The Institute

by Kayla Howarth

  ***

  We sit anxiously in the lobby of the training centre, my legs bouncing up and down rapidly. I tell them to stop, but they don’t listen.

  Chad and I aren’t the only ones who are sitting the tests. Another boy, Zircon, sits across from me, looking ready, even excited. He’s a bit younger than me, probably around sixteen, and he’s short but stocky. Muscle stocky. I wonder what his ability is, as well as what’s driving him to do this.

  Chad sits next to me, annoyingly calm. “You really have to stop with the bouncing,” he says, putting his hand on my knee to try to get me to stop. Maybe he’s not so calm after all.

  We’re all summoned into different rooms by our advisers. Chad and I exchange a look as we get up and go our separate ways. I think his was saying “good luck.” Mine was more of a “Shit, I don’t want to do this” look.

  The room is tiny, like the one I had my first interrogation in. There on the desk before me is the first part of my exam: a multiple-choice test on the things we’ve learnt so far in class. There are twenty questions in total, and Lynch informs me that I have no time limit. She hands me a remote with a red button on it, the same kind that I was given during one of my other interrogations.

  “Press the red button when you’re done,” Lynch says just before leaving the room.

  The first few questions are easy, and I breeze through them, but as I go on, the harder they get and the more I’m starting to think I may not even pass.

  I finish my exam and then read over it one more time. I’m not entirely sure of a few of the answers, but it’ll have to do. My heart stalls as I press the little red button on my remote.

  After waiting a few minutes, Lynch walks in and looks at my test.

  “Good work,” she says. She puts another piece of paper down in front of me. This one isn’t another multiple-choice quiz. It’s an essay. At the top of the page, it has one sentence:

  THE HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTE AND THE VITAL ROLE IT PLAYS IN TODAY’S SOCIETY

  I’ve got this. I smile. That terrible assignment with Ebbodine has come through for me. I start writing before Lynch has even left the room. I figure I should chop and change it just a tad though, adding the fact that while not every Defective person is outwardly dangerous, it’s still important to ensure we track everyone who’s Defective and bring them in for treatment.

  I know they won’t be happy with me saying that not every one of us is dangerous, but on some level, they have to believe that as well, or they wouldn’t be sending us back into the world.

  It takes me less time to write out a full one-page essay than it did to finish the twenty-question test. I press the red button again, and Lynch enters. She takes my essay off me but doesn’t read it like she did the first exam.

  “Okay, last part of the test. We need you to get dressed, you’re going for a fitness exam.”

  Here goes.

  I get changed in the girls’ locker room of my fitness class, my hands trembling. I crack my knuckles to get them to stop, but it doesn’t work. Taking a deep breath, I walk out to where I’m met by Lynch and Jack.

  I’m actually glad when I see Jack’s here with me. I might stand a chance now. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be happy to see him.

  I wonder what his real name is, I’ve spent so much time with him in training, but I’ve never actually cared enough to ask.

  They walk me down halls I’ve yet to explore. We get to a door, and Lynch turns to me, “Are you ready?” she asks.

  Nodding, I think I’m ready.

  She opens the door, and my eyes start stinging so bad I have to close them. I put my hand up to block the light.

  “What … is that?” I ask.

  “Oh, come on, you haven’t been here that long to forget what sunlight is, have you?” Lynch asks.

  It takes a while for my eyes to adjust, the sun is just so blinding. When they finally stop stinging, I’m able to see where I am. I’m outside, for the first time in months, I’m outside.

  I breathe in and my lungs fill with fresh, un-recycled air. My skin soaks in the sunlight. It feels amazing beating down on me. All this time of spending all day, every day, inside has made my body starved of vitamin D. It’s euphoric to be outside. It pumps me up and energises me. I know what passing this test will mean. It’ll mean I can have this feeling always.

  It’s amazing how you can take something for granted for so long, even forget what you’re missing out on after a while. Now that I’ve had a taste of it, I can’t fail, I have to be released, and I have to pass this test.

  “Okay, first up, you have a timed five-kilometre run,” Lynch says.

  Wow, way to ease me into it.

  “Eugene here will be running with you, to show you the way, and ensure there’s no shortcuts taken.”

  No wonder Jack has muscles that big. I bet he had to beat up a lot of kids at school when he was younger to overcompensate for the fact his real name is Eugene.

  Lynch has a stop watch. She gets me and Eugene to … nope, there’s no way I can call him that. Jack and I line up behind a starting line, which is just two poles sticking out of the ground.

  Lynch counts us down, “Three, two, one, go,” and Jack and I start running. It’s hard to get used to running on uneven ground again. My body is used to the flat conveyer belt of the treadmill, but it doesn’t take me long to get my rhythm back.

  It’s liberating being able to run for real, and the sound of my feet beating against the ground is therapeutic. A smile finds my face, and I realise I haven’t even had to borrow any energy from Jack. All of this working out must have improved my stamina after all.

