Archive of Our Own

‘It’s just a dream, It’s just a dream’  I tell myself, trying in vain to assure myself that what I was seeing was not real. ‘But it is’  A tiny voice in my head whispers, because it was real. I am dreaming yet again of the day my brother got taken away.

I remember it clear as day, the cold wind, the smoky air, the anticipation of seeing him, the excitement of the possibility of a new life if he scored high enough. It was the day of his aptitude test, and he was expected to score in the top 80%, which would bring our family up to middle class, and guarantee the rest of us a better shot when we took the test! We all came to join the crowd of families waiting for their children to step out of the testing building, me, my mom, and my younger sister that is. I was so excited, I was only ten, old enough to know what the test is, but too young to know the full extent of the consequences if you failed. 

We waited a long time for him to come out, well into the evening after many other kids had already gone home, satisfied with their mediocre scores on the exam. I remember thinking that they must be holding the best kids longer for more testing, and that he must have done so well that they wanted to give him a prize. Anything to sooth my worry. But the day dragged on into night, and still no sign of him. 

At that point, there were barely any families left! I remember the sun was almost set, and the sky was a smoky purplish color when the final crowd of children came out. They were being ushered to the trains parked behind the testing building! I was only ten, but even ten year olds knew that the only reason the trains were there was to take the failed children away. 

I remember the cries from the crowd, parents calling for their children, sisters for their brothers. I remember the officers forcefully shoving the parents away, clearing a path for the failed children. I remember seeing my brother exit last, I remember his eyes scanning the crowd, finally landing on me! I remember his mouth opening, him trying to say something to me, tell me something before he left! And I remember the officer shoving him down the steps, making him catch up to the rest of the group. He looked over his shoulder one last time before he boarded the train.

I never saw him again.

I waited for a whole year for him to come back, stopping only when my mom took me into her arms and gently told me that he was never coming back, and he never would. I felt so angry at him for abandoning us, and confused as to why he did. Did he not love us? Why did he have to go?

As I got older I understood that he did, and that's why he went. Who knows what would happen to your family if you didn’t agree to go.

No one knows for certain what happens to you after you get taken away, but it is common knowledge that if you fail the test completely there is no saving you from being sent away. Most people assume that you die, it’s easier that way I guess. Easier than now knowing.

On the bright side, if someone in your family gets sent away the government sends you a little thank you! A large parcel of money and food, enough to support the family for about a month while they grieve. But in the lowest sectors of the city, it’s rare to receive any compensation for failure, and it's extremely common to fail the test because the quality of education is significantly lower in the poor sectors.

I sigh, my nightmares of my brother's failure of the test have been increasing as the date of my own aptitude test gets closer.

The aptitude tests take place when you turn seventeen years old as the final part of your schooling. Every three months the testing administrators come to town and all the current seventeen year olds who have not yet taken the test are sent down to the testing building. The test determines your overall potential and what you can contribute to society, if you score in the bottom 30% of the participants you are sent away, like my brother was. If you score anywhere from 35% to 55% you are placed in the slum sectors to work a low paying job doing the grunt work of society. If you score from 56% to 70% you’re in the lower middle class, and 71% to 80% are in the upper middle class. Then 80% to 90% is upper class, and the remaining 10% are our politicians and idols and public figures.

The test quite literally determines whether or not you succeed in life, it is life or death! And mine can happen anytime in the upcoming weeks.

‘Well, there's no point moping about it in bed’ I tell myself as I get up to make breakfast, careful not to disturb my sister who is fast asleep in the bed across from mine.

I go out into our small kitchen to make breakfast to find my mother already at the table. It looks like she's been sitting here a while. 

“Hi mom…” I say hesitantly. She jumps, as if she didn't even notice I was even here.

“Oh! Hello!” She sat up, plastering on a smile. “Are you up already? What time is it?”

“It’s like 6, maybe 7.” I answer.

“Oh, wow it’s early! Well you should eat soon so you aren't late to school!” 

“Yeah… how long have you been up mom?” I ask as I get out the cereal from the cupboard.

“Don’t worry about that right now!” She smiled, “Can you pass me the cereal?”

“Here you go!” I said, passing the box to her, “I gotta go early today, extra study time in the library.”

She blinked and gave me a sad smile, “Of course, have fun.”

When I got to school I headed to the library for some extra study time to look over my notes, but as I was walking through the school to the library I noticed that the teachers seemed to be keeping their distance from me, I would catch them looking and looking away as soon as I noticed. 

I found it strange, but I tried to ignore it. 

I noticed even more looks on my way to the library. It felt like I was walking around with a giant sign on my back warning people away from me. ‘Whatever’ I think to myself as I find myself a quiet spot to study in the library. I study for around an hour before school starts and I make my way to my class. 

