The Unaffected

➠1.5

Subject is younger than eighteen.

He stares at the paper, not paying much attention to it. His mind is racing with confusion for a different reason.

The orders she has given him are strange; he doesn't know why she'd do this. But he will comply as he always does. Because he wants to stay alive.

✶✶✶

"i'm a six," I tell them when the door closes behind me.

"What?" Ella demands. "But you said you were a three!"

"Apparently I tricked the Power Meter."

"I didn't know that was possible," John says. "And hey, you're a level higher than me!"

I laughed nervously. "Do they normally have us go for extra tests?" I ask.

They both shake their heads.

"They don't usually have people fool the Power Meter, either."

I turn around. It's Tom speaking. I'm surprised.

"Did the one who was executed... was he different?"

"No. He just got a higher level and didn't want to support the aliens. So they killed him. That's what they do. Kill."

The vehemence in his voice, the fierceness of his gaze, intimidates me. I wonder how important this dead Unaffected was to him.

✶

Later, John is lying on his back, looking at the void in the ceiling. "I wonder what's up there," he says.

"Hmm," I reply. Ella's asleep, and Tom's back into unanswering mode.

Then I remember what I'm supposed to be doing tomorrow. The others are ready, aren't they?

I lean back against the hard wall and look at John. "What do you think is out there?" I ask him.

"Outside the cell, or outside this building?"

"The building."

"I wonder all the time," he admits. "But I really don't know. Do you think we'll ever see it?"

"I dunno." Yes, I think. If Baby Soldier was telling the truth... we're getting out and searching for the cure.

This has to go right, I think. We have to find the cure. Maybe, I'll even be able to help Clapton and the others in time. I hold on to that thought, the only hope I have in this churning sea of difficulties.