The Test [Book One of The Test] (Watty Award Winner 2014)

Chapter Twenty-six

The Test

Chapter Twenty-six

"I am just so sorry. I tried to warn you, Lexi, really I did. But Reid took me from the test that day and didn't let me finish. I should have seen it coming sooner, about Riley being part of the program I mean." Natalie said. She kept pacing back and forth, running her hands through her hair while doing so. And me, well, I was just sitting on the cold metal floor, watching her doing her nervous walk as I had for the last few minutes.

"I didn't see it either, she must have been pretty great at faking being little miss innocent." I told her. "It doesn't matter, just forget it. What matters is trying to figure out what to do next." She turned to me.

"We can't do anything. Reid won. He managed to take you from the test, you were to powerful to do that to and now it's happened. It's over."

"I refuse to believe that." I said, followed by her letting out a slight laugh. 

"Believe whatever you want, it's true. Tell me, do you know why we're both here?" She asked. "He's going to put you through so much. He tried doing it to me but that's the thing about disrupters, we're more powerful together than we are apart. And with you being the most powerful and me knowing how to disrupt to my highest ability, he can learn everything he needs to know and create more programs like Riley and soon he won't need all of you teens anymore."

"Okay, i'm not following. What do you mean won't need us anymore?"

She stopped, turning to face me. "It's nothing."

"Natalie, it's not nothing. What's going on?" I begged, getting up from the floor.

"No, it doesn't matter. And you want to know why? Because no matter what we try to do, no matter how badly we want to win, we will die and Reid will be the winner. Don't you see that?"

"Fine, don't tell me." I said, getting in her face. "Continue stupidly pacing until he gets back and does god knows what. Do whatever in the heck you want. But I want to help my friends. If i'm going to die here anyway, I would like to know that they will all be safe, that they'll leave the test, they'll remember, that they won't die like I will."

"Well, how are you going to do any of that from here?" She asked me. She was right, I didn't know what to do next. I didn't know how to do any of the things I just said. I was stuck here, left to watch a grown woman pace around a room and wait to die. That's what my life had come to. I went from waking up in a test to meeting Jack and having friends. Then, this whole disrupting crap got in the way and here I was, locked in a space in my mind and didn't even comprehend how any of what has happened over the last month and a half could possibly be happening. Yet, the need to save my friends stayed with me. I had to get them out, I had to give them the chance that I wouldn't get. And that's when the idea hit me.

"Um, Natalie, quick question. You said that disrupters are more powerful together than apart. So, I was just wondering, you know since we're both here together and all, if maybe we could-"

"No." She said, cutting off my sentence.

"You don't even know what I was going to say."