Over the next couple of days, Kai and I were stabbed with several needles full of god knows what. The liquid burned as it entered my bloodstream, but I will say it did make me feel stronger in a way. Which was apparently what they wanted, since they immediately put us through physical training. Alyssa put a collar around my neck and Lorelei did the same to Kai, before they roughly shoved us outside. This facility was bigger than I thought. There was miles and miles of fence in every direction.

I didn't have time to admire the view because a large feathery object hit me in the face. "Ow! Gross", I muttered, spitting out a feather. "See those cars? You're gonna pull them."

"Pull them?", Kai frowned. "We can't pull cars! What do you think we are?" Lorelei smacked him. "Pull it. Until we say stop." When we hesitated again and I felt a searing pain in my neck, like I was being stabbed with hot iron making me drop to me knees clawing at my collar. It was like I was suffocating, I couldn't get air down my throat. A boot connected to my ribs and sent me rolling across the ground. "Listen here, you guys have no rights here, no free will, you don't even get to pee without our say so. So when I say jump, you don't ask how high, you keep jumping until I say it's high enough. Do we understand each other? Yes? Then pull the fucking car!"

A click , then the pain stopped and I could breathe again. When I pulled my hands from my throat, they were soaked with blood. Not slick, but literally soaked. I know they say time moves slower when you're in pain, but I know that was a lot longer than I should have survived while bleeding that profusely. A sudden revelation hit me while I was pondering why I didn't die. The blood had stopped flowing from my neck. I couldn't dwell on it for too long, as these two men were very insistent on my getting up, since I was roughly yanked up by the arms.

I was then forced into a harness connected to a 2007 Honda Civic. I looked at Alyssa and Lorelei like they were crazy for trying to make me pull a car, which resulted in them holding up a button that I assumed controlled my collar. I took that as my invitation to start pulling before I was subjected to more agonizing "motivation". I grit my teeth, dug my feet into the ground and pushed forward with all my might. Nothing happened. Didn't move an inch, just like I knew it wouldn't. "Keep trying pipsqueak", Lorelei called. "We have a loooong day ahead of us."