Again, I notice something is off as soon as I step in. My teacher can’t look me in the eye. My stomach drops. I’ve been trying to deny the possibility, but could it be…

I am interrupted from my spiral by an announcement over the intercom, “Could the following people report to the auditorium; Ananke Smith, Calista Dean, Sterk Ostoproz, Ribelle Tulloss…” 

There are more names, but I zoned out after mine. Everyone who was called is like me, due for our tests in a few weeks. I have the sudden urge to run out the door and never turn back. Or throw up. I decide on neither however, as I get up and head to the auditorium along with Sterk, who is in my homeroom.

“Well, it looks like today's our lucky day!” He says sarcastically, “How you feeling?”

“Okay I guess, you?” I shrug. Sterk’s older sister got sent away last year, I can’t imagine what he’s been going through with the loss so recent and his test so soon. At least I got some time to grieve before I had to start preparing for it.

“I dunno, I guess I kinda tried to avoid thinking about it until I had to.” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. We spend the rest of the walk in comfortable silence until we arrive at the auditorium. 

The auditorium is already filled with people by the time that we arrive, Sterk and I slip in quietly in the back just as the principal steps up onstage holding a microphone.

“Hello students!” She starts loftily, her voice smooth and flowing. “You all have been called out of class because you all are scheduled for your aptitude assessment today!” She pauses, as if waiting for a reaction. When she gets none, she continues on with her spiel. 

“The test will happen in stages. There is the mathematics and literacy assessment, which will last an hour and fifteen minutes. No more, no less. Next there will be the physical assessment, in which you will partake in group assessment and then a smaller one on one with a trainer. And finally there is the interview part of the assessment, where a testing administrator will interview you in private for your final score. Some people will be held for extra testing, but you should be released sometime around 5 PM.” She pauses for breath.

 “If you are caught cheating at any point during the assessment your score will automatically become zero, and your family will face repercussions. While taking the assessment you are forbidden to have any sort of technology on you, food and drink is also forbidden until after the assessment. If you are caught with any of the banned items, your score will also automatically become zero and your family will again face repercussions. While taking the assessment you are only allowed to have the clothing provided by the testing administrators and the tools provided for you in the building. Try your best, and good luck!” Her lips stretch into an almost sinister smile as she finishes up. 

She walks off the stage and is replaced by a plain looking man. He is tall and thin, with closely cropped hair and a dull suit.

“You will be put into buses based on last name to be taken to the building, while you are on the bus there is no talking permitted to prevent cheating. When we get to the testing building you are to disembark the buses in an orderly fashion and walk calmly into the building. There you will be given a testing uniform and be sent to change upon entering the building. If you take longer than five minutes to change someone will go fetch you to start your test in whatever you have managed to put on. Failure to comply with the rules will result in unsatisfactory results and so I highly recommend you make obeying the guidelines stated your first priority here. I will now call the names assigned to bus one.”

  He goes on to rattle off names from a sheet of paper. I am put on bus three, Sterk is assigned to bus two. He gives me a small smile when he gets up to go on his bus,

“Try your best!” He said before turning his back and leaving out the side door that leads to the parking lot with the buses.

There is no one I am close to on bus three, I suppose it wouldn’t matter since we are not allowed to talk anyway. But still it would’ve been nice to have had someone to sit with on the short ride to the testing building.

When I get off the bus after the earily quiet bus ride I spare a glance to the bus driver. He would have had to just barely pass his test to be placed in such a low paying job. He sits with his head down, gaze focused only on the road, not even sparing a glance to us as we leave. I find it odd. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t like being reminded of all his wasted potential, just shuttling around adults and teenagers all day when he could be doing much more, had he just applied himself more on the aptitude test. No matter now though. I need to be focused on my own test, to make sure I don’t end up like him.

As soon as I get off the bus a woman comes up to me. She is dressed in the same drab apparel as the thin man from before. 

“Go inside and take a turn to your right, that is where the female dressing room and restroom is. Put this on once you get inside and as soon as you are done changing come out and wait in the foyer! You have five minutes!” She shoves a bundle of gray fabric at me, I guess these are my testing clothes.

I enter the building’s entrance hall, it’s huge! The ceilings are so high they seem to never stop. The hall is long and wide, probably made to accommodate larger groups of people than us. I look to my left where there is a long, skinnier hallway with a sign that says “Women” above it. ‘That must be the locker rooms’ I think as I head down the hallway to change.

To no one's surprise the locker rooms are just as extravagant as the rest of the building, with many changing stalls lining the wall, and a lot of space outside the changing stalls for people who didn’t want to wait. I remembered what the lady said about only having five minutes to change, and after one look at the long line outside the changing stalls I decided to just change in the space outside the changing stalls.

Once I am done changing I make my way to the entrance hall to find that a lot of participants were already waiting there. I felt a little thrown, but a lot of girls entered after me so I wasn’t the only one.

