Ch. 10

They were led deeper down the stark white, curving tunnels. Evan tried to pay attention where we went; right, left, right, left, straight, left, etc., but soon lost count of how many rights and lefts had been taken and where the straights were placed in the mix. The entire group was quiet as they walked, only the different tones of shoes hitting the tile to fill the air. After some time the frazzled guide finally stopped.

"So, um, here's where we split off. Girls go to the right, boys left. You'll find a series of rooms each with your names. Um, and you'll be sharing rooms, sorry. But Dr. Rochester will be meeting with you guys in the morning. She's the head of your group, well you knew that I guess. So she'll be conducting the rest of your testing." He nodded, then clearly remembered something. "Oh! And don't worry if the doors close behind you. Those are only safety measures." He gave a lop-sided smile. "Sorry, trust stuff…sorry."

"Oh just stop apologizing already, we're going." Lynny scoffed. She gave a half wave to Evan as she took Rosie by the elbow and led her and the rest of the girls down the right hallway.

Half waving back Evan turned and went down his own hall. He was the last of the group and as soon as he crossed the boundary the walls gave a vacuum seal sound and slid shut.

"Those walls are at least a foot thick, safety measures my ass." The green eyed guy scoffed.

Evan half smiled in agreement and looked for his name. He found it on the second door on the right above another name, Jareth Khris.

"So we're roomies then." The green eyed guy, Jareth, said.

"Guess so." He nodded to the name plaque. "Evan Collins. And random assumption says you're Jareth Khris then?"

Jareth cocked an eyebrow. "Really dude? Introductions? Who does that anymore? Whatever, yeah, Jareth. Call me Jare, 'kay?"

"Only if you call me Ev." He said as he walked into the room and claimed one of the thin beds, laying on his side facing the wall.

"And we're not buddies." Jare said as he sat on his own bed.

Evan flopped onto his other side to face Jareth, "What, you mean we're not here to make friends in a CVR base that is conducting a secret test that clearly means death if you don't perform up to their standards?"

"Wow, sarcasm much?"

"It's a talent. And a long practiced language skill." Evan grinned.

Jareth just stared at him, trying to figure this black haired, black eyed pasty kid out. Instead he found himself smiling and going along with this kids antics. "Clearly not taught in your courses?"

"Are you kidding? My courses were in fluent sarcasm, or at least my answers to their questions were."

Jareth scoffed a laugh, grinning still. "Where'd you come from that your humor survived?"

Evan shrugged, "Right here, actually. My foster house is a couple blocks into the city from here."

Cue the raised eyebrows. "No shit? Well damn, I'm from the opposite end of 298. They shipped me here cuz supposedly the CVR base there doesn't have training facilities. Which makes sense I guess." He looked up, as if trying to see past the ceiling, "This one is more than double the size of ours."

"No shit. What's your underlord situation there?"

Jareth looked directly at Evan. "There isn't. You remember the giant riot when we were kids?" Evan nodded. "That was started from the east side underlords. The CVR completely crushed anyone connected to, even remotely, to the underlords on that side. From what I heard, everyone else got of light compared to it."

Evan nodded. He had always wondered why the carnivores had been so…lacking in his part of the town. It made sense if they had all their main force somewhere else nearby but only a giant base to instill fear here. "So you have the hand, and we get the fear. Seems like a giant crock of shit."

Jareth cocked an eyebrow, "What about life isn't?"

Evan was about to agree when a loudspeaker voice was piped into the room. "Lights out in, one, minute. Testing will resume in, seven, hours. Please sleep, now." And the lights were out. Evan blinked in the blackness.

He heard Jareth's scoff/laugh. "See you in the morning for the death test then."

"Yeah." Evan grabbed the thin blanket on the bed. I'm not dying. I'm not dying here, not tomorrow, or anytime soon. His thoughts turned, confirming his conviction to not be the last to fall in whatever the CVR, the FEC and whoever else had set up for him.