The Billionaire's Possession (Voted Best Reads for Cats)

Chapter 18/The choosing

Leaving Alexander's car I walked towards the test hall. On the other side of the school I could see the big yellow bus which would drive those that had passed the test away to Overworld. All the kids came in with suitcases and bags just in case they were chosen. With them were parents hugging them like it was the last time. I knew mom and Eve would be out in the crowd of adults somewhere after the test. If you passed the test we had been told you would have 20 minutes to say goodbye to them. Still it looked like the entire population of Spring Falls had turned out to witness the choosing of the uninfected.

Seeing everyone brought home to me that the day of the test and my mouth was drier than a cowboy's boots. I arrived at school and hooked up with Marta. We queued to get our bags scanned. The entire morning would be taken up with bags being checked through an mobile X-ray machine. This was in case anyone brought bombs on to the bus with them for the trip to Overworld. We stood around while the people from homeland defense kept getting bags stuck in the machine. You might think it would be smarter and quicker to test only those who had passed the test, but I'm sure pointing this out would have you send off to Overworld on the bus as possessed faster than Martha could drop a boy friend.

Thinking about that Martha certain went through boys quicker than tissues in a flu clinic. Every time I mentioned dating someone she would say 'I dated him. He was pretty bad. I've got a half eaten sandwich I've not finished you want that as well?' Kind of made you wonder what he was looking for in a boy. I kind of realised Alexander was the first boy friend like material Martha hadn't pre-driven for me.

"Are you ready for the test?" said Martha after the scanner. Her eyes brightly excited while we stood in line to get our identities checked. I looked at the posters.

'America needs smart mothers' said the poster. There was a picture of a Russian woman 'If you don't, with my production of babies we will win capitalist scum'. I looked at the picture of the Russian woman in traditional dress. I wondered if the people making the posters did know that communism had fallen? Hard to be sure what people thought about the world outside now. The bag scanning took all morning and after lunch, we had to go outside and get organized.

For some reason, we were being marshalled to stand in particular orders. The idea was we could march into the test hall and walk to the end of the row and all be in the right order without having to pass anyone. It' seemed like a lot of effort and checking to make sure we entered the examination hall and started in the right seat but it took more than a couple of hours standing around getting organized in order to take a 40-minute test. Captain Ness stood ordering people around. Around the edge of the school, you could see soldiers standing casually around on guard in case any possessed decided to run at the last minute.

Martha was standing next to me she would be in the row next to me int the test.

"Martha,you" I said feeling nervous "If either of us has to go...." I began.

"Yess?" said Martha.

"...tell me who is on the your foot. Your secret love of your life." I said. It would bug me.

"You mean who's closest to my soul in the entire universe", said Martha.

"Yeah," I said suddenly getting why she had done the tattooo there.

"Well if you get taken away. I' promise I'll tell you" she said smiling.

"Tease," I said.

We marched in and sat down. Before me was a booklet face down. It was grey and the cover had a the home land defence logo on it. We were told not to pick the booklet up until told to. There was a line at the top on the back to write our name down. We were yet again reminded not to write our names until the end of the test for some weird reason.