Shortly after I reenter the entrance hall the testing doors open. We enter another room, even bigger than the entrance hall! It is filled with desks with cubicles on top of them. Each desk has a testing laptop which is logged in with whoever is supposed to sit at the desks account.the name of the person assigned to each desk is printed behind the chair in big letters to prevent any confusion, and the computer uses face identification to determine the right person is testing before the test begins.

My heart feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest as I walk the rows looking for my chair. I find it in the middle of the room, diagonal to Sterk’s chair. He offers me a small smile as I sit down at my desk. 

Once everyone is seated the computers all test the faces at once, and once everyone is confirmed to be in the right spot the test begins. 

The first part of the test is the math assessment. The questions start off really easy, with middle school level equations and expressions! But after a while the questions started to get more complex, and at the end of the math portion many people were crying from the intricacy of the questions!

After math there was the reading and comprehension portion. You were required to read a passage from a collection of poetry from a long time ago, before we had the aptitude test. You are supposed to compare the vocabulary and sentence structure to the structure of our poems now. And after that you read multiple complex passages and summarize and reflect upon them.

And for the final portion of the test, you have 45 minutes to write an argumentative essay on why humanity is more likely to succeed and progress because of the aptitude test, and why it is essential in our society and everyday life. I toil over the essay for almost the full time, but I manage to finish just in the nick of time!

When the final buzzer rings signifying the end of the computer part of the test I hear an outbreak of sobs and cries as people are forced to submit their final answers incomplete. I let out a sigh of relief, as I had finished my essay only 2 minutes before the buzzer sounded. I look over to Sterk to see how he did, and a jolt of anxiety shoots through me to see him with his head in his hands. I want to reach out to him to ask if he's okay, or comfort him or something but I remember the rules. No talking is allowed. I close my eyes and wait for the doors to open to lead us onto the physical part of the assessment.

When the doors open to reveal a large circular arena with a spectating ring for the testing proctors. There are at least twenty proctors up there observing! A mechanical voice comes over the loudspeakers surrounding the arena.

“Welcome to the second portion of your aptitude assessment! You will start out by running laps around the perimeter of the arena. There will be a marker for where you begin running the laps, you are to wear a microchip bracelet that will track the number of laps you have run. When you feel you cannot continue, sit down in the center. The running will commence when the last person is finished.” The voice then starts counting down from 15.

My eyes scan the arena until they find the red flag that must be our starting point. I start heading over to the flag with everyone else. The challenge seems pretty self explanatory. I just need to run for as long as I can to make sure I get at least a mediocre score. 

I position myself at the middle of the group and crouch down in a position to start the race. I load my front leg so I will have maximum power to start with. 

BZZZTTTT!

The second the buzzer goes off the group lunges forward to begin. I see some people take off sprinting, trying to show off their speed to the testing proctors. They forgot to keep in mind that this is an endurance test, so the smarter option would be to pace yourself so you have energy to run more laps. I see Sterk has similar thinking to myself, and catch up to him and match his pace. He grunts a greeting to me, and I nod back. 

Since the moment our names were called over the loudspeaker this morning Sterk and I seem to have formed an unspoken bond. We each look out for each other and try our best to help the other succeed. I think Sterk is doing phenomenal on his test, and I really hope we both get out of here with similar results. Maybe then we can see more of each other, and maybe even become colleagues! 

My breathing is becoming more labored now, my limbs feel heavier. My stomach growls in complaint to being denied food for so long. ‘Why did I not eat a bigger breakfast?!’  I think to myself while mentally slapping the Ribelle of the morning. I notice more and more kids leaving to go to the middle. Soon it is only me, Sterk, and a few other kids still running. I tap out after around 60 laps, and Sterk does at 61. 

After the final person finishes the laps the voice comes back in full force. The loud, mechanical sound of it reverberates around the arena.

“Congratulations on finishing the endurance portion of the test! You will now move on the one-on-one physical assessment! Feel free to sit down and rest up until your name is called, then follow the testing administrator to the adjoining room. Remember that no food or drink is permitted until you are all done with the full test!” And with that the cheery voice cuts off with a click!

One by one my classmates start getting called on. Sterk and I find a nice quiet patch of ground to lie down on until his name gets called and he has to go. Eventually I am one of the few people left to take the assessment. 

“Ribelle Tulloss!” I look up to find a short, no nonsense looking woman holding a clipboard looking directly at me. I stand up and walk over to her as she motions to me to follow her into the adjoining room.

I look around the room once inside. One half of the room has a bar and mat, presumably to test other physical attributes, such as core strength and flexibility. The other half is set up similar to a doctors office, with a bed with paper on it, blood pressure monitors, eye charts for vision screening, and various other medical screening tools. The doctor leads me to the physical side first.

“First I would like you to do a flexed arm hang for as long as you can using that bar right there.” She motions to the bar with her head, “You will be timed on how long your head remained above the bar. You may begin when you feel ready.” She fixes her steely gaze on me as I head over to the bar. My friends and I used to have little contests on the playground doing these, it shouldn’t be too hard!

