Experiment #13

The Questions But No Answers

Lina woke up the next morning, half expected to be awoken by her mom so she could get ready for school. But instead, she felt someone gently nudging her. Lina opened her eyes to see the little girl trying to wake her up, almost in a panic.

"Hey... hey, what's going on."

Lina suddenly noticed the door was open and a guard poked their head in to look at them. The little girl was trying to tell Lina to get up and she finally did. She followed her out the door where there were... there were...

Other kids... children walking out of their rooms with their heads down, watched by two guards on either side of the hallway that often poked them to keep them moving.

Lina was utterly shocked at what she saw.

She noticed she was the tallest one around.

The little girl tugged her arm and Lina followed her. Down the stairs, through the hallway and back outside where more guards watched and told them where to go.

What are they all doing here? Lina thought to herself.

The morning air was cold, making Lina shiver as she followed the large crowd of children to another smaller concrete building. There were no windows on this one. The kids slowed down as they approached it and when Lina finally stepped inside, she realized it was only a cafeteria. The kids in front of her took blue trays and stood in a line as they waited to recieve their food. For a cafeteria it was... strangely quiet. None of the other kids spoke a word to each other. Just taking their food and sitting down wherever to eat. Four guards were posted around the room, just watching them...

Lina picked up a tray and followed the line, dreading what kind of prison slop she was about to be served. To her surprise, it seemed as ordinary as any other school lunch... breakfast. The presentation was what made it look less appetizing.

A small serving of scrambled eggs, two slices of cold toast and a small sausage.

Lina took her tray and tried to find an emtpy seat, picking one near the back. The food didn't look terrible to eat, but her fear was what made her hesitate. And it seemed most of the kids were doing the same thing. Some picked at their scraps with their forks, others ate with no issue and the rest... just stared at it with a sad look on their face. Only opting to take small bites of their toast instead.

The little girl with the purple shirt suddenly sat down in front of Lina, also with her head down. She stared at her food for a moment before beginning to pick at it with her fork. Lina opened her mouth to say something.

"We're not allowed to talk to each other," whispered the little girl, promting Lina to close her mouth instead. She stared at her food, but didn't feel like eating it. She couldn't bring herself to. She couldn't stop looking around the crowd of unhappy children.

"You shoud try to eat. It's not bad. Your stomach hurts all day if you don't eat anything." whispered the little girl again. Lina was slightly comforted by her and tried picking up her fork. She was probably right. She needed all the energy she could get.

After a while, a loud tone was played through speakers in the ceiling and Lina watched as all the kids stood up and started heading towards the door, tossing out their food scraps in the trash as they went. Lina took one last bite of her eggs before doing the same and following the children out the door. A guard standing by the entrance stopped her.

"Not you." they said, making Lina flinch. They waited as the last of the kids walked through the door and headed off to who-knows-where.

"Follow me." said the guard and Lina walked alongside them. They led her to the small concrete elevator was, opened the door and waited for the elevator to arrive. They took it back down where the guard escorted Lina to Cass's office. They opened the door for her and waited outside. Lina needed no invitation to sit down.

Cass was still typing on her computer, not taking her eyes off the screen, until she sighed and glanced at Lina.

"Hi Lina! Good to see you again. You feeling okay?"

"Uh... yeah, I'm fine. I guess."

"How was breakfast?"

"It's uh... it's okay."

"I know, it's not the best, but at least it's not gross. The least they could do is switch up their menu from time to time." Cass stopped typing and leaned forward. "The burgers here are actually awful though. And that's why I bring my own lunch now."

Lina didn't reply to that. She waited for Cass to finish typing.

"Okay, there we go. Now Lina, I have a task for you today."

Cass leaned over and opened one of the cabinet drawers, pulling out a thick yellow envelope and sliding it over on the desk towards Lina.

"This came in earlier today. Your task is to take this to someone named Mark. Oh, and you'll need this too..."

Cass pulled something out of a different drawer and handed it to Lina. It was a lanyard with a key card attatched to it. There was bold lettering on the front that read Subject Clearance.

"You'll need that to use the elevator. And it'll let everyone know you're not just wandering around by yourself."

Lina nervously took the large envelope. It felt thick in her hands.

"So... what do I do when..."

"It's simple. You're going to take the elevator to the fifth floor and I'm pretty sure you'll find Mark in the... seventh door down the hall. Got it?"

"Fifth floor... seventh door. And I just give this to him and come back?"

"Yep, that's it!"

"By myself?"

"Yes. Think of it like an exercise. You can get going now, they're waiting for you."

"Uh... okay."

