The rain had stopped and the sun was just peeking out allowing everyone to get a good look at the mud covered kid.
"KAT?!" cried Eric "W...what?"
"Hello" she wiggled her fingers at everyone smiling. "It took you long enough"
"Wait. Kathrin? From youth?" asked Glen surprised "But you? I thought? you?
"What? Are you really all that surprised?" she joked cocking her right eye brow and smirking.
"But you disappeared." Said Eric
"Leprechaun! Hello!" she pointed to herself. "I can poof. You cant get rid of me that easily anyway, no matter how much you want to," she winked and smiled lightly.
"Hold on," said Karin confused. "You mean Craig's friend Kat? From Waterloo?"
"I'm NOT from Waterloo!" she cried exasperated and turned to Craig. "Why do you keep telling people I'm from Waterloo?"
Craig just smiled widely. "I'm glad to see you. I was really disappointed that you weren't at the convention, and not on-line anymore. I haven't got to talk to you in so long, I miss it."
"Well you cant have been that disappointed since you didn't even recognize me. Geewiz." she rolled her eyes.
The truck jerked to a stop and sent Kat face first to the floor with an 'Ow' The two men driving opened the doors and led the group into a white building surrounded by white walls. The place seemed depressing as they walked down the narrow halls.
"You know this place would suck if you were claustrophobic" whispered Kat to Eric, but he wasn't listening and he didn't laugh. He looked straight ahead focused on his one goal. Survival. He had no idea what lay ahead. They turned right down some stairs then left threw a set of double doors, Eric taking special not of which way they were going. They were put into five different cells, each with a bed. The rooms were all white and there were no bars in the front wall, it was transparent allowing what Eric assumed would be observation. A warden in a lab coat came down with food to which Kat was very excited for.
"Oh Awesome! Mashed potatoes and gravy!"
The warden smiled at her. 'Now that one may be difficult,' he said to himself as he walked out of the room.
"Are you CRAZY!?" yelled Glen across the hall at Kat who was in the cell on the other side. Kat just looked up at him from her food in confusion. "Your actually going to eat that? These people kidnap us, and you eat their food! What if it's poison or something?"
"What? I'm hungry, besides." she swallowed her food and shook her fork at him. "If they were just going to kill us why would they go through all this trouble? Nah, I'm thinking experimentation." she said as she went back to the potatoes.
"But why us?" cried Karin "Kat I understand you. That Mr. McKay guy gave you to them."
"WHAT?!" asked Kat mid-bite, and the food fell out of her mouth. 'Oh that was attractive' she thought. "Well," she shrugged "Either it's just randomly selected or we all have something required for the experiment. Probably the latter." She went back to eating.
"But there's no way that this is all a coincidence. Kat disappears, we all know her, we get kidnapped, she shows up. No way," reasoned Eric. "Do you think it's part of the experiment?"
"I don't think so." replied Craig. "But I think the first part's right. There's no way that this is coincidence, maybe divine intervention."
Glen was about to say something but he was interrupted by yells coming down the hall. Save for Kathrin who was too busy with the potatoes looked towards the double doors. The muffled cries grew louder as they heard someone struggling outside. Three figures bursted through the doors. The two men in suits grasped the tired boy by the arms. They threw him roughly into a cell as he struggled against them. "OOF" said Kat as the boy was thrown into her cell and fell on top of her.
"Hi." she said as the boy looked up then pulled away quickly feeling he was much to close to her face and was on top of her.
"Sorry" he mumbled before he ran to the transparent wall shouting and pounding. "Get back here you COWARDS!!"
"You know I don't think that's gonna help much" she said as she moved to sit with her back against the wall, since her food was now smushed into her pants. "You should probably save your energy for whatever's going to come next."
The new boy turned angrily to face her but then noticed she had her eyes closed and wasn't really paying attention. "So then what do you expect me to do? Nothing?"
She opened one eye to look at him "No. I do suggest, however, that you save your strength so we can figure out what's going on then get out of here."
"I prefer to work alone." said the boy turning way, suddenly interested in the wall to his right.
"Well too bad toughie, we're stuck in this together and we're gonna get unstuck out of this together so we may as well be friends. I'm Kathrin but every one calls me Kat." She held out her hand then after a proper handshake she introduced the rest of the captives.
