Ingenious

Chapter Four

It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but by the time they do, the elevator doors are closed and I'm trapped down here. Trapped with the 4 strangers who look at me with curiosity.

"Give her some space," the girl says, pushing everyone back a few steps as she kneels next to me. "Are you okay?" she asks me. I don't know how to answer that, so my mouth opens, wordlessly like an idiot. "I know everything seems weird right now, and you must have a lot of questions. Let us help you get settled in and we'll answer what we can." I'm absorbing her words, but I'm not sure if I'm in shock, or just wordless about everything that has happened. I close my eyes as one of the guys there saws off the ropes bounding my limbs with a kitchen knife.

"She must have hurt her knee at some point," he says pointing to my knee that's hyper extended. "Do you think you can walk to the bed?" I nod and stand up with two of them's help. They lead me over to a small cot on the left side of the room, only a few feet from another cot. They both have matching sheets and blankets, with one flimsy pillow at the top. Three identical beds sit on the other wall as well. I sit down, my leg extended in front of me, as the girl wraps my knee in a tensor bandage. It hurts a lot, but I try not to show it as everyone gets comfy around me.

"Thank you," I say quietly to the girl. Everyone here looks older than me, but not by too much. Still it makes me feel weird. Everything about this makes me feel weird. "I'm Raegan." The girl sitting at the end of my bed smiles at me.

"That's a really cool name," she says and I can tell she's trying to make me feel less awkward. "I'm Kacey, but most of them call me Kace." I nod and offer as much as a smile as I can muster. Everyone else here is a guy, and I don't have too much experience with guys in general, so I try to look at Kacey.

"My friends back home call me Rae," I say, mostly talking to Kacey.

"Rae it is," she says, and turns towards the 3 boys sitting on the bed beside me. "Don't be rude," she tells them, "introduce yourself."

"I'm Shawn," one pipes up. The one that is clearly the oldest. I can't help but notice Shawn's huge muscles and green eyes that would make almost every girl fall head over heels for him.

"I'm Everett, but you can call me Ev," the next one says.

"And I'm Ryan," the last one states. My eyes linger on him a bit longer than they should. Ryan seems the youngest out of all of them, but something about him... his light brown hair is ruffled and his eyes seem brown at first glance, but then once you look at them, they are a dark blue. He makes me want to blush and smile. "Happy Birthday." I pause after he says this, and he realizes it freaks me out.

"How do you know it's my birthday?" I say hesitantly. I try to keep my voice steady, but I'm not sure how well that's working. Everett shoves Ryan, and I turn to Kacey, confused, and nervous.

"This is going to seem confusing Rae," she starts, "but we can try our best to explain." I nod, and wait for an explanation. Kacey continues, "We know today is your birthday, because it's all of ours. We don't know why, but for some reason, one person born on July 22 every year since 4 years ago, has aced their testing. Each time they were brought here," she tells me motioning around to the place that seems so homey, despite underneath all the decorations it's a cold hard block of cement. She exchanges a glance with each of the boys sitting on what I assume is Kacey's bed.

"But why?" I ask her, "if we aced our testing, shouldn't we be off to pre-gov like everyone else who scored a good score?"

"The reason our brains scored perfect on this test, is because our brains have somehow either evolved or been modified. We aren't sure exactly. You'll come to see that..." she trails off, "you know, maybe we should get you settled in more before explaining this all to you." But I want to know. I want to know how my brain has been modified. Why I'm stuck here.