The Chase

Chase

Typically, my parents just dropped me off at school. I look kind of weird, standing alone outside of school. Everyone is with their parents.

I don't have anything else to do so I go and wait in front of the doors for when it opens. I can get home faster that way too. Not that I have any desire whatsoever to go home, but still.

Its freezing out here. Only a matter of time before the rain settles in. The doors open and I'm first in line. Follow me a nurse asks. I follow her to the library, which is has been placed full of desks and at every desk is a different person waiting for a student I guess.

The nurse leads me down the furthest row and I go sit in front of a grumpy looking old lady.

"Name?" Her voice sounds filled with ice.
"Chase Albertson" I answer.
"Any special skills?"
"I'm smart and almost always knows the right answer."
She looks up with her eyes and says :"Good for you"
I smile nervously and answer the rest of her questions which I find very unimportant. When we are finished she leads me down towards the schools basement which is a health hazard. There is cob webs and dust everywhere and it smells of mold. The place has obviously never been cleaned before.

Also it looks like the last time someone was down here was with the last Chase, which judging by all the doors and narrow hallways, is correct. Its genius to build all the Chase testing rooms underneath the school. In a creepy sort of way.

We go stand in front of a door which looks like it could crumble to pieces just by looking at it. The lady opens it and leads me inside. She goes to sit in a chair by the door and gestures for me to look at the wall behind me.

I turn around and see a giant screen with a red button. I press the button slowly and step back. The room goes dark, the only light radiating off the screen. A woman who looks dangerously close to my mother appears. "Hello" she says. "Answer the following questions truthfully." I just blink blindly at the screen.

"If you could have anything in the world, what would it be?"

"Oh that's easy. To have people who care about me. You know like friends and a proper family."

"If that wish is granted, what would you do?"

"I'd probably think of ways to get out of this test so that I could stay here with people who care for me. Of course I would fail but then I'd pray that I don't get chosen. " I smile at my explanation though it hurts faintly to think that I have no one who truly cares about me.

"What is you're opinion n pollution?"

"Uh, its awful and destroying our world for future generations." I answer slightly confused.

"Do you think there is a solution towards global pollution?"
"No not really." I answer truthfully.

"If given any source of power, what would it be?"

"Oh, uhm, I don't know. Maybe to always make friends wherever I go?" I say.

"Why is that?" She asks.

"Because I don't have any friends to begin with. Didn't I tell you this already?" I ask and frown.

She just stares at me from the other side of the screen. "If someone walks up to you band hands you a briefcase full of money, what would you do?"

"Save it for college" I answer.

"Part two of the tests will begin in a few seconds" the woman says and the room goes dark again. After a few seconds the room goes bright with light and I squint my eyes. Do they want their test subjects to go blind?

"Part two begins now" that woman says smoothly.
I open my eyes to find men, totally covered in black, in the corners of the room. They don't look very nice. I start to circle slowly. I almost double over when a sudden blow hits my back. One of the men behind me must have hit me. Hard. A second hit follows and I fall this time, but stand up again after a few seconds. OK, I'm not going to lie. I suck at anything even remotely related to sports.

I'm more of the 'stay-inside-where-mother-nature-cant-harm-you' type if guy. Always have been, will probably always be.

Another man runs towards me and I figure it would take him 2.7 seconds to hit me. I move out of the way just in time to miss his fist that would have hit me in the jaw. I dodge the men one after the other until finally they stop attacking me and simply disappear. Into nothingness.

That's not physically possible..... I can feel a headache starting to form at the back of my eyes. This day is really not going my way. Nor does any other day, bad luck is like a little cloud over my head, but still.

"Part three of the tests will begin in a few seconds" the woman's voice echoes through the room. More??? I sigh and put my hands on my knees. These people don't kid around do they?

"Part three of the tests begins now." I sigh and straighten up but I wish I didn't. Out of the left corner is a fire starting. Not a big fire but fire means heat and smoke which means severe injuries. Or death.

I look around me and see a fire extinguisher in a glass box against the wall furthest from me. I run to it and try to smash the glass.

Not even a crack forms as I hit for probably the tenth time. What to do ..... I realize the fire is spreading extremely slow. I go near it and feel some heat, but very little. Its fake but still warm to be the cause of some injuries if you spend to much time near it. The human body can easily adapt to rising temperatures but I don't think this counts.

I spot a chair in the corner opposite the one I was in. Where did that come from? I wonder but grab it anyways. I slam in against the glass box but only gives a little crack.

Just enough I think. I take a piece of wood which broke of and begin to tap it lightly against the crack. Then harder and harder as the crack starts to spread.

The fire is now a feet away from me and I can feel the radiating from where it burns. I hit the glass with full force and it breaks. I grab the extinguisher and kill the flames instantly.

Relief floods through me as I don't hear the woman's voice announcing another round tests. The grumpy old lady re-enters the room, with it came her ice cold eyes.

"Follow me" she gestures with her hand and I follow her to the top of the basement stairs. She waves me off and I walk outside. My mother's car is parked in the school parking lot and I immediately frown. What is she doing here?

She is alone, obviously, which meant she dropped my dad at work and my brother at school. Something strange is going on ..... I think the last time she and I had proper conversation was the argument we had about the hole in my roof three years ago. I probably spoke only about seven words in total to her after that. Seven, in three years.

I open the passenger door and climb in the car. My first impulse was to ask who died, because, well, here sat my mother in front of me.
"How was it?" She asks steadily, almost afraid of me. I stare dumbfounded at her.
"I just want to go home" I say and put on my seatbelt.