We look around nervously and one by one file for the door. There isn’t much chatting going on. This is a big deal and we all know it. Who will survive this test? And why do I have such a pit in the bottom of my stomach about it? Probably because with fifteen of us leaving in the next week, this test is going to carry some heft to it.
Jamie is also unusually quiet and drops me off at my door. I decide to quick shower then journal for a while. When I am done with that, I decide to study up on our classes. In etiquette we are having a test soon on full dining propriety. Before coming here I didn’t know a salad fork from a real fork. A fork is a fork. I study place settings for a while but can no longer take it. I finally resort to reading the book I brought with me though I’m distracted and have to backtrack and re-read sentences more than once.
Exhausting all things to do, I go to the window in my room where I frequently spend time and look out. From my window, I can see a few trees from the garden below, the outer building of Mile High, and also the sky and area around the stadium with the mountains in the distance. Today is a partially cloudy day. If Ashton was here we would be making comments about the shapes of the clouds and what they look like. The trees in the garden are just starting to change colors for fall and it makes me miss home even more.
After that I decide to lie down. I don’t feel that tired after the three-mile run and weights we just had to do, but I should try to at least relax. I may not sleep, but at least with my eyes closed, I know I can think without being monitored. Even then I know the cameras are still there somewhere. After what feels like an hour, I drift off. I wake up hours later, a short half hour before it ends up being my turn for the big test.
Sarge delivers me to the testing room. He doesn’t talk or say a word the whole way which doesn’t ease my fears. Neither does the room itself. It’s a huge, dark room with what looks like rubber walls. Elle is there along with the tester I have had before and another angry looking tester man. When they did the verbal in my room, it was much less ominous. There is tension in the air and it’s as if this entire room was created to intimidate the crap out of us.
Mission accomplished.
They hook me up to all sorts of cords and set up the lie detector and inform me to keep to yes and no answers. They also inform me that I may not repeat or discuss anything from this test with any of the girls. In no time at all I’m all hooked up and ready to go.
This time the other man is asking the questions.
“Is your name Reagan Scott?” he starts.
“Yes.” I don’t even smile. This test seems more serious.
“Are you from Omaha?”
“Yes.”
“Are you 18?”
“Yes.”
“Do you miss your family?”
“Yes.”
“Did you have a boyfriend before coming to the Culling?”
“No.” It would be interesting to know if anyone has lied to this question.
“Do you have anyone in mind for the required age to marry of 21?”
“No.”
“Do you find any of the boys attractive?”
“Yes.”
He asks me stupid question after stupid question about my family, Omaha, people I know, my friends at home, my friends here, the other girls here, the boys here that we haven’t even met, things from my classes, if I still have my innocence intact or how many people I have slept with, you name it. I’ve been sitting in the chair for at least ten minutes when the questions take a turn and start to get more interesting.
“If a family member of yours were to do something against the State of the Union, would you disown them completely?” the sinister tester man asks. I used to think the other tester with the matching gray hair and eyes was evil but have now decided that he’s a cup of tea compared to this guy.
I look at him confused. This is irrelevant. And a stupid question.
“Depends,” I say.
“Yes or no only,” he reminds me quite rudely.
“Well, the question is irrelevant,” I answer rudely, returning his attitude and quite surprised with my guts as I have the nerve to stare him down. I’m glad my voice doesn’t portray how nervous I really am.
“Yes or no,” he says this time almost yelling at me.
In an act of pure defiance, I just continue to stare at him and say nothing. Five or six seconds pass of total silence. I’m sure I’m going home soon anyway and I will not give him an answer he wants just because he wants it. I will not change for anyone. I will not lie and say I will disown a family member of mine. I would never do that, no matter what they did.
He stands up and slams his clipboard down causing Elle to jump. I don’t flinch and am proud of myself for it. “Yes or no!” He does yell this time.
“No. I would never disown my family,” I answer honestly and quietly.
Screw this test. I don’t care if I fail, they are being jerks. I won’t be disloyal to my family just to make it further in the Culling, promotions or not.
“Yes or no answers only,” he reminds me and sits back down.
For just a slight moment I think I see a hint of emotion there. He seemed…amused? I’m sure I didn’t catch it right because the man was just screaming at me. Gray-eyes is a walk in the park compared to this guy. He takes it to a whole other level.
“If someone formerly banished from the State returned seeking assistance, would you provide it?”
These questions are getting hard. I know what I’m supposed to say, but I just can’t make myself do it.
“If they were rightfully banished with cause and a threat to national security, then no I wouldn’t provide it,” I offer seeing as that is the answer they are looking for, but add, “But case by case I would try to see if there was a way to provide help by some other means.”
“Yes and no only,” he snaps annoyed.
I lean forward and look him directly in the eyes. “I heard you the first time.”
Is my temper getting the best of me? Sure is. But this guy is just a jerk. I see that flash of emotion again but don’t have time to process it because he keeps going. How can he be amused and pissed at me at the same time? I’m not amused at this point. I’m just pissed. And it pisses me off even more that he is amused in my pissed-off-ed-ness.
