Suddenly, the bedroom door swung open and slammed against the wall behind it. In that same moment, my eyes snapped open and my body jolted up in my bed, halting my once peaceful night of sleep. As I was sat up in my bed, I noticed that three guards had stormed into the room. One of the men flicked on the lights, causing my hand to fly up to my eyes and shield the abrupt brightness.

I noticed that Zara and Bree had been woken up as well, and were both sitting upright in their beds with confused expressions. Bree shot me a nervous glance but I wasn't sure how to respond, so I just averted my eyes from hers. I knew what was happening.. We were all about to be taken back down to the laboratory for experiments. Everything was finally happening and falling into place.

"What's going on?" Zara asked rudely. She had an angry expression on his face, probably from being awoken in the middle of the night. I was a bit annoyed by that too, but I haven't been able to get a solid night of sleep in weeks so it didn't really bother me anymore now.

"Each of you needs to come with us," the guard in the middle spoke up. He sounded so serious. The matching black, army uniforms added onto their intimidating demeanor as well. "Now."

I threw my blanket off of myself and stood up. Bree watched me carefully. I could tell that she was hesitant to listen to their orders. She was scared and completely unaware about where we were going and what was about to happen. Zara, on the other hand, copied my movements and followed me out into the hallway. Once the three of us were out of the room, the guards escorted us to the elevator. The entire floor was overly crowded with other kids and fellow guards trying to get everyone ready for the experiments. Almost everyone had on worried facial expressions. Besides myself—and maybe Bree—no one knew exactly what was going on, and being woken up at an early hour in the night was never a good sign.

Bree, Zara, and I stood outside the elevator with the three guards. I saw the boys walking towards us now, each of them looked exhausted, except for Leo. He seemed wide awake and energetic. It didn't surprise me at all.

"Section A is ready for transportation," a guard spoke. "Take them to the basement cells for the night, while we await further instruction from Silas."

"Cells?" Henry repeated. He glanced between the two guards that were talking, but they ignored him and ushered all of us into elevator. Once the doors slid shut, that awful music began playing again. I sighed angrily and closed my eyes for a brief moment to keep my cool. I hated that damn music.

"So.. how's everyone's night?" Leo spoke up, breaking the silence between us. I smiled slightly but rolled my eyes as I feigned a laugh. Everyone else was dead silent too. Even the two guards that stood in the back of the elevator box were quiet, but I blamed that on them doing to jobs right now. "Before I was so rudely awoken.. I was having one hell-of-a dream. It was one of those ones where you're being chased by something, but for some reason you run away in slow motion. I hate those kinds of dreams.. I was being chased by giant duck in mine. It kept quacking at me and all, but I was like 'bitch, I don't speak duck!'" I shook my head in disbelief at this ridiculous conversation. "Do you guys think that's a sign or somethin'?"

When no one else felt like answering, Zara huffed in annoyance and replied, "I think I can speak for everyone here, when I say that it's way too early for you to start your bullshit." Leo furrowed his brows and glanced over his shoulder to see what everyone else thought, but when he turned around we all looked away quickly. "Told ya," Zara added.

Leo rolled his dark eyes. "Fine," he sighed. "I see how it is."

After a moment of silence, Henry cleared his throat. "Typically, when we dream about being chased, it means you're avoiding something or someone in real life," he informed Leo.

The blonde boy smirked and nodded his head. "Thanks, buddy. I knew someone would care."

Once the elevator doors slid open, the two guards directed us through the hallway of the basement floor. It looked much different from the last time we were here. The rooms we stayed in when we woke up were replaced with smaller stone rooms that resembled prison cells. My eyes wandered into each cell to see a different kid behind the bars. Some were still awake, unable to fall asleep after being woken up so abruptly, while others were passed out once again.

