The Test

Eight

Aria

The corridor is long and blindingly white, tiles spotless and echoing with the sound of my slow footsteps. At the end is a door, the same, empty white as the tiles.

It slides into the opposite side of the wall when I draw near, and opens onto a wide, paved square, filled with bustling people. My eyes are immediately drawn to a dark grey stone building, about three stories high, with windows at regular intervals down it that reflects my own image back at me a hundred times. With a jolt, I notice that it's almost a replica of the building I've just exited, only it's lower and has less windows. Across the square I see Luc, leaning against the building, wearing a dark-blue t-shirt, sweats and a smile. "Anya," he calls out. I raise an eyebrow and call back: "What are you doing here?" He can't be real. He's part of the hologram-he has to be.

He grins as I navigate the bustling square to reach him. "I'm part of the simulation," he whispers, his eyes dancing with mirth. I'd thought as much. Then, louder; "Come on." he beckons me inside. I follow.

"What are we doing in here?" I stage-whisper as Luc props open the door a crack so I can slip through. He just grins and grabs my hand, leading me up a flight of stairs not unlike the one I went up to get to the Test room. "You passed your Test, right?" he says. I nod. the staircase ends abruptly, in a small white hall that bears one simple white door. Luc presses a button on the wall beside it; the door slides back.

"Welcome to your future."

The room is overrun with people, dressed in grey slacks and dark grey tops that wash the colour from their faces.

"What is this place?" I breathe, not wanting to disturb the almost deathly silence of the room.

"They can't hear you, by the way. Or see you. You don't have to whisper," he says. "It's a government building where all the people who pass their Tests come to work. There are several around the city - some house the spy organisations, some the politicians, some the business people. This is what you would have done." he suddenly looks grim. "Test reports. Everyone who hasn't yet taken their Test is on file; your job is to monitor everyone for likelihood of failure - even beyond the Testing period. All Genetics do really well in school; when they fail their Tests it goes on the system as a technical glitch, and is not recorded." he glances at me. "Therefore, we can't be monitored anymore. We don't exist."

A man comes out of a side door dressed in a black version of what the others are wearing. "You passed your Tests - now prove it! Work faster! I want these reports filed and finished by the end of the day!" the man walks purposefully back towards the door, but then stops as sounds of protest reach his ears. He turns around slowly, fire in his eyes.

I gulp. He looks murderous. His jet-black hair glints in the sunlight as he strides toward the back desk, toward a girl now shaking with fear. I see, upon closer inspection, that the girl looks just like me. And the boy sitting beside her, who raises his head to give the man a defiant look, is Lucas. "Do we have to finish these reports by the end of the day? It's almost sundown," he says.

The Lucas beside me, the one who is a year older, vanishes. The one beside the girl at the desk takes his place.

Simulation-Lucas is dragged from his chair by the scruff of his neck, and pushed against the nearest wall. Not once does he flinch.

"Do you dare to defy me, boy?" the man snarls, not waiting for an answer. "This is not school. The reports do not end when the day is finished. The day ends when the reports are finished." he lets Lucas drop to the ground almost indifferently, and stalks towards the girl - me - again, pushing his face right into mine. "Is. That. Clear?" his voice is venom, poison spreading from his voice to my heart, stilling it and the blood in my veins. Rendering me mute.