Enhancement

- - 55 - -

Tanner flashes out of view, almost as if he was never there. But I know better than that. Tanner was here. He gave me a note, and now he's gone from me, waiting for a safer time to make himself known again.

Pain roars through my skull, and my voice grunts loudly. Every punch from those inductees singes me, draining my energy. I can barely open my eyes let alone fight back.

Something pricks my temples hard, causing me to whimper. Then the agony pulses twice before giving up completely.

I blink a thousand times, re-adjusting to the lights. A medic stands above me, discarding a syringe into his bag. He dabs a solution from a bottle onto a gauze rag. I mumble at him as he turns towards me.

"Stay still, don't move. You'll be fixed up in a minute," he says.

I nearly roll my eyes. With the pain gone, all I want to do is rise to my feet and find Tanner or Stephen, anyone with answers. I don't have time to be playing dead. I need to figure out where Tanner and my attackers went.

Yet I lie still.

The medic wipes his gauze over my cheeks as it numbs me. My best guess for what he's doing is clearing away bruises. At this rate, I'd rather have the black eye if it meant finding Tanner and figuring out why the heck he's suddenly here.

"Stay still, okay? This'll just take another moment."

My heels rub against the floor, ready to bounce upright the second I'm clear to go. The room is quiet, silent even. Where did all those inductees go? Where is the buzzing crowd of teens?

Another needle stabs me, and this time I wince, gritting my teeth so tight it raises hairs on my arms. The medic clicks something, plastic on metal.

"What was that noise?" I say.

"My aid kit. I was just making sure none of your Equinox trackers were damaged. After all, that was a pretty nasty fight."

My mind screams, thrown into anarchy by his reminder of the lump on my neck. Trackers? The lump on my neck is tracking what exactly? I thought the forced dreams with the leaderboard were bad enough.

"It wasn't a fight," I cover up, still irritated. My eyes glance at the medic. "I didn't fight them. They attacked me."

The medic makes the clicking noise again. "And that's why they're being dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard--"

"So can I go now?" The words leave my mouth sharper than I planned. The medic nods, letting me sit up. No pain or fire lights up my nerves. I'm perfectly cured of any battle wounds.

"Be careful out there," the medic says. "People do crazy things for those leaderboard rankings.

The medic shakes my hand, looking like he wants to say more than he can. I shrug and play nice because who knows what this guy endured during his own Equinox. Maybe he watched his girlfriend die in front of him. Or maybe he killed someone else's girlfriend.

I follow the medic out of the room, and we step back into the lobby through automatic doors. The crowd is packed, noisier than ever. As soon as the first set of eyes find me, the entire room stares at me.

Right. At. Me.

My muscles freeze, no one moves. Unsure of what to do, I take a breath and turn away from the crowd. I exit right out of the Equinox building, bolting into a run as soon as I'm out of view.

The streets are empty and dark. My feet fly across the intersection as I flee from the prying eyes. I don't want to be a part of this. I'm the girl who got screened, the girl who was beat up.

I hate this all. I don't want the tasks or any of this. I'm so sick of the Equinox. What's its point? Why the induced dreams? Why anything?

My heart rate rises steadily as I tear into an alleyway. My footsteps slow down, and I lean my back against the wall. I want answers. Why did someone feel the need to beat me up? Over a stupid score or a leaderboard? What's the score even meant for?

A sudden hand grabs my shoulder, pulling me into a doorway. Cloth gags my mouth as I scream. A thousand different possibilities flash through my mind. Every radar is going off, flashing within me. I'm being screened! I'm being taken back to the Enhancement Project!

A single lightbulb switches on about a foot above my head, then I feel someone slip something cold metal over the back of my neck. Swerving around, I rip the gag from my mouth.

"Tanner!" I wheeze. "What--"

"It's a long story," Tanner rushes. I take in his lanky features with gratitude. Answers. Finally.

"It's a long story, but I just talked to Stephen. I told him everything, but I gotta be careful. We have two minutes to talk before the cameras and sensors re-activate. The metal on the back of your neck will screw with your Equinox tracker, so hold it there."

"Great, amazing, perfect!" I nearly yell, pressing my fingers on the metal device Tanner has. I anchor it over the injection embedded under my skin. "Now explain what's going on."

"Okay," Tanner says. "But we have to be really careful. The Screeners are cracking down on everything. Like I told you in the message, a lot of us disappeared, probably being shipped back into society."

"Then how did you end up here?" I ask. "How did you end up finding Stephen and I?"

"It wasn't luck," Tanner says. "About a dozen of us hid from the Screeners once Liad was transferred to a different Pod. It was his orders to obey the new leaders and lay low, at least until we could get out of the Pods. Now a bunch of us are out delivering the message I gave you to all of our rebels in hiding."

"How did you find us?" I hiss. "How aren't you caught yet."

"It's the taboo system. The cameras only catch the buzz words they deem dangerous. If I don't say or do anything out of the ordinary, I stay safe."

I nod, overwhelmed by all the information. "Tanner, you're on a death mission."

He shrugs off my comment, as if it didn't phase him he's in a terrible position to be in. At any moment he could be caught and killed. "Holland, this is the most important part. You have to get through the Equinox and lay low. Don't draw any attention to Stephen or yourself."

"Or Nicolette," I say. I briefly fill him in how we both met up again. "But it's too late. You saw the fight I just got into."

Tanner shakes his head, the shadows of light from the bulb above us casting dim light on his cheeks. "As long as you pass your tasks, then you'll be admitted into society. That's the only way we can continue this fight: from within. Make friends, test their allegiance to the government, then deliver a message about the rebellion to them."

"So then why is the Equinox necessary at all?"

Tanner looks into my eyes, his gaze full of power. "It's like the Enhancement Project, but worse. It won't torture you, but it'll test you. It'll test how loyal you are to yourself, your friends, and the government."

-- -- -- -- --

finally i updated! (excuse the typos because I didn't get time to edit yet!) sorry for the long wait, but i hope you guys think it's worth it. the winning word was "the answer," which is basically Tanner's explanation for everything. He's still the same old amazing tanner!

Question: choose a word: more, less, or enough.