At 7:58 a.m. she arrived at the building and entered the door. The room was huge and seemingly worthless, a small desk with a large man behind it, newspaper in hand. He gazed up at her.
"The man," she was appalled to realize she had never gotten his name, "gave me a card with the building number…"
"Through those doors," he indicated with a paper filled hand. She thanked him and opened one of the two doors. It was an elevator and that intrigued her. What would happen if you opened the door and the elevator wasn't there? She didn't want to think about it. Instead she stepped inside and had just enough time to realize there were no buttons before it was moving. The door opened again and there was the man from the night before.
"Hey," she greeted.
"I said eight," he responded. She looked at her watch: 7:59:54. She waited the six seconds then showed him the watch.
"There; it's eight now." He smirked then led her to a room that had a few other people, all in some sort of military uniform. An even more severe looking man was standing in the middle, a permanent frown apparently etched into his cheeks. He was in the same sort of suit, had the same sort of tie, and his shoes were sparkling with the exact same stars; it was slightly eerie.
"Good to know you could be bothered to join us," he said with an almost serious voice. She realized with silent amazement that he was teasing her.
"I was told eight, Sir; if you've got a problem with when I chose to show up, blame your man." She was unaware that he watched this through one-sided glass, a silent grin on his face. The man in the room smiled as well. There was one chair left open and she settled in it, aware of the stares she was getting; she was the only female in the room.
"As I was saying before you arrived, we have gathered the best of the best of the best in the hopes that one of you up and coming youngsters will amount to our standards." She raised her hand. "Yes?" He sounded bemused.
"So why are we really here?" The hand of the man next to her shot up and she glanced at him quickly as if surprised that he had actually moved. The gentleman in charge nodded to him. The man stood proudly, stated his name, rank, graduate status and so on and so forth; not that she cared much. She wasn't much impressed with men who talked too much about themselves. He finally got to the point.
"We're here because we're the best of the best of the best, Sir." He sat with a triumphant look on his face and she just stared at him with disbelief even as he turned to her.
"And that told me absolutely nothing; if you don't know the answer, why don't you just let him answer it?" The man looked slightly discouraged but she doubted it would last for long. She had faith in his ability to bounce back quickly; it was a military thing.
"You will be running through a few choice tests to assess your abilities and then we'll let you know later in the week. First thing, please fill out the test on your chair and when you're all finished we'll move on." She grabbed the test and looked at the thing that was at least six pages and with small print. Then she noticed there was no hard surface to write on. Even now, the other ones were moving around, trying to find a place to write.
Her eyes zeroed in on a table just low enough she could sit on the floor and use it. They had never said they had to stay in their seats anyways. She stood and walked across the room to the table, walked around it so she was facing the others who were watching her with slight interest, and plopped herself on the ground cross legged. She stared at them for a moment longer then broke the silence.
"You guys want to use the table too?" She offered innocently. They just stared at her for a moment before she lost interest in what they did and began filling out her test. A few minutes later, they were all squished together around the table, hiding answers secretively. She honestly couldn't have cared if they cheated off her paper; chances were good she would fail anyway.
A good half hour later, they were let loose on a firing range. They had a timer to shoot who they thought deserved to be shot, six rounds only and seven people out there. The timer signaled its start and they picked up their weapons and advanced on the range. She scanned the targets quickly, took aim, and fired a single shot: one to the head for the quick kill.
The timer buzzed again and the shooting stopped.
"What happened, Davidson?" Asked the man in charge.
"Hesitated…sir," she added as an afterthought. He stood at her side and surveyed her carnage.
"Can I ask why you felt little Tiffany had to die?" He pointed to the cardboard cutout of a little girl no more than nine with blonde piggy tails and a flowery dress.
"Well, at first I was going to shoot that thing over there," she pointed to something tentacled and green hanging from a light pole, "but I figured it was just having fun like I used to do on the horizontal bars in grade school. Then I wanted to pop this guy over here when I noticed the little girl. It's, what, midnight in this setting?" She was observing the blackened and starry back drop.
A quick nod. "This looks like a ghetto part of town and she's maybe nine if you're pushing it. Those books in her arms, they are way too advanced for her," Quantum Physics one read and another read Relativity of Gravity, "She's about to start some serious trouble and I wasn't going to let that happen. Now, if you don't mind backing off a little…" The man in charge gave her a look that spelled trouble. "…or do I owe her an apology?" The man shook his head and beckoned them out.
"This last test is a simple eye exam; if you'll all follow me," he stated clearly. They followed him single file out of the room and into the hallway. There was the man that had introduced her to this place, leaning against the door frame.
"Hey," he greeted. She waved and turned to follow the others. "Where you going?" He asked. She turned to answer but he beckoned her to follow. "Boss thinks you did a great job…even if you can't read it on his face." She nodded as they passed the room the others were in.
"…now if you'll all kindly direct your attention to this red dot…" they passed before she could catch anymore. She looked back toward it as they continued on but ignored it when he began talking again.
"You still don't believe do you?" It wasn't really a question. He knew she didn't believe; yet. She shook her head instead of answering. "Let me prove it to you; coffee?" It seemed like the oddest tangent in the world to spring to and she shook her head again; she didn't need nor even like coffee.
He shrugged then walked into a room with an open door.
"Hey," she heard a slightly Hispanic sounding voice greet, "how's it hangin', K?"
"Just fine," K replied. So that was his name; she pondered it for just a moment then came closer to the opening to enter the room. She stopped short, holding back a gasp of surprise. She could not, however, keep her mouth from hanging slightly open. There, pouring coffee into K's paper cup was a bug like creature no taller than her knees with stringy antennae poking out of its head. It was a fleshy tan color.
K walked out, stirring in sugar with a small red straw. "Sure you don't want any?" He offered.
"Nah," she said in a small daze, "I'm good." They were walking down the hallway again. She glanced back at the door over her shoulder for a second before focusing back in on the strange man beside her. She didn't know what to say.
"Do you think you'd recognize that gun again if you saw it?" He asked suddenly.
"Yeah," she answered slowly, "I think so." He nodded as if he had expected her to say that, which he probably had.