Find A Way Out

Chapter 4 - Interesting Development

I woke up, and looked around. I was in my room again. After a few confused seconds of wondering what had happened, I remembered falling asleep sitting beside Austin, and concluded that they must have moved us back to our separate rooms again.

I sat up on my bed, and shuffled to sit against the wall. I rested my head on my knees, and let out a sigh. The last thing I wanted now was for the same thing as last time to happen, to not see Austin for a couple years until Randson decides that he needs one of us to manipulate the other. But at that moment though I was so scared that that was exactly what was going to happen...

I felt physically sick all of a sudden. I run to the toilet off the side of my room, throwing up.

"In light of our most recent experiment from yesterday, what seems to be the state of subjects two and three?" Randson asked, looking around the table at the other members of the facility that he stood in front of.

There were three that were in charge of the information of each of the two subjects: someone who looked over the medical readings, someone who looked at the psychological effects of what happened and lastly, the tutors of each of the children. The tutors, who were around 28 and 29 years old respectively,were called Jaquelin and Alex Matthews.

One of the doctors spoke up. "Subject three seems to have developed bruising on his arms and a few on other areas of his body. Other than that vitals seem to be mostly normal, although his blood pressure is raised."

"You already know about the development in his ability, but we don't have much information on this yet," said the psychologist on the same side of the table. "We did see him punching the wall this morning after he woke up and realised that he wasn't in company of subject two, also shouting obscenities as you can imagine and pacing his room. He is obviously angry towards you and worried about subject two."

"Understandably," Randson comments. "And subject two?"

"She woke up, shocked to say the least. Vomited after approximately 5 minutes of waking up, most likely due to stress and worry. Was not very active, she stayed curled up on her bed after she was sure she wouldn't throw up again." Said the doctor in charge of the girl.

"Her connection with subject three is clearly very strong. She appears to be very stressed about what happened yesterday, which was to be expected. And worried about the boy. Something else came up in our readings however, which I think will interest you, Sir."

"Yes?" Randson seemed intrigued now.

"Well, as we were monitoring her, when subject three was being restrained into the chair, we noticed increased activity in a certain part of her brain. We believe that this was her ability sensing the danger that he was in, and not her own."

Randson seemed to think for a moment. "That is interesting... start making preparations to investigate it further, as well as subject three's power development." The four that had spoken nodded and started taking notes.

The man then turned to the two tutors. "Now then," He walked around the table slowly as he spoke. "Jaquelin, when I came to retrieve subject two you said something... now what was it? That I 'can't', wasn't it?" He was standing behind the woman's chair now.

She shifted in her seat, but hid the discomfort in her expression quickly, before looking up at him. "I was in the middle of a lesson with Zina. We have agreed that tutoring sessions were not to be interrupted."

"I think you are forgetting that I am in charge here, Mrs Matthews." He turned her chair around so that she faced him. "And what I say, is what happens. Do I make myself clear-"

The man sitting beside Jaquelin, Alex, stood up, and placed his hand on Randson's shoulder, pushing him away from the woman slightly. He stared his superior in the eyes. "Randson, I advise you leave her alone."

The latter stood straight again, and scoffed at Alex's words. "You too Mr Matthews, you don't seem to realise that I could easily have you both fired-"

"But you wouldn't. Because you know, as much as you wish it wasn't true, that you need us, at least to have Austin and Zina as smart as you need them to be for your tests."

"And the psychologists will tell you how important it is for children to have regular interaction with someone they feel safe around," Jaquelin added, arms crossed. Randson glared between the couple, scowling. He turned and walked back around to the front, but stood with his back to the table for a while.

Amongst the silence, a sigh was heard. Randson cleared his throat. He turned back around to face the people at the table. "Are there any suggestions on what we should do next?" He asked the group as if nothing had happened.

Jaquelin raised her hand. Randson's eye twitched in annoyance. "Yes, Mrs Matthews?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"I would like to propose the idea of letting Zina and Austin have frequent meetings, maybe once a week. They need to have a friend their own age, it may as well be each other," she stated.

"If I may add, they could even help test each other's abilities," Alex added. There were nods and murmurs of agreement. Jaquelin shot a glance in his direction.

Randson glared around until they were all silent again. He stared at the two. "Thank you for your suggestions, they will be taken into consideration. Anyone else got any ideas?"

After a few minutes of no one putting forth anything, Randson dismissed them, and they went back to their jobs. Jaquelin and Alex went out together. When they were out of earshot of the rest of their colleagues, Jaquelin turned to her husband as they walked.

"Why did you say that? Randson will-"

"I didn't mean it in the way that you're thinking of," Alex interrupted. "Look, we needed something to convince the rest to agree, and a way of testing the kids' abilities was the best way of doing that. I just want them to be able to meet more, okay?"

"So do I..."

"I know. Jaquelin, listen, I won't let him use them against each other like that as much as I can.." He told her, stopping to look her in the eyes.

"I know you won't..." she smiled slightly.

He smiled a little back, then sighed as they carried on walking. "Don't worry, we'll think of something soon..." He said quietly.