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I peered closely at the broken cellphone thing Caden had given me. I’d forgotten to give it back to him before he disappeared. The screen was blank, the numbers were faded—I couldn’t figure out what this gadget was supposed to prove. For all I knew it was just one of those fake phone toys parents get their kids to play with. It certainly didn’t look like any high-tech futuristic other world equipment.
“Respond to my specific DNA sequence…” I muttered in ridicule at the exceedingly technical terms he used.
“What?” Lucia asked in a muffled voice as she stuffed her face with cake. She and I were seated in the dorm cafeteria, having finished dinner. Although Lucia was still indulging on our cake-and-chocolate binge because I was to die in a week.
I blinked at her, “Uh, nothing,” I dismissed, pocketing the gadget thing, then proceeded to yawn again. This afternoon’s little run around had left me even more exhausted than I’d initially ought to be. Now I was tired both physically and mentally. I couldn’t wait to hit the sack later tonight, but then I remembered I still had to go back outside to meet Caden. I checked my watch. As it was, I was already a couple minutes late for our little rendezvous. I was highly considering just skipping it and heading straight for my room to get some shut-eye.
A loud cheering made Lucia and I look up across the cafeteria where several jocks were indulged in a spitting contest and raucously shouting and laughing among themselves. I picked out this world’s Caden Matthews amidst the bunch, howling and waving his arms in the air, and had to shake my head to myself in ridicule, unable to match him to the one I’d been talking to earlier. They certainly looked alike but that was pretty much it.
“How incredibly attractive,” Lucia commented sarcastically, gaping at the circus.
I laughed under my breath. “Oh, I don’t know, those chicks seem to be buying it,” I gestured to the flock of cheerleaders gathered around his highness, swooning and giggling and whatnot.
“Just goes to show nothing is ever more than meets the eye,” she bludgeoned the old cliché. “If it looks like a duck, it smells like a duck, it must be—“
I passed out cold.
---
“Aaaagh!” I woke up with a start, heaving between coughs. I blinked several times, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness in my cell. I slumped back on the floor, gasping loudly and curled to one side at the stinging pain in my stomach. I was still alive. God, I was still alive. My left leg was practically numb but I was still alive nonetheless.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand, mainly to check if my other limbs were still responding to my brain. I turned the face of my watch to my eyes. It was all broken except for the dial that displayed the date. It was still today.
“Goddammit!!” I groaned out loud again, kicking against the floor with my good leg. I was hoping I’d pass out and just wake up when it was already all over. Either that or I could just have passed out permanently. General Holbrooke was right about one thing. Nothing that their labs made worked properly. Lethal amounts of the serum injected continuously, as it had been on me, should’ve already killed me by now.
I didn’t have the energy or the will left to attempt any more escapes. This was where it was going to end for me. The last thing I would see would be this cell. Unless of course a miracle happened.
Right, I rolled my eyes. And earth is flat and the sun revolves around the earth.
The only hope left was that the government labs remained lame…I turned to look at the night sky out the window. And that Caden wouldn’t be able to find her.
---
“Oh my God, Laney! I thought you died!” Lucia sounded horrified and relieved at the same time.
“What…” I mumbled as I half-opened my eyes.
Several dozen people were gathered around me on the floor of the cafeteria. Nurse Albert was leaning over on my side, holding smelling salts. Everyone else was looking in curiously. Even Caden Matthews and his flock were standing somewhere just beyond the circle around me.
I tried to sit up.
“Take it easy, Laney,” Nurse Albert warned me. “Don’t try to move too much too soon. You might strain yourself.”
“What—what happened?” I asked, clearing my throat and slumping back on the floor with a groan when my head swam from the slight movement.
“You fainted,” Lucia told me, looking really worried and was probably really starting to buy the crap that I had but a week to live.
I blinked several times and I suddenly remembered with a start. My eyes flew wide open and I attempted to raise my arm to check my watch to no avail.
“You gave us a little scare there, Laney,” Nurse Albert said with a smile as she packed up her first-aid kit. She nodded a signal up at Lucia to help me up. “I think you girls better head straight to your rooms now so you can get some rest,” she said to me.
“Come on, Lanes,” Lucia said, helping me up. “Let’s go upstairs.”
“I suggest you take a few days off from your classes as well,” Nurse Albert added. “You just take your time to feel better, ok? I’ll inform the Vice Principal.”
“Ooh, can I, too?” Lucia suggested eagerly. “I can be like her personal nurse.”
Nurse Albert laughed. “No, Lucia, I’m afraid you can’t,” she said.
Lucia grinned and just shrugged. “Was worth a try,” she spoke up then looked around the cafeteria at our audience. “She’s fine. Everything’s fine,” she announced loudly. “You can all go back to your gourmet dinners. Thanks everyone. We’ll be here all semester,” she joked.
There was a scattering of laughter before everyone promptly went back to minding their own business.
“I think they were waiting for bloodshed,” I pointed out as we headed down the aisle to the doors.
“Lanes,” Lucia started, “you sure you’re gonna be fine?” she asked, concerned.
My eyes caught the cafeteria clock above the doorway as we passed it headed out back to the dorms. Approximately an hour had already passed since my supposed meeting time with the other Caden. I couldn’t help a slight frown. “I hope so…”
