Out in the hallway, people were beginning to converge. The volume level was slowly starting to increase as friends found each other with squeals of relief and excitement. There was a lot of hugging and dramatic reenactments of what had happened earlier.

Kids from different schools were comparing experiences. I quickly walked down the hallway to the cafeteria where a lot of the other people were standing. Most of these people, like me, seemed to be looking for others. I climbed onto one of the tables and stood up, scanning the crowd for Jake's tall figure. I was sure he must be looking for me too. After a few minutes of searching, I still hadn't spotted him. Getting worried and slightly desperate, I decided to do the only thing I could think of.

"Jake!" I called. The sound echoed loudly in the cavernous room. Everyone turned to look at me. Still no sign of Jake. "Jacob Danforth!"

"Riven!" I heard a voice call from the back of the crowd. I saw Jake pushing his way through the crowd slowly. I quickly climbed down from the table to greet him right as he reached me.

"I was so worried!" he said, grabbing the tops of my shoulders and looking me over. "I thought maybe you had gotten away!"

"No, they found me in the woods and took me with them. I was in the office with them the whole time before they knocked me out." I scrutinized him. He didn't seem hurt. "Are you okay? What happened in the cafeteria? Everyone seemed so subdued getting into the trucks. You have no idea how afraid I was something had happened to you!"

"I'm fine," he answered, then his expression went grim. "The cafeteria...it wasn't pretty. They killed a teacher-I don't know who-and shot some students."

He must have seen my horrified expression, because he added, "They didn't kill the kids. Just flesh wounds to scare us. I don't think they wanted any of us to die." His voice was icy. He didn't elaborate on any other details, and I didn't press him. It was probably too fresh to want to relive.

"I'm just so glad you're alive," I said, hugging him.

"I know," he replied, hugging me back, tightly. "I've been looking everywhere for you, I was terrified when I couldn't find you."

He released me, and we looked at each other. "What do you think about all this?" he asked, gesturing to the room and all the people.

"I think it's straight up crazy. Jake, I met that guy, Ezra, when we were still at the school. He was the one overseeing our abduction. He and all the other wackos here actually seem to believe all this 'We're the good guys' crap. Like honestly believe they are doing the right thing. Even though they freaking killed people and have scared the crap out of us."

"You talked to him?"

"Not too much, but enough to surmise he's a lunatic. This whole 'revolution' is nothing but a bunch of lunatics. No wonder no one talks about it."

Jake formed his lips into a thin line.  "It seems pretty sophisticated though, that's  the part I don't get."

I hadn't thought about it, but he was right. From the holographic tablets to the elaborate facility, the magic migraine pills to the stockpile of weapons and high tech vehicles, they did seem awfully advanced for such a grass roots movement that no one took seriously.

"What kind of stuff do you think will be on those tests tomorrow?" I tried to ask casually.

He must've detected the worry in my voice, because he looked down at me and smirked. "I bet you're wishing you hadn't missed so much school now."

"It's not funny," I said. "What do you think's gonna happen to the people who score the lowest? Because my guess is that it isn't good!"

Jake looked grim, and I knew he didn't have any words of comfort, because he knew I was right: being last could not be a good thing. It caused a knot of anxiety to begin forming in my stomach. 

Everyone froze, and a couple of people screamed as a shrill sounding bell bounced loudly off the walls. A voice boomed out above us.

"All recruits must now report to their assigned rooms. In approximately ten minutes, all doors will permanently locked for the evening. Please begin making your way to your assigned living quarters. I repeat: In ten minutes, all doors will be locked. Thank you, have a pleasant night." The intercom shut off.

"Well, guess we should head back. Meet me in this spot tomorrow morning, we'll have breakfast together," Jake told me.

I nodded.

He squeezed my arm. "Good night," he said as he was swallowed by the crowd of people making their way back to their assigned wings. I joined them, scared of being locked out on my first night.

Natalie appeared to be the first person back to the room, if she had left in the first place. I didn't ask, instead just crawled into my bunk and laid on my back, staring at the smooth grey ceiling. I didn't look down as I heard the doors open and close as Kat and Grace came back into the room. Nobody talked, everyone just climbed into their beds without a word. It seemed like I wasn't the only one with things on my mind.