I step up to the bar and pull myself up. I hear a beep as the lady starts the stopwatch. I try to count in my head the seconds, but I quickly find it is hard to keep track of the seconds. ‘Five… Six…. Seven… Seven… No, that's eight!’ 

My muscles are screaming at me to let go at this point. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up! I tell myself to keep going, but I give in eventually and let myself drop from the bar. I look up to see if the lady's face will give any indication of how I did, but there is none that I can see. 

“Now you will do fifty push ups. Take as long as you need to complete them. Just know that your total time spent will be recorded and count toward your test score. You may begin when you feel ready.” She says as she writes something down on her clipboard. 

I head over to the yoga mat on the floor and get down into a push up position. I start, this time I keep better track of how many I have done. By the time I get to thirty I am dying! I feel like my arms are going to fall off. I am for sure going to feel this tomorrow! My breath comes in short gasps as sweat pours down my face. Somehow though I make it to fifty, and from there I make myself stand up. I can’t lie down and seem weak, not here!

“Eccelent! Now you will do 30 sit ups. Your feet and hands must be in contact with the mat at all times! You may begin when you are ready.’

I blow my hair away from my face and get back down onto the mat. I make sure my hands are at my side, touching the mat before I start. Sit ups have always been easier than push ups, so they go by fairly quickly for me. When I am done I stay sitting this time, in case there is one more thing planned. But the lady instead motions for me to follow her to the other side of the room and says,

“Good job, now there is the physical. Please take off your shoes so I can measure your height.” She motions for me to line my back up against the wall. I stand as straight against it as I can, stretching as tall as I can get. 

“Good, now please step on the scale to your right.” I look to my right to see a small sleek scale. I hadn’t noticed it in my previous scan of the room and was surprised it had managed to escape my notice. I step up onto the scale and wait for the lady to finish recording the digits displayed on it.

“Alright, now please sit on the bed.” I do and she takes a seat as well in the doctor's chair. “Now we will test your reflexes.” She pulls out a little hammer thingy from her pocket and starts to tap my joints to see how they move in reaction. Once she is done with that she puts a blood pressure cuff on me. “Good, good.” She then draws a blood sample and asks me to spit in a cup. She puts the samples in some kind of machine which analyzes and tests the samples. While the machine is at work, she asks me some questions.
“Does anyone in your family have any mental health issues?”

“Not that I know of.” She nods and makes a note on her clip board.

“Does anyone in your family suffer from chronic illness of any kind?”

“No.”

“Does your family have a history of heart failure or disease?"

“I don’t think so.” She nods again and continues asking me questions on my family history. They all are pretty easy to answer, most of the answers being “No.” or the occasional “Yes.” But one question makes me freeze.

“Has anyone in your family ever failed the aptitude test?” She looks me directly in my eyes for this one, as if it’s the most important one on this list. I take a deep breath before answering.

“Yes, my brother failed seven years ago.” I force myself to hold her gaze.

“I see, and what was his name?” She asks.

“Brennan.” My voice wavers at his name. “Brennan Tulloss was his name.”

She frowns and moves over to the computer. I can’t see what she's doing from here, but she seems to be accessing some kind of database? At least that's what it looks like from where I’m sitting. A few minutes later she comes back and sits down. 

“I see. Thank you Ribelle, you may walk out the back door and wait for the final portion of your test.” She seems nicer, more sympathetic. She even gives me a small smile as I get up to leave. 

I shiver. ‘Why did she look so sad?’ I ask myself. I open the back door to find that it leads to a long, dark hallway. Once I get to the end of the hallway I find myself in another waiting room of sorts. I recognise several people from previous stages of the aptitude test, but I do not see Sterk. I can only hope that he is still doing his physical or already being interviewed. 

I find myself a spot on one of the benches lining the wall and lie my head back against the wall. ‘Pull yourself together Ribelle, you still have the interview to do!’ I mentally scold myself. I try to collect my thoughts, but they are so scattered from before that there's no point.

“Ribelle Tulloss.” I jump when I hear my name called out from across the room. A short, stubbly man is standing outside one of the little interview rooms scanning the waiting room for me.

“Is there a Ribelle Tulloss here?” He asks again.

“Sorry! I’m here!” I get up and hurry over to him. I’ve already gotten on his bad side and the interview hasn’t even started yet!

“Sit down please” He nods to the chair opposite from him on the other side of the desk.

“Thank you.” I nod politely.

“So Ribelle, tell me about yourself. What do you like to do? Who are you?” He prompts me.

“My name is Ribelle Tulloss, I grew up in a mid sector with my mom, older brother, and little sister-”

“And your father?” He interrupts me.

“My father left right after I was born. He came back for a few months, long enough to have my sister. And then he left again!” I say, trying to add some more expression into my words to show that I’m not completely bland.

“I see. Tell me about your siblings.” He says.

