Find A Way Out

Chapter 7 - Testing, Testing, _, 2, 3

After a few minutes of things being sorted in the observation room, and then them making sure the scanners that measured my ability were working, we began. Randson started with Austin, as his ability was easier to assess.

"Subject 3, cloak Subject 2 with your ability."

I was standing just a couple feet away from my friend. He looked over at me, then back at Randson, and did his thing.

"Good. Stop. Now, Subject 2, go to the far end of the hall."

I did as I was told, I walked to the end and turned to face them again. I was feeling more uneasy, being further away from Austin.

"Subject 3, cloak her again."

Austin looked at me, and we met eyes. I gave him a small smile, and he returned it. Once again he turned to look at Randson to cloak me from his sight. From the man's reaction, I think it was a bit delayed. He hummed and then muttered something to be written down.

"Wall up," the man ordered. I look to my right as a wall slowly came up from the floor. It didn't block me off completely, it just blocked Austin's view of me and my view of him. The adults still had full view of both of us. I took a deep breath.

"Again."

A few seconds passed. And then a few more. Silence reigned for a moment, before I heard a sigh from the other side of the wall.

"I uh, I can't. Sorry," I heard Austin's voice say.

"Hm," Randson hummed. "So, can't cloak someone he doesn't have direct line of sight to.." He muttered, probably for someone else in the room to take note of. "Wall down."

The wall lowered again, and I turned to see Austin looking disappointed. I frowned slightly.

"Subject 2 you can go back over to Subject 3." I tried my best to not run back over to Austin's side. When I was a few feet away, Austin glanced over to me and smiled slightly. I smiled back.

"Face this way," Randson ordered. We did as we were told. "Now. Subject 3, cloak both yourself and Subject 2 simultaneously."

Austin quickly glanced between me and the window.

"Um.. I uh..." he sounded unsure of himself. He swallowed. "O-okay..."

He took a deep breath. I watched as he focused hard, staring at Randson, concentrating on trying to expand his ability so that he could cloak both of us. I couldn't tell if it was working, of course, since I wasn't affected by his ability and I wasn't even the one he was focusing on.

After about 2 minutes, Austin was interrupted.

"Stop. It's not working. It's just quickly and randomly flickering between the two of you. We're just wasting time," Randson said, rubbing his face like he was tired. "Subject 3 cannot cloak more that one person at a time," he muttered to be taken down in notes.

"Right. We're going to test Subject 2's ability now."

I looked back at Austin and motioned for him to follow me, before walking over to the spot I normally stay in when they test my ability. We waited for a few minutes as they got things ready, standing close to each other.

The door opened and a woman walked in, carrying a blindfold and a set of ear muffs. I glanced at Austin. He looked slightly confused. I then realised that he mustn't have ever used any equipment when testing his ability.

While the woman was still walking over, I decided to tell Austin what they were for.

"Oh, it's so that my senses of sight and hearing don't interfere with my warning signal. If I could see or hear something happen, it would defeat the purpose of the test," I explained.