After ten minutes, the same shrill bell rang and I heard the doors seal themselves shut. That was going to get old fast. The lights cut off, and the room went pitch dark.

I lied awake in the dark for a long time. I kept hearing everyone toss and turn, and despite being in a room with three other people, I felt very alone in the darkness.

I was overwhelmed by a sudden surge of homesickness and it took everything in me not to start sobbing uncontrollably right there.

I wondered if I had seen my family for the last time this morning. All I could think was that I hadn't even taken the time to sit down with them and eat some stinking eggs. It made my heart ache in the strangest way and after a while, I stopped trying to hold back the tears from falling. I don't know how long it took, but eventually I cried myself to sleep and drifted off into darkness.

Not surprisingly, I was the last one up the next morning.

Everyone else was sitting with their desk chairs close together, conversing quietly. As I climbed down off the bed, they all looked at me.

"I didn't miss anything did I?" I asked, walking over to them.

"No, the doors still haven't unlocked yet. I checked a few minutes ago," Natalie said.

"We've been talking about the tests," said Kat.

Grace looked scared. "My nerves are getting the best of me. It's only going to get worse the closer it gets. I'm literally shaking." She held her hands out, and sure enough I could see her fingers quivering.

My stomach twisted at the thought. "I just can't believe this. How is this even real life?"

Kat shrugged. "Nothing we can do now though except try to pass."

Natalie shook her head. "That doesn't really make me feel any better."

The same shrill bell that signaled bed time rang again, and our door unsealed. This time, we all walked into the hall and out into the cafeteria together. Jake was already waiting for me at the spot we had agreed on. When he saw me, he walked over. My roommates stopped hesitantly, said a brief hello to Jake, and we all parted ways.

"Well, should we go get some food?" Jake asked. I followed him to where a majority of the people had formed a line.

There weren't any choices for food. Instead, there was a line of trays all filled with identical plates. It appeared to be eggs, toast, and some sort of oatmeal looking bowl. Some people looked disgusted, but everyone took their tray without complaint. The guards who had pushed us into our wings last night were monitoring the line.

After we got our trays, we took a seat at one of the far tables. Everyone was eating quietly. My nerves were beginning to increase, and I found I didn't have much of an appetite. I nibbled at my toast, but knew I wouldn't be able to stomach much else. My stomach was already full of butterflies.

"You should eat," Jake said to me.

"If I eat anything I'll probably throw it up," I answered.

"You're going to be fine, you just gotta relax."

"How are you not freaking out right now?" I asked.

"I am, but if I let myself think too much I'm not gonna be able to concentrate."

"Look!" he said, pointing to the balcony that Ezra had given his speech at last night.

A woman was standing there. I was too far away to make out her features clearly, but she was dark haired, petite, and clearly older than any of the people I had seen so far.

"Good morning everyone," Her voice carried clearly across the room, and I assumed she must be wearing some sort of microphone.

"As you were informed last night, today is the first step in your initiation, the assessment phase. The first section will be a written exam. The test will last roughly three hours and will cover many different topics ranging from subjects like math and reading, to other skills such as spacial abilities and reasoning."

"After this test ends, you will be given lunch and a short rest period. Then comes the physical portion of the test. It will entail basic physical fitness abilities like cardio, strength and endurance. After testing is over, you will be released and served dinner, followed by immediate return to your assigned room. There will be no extra socialization this evening, as it is important to get a good night's rest."

"Tomorrow, the final phase of testing, the latent cognition tests, will begin. This phase has many different sections, and you will split up in groups and rotated through the stations to make things more efficient. This phase will run the entire day." She stopped talking and looked down at all of us.

"That is all for now; someone will be in the cafeteria shortly to collect you and show you to the testing rooms. Good luck." she turned and walked away.

"How come nobody is elaborating about the latent cognition tests?" I said.

Jake shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm getting really sick of all this secrecy. They need to give us some answers."

Someone had appeared at the entrance of the cafeteria and was leading kids out. We followed the procession.

"Who do you think she was anyway?" I asked, "She never introduced herself."

"Who knows?" Jake replied. "Just another freaking question to add to the list."

We continued to shuffle through the halls. There was nothing to look at, no defining markers to signal one area of the facility from another. I was sure I would get lost in here if I was left by myself.

