"What are we doing here?" I whisper to Elle. She just grins and shakes her head.

We are in a larger room than the last, that has hooks lining the walls. On each hook is a set of instruments, one including a heavy-looking pick axe, another being a black jacket that differs in sizes. The people in the room are the same as the people in the previous room, and they all talk excitedly. There is a few people still at the desk at the door to the room, being quizzed by the lady. Then they are accepted and enter, and the door is closed, holding us in.

The small but bright lightbulb that illuminates the room dims, so gradually, we are left in darkness. The chatter quietens and I see the wall opposite the door sliding.... Down?

Yes, I am right. The wall is sliding down into the ground, disappearing into the floor.

When I look closely I see that it was just a panel, covering a white screen. In the darkness, the white clearly stands out among the figures of the many people around me.

Then it lights up, to show an image. Strangely, unlike the pictures we see at school, the pictures that come off the screen aren't 3D, only 2D. They show a man, with a square chin an dark skin, wearing a weird military cap and with harsh eyes that scream authority. He has a scar across his lip, making his frown slightly crooked. When he speaks, the sound echoes around the small room.

"Welcome to your Experiment, K." His voice is rough and sounds like sandpaper. "You will notice you have been closed into a dark room. Get used to it. You will be in it for another four hours. Welcome to the first test." I am confused. What was experiment K? What were we doing here? Peter mentioned an escape at one point in our conversation. What was that about? It wasn't possible to escape the complex. Why would you anyway? All that was on the other side of the dome was harsh jungle and dangerous creatures-animals, as we had learn in History. I frown, but none the less listen to the man as the video keeps playing.

"In the experiment, you will have to sustain long periods of time in dark cramped spaces, with nothing but torches to give you light. To prepare you for this, your first test is simply to make sure you can sustain through the darkness. To certify you aren't claustrophobic. Your time in the room begins now. Good luck."

The screen fades away and the panel rises from the ground and back into its original position, concealing the wall. I feel Elle drop to the floor beside me as the chatter rises again. I sit next to her, although there is not all that much room to sit in the sea of people.

"What is going on?" I ask, wanting answers. I hear her sigh.

"Oh, don't sound so angry at me, I was about to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

She is silent for a moment. "It's a long story."

"Well, we have four hours in the dark apparently, so tell me why."

"Okay." Her voice is filled with boredom. "May as well. So you know how the bombs were sent out and probably killed everyone in the world?" She asks.

I nod, then realise she can't see me so I say, "yes."

"Well, the one place that didn't get bombed was the Complex and the surrounding forest. The problem in the plan for the dome being the 'safe place' was the fact that not everyone could be inside, yet they had heaps of refugees from the cities that had been bombed that needed a place to go and the complex was open, so a lot of people scrabbled outside the gates, wanting to get in."

The gates. I had seen them once, when we went on an excursion to the security department that is near the gates. Around the entire complex is a concrete wall that rises 10 or so meters into the air, then the thick, hexed glass rises into the air and caves over into a fish bowl shape. The blacks patrolled the wall, perimeter duty, it was called.

The gates were the only place the wall opened. Two, thick, metal, door-like gates were in the concrete. They had to have a key card to open, and even then, they had to have fingerprint verification. They were air sealed during the bombs, in case any were dropped. The gates are always closed, except for one day a month, when the black food trucks come in from the outside farms. Packaged and tinned, the food we eat is the only thing that has ever been through the gates. When they were closed, there was no way to get through them from outside, at all. They have to be opened from the inside only.

"So these people were all piling up to be let into the dome, into safety, but then the president just said, 'no, no more people in the dome, so even the soldiers that were controlling the crowds were locked out when the gates were closed. Literally, not a single person, government personnel or not, could get into the dome. They were left out there to die. Of course, the president then had the problem of the people left out rebelling against him, shouting threats and climbing up and banging on the glass. The glass wouldn't break, but the people inside might hear the racket and start to notice the people left out. So, the president did the only logical thing to do in this situation."

"He let them in?"

Elle scoffs, "no, when I say logical, I mean least logical."

"What did he do?"

Elle shudders. "He killed them. Sent soldiers out with guns and shot them all down."

My eyes widen in horror. "That's.. awful."

I make out a nod in the darkness. "It's said though, that people got away. Some of the known escapers were Darius Clear, August Hughes, and Rochelle Calloway. The founders of the complex defiance. Determined, they befriended one another on the grounds that one day, the Complex dome would go down, and the president and his ancestors would pay their price. Things happened, now the CD is as you see it now, a fully scaled organisation."

