Tiffany left to return to her room briefly whilst I put on my plimsolls. We then met up outside in the narrow hallway and made our way down the narrow flight of stairs to the ground floor. A Pied Piper officer was standing at the entrance, machine gun in his hands, looking to the street outside. He took notice of us approaching him. For a moment I feared he might raise his gun at us but he simply looked over at us casually.

"Excuse me," I said, "We would like to talk with Abigail?"

The officer reached into his pocket and retrieved a smartphone. He searched through a list of contacts, called the number, and then put his phone to his ear.

"Burgess O'Bannon and Tiffany Becker would like to speak with you," he said, "...okay."

He put his phone on loudspeaker and held it out for us to speak into. I could feel Tiffany looming behind me, she had her arms folded and she was leaning on me, her tall stature making me the perfect height for her to do so.

"You guys there?" said Abigail, her voice coming through tinny.

"Yes," I said, "We're here."

"So you guys want to move ahead with this thing?" she said.

"Yes," I said.

"Yes," said Tiffany, leaning forward a bit more to better speak into the phone.

"That's great, that's great," said Abigail, "I'll have a car come pick you up. We're on a tight schedule so be prepared for a long flight."

"Flight?" I said.

"See you soon," said Abigail, and she hung up.

The officer pocketed his phone. I moved out from under Tiffany and faced her.

"Does she mean catch a plane or something?" I said.

"You haven't seen the helicopter coming and going?" said an unfamiliar voice.

A teenage girl, mixed-raced, with long frizzy hair, also dressed in blue overalls and plimsolls walked a little closer to us. She seemed to have an air of confidence about her. Though not as tall as Tiffany she was taller than average for a girl and she was also quite pretty.

"No, I didn't notice," I said.

"It uses Lintern's Gym's roof as a landing zone," said the girl, "Everyday a handful of us blues get taken away. I'm guessing you two were offered the same deal?"

"Yeah," I said.

Tiffany nodded a little bit. Now she, like me, was more on guard.

"I saw you both yesterday evening," she said, "You both were looking pretty red."

"Yeah," I said, forcing a smile and rubbing the back of my head nervously, "Did you…experience anything similar?"

"I ran my ass off on the treadmill," said the girl, "I was jogging for ten straight hours. You?"

"Nearly twelve," said Tiffany.

"Oh my gosh," said the girl, "That's rough. No wonder you both looked done when you came in. That's not the highest I've heard though."

"No?" I said.

"Nah," said the girl. She gestured over her shoulder to the doorway. There a tall, muscled, and arguably quite handsome black boy was sitting back in a chair with his feet up on the table. He looked like he was taking a nap.

"Blain ran, not jogged, ran for fourteen hours," said the girl, "He's on another level."

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By the look of the guy I hadn't much reason to doubt he'd managed such a feat. There was something vaguely familiar about him, like I had seen him before. But I couldn't recall where.

"I'm Mikayla by the way," said the girl.

Tiffany and I introduced ourselves and each shook Mikayla's hand.

During this time the Pied Piper officer that had let us use his phone and turned around to face back out to the street again.

"Have you had breakfast?" said Mikayla, "We've got some left if you want some?"

"That'd be nice," I said.

"Thank you," said Tiffany.

Mikayla led the way across the foyer and into the back room. It was a lounge area mixed with a dining area; the right side was all glass looking out to a small garden. On the table was an assorted continental breakfast. Half the table however was taken up by Blain's long legs. Our presence entering the room must have woken him because he drew his legs back, sighed, and then sat forward and rubbed at his eyes.

"Time to leave yet?" he said.

"Soon," said Mikayla, "I think they're bringing a car to come pick us all up."

"Have you both been here long?" said Tiffany.

"Two days," said Blain, "We've been waiting for our turn to take a flight out of here."

Whilst Tiffany helped herself to a croissant I couldn't help but stare at Blain. He seemed really familiar.

"Are you on TV?" I said.

Mikayla's eyes went wide all of a sudden. She made a cutting gesture at her neck as if to say 'cut it out!'.

The question hung in the air for a few moments and went unanswered. Blain sighed and got to his feet. He was head and shoulders taller than me and was clearly an athlete of some kind. He had the body that would take a lot of time and dedication to sculpt. His blue overalls seemed strained trying to keep his bulk contained.

Sudden boot-steps drew our attention to the doorway. It was the same Pied Piper officer from before.

"Time to go," he said.

I grabbed two croissants for myself and followed Blain and Mikayla out of the room, with Tiffany close behind me busy chewing her own croissant.

The four of us left the bed and breakfast and walked a few paces towards an expensive looking car that was waiting for us in the middle of the road. We got into the back. The car was spacious enough inside. Tiffany and I sat at the back, and Blain and Mikayla sat in front.

Both Tiffany and I made quick work of the croissants making sure not a single crumb went to waste. The act of stuffing our faces together in the backseat made us both grin stupidly at each other. But then I saw something that wiped the smile from my face.

The car came to a stop at the end of the road. There were a few cars coming and going, leading to brief traffic. In this time I was able to see a familiar face walking among a group being led by a Pied Piper officer. It was Alex Landly.

I lent over Tiffany, pressing my face close to the window.

"What are you-?" Tiffany started to say, her mouth still a little stuffed.

"It's Alex," I said, pointing to him. He likely couldn't see us because the car windows were tinted. I spotted his Meter. It was showing green.

Then the car eased on and I couldn't see Alex Landly anymore. I sat back in my seat, feeling a little nauseous after the car had just made a quick turn to enter onto the next road.

"I'm glad he's alright," I said, "I thought he might have blown up."

"Well that's good news," said Tiffany.

"I guess he'll be staying here," I said.

I felt a familiar tug-of-war inside of me. On the one hand I liked the idea that I was going to be one of a privileged few leaving Lintern Village very soon. On the other there was Alex Landly being…normal. It was the usual way of things, just a little different. Water always finds its level; Alex, a perfectly normal person, had found his. And me, someone abnormal, was finding mine. It was as if this whole experience at Lintern Village was some giant sieve of the normal and abnormal. But that's what it had been after all. A test. A proving ground. I still didn't know however if this was an instance where it was a good thing to stand out. Seeing Alex Landly for that brief moment made me think all of a sudden that it wasn't. Because, if it was, then he would surely be a part of our group too.

I fixed my attention forwards and spotted the back of Blain's head. His hair was a short afro, neatly kept. Even from behind his shoulders looked intimidatingly broad. He looked like he could be some kind of…boxer.

I gasped, realizing where I recognised Blain from. Tiffany caught my sudden look of surprise and I waved away her questioning look.

"What?" she said, leaning closer to me.

"I'll tell you later," I whispered back.

"Okay…" she said, looking both a little skeptical and amused.

The car came to a stop outside a place I'd hoped never to see again: Lintern's gym. We were ordered out, so we got out of the car and stood on the pavement.

On the steep road we were on I was taken aback all over again by the sheer scale of the operation taking place in the small village. Down the road were several groups of about six-to-seven teenagers, each led by a Pied Piper officer. It made me feel sick to think that some of them were going to experience the treadmill torment we had already experienced. Others however might get lucky and not have to deal with it at all.

"Burgess," said Tiffany.

She and the others were heading into Lintern's Gym through the main entrance.

"Sorry," I muttered, and I hurried in after them.