Enhancement

- - 33 - -

"Follow me, guys," Olivette says as we descend Liad's private staircase. "I'll be touring you around."

She continues to speak as we pass by her secretary space. Tanner perks up from a seat in the lobby. He must have slipped out of the meeting room when I wasn't looking. "Hey again," he greets. "How'd it go?"

"I'm not sure," I say. "Commander Liad just explained some basic stuff. Nothing too complex."

Tanner nods, rising from his chair and joining our group. "Basics are good. Now all you guys need are some clean clothes and food."

Olivette agrees, showing us the way through a small maze of white halls before we break out into the large atrium again. Instead of finding the mass of people walking in every direction, we face a relaxed, loud picnic of people lounging and sitting in distinct circles all around. A handful of children run around the infinite number of people.

"Welcome to the Camps," Olivette says, "We refer to our Pod as the Camps because of this: the hundred or so rings of people sitting around invisible campfires."

"It's amazing," Stephen says. "There's so many people here."

"Not to mention the fact that everyone in here is completely anti-President Hybriad," Tanner laughs. "Even those five-year-olds."

I scan the room for a moment before spotting some children weaving around the camps of people. As the round a corner, I get a glimpse of the soft faces. My eyebrows furrow. Soft, smooth faces with nauseous bruises under their eyes and on their arms. I turn to Stephen and grab his arm with wide eyes.

"They're okay, I promise," Olivette explains. "They're new here. They all missed their SkyTrain after school, and they were screened. Of course their faces were battered up pretty badly before getting here. The Screeners can be pretty nasty to the lower-class children."

"That's horrible," I say. "I wish I would have known."

"Don't feel guilty," she replies cheerfully. "The separated class system prohibits pretty much everything. None of us could have helped them."

Exhaling a small, longing sigh towards the children, Olivette shows our small group the way back down the ladder. We cross the wide atrium, stepping between the small groups.

Stephen and I don't go unnoticed as we walk. Nearly every group seems to turn and look at us, not in scrutiny but out of curiosity. It's like they want to know the story of how Stephen and I got here. Everyone here must have a story to share as much as they want to hear ours. I wouldn't even know where to start with mine.

As I push a hand through my hair, more than a few people's eyes watch my wrist. Worried, I glance at my wrist while it returns to my side. The block of tattoo ink stares back at me. It suddenly occurs to me that no one in the room has a tattoo except for Stephen and I. I'm still not used to having rectangles on my wrists instead of 400's. Both still bind us to the Project no matter where we are.

I glance at my veiny wrists again. They remind me of horror. The rope swinging my mom in the air. Stephen's sobbing screams during the experiments. Dead Screeners in the woods.

After another few steps, we finally break through the remaining Camps. Olivette leads us to a blank portion of a massive wall in the atrium. She taps a pattern onto the wall, and the hidden elevator doors roll open. Our group of four loads into the elevator, rides to the ground level, and releases into the dark halls once more. Passing a dozen or so closed doors, Olivette finally stops at a widely-split, open doorway.

"Men to the left, women to the right," she says before nudging Tanner. "We'll be back for you soon."

Stephen and I nod, finally able to stand next to each other again. Olivette half-smiles at us once more before walking side-by-side with Tanner back the way we came. I can't help but think about my mom.

I watch Tanner and Olivette walk out of view before turning to Stephen, my heart hurting now. His brown eyes illuminate in the dark lighting.

"Finally, 400," he laughs quietly to himself. "Finally."

"I'm really sorry," I say shakily, thoughts I pushed away now filling my mind, "about everything."

Stephen's spine stiffens, grin long since faded away.

"S-Stephen, you're so kind and caring, but I just don't get how you do it. How can you still be okay when those experiments... did all that to you. Every other week?"

He pauses, rubbing his face with his right hand and staring at the ground. The air becomes heavy with dark emotion. "It became all I knew. They tore me apart, made me cry, forced me into weakness and pity. I was nothing."

Stephen looks up from the ground. "Then they dumped you in my cell, and I felt like I wasn't ready to watch another person die. So I first tried to reject you. Then realized I felt better when I talked to you, when I could have an ally."

"I hope there's more to me than guilt," I fill in for him. "I really hope so."

"There is," he says, watching my eyes water as his own turn glassy again. He draws me into a hug, arms wrapped around each other.

He presses his lips to mine. The tension between us vanishes as we lose ourselves. I don't know how long we stand there before I pull away eversoslightly.

"I'll be continuing this later," I mumble.

"That a promise, 400?" We kiss, and I stop to look into his eyes.

"No, I was lying to you this whole time. I don't even like you." Stephen stares as me in confusion before I let out a small, sniffling chuckle to signal my joke.

He suddenly catches on and lets out an amused call. "Ooh, harsh."

I laugh, slowly taunting him by edging out of the embrace, toward my designated doorway. "You know me: hardcore and hard to get."

"I wouldn't expect anything else," he fires back.

"Well, then it's settled," I say, grinning now. "You're gullible when you're around me."

"Nuh-uh," he says.

"Mm-hm," I add, "399."

"400."

"401."

"402," he says before realizing he's counting number for no reason. Letting out a good-natured laugh, he admits, "You got me."

I smile widely, "Of course I did. I always will."

-- -- -- -- --

yay, fun/easy chapter to read! though nothing virtually happened, i am still pleased with it.

i used the winning word "many" rather discreetly, and i explained what the Camps were, so yay! Stuff making sense and coming together!

(( except for Equinoxes lol. #buildinganticipation ))

Question: Choose a phrase: on stage, on guard, or on screen.

Follow-up Fun Question: If you were in the Enhancement Project, what would be your number and why?