  Making it the five kilometres without any help from Jack, I gain confidence that I may pass this test all on my own. That is, until I see my next test: an obstacle course.

  Chad’s already on the field, finishing up his go. The last obstacle on the test is to scale a wall and drop to the other side. The wall is massive, and he makes it look easy. His adviser and someone else, who looks familiar but I can’t pinpoint who he is, stand to the side, writing things down.

  The unknown man is wearing glasses and … oh wait, he was at my first interrogation, before Jack took over.

  It feels like a million years ago that they dragged me into that room. I guess it has been a few months, and by that, I literally am guessing. I couldn’t even tell you what day of the week it is, let alone what month. The air outside is warm, but there’s a cold breeze cutting through. The land out here has always been dry, so it’s not like there are trees that could tell me what season it is.

  Next to Chad’s advisers, sitting on a wooden barricade, is Zircon, a woman I don’t know, and Paxton. I guess the woman must be Zircon’s adviser. I wonder if he’s had his go at the course yet or not.

  Chad finishes and runs over to his adviser.

  How does he still have energy to run when he has just completed that?

  They’re all smiles as they shake hands and point in Zircon’s direction. Zircon gets up and starts walking over to the starting position, while the rest of us make our way over to the wooden barricades and sit.

  Lynch, Jack, and I, and Chad and his two escorts, watch as Zircon begins his obstacle course. I watch him intently and watch how he moves, how I’m going to have to move. As he nears the end of the course, I’m all jittery with nerves … again.

  “You’ve got this,” Chad whispers to me. I look at him, and he signals to Jack. “No sweat.”

  “Piece of cake,” I say, even though right now I feel like this won’t be an easy task at all.

  Chad leans in and embraces me, which takes me off guard. It’s not until he whispers in my ear that I realise he needs to be close enough so no one else can hear. “If you get really stuck, the guy with the glasses—you can pull energy from him to slow your heart rate down. Tate told me about him, he was in his interrogation.” With Chad’s breath in my ear, I think that ability will come in handy right now, forget
the obstacle course.

  With Zircon almost finished, Jack, Lynch, and I get up and go to the start of the obstacle course. The confidence I had after my run is being overshadowed by my fear of failure. I really hope I’m strong enough to pull energy from them, but even more, I really hope I’m not about to learn a lesson about cheaters never prospering.

  Lynch counts me down again, and I’m off. It’s an easy task to start with, running through car tyres, lifting my legs as high as I can so I don’t trip. I move on to a short balance beam. All of the exercising I’ve been doing lately must have improved my balance also because this too is quite easy. The next task is crawling in mud, under a net that’s trying to push me down. This is getting harder because I can’t see where I’m going, and I’m trying to not get mud in my face. Claustrophobia sets in, and I fear may never reach the end. I’m a little puffed, but I make it.

  The next thing is to climb a single knotted rope to the top and ring a bell. I could really use some of Jack’s arm power here. After all, they’re as big as my entire head. I try to pull energy from Jack, but nothing’s coming, it’s not helping. Faltering, I’m stuck halfway up, desperately needing to catch my breath. I close my eyes, breathe in, hang on for dear life, and focus. Using the ability of the guy with the glasses, I slow my heart rate, and as I’m able to do that, I focus back on Jack. I pull myself up the rest of the way, ring the bell, and jump back down.

  Almost finished. My muscles are burning like they always do when I work out, but all I have to do now is crawl through a long tunnel and then scale the wall … the really tall wall.

  I make it through the tunnel with ease, but now I’m looking at the wall in front of me. The wooden wall has a rope mesh overlay so I have places to put my feet while climbing it. I go to start running towards it, but have to brace myself first.

  I jump up and down on the spot a couple of times, while cracking my neck and stretching. I know it’s wasting time, but I need to psych myself up for it. I can do this, I tell myself.

  I run at the wall, and as soon as I put my feet in the holes, the whole mesh part pulls away and I almost fall.

  How did Chad and Zircon make this look so easy?

  Panting, I remind myself to stay calm, place my feet gently, and pull myself up. I get near the top and slip, my feet falling out from underneath me, leaving me only hanging by my arms.

  Everyone watching gasps in unison.

  Pull yourself together, Allira! I breathe deep and summon all the strength I can. Throwing the lower half of my body out, I swing my legs in to get a good grip on my feet. My right foot slips again, but my left has found a hole. Regaining my balance, I climb the rest of the way up. I swing my legs over and sit at the top for a moment, taking in the view, before looking over at my spectators who’ve started clapping.

  I feel victorious, not only because I managed to finish but I just climbed that wall without any help from Jack. I jump down with aid from the rope attached to the wall and land on my feet, more graceful than I ever thought I could be.

  Now I know how Chad could run after he was finished; the adrenaline I’m feeling pumping through me is keeping me going. I feel so accomplished, so happy, I’ve passed my field test. And then all of it goes away when I realise I’m going to be a field agent.