“Tom! It’s time for your turn.” A woman called out from the doorway.

Tom rose to his feet and shuffled over to her.

Tom was the eleventh kid to be called out for the tests. The Bouncer Boys had been the first to be called up, leaving just Yiku to play poker with. Tom thought that Yiku wasn’t very good.

Once called up, none of the children had come back, they had been sent to their new homes within the company. The time had come for Tom to leave and find his new home.

The plate of food Tom had grabbed for Paris had long grown cold and stale, the pancake made a good frisbee as when he threw it at Yiku.

Tom had grown worried for Paris, he thought that her injuries must have been great. He had broken his neck and was already better, there was no telling what happened to her.

Tom’s stomach twisted at the thought.

“Are you ready now Tom?” The woman asked him with a warm smile.

Shaking himself from his stupor Tom nodded his head, “Yes Ma’am.”

He wanted to ask her about Paris but was unsure about doing so. It was silly but he thought he might jinx himself by asking where she was, perhaps he would not end up placed with her.

“Wonderful! Right this way Tom, these tests should only take a little bit.” The woman said.

With a wave of her arm, she ushered Tom out of the room and away from his friends.

Tom hoped, towards Paris.

The pair walked down the labyrinth of corridors and white block walls until they entered a large room crowded with various machines.

Several other kids were operating the machines or talking with adults in the same grey lab coats the man from last night wore. Stange stickers and wires lay connected to the kids as they performed the various tasks giving the children awkward posture.

Tom thought little of the strange circumstance, it was, in fact, not that strange to him. He knew that it was not unusual for the larger corporations to perform rigorous tests on some future employees, being adopted by the company a step up from employment. There were bound to be some peculiar requests.

“Hello Tom! My name is Dr. West, I will be conducting your tests today. It is a pleasure to have you!” A young man said with a smile, his clothing being a grey lab coat.

The man in question looked genuine and truly happy to be there, at least to Tom’s perception.

“Hello.” Tom replied, rather unsure of how to proceed with the conversation. This was not due to any sort of social ineptitudes, but rather he had never had tests performed upon him before.

A reasonable excuse, Tom thought.

“So, Tom, I know that some of these tests might be a bit...odd. But they are necessary to find a proper place for you. I have no doubt you will do great.” The man said to him.

The words did little to ease Tom’s qualms about the whole scenario, but he had already decided to just commit to the tests. If Paris was here, she would do the best she could. Tom wanted to make sure that he did just as good as her. Perhaps then, they would be reunited.

“Where do we start?” Tom asked, filled with renewed confidence.

“Eager! I like it, unfortunately you won't have to do much for these first few minutes. I have to put the sensors on you first.” The man said, taken aback at the boy’s sudden change in attitude, though not at all upset by it.

The next few minutes constituted of Tom taking off his shirt and having various sticky pads with wires connected to him. Around his wrist a metalic bracelet that connected the wires sat tight in place, a relay. After applying all the sensors to the boy, he looked like a mangey hedgehog.

Tom laughed at the silly imagery of the endangered animal. He was only slightly bothered by how the stickers irritated his skin.

“Great, we are all done with the set up. The computer is reading your data loud and clear.” The Doctor said as he gazed off in space. Utilizing an optical HUD to relay the data to his view.

“Now, I just need to give you a little shot and you will be all good to begin.” Dr. West said.

Tom took a step back, he didn’t like needles, “Why do I need a shot?” He shot out in mild panic.

The Doctor raised his hands in defense, “Hey, I don’t like shots myself, but having been in a quarantine area, we have to make sure that nothing is left in your system to skew the data.”

“It’s a small shot.” The Doctor added in an attempt at negotiation.

Tom nodded his head. He didn’t know why his town had been labeled a quarantine area, but for Red Door to enforce it, it must have been serious.

“Okay, that’s fine then I guess.” Tom told the Doctor.

“It should only hurt a second buddy,” The Doctor said.

The man reached into the pocket of his lab coat, pulling out a small teal injector with a dull red button on top.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Doctor West walked over to Tom’s side and placed the device against his arm. With a push of the button on top of the device, it shot out a needle into Tom’s arm, filling his blood with the viscous drug.

A small red circle welt was left in place where the injector was placed, but Tom felt no other effects. The pain was indeed little and faded away quickly.

“That wasn’t that bad.” Tom said as vigor filled him.

“I told you, not bad at all. Now, let’s get these tests done quickly so we can send you on your way.” The man said, gently pushing Tom towards a set of machines.

“These machines are just to test your physical ability, maybe security is in your future huh?” The Doctor said with a smile.

Tom thought that being security would be cool, if he had been a security agent maybe he could have done more when his home was attacked.

Tom shook his head to scatter the invasive thought, he couldn’t think about that right now.

“There are no set weights, just pull or push however the machine asks. Only stop fighting the machine when the weight grows to much for you, it will increase with time.” The Doctor mentioned.

Tom nodded affirmatively at the Doctor and paced up the first machine.

The machine consisted of several metal cables that were attached to a handle, which itself was connected to the ground. He was meant to pull it up and hold it at his waist.

Tom had never been the strongest, Paris’s unfair growth spurt having left him the weaker of the two. He could only hope that he could hold on long enough to match her in the test.

The boy reached down and lifted at the handle, finding that it came up with minimal resistance.

