In Another World

CHAPTER 4

Province 7 ; Austrium

Earth, Solar System #19

A loud alarm wakes us up a day after. Except this one's one hour earlier, at 7:00 AM. It gives everyone time to prepare and get ready.

I decide to wear jeans and a shirt with a denim jacket. When we take turns to change, I refuse to look in the mirror when I go in. God bless the people who look at me every day. I don't know how their eyes can deal with that type of pain.

As soon as I come out, I see Mom and Theo outside the door, talking to an officer. I try to eavesdrop from the safety of the room.

"You don't need- it's only for the younger ones- him and the girl-"

Mom's shrill voice gives me all the reason to worry. "You don't need a tracker during a- what's it even used for- can it be given- less painful-"

Curiosity killed the cat. I open the door and find myself facing the officer directly. I also find, to my shock, Theo getting an injection in the neck by another officer I didn't see.

"What's this?" I ask, lunging towards that officer. Mom and Officer 1 hold me back.

"You need a tracker by injection for the test," Officer 1 offers briefly.

Theo winces back and rubs his neck after the injection. Behind him, I take notice of other younger testees getting their trackers injected, too.

"Next," Officer 2 mumbles. The needle in his hand looks deathly. One wrong stab and I could die, right here and now. I start to tremble.

"Go on," Mom says, not breaking her cold stare at Officer 1.

My breaths come out shallow and high; I've never been one to like shots. And this one? Going into my neck? I think I might pass out, my heart's beating so fast. Officer 2 draws nearer.

Theo is the one to comfort me. He holds me by my arms, and I feel secure and safe. I don't even think about anything else but the warmth radiating off of him when the tracker is injected. My neck feels sore afterward, but I don't notice, because Theo is still holding me... and then he lets go.

"It's almost time," he mutters. I don't have to snap out of my daze to know what he's talking about. I don't even want to think about it. I just want him to hold me for as long as he can and not let go.

I didn't know I missed the real Theo this much until I lost him. One point for me.

<<<>>>

There's a line to go up the staircase to the testing rooms. Mom, Theo, and I are towards the end of it because we came late, but it moved pretty quickly, so I'm up next.

It's a really narrow staircase, just a sliver in the cafeteria wall. How funny it is that I may never see a staircase again.

Hesitating because of this one thought, I take one potentially last look at this narrow yet simple staircase. Then I step carefully on each step, holding the railings on both sides. I wonder if Mom and Theo can see me from where they are in line. I turn around, but I can't see anything but a brick wall and a small opening from where I came from at the bottom.

The stairs finally end when I come to a small room that branches off into smaller rooms. There's a young man shuffling papers behind a desk in the middle. He immediately smiles when he takes sight of me and beckons me over. I straighten myself and don't allow myself to smile back.

"Name?" He asks when I'm in front of him. His papers are now in neat stacks.

"Emerson Shingan," I answer, my voice colder and tighter than I expected. He seems to notice it, too, because his smile droops a little bit. I clear my throat.

"Shingan... S.." He mutters. He finally pulls out a paper with my last name at the top and hands it to me. It contains all the basic information from my birth certificate as well as an unfamiliar number at the bottom.

1709

"That's your room number," he tells me.

"Okay."

"Good luck, Emerson."

My nerves have just started showing up on my body. I start shaking, and the piece of paper I hold trembles, too.

I walk around the room slowly, inspecting every room number. What if I just walked so slow that I never reached the room? Never took the test? 1700, 1701, 1702...

My room is the very last one. It's sealed shut with a lock when I try to open it, so I knock on the hard wood instead.

I'm trembling so hard that my knees are about to give in when a woman opens the door. Her head is shaved and covered with tattoos, and she has innumerable piercings on her ears. She's wearing a lab coat and a genuine grin on her face.

"Come on in. I'm Sutton," she says in a warm voice.

"Okay, Emerson. I'm going to be telling you what your end goal is for your test. Your job throughout the test is to do everything to achieve that goal, however many days it takes you. You have to find everything you can so you survive. Your ranking will be given to you at the end of everyday, discreetly or not.

I know I'm not really giving you the best directions, but it's easy to figure out when you get there. I'll be rooting for you," Sutton finishes.

I remain silent as I'm directed to the bed with a white sheet covering it. It looks just like a doctor's office. To think that a doctor's office might be the last place on Earth that I'm ever on.

Sutton moves over to a touchscreen wall, scrolling through files until she finds mine. She reads mine twice before she says anything. The font is too small for me to read.

"Your goal, Emerson, is to find and kill the hitter."

"The hitter?"

She smiles. "I told you, you'll find out when you get there."

The Hitter.

I think I'm breathing really loudly now. Kill. My heart lurches in my ribcage, jumping around. My foot shakes nonstop, and I have to sit on both of my hands to prevent anything from happening.

She moves over to the counter, where she looks me up and down while she fills up the injection with liquid.

"It's okay to be nervous. You're taking the biggest test of your life," she reminds me, cleaning my arm with a wipe.

She notices my trembling has gotten even worse, so she stops.

"I just want to get it over with," I croak hoarsely. "I have nothing to lose."

Her eyes filled with sympathy, she gives me a reassuring smile. She rubs my arm once more before injecting me. I start to get hazy right away.

I'm alone from here on out.

Right before I black out, I hear Sutton say one last sentence to me, one that gives me all the faith and power I need just for this one test.

"You might not have anything to lose, but you can have everything to gain."