"Okay, that's cool, but I still don't understand how that explains what we are doing here."

Elle shrugs her shoulder slightly. "A while back, the Defiance started a series of projects, known as the experiments. Even though the CD is a fully scaled development, their one flaw is the fact that they operate underneath the complex, and it is still extremely hard to escape from the complex to gain the 'Freedom' they dream about. So, the defiance created the experiments. Every second year or so, a group attempt to escape the Complex, but each in different ways. One group would try tunnelling under the east part of the dome. The next would try a different way. The next a different way than that, and so on."

"And we are doing one of those experiments." I asks, finally piecing two and two together.

"Yep! I convinced them to let us go with them. Maedana, we're escaping the complex."

At that moment, a man standing next to us looks down, sees the two of us sitting here grinning and scoffs. Then he goes back to talking to the man next to him. Curious I ask him, "excuse me sir. Is something wrong?"

He looks down and me and smirks. "Nothing, except your friend is unrealistic and unintelligent."

I frown. "Why?"

I see him roll his eyes slightly.

"Your minuscule little white-kid brain couldn't handle why." He shrugs, as if this is an answer.

"What?! Tell me what you mean!" I demand, slightly angered.

He rolls his eyes at me. "Ok. I mean, that your friend needs to get her head straight. The chances that this experiment work are smaller than the chance that a black will be changed back to a white. Pretty much never going to happen."

"Well, if it is never going to happen, why are you here!" I ask.

"Because I can be and because I have nothing to live for in this dome." he replies, and I can hear the heaviness in his voice. Then he turns and goes back to talking to the other person as if I don't exist.

And in this darkness, I can almost pretend I don't.

-*-*-

Hospitals scare me. It isn't the hospitals themselves, just this one in particular. Then again, this is the only hospital in the Complex so...

There are only two parts in this hospital. One is for small emergencies. The other is for the intense patients. The 'about to die' patients. Some problems include sufferers of genetic cancer, some just people with an intense sickness. And then the majority of the rest, is black issues.

These include;

Bullet wounds,

Machinery problems (from the factory)

Combat injuries

And of course, my problem. Torture-gone-wrong.

They told me what happened. There was an infection in the shoulder. Something went wrong, and my body couldn't heal it. So, here I am. In the amazing white world known as the hospital.

The good news - I don't have to go through the other parts of torture. The bad news - instead, I have to wait, heavily medicated, in hospital, morning and night hearing screams of pain. Aril is smart. She recognised that this would be torture to me. Having to wait around and listen to people in pain.

This, in itself, is pure, heartfelt torture.

One night, I see someone, sitting by my bed. They don't even look at me. They just sit there, looking at the window that offers light (but not a view) during the day.

By the time I wake in the morning, they are gone.

The nurses tell me that my shoulder is healing. They reassure me that it is fine. But I feel as though they are holding something from me. Some inside instinct tells me they are lying.

But even so, I ignore it and go through the exercises they give me, and let them poke and prod me in treatment. Most of the time I just sleep. When I am sleeping I don't have to listen to the screams of pain.

The largest part of my mind is occupied by thoughts of Tala and Calix. Mainly Calix. And his lips.

I try to imagine the type of torture they would put him through. In my head, it isn't pretty. I don't even know why I am so worried for him. All he did was kiss me, and rather abruptly.

But for some reason I can't get rid of the thought of him. He is like a disease that has entered my mind, and I have no idea - or even know whether I want - a cure.

So my days and nights are filled with dreams and realities. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

In my hospital room there is a) a clock and b) a calendar. Each day, the nurses cross a day of the calendar. It is one of those old fashioned ones made out of paper, printed with black and white pictures. Every so often I look at the calendar and see how long I have been in here for.

It is on my 15th day when I wake without a sore shoulder, and the heavy feeling of meds isn't there either.

"The infection has subsided." A nurse tells me later that day. "You'll be going back to work tomorrow."

I am also told to 'pack my things' - even though I have no possessions in this room that has been my prison for 15 days - because I would be going back to the black block tonight.

I spend my last day in the hospital I hate doing exercises on my arm and day dreaming.

Strangely, my arm isn't sore at all. Apart from the torture scars that still riddle my back and ache every now and them, I feel fine.

It is as though I never even had a shoulder infection.

And then it comes to 7 o'clock, my departure time, and a nurse helps me to the doors of the hospital. They look out at the main building, looming over the complex. I take a deep breath then start walking.

