Social Experiment

Countdown (Mikayla)

I roll over in bed, wondering why my room is so white. You know those groggy moments when you first wake up and you forget for a split second where you are? That spilt second is heaven when you're living in just the opposite.

My eyes drift to the alarm clock perching on a nightstand beside my bed. Before I can even think about reading it, I have to wonder why it's there. None of the rooms have alarm clocks. This question is dismissed when I cannot contemplate any possible explanation. The digital clock reads: 20 days.

But how can this be? Twenty days since what? Certainly not since we've awoken. Abbi's been keeping track, and even if she wasn't, I know it hasn't been twenty days.

For no logical reason whatsoever, an icy fear shudders down my spine. I can't bear to look at it. I thrust the covers off myself and dash into the Matrix, still in pajamas.

I crash into the cute Scottish guy from last night, causing him to drop his muffin.

My mouth becomes an O. "I am so sorry."

"Nonsense. It was only a muffin. A chocolate one at that. Now if that had been a poppy seed, we'd have a problem."

I grin. "Shawn, right?" I ask, attempting to sound casual. I don't want him to think that I actually bothered to remember his name.

"Yeah. And you're Mikayla. No question."

"That's me."

"So tell me, Mikayla, why did you come racing out here in your pajamas?"

I blush.

"Cute pajamas," he says quickly, "but why come out here in them?"

"The alarm clock!" I remember, "Shawn, when you woke up, was there a digital alarm clock in your room?"

"Twenty days. That what you're asking about?"

"Yeah. What do you think it means?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. Let's ask."
We look around for Abbi, and find her chattering away with a man in a corner.

"Hi. I'm Mikayla." I introduce.

She looks up at me, grinning. "Abbi. What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you knew anything about the alarm clocks. You had one in your room, didn't you?"

She nods vigorously. "Zeke and I were just talking about that."

"Any ideas?" Shawn prompts.

Abbi and Zeke exchange a glance. "I thought at first that it meant twenty days since some event... perhaps since we were put here. Who knows how long we were unconscious for?"

Zeke steps in. "But then I thought that perhaps it's twenty days until something. Like a countdown."

"What would it be counting down to?" Shawn wonders.

"Maybe until the experiment is over?" Abbi suggests, though without a lot of faith in the question.

"They'll probably keep us down here for months. Maybe even years."

I shiver. How can Zeke say that so calmly? Until he said otherwise, I had been satisfied thinking that this was all temporary. As in, a few days temporary, possibly a week or two.

"Years?" Shawn squeaks.

Abbi sighs. "We have to consider the possibility. There's no way of really knowing when They plan to release us."

My voice falls to a whisper. "If They release us."

We sit beside each other and eat our breakfast in silence. I think about the world above. What are they doing while we're buried alive in some experiment? Did we have family? Do people miss us? Do they know we're down here, or is this some government secret?