After Scarlet finished her rundown of what was going to go on for the rest of the day, everybody dispersed, some heading to their dorms and others going to chill in the lobby. I should probably head to my dorm like the other first years, I mean, I haven't even seen what it looks like inside yet. As I turn back towards the girls' dorm, Scarlet catches my wrist and holds me back.
"Hey, I need you to come with me for a minute. It shouldn't take long."
"Why?" I drag out the word skeptically, confused as to what she wants with me after saying that we got free time.
"No reason, on you go!" Luis pushes me from behind away from where I was heading and then walks off whistling like he didn't do anything.
"Whatever." Rolling my eyes, I look at Scarlet to see if I can get any hints as to what she wants, but her face doesn't give anything away. She looks me in the eyes, and I give a little nod saying I'm ready to follow her, for now anyways.
"Okay, follow me." She leads me back up the staircase that is connected to the third-floor, keeping her hand on my wrist the entire time like I was going to try to run away when she was right in front of me. Even I wouldn't be that stupid, but I can't blame her for beign cautious.
When we are about halfway up the staircase, she stops suddenly and turns to face the wall on the side of the stairs. She walks up to it and puts her head against it, tapping the wall with her knuckles on different spots. It's like she's looking for something, I wonder what it is. Looking back down the staircase, I see Luis standing at the bottom facing away from the stairs. It looks like he's guarding the stairs, probably making sure nobody sees what Scarlet is doing, whatever that is.
Judging where we're located on the stairs, we're probably around the height of the second-floor. Earlier they said that the dorms were on that floor, but there's only eight dorm rooms on each side of the building. There's absolutely no way the dorms take up the entire second-floor, but I didn't see an entrance to the rest of the floor, the staircase just leads directly to the third-floor where all the classrooms are. Could there be some sort of secret on the second-floor? Is there a way to access it?
Finally, Scarlet appears to have found what she was looking for. She taps on the wall, and there's a different sound than when she hit the other sections of the wall. She quickly glances up and down the staircase, and then looks back at me, almost as if she's confirming I'm still standing there. I'm not really sure why she did that, she's still holding my wrist after all. Turning back to the wall, she opens up her hand, placing her palm on the spot that she hit with her knuckle. Pushing her hand forward, a bright line appears and forms a rectangle on the wall around her palm, probably only four feet high at most.
Scarlet suddenly pulls on my arm, launching me straight into the wall. I throw my hands up and close my eyes, bracing myself for the impact. Nothing came, I never ran into the wall. Instead, I kept going forward, falling onto my knees. Opening my eyes, I look around at my surroundings. I don't see the staircase anymore, instead I'm in a long hallway with doors on either side of me. Up ahead it looks like the hallway forks off further into the building, turning out of view. I can only assume it keeps going after that. Turning behind me, I see a wall with a bright rectangle in the middle of it.
Casually, Scarlet walks through the wall, white rectangle fading away after she comes through. She looks at me on my knees and offers me a hand to stand up. I go to knock it aside, and she grabs me by my wrist again, picking me up and holding me above the ground.
"Hmm…" She says contemplatively, looking me up and down. "We probably should've gotten you another shirt." Looking down, I see my ripped hoodie and my bandages wrapped around my stomach. Huh, I forgot that Kyla ruined my hoodie. She owes me a new one. "Well, nothing we can do now. Follow me." Setting me back on my feet, she walks down the hallway, still holding my wrist. I'm starting to feel it in my stomach again, but it doesn't hurt as bad as last time, so I should be okay.
"Okay, where are we going? This is just ridiculous."
"I can't tell you yet, you'll just have to wait and see. Also, you can't tell anybody about this place. If you do, well, let's just say it won't be pleasant for you."
"Well that's reassuring." I say sarcastically. "Could you at least let me go?"
"Fine, but don't try anything." She lets me go but keeps walking. Catching up to her, I'm now walking next to her instead of behind her. Well, I'm slightly behind her, but that's just an extra precaution.
"Well, I don't think there's anything that I could try. I don't even know where we are." I mumble under my breath, rubbing my wrist. She ignores me, and keeps walking. We take the turn in the middle of the hallway, and big surprise, it's just another hallway with doors. There's another turn a little ways down the hallway, just like the last one. We continue to weave our way through the hallways, making two more turns like the first one, before we got to a hallway that was different than the others. Instead of having doors on both sides of the hallway all the way down, there was a single door at the very end of the hallway. I don't see a turn in this hallway either, so I can only assume this is our destination.
Scarlet leads me straight to the door, and then stops directly in front of it, turning to face me. "This is where I was taking you. Follow me, and please don't say anything." Without waiting for a response from me, she opens the door and enters the room.
Walking in behind Scarlet, I try to look around the room to see where she took me. The walls are completely black, and there aren't any windows in the room. It's pretty well lit, but it's got an ominous feel to it. I hear the door click shut behind me, and I wheel around just in time to see a person standing behind me with a needle in hand, trying to inject something into my neck.
I quickly block them, shoving them back to the door to try to create some distance between the two of us. I see a lock of red hair swing by in my peripherals before feeling a hand hit my neck sharply. I feel myself falling forward, losing consciousness.
"Sorry about this." It's the last thing I heard before everything went dark for the fourth time today.
***********
"Sorry about this." I hit Nova on the pressure point in her neck, causing her to lose consciousness. As she falls towards the floor, I catch her gently. Looking up from Nova, I see the Operationist looking at me with his eyes wide.
"And this is why we had a backup plan." the chairman steps out of the darkness of the corner of the room. "She is an unpredictable one, isn't she? I had a feeling a direct attack from behind wouldn't be enough to subdue her. Thank you for bringing her here Scarlet."
"It wasn't a problem, sir."
"Ahem," the Operationist clears his throat, regaining his composure. "Now that she's here, should we get started?"
"Yes, I suppose we should. Scarlet, guard outside the door, will you? I get the feeling Eagle and the others won't be very happy about this decision."
"Um, yes Chairman. However, not to be impertinent, but do we really have to go to this extent with her? You haven't even explained it to her yet, and we're already moving to this?"
"As explained in the instructions given, it won't be permanent. It's up to her to decide how long it will last, though." Way to go, giving me a cryptic message like that. Personally I don't think this is necessary, but I don't have any power to go against the superiors. I gently lower Nova into the reclined chair, and head towards the door. Before I leave, I take one last glance at the equipment on the table and sigh.
"I really don't think we should be doing this to her…" I say under my breath.
"I understand that you disagree, Scarlet, but this is for her own good." Is it really for her own good? I think it's just an excuse the school made for the fact that they want to keep her here. I feel bad for the girl, I really do. It's not her fault she got the school's attention like this, she doesn't even want to be here. The test really is immoral, if they want to find students, why don't they just let kids sign up for it instead of forcing them down this path? Unfortunately, most of the rest of the world disagrees with this way of thinking, so nothing will ever change. After all, we need heroes to protect everyone, right? Everybody in this school is so twisted, I can't stand it.
However, I don't think I've ever met a single person that hasn't wanted to be a hero, so I haven't really questioned the system before. Even I was ecstatic when I was chosen, so this really is a first. I wish she'd tell us why she didn't want to be a hero, though. I'm surprised that someone with her power would despise this school that much.
"Sure." I walk out of the room and close the door, leaning against the wall to the side of the room to wait. I guess whatever happens, happens.