"Move!" the guard shoved his gun on my back which startled me back to reality.I had stormed out of the room, not even giving  thought to how I looked like.I probably seemed like a child throwing a tantrum or a dog running with it's tail between it's legs, defeated and ashamed.

I wiped my tears on the sleeve of my shirt as I walked through the quiet halls of the school. The eery silence hung over me almost making me uneasy.School is not the place you'd expect to be quiet I can tell you that for sure.I could tell we were heading towards the back of the school.The resounding, loud and perfectly co-ordinated footfalls of the guard behind me was the only sound that accompanied me and it weirdly gave me comfort.

We turned a corner, then another one and past endless rows of lockers.As we got nearer and nearer to what I assumed to be our destination I could hear the noise slowly starting to pick up.We walked down a hallway straight towards the glass double doors at the end of it.The guard seemed to pick up his pace so I did too.Finally we exited to building.Outside the sun shone brilliantly.There wasn't a cloud in sight just blue skies as far as the eyes could see. I immediately I noticed the old fashioned school buses everywhere the kind we used decades ago, distincted  by their bright yellow color and black stripes running along the side.They look rather ugly in my opinion, I wonder why they opt for traditional buses for our transportation when they could literally make flying vehicles.Probably because they already had lots of them in stock and they are way cheaper to make.

Out of the blues my stomach grumbled indicating that I hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast.I really needed to take care of that.

From where I was standing I could see two  rows of about ten heavily armored military vehicles parked off to the side as well, with their stained brown colors,tinted windows and manually operated machine guns atop giving an intimidating look.It seemed that they weren't risking anything this time, the security was top notch.

"Choose a random bus and get in." Before I even got to say anything back he bolted back into the school building, leaving me confused and standing there like a deer in the headlights.This is really it.If I got up on a bus I'd probably never get to see anyone I knew ever again.That empty feeling overcame me once more and not because of the lack of food in my gut.For the second time today I debated running away.Far from anyone and everything.Far from my godforsaken country, far from my home, far from everyone hell far from Earth.Like many times before in my life the urge to disappear felt overwhelming, not to die but to just...leave.

The buses were packed in one long straight line with lines of people next to each one waiting to board.Some of them were already full while others were clearly empty.

I finally found the will to move my legs towards a line in front of one that seemed shorter than the others.If I'd thought that there were a lot of soldiers on the other side of the school I had to think again.They were teeming here, guns in their bulging arms and a fierce look on their faces that seemed to say 'I will kill everyone and everything that dares stand in my way'

I could see many of them patrolling the area keenly watching out for anything slightly out of the ordinary.

"Stop checking out the guards." I jumped in surprise and whipped my heard around so quickly I felt like I'd just given myself whiplash. "What are you doing here?!" I whisper-shouted at him.During my mini mental breakdown the thought that I would never see him again too had somehow burrowed itself in my mind but here he was.Blake with a snarky look on his face.Without even thinking about it I jumped and wrapped my hands around his neck to which he awkwardly placed his arm on my back.I'd seen him last a few minutes ago but somehow it felt like centuries since.Right now he was basically the only thing I had left of home and I wanted to cling to him and never let go.

"Well...I assume this means you're happy to see me?" I hugged him even tighter.He grunted before laughing exasperatedly.I backed off so I wouldn't accidentally asphyxiate him. "I- I didn't think I'd get to see you." I said in a constricted voice.I felt like I was about to cry again.

"You can't lose me that easily." He said grinning at me.He opened him mouth to say something else but he was interrupted by the guard at the very front of the line. "Ok hands where I can see them!" the guard standing by the bus door shouted in an authoritative voice.He was also accompanied by yet another man in a lab coat this time holding a device completely foreign to me by the handle with a fierce grip.The guy at the front immediately raised his arms in co-operation after he was patted down the man in a lab coat raised the device over his face and the front of it lit up with a faint green light after which he started to raise it up and down.

It must be a facial recognition scanner or something of the sort.Suddenly the device beeped twice and the previously green light now turned to a dark scarlet red.Before I even registered what was going on the person who was scanned seemed to try to make a run for it,bolting out of the line straight towards the school.It happened so fast, I didn't even realize what happened until he hit the ground with a sickening thud and blood started leaking out of a gaping hole at the back of his skull.

He was dead.My heart skipped a beat and I felt like I suddenly couldn't breathe.I gaped my mouth waiting for a scream that wasn't coming.I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder and turned back to see Blake with a sad look on his face shaking his head as if telling me not to do anything stupid if I didn't want to turn out exactly like him.

No one in the line seemed the least bit fazed as the line kept on moving as if nothing had happened at all.I wanted to shout at them, how could you stay silent after witnessing someone getting killed in cold blood but then again I was no different since I was there too.Silent and certainly not going to try to do anything about it.

Whatever joy that I had after seeing Blake again was long gone now replaced by what I registered as a mixture of sadness,guilt and a little bit of anger.Anger at myself for standing there and watching injustice happen and not doing anything about it, anger at everyone for staying quiet and complying to live in a world like this and anger at everyone in power for making it this way.

In my mental debacle I almost didn't notice that I was already at the front of the line.It was my turn to get searched and scanned.I raised my hands in the air as the guard did his search.I would honestly be uncomfortable with a man touching me here and there but not today, not now I didn't have the privilege or the time to even dwell on such matters.

"Try not to blink please." the man in a lab coat told me as he raised the scanner to my face.Fear ran its icy fingers down my neck as the green light shone over my face.

He raised the scanner up and down, doing it one last time before the scanner beeped twice and the light turned red.My stomach sunk and my chest constricted as I stared at the device with my eyes bulging open.In a sudden movement the soldier raised his gun aiming it directly at my face. "Wait!" the man in the lab coat exclaimed.The previously blood red light now shone in a light green indicating I was clear to pass. "She's clear apparently...that's weird these don't ever malfunction." He said suspiciously.

He looked me dead in the eye seeming to size me up while I stood there, my legs shaking and on the brink of passing out. "You may board the bus." He said nonchalantly as if his dumb device hadn't almost cost me my life.My legs felt like two mere noodles and I felt like my entire body had stopped functioning.As if I had already accepted my fate that I was as good as dead but here I was somehow still breathing.

I climbed up the short steps and into the bus.
I noticed the seats were all two seaters but they seemed far from comfortable.

Again like in the classroom all eyes were on me except this time it was for a reason, they had probably seen me barely escape the jaws of death.I noticed there was an empty seat near the back and without hesitation I headed towards it, ignoring all the weird looks I was getting.

I plumped down on the seat and leaned my head on the cold glass window as I tried to recollect my bearings.The sun was now at the edge of the horizon shining right in my face indicating dusk would soon be upon us.

This was it, I'd made it, we all did and all that was left was the second part of this whole test mess and we would be done.A few days from now we'd all know our rankings and the burden that came with it whether we were prepared to or not.

The mental exhaustion of the entire day came crushing down on me and I felt my eyelids become heavy.I tried to fight it but soon enough I gave in to the welcoming arms of sleep with a hope that somehow I'd wake up to a better world.This was of course impossible but we could always dream, and dream I did indeed.

                                    *
A very boring chapter I know but I've been really preoccupied with school stuff atm so I didn't have that much time to come up with cool ideas or anything lmao.

Also from now on I'm thinking of making my chapters longer I hope you're ok with that.

As always comment and vote if you can it lets me know if someone is actually enjoying this book, see you next time!

             THANKS FOR READING