The Special Forces shuttle sets down mid-morning. We've already had breakfast, and everyone quietly exchanges glances and keeps an eye on Luuk. He's talked to anyone who could hear him, and they all arrived at the same conclusion I did:
He's crazy.
An agent enters through the back door, fully covered in black gear and a helmet. We all stiffen where we sit. Unlike the other agents, he carries a rifle in his arms. I assume it's probably a tranquilizer, but since I'm not trained in security, it's hard to say.
"Line up," he demands, making a small motion with his gun to where we're supposed to stand. "Move quickly, move quietly, and follow orders."
Luuk scowls, slipping to the middle of the group as we form a line by the door. I end up taking the rear, though I almost wish I was at the front so I could get this over with.
The agent presses something on the side of his helmet. "Cleared to go." Then he tilts his head as if listening to someone before stepping back. The cargo bay door descends with a hydraulic hiss. Our shuttle shudders as the hatch connects with pavement. Dry heat floods the bay. I cringe. I was actually able to eat breakfast this morning, and the constant need for water has faded, but I could do without the dryness of the air.
Another agent stands in the clearing between us and a gleaming white building. A pale sky rises over faded, sandy red mountains in the distance, no sign of city life or the suburbs, and a mirage of shimmering heat ripples from the pavement in a far cry from the cool autumn winds I've grown used to.
I swallow hard. We're definitely outside the Community now.
"You will follow Agent Rahal," our agent instructs. "Proceed."
The girl at the front of our line nervously inches forward, and then scuttles after Rahal. I'm directly behind Luuk, unfortunately, but at least he's silent. It takes a few minutes for us to cross the pavement to the sprawling complex, but something yowls in the distance and we all freeze.
A shiver crawls up my spine. There's something both human and inhuman about that scream, almost like a cougar's roar, and several angry screeches erupt before they all abruptly fall silent.
"Keep walking." Agent Rahal twists at the waist as he walks, addressing the lot of us as if he suspects we might run. Luuk glances over his shoulder at me, a dark glare in his eyes. My hairs prickle on end. He's crazy, and so is whoever made those sounds.
But we'll be cured. Even if it takes years, the Community will cure us.
The Community is efficient...
I hope.
The agent herds us into a long, sterile hallway with low, metallic ceilings and floors. Light fills the corridor with a stark, bluish white glow. Another line of students, all my age or slightly older, enters the hall from the opposite direction. There's at least ten of them, maybe more. But before I can study them or try to guess which part of the Community they come from, Agent Rahal ushers us inside a small commons room filled with another dozen patients.
My breath leaves my throat. So many people...
We all have theophrenia?
I take a deep breath, crowded, my arms bumping into whomever is next to me. But the building is most definitely air conditioned, and it keeps the room from getting too hot.
How can so many of us be infected? Has there been an outbreak? Shouldn't we have heard something if there was? That would be how the Community keeps us safe. They would tell us to be on the lookout. Give us a warning that the pills aren't as effective...
Except that I haven't been taking my pill. I might have jeopardized my sister or her friends. I take several shallow breaths before a hand clenches tight on my shoulder.
"Breathe."
I spin around and come face-to-face with Luuk.
"We're not getting out of here if you panic," he says sternly.
"Where, exactly, do you think we're going to go?" I hiss. Fury rises in my throat. Must he always be right there? "Where do you think we're going to get treatment, if not—" The door closes shut as the last of the patients from down the hall file in. The lock buzzes. I blink, puzzled. "They've locked us in?" I turn, looking for another exit, but there's nothing. Not a window. Not another door. Just a couple tiny air vents too small to climb through. "But this is a fire hazard. Not safe. Why isn't this safe? What are they thinking—"
Luuk steps in front of me and clamps his hand over mine. I grab his wrist, planning to thrust his arm away until I realize I'll hit the students next to me if I do.
"Don't you get it?" he snaps, his nose scrunched and his teeth bared. "They don't care! They don't care what happens to us, as long as they get their beasts." He raises his free hand to my nose as if he's going to silence me, but I dig my nails into the hand on my wrist—hard. He curses before yanking his hand away. I glance at my nails, two of which have tiny red drops of his blood from where they broke skin. Disgusting, and not sanitary in the slightest. But it gets my point across.
"Don't touch me again," I warn, "got it?"
He glares but doesn't contradict me. The students next to me shuffle a few steps away as best they can, though there's really not much room to move. "They don't care," he repeats softly, keeping his distance, "because they don't have to treat us as human. Soon, we won't be. They're going to do something to our minds to make us beasts, they're going to mutate our bodies, and then they're going to teach us to use our powers for their own purposes. Any humane treatment we got on the shuttle? That's the last of it. Going forward, we're subjects to them. Lab rats... unless we try to escape."
I raise my chin. "You're crazy, Luuk."
He quirks a smile that does nothing to dispel that notion. "Am I? Then why is it that we all had some kind of strange experience before coming here? Visions of water forming pictures of our teachers, or flakes of stone forming on our skin? A chemistry experiment going wrong when you suddenly can't control the flame of the Bunsen burner? Hearing voices that weren't meant to be heard aloud..." He turns to each of us in question, and I assume he's going off our private conversations. "How about the rest of you?" He raises his voice, addressing the room. "What experiences did you have? Do you really think we could all have such similar hallucinations?"
"Actually," one of the girls says softly, her head down with her black hair hiding her eyes where it falls across her face, "I just took the Health Scan a couple days ago. I didn't know I was infected." A chorus of agreement comes from the others nearby, mostly from the group who came from down the hall.
Luuk nods slowly. "I'm sorry. You're even more innocent than we are. None of us should be here. The Community is lying to us, and—"
Something hisses above us. I look up and my heart skips a beat. Mist spills into the room from the air vent. "What's..." I stagger away from the wall. We're being gassed. But that's not right. What kind of gas is it? The Community is safe. The Community would never do anything Luuk is talking about—
He's already covered his mouth with his shirt as he tries to push through to the other side of the room—ineffectively, I might add—when the intercom clicks. "Do not be alarmed," a male voice reports. "This will merely induce sleep until we have the appropriate accommodations ready for you. This will also prevent any... mishaps... from arising due to close quarters."
Mishaps, like wanting to punch Luuk for constantly pestering me?
I stare down at my nails. I drew blood.
Dear Community...
That's how it starts, isn't it?
Something small, insignificant...
The intercom clicks off. The room dips and spins in a haze. I sink to my feet, dazed as I stare at the tiny pinpricks of blood on my nails, the panicked shouts of the students beside me a distant fuzz mixed with Luuk's angry shouts of "Lies!" rattling through my brain.
* * *
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