I regretted what I'd said earlier during Capture the Flag.

Or at least thought earlier.

Doing work was not fun.

Especially not when I could actually see everyone else sitting in the cafeteria eating or talking outside as I carefully wiped the hallway's floor down with a sloppy, disgusting mop that smelled strongly of dead fish. I wondered if they purposely made it smell that way to keep up appearances. Like a giant sign above the mop that read "this is a disgusting job that you never want to do".

But still, I mopped.

I swished the wet rag end across the dusty floor, watching as water spilled down and made it a severe water hazard. Then I shoved the mop back into the mop's bin, squeezed as much water as I possibly could out, so there was just enough to clean the floor with, and repeated the process of swiping it across the ground, further and further along the abandoned hall where absolutely nobody passed by because the majority of them were out having fun or doing whatever they were still allowed to do since we were confined within the school boundaries.

Footsteps began to appear from somewhere farther down the hall. I glanced up, surprised that anyone was even coming this way. The only reason anyone would have to return to one of the classrooms would be to grab something from there, and I doubted that was going to happen. But someone was there. Kain stood in the middle of the hazardous, water-covered hallway.

"What are you doing here?" fell from my mouth before I could stop myself. It sounded almost rude, how abruptly I'd asked why rather than just simply greeting him.

"How's your mopping going?" he asked in response, evading my question. He leaned up against one of the hallway's walls and watched as I struggled to wipe the entirety of the hallway's floor with the rag.

"Wonderful." I could tell he wasn't just there to talk to me about mopping. I anticipated the question he was going to ask before he even said it.

"How do you know Beckam?" He turned his body so that it was facing towards me, but still leaning up against the wall. The way he was positioned made him look like a fashion store model, posing for his latest shoot.

I continued mopping the question, following his strategy and evading the question all together. "Shouldn't you be somewhere?" I asked, knowing that he really didn't have anywhere to be, just like all the other students who hadn't lost or been eliminated.

He didn't respond to my question and began tapping his fingers against the wall still staring at me as he waited for an answer.

"He lived near me," I finally muttered, lying just like I had on the packet we'd taken in the morning.

I could tell Kain was having a hard time believing me and I would've felt the same way if I were in his position. People didn't just randomly mutter the names of other people that lived down the street from them while they were sleeping with no specific reason. My story didn't exactly add up, but it seemed like Kain was willing to let it go.

"That must suck." Kain nodded his head in the direction of the filthy mop that I was pressing up against the crease between the floor and the wall.

"It does."

"Gabe has always been kind of a jerk."

"Gabe?" I asked, pausing in my lazy sweeping motion.

"The one who's the reason you're in this situation."

Oh.

"Well, it doesn't really matter because I'm still in this situation." I began sweeping forcefully at a splotch of dirt on the hallway floor that refused to come off. My hands became tired after trying to sweep the same spot for more than a minute, and I eventually gave up. I leaned the mop against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest in defeat. I decided it was a pretty good time for a momentary break.

Kain stared at me, and then straightened up his posture. "I'll leave you to your mopping." Before I could respond, he turned and walked away down the hall, leaving me feeling lonelier and more regretful than before.

Five hours later, it was back to eat dinner in the cafeteria, and then once again to our assigned sleeping rooms. This time when I walked in, the beds were set up once more, and the desks had gone back to their positions against the walls of the room.

I slid into my bed just as everyone else was still getting ready to go to sleep. Without even bothering to change my pants once again, I closed my eyes, and sleep took me.

It felt like only seconds later when my eyes reopened to something grabbing my arm.

I stared up into a dark room and it took me a second to recognize the face hovering above me once my eyes had adjusted. I could barely make out bright blueish green eyes surrounded by a mop of light brown hair. Pepper.

I sat up in my sleeping bag, first confused as to how she'd found my room and then confused by why she was at my sleeping bag in the first place.

"Wha-?" I mumbled, louder than I was expecting to. She quickly shushed me by putting a finger to her lips, and I could tell her eyes were much wider than normal.

"Quiet," she mouthed, and then gestured for me to escape from the tangled up mess of my sleeping bag. My entire body was sore as I pulled myself out, likely from standing up for hours and pushing back and forth with a mop. I carefully stood up next to my sleeping bag, then turned back towards Pepper who was also standing by this point.

She turned around and swiftly began walking over sleeping bodies to reach the cracked open classroom door. I followed, leaving my shoes behind since I saw no point in bringing them, and made sure to avoid stepping to close to any of the other students. The door barely made a sound when Pepper lightly tapped it open.

We walked down the hallway, a lot quicker now that there was no worry about accidentally waking someone up. When we made our way past the cafeteria, I managed to glance inside and see the digital clock that hung on one wall reading out two o' seven in the morning.

Why was Pepper up and where was she taking me?

But my mind was too tired to think, all it could do was follow along, like I no longer had control over my body and my mind was just the observer, waiting for whatever was going to happen next.

Pepper suddenly turned right, down the hallway that I knew was designated for inspectors and teachers only. Mostly inspectors though, since it had been dedicated to their arrival. Every room in the hallway housed inspection related things, from sleeping inspectors to file cabinets likely filled to the brim with information. But Pepper quickly strode past each of these doors, ignoring the glass imbedded windows that showed what each door held. Finally, she came to a stop in front of a door that looked almost exactly like the rest, except there was no window that would allow someone outside to look in and see what was going on inside the room.

Pepper turned around and her expression made the entire situation feel more real. The way she was staring at me, like she knew I was about to learn something that would permanently affect my perspective, almost freaked me out. Her eyes were still wide, and it hit me then that I wasn't supposed to be here. We weren't supposed to be here. We were in the inspectors' area. Students were definitely not allowed.

But whatever Pepper had woken me up to show me obviously must've been important enough that she was willing to risk being caught breaking the rules.

She wiggled the metal handle of the door and the it popped open, revealing a room with a single desk holding a simple laptop on it. Nobody was in the room. The laptop was on though, and its bright blue light lit up the leather chair sitting in front of it.

"Pepper...why...?"

She didn't speak, just pointed at the words on the screen, looking even paler than she probably already was in the ghastly light.

I took a step closer to the laptop's screen and just then was able to see the black words on the white background of the laptop. They were names, each separated into two categories. One category read warning in all yellow, the other had nothing on it, just a blank rectangle where a label could be placed. Beneath the categories tons of names followed, with the overwhelming majority listed over the category with nothing on it.

I found my name. Nova Carlson.

Under the category with no label.

I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. I hoped that it was, since the majority of other students were also on the side that I was on.

Then not too far beneath it I was able to pinpoint both Pepper's and Zander's names, and let myself relax slightly as I realized we were all together in this grouping, meaning it was possible.

"Do you know what this is for?" I asked, turning around to look at Pepper again.

Her eyes were still focused on the names on the screen as she shook her head slowly. Then she came up beside me and pointed something out that I hadn't seen before.

Under the warning column was the name Bea Michaels. And rather than being highlighted in yellow like the rest of the names in the same column, it was colored a bright red.

Then everything hit me like a bullet.

Bea had never returned after she had supposedly gone to get her hand fixed. She'd never come back. And she should've come back seeing as nobody else from our school had been transferred elsewhere and I doubted it would take two days for doctors to give her a cast.

That meant only one thing.

They'd taken her away. I didn't know where. Or how. Or when. But she wasn't coming back at all and it was obvious this decision was permanent based off of the uniqueness of the way she was highlighted.

This wasn't just an inspection. It was a way to weed out certain people. And my best guess was that the people they were looking for were the ones with secrets.

Why else would they force everyone to have an Animus which was said to be able to reduce crime?