As I turn open the first page they have a picture of my Mom from back home when we were in Virginia. I stare at the photo. It's gotta be a few years old since her hair is red in the photo. That's the year when we decided to dye our hair the same color. I smile, placing myself back to that place and time. The second page has all stats about my Mom: where she grew up, education, employment, aptitude tests, the whole nine. I flip the page and see a wedding photo of my parents. I miss this. I miss Dad. There is an arrow drawn on the page in marker pointing to my Dad in the photo. Underneath the arrow it says in all caps:

FIND HIM

A shiver goes down my spine when I realize that I was not the only person that they were looking for. My Mom was definitely collateral damage, but they wanted to find my Dad. Am I collateral damage? Did they seek me out after Dad died? 

I jump when I hear the door close to the bathroom and I turn the lights off quickly. I do not want Roman barging in here trying to see what I'm doing. I close my Mom's file and I sit in the dark, shining a flashlight on my file. I look over it briefly, knowing what is inside of it. In the front, there is a picture of me when I was five. I get a eerie feeling and close it quickly, tucking it underneath my pillow. Before I lay back down, I pull it back out and look at the first page. It has my parents' names.

Layla Roberts (separate file)

Matthew Roberts (separate file)

They have a file on Dad! I tuck my file back underneath my pillow. I have to find his file. They must know what happened to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wake up to knocking on my door and I rub my eyes. I must have been really tired, Im never this groggy. I sit up a little.

"Breakfast." My guard says from behind my bedroom door.

I shake the sleep off and go into my closet to grab the table so I can order my breakfast. When it comes, I eat, my mind so occupied with the fact that they have a file on my Dad. I wonder why his file wasnt with ours? Maybe they put it somewhere else after he died. Maybe it was with ours and I just wasnt paying attention. Either way, I have to get my hands on his file. I eat my last strip of bacon and throw my plate away.

I hear Roman showering and I think about everything that has been happening since I met him. Could he be the reason why all of this is happening to me? I had those episodes where I would forget something that happened after I met him, before I met Claire. I hate to think that someone I have to trust is actually the one behind all of my suffering, but how? I doubt he is calling the shots when it comes to the Twins, but I just have this feeling...

Roman is done showering, so I go behind him and take a long shower. I'm still mostly spooked about what happened last night. Sneaking around the building, Aaron killing that guard, all of the files. I just dont know what to think about all of this. Im sure Ivy and Aaron have a better idea of all of this. Im gonna wait until I see them to jump to any conclusions.

I finish my shower and put on my white jumpsuit and boots. I slide on my "LEADER" gloves and put my hair in a ponytail. I pick up my file from underneath my pillow and go out of my room, locking my door. My guard is leaning on the wall, waiting for Roman to come out so they can escort us to the Simulation Room. Roman finally comes out and we walk to the Simulation Room where Ivy and Aaron are standing inside looking over the blueprint again. Roman shuts the door behind us.

"So, show of hands, who read their files last night?" Ivy asks.

Roman, myself, and Aaron raises our hands. She nods.

"They've done a number on all of us. They've been profiling us, following us, rating us. There are ratings in the back." She picks up hers and opens it up.

I havent gotten that far in that thing, I really didnt want to get in-depth with it alone, but I open it as she is explaining it.

"The ratings are based on age, size, intelligence, and obedience level. They have charts and graphs and everything. Look at the most recent one." She says.

I look at the date of the most recent rating.

"It's from three days ago." I say.

"Exactly. They have the rankings inside too." Roman says.

"Yeah. My Level 5." I cut my eye at Roman.

He rolls his eyes. "Angel. You can look at my file and see that I didnt pass Level 2 in that room." He explains.

"I dont want to see your file, thank you." I say, looking at Ivy. "So this is basically them breaking into the government and taking all of our information to see if we're compatible enough to be their leaders?" I ask.

"Pretty much. Birth certificates, pictures, SSN's, all of our schooling, lists of family and friends, medical history, aptitude test results, and lists of criminal offenses. Everything you could ever want to know about a person is right here." She says.

My criminal history is blank. Roman looks over at her file.

"You got arrested for conspiring against the president?" Roman says, amused.

