More Than Human

Chapter 7

June 9th

I woke up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. It took me a few seconds to remember I was in the dorms of the Institute.

Right. I was in the Institute. I fought back tears of homesickness. It's just a vacation, I told myself. Just a vacation. I'll go back home.

I didn't believe it.

I looked around me. Fay was still sleeping, but Gloria was wide awake and exploring, peeking in every cupboard and door. Lea was still absent.

I wondered where she was. Was she okay? Was she even alive? What did they do to her that prevented her from coming here?

Ok. If I keep worrying, I'll drive myself crazy and make everybody else worry about Lea. Then they'll have three problems: an insane Madeline, a missing Lea, and the whole kidnapped and experimented on the thing. I'm never going to stop talking about that.

The dorm was one big room, kind of like the one in Dauntless in Divergent, but much nicer. The walls were burgundy and the floors were shiny polished hardwood- a nice change from the rest of the Institute.

It was a wide room, with four beds on one side and three on the other. There were also seven doors along the far wall. The bathrooms, I guessed.

That's what Gloria was searching right now. I decided to get up and join her.

This was our (extremely interesting) conversation:

Me: Hey

Gloria: Oh, hey

Me: Whatcha doing?

Gloria: Trying to find some clothes that aren't so stiff

Me: You mean our old ones?

Gloria: Pretty much. What are you doing?

Me: Seeing what you're doing

Fay: *yawn*

Gloria left the bathroom I was currently in, leaving to explore by myself.

It was your average bathroom, with the exception of a closet and extra room to change. Strangely, though, there weren't any clothes in it.

I then left the bathroom and started chatting with Gloria as Fay slowly woke up. About ten boring minutes later, a woman came into the dorms.

"Hello, I'm Amanda, and I'm here to give you your official tour and introduction. Now you may have had something similar yesterday, but this time I'll cover where you can go and where you can't go. Now follow me," she said briskly, and left the room.

Fay and Gloria looked at me, as if waiting for my signal. I shrugged and followed Amanda.

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"And here is the training room," she finished off. "Daryl will take it from here." Amanda left us at the door of the training room and walked off to somewhere else.

She had basically told us that we could go anywhere in our living quarters, with permission to the training room, and nowhere else. Not even outside, which I hated.

I hated this place in general. Sure, it seemed okay, and yeah, it could be worse, and at least I'm not living in a dog crate, but still. They kidnapped me and experimented on me. I will not forget that, people!

Daryl opened the white door. "Come on in, girls." And so we did.

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The training room was like a school gymnasium, weight room, and gymnastic centre all mixed into one.

It was a full sized gym with a very big side room with the gymnastics equipment and weights in it. One of the gym's walls was a giant rock climbing wall, reaching all the way to the ceiling. There was also another side room which I guessed was Daryl's office. I don't know, it was locked.

"So I didn't just bring you here to gawk," said Daryl after showing us around. "You guy's training starts today. So follow me, and I'll get you your gym clothes."

We did so, still pretty scared of the people here. And we're not big rebels. Compared to most people, we actually follow the rules. I know, I'm a big coward, scared of people more powerful than me, but I'd rather not... have whatever sort of consequence they have here done on me.

He handed us each a black pair of shorts and a black t-shirt. I looked around. "Uh, where do we change?"

"Oh, just run back to your dorm and come back."

"Okay."

We quickly went and changed, then it was time to start the training.

Okay, I admit it. I lied. I didn't mean to, though! Training was not this chapter. But it's coming soon!

Nicole