“If you found the people responsible for releasing Trident, would you punish them?”
Finally an easy one. “Yes,” I smile sarcastically while giving my proper one-word answer.
“If someone was a threat to the country and had valuable information that was needed to protect the people, would you approve of doing anything necessary to get the information?”
“No.”
“Well, would you approve threatening them?”
“Yes.”
“Would you approve inflicting any personal harm to them?”
“Look. Just threaten their lives and make sure they know that you are serious. If they want to live, they’ll give it up. If they don’t, then no matter what you do, they won’t talk and the information will just die with them,” I explain.
“You seem to have an issue with following directions, Ms. Scott.” This time it isn’t a question.
“Yes,” I answer, my voice dripping in sarcasm. I smile while looking him dead in the eyes.
I don’t know how I channeled this courage, but I’m glad I have it for this test because this test sucks! I just want to punch him in his evil face. Then roundhouse kick him in the nuts just for good measure.
“Do you think it’s appropriate for a government to withhold information from its people?”
I think of the monitoring and how they withheld that information, but how it will hopefully be used to find the best-suited leaders. “Yes.”
“Do you want to become Madam President?”
“Yes.”
“Will you marry anyone in order to do so?”
I shrug thinking of Benjamin. I wouldn’t even be allowed to lead with a jerk like that at my side. “No.”
/>
“Would you work against your friends in order to become Madam President?”
If it were absolutely necessary, but not in a degrading way. I might work against them, but I wouldn’t tear them down in the process. That’s what I want to say, but I’m trying to play nice and get back on this evil man’s good side, so I just reply with a simple, “Yes.”
“If becoming Madam President meant that you could never talk to your family again, could you do it?”
I smile and shrug. “Well if I had that much power, I would do it regardless.”
He rolls his eyes before moving on to the next question. “Would you do anything to protect your family?”
“Yes.”
At this point, they turn on a light in the room next to ours. What looked like a rubber wall is actually glass. I see Ashton bruised, battered, and tied down. He barely looks conscious and I would be worried he was even alive, but I see his head limply roll to the side. He’s sitting in a chair in a side room by himself. The ropes around his wrists are so tight his wrists are raw and look like they’ve been bleeding. His face is bruised and he looks awful. What did they do to him? An even better question, why?
What is going on?!
I’m out of my chair before I even know I’m moving. I pull all of the cords attached to me with me, tearing some off my hands with my sudden movement. I hear my chair drop to the floor with a bang. I run over to the glass and bang on it trying to let Ashton know I’m here.
Dear Lord, is he even alive?
“Ashton, Ash. Can you hear me?”
He can’t even see me. I feel tears burn in my eyes and begin running down my cheeks, but I don’t care. None of this makes any sense. Why? Why would they do this? Was it because he told me not to trust anyone? I immediately become enraged.
WHY?
I wipe the tears away and spin around looking at the testers, who obviously know why Ashton is here and why they beat the crap out of my brother. Through them is the only way I get to him. And I will fight them all if I have to.
“What did you do?” I ask them. I try not to look behind me at Ashton otherwise the tears will come flooding back. “I know he didn’t do anything so why? Why would you hurt an innocent man?”
I walk over to where they are sitting, pick up the evil man’s clipboard, and slam it down just like he did with me. “Answer me!” I yell and throw his clipboard to the ground breaking it in the process. None of them say anything.
“Let him go,” I plead and command both. “I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll quit. I just don’t get you people. You monitor our every move. You test us and test us and test us. Then you beat up my brother? Why?” I’m so angry I feel like it’s about to take over my body. “I NEED TO KNOW WHY!” I scream at them.
No one moves or says anything. They all just sit there watching me.
I see that amused look flash across both testers’ faces this time and I lose it. “What is so amusing about this gentlemen? And you Elle. You had me fooled. I didn’t think you were a cruel woman but what do I know? Turns out you are if you would allow this to happen.”
I hear her suck in a breath and it looks almost as if she wants to cry. She wants to cry, but it’s my brother in there beat within inches of his life? How does that even make sense?
“You just sit there rudely asking me all sorts of questions and you beat up my brother and can’t even give me the courtesy of telling me the reason?” I ask confused. I’m about to just head for the door and find a way to get to Ashton but…
That’s when it clicks.
Elle almost crying. They’re not saying a word. None of it is logical reactions. Sarge told me everything is a test. This is a test within a test. They aren’t saying anything because they want to see what I do. They want to see how I react. Of course. If Ashton was really in trouble, they wouldn’t show it to me during a test. This situation is staged. They must have beat him up to see how I’d react.
I shake my head looking at them and let out a snort. “Well, this has been a sick and twisted little test within a test. I hope my reaction has been entertaining enough for you.” I gesture with my arms then pick up the chair and sit back down, crossing my legs and folding my hands like I’ve been taught in etiquette. “This test is over. Let him go.” I glare daggers at the three of them.
