Before you read, I just wanted to say that I posted an idea for a Prequel to 'The Test' on my account. More information will be in the author's note at the end of this chapter and in that book. Link to it is in external link :)

The Program

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Are you going to continue sleeping and being lazy, or maybe decide it's time to get up and be productive, Lexi?" I heard a feminine voice echo against the walls surrounding me as I could feel myself waking up, my head pounding.

With my eyes blurry and my body feeling like it could crumble to pieces at any second, I tried my hardest to get up and find the person speaking.

But no one was in the room, the awful bright white covering the walls blinding my already not seeing properly eyes. And the floors themselves looked like a hard cage, square holes formed by metal knotted together yet to my surprise was easy to stand up on.

It made me feel like I was in a movie; being locked up in a white vacant room like I was. But at least I was wearing the same clothes. I didn't have to worry about someone undressing me while I was out. When I see that stuff in movies, it scares me a little.

But I will admit, my absence of shoes was unnerving.

"Nice to see you're going with option two," The voice said again, my head whipping backwards -not a pleasant feeling when you've got a headache- to see a speaker. It was roughly the size of my hand and on the wall.

It took every fiber of my being to not wince as I walked closer, grinding my teeth together and saying, "Am I right to presume that you're the boss?"

"Perhaps." She answered. "But you're also an idiot for walking up to this box when i'm sure you realize I can hear you from any point in the room. But I can actually hear you better when you're facing the camera in the corner behind you. And as a perk, I can see the front of you easier too."

I turned around slightly, seeing what she was talking about and then calmly facing the box again. "Looks like you thought of everything, Mary." I paused, once again going back to my suspicions. I couldn't make out whether or not I knew the voice as she had spoken, my state of deliriousness taking over. So, I took a chance.

She said nothing after that, myself again faced with a silent, empty room.

I wasn't sure whether her no longer talking meant she in fact was Mary, or she just wanted me to think she was.

There was a sudden jolt of heat surrounding my feet, the metal below them feeling as if they'd caught fire. The effect of smoke coming up through the holes made me believe that fact.

I was jumping and screaming, looking like a crazy person in an attempt to lessen the pain on my feet.

But the more I jumped, the more it hurt. And the more I screamed, the more smoke filled the room.

It became hard to breathe, my body no longer able to keep up with the amount of moving I was doing, my nostrils filled with a burnt smokey scent instead of the much needed air.

And then I fell, my body feeling like a bag of bricks. My hands touched the metal, and so did my arms. I tried to scream out in pain, but instead was met with a mouthful of smoke and a burning throat that made it even harder to breath.

Then, I saw them; a black haired guy partially hidden by the smoke. A brown haired person the same age. A woman who never asked for any of this and whose daughter needs them.

All of them, without a hint of struggle, were completely still and unaware of what was going on around them.

No, they couldn't be here. How did they get here?

This is a dream. It has to be a dream.

There was another figure; black hair, a woman. She was beside Jack and practically thrown over him. But why? To hurt him? Save him?

Protect him?

And then it hit me; she must be his mom.

They were all so close to me. But in reality, they were much closer to death.

I shook my head, croaking out a cracked, "No."

The smoke just kept building, and soon, there was no way of seeing them at all.

"It's simple, Lexi. You are stuck with the same choice Reid had to make many years ago." The voice continued above me, my whole body now slumped against the bars and my breathing hoarse. "You can either give up on this stupid little fight, or they will die. And it will be all your fault."

Without even a second to think those choices over though, my eyes closed, the smell of ash and burnt flesh -I hoped only my own- lingering in the air.

❒❒❒❒

Coolness rushed over my body, a wet sensation covering my body as I felt myself be submerged.

Breathing became more difficult as I took a deep breath. That was a wrong move on my part, my mouth filling with water and my eyes snapping open as I grabbed at my neck.

I could see the top of whatever I was in, but barely through the parts of my hair that wrapped around my face. But still, I kicked my feet, reaching the surface of the water moments later, followed by a long battle with the air up here. My eyelashes blinked continuously and I coughed so much I might as well of had an organ come up with the water.

With a glance downward, my chest heaving and my nails a slight blueish color, I saw what looked like an endless pit below me. And the walls around me weren't any less terrifying, travelling upwards and enclosing me in this large space with only a hole at the top that shed light.

"No!" I screamed, my voice still cracking, hitting the side of the smooth metal countless times. "This can't be happening. This, it just...can't." I breathed out.

Where were my friends? I need them to be alive.

I needed to focus. Calm down.

"Alexandria, nice to see you again." I heard behind me. Reid.

Crap.

Grabbing at my soaked hair, I screamed until my throat gave out, half expecting me to sink back below the water by now. But my body instead acted on it's own and had found something very small accidentally in my frantic yelling, my foot brushing against it and balancing there. I had no idea what it was, but right now, it was saving me. It was also at the moment that I realized I was wearing shoes again.

I balled my fists and turned to Reid. "I swear, if you hurt them-"

"What? Kill me?" He joked. "If that's what you were going to say, I don't believe it for a second."

"Then where are my friends?"

"Your friends are fine." I heard above me, no view of the speaker from where I was. "You may see them and make that choice I was referring to earlier once you use that brain of yours to figure out how to escape this test. And Reid will help you with this task. If he ever want to see his wife again that is."

I could tell he wanted to object, but a pain filled his face that i'd never seen on him before. Pity could have overwhelmed me at such a sight, especially sense it reminded me of Jack for a brief second, but I pushed it away.

