The Suicide Project (Rebirth Book 1) (18 page)

Sergeant Kami answered, “Amos and Dr. Duffy were personally supervising the activities in the Mess Hall, and our Security Team is watching them closely on the live cams.”

Figuring that everyone had probably finished eating lunch by now, I said, “So, what is everyone else doing this afternoon then?”

Sergeant Flynn explained, “We’re preparing a new set of strength training and endurance exercises for the other guys so that they can tackle the obstacle course we’re laying out for them. They’ll all be in one of the other conference rooms where we’re going to have a meeting about what we expect from them starting tomorrow. We plan on timing them, giving them a five minute limit to clear the course. The obstacle course won’t be finished for another 2-3 weeks, but the test subjects who pass the test this Friday will get to join you on the obstacle course—but only if they agree to their second shots.”

Before I could ask why we weren’t going to attend the meeting, Sergeant Ramsey beat me to it. “It’s gonna be a piece of cake for you three on that obstacle course. You three will be the first to run through it and we’ll be timing each of you individually. Whoever beats the five minute time limit will get the opportunity to join you on a special training retreat located someplace away from the desert. With that said, each of y’all better complete the course under five minutes! Make me proud guys!”

We entered the Mess Hall and saw that it was empty except for one table where Kyrie sat with another young girl who had long, dark hair. When Kyrie saw me, she popped up and dashed over to give me a hug. I had to laugh because she was acting like I hadn’t seen her in a long time, when she had waved to me less than an hour ago. Her gaze flitted to Gideon on my right, and her eyes bugged out in shock. “Oh my gosh! You shaved! And you got a haircut too!” She grinned shyly at Gideon while he just stood there with an embarrassed grin on his face. When Kyrie noticed his dimples, she shrieked, “Hey! Me too! I have dimples too! We’re like twins!” She pointed to her own cheeks to show Gideon as she beamed at him. I laughed and put my arm around her shoulders, turning her in Sam’s direction to spare Gideon from any more awkwardness. “Kyrie, this is Sam, my other beloved little duckling. Sam, meet Kyrie.”

Kyrie was staring at Sam now in wonder as she checked out his new haircut. Sam looked nervously at me while Kyrie continued to stare. Finally, she turned to me and said in a stage whisper, “How come they look so different from the way I saw them on the live cam yesterday morning? They’re beautiful!” I burst out laughing as I heard Gideon groan in embarrassment beside me. Sam caught my eye and whispered, “She thinks we’re beautiful!” I heard a couple of chuckles behind me as the sergeants started loading up their plates with food.

“Kyrie, aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?” I was looking curiously at the girl who hadn’t moved a muscle. The brown haired girl still sat with her back to us. Her head was slightly bowed, and her shoulders were hunched forward. It reminded me of the stance that Gideon had when he first arrived at the barracks in an effort to try to make himself appear smaller.

Jamie was standing with us, and she cast me a hesitant smile before walking over and crouching down beside the girl at the table. She whispered something to the girl but I didn’t catch what was said. I saw the girl nod her head, and in the next moment, Jamie was putting her arm around her and was leading her out the double doors. The girl’s shoulders were shaking and I suspected that she was crying. Worried, I turned to Kyrie and saw that she looked upset as she watched her friend walk away. Taking her hand, I led her back to the table she had vacated and sat down with her as I motioned for the guys to join us.

“What’s wrong, Kyrie?”

Her lower lip trembled as she said, “Marisol is having a hard time here. She has days when she’s okay, but other days she’s overcome with depression and all she wants to do is cry. I try to cheer her up, but one of the other girls picks on her and it only makes Marisol feel worse. She really wanted to meet you guys, but she’s not feeling good today. Nurse Jamie is going to give her a shot to help her sleep since she suffers from frequent nightmares.”

I rubbed my hand up and down Kyrie’s back sympathetically and said, “Well, when she’s feeling a little better, let’s remember to invite her to our room to hang out with us.” Kyrie instantly brightened at the idea and nodded her head at the plan. I looked up and noticed that Amos was approaching the table.

“I know it’s not 4 o’clock yet, but if none of you have anything to do I’d love some help in the kitchen.” Glad for a distraction, I instantly stood up eager to be of use. “I’d love to help you frost cupcakes, but do you think you can find it in your heart to bake me a sweet potato with butter and brown sugar? I’m craving something sweet too.”