More lights turn on in the room and the tester moves to get the pieces of his clipboard. Elle actually smiles at me.
“Congratulations. You passed,” my original tester, gray-eyes, informs me.
“Great. Give me my brother,” I spit out at them.
“And in a most impressive way, remarkable really,” the other one adds and smiles, also ignoring my comment.
All three of them then clap which seems to irritate me even more.
“Most impressive, Reagan,” Elle nods with the other two.
I’m sitting there somewhat confused and still angry but not really paying attention to them as my head is turned and my eyes are on Ashton. I see a door open in the room Ashton is in and a guard walks in and removes his ropes. I’m standing again and move over to the glass which is cold against my hands. I hear the other three making comments about how fast my test was completed.
I snap at them. “You all make me sick. All you are concerned with is my test time when there is a man bleeding in the other room? He may not be your brother, but he is still a human being that you beat the crap out of for a test. Did you do that to everyone’s siblings or was this a privilege you extended to just me?”
“Regs! They didn’t really hurt me.” I turn at the sound of his voice to see Ashton enter the room smiling at me.
I fly across the room and into his open arms. Now I’m crying again and I can’t seem to contain it even a little bit. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I look him over. He is smiling and seems his usual self, not like someone that just got the crap beat out of him.
“Yeah. It wasn’t real. I’m fine.” He smiles and puts his hands out for me to see.
“Are you sure?” I reach up and gingerly touch his face where the bruising is.
Elle walks over with a bottle of water and a paper towel and rubs it across his face. Sure enough, it wipes away just like makeup. I reach down and look at his wrists which looked almost like they were bleeding. It all wipes away too. It looks so real. I could have sworn it was. Why was I smart enough to figure out they were testing me, but I wasn’t smart enough to know that both parts of the test were staged? I should be disappointed, but am still mostly just angry.
Still crying and not even trying to hide the tears, I look to my instructors. “I’m sorry I lost my cool here, but I’m still not okay with this. Not even a little. It looked so very, very real.”
The evil tester man, the new one, smiles at me sympathetically. “That’s fine. And don’t feel remorse for not knowing it wasn’t real.” He nods toward Ashton, “Our testing techniques are not at all usual and we have an exceptional makeup artist that is supposed to make it look real. Know that you did very, very well though. This one test tells us volumes about our candidates, and sadly we use it to weed a lot of you out. It tells us how you will react in the worst of circumstances. I would like to say this is our last test of this nature,” he gestures to the other room, “but it probably isn’t. You definitely passed with flying colors though.”
Elle smiles again and it’s as if I didn’t just call her cruel about sixty seconds ago. “For the next hour or so I will bring you to a room so you may spend some time with your brother before he flies back home. I may be out of line for saying this, but it may be a very long time before you see him again, so enjoy. And, congratulations. You have made it to the final 35.”
This time I do smile.
****
“I wish I could’ve seen your face. I bet you freeeaked,” Ashton laughs, all cleaned up and looking normal. Well, as normal as he can look.
“How can you joke about this? I thought they had tortured you,” I say, still trying to shake the image out of m
y head.
He smiles and nods. “Honestly though Regs, if this were reversed, if it was you and they did that to me, I would have killed every one of them. I’m sure you handled yourself well.”
I look around the small conference-style room that we are sitting in while eating some dinner. “I wouldn’t categorize my reaction as ‘well’,” I smile.
I know I can talk about the horrifying test I just took with Ashton and Ashton only as I am not to speak of it with the girls. I just wonder where the camera is in this room because I’m sure they wouldn’t leave us completely unmonitored. Otherwise I’d ask him why he told me to trust only myself before I left home.
“What did you do?” He smiles slowly as if imagining all the terrible things I could’ve done.
“Well, first I flew to the window,” I begin while rubbing the tops of my hands where the pulse patches were ripped off. “Then I demanded answers and got a little feisty. One of them had the nerve to look amused and I lost my cool. Then it just clicked. If it were real, those wouldn’t be normal reactions. They didn’t say a word. Not even when I insulted them or yelled. So they had to be doing it just to gauge my reaction.”
“A little feisty? I can’t wait to tell Mom and Dad. You and your infamous temper.” He laughs out loud. A little too hard.
“Hey. I’ve been keeping it in check,” I offer. “Until today, anyway.”
“Yeah, you must be if that hot chick said you would be around for a while.” He wiggles his eyebrows.
I fidget and avoid looking him in the eyes. This process is more difficult than I assumed. If my performance on that last test taught me anything, it was that I may not be tough enough to win. Or smart enough since I didn’t realize it wasn’t real that Ashton got beat up. And the evil tester man said this probably wasn’t the last test of this nature. What’s next? I feel like I’m in over my head here.
“Regs. You can do this. You would make an excellent Madam President.” He looks at me like a proud older brother, oddly serious.
The Culling: Book 1 (The Culling Series) Page 12