It made me wonder about the rest of the group. Did they have this sense of anticipation as well? What about the ones I couldn’t communicate with? Did they even have any emotions? None of us ever showed any signs of having any particular feelings. Lira had, and Liam when we finally were able to communicate, but we were never encouraged to talk to each other or interact in any way.

After the final meal of the day, when I got back to my room, I made it look as if I were going straight to bed. I stopped the cameras for half a second while I set up the bed. The lights were dim enough that they wouldn’t pick up on the fact that I was not in the bed. I knocked out the camera that could see my hidden panel out as well, and quickly slid the panel out of the way. I took out the box that held my secrets and put the panel back into place. Blocking its view, I sat curled up in the corner behind the desk and put up a psychic shield.

Opening up the box, I took out a ragged magazine, and a small handheld computer that I had found left on a table in the meal room. I flipped through the magazine pages. It was a nature magazine and it had pictures in it. There was an article about oceans that had always fascinated me, I wanted so badly to see this for myself. I had no real concept of it though. It was only a picture like something that would show up on the holoscreens when we weren’t supposed to be watching.

After reading through the articles in the magazine for the hundredth time, I tried to pay closer attention to the words. Someday I would go see these things. I set it aside to look at the computer. It hadn’t worked for months since I found it, the batteries had worn out not long after I put it in my box. It had contained a picture gallery though, and I liked to look through the different photos. They were so colorful, when my life was almost colorless.

I had just put the camera down again to put the box away, when I heard a noise. Quickly I stuffed the box in and slid the panel closed. The door had just clicked as I darted into the bedroom. I moved as a blur to get into the bed as the door opened and the light from the hall streamed in. Acting as if I had just woken up, I slowly rolled over to see who had come in.

An elderly man in a lab coat stood there, with the technician John right behind him. I rolled over and stood up by rote, as I did every morning when I woke up. This time though, it was just after sleeping hours had started. I stared blankly at them as they walked up to me. I could see red flares coming from the older man, it looked like waves of anger just pouring off of him. The old man glared at me, looking up and down, then went around behind me. I wondered if something had showed up on the cameras, and I hadn’t been as careful as I normally was. My mind flashed back to this morning when I didn’t notice Roberta enter the room. This time I was awake enough to hear the sound of the door. I instinctively threw my shields up, this man frightened me like no one else ever had.

“Bring her to the lab,” the man told John and turned to stomp out of the room. I looked at John, but he just felt terrified. The old man looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t place him.

“What is happening?” I asked the tech. He went pale, then whispered, “You are not supposed to talk.”

I followed him out of the room, toward the elevator where the elderly man was waiting for us. Silently we got on the elevator and went up several floors. I tried to see if I could get into the man’s head, but it was like a wall had been put up around him. The only thing I could feel was the anger. When the doors opened, we walked out into a huge laboratory that I had never seen before. I followed them out and we walked about halfway through the room when they stopped me. I looked to my right where a row of gurneys lined up against the wall. I saw that two of them were occupied, but by the time I realized it was Liam and Lira, I felt a needle stick to the back of my neck. My eyes closed involuntarily as I slumped to the ground, unconscious before I even hit the floor.