I saw Kyrie blanch at what I considered “dessert”, but she trailed along obediently behind us, as we all headed for Amos’ domain.

We ended up spending a couple of hours in the kitchen with Amos before Jamie appeared and led Kyrie away. Not knowing what else to do with ourselves, we hung out with Amos drinking coffee and eating cupcakes. Eventually, Sergeant Ramsey appeared and told us we should probably eat an early dinner and go back to our rooms to rest for the remainder of the evening since he knew we hadn’t really gotten the chance to sleep in this morning. Despite the coffee I drank, I had yawned several times already and had to admit that I was pooped. I decided it was probably a good idea to at least get a nap in before Kyrie reappeared. Whenever that would be.

“We’ll be starting bright and early tomorrow at 8am! You need to be up earlier than that though if y’all plan to fuel up and grab breakfast before hittin’ the gym, which I
highly
recommend because I
will
be workin’ ya hard tomorrow.” His warning was clear, and I knew he wanted to show us off to the others in order to make an example out of us. “You three meet me here by the double glass doors at 8 sharp. Don’t be late ya hear? Dismissed!”

He grinned at us before pivoting on his heel and heading out the double doors. As soon as he was out of sight, I turned to the guys and said, “Before we go our separate ways, you should show me which room is yours just in case I have an emergency and need to find you. You guys already know which room I’m in.” As we started walking in the direction of the men’s wing, I asked, “By the way…how did you guys know which room was mine?”

Gideon flung an arm around my shoulders as he explained, “There was a note taped on the back of our door from Sergeant Ramsey. I saw it when I got up to use the bathroom. The note said to report to your room in the morning because Jamie had an assignment for us. He had drawn a little map on the note with arrows that led to your room.”

As Sam walked up on my other side, I slipped my arm through his so that we were all linked. As we turned the corner, Sam indicated that their room was all the way at the end of the hall just like mine was. Pausing in front of their door, Sam placed his hand over the scanner, and we watched as the screen lit up blue and the little light above their door blinked green. There was a faint “click” as the door unlocked and Gideon pushed it open, stepping aside so that I could enter first.

Their room was just as spacious as mine and the layout was exactly the same. But as my gaze scanned from one wall to the other, I decided that their room was
B-O-R-I-N-G!
I flat-out told them so as soon as I turned back around to meet their gaze. I knew they wouldn’t take offense since they were both used to my up-front nature. I was pretty sure my bluntness was one of the things they appreciated about me.

“It’s a good thing you guys ordered a bunch of posters and wall art because we seriously need to throw some personality up in this joint.” Looking at their beds, I saw that they both had army green bed sheets and their blankets were thin and kind of itchy. I frowned in disdain as I ran my fingertip over the scratchy material. “I can’t believe how uncomfortable your blankets feel. Our blankets were way softer at the mini barracks. Now I know why you guys asked me to help you choose bedding. Let’s hope your new sheets and comforters are the first thing to arrive.” I grinned as my tone of voice became reassuring. “You guys won’t regret my advice on buying down comforters for your beds. Your beds will be sooooo fluffy, I swear it’ll feel like you’re sleeping on a cloud! When the time comes for lights out, you’ll both be asleep before your heads even hit the pillows.”

Choosing the feather comforters was actually easy, it was choosing the
patterns
on the duvet covers that was a whole other story. Gideon was a cinch and he went with a simple plaid design in blue, green, and ivory. Sam on the other hand, wanted something funky that would reflect his personality. His first pick was a black and white zebra print, and the horrified look on Gideon’s face was hilarious when he saw what Sam had chosen. Playing the peace maker, I pointed out that it was a busy design and that it might make it hard to fall asleep. His second pick was a tie-dye design in rainbow colors, and when I saw the panicked look in Gideon’s eyes, I mentioned that it was really colorful and had the potential to turn his clothes funny colors when he did his laundry. To be helpful, I pointed out that whatever he chose, he had to make sure he
really
liked it since he’d be sleeping in it every night. Normally, I encouraged Sam to express himself however he wanted, but I had to remember that Sam would be
sharing
a room with Gideon and it was important that Gideon be comfortable in his own room too.

