Everything was dark, faint murmurs could be heard in the background.

"Is it time?"

"Yes, they will continue the testing soon."

Two male voices could be heard, suddenly, a door opened.

"It's time, I need you both to prepare the samples immediately, now." followed by a door closing.

Gerald opened his eyes and saw a familiar sight, he was still in the classroom, laying in the same position as before he got knocked out by the gas. He woke up on the floor, facing the ground. As he tried to look around, he glanced at the other students, they were all still unconscious, and by the looks of it, he was the only one awake. The two scientists walked closer to him, and out of fear of whatever the scientists could do to him, he froze in fear and pretended to still be asleep.

The two scientists went up to the unconscious students and forcefully dragged them, arranging them in a log position, facing up with their arms and legs straight, and lining them up in a line. When it came to Gerald's turn, he tried his best to act unconscious, letting his body relax as much as possible and allowing his body to act limp.

A scientist grabbed his hand and dragged him to the line, placing him in the same position as everyone else. He was almost found out when he opened his eyes to get a quick glance at his surroundings, that was when the scientist and Gerald almost made eye contact, but in the split second, Gerald closed his eyes. The scientist questioned what he just saw, but he concluded that he might just be seeing things, since Gerald's acting was superb and you couldn't differentiate him from the other unconscious students as he made his body extremely relaxed even from the nervousness. He played the role of a lifeless body, and he delivered.

When the scientists were far enough from him, he looked around sneakily, He was beside Avery and Serenity. He felt relieved as he saw that the two of them were fine.

The front door opened again.

"Is everything ready?" asked the man who came in.

"Yes sir, have you run out of samples from the other rooms?"

"Yes, this is the last room remaining, hopefully we'll be able to succeed before we run out of samples."

The other scientist in the room was silent, instead of engaging with the other's conversation, he went to each student, opening their eyes and shining a bright flashlight at them, checking whether or not they were unconscious or simply pretending to be—like what Gerald was doing. The scientist tested the students one by one, and by the time the scientist had reached Avery, Gerald began to feel a chill down his spine. He didn't know if he could pull it off, and he was quite scared of what would happen if he was found out. He assumed that the scientists would simply knock him out, but what if they went to extreme measures instead?

The scientist had finished with Avery, it was now Gerald's turn. The scientist peeled his eyes open with two fingers, one for each eye, and Gerald tried his best to look as straight as possible, not moving his gaze as the scientist looked him directly in the eye. He flashed the bright light towards his eye, it felt like he was staring at the sun. Gerald was determined, even if he went blind, he would continue to act unconscious. He continued to focus, to act unconscious, it had felt like an eternity as the scientist continued to shine the flashlight. Finally, he was satisfied, so he pulled down Gerald's eyelids, closing them, and he proceeded to check Serenity, then the rest of the class.

The door opened, and a male scientist pushing a stretcher entered the room. The other scientists knew what to do before he could even say a word, they carried one of the unconscious students, placed her on the stretcher, removed her binds with a wire cutter, and rolled her out of the room, never to be seen again. Gerald was extremely confused at what had just transpired.

"Were they going to treat her or something?" He thought, it was an acceptable thought as the student was indeed placed on a medical stretcher with wheels like one an ambulance would use, but the setting was extremely unlikely as they were the same scientists that had knocked them out with gas. A few moments passed, and the same scientist entered the room again, rolling an empty stretcher. The scientists followed the same procedure, they grabbed a student, placed him on the stretcher, removed the zip ties, and rolled him out.

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Time passed, by Gerald's estimate, about an hour or two. Gerald continued to act unconscious as the scientists did the exact same procedure over and over. One of the scientists grew tired of all the heavy lifting, he looked quite frail and simply couldn't keep up with the other scientist in carrying the students to the stretcher. They were indeed two grown men carrying teenage students to the short distance of the stretcher, but even as simple of a task that was, he simply grew tired of it.

"Hey, can you handle that by yourself?" said the scientist.

"What? Don't fucking slack off now, you'll get in trouble."

"I'm so fucking tired from doing all this, we've been hopping through schools doing the same thing over and over again, but still no good results."