The boy said his name was Kane, that he was 17 and from Alberta. He had jet black and a little bit shaggy hair, and grey eyes. He didn't trust the others and made that quite clear. Kat lay on her back listening to the others argue about what each of then thought they should do. But nothing really sunk in. Kat had reclined into her own world. A place she much rather preferred compared to the real one. She sat under a tree in the lush grass, a cool breeze drifted across her face. She breathed in deeply absorbing the peaceful surroundings. A sad smile spread across her still muddy face. 'I wish I could just stay here forever, things are so much nicer.' But her thoughts were interrupted as a voice drifted into her world.
"What are you smirking at?" it asked harshly, in a bitter tone.
Kat blinked. Her smile faded as her world dissolved and she fell back to reality. Trapped within the confines of the cell with someone that seemed like a very irritable person. But more so she was trapped within the limits of her won body and physical form. Sighing, she rolled over onto her stomach to look at the boy who was sitting against the wall. "What?" she asked "Is it illegal to smile now?" she cocked an eyebrow in his direction.
"In a place like this? Yes. Besides I don't think you should be smiling about anything, I can smell you from here."
"Oh come on, give me a break, I was playing football before I got back to my fathers house; and about not smiling, that's rather disappointing" she frowned sadly. "Why do you hate it here so much?" The others were still arguing and getting no where. As they continued, the plans got even more ridiculous. "Well?"
Kane uncrossed his arms and looked at her. He thought for a moment as the hard mask of hate began to slip down. But then he shook his head and the mask was right back up. "Why should I tell you?"
Kat just shrugged. "You don't have to, and you probably shouldn't. I don't want to know anyway. I just thought I'd be nice." She rolled over and closed her eyes, before he had a chance to respond. "Oh and you can have the bed, I'm accustom to sleeping on the ground."
The warden came around a few minutes later and told he group that they may as well stop arguing and go to sleep since they weren't getting out any time soon. He handed out some extra blankets and shut the lights off. No one really got any sleep that night. Although all were exhausted, the stress of what had happened weighed heavily on there consciences and what little sleep they got was restless and useless. Kat managed to get the most rest by retreating back into her mind but was later awoken by Karin's weeping. She stayed up the rest of the night trying to comfort the young girl, but it was futile.
When the lights came back on Kathrin nearly went blind. She had been staring at the ceiling and the light was rather bright and burned her eyes. The warden came and took them to a section of the white fort (what Craig had decided to call the place) where they could shower and brush they're teeth. Of course the girls, Kat and Karin, were separated from the rest of the guys. They had a BIG mirror with lights for applying make-up. Both girls and guys had different sections where they could pick out from a variety of cloths. Both changing rooms leading into the same meeting room where there were a few blue couches. And Karin almost had a heart attack when she saw all the shoes. Kat and Karin had a great time mix matching the different styles, and the guys had a blast trying to convince the girls to get the bathing suites on. Glen wandered over to the girls side and started trying on random things and had everyone in stitches howling when he put on leggings, a mini-skirt and a tube top. Then just for good measure grabbed a frilly hat. Kat giggled then threw a shoe at him when he started hitting on Craig. She hit him right in the side of the head and Eric burst into tears and nearly fell off the couch. Kane stood in the corner, reserved and quite. He was already changed and ready to go. He had chosen baggy jeans and a black tank top just his size. Eventually Karin put on one of the swim suites and did the 'ditzy model' walk. Kane had caught her eye, the tank top was tight fitting and showed off his muscular arms, plus his hair was washed and had the cute bed head look she adored on any guy. Trying to get his attention she walked right past flipping her hair and turning, but he didn't even look up. He stood against the wall arms crossed, head down and eyes closed. Not even a glance.
The warden came in and almost fell over when he saw Glen and the frilly hat. He laughed and shook his head then told them all to be ready in the next 5 minutes. Karin spent 4 of those minutes doing her make-up and hair. Some plucking here, some paint there, she found some very form fitting jeans and a low cut belly top. Kat just shook her head and waited for her, she had been done within the first minute. Kat decided on a tank top and jeans. She didn't wear any make-up before she got there so she didn't bother putting it on now. Karin made her great dramatic entrance, throwing the curtains to the change room aside. Her hair tied and clipped, she looked fabulous. Kat just walked out quietly behind her, not fancy, no make-up and her hair just pulled back and clipped up like it usually was. She blew her bangs out of her face as they left. As the others were all complaining about the stench of hair spray coming off Karin, Kane found himself enjoying the strawberry milkshake scent that Kat had chosen for shampoo. He gazed at her hair bobbing back and forth. For some reason that he himself didn't understand he noticed the simplicity of her outfit and found her much more attractive than Karin who was painted up like a doll and was being ogled by the other guys. Something about Kat's presence made him relaxed and almost peaceful despite the current situation. He shook the thoughts off in disgust and continued down the hall. Towards the end they turned right, into a large rectangular room filled with training equipment. A group of scientists stood at the opposite end. They didn't seem to notice the captives, and if they did they paid them no attention. Each member was assigned a scientist and each scientist a subject. They rounded the training room, and began being tested and pushed into different aspects and abilities of each. Driven to there physical and mental limits the group barely made it back to their cells. No one spoke much, everyone was too tired from the first day. Eric passed out on his bed as soon as he lay down, Karin cried and complained about how unfair it was. Kat lay on the floor staring at the ceiling again. Kane sat on the bed nursing his right shoulder that he injured during pull-ups.
