Eden

Chapter Eleven: Welcome to the Eden Experience

When I woke up that morning I was taken, with the rest of the 400, to a building on the outskirts of Eden. Jace was led to a separate room as I was forced into another. They sat me down in a chair, it was dirty and stained. They rub my arm with alcohol staying silent, normally the people in Eden can't shut up but they're too silent.

The needle pressed into my arm, I felt blood prickle from my skin as they injected the ink. I bit my tongue as the cloth soaked in my mouth. They began to draw the numbers on my right arm: 102110. Representing my Community and the year. I am theirs. They cut my left arm and stuck a chip into the wound, they finally stitched up my wound.

I was forced to change into my new outfit. Magnus pulled my hair into a ponytail and he gave me a hair tie to put around my wrist.

I couldn't look at my branding, I didn't want to. I didn't want to see the numbers inked into my arm, it meant that they owned my skin. They will track me and brutalize me like everyone else before me.

Magnus's face is blank, he shows no emotion to me as he gives me my jacket and pins the apple tree pin on the pocket of my jacket.

"Wait out the first Challenge, scavenge." Magnus hugs me, "This is from Claire."

"If I die I want Vernell to take Emma from Wilma."

"Of course."

"Applicants, step to the platform." The intercom echoes.

"You'll be alright. I believe in you."

I step onto the platform slowly.

"Forty-nine, forty-eight, forty-seven..."

"Don't forget you're being watched constantly."

I look behind me as the doors shut. I see my breath on the glass door. I need to be calm. The tube shoots up into a tunnel. I watched as white began to form around me. Everything is blurry until the tube stops. The door opens to an endless white room. Everyone else starts appearing from the white space below.

Jace appears on a platform far across from me.

"Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Twenty-seven. Twenty-six. Twenty..."

I take a deep breath and look around me. Loki is my biggest threat, with the rest of the Tycoons falling closely behind as the 2nd biggest threat. The 3rd is the Challenges. I have to relax my face, they won't like a frowning girl.

A blonde girl walks off her platform as the intercom counts down, she gets thrown into the sky like a canon ball. Her arms fall off as she comes back down, and blood splashes on my face. She lands on the edge of my feet, her neck is on the ledge. The remains of her eyes land all around us. She could barely let a scream escape her lips before she got blown to pieces.

The white space begins to simulate a forest, with tall green trees soaring into the sky and soft grass appearing underneath us. I wanted so badly to touch it, it looked as soft as the blankets back at the hotel.

"Twenty-three. Twenty-two. Twenty-one. Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen..."

A tall doll appeared in front of us. The robot is dressed in a blue and white outfit that has a little bib on its chest, there is a blonde wig on top of its head.

"Thirteen. Twelve. Eleven. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six..."

I see a backpack in front of the robot. I need a bag, I need that bag. I want to know what's inside it. I may need it. They must be sitting at the edge of their seats, biting their nails waiting for us to run.

"LET THE TRIALS BEGIN!"

I trip over the dead girl. My hands stop my face from hitting the grass.