Oblivion

Chapter 14 part 3

          I was woken up by a man I have never seen. I let him pull me to my feet and guide me down the hallway without complaint. We entered the room I had seen yesterday; men, women, and children sat at the tables eating, they all stopped whatever they were doing to look at me, to watch me. My eyes slid lazily over them; they all looked perfect. Perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect face and bodies, nothing about them was imperfect and it made me hate them more. My gaze found Orion and Allister sitting at one of the tables near the back, they both watched me and I openly glared at them. The man took my arm and started to guide me towards a smaller more ragged group of boys and girls. They didn't look up when I was shoved into the seat beside a boy with blond hair.

     "Stay here and eat." The man said gruffly and he walked off into the crowd. I looked down at the tray of food in front of me. The food looked disgusting and sickly, I pushed it away.

     "Don't turn your nose up at it, you'll need it Newby." The guy beside me said, not looking at me and he continued eating.

      "Why would I need it?" I asked, dragging my tray back to me.

       "You'll need the strength if you ever want to survive through this." He muttered again.

       "Survive. I've survived on littler food than this slop!" I hissed, but I took a spoonful of the gray mush and shoved it into my mouth. I was surprised. It tasted like mashed potatoes and chicken, and the guy smiled.

      "Nice, isn't it? I don't know what it is but whatever it is, I know it changes flavors to whatever you want."

     I just nodded, too busy shoveling the stuff into my mouth. It tasted wonderful.

       "So where did you come from?" asked a girl with brown hair and freckles. Her voice was high and prissy and her grey eyes held a look of condescending.

         "Everlost." I replied, I dared her to say something, anything about it, but she just snorted and went back to her food.

        "Everlost! That's a terrible city!" Cried a girl with mousey black hair, cut short, brown eyes and glasses.
My eyes narrowed, "It's not that bad, you just need to know how to survive." I said coldly. The girl didn't talk to me anymore, in fact she scooted farther away from me.
The boy stopped eating to ask, "What's your name?"

     "Addieca. You?"

     "Victor." I just nodded and we went back to eating, none of the others spoke.

        A loud bell blared overhead; I watched as everyone who was sitting down stand up and everyone standing stood straighter. I felt Victor grab my shoulder and hoist me to my feet.

        "What's going on?" I asked a bit confused trying to look over the crowd.

         "Just keep standing." He whispered. I saw a bunch of men and women guards escorting Aris into the room. Everyone was silent watching him and Aris spoke.

         "Greetings everyone I would like to make an announcement about our Testing," he paused and his eyes moved from one person to the other until they landed on me.

        "He doesn't ever talk about this subject in front of everyone." I heard the freckled girl whisper to the boy beside her.
       Aris continued, "I would like to introduce our very last Subject." He paused again to let everyone talk loudly amongst one another.
I heard some of the conversation, "What does that mean?"

       "How can it just be over? Did they find what they were looking for?"
Aris moved from his guards and over to our table until he stood right in front of me. Everyone fell silent yet again to watch him.

      "How are you feeling, Addie?" he whispered just for me to hear; he picked up a strand of fiery red hair and twirled it around his fingers. I didn't speak, I just glared up at him, I couldn't take a step back, the table knocked against my thigh.
        Aris wrapped his arm around my shoulders and says, "I would like to introduce you all to Addieca Jones." He presented me to the crowd. People craned their necks to look at me and they whispered among each other, loudly. My eyes flickered over to where I had last seen Orion and Allister; they were standing, both staring me, it appeared that they knew this fact as well.

         Hands grabbed my shoulders dragging me away along with the other teenagers at my table. The guards lead us down the hall; they were leading us back to our rooms.

         They dropped us off one by one, girl, boy, girl, boy and so forth. It came down to Victor and I. His room was right beside mine, when the guard pushed open the button to his room, he waved goodbye and the guard shoved him inside.

       I was the last one they guided to the rooms. I stood at the door and I watched out the locked door's window as they retreated back the way they came.

End of chapter 14!!