In Times Like These

Chapter 1

The cold stone wall that was touching her back was sending random shivers of what felt like ice down her spine as she stared, emotionless, at the wall in front of her. Always walls, never faces. The only time she had ever been able to see other faces were when the masks of scientists loomed over her. To be honest, she hadn’t even seen her own reflection in what felt like forever, but that forever had actually been a total of three years.

“You will change the human race forever. We will make you American soldiers, unbeatable, and strong-willed. Elizabeth, give us two short years and you will be out fighting agains the men who took your father.”

Three years ago, she had believed them, and she had every right too. The war in Afghanistan had taken her father in a mine explosion he was unable to recover from. Even know the emptiness she felt in her cell was enough to make her almost believe those words again, but there was a difference between the sixteen year old that sat on that couch beside her mother and the nineteen year old that was now roomed in a cell underneath a laboratory. She knew better. The scientist that had told her all of those things was the same scientist that was going to be examining her the next morning. Dr. Edward Porter. She knew him far too well by this time to even forget his name, but after so many years of being Experiment 165 she had almost forgotten her own name. She stood and did her usual routine to keep herself from going insane by moving to her cell door. There was a small window that she had to stand on her tiptoes to see out of, but the temporary pain provided some solace. She looked across from her in a small cell where a boy with auburn hair and dark eyes sat at the back of his cell. He was built for a boy who had been across from her this many years. His arms were draped over his knees as he looked at the ground before he moved one hand and started to write something out with his finger on the stone, though it didn’t spell anything Elizabeth was too fascinated at this point to look away. 

“T…” She started spelling aloud, “O…N…” Elizabeth’s heart began to race as if this was the most exciting part of her life, and after three years looking at the same brass covered stone, this probably was. “I…G…H..” She continued, “…T?” Tonight. She pieced together in her mind as her eyes widened. The boy looked up meeting her eyes instantly as if from the beginning he knew that she was watching. Did he? They looked at each other for a long time before she looked away quickly feeling embarrassed for even looking this long. Eventually she couldn’t help herself anymore, she looked back and connected eyes with the nameless boy once more, he nodded as if his message should be clear at this point. She nodded back. She didn’t know what he meant by “tonight” but whatever he meant, she wanted in. Was he talking about escape possibly, but at this point she doubted they could do it. She barely knew her abilities, let alone how to control them, but did this boy have some sort of idea she didn’t? No, escape was impossible, at least…from what she knew. The only other person who had tried to escape was driven mad by the ever expanding forest that lay outside of these walls and returned to the compound not soon after their victory of escaping. She put a hand on her heart realizing that her heartbeat had accelerated. She started to take deep breaths to calm herself down. She wasn’t even doing anything thrilling, but she began to realize that just the idea of escaping this albatross prison was more than enough incentive to act. Standing and getting carried away in her day dream was a mistake, she wasn’t allowed to look at other prisoners. She moved away from the door just as a guard walked by.

“Hey, why are you standing?”
Elizabeth swallowed barely knowing if her vocal chords could even work. She was right, as she spoke her voice sounded groggy. “Am I not allowed to stand?” The guard glared as he hit his nightstick against the steel door making a loud sound echo through her cell that made her ears ring. The man’s voice escalated.