Leaving the hospital, leaving the prison I have been kept in for days.

Leaving.

~~~

The hallways are empty. The only sound comes from the cafeteria above me. I walk the barren corridors, and up the echoing stairs, until I finally reach the girls dormitories.

I pass one person, who just stares at me, gaping, as if I am back from the dead. I ignore them and keep walking until I reach my room, marked with the names 'Therese Carte' and 'Jemima Gordon', and two letters in black circles, a D and an F.

I spend a few seconds staring at the closed door, and then push it open. I am greeted by darkness and grunting. I turn on the lights and exclaim.

"Oh my gosh!" I say, almost shouting but not quite so loud. That is followed by a curse.

Reese and the guy that is on her pull away from each other and Reese groans. "Get out of here Joel." She says to the guy.

Disgusted, I look away as 'Joel' pulls on a pair of (black) pants and a (black) button up shirt.

He sheepishly puts on boots and darts out of the room. Despite black rules, I close the door behind him and lean against it, exhaused and disgusted.

"Hi Mae." Reese says to me, as if I haven't just barged in on her sleeping with a guy.

"Hi Mae? Seriously?! That's all you say to me?" I ask, astonished. I don't try to conceal my disgust.

She shrugs. "What, would you prefer 'Greetings Maedana, how are you?'"

I shake my head. "An apology would be nice."

She frowns. "Ok. Mae, I am sorry for.. wait, what am I sorry for?"

I scoff and move away from the door, sitting on my bed. "The fact that I've been tortured, then hospital for almost three weeks, and I come into our room to find a guy who I don't know who isn't your boyfriend on top of you!"

Reese sighs. "I am sorry Mae for sleeping with a guy you don't know while you are in hospital. And by the way, I don't have a boyfriend."

I take of the black shoes the hospital gave me. "What about Tyke?" I ask, but I still can't get the image of the boy of Reese out of my head.

She shakes her head. "Tyke and I broke up. He said something about 'having problems' with the way I talk to other boys, and then I replied 'well that's your problem' and so then we broke up."

I am taken aback by this news. Reese and Tyke were pretty much 'the thing' of the black block. They had been going out for almost 3 years straight. The fact they had broken up was slightly surprising. Then again, it's not as if I would have been told. It's not as though the nurses at the hospital talk about the relationships in between the blacks.

"So what, because you broke up you decided to sleep with a guy." I ask, gagging at even the thought.

"I am making up for lost time." Reese replies, shrugging.

I frown. "That is just sick Reese. We're not even 16."

"Correction, you're not even 16. I turned 16 two weeks ago."

I pull my hair out and shake it out. "You had your birthday and broke up with your boyfriend while I was in hospital? How much did I miss out on here."

She raises an eyebrow. "You really want me to go through it all right now?"

I look at her and frown, grossed out. "Not while you're naked in bed, thanks. Seriously Reese, get dressed before a guard comes along."

She blushes and starts pulling clothes on under the sheets.

"Ok, let's start with news. There's a new black called Tyran, fresh from torture, who is tagging along with your training with Calix, who by the way came back from his last torture yesterday. Today he spent a day recovering, and tomorrow he is going back to training with the Tyran guy. Tala also came back from torture a few days ago, I think it was three, and she's been assigned a new job, working at a laundromat on the white side with a couple of old hags - sorry, I mean, ladies. Oh, also Tyran is really hot, but hostile. He also hates the complex with a vengeance. Have fun training him." Reese and I both finish pulling on pyjamas and she smiles at me.

I sigh. "Ok, so Tala isn't a trainer anymore, there's a new kid called Tyson who is hot but hostile-"

"It's Tyran actually. TIE-RUN. Spelt T-Y-R-A-N. And his last name is Coates."

"Right, a new kid called Tyran who is hot but hostile, Reese is a stalker, and she broke up with her boyfriend, had a birthday, and slept with a guy. I got all that right?"

She nods. "Pretty much yeah," she says, popping the P. "But I'm not a stalker, I just happen to know his last name and his birthday. July 27 if you were wondering."

"I wasn't but anyways." I mutter, yawning.

"Well, anyways. Training is tomorrow. You should get to sleep." Reese tells me, but I am already lying down, my eyes closed.

"Night Reese." I mutter. She sighs.

"I bid you goodnight Maedana." She says with a posh pretend accent.

I smile as I fall asleep.

It felt good to be back.