Shifters

Chapter 41

WILL

"Thank you, Will. Your questioning, for now, is over." Quinn shuffled a stack of papers and hit a few keys on his laptop. "You may go. Your friends will be getting out of their sessions soon."

I rose and walked out. Neither Thea nor Luke was done yet, so I leaned against the wall outside room F and surveyed the rebels walking around the warehouse. A few looked at me, their faces curious, wary. Some distrustful, or even hostile. I stared back at them, my face carefully neutral.

"Hey," said a sudden voice at my shoulder, and I whipped my head around to see Thea standing beside me.

"Scared you?" she teased, grinning.

I gave her a dirty look.

"So, do you think you passed?"

"I hope so," I grumbled. "I don't want to have gone through all that for nothing."

"What would happen if they thought we were spies?" Thea wondered aloud. "Imprisonment? Execution? Memory wipe?"

"Memory wipe?"

"It's probably possible," Thea argued. "If the Facility could make us shape-shift, I think this place could wipe our memory."

"So, what, torture us to get us to give away government secrets, then wipe our memories and tell us we've always worked here?"

"You guys have such dark imaginations," Ren said, suddenly approaching. "I promise you, we're not as bad as that."

"That's so believable and reassuring," I said dryly.

"How bad are you, then?" Thea challenged. "Even if you're not 'that' bad, there are still plenty of levels of evil in between."

Ren raised an eyebrow. "I'd say we're better than the Facility or the government."

"That's a relief," Luke said, coming up to my left side.

The three room doors suddenly opened behind us, and our interviewers — interrogators? — stepped out, then hurried to another room farther down the row.

"Going over the results," Ren said.

"Do you trust us, Ren?" Thea asked.

Ren looked at her and paused to think for a second. "I'd like to trust you, Thea. But I hardly know you."

"Do you think we're lying?" I pressed.

"No," she said slowly, her eyes flicking to me. "I haven't detected any lies from any of you."

"You can tell when people are lying?" Luke asked, somewhere between doubtful and impressed.

"All agents are trained in lie detection," Ren stated simply. She glanced at her watch. "I have to go discuss your answers." She turned and walked swiftly to the farther room, giving us a solemn nod just before she entered.

"What do we do now?" Luke asked.

"What is there to do?" Thea said tiredly.

~~

We ended up sitting, leaned against the wall, for over half an hour. Luke tried to half-heartedly make some jokes, but quickly grew tired of them himself. I couldn't muster the energy to encourage him.

The door to the far room opened at last. Thea and I stood, but Luke only sighed and stretched out his legs.

Ren reached us first. "You have passed the first session," she said, and her tone actually sounded somewhat congratulatory. "We will break for lunch now, and then the physical tests will begin."

Thea groaned. "I haven't had good exercise in forever," she said. "They'll be able to tell I'm not a government spy when I can't even do five push-ups."

Ren chuckled. "Then after physicals, we'll need to do medical exams. X-rays, blood tests, the usual. I expect you three will have some interesting stats. But, as I said, lunch first. Follow me." She turned and started walking toward the back corner by the gym space.

"Blood tests?" Thea whispered. I looked over to see that her face was pale. Oh, right, she was afraid of needles.

"It'll be okay," I reassured her. I grabbed her hand, and she squeezed mine back tightly. "Luke and I will be here with you. Don't worry about it right now. Let's eat first."

"I wonder if they'll have "sorry for asking you so many invasive and unsettling questions" cookies," Luke joked. Thea smiled a little and we followed Ren over to the serving area.

Lunch was terrible. Someone had tried to make some kind of beef stew, but there wasn't enough of anything in it, besides water. It was horribly bland and somehow the meat, even though it was soaked, still managed to taste dry.

Luke's nose was scrunched up in disgust. Thea absent-mindedly swirled her soup with her spoon, looking into it with unfocused eyes. I forced myself to eat as much as I could bear.

Derek, the guy who had questioned Luke, approached our spot on the floor. "Follow me," he ordered. We quickly put our dishes onto a crowded rack against the wall where other people were leaving theirs, then followed Derek to the gym area. He stood to the side of a large gray mat, holding a dented tablet under one arm. "Do as many push-ups as you can in one minute." He glanced at his watch. "Get into position. Begin."

I was straining after fifteen. I used to be decently athletic, back when I was at the orphanage and the school we were forced to attend had a nasty, strict gym teacher. But then that one left and we got another who did absolutely nothing.

I got up to thirty-two before Derek called out, "Time's up. Theodora, how many?"

"Twenty," she said.

"Ph—Will?"

"Twenty-six."

"Luke?"

There was a silence. I looked expectantly at Luke. His eyes were wide. "Wait, we were supposed to count ourselves?"

"Thirty-one," said an irritable voice behind us. I hadn't realized Ren was watching us. "I suspected you wouldn't realize that."

"Um...thanks?"

"Thank you, Ren," Derek said wearily. "Now, onto sit-ups..."

I don't think any of us really did our best on any of the physical tests. Luke didn't listen half the time, Thea was preoccupied stressing about needles, and I honestly didn't care as much as I maybe should've.

"Now, private physical exams. Theodora, you first. The infirmary is there." Derek pointed to a door in the middle. There was a large stretch of blank wall on either side, meaning the infirmary was quite large.

"Maybe I shouldn't go first. I don't feel great right now. I just need a minute," Thea squeaked.

"I'll go first," I volunteered.

"Theodora. You first," Derek repeated.

I looked over to her. "Sorry," I said with a grimace.

"Thanks for trying," she said quietly. With that, she turned, squared her shoulders, and walked into the infirmary.