Trials

Chapter 9- Noah

         Noah was pleased that Murphy agreed to his plan. Even though Noah realized that his plan did sound obscure, and Murphy was still doubtful, Noah admired the fact that his new partner in crime was cunning, dangerous, and loyal. In fact, some of the other non-Trial kids in the facility respected Murphy too. When instructors weren't listening, he'd tell him the tales of his Lake Trial, because kids were allowed to speak of their past Trials here, and they'd exchange stories and information together until it was time for another session of training.

        That was another thing. The sessions weren't half bad. The Silent spoke and never wore the ridiculous masks, they didn't ask hard questions, and the only training he had for the first few days was weights, a little sparring, and weapons. It did seem strange, though. That was the worst part of training. The weapons. Every knife, every empty barrel of a g*n, they weighed heavy. It may have been empty since the day it was made, never once fired a real bullet, but somehow, Noah couldn't bare to think of the damage it's done.

         But no, perhaps the worst part of that rotten place was that they were deprived of information of the future. If they were training them to be big "assistants" then maybe they needed more text training than sparring. Which didn't fool a single kid. 

       Meanwhile Noah and Murphy were waiting patiently for a moment to slip away. It wasn't easy, being locked in their room for the whole night, trainings throughout the day, and cams and people to spot them when they did find a way out. But then the perfect opportunity came one day when Noah was called in to see Dr. Whitman for an off-schedule visit.

         "I'm sure it's just a medical thing. Oh, maybe you're just getting a monitor. Most everyone has one. Just... small implants that monitor your health." Murphy points to a small disk on the side of his neck.

         Noah gulps. He'd only met Dr. Whitman once. Some kid turned homicidal in one of his earliest trials, the Coastal Trial. An easy Trial for such a young age group. The kids' name was Cody. Noah had never seen a kid flip so fast. The kid was a monster. He attacked a girl, scratched her eyes out. Dr. Whitman came to straighten Cody out. That night he came by to talk to Noah and his parents. Noah stayed in his room and listened in, but Dr. Whitman whispered to quietly. He only managed to shake his cold hand before the man left. Noah never say Cody or the little girl again. He'd asked around a few times, but no one ever saw them either.

       Noah sighs. "Are you that naive? You just let them put stuff inside you now? Oh, sure, accept ALL the lies they feed you! See how far that will get you."

        Murphy clenches his jaw and narrows his eyes.

        "I-I didn't mean it like that-" Noah mutters.

         Murphy shrugs. "I know you feel my trust is misplaced, but until their technology that keeps me from having to go for frequent checkups turns me into a brainless zombie, I'm going to take my chances."

          Noah was still doubtful. "I'll just stick with the plan. It should be easy to stall."

           "Are you sure? I mean if he does decide to get you a monitor..."

          "I'm not taking any chances Murphy! I know how I'll be able to slip away. So we have to get it done fast. The real thing we should worry about is you. Have you got a good alibi?"

           Murphy smiles proudly.

           Noah nods. "See you soon. Remember to be careful."

            Murphy laughs heartily. "Yeah. Real icebreaker, Noah."

            Noah waltzes through the corridors with four guards on either side, secretly memorizing each fork and swift turn. His confidence was ridiculously boosted to a maximum, so he tried to lower his strut and add a little pessimism to balance himself out. Because Noah knew this would work. That he could outsmart whomever he needed to.

           The guards stop at a shaded gray door and gesture him to go in. Noah enters to a lab with a little gray desk at the entrance. The only people there were the woman at the desk discussing something with a white coated doctor.

           "Noah!" The doctor greets him.

          The doctor was a tall man with bony hands, but large cheekbones. His hair was sort of a bronze color, but not the pretty bronze, more of a messy, unruly bronze that turned his roots darker. His eyes were a dark friendly hazel, but not warm, there was a coolness to his eyes.

           "I'm Dr. Whitman. It's wonderful to meet you."

          Noah shook Dr. Whitman's waiting hand obediently.

          Noah glances over to spot the half open sheet of glass on the other side of the room. Perfect. The way to the Blue Ward. Just as Murphy said it would be.

         "Delighted to meet you too, doctor." Noah lies.

        "Right. So I guess you're wondering why you're here."

         Noah nods.

        "Well Noah, the thing is I believe you are very special."

        "So special that you need to put in a monitor?" Noah asks.

       "What?"

        "My friend Murphy said that you guys put in monitors to monitor our health."

        "Sometimes... but that's not what-"

       "Tell me something, doctor," Noah says, taking a seat. "Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think anyone here believes the crap you're feeding us? You ripped me from the memorial because I spoke out, you're training kids like Murphy and I... for what? Special abilities?"

        "Who-"

        "Doesn't matter. But I want my question answered. I won't ever work with you until I know. Why the Trials? TELL ME!"