"Shut up and do your job, a lot of units have already succeeded in the testing, and it'll only be a matter of time until they hand over the effective formula."

"I don't want to do this anymore, can I at least have a few minutes off?"

"God dammit, just go fucking check the students again."

With an easier task at hand, the scientist went over to the students, shining the bright flashlight in their eyes again. The process became quicker as there were fewer than half the students left in the room after they were wheeled out. The scientist checked Serenity, shining the light on her eye, there was no response. This time, the scientist did the process in the opposite order, so Serenity was checked before Gerald. It was now his turn to be checked, he laid still like a log, eyes steady as rocks, and he endured the bright burning light of the flashlight and successfully pulled it off again. Gerald mentally sighed in relief. He could become an actor, he thought to himself.

"Oh shit!" said the scientist.

Gerald quickly glanced at the scientist without moving his head, and was shocked at what he saw.

"You fucker! You were awake the entire time." said the scientist.

Gerald saw Avery, sweating bullets as she got found out. He was surprised as he wasn't the only one who was awake, Avery survived the first round of checking but simply blundered on the second one.

"What do we do?" said the scientist.

"Just knock her out, she'll be next on the chopping block."

Avery tried to struggle, she violently shook her body as her muffled, undecipherable voice could be heard from under the tape on her mouth. The scientist formed a fist and brutally socked her on the face. Avery twitched in pain, but the scientist didn't even feel a single ounce of remorse as he continued to pelt her with his fists. With bruises appearing on her face, she began to cry from the pain.

Avery was stubborn, despite all the beatings, she refused to succumb to pain and be knocked out. The scientist grew tired of punching, and in a last attempt, he grabbed Avery's neck and tightened his grip, choking her. She shook her body in response, trying to get the man off of her, but due to her being tied up on both hands and feet, she simply couldn't do anything to free herself from the man's grasp. Her face was turning blue, and it was only a matter of seconds before she fainted, her eyes screaming in pain as tears of agony drip from her bloodshot eyes. Gerald couldn't stand to watch a single second more, he knew that if he did anything then he would receive the same treatment as Avery or even worse, but he couldn't stand seeing his friend being choked next to him. Mustering up the courage, he took a deep, silent breath, tightened his core, tensed his feet, and lunged his upper body up from the ground, headbutting the scientist.

The man was knocked over to the side, his hands covered the point of impact while Gerald endured the pain of smashing his head against someone else.

"Ah shit! What the fuck!" exclaimed the scientist.

The other scientist in the room simply looked in their direction, not responding to what just happened.

"You're fucking dead! I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

The scientist jumped on Gerald, getting on top of him, and proceeded to choke him just like he did to Avery, but this time more violently. Gerald struggled like a worm, desperately shaking his entirety to shake off the man, but it was simply impossible, his hands and feet were tied up so he couldn't do anything else but move like a worm.

In a desperate attempt, Avery ferociously kicked the man repeatedly from her tied up position, but due to being immobilized, her kicks simply couldn't generate enough power to do significant damage to the man, so he simply ignored her and continued to choke Gerald to death.

His vision became blurry, his face turned blue, and if any more time passed, he would be unconscious or even worse, dead. Avery tried to scream through the tape blocking her mouth, she continued to kick the man, but he was simply not budging, and she could only watch in horror. Tears gushed out of her eyes as she watched her friend, who was nearing death by the second.

In just the nick of time, the front door slammed open. "It's a success!" exclaimed the man who entered. With the good news, the scientist's grip on Gerald's neck loosened, and Gerald quickly inhaled as much air as he could through his nose, afterwards, his face returned to its former color.

"Are you sure!?" asked the scientist as he got off of Gerald. He seemingly lost all his rage as the other scientist delivered the good news.

"Yes! I'm sure, come on, let's go report to the main branch!"

All the scientists quickly grabbed their things and left the room in a hurry, leaving the remaining students behind.

Gerald thought that it was over, he though it was the end of the pain. He sighed in relief and closed his eyes for a moment, but as he opened it, he caught a glimpse of an object rapidly approaching his face, then his vision went black.