As soon as I left the room, I was surrounded by many holders. I felt cocooned by them. Not an inch of me wasn't covered.

We were now all standing in the spot I had placed myself in once I had left the office. Nobody had started moving, so I took it upon myself to speak out loud since I had no clue which one to ask.

"So where are we going?"

Instead of responding, one of the holders started walking, and the rest followed, leaving me to follow suit staying within my little circle. I guess I wasn't going to get a spoken answer.

Even though I knew it was light and bright in the hallway, I now felt like I was back in my room due to the stupid glasses pigeon lady gave me. I wish she could have at least told me why I was wearing them.

She barely told me anything, not even her name. Honestly, she suits the name pigeon, and I think even if she had told me her name, I would still decide to call her pigeon.

We had been walking along this long hallway for a while before all the holders came to a sudden stop. I wasn't ready for it and nearly went into the back of one of them in front of me, but I stopped myself before that happened. I tried looking through the gaps between the holders, but they were so compact I couldn't see anything. But I could hear something. Not just one something; it was lots of somethings.

People.

Actual human voices.

Was I with the people I saw outside my window? Other humans like me.

Can I speak to them?

Have face-to-face interactions with them? That would make this day a hundred times better. But I took one look around me and instantly knew that would be impossible.

Not too long after the holders had stopped, the noise had ceased, and the room was now silent. I immediately knew it was the big group of holders that had just walked in that had caused the room to go silent. I knew this because I could hear the whispers.

"I have never seen the guards gather like that. Have you?"

"No, never! Do you think they are guarding something?"

"Of course, they are. What else would they be doing?"

"Well, when they move again, someone try take a look."

I stopped listening to their conversations and instead tried to find out why I was here. A part of me wanted to escape this ring around me, but now I knew everyone was staring; the idea was unappealing. I instead whispered to a holder near me.

"Why are we here?" The holder just responded with a word I have heard many times.

"Food."

"Oh, okay. So how do I get it?" As they only seemed to speak in one-word sentences, I got another one-word response.

"Wait."

Deciding that it was pointless to ask anything else, I moved into the middle of the circle again. I took my backpack off and grabbed the empty water bottle. I may not know what's going on, but I can imagine they will at least fill it up for me.

Once I pulled it out, it got yanked out of my hand immediately. Somehow they didn't even break the circle because I was still very much encased. Before too long, the holders started moving again, but it wasn't far. They just took me to an empty one-person table. I don't know how they got to it without breaking, but they did.

I plonked myself down and tapped on the table.

I preferred being trapped in my room. I was only meters away from human life, and I couldn't even see it. At least in my room, I could see the window people.

When I was finally given food, it was just a basic food ration pack of warm meat I used to get back in my room. As I hadn't been given any food today, I scoffed it down. They had also filled my water up, so I took a swig and put the remainder in my bag.

The minute I was finished, I was swiftly moved away. Once we had left the vicinity, the voices picked up again.

Would I forever be alone without a soul to talk too?

We walked for a while before the holders finally separated away from me. They didn't stop walking. They instead stood behind me, with one upfront leading the way. I don't know why but when they broke the circle, I expected to see a new room. But no, it was a blank white hallway with no painting in site this time.

I hadn't realised that we had been walking so slowly until I heard the gaggle of voices start to sound from behind us. Was that why they moved so nobody could walk ahead of them. Why were they so secretive about me? I know for sure the people here are thinking the same thing.

After about many more minutes of walking, we finally reached a pair of double doors. They were metal, so it was solid and clearly very heavy. The holder in front made them look light as he opened them up relatively quickly and gestured me in. The rest of the holders behind me stopped and crowded around the open door.

I turned around and saw that they had created a barrier. I could see the crowd of heads jumping trying to take a look. Before I could see them and they had a chance to see me, I was ushered away from the entrance and moved away from the prying eyes.

Okay, now I was fed up with this. Why can't I see anyone? Haven't I been hidden away long enough? I was definitely scowling now, and you know what? I didn't care that they could see how miserable they were making me.

I had been getting so worked up I hadn't even noticed where I was.

I was in a huge atrium full of equipment I had only seen in pictures. Trampolines, treadmills, jumping blocks, climbing frames, tall climbing walls and random walls scattered throughout. As for the other stuff, I didn't even know what they were as this was the first time I had seen them.

I was looking around at the roof and the walls, just taking in all the new smells, colours and sounds, when I was interrupted by a deep-sounding cough. I turned around to face the source and was greeted by a six-foot tall man with bulky shoulders with light hair like I had seen many times before. Unlike the other blonde-haired people I had seen, this guy really didn't suit it. His hair was too light compared to the rest of his features, and it just looked unnatural. But he did have a caring smile that caused my scowl to slip a little.

He reached out his hand towards me, ready for me to shake. Never in my life have I touched a living soul, let alone shook hands with one. I was just about to take his hand when a sound came from the holder. "NO!" I quickly pulled my hand away and looked down at the ground sheepishly.

"I am sorry, miss, I didn't know." I looked up at him and then at the holder. Should I speak? After all, I was forbidden to talk to the man this morning. The holder gave me a nod, and I took that as a sign of permission.

"It's okay. I didn't know either. Hi."

This felt so surreal; I was talking to a real human being. Yes, I had spoken to pigeon lady, but that was different. For some reason talking to this man felt different.

"Well, Hi, you must be Daisy P. I haven't been told much, but what I do know is that I am supposed to assess your skills." I looked at him, puzzled.

Skills! I have no skill or anything that would help me on that obstacle course I had just seen. I was going to look a fool.

"Sir, my skills may be very limited as I haven't left my room before today." I glanced quickly at the holder, but they made no signs to show me I had said the wrong thing, so I carried on. "What would I need to do?"

