Midnight City

Chapter Two

'Magdalene!' Someone shook me awake. I bolted upright and stared into the face of Fidelia.

'Fidelia, what on earth-' I started to shout but stopped once my eyes adjusted and properly focussed on Fidelia. She was crying. Soft little tears rolling down her smooth cheeks. Her long brown hair stuck up at all angles, she had clearly just woken up, or hadn't had time to brush it.

'It's Kermit. He hasn't come out of testing.' The words were choked out.

'But he's been in there for three days!' I exclaimed. The most anyone has ever been in testing was eleven hours.

'I think something is wrong Mags.' Fidelia slumped onto the bed. Kermit and Fidelia arrived on the same day. They formed an extremely strong bond because they went through all of their testing together. They seemed like non identical twins.

When each or us arrived, the Scouters gave us a name. Fidelia was called that because she had a toy fish, but she couldn't pronounce her 'sh' so she called it a 'fiddy' and that's how she got her name although the scouters dressed it up a bit. Kermit got extremely motion sick and arrived at the base green. Literally, his skin was green. That's how sick he was. He has ginger hair and is quite pale so the greenness was easily visible. Supposedly there's a programme or something and one of the characters is Kermit the Frog, and he's green. We never watched children's show or many recreational movies. All books and movies were censored and most recalled historical events and some 'coming of age' and 'classic' material that Mentor Trudy had insisted we have. My favourite book of the small collection would be To Kill a Mockingbird.

'He'll be fine Fidelia.' I gave her a hug.

'It's Friday.' Fidelia murmured.

'Friday.' I repeated. Fidelia looked at me funny and I finally clicked. 'Oh my, I'm going to be late for testing.'

I leapt up off my tiny bed and shimmied out of my nightclothes. I was still buttoning my white shirt as I hopped out the door.

'Find Kermit, Magdalene!' Fidelia shouted.

'I'll try Fiddy!' I yelled back down the bare white hallway. I sprinted through A Block, which is where the bedrooms are, and skidded along the slippery linoleum which lined every floor in the entire base. The smell of porridge and toast wafted through the doorway to the kitchen, but I had no time to eat. Serious consequences met those that were late for testing.

I arrived at Test Block just as the red buzzer sounded, signalling my entrance into the laboratory. I smoothed down my clothes and pulled my knotty bed hair into a ponytail. I slowed my pace to a walk and took a few deep breaths before entering the lab. As soon as I walked into the room the door shut and locked behind me. It used to scare me, but I had quickly gotten used to the claustrophobic air of the Testing lab. A scientist walked through a restricted door and ushered me into the testing rooms.

'Magdalene. Please sit.' She said abruptly. We never got to know the scientist names, we weren't allowed to know. They were just Ma'am or Sir. I obediently plopped down into the plastic chair.

'Answer these questions truthfully please. Okay, have you developed other alms since last week?' She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and flicked through the papers on her clipboard.

'No ma'am.'

'When was the last time you used your alms without permission?' She sniffed. There were certain rules that surrounded the use of alms. Only in the training room, and during allocated times were we able to use and practise our alms. Somebody must have broken the rules, because this was a new question.

'Excuse me?' I asked, not sure what I was supposed to say.

'You heard me Magdalene. When was the last time you used your alms without permission?'

'Ah, I haven't.'

'Are you lying Magdalene?' She looked at me accusingly, I felt myself crumbling beneath her glare.

'No ma'm.' I whispered.

'Good. Have you accessed any illicit information on the computers?' Another strange question.

'Uh, no.'

'Good. That is all for the questions. Hook yourself up to the fitness machine and run fifteen kilometres.'

'Yes ma'm.' I hopped out of the chair and had to stop myself from sprinting out the door. I stripped down into my singlet and shorts which I had put on under my class clothes. I placed all of the small, sticky, circular pads onto my neck, chest, hands and each temple. I climbed up onto the fitness machine and set the distance to fifteen kilometres.

Fifteen k's was an easy distance to run and I ran. Thoughts filled my head, and I realised where Kermit was. He had used his telekinesis to pick his pencil up off the floor during science on Tuesday; he went in for testing on Wednesday, three days ago. A small use of our alms, but he was to be punished. I hoped that Mentor Christian was not the one that ran the punishments for Kermit. Mentor Christian was cruel and harsh, and Kermit would not leave the infirmary room without bruises. I ran harder as I tried to release all of the hate and turmoil that was inside me.