The Program

Chapter Twenty-Five

I remember a time in my life when Marcus thought it would be funny to lock me in our deep freezer.

If I recall it correctly, we were four. He said that if I could fit inside he'd give five dollars he recently earned for helping dad around the house because our mom was sick. I too had received money, but I was greedy and wanted more.

Accepting his challenge, I climbed into the deep freeze and sat down. I think we all realize what happened next.

My dad eventually got me out -I couldn't have been in there for over a minute anyway- expecting a scared girl to be shivering and crying.

Well, I was shivering. Being stuck in a freezer does that to a person. But I was not crying. In fact, I slapped Marcus and then gave him the silent treatment for as long as I could -it lasted about two minutes because we were really close and I started to miss him.

It's not exactly a memory i'm fond of, but it comes to mind anyway. I couldn't last minutes without talking to my brother. I don't want to know what it would be like if he were dead.

But sadly, Annie has experienced this by losing her sister.

And now she's lost her mom too. And she might not get her back.

Still, she kept a strong face despite all of that.

Annie was with me when I talked to Natalie about needing to get our friends back. She agreed that we would do whatever it takes to get them back.

"Listen," Natalie had began. I frowned at her tone. "It was one thing to go into the organisation to get Jack's mom. We had him and John then, now it's just us."

Annie crossed her arms. "We're strong enough to do it. We aren't helpless."

"I never said you were." Natalie went on. "The simple fact is, this is a job that requires more than us three."

Looking around at her words, I saw my family, John's. I saw my friends. Maybe if we worked togeth-

No. It was too risky.

I would not drag them deeper into this.

I will not lose them too.

I turned back to them. "Isn't there anyone that can help us?"

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Natalie definitely had connections. In this organisation, she apparently wasn't the only person needing to rebel.

She said she had a friend, someone I also knew, that might be able to help us. From what she was saying, I picked up on them being a bit more than friends, but I stayed off the topic.

"When Reid first brought me into this," Natalie told us, driving us herself to her friend's apartment. "My friend was the first person that found out what I was, said he had seen people die from being such. It affected the test too much for people to handle. He helped me hide what I was and continued to do so while you guys were in the test."

"And we can trust that he'll help us?" Annie questioned, not seeming to be comfortable with putting all our faith in a guy we don't know that well despite him keeping Natalie safe. We couldn't take the chance.

Natalie clutched the steering wheel hard, her knuckles turning white at Annie's kinda accusation. "Yes." She said through gritted teeth. "He's the closest thing to family i've had in my life over the past three years. I don't trust anyone more than I do him."

We didn't say anything else for the remainder of the ride.

When we pulled up, Natalie soon showing us the his apartment, she knocked on the door. "Kent, you there? Open up!"

I heard some shouting and grumbling on the other side, moments later the door being opened to reveal...

"Dr. Rivers?" I asked, raising an eyebrow while looking back and at Natalie and him. "You're in on all this too?"

He nodded, turning to Natalie, then back to me. "Um, we weren't going to let just any idiot take care of you kids while you were in there." He cleared his throat. "Is this the moment where I should ask you to come in?"

Natalie placed a hand on his arm. "I need to introduce you to someone." Biting her lip, she opened her mouth again. "More like re-introduce actually."

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"Well," Bridget dropped some papers on a desk near her as we entered the hideout. "There's a face I haven't seen in a long time."

Natalie and Dr. Rivers -Kent- were in front of us. He didn't seem to be expecting to see Bridget, causing him to tense up a bit as she spoke, Natalie grabbing his arm as he leaned toward her and questioned why he had to see her right then. Both their actions made me confused.

Soon, he said something.

"Didn't think you'd recognize me so quickly." He admitted, taking a few steps closer before he second guessed himself and backed up a step.

Bridget quirked her mouth some, a light, awkward sounding laugh coming from her. "You're not that forgetful." Her shoes seemed louder than they ever had as she walked to them. "After all, it's not everyday that you forget the face of your backstabbing brother."

"You're siblings?" Annie half shouted, leaving me shocked as well. I wasn't expecting that.

"Kind of." Kent answered as Bridget bit out, "Unfortunately."

He rubbed at the back of his neck, running over the tips of his blond hair. Bridget looked away, pushing her own dark hair out of her eyes and positioning herself where she wasn't directly under the lights that shined onto her dark skin.

Kent finally looked at us. "We're half siblings. Same mom." He inched closer to Bridget. "She's still my sister. Whether she likes that or not."