“My older brother, Alder, was really smart, always at the top of his class. He failed his aptitude test when I was ten though, and I haven’t seen him since. My little sister, May, is younger than me by a lot, so we don’t relate on a lot of things. But I try to be a good role model for her.”

“What about your mother? What's she like?”

“My mother is hardworking. She sacrifices so much for us to make sure we never have to take on the burden of taking care of the family. She tries to make up for us only having one parent by being both at the same time. It’s really hard for her, with my dad gone and now my brother.” I look directly into his eyes as I say the last part, trying to tell him that I refuse to be sent away too.

“Would you say that that motivates you to succeed? To help your mom out?” He leans forward, intrigued.

“Yes, I would say that is a big factor in my drive to do well in school and on this assessment. I want to make things as easy as possible for May, in the way it never was for me.”
“What would your dream life look like?”

“A life with my family, not my dad though. We would live in a better part of the city, we would be better off financially, and my brother would still be here with us. That would be my dream life.” I say, I had thought about this before. If we could just live in a better neighborhood I bet half our troubles would go away.

“Good, I have all that I need. Please go out the back door and follow the signs down to waiting room one.” He gets up and opens the door for me. “Thank you for your time.” He accentuates this with a formal handshake as I walk out the door.

“Thank you sir.” I nod graciously and take my leave. I follow the signs on the wall that say they lead to waiting room one and eventually I end up in a room similar to the entrance hall, but it has a small platform for someone to stand on in the front. I see the room is moderately full already, but there is still room along the walls. I look around to see if Sterk is here, but I don’t see him. 

My anxiety spikes higher as more people trickle into the room. Eventually the room is full to capacity with restless teenagers. Another testing administrator steps up on the platform I noticed earlier. This time it’s a perky woman, who seems to radiate energy and exuberance.

“Hello all! How are you all feeling?” She addresses the crowd.

“Good…” the crowd of participants choruses, some voices more hesitant than others.

“I'm glad! You put in so much work and effort into the test, and you should all be proud!” Okay, so this is starting to look up, but where is Sterk?

“But sadly, even though you put in effort and tried your very best we can’t let everyone who participates pass! Everyone in this room has placed in the bottom 30% of participants. Please wait here, someone will come to get you shortly for you to go on the train!” She flashes us one last bright smile and turns to exit.

I stare at the ground. ‘What…’ I can’t wrap my head around it. I tried so hard, I pushed myself so far! ‘What will mom do? How is she going to be okay after this? And what about May? Both of her older siblings failed and were sent away? How is she going to be confident taking the assessment now?’ I try to calm myself, there is no point panicking in here! I take deep breaths and try to stop my train of thoughts from catastrophising. ‘Maybe it will all turn out okay, maybe I will get to see Alder!’ I think deliriously. The chances of me finding my brother are unlikely in this situation, and I can’t instill false hope for myself only for that to be washed away with reality as well. I close my eyes. ‘Maybe I should just fall asleep for a little bit, get some rest.’ And that's exactly what I do.

A few hours later I woke up to the sound of a lot of voices all trying to talk at once. I open my eyes and gaze blearily at the front of the room, where another testing proctor seems to be trying to organize us for the bus but instead is being bombarded by questions from the group.

“Why did I fail? I thought I was doing good!” A muscular boy asks.

“Where are we going?” Asks a girl standing near me.

“What will happen to us once we’re there?” Asks a timid boy with glasses.

“I cannot say why exactly any of you got the scores that you did, now can you please all settle down!” The proctor exclaims in exasperation. “You all are going to walk out of the building and board the train in an orderly fashion! Any kind of misbehavior is punishable by death, so make sure to obey what you are told.” He warns with a somewhat sinister smile.

“What? I didn’t sign up for this!” A boy toward the back of the group decides to make a run for it out the door. He manages to make it to the doorknob before he is shot by two officers who were not there before. There are gasps and shrieks following this, but they fade away fairly quickly. The realization that now we are considered expendable seems to have reached everybody. We all failed, so there is no more use for us. If one of us dies, who cares?

“Use that as an example of what happens if you disobey. Now please everybody, follow the officers at the doors to the train.” The proctor smirks at our horrified faces and leaves the room, another round of testing down the drain.

“Well? Move it!” One of the officers shouts as they both open the large doors keeping us inside. It seems that in the years since my brother's failure they have created a direct route to the train that avoids the crying families and general public.

We are ushered into one car of the train, there are no benches or anything to sit down or lie down on. Just the hard wood floor of the train car. There is no space to lie down though, as the car quickly fills up to capacity with people. I barely have room to move my arms! The train car descends into darkness when the officers close the car doors with a loud “Clank!”

My body lurches forward as the train starts into motion. I tripped over the person in front of me, the only reason I didn’t fall down was that there was nowhere to fall! With people on every side of me I can only bounce off people as I try to regain my balance.

