"When?"
"Tomorrow morning. Nine o'clock."
Renée looks at me worriedly. She clasps her hands together tightly, the skin paling around her knuckles. "What are you going to do?"
"Go to it. I can't skip it. They'll suspect something if I refuse to have a mere blood test."
"Tell them that your axons are playing up and you don't want to risk damaging them further."
I chew my lip thoughtfully. "I suppose I could say that." I pause, then shake my head firmly. "No, I have to go. I need to go. You never know, I might even find out some more information."
A glimmer of a smile appears on Renée's lips. "True."
My eyes drift over to the other side of the dormitory. They rest upon the twins, chatting away on the bottom bed of their shared bunks. Lana laughs at something Jas says, her grin lighting up her face. I smile.
"Are we going to tell them?"
The smile quickly fades off my face. "I guess we have to, don't we?"
Renée nods her head grimly at me.
I sigh. "I wish we didn't, but it's only fair. They've come this far with us, it's not right to leave them out now."
Catching Lana's eye, I incline my head to encourage them over. She frowns, but stands up nonetheless and crosses the room, Jas in tow.
"What's up?" Lana perches on the edge of the bed and Jas takes a seat on the opposite side.
"Do you know something?" Jas' eyes light up.
"Shall we go to the showers?"
I shake my head. "The other girls will start to suspect something's going on if we keep on going to the showers. We can talk here."
"What's happened?"
Renée and I explain our adventure through the air vent. Lana and Jas remain relatively calm but their expressions change throughout our tale: their eyes were full of intrigue and fascination, but when the final words leave our lips, they both look partially horrified.
"Then, earlier today, I received a note from the reception." I swallow back a lump in my throat. "I've been booked in for a blood test tomorrow morning."
Lana's eyes widen. "You can't go."
"That's what I said," Renée mutters under her breath.
"I have to go," I say firmly.
Jas grabs my hands and squeezes them. "What if they do something, Naomi?" she whispers, her eyes alive with fear. "Anything could happen. They could do something terrible like..."
"Like what happened with Val?" I fold my arms, narrowing my eyes. "They wouldn't dare. Doctor Sullivan said it for himself. For whatever reason, they need me. They're not going to try anything... stupid."
"Maybe it is just a blood test," Renée suggests, a half-hearted attempt at optimism. "Maybe we've been worrying over nothing. A blood test is completely ordinary. We're all sick, remember?"
No one says a word. My eyes drift down to my lap and I shift uncomfortably in my seat.
"Yeah... of course."
"We're just overreacting. Naomi has nothing to worry about."
I glance upwards at the sound of my name. All three of them are staring at me, curiously yet evidently concerned.
"Exactly. Nothing to worry about." I flash a smile.
They all see past my lie.
***
Hovering by the reception, I wait for my name to be called. The main hall is fairly busy, typical of an early morning: there are queues to the reception, queues to the pharmacy and small huddles of subjects scattered here and there. I stand by myself in a corner. There's no point in social interaction; I'll be gone in a minute or two.
"Can Child 064330 please report to the reception. Thank you."
My heart judders against my chest. A shiver runs down my spine. Stepping forward, I weave my way through the throngs of subjects towards the reception.
Unfortunately, Carrie isn't sitting there. It worsens when the escort called out isn't Kit either. His name is Lloyd and he towers over me like a tree overshadowing a blade of grass. I suddenly feel very small.
"You got a blood test?" He eyes me warily, folding his arms. No smile.
"Er... yeah."
He shrugs his shoulders, then starts off in the direction of the laboratories, taking massive strides that I struggle to match. "Follow me."
We walk in silence. Along the way, every now and then, I glimpse up to his face. I have to stifle a giggle every time; I've never seen someone look so serious and so focused on where they are heading. His eyes are fixed on the corridor ahead of him, unmoving, and his lips are pressed tightly together into a thin line. His humorous expression almost takes my mind of what awaits me.
But we get there too soon. Moments after we pass by the room where I had my CT scan, Lloyd halts abruptly beside a similar-looking door. A brass plaque bears the room's purpose and warm, yellow light floods through the pane above it. The room almost seems welcoming. I peer in through the glass and observe a layout similar to that of the doctors' laboratories; only this room is smaller and less congested with filing cabinets brimming with reports and manila folders.
Glancing up to Lloyd, I realise he is already half-way down the corridor. "Hey," I protest. "Aren't you going to wait for me?"
He stops, turns around and shrugs his shoulders. "I'll come back when you're done."
"How will you know when I'm-" I trail off as he disappears around the corner. Grumbling, I knock twice on the door then enter.
"Child 064330?" A female doctor unbeknown to me stands on the far side of the room. She stands with her back to me, then turns around and smiles. "I'm Doctor Reid. Would you like to take a seat?" She gestures to a reclining chair in the centre of the room.
