Two things held up Tiffany and I's goal of hunting down Mike to ask about contacting our respective Mum's. First, I needed to change into new overalls since the one I was wearing was still caked at the front with dried blood and a good deal of sweat from my jogging for eight hours. Thankfully Tiffany had already sought out new overalls before and knew where to get them. Just like with the cafeteria, a handful of teenagers could volunteer, for extra money, to do the laundry for everyone else.

Tiffany led the way to the laundry room that was next door (to the left) of the exercise area. I saw a familiar face standing at the doorway at a kiosk. It was George, the Asian boy who I shared B-9 with.

"Oh hey," he said, smiling at us as we approached. I could tell despite his friendly welcome that he was someone with a good deal of social anxiety but, more subtly, he was also quite good at hiding it. It was something I could spot plain as day because I noticed many of the similar behaviors in myself; but where George pushed above his social anxiety to create a somewhat extroverted social mask for himself, I did the opposite, giving and showing less of how I felt as a way of better controlling how others perceived me. Although I hardly knew George, a part of me felt a strong affinity for him; not pity, but a kind of kinship. It was a bit absurd of me to make so many assumptions about a person from barely knowing them but it was how I felt despite myself, as if my mind had decided to have an affinity for this person without my say so; much in the same way Tiffany and I seemed to get along so well, or, prior to the evacuation, how my friend and I quickly became good friends once we broke through the initial get-to-know-you conversation stage. I hadn't thought much of Tiffany at first glance and yet she had been someone I had clung to for support throughout this whole ordeal almost without a second thought.

Tiffany looked over to me and gestured for me to ask for what I needed.

"Hey, George," I said.

"Hey," said George, cocking his head to the side and giving an effeminate handwave.

"Let me guess," he said, "You need new socks?"

I blew air through my nose and smirked, "Yeah, exactly," I said.

I looked at Tiffany, she was smirking too.

"You need new overalls," said George, "What a shock. You look like a…small men's, right?"

I shrugged, "Sure," I said.

"O'kay," said George, and he disappeared for a moment and retrieved a new pair of neatly folded overalls.

"So," he said, "You can have two pairs at any one time. Just tap your ID-card here-"

He held out a reader and I tapped my card which caused a beep sound.

"-and we're done. If you need new shoes I can get those for you too."

"I'm good for now, thanks," I said.

"No worries," said George, "Happy to help."

There was a moment of silence. I could tell if I was going to make the effort to get to know George a little better this was a good time to make some effort.

"Sorry about the fight last night by the way," I said, "I didn't mean for things to get out of hand."

"Yeah," said George, stretching out the word like a gossipy Mum, "That was horrible. Good for you for standing up to him though; I just played possum with him so he didn't pay me much attention."

"Possum?" said Tiffany.

"Yeah," said George, "You know, like playing dead? If somebody messes with you just pretend like you don't exist and they'll get bored. It's a wonderful defense mechanism."

Sounds pretty cowardly, I thought. But hey, if it worked for him…

"This is Tiffany, by the way," I said, "She's my friend."

"Hi," said George, offering a hand for Tiffany to shake. They shook hands, a bit awkwardly, like two teenagers playing adult. "Pleasure," said George.

I could tell then that Tiffany was much more outside of her social element than I was. I couldn't be sure but something told me she wasn't the type to spend her time hanging around awkward (somewhat) loser-male types.

"Are there still job openings for this sort of thing?" said Tiffany.

"Oh yeah, probably," said George, "I wanted to get a cafeteria job because I know my way around a kitchen. But those jobs got taken up quick. There's also cleaning jobs and other things. Just ask Mike about it. You guys are new so obviously a lot of the job positions have been taken."

"Thanks," said Tiffany. She looked at me, "Guess we've got another reason to find Mike."

It was then a loud ding, dong, ding melody played on the speakers throughout the third floor.

"Everyone please come to the Exercise Area right away for a special announcement."

It was Mike's voice. He repeated this request several times over.

"Well now we know where he is," I said.

I kind of wished we hadn't heard the announcement because I was starving. Food would have to wait.