         Anger burns hot in Noah's chest. He doesn't wait for an answer. He was too upset. Noah flew at him. His nails dig hard into the doctor's arm, and he kicks him hard in the shins. The doctor furrows his brow, but hardly flinches. With a grunt, he hooks an arm around Noah's throat and he pulls out a syringe. Noah wriggles further.

           "If you don't calm down, I will be forced to use this, do you understand me?" 

            Noah nods quickly, relaxing a bit.

             The man lets him go, showing him the syringe once before setting it down.

             "Now," He murmurs. "If you're calm enough, I was going to explain that I'm not giving you a monitor device, but something else, something new that-"

         The phone in the corner of the room began to ring. 

        Noah sighs in relief as the doctor glances once down at the syringe and leaves Noah to go to the phone.

        "Dr. Whitman" He answers. "Who is this!" He says, annoyed.

       Noah grabs he syringe and steps closer where the phone becomes audible.

      "Uh- this is Dave. I was wondering about the thing." The voice says.

      Noah almost gasps, but instead, he smiles. It was Murphy.

     "What thing?" Dr. Whitman responds.

       "I um... they needed to get something to you down in HQ?" Murphy guesses.

      "The study papers? Yes I got them yesterday. Was that all, Dave? I'm very busy!"

      "Oh yes, I know, I know. So... what are you doing right now? Want to go out to lunch later?"

      Noah couldn't believe it. Murphy was stalling for him. This guy was good.

      "I bring my lunch, Dave. And I'm a very busy man-"

        "Yes! But did you hear about what happened? With the umm... thing?"

        Noah bit his lip to keep from laughing at Murphy's dramatic theatrics. He didn't listen to what Dr. Whitman was telling Murphy. Murphy had given him a chance. He had to go for it. Noah grabs the syringe and turns it in his hand for a moment. His heart beat faster as he tucks the syringe in his hand and cautiously he ran up and stabbed the doctor in the back with the syringe. The doctor snapped straight and crumpled to the ground as the consciousness left him and the sedative did its work. Noah stood gasping. He'd never done something like that. He didn't even know he was capable of such a thing. Noah stepped around the doctor's limp form and hurried to the phone.

         "Murph, it's Noah!" He shouts.

          "Noah!" He says over the phone.

         "Everything good?"

         "Yeah I took him out!"

          "You, what?"

           "Sorry Murphy, but I had to. He was going to- Never mind. It's a long story, I'll tell you later." Noah explains.

         Murphy sighs over the phone. "Is the window thingy still half open?"

         Noah glances back at the glass.

         "Yup."

         "Great. I snuck into the camera room while the men were on break and turned off the one at that lab. They even had a phone in there with a list of room numbers." He chuckles. "How convenient!"

          "You okay on getting out?"

         "Yeah I need to see one more thing. I'll be right out in two slaps of a beaver tail."

          "Lake Trial slang?"

          Murphy laughs. "Now you're getting it! See ya' on the outside kid! And Noah-"

          "Yeah." He answers.

          "Never call me Murph again."

            Noah chuckles. "Sure Murph."

          Noah drags Dr. Whitman's heavy body over into a storage closet and closes the door. Perhaps he wouldn't even know how Noah had stabbed him with a syringe. Maybe he would think he'd gone back to his room. Or maybe Noah was just being too hopeful.

          Noah finds a ladder in that same closet and angles it against the white wall. He hadn't even got to the second step when he spots a gray device, radiating with energy, lying on a silver plate beside a long operation table. It was probably the implant monitor, only it looked different, stranger. Noah hesitates, but glides over anyway and stuffs the thing into one of his pockets. Maybe Murphy would know what it was.

         Noah shimmies up the ladder and leaps out of the high window, landing on his side with a mellow thud on the concrete floor. Noah staggers to his feet. Nothing broken. Just bruised. Good. Bruised is fine.

        "Could you fall any louder?" Murphy snorts from behind him.

        "Good to see you too." Noah grunts.

        Murphy grabs Noah's hand to help him all the way up.

        "Well I'll be damned, Noah. You look like you've seen a ghost. Scared of your sister?"

        Noah glares at him. "Please don't talk about her like that."

        Murphy narrows his eyes and steps away from Noah. "You're in no place to tell me what I can say. I'm risking everything for you. But... I trust you Noah. Don't let me down... please."

       Noah nods, guilt returning, eyes focused, ready to find his sister. "Let's just go."

                                                                                    .  .  .

        The security on the Blue Ward was minimal. Probably because everyone inside must be in a pod unless they're a doctor or nurse. Murphy had a flashlight handy, and typed in the code on the door.

         "It was left lying out by the cameras." He tells Noah.

