The Testing (The Testing 1)

There is only one answer I can come up with. “All leaders have to live with disappointment at some point or another. If I have to learn that lesson early, I won’t enjoy it, but I will do my best not to let you down.”

The other Testing officials look at one another as I wait for whatever else Dr. Barnes has in store. He rolls a pencil back and forth on the table in front of him as he studies me. I remain still and meet his stare with one of my own. Someone in the room coughs. Another clears her throat. Those are the only sounds as the minutes tick away.

Finally, Dr. Barnes says, “I think we’ve gotten all the information we need. Unless any of my colleagues have something to ask?”

Every head behind the table shakes from side to side, flooding me with confusion. Dr. Barnes told us the evaluations could take forty-five minutes. I doubt twenty minutes have passed since I walked into this room. They never asked about my performance in the first two tests and only asked a handful of questions about test number four. Does their disinterest mean I’ve failed? It must, because they are pushing back their chairs. I want to ask them to wait. To explain that people who elicit trust only to betray should not be leaders. To tell them that while I am no longer the same girl who dreamed of coming to Tosu City, I am someone who should be selected for the University. Not because I want to be a part of this system. I don’t think I do. Not anymore. But because I want the chance to live.

Before I can speak, Dr. Barnes says, “Before you go, I should ask if you have any questions for us.”

This is my chance to impress them. This is the time to ask something that will show the depth of my observational skills or demonstrate my ability to think on my feet. But while I know that this is my chance to shine, the temptation to fill one important blank is too great. Maybe it was talking about Five Lakes Colony and our tight-knit community or maybe it was learning Will took the time to discover the name of the girl he killed. While the chances are slim, someday I might go home. If the pills Tomas has sneaked from the hospital help me retain my memory, I will be able to tell Malachi’s family about his time at The Testing. I will be able to tell them how he died. Zandri deserves no less.

So instead of discussing the fields of study or questioning what my life will be like while attending the University, I ask, “What happened to Zandri Hicks during the last test? How did she die?”

A ghost of a smile plays on Dr. Barnes’s lips, and he lets out a small laugh. “And here I thought you had that figured out. Perhaps the answer will come to you after this interview is over. After all, you do have her identification bracelet in your bag.” He checks his watch and sighs. “And with that, this interview is at an end. Congratulations on making it this far in the process, Cia. It has been a pleasure to watch you perform.”

I’m escorted out of the room before I can ask what he means about Zandri and her bracelet. My legs threaten to buckle as the official leads me down the hall. This must be a typical response either to the drug or the stress, because the Testing official puts an arm around my waist as he leads me back to my designated sleeping quarters. And then he is gone, leaving me alone with my worry of failure and Dr. Barnes’s parting words to keep me company.

Zandri.

Dr. Barnes thought I already knew what happened to her. How could I? I never once saw her on the Testing plains. There is no way I could have ended up with her identification bracelet.

Upending my bag on the bed, I search for clues to what I’m supposed to have learned already. There are my clothes, the Transit Communicator, my pocketknife. There is a fragment of white sheet lodged in the corner of my bag. But all other evidence that the fourth test ever took place is gone. Except for three small identification brace

lets that rest in the side pocket.

My fingers outline the design on the first. The triangle with an eight-spoked wheel I took from the girl we buried. The girl Will killed with his crossbow. The girl I now have a name for—Nina. A girl from Pierre Colony who came here to take a test and was murdered by the United Commonwealth. Will might have pulled the trigger, but the Testing officials allowed it to happen. Over the years, how many other candidates have murdered to keep themselves alive? And how many more have died to help the Testers pass judgment on the merits of the candidates?

The thought makes me angry. So much so that it takes me a while to remember the two other bracelets in my bag. One of which Dr. Barnes claims is the answer to my question. I put Nina’s bracelet to the side and study the other two. The first displays Roman’s symbol—an X surrounded by a circle. On the other, smaller bracelet is a triangle with a stylized flower. I think back to our ride to Tosu City. Zandri was flirting with Tomas while her fingers toyed with her bracelet. A bracelet with this design. A bracelet I don’t remember picking up. Where did it come from?

I think through the events of the fourth test day by day. The run through the wreckage that was once Chicago. The beautiful, booby-trapped oasis. Nina’s sightless corpse. The hulking, wolflike animals giving chase. Meeting Stacia, Vic, and Tracelyn. The city with its domed building and mazelike streets. The stream where I was forced to kill. Will. Brick’s bullets tearing the mutated humans to shreds. Roman’s attack. The girl firing at us so near the end. Will shooting Tomas. My desperate attempt to alter the bicycle to get him back to Tosu City. The ride.

Wait. My fingers worry away at the sides of Zandri’s bracelet as a memory hits. A memory so unimportant next to Will’s betrayal or Tomas’s wound emptying his blood onto the soil. I needed matches, so I searched Tomas’s bag in the dark and found a metal object. An object I believed to be Nina’s other bracelet that Tomas must have taken as a remembrance just as I had done.

Only, I was wrong. The bracelet belonged to Zandri.

How did it end up in Tomas’s bag?

Of the three and a half weeks it took to complete the fourth test, Tomas and I were together for all but a day and a half. Could he have picked up the bracelet while wandering the streets of Chicago? If so, why didn’t he tell me? Did he not want me to know that Zandri had failed the test so soon after it began? Did he fear that I would believe failure was inevitable?

Maybe. Tomas would have worried for me. He would have wanted to keep me focused and safe. But I am not sure this is the answer. There was one other time Tomas and I were separated. And I know.

The bracelet.

The dried blood on Tomas’s knife.

The haunted look in his eyes.

Will’s words that Tomas is not who I think he is.

The candidate that Will and Tomas met while I was gone. Not some unnamed male from Colorado Springs Colony.

Zandri.

The pieces click together with a force that knocks the air from my lungs. I can’t move. I can’t breathe. I can only clutch the bracelet that belonged to the beautiful girl whose talent everyone from Five Lakes Colony admired. The girl who flirted with Tomas. The girl he must have killed.

No. My heart doesn’t want to believe it. Tomas wouldn’t kill anyone. Not unless he didn’t have a choice. I left Will and Tomas together. Isn’t it more likely that Will, a proven killer, was the one to murder Zandri? Maybe there was some kind of altercation. Maybe . . .

The possibilities jumble. The combination of drugs in my system is making it hard for me to think clearly. I get up and walk the length of the room, staring at the bracelet in my hand, trying to uncover the truth behind it. As much as my heart wants to think Tomas had nothing to do with Zandri’s murder, his unwillingness to share what happened on that day makes it hard to believe otherwise.