The air becomes clammy with all the people in the car, and eventually I start to lose track of time. I can’t tell if we have been traveling for days or just hours. My legs are growing too tired to stand, but there is nowhere to sit. I close my eyes and imagine I am somewhere else. I imagine I am with my brother. A tear slips down my cheek at the thought that he probably had to go through this too! I bow my head and cry silently. I cry until the doors open again, letting in sunlight from the new day!
“Out you lot! Now!” A different officer than before orders. I get out and look around at our surroundings. We are standing in a large clearing in a forest, in front of what seems to be a large facility. It’s a solid concrete building that is an unassuming gray color, but what gives it away is the large sign hanging over the doors that says “Jinco lab and facilities” .

We are ushered into the facility and put in separate gendered rooms. When in those rooms we were made to take off our clothes and put on thin paper gowns to cover ourselves with. We were also provided our first meal since the morning before our aptitude test. When I tell you that food has never tasted that good in my life I mean it! Girls would get pulled out every so often and they wouldn’t return, no one knew where they went. We had no contact with anyone outside of the girls we were surrounded by, so we all became somewhat familiar with each other. We are not all friends by any means, but we all are some form of allies with each other.

We have been keeping track of the days by a tally on the wall. Ten days have passed so far. Twice a day food and water is delivered, we are given two large water jugs and a large platter of grayish-brownish mush. We distribute the food and water to all the remaining girls in the room. 

There are around 13 of us left in the room, once every two days at least one girl will be taken out of the room and not return. If the pattern continues there will be almost none left in only a couple weeks! No one knows where the girls who are taken go, or what happens when they go. Some of the girls cry from fear, but others decide that since it’s inevitable to be taken there's no point to stress about it. 

I tend to keep to myself around the other girls. Since we all are going to be taken out at some point there's no use in getting attached to the other girls. I will serve no use to myself or others if I get caught up in a cycle of grief over a brief friendship. Lucky for me, today is the day my name got called.

“Ribelle Tulloss!” The loudspeaker announces loudly. Across the room, one of the other girls is startled awake by the alarm.

Adrenaline pumps through my veins and suddenly I feel as if I drank ten cups of coffee all at once. I walk to the exit of the room and open the door. The door uses fingerprint recognition technology to make sure that only the people permitted to exit can. I turn and wave at the remaining girls in the room to say a farewell of sorts. The other girls wave back, one of the girls is crying again. I realize that I will probably never see these girls again, such a strange thought considering we have literally not been apart for the past ten days! 

I turn my back on the girls who I had spent the past two-hundred-fourty hours with and leave them forever. The door smoothly shuts silently behind me and I walk down the long, dark hallway. I walk until I reach a room at the very end of the hall, the door is closed so I raise my hand to knock. Before I can the door opens, revealing a smiling woman in a pristine, white lab coat. 

“Hello! Welcome Ribelle! Thank you for coming today!” She opens the door wider for me to enter. The room has an exam table in the center, and multiple monitors surrounding it. “Please sit on the table in the center!” The lab coat lady requests. I do as she says and sit down.

“Can you lay down for me Ribelle?” She asks, “Alright, now I’m just going to put something in your arm, this is called an IV, it's used to transfer fluids into your body!” She brings over the IV bags and connects my arm to the IVs, and then she starts hooking me up to the other monitors. 

Soon I am surrounded by beeping from the various machines near my bed. I see Lab Coat Lady go over to the IV bag and set up some kind of fluid to go through it. Shortly after that I feel my body go numb.

I try to move my fingers, or wiggle my toes but I am unable to! Lab Coat Lady notices my struggles and gives me another smile, this one seems more sinister than the rest. 

“This will be more painless the less you struggle!” She suggests in a seemingly gentle voice. 

“Urgfffff” I mumble. What I meant to say was, “What did you do to me?” 

“Alright. Try to close your eyes, this will be over before you know it!” Then she proceeds to cut open my body!

I can’t tell what she is doing in my foggy state, but I feel something happening to my knee, then my calves, feet, biceps, and stomach! I think she is taking samples or something, but I can’t tell for sure.

I try to do as she says and close my eyes and wait for it to be over, but that over never seems to come! Finally, after what probably was at least a couple hours she sits up and I hear a clink as she sets her tools down. 

I open my eyes and turn my head to look at her, and I see her go over to my IV once again and change out the liquid inside of the bag going directly into my bloodstream. She notices me looking and smiles.

“Shhh, this will only take a moment.” She moves over to pat my arm. I blink up at her, but my eyes won’t open back up. I feel my heart rate starting to slow, my mind starting to drift. ‘No’ I think faintly right before I pass out and hear a long, loud beeping noise.

‘Where are my clothes?’ Is the first thought that runs through my head. I try to open my eyes but feel a sharp pain when I do. My head feels like it’s going to explode from my headache! I open my eyes again and this time force myself to keep them open. I’m in a dark room, and there are other people in here with me. They are also naked. Strange. 