         "How'd you know it was for here?" Noah asks.

        "I didn't." He replies. "But it was beside a lot of notes on the Blue Ward. I just assumed the numbers had something to do with it."

        "Notes?"

         "Don't worry, I thought ahead. They went into detail about a lot of stuff and the kids."

        "Was Natalie on there?"

        Murphy nods slowly. Noah breathes out a long held sigh of relief.

         "Well I mean it was- I'll show you later. Let's do this."

        The door clicks open and retreats back to the side walls. Murphy takes his flashlight and was about to click it on when the dark place behind the door starts to whir to life, filling with light. The boys glance at each other and Murphy gestures for him to go first. Noah's nervous heart starts to pound. He didn't know what to expect. But what he saw was everything.

        Rows of the pods were lined as far as his eye could see. The kids all had their eyes closed, dressed in all the same white suits, and their faces were a pale blue. The pods themselves were large white oval shaped chambers with an eerie light radiating from the top. They looked almost futuristic. A table of information was displayed beside each pod. The pods had a clear glass casing over the kid's faces, and inside each one was lain on a white sponge of a bed. Various cords and devices were attached to each kid. There were a few gray desks scattered around with papers, but it seemed no one was in the Blue Ward except Murphy and Noah.

       Murphy approaches one of the nearest pods. Inside, a girl with long blonde curls was lying peacefully. Murphy puts one hand to the glass and steps back.

       "It's cold." He remarks

       Noah steps forward to feel the glass as well and a rush of cold flows into his warm hands.

       "What're you doing?" Murphy asks pointedly when Noah surveys the dashboard of the pod.

        Noah lowers his hand to the clearly labeled open button.

       "No!" Murphy snaps. "Absolutely not! You cannot ruin their Transformation!"

      Noah hesitates. Would it really ruin the Transformation? He hoped not. Because he had to know.

      Noah presses the button and Murphy looks as if he's about to scream before the casing around the pod pops open and white mist pools out in an icy blast. Murphy and Noah both approach the girl quietly. Murphy puts his hand to the girl's arm and jumps back in alarm.

       "What! What is it!" Noah yells nervously.

        "F-feel her." He whispers back.

       Noah rests his hand on her arm. Her hand was ice. Noah's gasps in alarm. He takes a strand of her blond curly hair and it snaps off.

       "Eep!" Murphy jumps in surprise..

       Noah couldn't believe it. "She's- she's frozen!" He looks down the row of identical pods and notices the fog on the glass of them all. "They all are!"

       Murphy begins to come to a slow realization and they both stare around the room in horror.

       "What do we do!" Murphy panics. He starts to gasp for air. "When this could be us as early as next week! How long have they even been in here! There can't be this many kids going through Transformation!"

       Noah shivers. "What temperature does the pod say it's at?"

       Murphy glances down at the dashboard and his eyes stay widened.

      "Negatives..."

      Noah starts to hyperventilate. "How are they even alive! Are they alive? AGH!"

      "We should g-get her out, right?" Murphy declares fearfully.

       "Won't that shatter her?"

       "THAT CAN HAPPEN!?!" Murphy yells.

      "Keep your voice down. We don't know who could be listening!" Noah shushes.

      Murphy nods apologetically "There has to be some way to turn it off!" He exclaims.

       Noah scans the dashboard.

       "Nothing!" He yells in frustration.

       Noah sighs and strides over to the girl. He finally saw her face. She looked like one of those angels in the texts, Light, but still dark, honey blonde hair that spread out to hold a million curls. Her face was tight and blue with frost. She was so skinny and pale. This was t*****e. Who in their right minds would do this! 

         While Murphy began to scan the dashboard again, Noah touches the girls arm. Trying to spark any warmth left in her frail body. But then he found it.

        "The cords!" Noah snaps. "Pull them off! Break them! It'll set the pod into an emergency state! It'll warm up!"

       "How do you kno-"

       "Do it!"

        Murphy nods and puts his hands around one frozen cord and pulls it off of her. Noah begins quickly tugging the cords off on the other side. They start snapping the cords in two, easily breaking from being frozen. The pod gives a warning red light and Murphy puts his hand to the top and nods.

      "Warm air is coming." He declares happily.

       "Close the pod." Noah orders.

      Murphy pulls the pod closed. "Now?" Murphy shrugs.

      "Now we wait." Noah sighs.

         Noah and Murphy make an effort to stay towards the back of the room in case someone ever came in. Every once in awhile one of them would go back to check on the girl, and every time she'd be in the same position, only the frost and ice of her body began to thaw. A few times Noah would look around for his sister before returning back to Murphy, but he could never find her. They sat in silence.

       "What're we going to do..." Murphy murmurs over and over anxiously.

       Noah had resulted to pacing the time out.

