Twisted Roads

One

        "Hey," someone whispered to me. I blinked my eyes opened and stretched. "The kids want breakfast." Eli was talking to me. 

        "How far away are we from the closest fast food restaurant?" I asked. 

        "Not that far. We could probably pick up some food," he shrugged. I rubbed my forehead and yawned. I pulled myself up and started up the van. We found an isolated road to stop at. I got at at least six hours of sleep. 

        "Alright, I can do this," I mumbled. 

        "If we have been doing everything correctly, we should be right here," Eli pointed to a spot on a paper map. "We just have to drive a few miles to here. And I'm positive we did everything right." 

        "You're good at this, why can't you drive?" I asked, leaving the isolated road. 

        "My foot can't reach the gas pedal," he reminded me. 

        "Right..." I rubbed my eyes, slowly starting to wake up. I noticed a small crumbled up note in the cup holder. I picked it up and unfolded the note. It read 'It's Kiera,'  in perfect cursive writing.

        "Eli, what is this?" I asked, showing him the note.

        "I honestly don't know," he answered. "I think I wrote that, but I can't remember why. It was while everyone was asleep."

        "How did you write this with the lights off?"

        "Like I said, I don't know. I do that sometimes. I'll say something, or write something down, forget about it until someone brings it up."

        "Is something wrong with Kiera?" I asked. She was an eleven-year-old. 

        "No... I don't know why I do this."

        "Vincent..." A small voice said softly. A young kid. Jaxson. 

        "Hey," I said, smiling at the boy. An eight-year-old. 

        "I'm kind of scared. What if they find us?" he asked. 

        "What did they even want with us?" Marcus added. "Why kidnap nineteen kids instead of one? All of us were already well educated, so why go further out to teach us more? We already attended some pretty good schools." 

        Everyone looked at me. "Uh... Well, clearly the government was trying to do something sick and cruel," I responded. My fingers tightened around the wheel, recalling the other experiments the scientists tested on us. "And nobody could know about it... But whatever they were trying to learn, we don't care about."

        "Brain scans, wires.... Perhaps they were trying to test how intelligent a human could be?" Eli suggested. "How disciplined, too. And obedient..." his face turned green. "Do you... Do you think they were trying to make us into some type of experts.... But forced, where we have to study a specific topic. Like slaves, where we're forced to do the work?" he slowly turned to face me. My stomach began to feel uneasy. 

        I furrowed my eyebrows. With everything that happened, that theory would make sense. "I... I really don't know. I don't want to. Let's try talking about something else." And right as I said that, a miracle happened. We entered a more populated area. A fast food restaurant appeared. "Actually, let's talk about what we want for breakfast." I pulled into the drive-through. 

        "About time!" one of the kids exclaimed. I chuckled. The kids were doing alright so far. Ordering for eighteen other kids was difficult, and the person taking the order was clearly having a hard time.