I was standing in a vast desert. I felt strangely empty, like the life had just been sucked out of me.

All around, I could feel dozens of malevolent eyes boring into me with a terrifying intensity. As if every move I made was carefully observed and recorded.

I looked down at my arm outstretched in front of me. A hideous cut extended down it, etched deeply into my skin. But not a single drop of blood poured from it.

I stared at it as it started to glow. My skin started to turn paler and paler until I resembled a corpse.

A scream rose to my throat but was never released when a sudden terrible yearning swept over my body distracting me. A yearning for something thing I knew I shouldn't have. A yearning for the something I heard whispering softly in my ear. A yearning for something….evil.

I jerked awake violently.

Visions of the dreams flooded over me and then vanished just as quickly as they had come when I saw what was in front of me. Two blank, lifeless eyes. Eyes of the Ejectors.

I glared at them, anger swelling up in me as I remembered what had happened.

A swelling, red line lay embossed on my wrist. The mark that showed they had injected the antidote into me.

I sighed and then looked up to gaze at my surroundings.

I was in the Ejecotor's machine. I knew it because what I had imagined was similar. Oh, and because there happened to be an Ejector sitting in the corner.

Thick, iron walls surrounded me, with light pouring in through small circular type windows, like in a ship.

And then my gaze flickered to the Ejector again. Its eyes as blank as always. Its body stood erect and as motionless as a statue.

I averted my eyes from the foreboding figure and glanced around the gloomy, disheartening room.

Dozens of fourteen year-olds like me lay in random sections around the room. Their expressions were all the same, miserable and desolate. Well, at least most of the expressions were the same.

One girl stood out like a flower in among city of ruins from them all.

Two thick, black curls fell in front of a pair of bright green eyes, bouncing up and down every time she moved her head. The rest of her hair was tied up in two; high pigtails that made her look much younger than fourteen. Her skin was a beautiful brown color. Much prettier than my pale skin. Yes, I know what you're thinking. How can I be worried about my looks when there are so much more deserving things to worry about. Well, to let you know. I don't usually care about my looks, just my skin. I hate pale skin.

So, why did she stand out like a flower among ruins? Well, she wasn't slouched down like all the others including me. She stood up tall and held her body in a sort of light, carefree way. And she looked around the room more in curiosity than resentment. I was starting to question her sanity.

Suddenly her eyes glanced over at me. Her hand went up into the air as if she was waving at me. Then her hand moved back and forth. Oh my god, she was waving at me. I was about to look away when she did one of the most unexpected and absurd thing ever imaginable. She smiled. Actually smiled. A true, genuine smile. Now there was no doubt about it, this girl was mentally insane.

I wanted to ignore her but she saw me look at her before I could glance away. She walked over to me. That dumb smile still placed upon her face.

"Hi." She said. Her voice was filled with a small dose of stupid cheerfulness.

I stared at her.

"Hi." She said again. She clearly wasn't giving up.

I decided to respond. "Uh, hi."

"My name's Zorra what's yours?"

I stared for a little bit but finally said, "Jessica."

"That's nice."

I almost choked. Nice? What the heck is nice about anything? How could she say that? Nice? This girl definitely needed help.

"So, um." She shuffled her foot nervously. "You wanna be friends?"

Friends? Um, sorry to disappoint you Zorro or Zorrie, whatever your name is. But I don't really think we're allowed to have friends. And even if we were it's not exactly a good time or place to have a, as you put it "nice" happy friendship.

"Uh, what do you mean?" I managed to say without letting out a small snort or laugh.

She shrugged. "Well, you know, friends. Companions. For some reason none of the girls around here want to be my friend."

I understand them.

"Um, I'm busy." I tried to turn away from her.

"Whatcha doing?"

Gosh! Why won't she take the hint?

"Look, I'm just…" My voice trailed off. Okay, now I was losing my patience.

"What are you doing?" I asked, venom playing into my voice.

Bewilderment crossed her face. "Well, I just wanted to be friends…"

"Well look Zorro-"

"It's Zorra." She cut in.

"Whatever, I don't care about your stupid name. Look, haven't you noticed that this isn't really the time to be happy? I mean it's not a very happy situation we're in right now. We're never gonna see our family again; we have no idea where they're taking us. Probably to be slaves or something worse. A lot of us have probably been hit by Zevlens and then you come up to me wanting to have a "nice" happy friendship while smiling like an idiot!"

Zorra stared. Her mouth hung slightly open and her eyes were shocked. I went on without letting her have time to respond. I probably should have stopped there but when my temper flares it's really hard to control it.

"Okay fine! Let's have a "nice" happy friendship! In fact why don't we go over to the Ejector in the corner and ask him if he wants to be friends too? Oh, I'm sure he would oblige!"

I finally finished my ranting and that's when I realized I might have gone a little too far. I looked back into Zorra's face.

"Uh, okay. I-I'm sorry. I won't bother you anymore." A small line of water fell down the side of her cheek. Oh crap, she was crying! Ugh! Why did I have to get so mad at her? Why couldn't I have just shut my fat mouth? She wasn't doing anything wrong! When will I ever control my temper?

I opened my mouth to apologize but she had already walked to the other side of the room.

I felt so guilty. Dang, Sometimes I really hated myself.

AUTHOR NOTES: I started writing this story a long time ago and I don't really have a whole plot or anything for it so I don't know if I'll continue it but I thought I might as well post it. I don't have a title for it yet because I haven't gotten very far so I'm just going to call it Fourteen for now.