George joined Tiffany and I on our way to the exercise area. Inside we could see two dozen teenagers already standing in a loose group. Mike stood ahead of them on a small podium and with a microphone in one hand and a tablet device in the other. Abigail was also by his side, though not standing on the podium. Over the course of a few minutes all two-hundred-ish teenagers gathered to hear what Mike had to say. I spotted several familiar faces; Mikayla made her way over to Tiffany. Following at a casual pace behind Mikayla was Blain. I could see Tiffany's demeanor change around Blain; for the first time I could better see the girl in Tiffany in her mannerisms. Somehow Blain by his sheer masculine presence alone was bringing the behavior out of Tiffany, though he seemed to be oblivious to her existence.

"Hey," I said, to Mikayla and Blain, both gave little nods of acknowledgement my way but, I could tell, could care less I was there. The real affinity was between Mikayla and Tiffany.

"Hey girl," said Mikayla.

"Hey," said Tiffany.

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They hugged like they hadn't seen each other in days, but of course they had seen each other earlier during breakfast.

I looked around and spotted Jay and Amar standing together too.

"Hey," said a small voice from behind me.

It was Daniel, the other boy I shared B-9 with; the boy with long hair that was balding some at the front. He kept his gaze on the floor for the most part and his arms hugging his chest.

"Hey, how are you?" I said.

"Okay," he said.

"Have you been at the facility long?" I asked, trying to make small-talk.

"Two weeks," said Daniel.

I didn't know what else to say to him. Thankfully George noticed he was there.

"Hey," said George, "How's the cafeteria work going?"

"G-good," Daniel stammered, but didn't say any more than that.

A boy of few words, I thought.

"Thank you everyone," said Mike, his voice loud thanks to the speakers in the exercise area picking up the sound from his microphone.

Mike waited a moment for everyone's murmurs to settle down.

"Alright'y," he said, "I've been told by the higher ups to make this announcement to you all. First, there has been a change to the contracts you have all signed. Starting today, payments of two-grand per week will not be paid on a weekly basis, but will go into your accounts as a lump sum at the end of your contract. For some of you that is four months, for the new arrivals of course that'll be three months."

A wave of upset sprung up among the teenagers. Tiffany in particular gasped in shock.

"Now," said Mike, "It is within the terms of the contract for this change to be made."

"Is that true?" said Mikayla, whispering.

"Yeah," said Blain.

"However," said Mike, "The money you have earned here at the facility will be sent to your accounts; for instance those of you who have been here for three weeks will have three weeks of pay sent to your accounts today. However, moving forward payment will be made at the end of your contracts as I have mentioned. In addition, moving forward, if anyone here wishes to leave the facility then you will not be paid the full lump sum; from now on you must all stay here for the majority of the contract period to receive payment, no exceptions."

This really riled up the teenagers, including myself. A flurry of swearing and angry questions filled the exercise area. It was then I noticed the dozen or so Pied Piper officers, armed with machine guns, surrounding all of us at intervals. For this reason the riled up crowd didn't suddenly swarm Mike and Abigail and were instead kept at bay. I didn't know if this crowd was the type to suddenly attack Mike and Abigail over this news, but given how upset they were at hearing it I wouldn't have been surprised.

"I understand many of you are upset," said Mike, "If any of you wish to leave then that option is still available to you."

"I've been asking to leave for two weeks!" a girl shouted from the crowd.

"Which is why," said Mike, trying to speak above the murmurs and shouts, "If anyone wishes to leave right now we have prepared a special flight out from the facility."

The murmurs died out all at once. Nobody it seemed, including myself, had been expecting this. Tiffany and I shared a look. Was this our way out already?

"And," said Mike, sounding more in control now that everyone was quiet, "We are still making arrangements for you to contact your families and other relations, but this is going to take some time; approximately two more weeks; this is due to issues of privacy and trying to protect the work being done here at this facility. We ask for your patience during this difficult time, we are working as fast as we can to make calls home a possibility."

Again, more silence, but it had become an excited, enthusiastic kind of silence. People were being told what they wanted to hear.