Warily, I cross the room and meekly obey her request. She pulls up a plastic chair besides me and quickly fixes her auburn ponytail into a bun, tucking the loose curls behind her ears. Grabbing a bottle of lotion, she rubs some into her hands. Beside her, a small table bears my medical folder as well as a long, sharp needle. I gulp. Doctor Reid senses my apprehension and her smile widens.
"There's nothing to worry about," she reassures me, her kind, grey eyes gazing at me. "It won't hurt a bit, I promise. It'll be just like an ordinary injection, just like the ones you have every day. Okay?"
I nod my head. "Okay."
Satisfied, she gently rolls up the sleeve of my jumpsuit then ties a tourniquet around my upper arm. I flinch. Doctor Reid notices my sudden movement. "It's tight, huh?"
"Yeah." I smile through gritted teeth.
"Try to relax."
She picks up the needle, fitted to a syringe, and rests the point of it in the crevice of my elbow, directly against the vein. Glancing upwards, she fixes her eyes on me and offers another reassuring smile.
Something suddenly stings. My eyes drop down and they land upon the syringe. They begin to widen as a deep, crimson liquid oozes into the syringe, gradually filling up the entirety of the volume. I grip the side of the chair with my free hand.
Moments later, I'm slumped back into the seat and breathing deeply. It's over. Where the needle drove into my arm, a small plaster conceals the incision and any memory it may trigger. Beside me, Doctor Reid busies herself updating my medical folder. Her nails tap against the table rhythmically as she scribbles down quick notes about my latest medical procedure.
"All done." She slips the sheet of paper inside the folder and spins around to face me, smiling. "You're free to go."
I stand up. "When will I get my results back?"
"As soon as possible I should think; sometime in the next few days. Blood tests don't normally take that long to be analysed."
Starting towards the door, I reach the doorway and pause. I turn around. "I don't suppose you know why I had to have this blood test, do you?"
Doctor Reid shrugs. "Sorry, I can't help you there. All I get is the medical folder. If you want to know the reason for the test, I suggest you query the doctor who arranged it."
If only I knew who that is, I think to myself as I leave the room.
Surprisingly, Lloyd is outside, leaning against the wall with his hands in his trouser pockets. The sound of the door closing raises his gaze to land upon me. No smile. He gives a small inclination of his head then strides off down the corridor, leaving me, once again, to try and catch up. However, this time, I attempt a conversation.
"So, how's working at the reception?"
Lloyd doesn't say anything to start with. He merely shrugs his shoulders. "Alright, I guess," he finally mumbles.
"I bet you know loads of the subjects. I barely know any of them, save the girls in my dormitory and the others in my Division."
"Yeah, I guess."
"I should probably know more, considering the number of subjects that I administer medicine to at the pharmacy. But, then again, I'm only given their numbers, never their names. Working at the reception's probably easier then, huh?"
"I guess."
I scowl. Fortunately, Lloyd's miserable expression remains focused on the winding corridor ahead so he doesn't see the irritation flaring on my face. Silently grumbling, I continue to trudge down the corridor with him, refusing to utter a single word. Even Michael would be better company.
We turn a corner and the doors to the main hall consume our view. The second I spot the side door to the pharmacy, I dash in its direction. I mutter a quick thanks to Lloyd then slip through the doorway and vanish from his monotonous clutches. Inside, I let out a sigh of relief.
"Everything alright?"
Glancing up, Doctor Perry smiles warmly at me. "Ever had the pleasure of talking to a Lloyd?"
She shakes her head, eyeing me curiously. "Would you recommend it?"
"Definitely not."
***
"So, nothing happened?"
I shake my head, lamentably. "As far as I know, everything seemed like an ordinary blood test."
"But it wasn't though, was it?"
Stirring the bowl of lukewarm broth balanced in my lap, I shrug my shoulders. I force a spoonful down my throat. "She said I'd get my results back as soon as possible."
"Did she say why you needed it?"
"She had no idea. She told me to ask the doctor who'd arranged it." I smile to myself. "Shame I don't know who that it is."
"I could take a pretty good guess," Renée says grimly. She sips from her broth. "Did anything else happen?"
"It was as dull as this broth is, trust me." Taking the bowl, I place it on the ground beside the bunk. Half of it remains, but I have no desire of finishing it.
"When do you think you'll get the results?"
I shrug. "Maybe tomorrow. Maybe never. I'm more interested in what they're actually meant to show, rather than when I'll get them."
"They'll probably show nothing out of the ordinary." Renée lowers her voice. "You know what we heard."
"We heard that they would show something," I hiss. "That was the point in having the blood test, or so the doctor said."
"So what if the results do show something? Then what?"
I shake my head, sighing. "I don't know, but whatever they do show, it won't be good."