Captive

Chapter 2

No one says a word for a minute, we just let her words sink in. We – each and every teenager in this room – are going to be a part of an experiment? There’s at least seventy of us, why do they need so many? I start to chew on the inside of my cheek, wondering who the hell these people are and what they’re going to do to us.

“It’s for the good of the world,” Athena says cheerfully, clasping her hands. “By the end of this project, we hope that, those of you who were able to stay with us, are going to be interested in helping us with something very important.”

“What?” The boy next to me is red in his face and the scowl on his face almost seems permanent. “Who are you?”

“My name is Athena Markham, I told you so just a few minutes ago.” Her face takes on a concerned look. “Do you have a hard time remembering things? Did you hit your head?”

“Never mind my head,” he shouts, “I want you to tell me who you are and what you’re going to do with us!”

“Save the world, dear,” Athena says optimistically. The boy next to me runs a frustrated hand through his hair. He knows he won’t get a straight answer out of Athena Markham any time soon.

“Why do you need so many of us for this experiment?” I ask. A wave of mumbles spread through the crowd – I asked the question no one wanted the answer for.

Athena’s smile doesn’t waver for even a second. She just shifts her eyes until they find me and calmly says, “Because many of you will, most likely, die.”

Rage spreads through the teenagers, including me. How can she just say that aloud, as if there’s nothing wrong with it? “You can’t do this! It’s wrong,” someone shouts. A man standing next to Athena steps forward and raises his hands to calm us, but it isn’t working. If anything, he only makes us want to throw something at that stupid glass that keeps him separated from us, so we can do horrible things to him.

“Everyone, please be quiet,” he says loudly, but I doubt anyone but me hears him. Around me is total chaos. Everyone are shouting curses and reasons for why they can’t be contained in there. But I stay quiet, because I want to hear the man try to justify what Athena had just told us. I want to hear what reason they could possibly have to abduct so many kids, and then tell them they might die for “the good of the world”. The man tries to say something, but his words are drowned by the shouts of everyone around me. No one else wants to hear what he has to say.

“Shut up!” Except perhaps the boy next to me. He shouts this loud enough to make everyone a bit curious, so everyone becomes quiet. The boy turns to the man and nods once. “Go on.”

The man barely reacts. “In a few hours, all of you will be injected with a liquid. This liquid will change you in ways you can’t imagine, but you shouldn’t be afraid, we will have all the changes under control.”

“What are these changes you’re talking about?” the boy next to me ask. The man sweeps his eyes over all of us, ignoring the boy. His eyes stop for half a beat longer on me than they had on everyone else, and I can’t help but try to analyze this. Then I realize that I recognize him from somewhere, but I can't place his face.

“You can’t keep us here,” I say when the man stays quiet for a few minutes. “Someone’s going to report our disappearance, and the feds will be all over this.”

He takes a step towards the glass, a smile tugging on his lips as he does. “What makes you think anyone will care about you?”

Fear crawls down my spine in the form of a shiver. “Our parents.”

“You don’t have any parents,” he says, smiling bigger than before. That startles me, the fact that he knew that. But I don’t show it to him – I will not give him the satisfaction of knowing that he got to me.