"Now," said Mike, "If you wish to go home on the return flight later this evening you will forfeit any further payment from the facility, other than the amount you have already accrued. Additionally, and please understand this, a flight out of here will not mean you will return home. Instead you will be sent to one of the containment zones. Your accommodation situation, I assure you, will not be nearly as good as it is now. And you will not receive payment for helping the facility with its research; and you will not have means to contact your loved ones like you would here. Many of you here have misunderstood how incredible an opportunity it is to be here. You are not prisoners. This is an opportunity to help with research that could save many lives. So, if you still wish to leave then please stay behind and you can sign a form which will permit you to leave the facility. Thank you everyone, we won't be accepting any questions at this time. Please leave the exercise area if you do not wish to take a flight out tonight."

A good deal of the teenagers began to make their way out of the exercise area, including Jay, Amar, Daniel, and George. I spotted that girl, Sophie, stood facing Mike with her arms crossed. My assumption had been that she was flirting with the Pied Piper officer before as a way to get out of the facility. Now was her chance. Was she going to take it? It seemed as if she were asking herself that question.

"What do you want to do?" said Tiffany, to me.

I didn't have an answer.

"I'm staying," said Mikalya, chiming in, "Ain't no way I'm losing out on all that money. Right, Blain?"

Blain crossed his muscled arms.

"I don't know," he said, "I don't like them changing the contract on us. That ain't trustworthy behaviour."

"It's probably because so many people are asking to leave," I said.

Tiffany put her hand on my shoulder.

"Do you want to leave?" she said.

My mind raced a hundred miles a minute. The teenagers trickling out of the exercise area were like bits of sand falling through an hourglass.

I became aware of my Meter device and the fact it could hear everything I might say.

"Who's to say that the flight out of here is real?" I said.

Mikayla, Blain, and, I noticed, that girl Sophie, all fixed their attention on me.

"He's right," said Blain, "For all we know they could just be taking anyone that leaves down to another floor. Running crazy experiments on them."

"Yeah," I said, "Exactly."

Mikayla rolled her eyes. "Are you boys serious?" she said, "This ain't some big conspiracy. Didn't you hear Mike? We can leave if we want, or stay and get paid. You've been watching too many movies - trust."

I really didn't know what the right thing to do was. Stay and get paid, but risk some potentially sinister stuff occurring, or go back to a place like Lintern Village (possibly the most likely place we would be returned to given the distance).

"How do you think you would feel stuck at Lintern knowing you could be making two grand a week?" I said to the others, "I'd feel pretty stupid giving up an opportunity like this."

"The thing is," I said, "They haven't given me a reason not to trust them – except the Pied Piper officers. Did you know one of them put a gun to my head in Lintern?"

"No way, really?" said Mikayla.

"It's true," said Tiffany, "I saw it."

"But this whole situation is serious," said Blain, "They have to maintain control. If they don't then they've created an even worse situation for everyone. Don't forget each and every one of us is a grenade that could go off."

To help prove his point Blain raised his wrist to show his Meter. It was showing green.

"Burgess?" said Tiffany, urging me to make a decision.

"I don't know," I said, "I really don't know. I think we should just leave it for now. We can always take the next flight out if we don't want to be here."

"Okay," said Tiffany, "I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Otherwise it's whatever. No use us being here if they don't intend on paying us, init?"

It wasn't about the money for me. It was nice. What I cared about was getting out of the facility in one piece, preferably without having the hangman of blowing to smithereens looming over me for the rest of my life.

I spotted a small group of teenagers queued up in front of Mike and Abigail. One of the girls, a chubby girl with a ponytail, looked over to us and waved.

Tiffany and Mikayla waved back.

"That's Beth," she said, "She's in my block. She's wanted to leave ever since she got here. Looks like she's gonna go."

Blain smirked. I could see why. Among the group lining up to go was Tommy. His nose was a shade of purple, giving him a slight clown-ish look. He looked our way then looked back as if he hadn't seen us. I felt a sudden pang of pity for him. I'm sure a large part of the reason he wanted to leave the facility was because of our fight. For a moment I considered walking over and saying something to him, anything, to make him reconsider leaving. More teenagers left the exercise area. Mikayla, Blain, and even Tiffany began to wander out.

"You coming, Burg?" said Tiffany, stopping and waiting for me.

I looked back at Tommy and decided his issues weren't my problem and then joined the others out of the exercise area.