Riddle Middle

Chapter 46: Repeat

Phil (1st person)

I woke up the next day surrounded by darkness. There wasn't much difference in closing my eyes and opening them, so I tried feeling my way around. There was a stretchy surface surrounding me, and I was able to tear through it pretty easily. I was in a white room with a strip of glass in front of me. There were two black humanoids with large white eyes. There were more bags around me, so I decided to open them. I opened the one that looked slightly different first, and Phred was inside. He was awake, but he was covered in scratches and he looked stunned. I had been fine when I woke up, other than having a slight headache. I didn't know why, but this place seemed familiar, even though I didn't remember being in it before. "Hey, Phred, are you okay? What happened?" I asked. "Th-There was a black thing, it had long claws, and it attacked me while I was sleeping. I- I wasn't prepared for that, and I must've fallen unconscious at some point, because I woke up in that," he said, looking to the bag. "Black thing?" I asked. "Yeah, it was the size of your dog, but it certainly wasn't any type of canine," he said. "Weird. Was it a badger or something?" I asked. "It kind of looked like one, but it's claws weren't as long," he said. "Maybe a wolverine?" I said. "Yeah, yeah, that sounds right, but I don't know where it came from," he said. "Alright, let me see if anyone else is here," I said.

I opened another bag that had Zack in it. Zack was breathing extremely heavily, like you do when you come up for air when swimming. "Zack?" I asked. "Phil? Phil, where are we?" He asked. "I don't know, I'm trying to find out. What happened to you?" I asked. His face was a bit discolored. "...I woke up, and I couldn't breathe...I couldn't call for anyone, I couldn't walk fast enough, I was just suffocating. I fell unconscious eventually and woke up in here," he said. "Oh, sorry about that, that must've been horrible..." I said. "Yeah, well, it's over now. Is anyone else here?" He asked. "Phred's over there, and there's a couple more bags. You open that one and I'll get this one," I said. "Okay," he said. My bag was larger than Zack's, so I guessed that I'd have Pico, but I was wrong. Pico was stuffed into the small one, and Smiley just had some bedding in hers. She was asleep, snoring gently, but she looked happy, so I let her be.

I went to Zack and Pico. "Pico?" Zack asked. "Ugh..." Pico said. He didn't look hurt. "Pico, are you alright?" I asked. "...My head..." he groaned. "What happened?" I asked. "I... I was perfectly fine, and then something smashed against the back of my head and I guess I fell unconscious," he said. I looked to the glass strip, and the two humanoids were arguing. One was noticeably smaller than the other. The smaller one was only an inch shorter than me, and the taller one was about Pico's height, which was a little over a foot taller than me. They both walked out of my view, then they came into the room we were in through a part of the wall that opened. "Okay, just watch," the taller one said. The shorter one stood back. Their eyes always seemed to remain static, but I could tell that the shorter one was nervous, based on the way they held their hands in front of them. "Here, just take this one for example. Look at its eyes," the taller one said, approaching me. I was about to back away, but they firmly grasped my neck, so I couldn't move. It jabbed my left eye with its outstretched finger, which really hurt. "Ow!" I shouted. "See?" The taller one said. It poked my other eye, and I yelled in pain. My friends weren't very much help.

"Okay, okay, just stop hurting it!" The shorter one said. "Why would you care? These things aren't intelligent enough to understand. Remember how long it took them to find the clone?" The tall one said. I had no idea what he meant. It was still holding my neck, and I could barely breathe, let alone talk. "C'mon, just let go of it! It can't breathe!" The shorter one said. "Fine. We haven't done the intelligence test on the yellow one, since we used it. We still have to do that," the taller one said, letting go of me. I assumed Smiley was the 'yellow one'. Smiley was still asleep on the bedding that was in her bag. "Can I do it this time?" The shorter one asked. "No," the taller one said. They both went back behind the glass strip, but they talked to us through hidden speakers. "Okay, before we start, you guys can eat," the taller one said. One of those rounded lidded tray things came down a silver metal chute and out of a large gap in the wall. I lifted the lid. Spaghetti. Normally I would've made sure it wasn't poisoned or anything, but me and my friends all ate it without question. I had woken Smiley for our meal.

