Terranovus

Chapter VII - Bogus

"Do you really think she will help us?"

"Trust me."

"Her dad works for the flippin Army, if she tells on us-"

"She won't."

"You can't guarantee that!"

"Trust me."

The voices brought me back to consciousness. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times until the room slowly came into focus. I was in a basement of some sort. Pipes and wires hung from the ceiling and loud generators whirled away somewhere on the other side of the one and only door. My attention turned to the two men who were standing in the middle of the room dressed in black and wearing balaclavas and staring at me. I glared back at them and glanced down at the rope that bound me to the chair I was sitting on. I yanked my wrists against the binds but my shoulder burned in protest and I loudly hissed in pain. Wincing, I looked down at my shoulder and saw it hung low in its socket, yup, definitely dislocated. I turned back to the two men.

"Let me go now and I promise I won't say anything to anyone," I told them coldly. The men looked at each at each other and smirked, amused.

"Not happening," he said.

"I know my dad works for the Army but he's just an engineer. Whatever money we don't need my parents give to the shelter. We don't have any money, my parents can't afford a ransom," I told them. The men properly grinned this time.

"We don't want ransom," said the taller man.

"Then tell me why I am here," I spat at them angrily. I knew I should have been scared, should have been intimidated and compliant but the fear I felt pulsing through my veins was pumping out of my body in the form of anger.

The taller man walked towards the spare chair sitting in the corner of the room and slowly dragged it over towards me. He sat on it facing me, with our knees not even 30cm apart. He seemed calm and relaxed. He analysed me for a moment with his clear, cool blue eyes then clasped his hands together in conclusion.

"We know the Terranovus lottery is bogus," he started. I could have cried with anger.

"No it isn't!' I argued back. "I didn't know my family was going to be picked. My dad's just an engineer for the Army, he's never even bloody talked to the Commander before."

"Just because you don't know it is bogus, doesn't mean it isn't bogus," he retorted. I stayed silent at that, was there a chance the lottery was fake? The man seemed so confident, so sure of himself.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"We have evidence that the lottery was fabricated to cover up the fact the Army is picking and choosing who they want to populate Terranovus."

"What evidence?" I demanded.

"That is confidential. All what I am going to tell you is that your family was chosen for a reason Tabitha. Daughter of an excellent engineer and a devoted volunteer, you are the aspiring architect who received top grades for your graphic communications subject, am I correct?" he asked. I pursed my lips and glared at him.

"You've been stalking me?" The man shrugged as though it was no big deal.

"You and a couple of other hundred. For good reason you see, have you noticed that everyone who has," he used his fingers as quotation marks, "'won the lottery', all possess certain qualities, traits or hobbies that you may say, could be considered as, convenient for a new found land to have?"

I burrowed my eyebrows in frustration, what was he talking about?

He continued, "let's take last week's lottery winners as an example shall we? Mr and Mrs Kettle from district 5th. They seem pretty ordinary until you look at their child. This year, little Benjamin, only thirteen years old, won his Sector's science fair for inventing a nuclear fusion reactor. What about the previous week's winner from district 7th? Mr Jones, a single man who works in a steel factory, sounds normal right? But if someone had asked him what his hobbies were he would have revealed he's a huge bird fanatic and knows pretty much every bird specie there is on planet Earth."