"Maybe by blood, Kent. But after what you did, you're not the same person I grew up with." She spat. For once, I saw a vulnerable side of her, slowing making it's way out of her and begging to be seen.

"Bridget, I-"

"You'll never be that little boy I had to help take care of after mom died. The younger brother who waited up with me all night so we could see the person I viewed as a dad when he got home." A low sob escaped her, but it was barely noticeable. "You stopped being able to claim that right the day you chose them over me, when you chose to trust them over your own sister." She eyed him. "Now, look at the mess you're in."

"Okay," I said, pushing forward and hoping to get some answers. "I'm beyond confused. What did he do?"

Bridget motioned to Kent, him lowering his shoulders and saying, "I was an idiot." Then, he paused. Looking at Bridget for the okay, he continued. "Bridget and I both worked with Reid, a few years before Natalie showed up."

Bridget rolled her eyes and joined in. "We believed in what they were doing, convinced that they would fix what the world would become. It was Reid's unknown boss that concerned me."

Overlooking that yet again someone left out what exactly the test was saving humanity from, I urged them to keep going.

"When Natalie did come into the mix, she was put in our group, brought in to work on the codes needed for the test. We'd tried so many different programs but none worked. Reid was convinced Natalie would be of great use, and he was right." Kent said.

"But I began to feel really iffy about everything going on." Bridget stepped in. "We were running strange tests, ones that didn't seem to have much of a meaning and were wasting resources. The boss never said what they were for. We just did our job. I eventually found out more on the subject and wanted to leave, even go as far as take down Reid and everyone else. But Kent still believed they were the good guys and he stayed with Natalie. There's more to it, but the main point it that he chose those evil people over me."

Wow. And I thought Marcus putting me in the freezer made him a bad brother.

Then, something else hit me. I stared them all down. "Why do I have a feeling there's something you guys are purposely avoiding saying?"

No one spoke. I turned to Natalie.

She shook her head and huffed.

"The paper John found," Natalie began. "It wasn't just showing who was a disrupter and who wasn't."

"Natalie, what are you saying?" I pushed.

She kept beginning to talk, stopping herself soon after. But words soon came. "There was a time when every night, all the people on the side of disrupters were sent into a mini test before we did the real deal. All the people who weren't were because we needed something to fall back on. We had to keep records, data. If something happened to you guys, we still needed the other seventy five people. That and, well, we had to see how things would differ between both groups, see if the people were being affected by going in each night."

"But..." I didn't know what to say. "I don't remember ever going in before."

"No one did. But we, um, we made sure you especially didn't, Lexi." Kent butt in.

Silently questioning his words, Natalie answered me. "We stopped sending everyone else in within months of starting doing so. The boss looked over our data, and informed Reid and us that only two people would be going into the test every night from then on, which would end up being a full three years, right up until the test began." She stopped, coming to me and resting a hand on either side of my shoulder. "As far as we know, it didn't cause the connection between you both, but those two teens were you and John. And now, well, we have theories, but back then we had absolutely no idea why the boss chose you."

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Hey all! Did you guys like it?

The story will be coming to an end in about five chapters(then epilogue) and then the story of Lexi will be over. But i'd like to clear up a few things...

One) 'The Test' was the first ever book I wrote on here. I was still a writer in the making. Everyone makes mistakes and that doesn't exclude me. Just because something Lexi did you find strange doesn't mean it's not how a normal human being would react under the same circumstance. Besides, when and if I ever publish a lot of the original work will be fixed and different parts will be added. So, on the off chance anyone who's been telling me my watty winning story doesn't deserve the glory or whatever crap you spit off is reading this, I already know that. It has problems, ones i'll have to spend a lot of time fixing. And also, you're really mean.

Two) If I ever do publish this series, there will be more than these two books. These are just the rough drafts of something that could become something a lot better than it already is. They aren't the final drafts.

Three) If I do a Prequel as some have sort of requested, would anyone actually read it? I mean, I won't say no to doing one if someone would like to see it. But there are other story ideas i'd like to work on and the longer I stay working in this test world the more i'll be neglecting them. But also, I think a prequel involving Natalie would be cool. So, i'm fine with whatever.

Four) I found out 'The Test' has been showing up on Goodreads and it really freaked me out at first...

Anyway, thanks for reading. This chapter is dedicated to @courtney1lou. Thanks for reading :)

Can you guys even see this far? Wattpad's having some problem and i've heard it doesn't always show the entire chapter.

Vote and comment if you liked it please.