"Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do" – Benjamin Spock
Practicing for months on end and now that the time has come I'm on the edge. It's like my whole life has been nothing and this one moment dictates what the future may hold. I get up and check my phone, it's literally the first thing I do every morning as I need time to scroll through my social media accounts. Once I'm done scrolling through I go freshen up. I decide to wear black jeans pairing it with a black long sleeve t-shirt as I had no clue what the test would be.
All we get to know is that every person is given a cubicle and they have to give their test in there. Once you give the test you aren't allowed to talk about it or discuss it, it's a rule. Plus it would be better if I'm just in comfortable clothes.
My aunt and cousin tried their best to keep me relaxed, my favorite food items were made for breakfast. The drive to the center was tense, my favorite music was blasting on the speakers, my aunt even got her car smelling of relaxing oils but none of them could calm my mind or body. I sat as stiff as a rod all the way. Not an emotion showing on my face. My hair was pulled back in a tight braid with a number of bobby pins holding the stray strands in place.
Letting the window down to feel some cool breeze, I watched the scenery change from trees to small houses to enormous buildings. Finally when we arrived I said my goodbyes to my aunt& cousin, I registered myself and went to take my assigned place in a huge hall. The hall was enormous and was quickly filling up with people. There was a stage in front of me where there were five people sitting.
The instructions were handed to me at registration, I read through them while I was seated. The first instruction was for us to carry all our personal documents stating from which department we were and where are parents worked. The next one stated we needed to have all our school activities filled, the graded ones.
The next thing to do was to fill up a form which held our interests and hobbies. Since I planned on being a gardener, I filled out everything according to the nature related fields. After all the documents were ready I just had to sit there waiting for them to call my name.
Two hours twenty minutes forty seconds later they called my name, I walked briskly to the front of the hall. Handing over my documents, I waited for five minutes as it went from one counter to the other as they verified all my details.
After the wait, they sent me to an empty room which resembled an interrogation room from any detective movie. It had a plain desk, chair, a questionnaire and pencils stacked on the table. I sat down and quickly started writing down answers to all the questions.
Checking the time once I was done, I realized I had fifteen minutes left for the test to end so I sat quietly as I waited for the time to pass by. Once the time was up I waited for someone to enter and give further instructions but no one showed up so I decided to step out. I opened the same door I entered in however it wasn't the same hallway I had walked through when I entered the room. I walked to one end of the hallway hoping to find the end but the more I kept walking the further away the end got. Feeling frustrated I opened the first door to my right.
"Hello, is anyone here?", I yelled out and got no answer. I closed the door and turned to another door. Somehow this room was different it was filled with dead animals hanging on the walls, suddenly I felt as though someone was breathing on my neck. I swiftly turned around to find no one near me. I could hear a cat meowing in the distant. Deciding to follow it to find a way out I walked towards it. Suddenly the meowing disappeared. I looked around and now I was in a place filled with metal parts from cars and cupboards to spoons and forks. Everything started shaking as if there was an earthquake. I ran towards the a table and hid underneath it till the shaking stopped. Once I was sure it was safe I got out and walked back to the door.
The hallway was a new one not the one I had used earlier, this however had an ancient vibe coming from it. The walls had pictures of people with crowns and fancy clothes.
'Where am I ', I wondered out loud. I touched the walls feeling the rough patterns on my fingertips. Suddenly I could hear voices of two people discussing something. I tiptoed while trying my best not to be clumsy or make any kind of noise. I held my breath as I heard the conversation.
"How many have you collected?", person A asked.
"Not many just about two", person B said.
"He's gonna kill us Rob, the turn out this year is miserably less compared to the last year".
"What can we do? It's not like we can wish for more people and they pop up", Rob huffed out.
"Do you think our tests are faulty?", Person A whispered, however it wasn't very soft as I could clearly hear him say it.
"I don't think so, with all the government research on the Z type people. Also the new bunch of new Z type have been sent for research."
"I feel bad for them man, it's not like they have a choice. They can't help it if they have such powers. Did you hear about the explosion at the Little Heart apartment?"
My heart picked up pace as I heard them mention my house. "Poor family, have you heard the rumors about the governments hand in it?"
Not believing the words out of their mouth I went stiff as the thoughts about that day kept running on my mind. My family was a decent family, we didn't do anything wrong. No crimes, no drugs, we were good people who obeyed the law, we paid our taxes on time. Why would they be after us then?!
Unfortunately the two men had to shut up when another person entered the room. I crawled back to the where I had entered and followed the steps back to the room I was in. This time I was lucky enough to not get lost. In my mind I couldn't help but feel like my stars had blessed me.
I sat there staring at the wall in front of me, not knowing how much time passed by.
"Hi, I'm Nora", a voice startled me from my thoughts.
"Hi", I mumbled.
"Are you done with your written test?"
"Yeah, long ago. Wasn't that hard."
"You're lucky. Many of the students I've met found them hard."
"Maybe I just was just well prepared", I shrugged.
She opened a file in her hand and quickly glanced at it before speaking. "You're Emery right?"
I simply just nodded. "I'm sorry for your loss, I know your parents we were friends in school. "
Giving her a tight lipped smile I let her continue.
"You're going to have to give a physical test, follow me", she stated.
I followed her into an empty room. "Stand in the middle of the room."
Doing as instructed I stood in the middle of the room when suddenly a circle appeared around me. "What's happening?" I asked looking around.
But before she could answer me I was in a locked circle. Glass walls rose around me. Some kind of gas was let into it, trying, I held my breath as long as I could, trying my best not to inhale any of the gas. Unfortunately I couldn't hold my breath for long and my eyes shut.