I then realize that I am lying down on top of a person! I scramble to stand up and get off them. 

“Sorry, sorry!” I babble as I step on more people. ‘Wait, why are these people not waking up?’ I bend down to take a closer look at the bodies, once I realize who it is I let out a shriek! These are the bodies of the others who failed the aptitude test, all the people who were called out of the room. And they're all dead!

I can’t breathe, I’m so shocked. This girl who was next to me, she was the one who would give up her portions of food to the girls who were more scared! And this boy, he was the first one to stop running the laps! And this girl, I had  class with her last year, we were assigned to work on a group project together! All of these people I didn’t directly know but were still in my life, dead because of some little test! 

Tears spill down my cheeks, I feel like throwing up. ‘Why am I alive? They clearly thought I was dead, why am I not?’ I think as I scramble to find a place in the room that has no dead bodies on the floor. ‘That doesn’t matter right now, I need to get out of here!’ 

I find a patch of floor near one of the walls that has no bodies on it, I go over to the wall and start feeling along it to see if there is a door or something that leads out. To my surprise, I was looking in exactly the right place! I traced the outline of the door with my hands as I try to find a way to open it. All of the sudden I feel the door start to move, but I’m not the one moving it!
I throw myself back down onto the ground and try to blend in with the rest of the bodies as the door opens and light shines through the doorway. I hear a thud as another body is deposited in the room and wait for the people who dropped off the body to leave. To my horror they pause and start heading my direction!

“Who was this?” One of the officers says, poking me with his shoe.

“Do you remember what Dr. Drewly told us? This is the daughter of Dr. Tulloss, you know the one who helped create the aptitude tests?” My blood freezes in my veins. My dad did what?

“It’s a shame really, she would have passed but he rigged the tests so that his children were to fail.” The same officer continued, unaware that I could hear him.

“He can do that?” The other officer asked in shock.

“Aparently, seems kinda strange that he would want to, but I mean it’s not my life so whatever.” The first officer says, “Come on, let's go.” I hear their footsteps fading away as they go over to the door.

‘No!’ I think, ‘This is my only chance to get out!’ I am close enough to the door that I manage to jam my toe in the way of the door before it closes, leaving it slightly ajar. My toe is throbbing too now, great! 

I listen for the officers to be gone for sure before I slowly edge close to the door without moving my toe. I peek out the crack to make sure the hallway is empty. There probably are cameras but this is my best shot of escape so I don’t really care. I carefully open the door and slip out of it into the hallway.

I sneak through the long winding hallways of the building, careful to stay close to the shadows. I also keep my eyes peeled for something that I can use to cover myself with, as I am currently still naked. I see a table cloth on an otherwise empty table and so I take it and wrap it around myself like a toga. 

Soon after my discovery of the tablecloth I find that the hallway I’m walking down ends with an emergency escape door, probably to be used in the case of fire. Lucky for me, it can also be used if you were not murdered because your father apparently hates you. I run out the door and don’t stop running until I’m deep into the large forest that is surrounding the facility.

I don’t even realize that I stopped running until I fall over. It seems that the last couple days with minimal eating is catching up to me. I don’t have time to faint, any minute the people in the lab could be getting close to me! But I also can’t have myself fainting and remaining unconscious for longer. I sit up slowly and look around to try to find something edible to eat. 

All of the sudden a rabbit comes bounding into the clearing. ‘Well, that solves that problem’ I think. I grab a pointy stick and lunge at the rabbit, spearing it through the heart. 

“Well, now I know what's for dinner.” I say sarcastically to myself. Haha, I know I’m hilarious.

While I cook and eat the rabbit I decide on a plan for what to do next. I decided I’m going to try to find my home village and get my mom and my sister to run away with me. If the test was rigged for me and my brother it will probably be rigged for her too, so it’s better that she escapes when she can. I can probably find my way home if I find the main road and follow it back to the testing building and from there back to school.

Alright, so after I sleep for the night I’ll find my way back to the road and go from there. I clean up my dinner and find a nice patch of grass to curl up in for the night.

The next morning I start the hike back to the facility to find the road. I make sure to lay low, and I smear some mud on myself so I blend in more with the foliage. When I near the facility I slow down and take more calculated steps until I see the road. 

Once I find the road I follow it until I see the gray testing building. Then I make my way carefully through the city back streets until I reach the school. Once I reach the school I take a hidden shortcut Alder taught me when I was younger to get to our house. I climb over the fence surrounding our house and sneak in through the back door. 

No one else is home, so I take the time to find myself clothes and make myself somewhat presentable. I take a quick shower and change into a t-shirt and pants and then wait for Mom to get home with May.

A couple hours later I hear the door slam shut and footsteps enter the house. I stand up and move to the entrance of the house. 

“Mom?” I ask, my voice wobbling. Her head shoots up, when she sees me her face drains of color. 

