Ch. 8
"So do you think they're gonna have us do anything here, or are we gonna just keep waitin' on them to show?"
Evan shrugged at Lynny's question. "Probably keep us waiting, you know how the FEC is. Waitin and waiting and notin to show." He grinned.
Rosie blinked at him. "Did you…holy crap on an oven. He made a joke. You got him to make a joke." She looked at Lynny with giant eyes. "How'd you get him to do that? The last time he made a joke was maybe two years ago."
Evan scoffed. "Was not."
"Was too, and don't try to say anything different." He glared at Rosie's quick reply.
Lynny looked back and forth between them, "Same foster home?"
"Is it that obvious?" Rosie asked.
Lynny only nodded in response. "I was the same way with a cou-"
All three of them jumped at a piercing tone that cut her off mid-sentence. "Welcome, future providers!" A voice came in from some unseen source. "As you well know, we at the FEC choose only a select few candidates for active service each year. You gathered here are the cream of the crop," Evan raised an eyebrow towards Rosie at the old-fashioned saying, "Greater than any of your graduating year. We will begin testing in only a few more minutes. Please wait patiently until then." The voice cut out with a click.
"So they welcome us, then tell us to wait." Evan felt a mild annoyance growing. "Seems…unorganized."
"Is anything organized anymore?" Rosie asked.
Evan and Lynny conceded the point.
"Well, seems like they're trying to be. As much as any other people ever are anyways."
Evan tilted his head at Lynny, "That's a pretty damn optimistic view point there."
"Blame it on the wait." Lynny's voice dripped in sarasam, "The longer I wait, the more chipper I get."
Just as she finished speaking there was another piercing tone and the same message was pipped into the room again.
After it was done the three of them just looked at each other. "That was weird, right?" Rosie asked.
"Definitely weird." Lynny agreed, her voice having lost its sarcastic bite.
Evan nodded. He glanced behind him to see how the other kids were acting. The two by the wall had sat down on the floor, looking at each other in confusion. Some of the people at the tables looked to be asleep, others glancing around, seemingly scared for whatever reason.
He was about to turn around when emerald green eyes caught his eye and made him stop. He found himself caught in the gaze of the guy siting all across the room at a table to himself. His green eyes stood out from dirty, tanned skin, even more startling for the shaven head and thin black eyebrows. His chin was resting on folded arms encased in thick black jacket sleeves, and he was continuously staring right at Evan.
At the next ear-piercing tone the guy didn't flinch any more than Evan did now, used to the tone within three uses of it. He continued to stare until the speech was made a fourth time and Evan felt a weird snap of being free, jerking his head around to Lynny and Rosie. Lynny cocked an eyebrow at him when he finally faced her again. He only shook his head and listened to the announcement again.
Evan didn't know how many times the speech had been made when someone finally lost it. "We get it! We're fucking special, now shut the fuck up and start telling us why the fuck we're here! You fucking bastards!" One of the wall guys lost his cool and started banging on the door. "You fucking trap us in here and leave us to rot? What's the fucking point?!" His words were interspersed with more pounds and kicks.
"Hey guy, shut it." Green eyes' voice was muffled through the jacket sleeves as he had put his head down.
"Fucking bring us here to kill us faster! I'da rather fucking die in the streets, ya hear? Ya hear?!"
"Hey! Shut. Up."
"Every fucking time you get us in here and fucking string us along! What, s this a new way to fucking-"
"Hey! Ass hole!"
Evan didn't think, he reacted. One minute sitting, the next pinning the shouting guy against the door he was banging on. "Shut up and sit down." His voice came out in a growl.
"Why should I? It's exactly-"
He slammed the guy into the door. "I said shut up. And sit down. Do it." He stepped back, letting the guy go. The idiot jerked himself away and glared at Evan, testing. "Sit, or I will make you sit." This time the idiot got the message and went back to his place by his buddy.
Rolling his shoulders, Evan went back to the girls. "Well, that was fun." Lynny grinned at him, crossing her legs and grabbing her ankles. "Did you work for the UL's or something?"
Evan shook his head, "No, but had to scare off enough of their minions to know how to do it well."
"Ah." She nodded then glanced at Rosie, who was only growing quieter. "What about you, ever try the tempting candy?"
Rosie opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and shook her head.
Lynny bobbed her head, "Kinda figured. You don't seem the type."
Another ear-piercing tone sounded, but this time the doors in the back opened and a woman in a crisp white lab coat came striding in, heels clicking on the floor. Pulling down her pictage headset as she made her way to the front of the room, her clear authority commanded the attention of every person lying about. Even Lynny got down from her perch on the table top to sit on the bench for once.
Getting to the front, which seemed to be next to Evan and companies' table, she snapped around, facing the group. "Hello everyone, and welcome to the FEC. I am Dr. Haley Rochester and I will be conducting your testing. Be good, cooperate and, if it all works. I can go back home to Prox and will be bringing a number of you with me."