When Sam’s third pick was a gold satin comforter with crowns embroidered on it, I gave him a disbelieving look and said “Okay, that’s just gaudy.” He threw up his hands in frustration and started pouting. By that point, he was stressed that he wouldn’t find something he liked by the time Jamie got back. Also, he didn’t want to spend all his time looking at bedding when he still had a new wardrobe to shop for. Finally, he looked at me and said, “Since you know me so well, what would you choose for me if you were going to design the perfect bed ensemble?”

“I thought you’d never ask!” I retorted jokingly. “Be a sweetheart and run to the Mess Hall to grab us three waters, would you? And walk
slowly
. Do some deep breathing exercises and try to think happy thoughts. By the time you get back, you’ll have the perfect bed.” He looked at me dubiously but stood up to grant my request. I slid into his empty seat and started clicking madly through screens before he was even out the door. I opened the browser onto a different website and looked for the pattern that I had seen earlier on my computer. It was a charcoal city skyline with a light grey background that faded into white. In the middle of the cityscape was the dark grey outline of the Space Needle and it reminded me of home. I liked the design and had actually considered getting it for myself to rotate with my current duvet cover when I wanted a change. The duvet was a crisp and trendy design without being over the top. Clicking quickly, I started searching through the pillow covers looking for a specific one that I remembered seeing last year when I was internet shopping. A smile lit up my face as I found what I was looking for and added 4 pillow case covers to the cart. It was a plain white cover, but in the middle of the cover was a large gray cloud with an anime-type face. Even better, I found four different expressions on the cloud-faces. One was a happy face, one was a sad face, one was surprised, and one was shy. For good measure, I added the matching decorative pillow that was more like a stuffed animal version of the smiley cloud. At the last minute, I threw in a shiny silver colored booster pillow for some added “pop”.

I sat back in the chair and scrutinized my selections to see if I could add anything else. Out of my peripheral, I saw Gideon get up and stand over my shoulder to see my creation. I looked at him over my shoulder when he gasped in disbelief. “How the hell did you do that?! You created his perfect bed in under three minutes!”

Shrugging, I asked, “So, whaddya think? Does it hurt your eyes when you look at this?”

He shook his head as he contemplated my choices. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind something like that for myself if all the pillow cases were different shades of grey. I really like it.”

“Great. Let’s just hope Sam likes it too. I don’t really know if he’ll dig the cityscape, but the pillows seem to match his personality. Even though he’s bigger and taller than me, I have to keep reminding myself that he’s only 16.”

Just then, Sam had walked back in, and when he saw Gideon’s expression he rushed around the table to see what I had come up with. I was pleased when his reaction was the same as Gideon’s. “How did you do that, Teagan!?” He had demanded.

Laughingly, I joked, “I’ve got skills. Do you like it?”

“I LOVE IT!” he gushed.

And that was the story of the search for Sam’s perfect bed. The guys had pleaded with me to help them decorate their room as soon as their stuff arrived, and honestly, I was really looking forward to that project when the time came. I turned my head as I heard Gideon yawn loudly. It set off a chain reaction between me and Sam, so I decided it was my cue to leave.

Saying goodnight to the guys, I left their room and headed for my own. As I passed through the Mess Hall, I looked around and noticed that there wasn’t a single person to be found. Even Amos was absent from his normal post in the kitchen. It was eerie, and I almost felt like I was in a ghost town. The clicking sound of my high-heeled boots was loud and reverberated throughout the hallway as I made my way to the ladies wing. Letting myself into my room, I looked around and wondered if my old jammies were around somewhere. On a hunch, I pulled out the bottom drawer of my dresser to inspect the contents.
Jackpot!
I changed into a tank top, powder-blue long sleeved henley shirt, and cream velour pajama bottoms. Everything was soft due to frequent washing and I felt comforted sleeping in something old and familiar. I washed off my makeup, brushed my teeth, and slipped beneath my duvet. My last thoughts before sleep claimed me, was that this first day wasn’t so bad. It just felt a little suspicious that the sergeants all purposely seemed to be keeping us separated from the other test subjects. I didn’t actually mind it. Given the circumstances, it would’ve been overwhelming for the three of us to meet everyone en masse. Yawning one last time, I turned my face into my pillow and drifted into oblivion.