       "We have to find my sister." Noah whispers.

      Murphy nearly jolts. "About that Noah... well... you need to see this-"

      Murphy takes out the sheet of papers they had in the room. He spreads them out and looks at them for a second before pulling one out and handing it to Noah.

      Noah stares at the paper. His eyes scroll down the paper. Cali Tundra, Ethan Savannah, Sylvia Blossom, Terence Prairie, Owen Lake...

       Noah finally notices Murphy looking over his shoulder. Murphy takes a breath in at the name. Noah looks at his questioningly.

       "It was just a-a- someone I knew from m-my Trial." He stammers.

       Noah doesn't push further.

       He stares down and finally find her. Natalie Rainforest. Number 44563. Suspected to have highly abnormal abilities, but homicidal tendencies. Rests in the Blue Ward until further notice. Pod 92.

        Noah was about to get up and sprint to Pod 92 when Murphy pulls him back by an arm.

        "Read the rest," He instructs.

        Noah gazes back at the paper to read a scribbled bit down at the bottom of her section. Pod 92 was found empty as of yesterday. Zach Rainforest (Number 44674) was found as a victim of a stabbing of an anonymous break in. The prints on the stolen scalpel from the lab were found to be Natalie's.

       "Oh... my-" Noah breathes.

        "Yeah- I-I think she-" Murphy gulps. "Noah I think your sister is a killer."

       Noah couldn't believe it. Not Nally. The sweet innocent sister who wouldn't hurt a fly. Noah felt tears pool around his eyes and he turned and wiped them away with a sniff.

       Murphy turns in surprise. "Are you cr-"

       "No!" Noah sniffs back. "I just... I can't believe she would- I don't know how she could- why would she ever-"

        Then there's a loud bang and a shriek. Noah and Murphy both sit up in alert. Someone's here. Murphy mouths. Oh crap. Noah whispers back. There's silence for a while except for Murphy and Noah's anxious breathing.

       "They could be gone," Murphy whispers quickly.

       Noah nods slowly. Murphy motions with his hands for them to spread out and go look. Noah is careful to step to his feet and tiptoe around the horrifying pods. Then Noah almost trips over his shoe. Only it wasn't his shoe. He looks down to see a small piece of glass, smeared with blood. Noah picks it up and finds more glass scattered along the floor. He starts to run along the trail. It was like finding Zach's note all over again. Each pod he passes fills his with more of an overwhelming feeling of dread. He stops abruptly when he comes to the end. It was the pod. Only, the glass part was all broken and scattered all over the floor. It whirred a large red light, flashing emergency signals. The girl lay on the floor, her body bleeding with a ton of little red cuts, presumably from the glass. The girl stares up at Noah. She's shaking hard, and Noah almost jumps when she starts to wearily crawl over to him, but collapses midway. Murphy rushes in from behind.

           Her voice is hoarse, her eyes cloudy. "Y-you're him. You-you bring your sister th-then we can g-go to Father an-and back t-to Thunder-" She gasps out the last word and crumpled back, unconscious.

         "Well that went well." Murphy says. "Alright who's going to drag her along with us and question her to spill her secrets!"

         "Murphy!" Noah snaps.

         "Kidding... mostly."

        Noah and Murphy were exhausted. All they could think about was curling up back in their beds. They couldn't go back yet. Not until they had a plan. But until the girl woke up and gave them more information, they couldn't risk their only link to busting the Trials. It couldn't go on. That, Murphy even agreed on now. Whoever was behind this had to pay; at least that was what Noah wanted. He was so full of rage. It was terrifying, absolutely terrifying, what they did to those in Transformation. But why? Who with actually sanity would scare, t*****e, and kill kids? Something very vile was going on, and Noah vowed to find it and stop it. So for now? Now they would search the papers Murphy found, they would question the girl when she woke, and they would forge a plan to stop the trials. To really escape. And the confidence Noah had felt was burned. And all that remained was a fiery rage that wouldn't stop until it was satisfied.

                                                                                          . . .

        "I think I found something!" Murphy calls.

        Noah rushes over, his heart thudding in his chest violently. Murphy points to one of the names on the paper.

        "I figured it out. You search for the pod number then it gives you the name, Trial, medical history, a bunch of other random gibberish, etcetera. Let's see..."

         Murphy scans the paper and taps his finger.

         "Eureka! Mack... age... around 17... possible PTSD... wouldn't speak... punched a doctor in examination... height... weight...." Murphy explains.

          "That's strange." Noah comments. "It doesn't say a last name. No Trial."

           Murphy makes a distasteful face.

           "Probably just a typo. There's so many kids here that they had to..." Murphy pauses and coughs. "Erm... freeze..."

          "Yeah." Noah says. But he wasn't as sure.