Infinite (Unedited)

∞CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN∞

I stare at Nate in shock. "Wha.. What?"

The PA system crackles to life, "Results for the last elimination... Sixty six of you have failed. One hundred and twenty eight are left. To those of you still here, good luck. We are nearing the end of these tests, and many of you won't be staying. Our scientists here are getting a bit impatient here, so we're going to be doing yet another simulation today. Because while in a simulation you don't remember anything, we will tell you what it is for. We're testing loyalty. Now please all of you go to the cafeteria and eat your lunches. That is not a suggestion by the way."

"Lunch," I say dumbly. "We have to go for lunch..." I'm still in a state of shock.

Nate stares at me. "Yeah. We do."

"O-Okay," I get up, legs shaking, and walk all the way to the cafeteria without looking back.

****************

I set my tray down beside Jen and put my head down on the table. "Ughhhhh."

"What?" She asks, mouth full of whatever she's eating.

"I messed a thing up," I mutter, head still resting on the table.

"Well you're still here, so it obviously wasn't that bad..."

"Not with the sims or anything, with Nate."

"Oh?" I hear her voice change slightly. Now she's interested in what I'm talking about instead of her food.

"Yeah."

"Are you gonna tell me what you did?" She asks.

"I'm getting to that..."

"Were you?"

"Kinda," I sit up straight.

"Come on, spill it."

"He said a thing... And I freaked out and just ignored it... And now I'm here," I sigh.

"What 'thing' did he say?"

"Nothing."

"Aria!"

"He just... He said that he..."

"That he what?" She sounds frustrated.

"That he loved me."

Her eyes widen and she puts a hand to her mouth. "No."

"Yes."

"No way."

"Yeah, Jen."

"No. Way!"

"Jennifer!"

"Okay, sorry. Wow. Oh my gosh. Wow," it takes her a minute to process. "Wait, you IGNORED THAT?" She says it so loud that half the people in the cafeteria turn around.

"I didn't know what to do!"

"Well you definitely don't ignore it!"

"You are not helping right now!"

"Okay, okay, okay umm well do you feel the same way?" She asks the question I was dreading being asked.

"I don't know."

"You don't know," she stares at me with a blank expression. "How on earth do you not know."

"I don't know! I know that I like him as more than a friend but..." I give her a flustered expression. "I just don't know!"

She bites her lip in thought. "After the sim you need to tell him you're sorry you freaked out, and why you did, and then tell him what you told me. That help?"

"I hope," I sigh and start eating my food, while Jen goes back to finishing hers.

**************************

I find myself dressed in a black skirt and a white shirt, with a black blazer. I bring my hands up to my head. My hair is in a neat bun.

Looking around the room that I'm in, and the people here with me, I see that I'm in a high tech conference room.

"Okay everyone understand the importance of this mission?" The man at the opposite end of the long table asks. "One wrong move and we're done. All they need is just one set of these numbers."

"Yes sir," everyone around me says, so I join in. In my hand is a small tablet with one set of these numbers.

"Keep those safe," the man says. "And our world will be safe."

"Here's the address that each of you will be going to..." He presses a few buttons and then an address pops up under the set of numbers. "Now go," he says with a wave of his hand.

We stream out of the room and then the building one by one, each of us heading in a different direction.

I read the address over again. I feel like I've never been here before, but yet I know where to go. I turn left and walk until I reach a bus stop, then take a right. Eventually I find myself at a park. I know that I will need to cut across it to the other side in order to get to my destination. Halfway across the park, near a tiny pond filled with ducks bobbing in the water, a man in black walks up to me. His sunglasses are so dark, it look like someone took a black sharpie and covered over the lenses.

"I have an offer for you..." He says creepily.

"I'm sorry, I don't have time right now. I'm late for work," I lie.

"Don't lie to me," he grabs my arm, sending a sharp pain through it.

"I'm not lying," I say calmly. "I'm late. My boss really won't be happy-"

"I'm prepared to offer one million dollars," he interrupts me.

"For what?" I ask innocently.

"You know what!" He exclaims.

'...A test of loyalty...' I don't know who's voice is saying the words, but they pass through my mind.

"Okay, five million," he says.

"For what?" I throw up my hands.

"The numbers," he whispers. "I need them."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Ten million."

"Whatever these numbers are, they must be awful important..." I keep up the innocent act.

"Listen missy, I know you have them. I know. I saw you."

I decide to give up playing dumb. "You can't have them," I hiss,

"Fifty million," the words slip from his tongue so easily.

"Where did you get all that money?" I ask.

"I have sponsors. Dangerous ones."

"Is that a threat?"

"Take the fifty million and you won't have to find out," he whispers in my ear.

I take a step back. "No."

********************

"Congratulations Aria," the voice in my cylinder says. "You pass."

"Good," I smile. "Good."

The door unlocks, letting me walk out. I have to tell Nate how I feel.

Before I can go find him, a voice comes over the PA again. "Thirty eight of you have failed, leaving us with ninety. We're getting close everyone."

After finishing listening, I run to find Nate, and make sure he wasn't one of the eliminated.

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What do you guys think? Are you excited for the tests to end and the abilities to be given? ;)
Qotp: Do you think Nate is going to be one of the ones still left? And what do you think he would say to Aria after she brushed him off like that?