Lina nervously stood up and approached the door, turning the handle herself and was surprised to find that no one was waiting for her outside. She let the door shut behind her and looked around. It was unnervingly quiet. Lina looked down the hallway, towards the elevator and took a deep breath before approaching it. She called the elevator, stepped inside and used the key card to authorize which floor she wanted to go to. She pressed the fifth button and felt the elevator move downwards. As she waited, she looked at the envelope in her hands. She turned it over and saw something stamped in big read lettering that read CLASSIFIED: Level 4 Clearance Required.

Lina was unsure about what that meant and didn't have time to think about it as the doors opened. She stepped out and started looking for the seventh door. She counted all the doors she passed until one of them swung open as a man stepped out and startled her.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't- Hey, wait. What are you doing out here?"

Lina stammered nervously until the man noticed the lanyard around her neck and the package she was holding.

"Oh, are you looking for someone?"

Lina nodded and held up the package in front of her face.

"Y-yeah. I... I was told... I-I have to find someone named... Mark?"

"Mark? Oh, yeah. I know where he is. C'mon, I'll take you to him."

"Okay..."

Lina nervously followed the other man as they went down the hall, turned a corner into another long hallway before finally stopping at a door. The man opened it and let Lina walk in first where she saw another man, supposedly Mark standing near a desk. He looked up at both of them as they entered.

"Oh, hey. Wait... what's she doing here?"

"She's here to give you a package, Mark."

"Oh, really?"

Mark stepped around the desk and Lina instantly held the envelope out towards him, avoiding eye contact.

"Thanks." he said as he took the envelope and opened it. He pulled out a few papers and looked at them for a moment. Lina saw his eyes widen as he looked down the page. The other man stepped beside him and started reading the page together. They both turned around for a moment, mumbling to each other.

"Is this right?"

"Um... yeah, I think so." Mark replied.

"Are you sure?"

"We can check again if there's time."

"I can call Audrey and see if she has time to come down."

"Of course. We'll have to make it quick though."

Lina didn't understand what they were talking about until they finally turned around and Lina looked away.

"Your name's... Lina, correct?"

"Uh, yes."

"Okay Lina, come with us for a second. We're just going to check something."

Lina followed the two men nervously out of the room, down the hall and into another room which looked the same as the doctor's office she was in before, but the room was slightly larger. Lina was a bit surprised to learn they were just doing another checkup on her like before (minus the shot with the amber liquid), and a woman in a white lab coat was called down to do the examination while the other two men looked through the files and took notes on another piece of paper.

Lina was confused on why they had to do this to her again, and it was making her worried.

Was there something wrong with her? Had something changed since yesterday? Were they looking for something?

When they finished, the woman left the room and the two men conversed by themselves for another moment.

"Everything seems fine then."

"It's always good to double check though."

"Yeah, agreed. Should I send these down then and let them know we can get the tests started?"

"Yes, do that. We should get working on that as soon as possible."

Wait, what tests? There's going to be more? What kind of tests? Lina asked herself worriedly.

When they were finished, Mark left and the other man let Lina return to Cass's office by herself. She felt only fear and dread as she made her way back. Cass greeted her warmly when she opened the door.

"Oh hey! That wasn't so hard, right? I'll take that back now."

Lina took the lanyard off and handed it back to Cass. Until she heard a notification tone on her computer and Cass checked it. She went, "Oh." in surprise before smiling and looking back at Lina.

"Looks like that's all they need from you today! I'll have someone take you back to your room. Oh, and before I forget..."

Cass opened one of her desk drawers and pulled out Lina's iPod.

"Since they won't need you anymore today, I don't think anyone will catch you with this. Just make sure to hide it."

Lina gasped as Cass handed it back to her. It seemed perfectly fine and the battery was at 100%. She shoved it deep into her back pocket, making sure no part of the wire stuck out.

Before she could thank Cass, a guard opened the door.

"Looks like that's it! I'll see you later Lina!"

Lina said nothing as she stood up and walked out of the room. The guard led her back into the elevator where they went up and out. Back outside as the guard was closing the heavy metal door, Lina could hear construction in the distance, but she couldn't see where it was coming from. The guard poked her and led her back to the concrete prison and locked her back in the room.

She was alone.

She climbed into her bed and leaned against the wall, before taking her iPod out of her pocket. If no one needed her for the rest of the day, she guessed it'd be okay to have this out. Lina unwrapped the cord and put her earbuds in, putting the volume to a low setting and handpicking the first song she wanted to hear.

As it began to play out, Lina's anxiousness began to decrease.