Our group walked towards to center of the hallway, where the two guards divided us into our own cells. I was in the cell between Bree and Zara, directly facing Leo. The two guards locked the bar door behind us and then left. With a soft sigh, I sat down on the floor with my back pressed against the side of the stone wall. I pulled the sleeves of my sweater over my cold hands and brought my knees up to my chest for extra warmth. The dim lights that hung in the hallway just barely lit up the cells, so I was left in almost complete darkness.

The last time I was brought to this cell, it was a bit bigger and I had to share it with another girl. It was strange how small details of the timeline were changing as I lived through it again. I wasn't sure if it was because I had made a few changed prior, or because something was messed up with time itself. Regardless of whatever was going on, I decided to close my eyes and try to get some sleep. I'd be needing all the rest I could get before the guards come back and call me in for surgery.

★・・・★・・・★

I sat cross-legged on the floor, facing the empty cell across from me, where Leo used to be. In an almost unbelievable way, I missed his nonsense and playful banter, only because of how quiet it had been recently. Leo, along with the other two boys and Zara had been taken to surgery a few days ago. Besides Henry, who had to be sedated because of his never ending list of questions, they all seemed to come to terms with the human experiments. None of them fought back against the Order guards like I had the last time I lived through this.

They didn't care about what happened to them because they were brainwashed into doing whatever Silas since he offered us a new life. I still found it crazy how they would all go along with this so casually.

Since no one was returned to their cells, I figured all had gone well with the experiment and they were now in another room for recovery. I wondered about what they were think right now, especially in regards to their newfound abilities. I figured Leo and Zara would be in awe of their powers, while Henry would have so many questions, and Asher would.. well, he would probably still be the same as before. He was always emotionless and quiet.

I had never spoken to him in my entire life, and every time I try he doesn't answer. I had one asked Bree if she knew anything about him. She told me that he came from an abusive house, but that was all she really knew about him. Asher never spoke to anyone except Zara, who had also had secret issues of her own. After a bit of training with everyone's new powers, Silas will assign the two of them to go on the first assignment for Section A. The pair were always spotted with each other after they spent the night on a stakeout mission together. Zara and Asher seemed to understand the other. I always thought they were quite cute because they brought out the best in each other.

"Alexa?" Bree called out quietly. Her voice echoed down the hall and brought me out of my own thoughts. "Are you awake?"

I laid down on the cold, concrete floor below me and stared at the ceiling. "Yeah.. Everything okay?" I whispered back.

She was quiet for a moment. "I'm just nervous," she admitted. "I know I was a bit excited before, but I have this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach."

"I know how you feel," I said. She was describing exactly how I before reliving my past. "Everything will be okay."

Bree sighed, "Thanks.. I needed that." I nodded slowly but couldn't help the frown that took over my features. How could I tell her that everything would be okay, when she doesn't even make it out of this nightmare alive? I felt like an awful friend for lying to her, but at the same time I wasn't sure how much I could tell her without jeopardizing the future even more than I already did.

Before I could say anything else to Bree though, the door to my cell clicked open. I sat up immediately and saw two guards and a scientist, who was standing beside a stretcher in the hallway. One of the guards addressed me sternly, "Subject A7. We're ready for you." He motioned for me to stand up and lay on the stretcher but I remained still. "Subject A7, come now."

I slowly got to my feet and walked out of my cell. My legs still felt numb from my lack of movement over the past few days. I climbed onto the stretcher and laid back so that body was facing the ceiling. I wasn't freaking out like last time because I knew what was about to happen and I was ready for it.

"Inject her," the guard spoke.

The scientist nodded and pulled out a needle that had been resting in her lab coat's pocket. She brought the sharp tool towards my shoulder and slowly stuck it into my arm, impaling my flesh with a painful pinch. My tense body relaxed and I started to lose feeling in my arms and legs. The stretcher began rolling down the long hallway, passing each cell. Some were empty while others held another scared kid. I felt my eyelids start to become heavy as my vision blurred. I gave into the hazy feeling and closed my eyes, entering into a dreamlike state.