The Project

The Tube

Cade escorts me through a maze of hallways without saying a word.

Huh. That's a first.

The environment doesn't change this time for a while, but soon we are back in the sterile stainless halls where employees walk about in all white.
I notice they look at us down their noses, as if we are beneath them in their pristine little wonderland,we are the ones who came through the rabbit hole bringing change. We who are different are not to be thought of as equal. The youth in this facility seem to fall somewhere below dirt in order of importance, and in this whited-out world I'm pretty sure dirt has no purpose.
My thoughts depress even me, and I struggle to keep up with Cade's fast pace. He seems discomforted but I have no idea why. He lives here, he's the poster child, isn't he? Why should he look so antsy?
Finally we reach a door of stainless steel, massive and cold. Cade pauses outside and looks at me. Just looks. Like he's trying to understand something that eludes him. Finally I ask,

"What?"

He just clears his throat and keys in a combination in the doors control panel.

Why does he seem so apprehensive?

I gasp as I look into the room revealed to me.
The room is in a circular shape, with vaulted ceilings of frosted glass that create a bright, hard light overhead. The room like everything else here is white, with white computers and white clothed attendants moving to-and-fro. But what really catches my eye is the large hollow glass cylinder in the center of the room that reaches the peak of the ceiling, and is surrounded by thousands of wires and moniters.
I'm puzzling out what it is when a sound like the cracking of a tree branch erupts to my left. It's Cade, who is clapping his hands slowly.

The hell?

He claps three times, and suddenly I'm surrounded by a swirling sea of employees pushing past me to the door.

"Cade..."

My voice is a tad shaky. Then everyone is gone, and the silence is as loud as the ocean. Cade turns to me and finally speaks.

"Step into the tube Arista."

What. That's the stuff of nightmares, no way.

I voice my opinion with a loud,

"No! Not until you tell me what's going on! Why'd they all leave, what is that monstrosity you just expect me to hop into like the mother-ducking Easter Bunny, and why..."

My words die as Cade's laugh cuts through my them. But it's a hollow laugh, with no real mirth behind it. He speaks then.

"Miss Neal, you don't know your powers. The tube is, in small words, something that will tell you what they are. You are perfectly safe in there."

As if I've ever been safe.

"Fine. But this better work."

"Oh it will. Now please, step inside."