S.S. Escape

1 - Evelyn -The Test

"Evelyn, I have a plan on how to get us out of here." I picked my head up to meet his eyes. "They are watching our every move from that camera. There are only two guys watching this camera and they are right outside this door in the classroom. I got out of here once by pretending to hurt myself. They need us both alive to find out what they think we've done. But they can't stop us from hurting each other without physically coming into this room," he whispered, making sure to keep his face away from the camera. He paused, waiting for me to catch on. I nodded and lunged at his neck. I started screaming as I pressed my hands around his neck. Enough to let him breathe but enough that from the camera's angle and his acting that he couldn't breathe, it looked real.

For a minute, nobody came. I was just about to give up when two men barged through the door and grabbed hold of my arms. However, their arms went limp as their bodies went down from being knocked out by a single punch.

"Evelyn, quick!"

I darted out of the room with him right behind me and locked the door with the men still inside. "Now what?" I asked.

"Headquarters is in that classroom," he pointed across the hall. "They only have cameras in the major populated places, like hallways and everything but the dorms, and..." he paused, " the air ducts."

"You're kidding," I said.

"Bri-" he stopped himself. "Evelyn, these are our lives we are talking about." I nodded in understanding. "What you need to do is wake up as many friends as you can. If there are innocents beside us, Headquarters will resist fighting them since they have to return home. To wake up your friends, you have to flick the switch on the back of the of the headboard behind the bed. That switch makes a vial filled with some chemical substance that reverses the effects of the drug they used to put you all "asleep". Insert the vial anywhere on the body, build your army, and come back to get me." He looked at his knee which was now turning blue and purple. "But do it all quietly and never leave the dorm rooms or air ducts, they will see you."

"Got it." I said walking to an air duct in the wall. But before I crawled in, I lept in his arms. "We'll get through this, don't worry," I whispered and disappeared into the walls.

~

I had never wanted to be dumb in my whole life more than right now. Looking back it was obvious. I always felt an advantage over kids at my school because they always came to me for help, they always got lower than a B on tests, they always got "needs improvement" on grades. I wish I was one of them. Knowledge wasn't the issue, it was never the issue. It was the key to escaping but also the burden of being found. This was the day my life changed just a few weeks ago.

"Evelyn Barnes."

I walked into the digital projection lab and sat down at the next available cubicle with my name on the screen. One by one students at Blue Ridge High School have been called in to take the Intellectual Evaluation Assessment. Basically it's this national test that every sixteen year old has to take to see how smart you are. Nobody really knows why. All I know is that ever since the phrase "Project FNS" got popular among political people, every sixteen year old in the country has to take the test.

The man who called out names was so old and spoke in such monotone it reminded me of the years before our technology. The times when instead of projections, people used these heavy things called laptops to get things done.

"Hello, as your teacher introduced me earlier, I am Mr. Huntson," he said when all the sixteen year olds in my school were seated. "I am the principal of the S.S. Discover Cruise Ship. As some of you know, the S.S. Discover is a high school aboard our very own cruise ship that takes only the top 100 most intelligent scholars, fifty male and fifty female, in the United States on a two-week course across the Pacific Ocean. The S.S. Discover is completely free if you are chosen. This test decides who will make it in and who will not. You have one hour to complete this test. Good luck."