She laughs. "It was Bush and a few of my friends were joking about doing away with him in high school. Not a big deal, but I guess the government doesnt have a sense of humor. They let us off the hook. That's pretty much it for me." She says.

Roman closes his file quickly and I raise my eyebrow.

"So I was looking at this blueprint and I found a place on here that could give us some more answers." Aaron says, pointing to a place in the middle that says "TECH". "It's a computer room. I remember faintly being in there." He explains.

"What good is a computer room if no one can hack into it?" Roman asks.

Aaron smirks. "You may not be able to hack anything, but I sure as hell can. So, tonight?" He says, looking at the three of us.

Ivy shrugs and Roman nods. I shake my head.

"Sorry. Im out. Last night was enough." I say.

"Cmon Angel. It's good to have some backup. Plus, we're all in this together." Ivy says, grabbing my shoulder.

"Aaron killed someone last night. That's a little too exciting for me." I say, looking at Aaron.

"I killed him so that he wouldnt rat us out. I didnt just kill him because it was fun." He says.

"Yeah but you did it in under a minute. That's scary." I say.

"You dont have to be scared of me." He says, looking at me, making sure Im not actually scared of him.

I nod to reassure him, but I know he can tell Im still a bit shaken up.

"OKay great no one is afraid of Aaron. Glad we established that. Now can we get back to the plan? How are we going to get into the computer room? The den was one thing, but the computer room is in the middle of this building. We dont even really know how to get there safely." Roman says, giving Aaron the evil eye.

"Dont worry Comrade, I told you I remember being in there." Aaron says.

"You said faintly. I dont trust that." Roman says, walking up on him.

I look at Roman like he is crazy. "At least he remembers something! Just let him do this for us." I say.

Roman looks from him to me. I think he is getting suspicious about us. Well, it's his fault why I even recruited Aaron so he needs to get himself together instead of worrying about us.

The guards knock on the door.

"The Twins want to see you two. Alone." Roman's guard says.

We follow them into the Great Room and the Twins are standing behind the Pit. Her brother smiles at us.

"Welcome our fearless leaders! You two look well, but like something is on your minds. Are you two arguing again?" he asks.

Me and Roman look at each other like how does he know that?

"We have eyes everywhere, but you already knew that. Sorry your relationship isnt working out, even though we told you to cool it. Maybe this is the universe punishing you for refusing to listen to us. Oh well." He says, clapping.

"What my brother meant to say is, whatever you're upset about, forget about it. Tomorrow everyone will get their Rankings. Obviously we have standards for the others, but we also have standards for you two. In order to give the others an understanding of why we picked you to be our leaders and to show them that we're not just torturing them, we're going to put both of you through a series of tests. We will administer them at the same time and upon completion you will be moved up three levels." She says, putting our rankings on a screen behind her again.

I frown, the fact that Roman is a Level higher than me eating away at me.

"Here's the catch. We've done a lot to you two and you have proven yourselves time and time again. We have a lot of faith in you, however, failure is unacceptable. If either of you, by some unfortunate circumstance, fail to complete the tests tomorrow, you will no longer be our leaders and you will be removed from the Revolution." She says non-chalant.

Our eyes get wide.

"We hand-picked you because we knew you would be able to do the things that are necessary for this Revolution. If either of you make us look stupid for having our faith in you, well, we will be forced to do away with failures." She says as if it pains her to have to get rid of either of us.

"Good luck." Her brother says, smiling.

They leave the room and I run my fingers over my hair, smoothing my ponytail back. Suddenly, the anger I have towards Roman has seemed to diminish. He looks at me.

"We have training to do." He says.

Our guards lead us to the Gym for Combat Training. Aaron enters the gym with a gym bag full of stuff.

"We're going to do a warm-up with some kick boxing and then do some knife work which will take us into Guns 101." He says.

Guns 101. Never thought I would be taking a class like that.

After the warm-up Aaron hands each of us a knife. It's heavier than I would have thought and very sharp. I frown at it.

"Dont be scared of it. Once you get used to the feel for it, it'll be a piece of cake." he says.

He hands Roman a knife and smirks. "I know you already know how to use one of these, but it's necessary that you take the training for it." He says.

Roman glares at him and I look at Roman, confused.

"You know how to use a knife?" I ask.