"Why?" I yelled at the speaker I couldn't find. "Why do you want us to do this?"

"Before the test was created, there were other obstacles we used to come up with the data we needed. It was not very effective in gathering that data though," She said, and that's when I discovered why I hadn't seen a speaker. The figure was leaning into the hole to speak with me now, and was probably just yelling down to me from outside before. But thanks to the shadows, I couldn't tell who it was. "But it's a test none the less. And you're so good at getting out of those, aren't you, Lexi?" She taunted.

"What's the purpose of this? You have me. Just kill me and leave them alone." I pleaded.

She laughed. "That was the plan. At first anyway. But now you're valuable to me and this organisation. The same way Reid was." I caught a slight tint of color from her hair as she moved. It was red and curly, like Mary's. "But you must go through the same tests everyone else had to, whether they make sense or not. I just want to see how smart you really are."

"Do I at least get a hint?" I asked.

Reid huffed. "Don't waste your breath on her."

"What would be the fun in that?" Was the last thing I heard from her, the figure completely ignoring what Reid had growled and walking out of sight.

It was silent between us; me and Reid. What were you supposed to say to a guy that tried to kill you so many times?

Eventually, I found a topic.

"She's gonna kill him." I stated, Reid turning to me. "I mean, even if I get out of here, I don't know what she wants from me or if i'll be able to do it."

He glared at me slightly, reaching down in the water for a reason I couldn't see. "She wants you to fix the test, make it better than it was before. And you have to be willing to do that, there's more than just my son's life on the line."

"And what, you just expect me to do what you're saying?"

"Listen. I realize neither one of us is the other's biggest fan, but I have to refrain from killing you so I can keep my wife and son alive."

"How generous of you." I scoffed.

He grabbed my arm. "We have to wok together to get out of here, no matter how much we don't want to."

It's not like I had much of a choice in the matter, plus this weird pool was scaring the crap out of me. And don't even get me started on the fire beforehand. But if I have the opportunity to get information, i'm gonna do my best.

"Fine, we'll work together. But tell me," I stared at him. "how in the neck does any of this save mankind?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "And here I thought that you'd want to know who the boss is."

"I have a few suspicions, but this is more important."

He lifted his hand from the water, holding a knife I didn't know he had and that kinda terrified me. "I'll tell you. But first, take this and puncher a hole above you, one you can fit your hand in."

"Where did you get a knife?" I reached for in none the less.

"It was thing I was using the keep my balance. You've got one under you too. Both of them are different because both sides of the walls surrounding us are made out of different materials. Each knife on the opposite end cuts the other wall, so mine can go through yours."

"Okay," I said, jabbing the knife into the wall. "Do I need to give you mine?"

"No," Your wall is easier to cut through."

I faced him. "How do you know all this?"

"Because I designed this. The whole purpose it to make fear overcome you. Once you have the slightest bit of balance, you don't want to loose it. When in reality, it was the thing that could have saved you all along."

"But that's stupid," I put my hands in one of the holes, lifting myself upward a bit. "Why would she put me in here with the one person who knows exactly how to get out?"

"How am I supposed to know that?" He grunted, pulling at my leg once he swam over to me. "Now, hurry up. I'd like to get out of here too."

"Gladly." I smiled. "While we're climbing, tell me what's wrong with humanity. And what does putting seventeen year olds in a computer program have to do with saving it?"

❒❒❒❒

The edge I had the throw myself over to get fully out was sharp and cold.

Putting my hand inside the help Reid out, I tried not to think about what he just told me.

It was confusing as all heck, but toward the end of him talking, it started to make more sense.

But that doesn't mean they went about saving the world in the right way.

"Alright. I get it. The world is a wasteland." I said to him, now crossing my arms across my wet, clinging to my body clothes. "But sending everyone into a test so you don't have to deal with it anymore. That's just abandoning any hope of fixing it."

I could tell he was biting at the inside of his mouth. "You don't understand. The earth is literally just a ticking time bomb, especially with all the wars. Before you know it, the human race will be extinct."

"Oh, so your plan was to send one hundred and fifty clueless teens into their mind to stop that happening?" I raised my hands.

"We could start over there, Lexi." He explained. "We don't deserve a second chance. We caused the world to be the way it is. But that doesn't mean we should die. Everyone could go under, we're still working on the tech for it. But we could all start over there. I could be with my wife again, and my son wouldn't have to hate me."

A realization hit me. "That's why you wanted disrupters dead. Not because of some stupid results. I was ruining the one thing you viewed as earth's salvation."

"And if any disrupter ever lives in the test when we go forward with this action, they'll ruin it too."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore, Reid. Just show me where my friends might be." I demanded.

❒❒❒❒

So...

I understand that the reasoning behind the test saving humanity is confusing. But it's supposed to be. That and I lost like a thousand words to this chapter because wattpad was being wacko, so I had to retype it all and got a bit lazy. More will be fully explained next chapter.

Anyway, the prequel is called 'The Computer' and can be found on my wattpad account or in the external link. It's about Natalie joining the people who built the test.

This chapter is dedicated to @ShaminiLoganathan because I meant to dedicate it to you in the last chapter but forgot. Thanks for reading :)

Vote and comment if you liked this and want to read the next chapter that explains in full detail what Lexi and Reid were talking about the test saving humanity thing. Bye :)