The Experiment

Chapter II

Katrina groggily shook herself out of her stupor. Opening her eyes, she was met with blank white walls and blinding white lights on the ceiling. Some teenagers her age were milling about, whispering quietly.

Katrina was in a small room with army cots lining one side of the room and a bathroom on the other. There was another locked door nearby, and she assumed that that was where whoever put them there got into the room.

Katrina stretched in the small army cot where she was laying. She cautiously stood up. Katrina grabbed a short freckled-face girl and yanked her towards her.

"Where are we?" she asked

"The waiting room for the Experiment," she whispered back.

"What? So, we're all Deviants? I didn't know there was a waiting room. What are we waiting for? When will we get out of here?"

The girl held up her hands to stop her. "Whoa, stop bombarding me with questions. All I know is that we're waiting until they get a 'suitable amount of people' for the Experiment. Some of us have been here for weeks. That's all they told us. But all of us are definitely Deviants."

"What's your power?" Katrina asked.

"Yeah. Healing. You?"

"She's an illusionist," someone behind her said.

Katrina whirled around to find Dean watching them.

"You know him?" the girl asked.

"I thought you escaped! How did they track you down?" Katrina wondered, ignoring the girl.

"They probably managed to follow us or something," Dean shrugged.

"I'm Dean Stanford," he said, talking to the girl Katrina was talking to before. "My power's telepathy."

"Blythe Forrest. Pleased to meet you." Blythe looked at Katrina expectantly.

"Katrina York," she introduced, clasping Blythe's outstretched hand.

Katrina ended the handshake as a loud hissing noise emerged from the walls. Within moments, half of the crowd had fallen unconscious.

Katrina dropped down to the floor and covered her nose and mouth, assuming that sleeping gas was being released. She took one last lungful of air and held her breath as long as she could.

Her lungs burned, but Katrina refused to be shot down so quickly and easily. However, soon, her survival instincts kicked in, forcing her to breathe in. Before she knew it, she was, once again, subdued.

...

The next thing Katrina knew, she was lying in a field. Her nose filled with the smell of rich soil and soft green grass tickled her face. Sitting up, she found everyone who were in the waiting room before lying around her. She took in her surroundings.

There were pastures filled with cows, chickens, pigs and other farm animals. A small shed's door was ajar, revealing plenty of farm tools. A city loomed to the south about seven miles away and sat between an ocean to the west and a forest to the east. A mountain range surrounded everything except the ocean, preventing anyone from getting in or out, acting as an effective barrier.

Katrina guessed that the ocean was like a barrier itself. She assumed that there was either an invisible wall in the ocean or the ocean was endless, so that if they ever tried to escape using the ocean, they would never reach anywhere.

Katrina spotted Blythe and Dean a few feet away from her. She walked towards them, grateful for familiar faces.

"Where are we?" Dean groaned.