unfortunately, I was never unconscious for long and the minute I awoke the horrible pain came rushing back. Every time I felt myself about to pass out I would wonder if this would be the time I didn’t wake up. As the hours drug by, I became almost certain I would die. Maybe soon, maybe days from now, I didn’t know.
Around three a.m., I was still lying in the same spot, struggling to even think clearly. Every single breath I took hurt. Just then, I heard a noise. Was it a door opening? No, it couldn’t be. It came from the opposite direction of the door I’d come in. At least it seemed to. I wasn’t sure if my sense of direction was accurate at that point. Maybe there had been a hidden door on the other side of the room and it was now opening. But I couldn’t trust my senses— not with the hallucinations. And I could hardly make out a thing because everything was spinning and shaking violently around me.
But even so, I decided to at least try. It couldn’t hurt. I stretched my arms forward, pressing them against the floor and pushing off. Then I dragged myself across the floor, trying to keep going in the same direction. I tried to focus my vision on the part of the wall opposite me, but my vision was too out-of-control to make out anything. I stretched out my hands, feeling for the wall. But, where there should have been a wall, there was only empty space. Empty space… this was a doorway! In the midst of my torture, I relief felt flood me. I found new strength in the realization, and somehow managed to pull myself through the doorway.
Through my shaky vision, I managed to make out that I was in a much smaller room than before; the lighting slightly darker. It was square and big enough that I could sit down with my legs out; but I couldn’t quite lie down. The ceiling was about a foot too low for me to stand at my full height. But what really caught my attention was the glass of water and plate of food on the floor in front of me.
At first I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was I hallucinating? Or could it actually be possible? Was there truly food and water right in front of me? I reached out, with trembling hands, and…I really wasn’t hallucinating! It was real. I could feel the cool glass against my palm. I grasped it tightly; fearful it would slip out of my feverish hands. Slowly, I brought the glass to my lips and took a tiny sip. I’d never appreciated the simple taste of it, so much in my life.
Sip by sip, I drank the entire glass and ate every last bit of the food. (I don’t even remember what kind of food it was.) It was an incredibly wonderful feeling to have a complete meal and glass of water after being deprived of them for so long. Hardly a thought entered my mind. All I did was enjoy it. I especially enjoyed the water. It was cool and clean and I think it must have had some kind of medicine in it, to help my stomach hold the food and make me feel better so quickly.
I heard the door slide shut behind me and it was then it finally dawned on me. What I’d been too happy at being alive to see before. The test wasn’t over. Because I was still trapped; a prisoner, in a t
iny room with no way out and no idea of what could be awaiting me next.
8
Exhausted—that’s how I felt. Exhausted and horribly depressed, as I sat there in the tiny room. I’d gone through all that and now I was in just another part of the test. So, I lay my head back against the cold stone and closed my eyes. Almost immediately, I sank down into sleep. Only it wasn’t exactly a peaceful sleep.
Once more I’m standing the long, dark hallway of a building. There’s a tense feeling in the air. Almost as if someone’s waiting around the corner—waiting for me.
I creep slowly down the hall. As I draw closer to the corner I notice something. A shadow; long and dark, stretches out before me. It’s the shadow of a person. So someone really is waiting for me. I’m about to turn, run, and leave this terrible place, when I hear something…footsteps. They’re coming in my direction. I stand there, paralyzed, as if some unseen force holds me in place. And I have no idea that the worst thing that’s ever happened in a dream yet, is about to take place.
The person who was around the corner darts out into the hall. But the person isn’t trying to hurt me. They were hiding from someone. Then the footsteps round the corner. I can hardly see a thing in the darkness; only their shadowy figures. I hear a loud, piercing scream and everything goes silent. Then moonlight floods through a window; illuminating the scene before me. Priscila stands, a shocked expression on her color drained face. She stumbles forward and I finally see the blood, pouring down from the place on her neck where someone’s just slit her throat.
The Other Side (The Other Side Trilogy Book 1) Page 5
