The Test

Fourteen

A few hours later

The wind carries the screaming. Their voices, haunted, wild, carried on the currents of air pushing past the frantic bodies trying to escape the sudden crush. The sudden burst of gunfire. The soldiers, members of the Secret Police.

One voice above the rest.

"ARIA! ANYA!"

Frantic as the rest, but more so.

"Luc!" I yell, causing him to whip round, his eyes finding mine in a panicked hurry as he lunges toward me, the flow of frightened people surging around us, cursing as he battles against the flow. "Run!" he's telling me. But his voice is muffled in my ears. "They're looking for you!"

No, I think, no, they're not. They're looking for her.

Bianca.

What did she do? How? Why? To find out, I'll have to find her, but after she disappeared from the courtyard, I haven't seen her since.

"Zach!" I call, seeing his head flash past amidst the stampede. He turns to me, eyes darting between luc, who is now standing at my side, and me, my eyes wide with worry. "Where's your sister?" I cry.

He shrugs as he is swept away. "Ask him," he says, pointing to Callum, standing in the corner a few feet away. "He saw her last."

I sigh. I'm never talking to him again, not if I can help it. I explain the problem to Luc, but he shakes his head. "I'm not leaving you." he puts an arm around my shoulder and gently ushers me from the room, fighting back the rushing hoards with well placed elbows and insults. "We have to get you out of here. They'll find you."

"They're not looking for me, Luc!" I say, almost crying as I struggle from his arms. "They're looking for her!"

His brow furrows. "Who?"

"Bianca! She passed her Test but escaped somehow, which is why she's wearing Government-issue clothes, don't you see? We've got to protect her!"

"No, we don't. She brought this on herself by escaping. I do not have to protect anyone but you and Vi and Frex, and they can look after each other. They were dancing together last I saw them, they'll be fine. You, on the other hand, are who I'm worried about." he looks at me then, sharply. "This isn't out of some warped sense of duty to Zach, is it?"

"You don't understand-" I persist, struggling again, to no avail, to be free from the vice-like grip he has on my arms. A hiss rents the air, just before another scream. The tear gas is out.

"I understand perfectly," he insists. "You are going to get out of here, and join Knox at the meeting place." he gives me a little shove towards the courtyard. "If it means that much to you, I'll go find Bianca myself. But you have to go."

"What meeting place-" I just have time to call, before his grip is wrenched from mine and he is snatched back into the flow.

I sigh, and follow the remaining crowd into the courtyard, where I spot Knox straight away. he stands head and shoulders above the rest, giving orders and directing us where to go. Those in his mentor group are directed to stay with him, and we leave the mayhem behind us and head into the city.

The lights on all the buildings are dead, of course, but we move fast through the darkness, using the flashlights we brought along as aid. Or at least, they do. I just stumble along, occasionally tripping on a piece of rubble. In my thin dress and flimsy heels, I won't be of much help. But there's so much glass around that I daren't remove them. Oh, how I long for my comfortable boots and skintight black trousers and top.

Raids have been happening more and more frequently in the streets these days, and not operated by rouge members of the population. These are run by Secret Police, aimed at civilians. Killing entire families. Breaking into houses to steal their valuables, siphon their gas, or what's left of it. In fact, there isn't any left anymore. I don't know why they bother. After the fossil fuels ran out nearly two hundred years ago, there hasn't been anything left for anyone, especially since the nuclear power stations they set up to take over the job of the extinct non-renewables blew up and caused havoc - half the population died, and those left were divided into groups, those who became mutated as a result of the radiation, or those who survived miraculously unscathed.