The man looked down at me and walked to a locker behind him. He opened it up and pulled out some trainers, shorts and a top.

"Here, put these on and hang that outfit in an empty locker in my office. You can also put your bag in there. I'll let you get changed too. Also, call me Gary; Sir is way too formal." He smiled and then pointed to a room behind him near some lockers.

I walked over to the building and got inside. I carefully removed my outfit and hung it correctly on the hooks in the back of his office. I then proceeded to change into the clothes he had given me. After I was changed, I hung my bag up with my clothing. I was about to walk out when I remembered the glasses. Even though I hated them, the pigeon lady told me I had to wear them, so I reluctantly put them back on as she said not to take them off. As I was leaving, I started to hear the murmur of voices. Everyone outside must have finally been let in.

Luckily they all had their backs facing me, so I wasn't greeted by any stares. I had gone from seeing very few people through a window to being face to face with more than three dozen people in a room. Well, it was face-to-back, but I would see them face-on at some point. I was starting to get worked up and anxious. It was a lot for one day.

I found a space behind everyone, making sure to blend in. It was hard, considering I have dark hair, whereas everyone In this room had very bright blonde hair. I also had dark glasses on inside. I must have looked ridiculous. Also, I had just realised that nobody here had restraints on them. Usually, mine were hidden under my baggy clothes, but I was now in shorts and a short sleeve top. No way I could hide the thick metal bands on my arms and legs. I looked like a criminal. But again, I had no choice.

Before anyone had even noticed my odd attire, Gary started to talk. "Alright, you lot, as you know, this session will be a bit different to your usual. You've probably also noticed that the group is much bigger, and you are probably seeing a few new faces you have never seen before." I let out a quiet sigh of relief. Maybe I wouldn't stick out too much since most of these faces were new. But it didn't change that I had the darkest hair here. Perhaps I would still stand out.

"This is because you have all been selected to be involved in the next mission. As this is one of the biggest, most important missions yet, I need to ensure you are ready and prepared to go. Unfortunately, this means that if you are unsuccessful, you will have to be in the reserve team. This doesn't mean you won't join the mission. It just means you will stay back and be trained further and sent once you are ready. As you will be in teams for your mission, you will be assessed with them today. I expect you all to work together and help each other out as much as possible."

Gary then started to call out names. I barely heard any of them. All I was thinking about was how badly I would let my team down. This was the first time I had done something like this. I had only done a minimal amount of exercise in my room. I didn't even know if I could run. But I didn't have too long to worry about it even further because I heard my name being called.

"Okay, next group, Daisy P, Hope B, Lucas A, Sarah A and Carmen A. Please form your group over by that yellow bench over there." Man, that's a lot of A's.

As I was the furthest from the bench, I watched as the others made their way over. I don't think they even noticed that none of the other groups had been sent to a bench. In fact, most of them had been sent straight to the obstacle course. I knew this different location had something to do with me. But I seemed to be the only one to notice.

To be fair to them my groups lack in noticing could be because they all seemed to be worked up talking to one another about the mission that we were about to go on.

Once my team had finally made it to the bench, they stopped talking and watched me as I came to join them. As I didn't want to look at them staring I tried moving my eyeline but I now saw that near the bench, a few holders where gathered who I knew for a fact were watching my every move. So either way I was going to have a watch party so I decided the best thing to do was quicken my pace.

The minute I approached, I was instantly drawn to the dirty blonde-haired girl who looked nearly a foot smaller than me. I didn't notice her because of her immense beauty; in fact, the reason she stood out so much was because she had such a featureless face that I thought was strange until I looked at the rest of them. I found that the other girl was similar in the sense that she also held very little features. She had a bit more character to her, which was that she had small dimples when she smiled. Her hair was blonde with ginger streaks, and she was definitely taller than the first girl.

As for the boys, their faces were very different but still featureless. They were much like the other two men I met today. Interesting but very similar. It made me realise how feature-full pigeon lady was. Yes, they weren't good features, but they were distinctive.

Come to think of it, everybody I had seen through my window was the same. Does that mean I am the same as them? I don't know.

They are all different, but you can tell there is just something not quite right with how they look. I don't know. All those books I had read made me hype up my imagination of what people would really look like.

I was snapped out of it when I heard a hissing noise from the more petite girl. I looked at her and pulled my eyebrows up in question, but my glasses hid my expression, so she just repeated what she had been trying to say this time and asked me in a loud, slow voice, like I was unable to understand her.

"Are you Daisy P?"

I gave her a nod and just stood still. I don't know why but the idea of speaking had me feeling sick to my stomach. But I wasn't left in peace. No, this petite person stood up and walked over to me.

"Well, my name is Hope; this is Lucas." She pointed to a boy who popped his head out. I found that he was wearing odd socks, so I made a mental note to try to remember Lucas was the one with odd socks.

"This Is Sarah." Sarah stuck out her hand, but I left mine down, remembering the warning the holder had given earlier. She looked a bit taken aback but put it down.

"And lastly, this is Carmen." She pointed to the last boy left, and he nodded slightly. But after she had finished talking, she didn't move away, and the others didn't move either. Now they were all staring right at me.

I wanted to be around people but not to be something for them to stare at.

I decided to try to find Gary to see if he would be coming over to tell us why we were separate from the rest, and I was in luck because he was walking right over. The others took a break from staring at me to watch him approach. So I took the chance to take a seat.

"So, as you can tell, you have been separated. This is because you are my team alpha. You have been chosen as the main team for the mission, and I expect you all to live up to that. I have been informed that you can use your powers during this session and, therefore, after. All except you, Daisy. You will just have to help the team in other ways." Gary looked at me emotionless, but I knew that he was wondering the same thing I was. As I guess the rest of my team was. Why can't I use my powers?