“R-Ribelle?” She says, reaching toward me almost. 

“Ribelle!” May lunges at me and gives me a hug. I hug her back tightly. I can’t let her take the test. I will do everything in my power to prevent it! 

“Oh Ribelle!” Mom joins in and I break. I start crying and we move to the dining table. 

“May, can you go to your room while Ribelle and I talk?” Mom asks May in her no-nonsense voice.

“Okay.” May pouts. I can tell she missed me. She gives me one last hug before leaving and going to her room.

Once we are sure she is in her room with the door closed Mom turns to me.

“Ribelle, what happened? Tell me everything.” So I do.

I recount to her everything that happened. I tell her about the guns, the lack of food, the samples, and the room with the bodies. I tell her about what Dad did, how he rigged the test against his children. I see when the realization hits her that Alder went through the same thing, but he didn’t come back. By the end we both are in tears.

“May will not take the test. You said there's a forest, is it big enough to sustain both of you for a long period of time?” She asks.

“Wait Mom, what about yourself?” I ask, does she expect me to leave her?

“I can’t, there needs to be someone to throw them off your trails. I trust you to keep May safe.” She smiles somberly, already seeming to have accepted her fate. 

“Mom, you can’t!” I cry. I shouldn’t be too loud, May should be kept in the dark for as long as possible.

“Shh, don’t let your sister hear! And yes I can. You can rest here tonight, but tomorrow you will take May back into the woods and you are not to return! You can keep her safe, teach her how to survive, and when she is old enough tell her about the test. Remind her that I love her very much. Please, I can’t lose any more children!” She says. I can tell that there is no arguing with her. 

“Now please honey, rest up. I’ll pack for you both. I love you.” She hugs me, and I hug her back. Then I go into my room to sleep.

The next morning I wake up, and for a second I forget what happened. But then reality kicks in. I remember the test. I remember the bodies. I remember the plan to run away today!

I get out of bed and go to the kitchen. Mom has packed two large bags, they are sitting on the little dining table we have in the corner. 

“Good morning sweetie! I am cooking breakfast right now, so you should probably take a shower.” What she doesn’t add is that it probably will be my last one for a while. Maybe ever.

“Sure, thanks Mom!” I force a smile and hug her, and then I head off to the shower. When I get back to my room I see that she has laid out clothes on the bed for me to wear today. She gave me a dark green t-shirt and darker jacket to go over it for the top. For bottoms she gave me black shorts and pants to go over them. The layering idea is smart, then I can bring multiple clothes without taking up too much suitcase space!

I put on the clothes and walk out to see that mom is in the middle of giving the watered down explanation to May on why she and I are leaving.

“But what about you? Aren’t you coming with us?” I hear her ask. I freeze outside my door.

“No, I am staying here. But know that I love you so very much and I’m staying because I love you.” Mom replies, holding both of May’s hands as she does. I watch as she wipes tears off of May’s face. “It’ll be an adventure.” She smiles.

“Ok.” May sniffles. I feel tears slip from my eyes as I watch. I try not to be noticed and ruin the moment but Mom looks up and sees me. 

“Well, I can’t let you start your journey on an empty stomach!” She smiles again. I can tell this time that it’s fake.

We all eat a big breakfast and then Mom checks over our bags and clothes one last time. She packed us with a lot of food, and some weapons and wildlife survival tools so we can make our own food and shelter. Finally, the time comes to say the goodbye none of us are ready for.

“I just want you both to know-” Mom starts but is cut off by her voice wavering. She takes a deep breath and continues, “I just want you both to know that I love you both so much, and I always will. Everything that I do is for you. Be safe and survive. That's all I ask of you.”  She starts crying and pulls both of us into her arms. It’s strange to think that this is probably the last hug I will ever get from my mother. I hug her back tightly, I never want to let her go. But eventually I have to.

“I love you Mom, thank you so much.” I am openly crying now.

“I love you Mom!” May smiles at her and gives her one last hug. I do too.

“Thank you girls, I love you both to the moon and back. Now you best be going now. Goodbye.” Her voice cracks. Mom ushers us out the back door and we hug, for the last time for real.

“Bye mom.” I say into her hair.

“Bye Mom.” May is crying now too I think. I can hear it in her voice.

“Bye Ribelle and May.” 

And with that I lead May back the way we came. Over the fence, through the shortcut, past the school, past the testing house, following the train tracks into the woods.

After two days of walking I find an empty clearing, far from the rest of civilization. I set up a small shelter to start, set up kind of like a campsite would be. But as the days go by and the months pass I build a small home, just for me and May. May grows up as the years go by, and eventually I tell her the truth when she's old enough. About the testing and our Dad and Albert. We learn how to exist with the wildlife of the forest by our sides, and we end up doing alright on our own. Seems like the Aptitude Test is not really needed to help humanity after all. I think we would be just fine on our own.