The Test

Twenty-three

"Go," I whisper to Sam, pushing him forward as gunfire breaks out around us. "Run!" I scream at the others, not stopping to watch as they scatter, grabbing for supplies and running for the truck. The second everyone's in, the driver floors the gas. How they manage to keep the truck on the road, I have no idea. But once we get far enough away from the black-clad figures, someone looks furtively behind us and says to no-one in particular; "What was that?"

"Gunfire." I answer grimly.

The boy turns to me."Yeah, I know." he says sarcastically, as if to say, haven't you ever seen a gun before? "But from who?" he asks, exasperated.

"The government."

"What?" The boy splutters. "The government? Why would they care about us?" he sounds confused. I'm not surprised.

"Because they want to kill us."

"Yeah, but why?"

"I don't know." I've already been through this too many times in my own head; no need to go through it again, at least not until I know I'm right. For all I know, they could have been Genetics like us. Just dressed really weirdly and shooting at us.

"They created us, didn't they?" Another girl says. "Why shouldn't they care about us?"

The boy shrugs. "I guess."

"And besides," she continues, "Who cares why they're killing us. All that matters is that they are."

"That's true, I guess," the guy says slowly.

Conversation slowly dries up, until we're riding in tense silence back to the compound.

When we get there, I'm up and running to the training barn, almost smacking into Luc on the way. "You were right," I burst out, out of breath from all the running.

"What?" He seems bemused. "I was just coming to find you. I heard you were back from the raid soon."

"Luc, listen." I say exasperatedly. "They weren't using us. Or - they were. I don't know. All I know is they were giving us food and then they were trying to kill us-"

"Whoa, whoa, Anya, slow down. Who were trying to kill you?" He asks, confused.

"The government. We don't know why yet, but we think the people who were giving us food are the government, and that they're fattening us up to use us for something. And then we were doing perimeter checks and people in black started shooting at us. That's why we're back early."

"Hold on. The people shooting at you were the government? The same ones who are giving us food?"

"Yes." It sounds so much more rational when he says it, when he puzzles it out with me.

"And then people tried to kill you."

"Yes."

"How do you know they were the same people? How do the events correlate?"

I shrug. "Because the ones that gave the false orders to Knox are the higher-ups. And the place the orders sent us to was where people tried to kill us. You see my point? People give us orders. We go to where they send us. People there try to kill us. See?"

He sighs. "Yeah. I know."

"But then that raises the question: why?"

He smiles sadly and puts an arm round my shoulders. "That doesn't matter."

"Why not?" I ask angrily. "It seems like everyone always tells me not to worry, that it doesn't matter. But it does matter. Because the people who shot at us might be the same people who took Bianca."

He goes still, thinking. "Yeah, you might have a point."

"Might have a point? Why is it always so hard for you to concede that I have a point? What is wrong with you?"

"Ok, ok. It matters. You have a point. I'm sorry." To his credit, he does look mildly apologetic. Then: "Why do you care so much about Bianca, anyway?" he bumps my hip. "Is it cause she's Zach's sister?"

"No," I say, going red. "It's not. It's because I am curious about why she's here if she passed her Test. Ok? Just because I like Bianca does not mean it has anything to do with Zach." I say in a somewhat bossy voice that makes Luc laugh. "You are indomitable. You know that?"

I laugh and say, "I know," even though I don't.

~

Later that day, Luc comes to find me at dinner. "I wondered where you were!" I say, surprised, looking up at him from my usual seat at the table. He laughs and sits down. "I know. I just had to talk to Knox about something." He whispers; "Knox knows the orders were false. Or at least, he does now that I've told him."

I breathe an inward sigh of relief that Knox didn't know the orders were false before. He didn't plan on them shooting at us. "Have you told him about them trying to kill us?"

"Yes. He didn't take it well. He's in contact with the higher-ups now, trying to figure out what's going on. Also, he's becoming more pro-active in the search for Bianca because, as you said, there's a possible link between the people who shot at you guys and the people who took her." He sighs and folds me into a good, long hug. "God, Anya," he says into my hair in s lightly admonishing tone. Even sitting down, he's taller than me. "Never, ever do that to me again."

"Do what?"

"Have me so worried!"

"Well, I didn't know they were going to shoot at us!"

He sighs, a laugh in his voice as he shakes his head and hugs me tighter, as if he never wants to let me go. "I know."