We were all full and satisfied when we were done. "...And you've failed. Well, that was easy enough," the tall one said. "What?" I said. "That had peanuts in it, and the yellow one ate it without looking," the taller one said. "What? Why would you do that?! We don't know what her reaction is! What if she dies?!" The shorter one said. The shorter one seemed a bit kinder, or at least more reasonable, than the other one. "Hey, if she dies, then that's just natural selection," the taller one said. The shorter one didn't have an answer for that. Smiley looked like she was about to cry. "Smiley, it's alright..." I said. She shoved two of her fingers into the back of her mouth, then she started gagging. "No, Smiley, stop!" I said, tearing her hand out of her mouth. "Phil, the discomfort I'll feel now is nothing compared to the pain I'll feel later," she said. "Please, trust me, you'll be okay," I said. I didn't trust for one second that this wasn't another trick; that they just wanted her to make herself throw up for no reason. "Okay, so the green ones pretty smart. There's no nuts in that, you're correct," the taller one said. I knew it.

They wrote something on a clipboard. "Okay, now go assess the yellow one," the taller one ordered the shorter one. The shorter one submissively left the strip of glass and came through the opening in the wall. Me and all of my friends gathered in the farthest corner from them. "Its okay, you don't have to be scared of me," the shorter one said. None of us moved. "Smiley, is it? I just have to take a look at you, I won't hurt you," they said. Regardless of how the shorter one was acting, the humanoids didn't look very welcoming, with their pitch black bodies and bright white eyes that bulged a bit from their heads. Smiley was shaking with fear, but she slowly walked up to the humanoid. The humanoid very gently stroked her hair, then he slowly ran his hand down her arm. "You're doing it wrong! Take off the orange and blue things and anything under it!" The taller one shouted over the speakers. He obviously meant her clothes. The shorter one looked hesitant. "No." They said after a minute of consideration. "No? I'm your mentor, you have to listen to me!" They shouted. "Taking off what she's wearing would be like taking off what we're wearing," The shorter one said. The taller one didn't respond. Then they went back to the glass.

"Hey, um... The fact that they can understand us is already great, maybe we should give them better circumstances," the shorter one said. "Look, if you love them so much, why don't you care for them?" The taller one said. The taller one left. The shorter one looked hesitant, but they soon opened the door in the wall and came to us. "You don't have to, but rather than sleeping on the cold floor, you can come to my room," they said. "Alright..." I said, approaching them. My friends seemed hesitant, but they all followed me. We walked through a pure white, seemingly empty hallway. The humanoid put their hand on a seemingly random place on the wall, and a door next to it opened. It opened vertically. The room was nice and welcoming.

"Okay, hold on, I'll look in the closet down the hall for sleeping bags or something," they said. "Thanks. What should we call you?" I asked. "I technically don't have a given name. I'm mostly just called 'apprentice'," they said. "Oh, alright. That other one said they're your mentor, right?" I asked. "Yep. He doesn't seem to understand that you're sophisticated. Since you're technically test subjects, he treats you like animals. He insisted that for taking you, I tried our new weapons, but I didn't want to," he said. "Did your mentor take any of us? Also, what are you 'testing' on us?" Zack said. "Yeah, my mentor got you, Phred, and Pico. I got Phil and Smiley. We're not testing anything on you, at least not right now. We're mainly just tying to get your intelligence and ability to comprehend and solve things," he said. "Okay, but why are you doing it this way? Why not an IQ test or something?" Smiley said. "IQ test? I'm afraid I don't know what that is," he said. We stopped talking, so he went to get the sleeping bags. "Okay, there was four in there and mine's in here," he said, returning with the sleeping bags. I was about to volunteer to sleep on the floor, but the humanoid gave up his sleeping bag for us. He fell asleep first, but you couldn't really tell. He just lay motionless staring at the ceiling. I was beginning to wonder if that was his real body or a suit. Unfortunately, Smiley fell asleep next.