"And a gun." Aaron says after he hands the last knife to the guard at the end.

Roman looks down and flips the knife in his hand.

"Yeah." He says simply. "Kinda wondering how this guy knows that." He says, looking at Aaron.

"I know everything." He says, rolling the knife in his hand.

Aaron stands in front of us. "First thing first: You need to know how to hold a knife. We're not cutting tomatoes, we're stabbing a person. Let's act like we know what we're doing. Grip the handle, make sure you have enough joint movement so that you can flip it if needed. Im tellin ya right now, you will not be holding a knife the same way in one fight. You will have to spin it. So, practice that." He says.

He demonstrates some techniques for how to flip the knife when you have to thrust it a certain way. Some ways are awkward, but I pretty much have it. Roman is flipping it like it's his job or something. I shake my head at him and continue to practice. All of these secrets are wearing on me.

"Okay stop! Put the knives back in the bag. Welcome to Guns 101." Aaron says, handing us each a handgun.

This is also heavier than I would have imagined. I feel on the engravings on the side.

"Obviously, you will be using much bigger guns than this, but this is where we start." Aaron says, flipping the gun in his hand.

Roman holds the gun at his side like it's light or something.

"Roman why dont you show us some techniques that you have picked up through the years?" Aaron says, stepping beside me.

Roman cuts his eye at him and walks in front of us, facing us. Aaron snaps his fingers and targets line up around the gym.

"There are exactly 20 targets at varying distances, sizes, and angles in this gym. Two of them will actually be moving. To pass Guns 101, you have to be able to shoot all 20 in under a minute and 30 seconds. Go." Aaron says.

Roman holds up his hand with the gun in it and fires at the targets quickly and perfectly. He looks so focused. He doesnt move from his spot, but he keeps firing. Two of the targets start moving and he waits until they pass each other then shoots through them both. His gun is smoking and Aaron stops his stopwatch. He looks at Roman and nods.

"Congratulations. One minute exactly. You have passed Guns 101. Come back next week for Techniques." Aaron says.

Roman drops the gun in Aaron's gym bag and looks back at me. The shock that I have right now is inexplicable. I just stare at him. Even if I wanted to say something to him about this, I wouldnt know what to say. His brown eyes look sad as he walks out of the Gym, slamming the door behind him. I turn to Aaron.

"What was that?" I ask, exasperated.

"That was a small glimpse of the real Roman. How do you like it?" He asks.

I just shake my head.

"For everyone else, the targets will be set back up and we will start with holding a gun, then target practice." He says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Combat Training, I try to find Roman, but I have no luck. He's seemed to just disappear. I go into the Meditation Room and see how everyone is doing. Everyone seems to be progressing quickly. Good. The last thing I want is to have to see someone disappearing.

I put myself under, set to Level 2. My mind is melting as the images and flashes are killing me from the inside out. A picture of my Dad pops up and I feel a shot of electricity go through me before... nothing.

I am awoken by Aaron who is laying me in my bed. I jump up.

"What happened?" I ask.

"You passed out when you were under in the Meditation Room. Seems like you're having some trouble passing Level 2." He says.

I look around. "Who showed you where I sleep? No one was supposed to know about this!" I say, worried.

"Dont worry. No one will know. I already knew where you two were sleeping. I told you, I know everything." He says.

"Where is Roman?" I ask.

"In the Simulation Room. He's under." He says.

"Well, is he.." I start, but I just let my voice trail off.

"He's fine. Take this." he says, pulling a box out of his gym bag.

I take the box. "What is it?" I ask.

He motions for me to open it. "The answer to your Level 2 problems." he says simply.

I open the box and I see that it is a needle inside filled with blue liquid. I hate needles.

"When injected, it will give you a sense of nothingness. It will "turn off" your emotions. The reason why it hurts so much why you're under and why there is a sensory overload is because your mind is running too fast. They arent putting these images in your mind, you're doing it to yourself. They are simply monitoring your thoughts and your reactions to them. This will diminish all of that so you can clear your mind." he explains.

I close the box back and put it in my drawer. "Thank you." I say.

"One more present." He pulls out and envelope and hands it to me.

He leaves and I open it. The front reads:

Roman Anoa'i

~~~.~~~