A few seconds passed and the handle slowly became harder and harder to keep up. After a certain point the weight became immense and Tom doubted he could hold it much longer.

Then Tom felt the strangest thing happened.

He became stronger, the weight still heavy but not as much as before. The handle almost slipped out of Tom’s grasp at the strange sensation, barely holding his grip.

The process of the weight building then becoming bearable happened several more times before he could hold the handle no more and released it. The handle shot into the ground with a terrifying clang, the force behind it immense.

“How did I do that?!” Tom shot out, a look of amazement on his face.

The Doctor just smiled and typed out a note into the air, “I suppose you were just stronger than you thought. Good job, lets continue.”

With his newfound strength, Tom continued on performing the tests, pulling and pushing against various weights. Each time he surprised himself with his fluctuating strength.

Tom was starting to feel tired but had made it to the final physical test. The test was a simple race down an indoor track one mile in length. He was instructed to sprint and get as far down the track as he could, however fast he could.

He completed the required mile in under three minutes, but Tom didn’t care much, his body was exhausted.

Doctor West took another note with an even bigger smile on his face.

Tom lay on the ground in exhaustion, completely worn out from the exercises. His body had suddenly been overcome with immense amounts of fatigue, every muscle aching with intense pain.

“Doctor West. I. Think. I'm. Dying.” Tom muttered in between heavy breaths.

“No no, your body is just catching up to the drug's effects. You will be fine in a little bit, but for now, just rest.” The Doctor replied as he stood over Tom, looking down on him.

The man’s previous genuine smile had slipped into a devilish grin.

“What drug? What do you mean?” Tom asked weakly, he was too tired to be more angered at the man’s lies.

“Your shot, it was a general performance enhancer. We were using it to search for viable subjects, for further combat drug tests. You did very well Tom. Welcome to the drug research program.” The man stated succinctly.

Tom’s exhaustion kept him from reacting, the immense fatigue and pain immobilizing him against the Doctor’s words.

The Doctor smirked at the boy and turned away from the child, leaving him on the floor.

A large man in security garb approached Tom, removing the sensory pads off Tom’s skin and scooping him up. The built man easily tossing the child across his shoulder.

Tom wanted to resist, to fight against the man, but he felt too weak. His body betraying him.

He relented.

As Tom was hauled away, he consoled himself.

He had done well in the tests at least... Tom knew Paris would have done the same, if not better. than him.

He knew that they would be together soon for sure.

Right?

----------------------------------------

Tom was set into a rounded glass chamber along with several other children, all of which lay sprawled out on the floor. The man left the chamber and sealed the door with a harsh ‘clack’. The children were left to cry their pain away, sleep not allowing itself to be used as an escape.

Hours passed, and as the pain faded into simple soreness, Tom sat himself up. Looking across the other children in the room, there were sixteen other children in total, around half of their original amount.

Looking across the crowd, Paris was nowhere to be seen. Tom’s heart had become used to this scenario as of late.

Amongst the others though, Tom recognized Yiku and the Bouncer Boys sitting together.

He crawled over to them.

Yiku’s face pale, tired, and strained, his eyes puffy from tears. The Bouncer Boys weren’t in much better shape, their normal jovial attitude faded into a glum.

“Are guys okay, do know what’s happening?” Tom asked, fighting against phantom pain in order to speak.

Yiku just looked at Tom with hollow eyes before gazing back into space. Noah, the smallest of the Bouncer Boys, responded for the group.

“I’m feeling okay now, but my brothers don’t feel very good. I’m just happy that we are all together still.” The boy rattled off, truly only slightly fazed by the scenario and drug.

“Yiku though, he can barely move.” Noah added, receiving a soft groan of pain from Yiku in response.

“You haven’t seen Paris yet, have you?” Tom asked hopefully despite the low odds.

“No, I haven’t seen anyone else since we got put in here.” Noah replied, tapping his hand against the glass wall.

Tom leaned his back against said wall and released a low sigh.

He again lost hope that Paris would end up with him here. There was a chance she could still arrive... but he doubted it. He hid behind his hair and waited for what was to come.

Tom had no way to tell how long they sat in wait before the door to the chamber opened, the original man who had spoken to them at breakfast entering along with several security officers.

The man poised himself to speak.

“I am so very proud of each of you! By passing the tests, you have proven yourselves of great use.” The man said, his voice as gangly and revolting as it was before.

“Excuse my rudeness, but I suppose it is time I finally introduced myself. I am Doctor Illinois, head researcher for drug production at this facility. I am also now all of yours’ legal guardian. As such, you are under...”, doctor paused and looked down at one of the children.

“My care...” He finished as he paced over to the target of his gaze, Yiku.

The boy lay motionless on the floor, his chest sunken, his eyes glossy and wide.

The Doctor looked down at the boy, the man’s face contorting to a look of disgust.

He turned to one of the security guards and spat out an order, “It seems this failure has died. Take him to the freezer with the other failures.” The Doctor said, each word dripping with disdain.

Yiku was dead? Tom thought in shock, his brain struggling to comprehend the fact, and what did he mean by ‘with the other failures’?

Tom put the pieces together and held back vomit, his throat burning as the acid climbed upwards.

The other children had failed the test... the other two dozen...

They were dead...

Paris was dead...