"You know, you should probably do something about that arm of yours." said his cell mate without looking over.
"Ya?" he sneered sarcastically. "Well there's not really much of a choice now is there?"
"There may not be anything you can do but look what I swiped." she tossed a tenser bandage backwards and it landed on the bed. Kane stared at it for a second then started unwrapping it. Kat was asleep long before a quite thank you escaped his lips before he himself fell asleep. Kane awoke the next morning to find Kat on the opposite side of the room with her eyes closed and doing a head stand leaning against the wall. Stretching, he sat up and gave her a strange look.
She smiled, eyes still closed. "Good morning, or should I say afternoon sleepy head. Its almost noon." the others were up and back at the 'escape' plans.
"Your face is all red." he reached over and grabbed the breakfast the warden had left for him. His hair was all bunched up at one side and his eyes half closed as he started eating.
"Wow, you noticed. Good thing my face is already red or I might be blushing." she said sarcastically as she leaned forward and flipped herself back upright. Putting her hands on her hips she looked around the room.
"What are you doing?" asked Glen from across the way. He was sitting on his bed putting on a sock. Kat of course had no socks.
"I don't know." she replied frowning. "That's just the problem."
"We could play truth or dare" Karin chimed in.
"We could," said Eric slowly "But what could the dares be? There's nothing around here but beds."
Glen smirked. "Hey I got an idea. Lets have a contest. Hey! Loner kid stuck with Kat!"
Kane looked over irritated.
'Uh oh' thought Kat.
"Can you do this?" He ran up the wall and did a back flip landing on his feet.
"Phft," sniffed Kane. "I have better things to do than show off to people I couldn't care less about."
"Oh Hey!" cried Craig angrily. "That was a little uncalled for!"
"No it wasn't." said Kat surprising everyone. "Well, why should he care? He doesn't know any of us. I'm sure he has his own stuff to deal with, and the last think he needs is Glen provoking him." She glared in his direction as she said this. Moving across the room she sat down against the wall and put her hands behind her head.
"You know what?" said Glen mockingly, "I bet he cant do it."
"Shut up would you!" said Karin
"Ya Glen, could you stop being a total idiot for once." said Eric "Leave the loner to himself, he doesn't want anything to do with us anyway."
"Alright. Hey buddy!" He yelled at Kane. "The feelings neutral!" They when back to discussing their plans.
Kat sighed and shook her head.
"Why'd you do that?" asked Kane quietly. She turned to him. He felt strange as she looked at him, as if she wasn't really looking at him, much less his soul.
"Lets just say I know how you feel." she winked, "Besides, they're here but they have each other. And your here on your own. Oh and don't listen to Glen, he's a moron."
"Why do you say they? What about you?" asked Kane coming over to sit beside her. She took her hands down and placed them on her knees.
"What about me?" she shrugged. "Me doesn't seem to be very important at the moment. Actually, never has," she laughed.
Kane opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted. The warden came in and took the test subjects back to the change rooms then back to the scientists. The routine stayed steady for the next few months. Between that and sleep nobody really had that much time to talk. Soon the test area moved and the subjects separated with contact only with their scientist. The cells remained the same but slowly the training progressed. Eric found himself able to do things he had never even dreamed he could do, and not just him but everyone. Strength, speed, agility, thinking process...everything seemed to have improved immensely. The last day before they were told group combat training would begin (they had been training with different weapons separately). Each of them were hooked up to a machine that read all there stats.
"They are progressing well." said the voice of the shadow on the screen. "Soon we shall add the formulas and see if our subjects can survive. I hope you don't fumble like the last group Dr."
"Of course not sir, very good sir." Said the head scientist. He bowed and the screen clicked off. "It is time, choose your ingredients."