Project 14 (BEING REWRITTEN)

Chapter 2

 

There was a knock at the door at nine o’ clock. I was still trying to get ready, so Junior was willing to get the door. Mother was still passed out in her room.

          “May I help you?” Junior asked.

          “Is there a Cassandra Roosevelt in this residence?”

          Junior cleared his throat. “Come in. She’ll be out in a minute.”

          The officer came in and stood in the hall of the front door. I heard mother come out of her room. Junior came into my room. I turned and looked at him. “Stay strong.” He whispered and pulled me into a hug.

          Tears were threatening to fall down my face. “I don’t want to leave you.”

          “You’ll be fine. I’ll be the first to see you when you come back.”

          I pulled away from Junior’s embrace. He gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then on the lips. I watched him pull away.

          I walked out to see the officer. He was dressed in a bulletproof vest that made him look more muscular and all black clothing. He had a patch on the side of his arm that read Convoy American Police. I sighed and left the house with him. Mother didn’t even bother saying goodbye. She gave me the death stare and the officer and I left the house. He escorted me to a black sedan. There was a driver waiting. I sighed as the officer opened the back passenger side door for me. I stepped up into the sedan and we drove away from Colony Fourteen.

The car ride was longer than I expected, so I fell asleep on the way there. I was awoken by the bumpiness of the driveway. The officer in the front seats got out. The door was opened for me by the driver.

          When I stepped out of the sedan, we were about to enter a dome shaped building. I was escorted inside by the driver and the officer. The other Experiments were giving me weird looks. I was brought to a table with the other Experiments. Everyone was silent.

          An elder man came into the room. From what I’m assuming is he the runs the experiments.

          “Hello, my name is Edward Glass and welcome to your new life for the next year. Now, we have many things to discuss. But first, I will give you a small tour of your new home.”

We reached the boarding rooms, or known as the “shared rooms”.

          “Experiments one through three will stay in room one, Experiments four and five in room two and so on. Each Experiment is labeled from their Colony number. For instance, if you’re from Colony Seven, you’re Experiment Seven. Any questions?”

          I kept my head down.

          “Great, let’s finish the tour.”

This whole day has been a problem. I went to my room and sat down in front of my bed, bringing my knees up and hugging them. Small footsteps filled the room.

          “Hey, are you Cassandra?” A voice asked kindly.

          I looked up to see a boy with spiky brown hair and blue eyes. “Yeah, who are you?”

          “The name’s Joshua. Joshua Anderson. It’s nice to meet you.”

          I picked myself up off the ground and brushed myself off. “It’s nice to meet you, too.” I let out a small smile.

          Joshua threw his stuff on his bed. I sighed. “Is there a nickname I can call you?”

          “Josh is fine. What about you?”

          “Cassie.”

          “Well, it was nice to meet you,” Josh let out a small smile.

          Maybe being here isn’t going to be that bad.

I woke up startled. I looked over at the 8-bit clock on the table next to me. It was three in the morning. Then I felt something wet below me. I felt around, thinking it was blood or something. I felt my head and knew I was sweating. Was my nightmare this bad?  I pushed my wet hair out of my face.

          Sighing, I pushed myself quietly onto the floor. I looked over and Josh was still sleeping. There is no way I am sleeping in a wet bed. Yeah, I should be used to it by now though. At least six times a month I have to deal with having horrible nightmares and sweating so hard that the bed gets wet. Disgusting, I know. It’s not my problem that I can’t control it. I wrapped my arms around myself and curled up into a ball and fell back asleep.

I felt a hand shaking my arm. My eyes slowly opened, blinding my vision with whiteness and a blurred out figure.

          “Cass, wake up.”

          I groaned and saw Junior, “Junior?”

          Then my vision turned back to normal. The person wasn’t Junior, it was Josh. I pushed myself up off the floor. My hair was still damp.

          “Who’s Junior?” Josh asked curiously. “And why were you sleeping on the floor?”

          “Junior is a friend back home. And I –” I got cut off by Mr. Glass pounding on the solid metal door.

          “Rise and shine Experiments!”

          I sighed and Josh seemed to be already dressed. “Hey, if you need, there’s a shower right next door,” Josh smiled.

          I nodded and Josh left.

          I got up and grabbed some clothes from my bag and headed next door. The cold water felt good on my damp skin. I was still extremely tired. But thankfully I managed not fall asleep in the shower.

Dr. Glass came into my room as I wrote in my journal. Josh stared up at him.

          “Experiment Fourteen,” He said.

          I looked up at him. Two men came out from behind him and the taller one picked me up by the arm. I cried in pain and Dr. Glass let out a small smirk.

          “What the hell are you smiling at?” I demanded, fighting against the guard holding me up.

          Josh got up and stood his ground. “Let her go.”

          Dr. Glass chuckled. “Back of kid,” he whispered, “before you come with her.”  

          The second guard came out and hit Josh straight across the face with his gun. Tears forced themselves into my eyes. I was pushed to the ground and Dr. Glass stepped on my hand, hearing the bones in my hand snapping and cracking.

          “Now, come child.”

          He got off my hand. “No.” I said, standing up.

          He and the guards looked back at me. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

          “I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me where I’m going.”

          “Let’s just say, we’re going on a small . . .” Dr. Glass sighed and paused. “Field trip, I suppose.”

          I shook my head and backed up, my back hitting the wall. The two guards grabbed a hold of each one of my arms. I screamed and kicked, trying to get out of their grip.

          “Sedate her,” Dr. Glass commanded.

          “What?”

          Within the blink of an eye, the tall guard grabbed a syringe from his belt. I saw on his name tag it read Gutierrez. Gutierrez stuck the syringe into my arm. My eyes began to feel heavy. “Goodnight sweetheart. Now, we must get going.”

          I fell into Gutierrez’s arms as I was carried out of my room.