"Looks like we've stopped," Jake said.

Sure enough, everyone halted.

My nerves were almost uncontrollable at this point. I felt like I was going to throw up.   

We were portioned off alphabetically into several different rooms. It was just more of the same, dark stone covering the walls and floors, no windows. It was brightly lit, and there were desks placed in even rows across the room. On each desk was a packet of papers. It was a thick pile. Someone was waiting at the front of the room. It was Aiden again. He was sitting in a single chair.

"Take a seat everyone. Quickly," he said in a monotone.

Everyone scurried to get a seat. Being one of the last to enter, I was stuck at the front row. I hated the front row, always had, but I took my seat without complaint. Everyone was fidgeting nervously. I noticed Aiden looking at me, so I tried to appear as unruffled as possible. Inside, my stomach was jumping into my throat.

Jake was right, I was wishing I had studied harder in school.

"Everyone has a seat?" Aiden didn't wait for an answer, "Good. Please take your packet and look at the front page. You will see a blank box in the left hand corner. As I told you yesterday, your ID is the first set of numbers on your left wrist."

"To mark your test, place your wrist above the box where your number is, and it will appear there. Please do so now."

I looked around at everyone else, then placed my wrist about an inch above the blank box, somewhat skeptical. To my surprise, the number slowly began to appear in the box in black ink. I looked around again. Most people wore similar looks of awe at one another.

"Did anyone have any problems?" This time, Aiden paused. "No? Good. I think the tests have been explained fairly thoroughly, so I'm not going to elaborate any more. Any instructions you may need are in the packet. You are not allowed to ask questions or ask for help. If you can't figure something out, guess, or leave it blank. Don't even try to cheat. Obviously no talking. I will be in here the whole time watching."

"When you reach the end of the test, simply turn your packet over. When the three hours are up, everyone must leave, whether the exam has been completed or not. Okay, that should be it." He checked his watch. "You may begin."

I immediately opened my packet and flipped through it quickly. It all appeared to be multiple choice, which I was immediately thankful for. I turned back to the first page and began to read.,It was difficult. And by difficult, I mean impossible. There was math so complex I didn't know if I was actually looking at math or hieroglyphs. Passages of text that had to be another language because I didn't know what any of the words meant. I was determined not to leave any blanks, so I guessed on any of the ones I didn't know.

I did a lot of guessing.

After a while, my hand started cramping from grasping my pencil so tightly. I didn't dare look around for fear Aiden would think I was cheating.

He stayed alert the entire time, watching us with eagle eyes. I stretched out my hand, then turned back to the test. I only had a few more pages to go. It was tempting to just Christmas tree the rest of the test, but I didn't.

I had feeling this exam was more important than anyone had let on, and something told me it was imperative that I didn't end up in the lowest scoring group. So I blinked several times to try and wake myself up, then tried to concentrate as best I could on the rest of the questions.

When I reached the end, I breathed a sigh of relief and turned my paper over. I felt like it was probably safe to look around.

About a third of the kids were already done, and staring aimlessly. Some had their heads down and appeared to be sleeping. Everyone else had their heads bent down intently over their papers and were filling in blanks furiously. I noticed there wasn't a timer or clock anywhere signaling how much time we had left, and Aiden hadn't spoken the whole time.

I looked up at him. We were only separated by a few feet. I started when I saw he was already looking at me. We made eye contact for a millisecond, then he focused his gaze on another student. How long had been looking at me before I noticed? Why did I always feel like people were watching me here?

Finally, Aiden called time. All but two or three students had completed their tests. The few that didn't looked terrified, and one girl looked like she was about to burst into tears. I was just glad the test was over, even though I was sure I had bombed.

We were led back into the cafeteria where we repeated the same procedure as with breakfast. This time we were fed a mushy sandwich. I scanned the crowd and quickly found Jake. He had already found a table. I walked over and sat down.

"That was like the hardest thing ever. You were right: I should've studied harder in school," I said.

"It was harder than I thought it would be." For the first time, I heard fear in his voice. "What do you think they are going to do to the people who score the lowest?"

I shivered internally. It seemed Jake had finally come to the same conclusion as me: being last could not be a good thing.