The gasps I heard were collective, and I knew my voice was alongside theirs.

Instead of the lush forest I thought we were going to climb up into, there was a large city. It might have been beautiful at night, with the lights and all, but this was the daytime, and the smog was clear and thick in the air.

The forest was a small square of trees, the grass below sparse and dead.

"How delightful," I huffed sarcastically, glaring at the disgusting cluster of buildings.

I patted my head with my palm. The knotted clump that was my hair needed to be brushed, bad. Looking around, the others needed similar things fixed up in various areas. If we were to fit in, we'd need to get cleaned up.

"Where is everyone?" Dakota asked, scowling. Despite the attitude, the boy was right. We were, surprisingly, the only people here. Looking closer, there weren't any cars moving. All was parked. No wildlife songs filled the air. Everything was silent.

"Congratulations!" A voice boomed from both everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"Aaahhh!" Delilah screamed, jumping backwards right into Parker, who held her strongly. She looked up. "My hero," the female murmured.

"Show yourself!" Dakota yelled to the sky, turning in circles.

This would be the moment in a movie where the bad guy would chuckle and call everyone a fool. But the voice in the sky completely ignored the boy, leaving him seething. Actually, "seething" might not be the best word for it. His anger wasn't exactly well-suppressed.

"You've passed the test, which is more than some people can say. Why aren't you celebrating?" The voice asked, still as loud as ever.

"Maybe because we have no idea what you're talking about?" I yelled.

"Ahh, a fiesty one! Looks like I'm in for an interesting experiment."

I didn't listen to what he said until I heard that last bone-chilling word. "...experiment?" I asked hesitantly, fear pricking my skin.

Another laugh. "Of course! My, you are a dumb bunch, aren't you? No matter. Surviving after the variable is conducted should take only common sense."

These terms were starting to get to me. "Look, dude," I began, trying not to seem nervous, "I can't even begin to imagine what crap you're talking about, so maybe you can enlighten us a little bit."

"All will become clear in time. Patience is a virtue, as they say."

"Can you stop speaking in riddles?" Delilah shouted. "It's, like, really annoying! This isn't a frickin' movie! Stop it with all of the... what's it called?"

"Foreshadowing?" Parker interjected, always trying to be the hero.

"I guess. I don't really pay attention in language arts class. Thanks for helping me out, though," the flirt purred.

"Riddles involve mystery, something I've always been a sucker for. And it always helps to spice up life a little bit, yes? Ah, but I am straying from the subject. Let's get back on topic, shall we?"
As the voice trailed off into silence, the sun seemed to die. The city landscape was plunged into absolute darkness for a split second before we opened our eyes into a completely different background. I staggered backwards, my heart in my throat. My stomach twisted, and I felt like I was going to hurl. It was as though all of reality had been switched with the flick of a switch.
Looking around, I could see the others were recovering as well. I turned to look at our new backdrop, frowning.

Around me was a shadily lit office room with a fake fireplace, a large television, a couch and an armchair, and a speaker playing soft orchestra music. The walls were lined with bookshelves. The room had no doors, which was even more disturbing, as I had no idea how we had been moved so fast without entrances or exits.

Wait. Maybe this was an illusion, too. I glared at the cracks in the roof, trying to make sense out of them. I stared at them for quite a while before I was jabbed sharply on the shoulder. I turned to see who had gotten my attention, and Parker stood there, holding a note of some sort. I grabbed it from his hand and read it.

Wow! You actually found this! A great batch this year, indeed. Time to see how you handle this clue:

F U T U R E

I frowned after I read the note, turning it different ways to see if something popped out at me before sighing and shoving into my sweatshirt pocket. Opening my mouth to ask them if they'd figured it out, I realized everything was horribly quiet. Way too quiet, besides the orchestra music coming from the speaker. And from the looks on their faces, I could tell there was a reason why.

Delilah, who was normally so talkative in the few- what was it? hours? days?- that I had known her, had also gone quiet. I understood a second later. The room could be bugged; someone could be listening in on us.

I pulled out the note again and stared at it blankly. I had never been one for puzzles. They're boring, and sometimes they could get extremely irritating. To summarize, I had next to no experience with this sort of thing. I guess I'd better start learning.

Remembering how I looked at the cracks on the roof, I laid on my back and stared at the ceiling. Getting an idea, I closed one eye and traced the fissures with my finger. They didn't exactly connect, but some of them were close enough together. My eyes widened, the closed one popping open. I flipped around so I was facing the other way and closed one eye again, frantically searching for what I had found.

There was one word written in the dark lines of the roof.

F L Y