The Physical Unity Exams: Hiding

“Before we actually start hiding, I wanted to inform you all of something I forgot to tell you earlier. These terrorists you see here aren’t just labeled as security threats for no reason.” We all look at the stage again. I have like zero hope that this’ll be a good thing, but I don’t wanna show too much doubt. Manifestation theory and all that junk. “These children were a part of groups that were actually deemed as threats to unity and/or society as a whole. Some of these children, whom are the same age as you, were trained to be legitimate terrorists. They were not radicalized online or found the idea cool, they were trained for this. From birth they have been prepared for a scenario like this.”

FUCK. I don’t know how Christian stands there all confidently like we aren’t going up against people who are literally trained to be actual terrorists! The creepiest one amongst them is the smiling girl, I haven’t seen her frown since she first arrived. She has dark skin and bright pink hair that she has in two braided ponytails. She looks like a normal girl, but there’s something about her that’s so unsettling.

Considering how physical this exam is I expected them to all be wearing pants or shorts, like I am, but she’s wearing a skirt instead and a pair of platform boots. She’s among the four terrorists that are chosen to go on stage to show us how serious this is. Even if we aren’t told anything about them or what they had done specifically, the message was clear. These kids are nothing like us, they’re serious.

The other kids they chose all look normal compared to her, but even though they aren’t smiling like she is, it’s easy to see how excited they are. Like they’ve been leaping at this opportunity for awhile. One boy is literally shaking in anticipation and the other is staring intently at everybody in the crowd like a wolf staring into a crowd full of rabbits.

“Treat every second of this like it’s the real thing. We may be monitoring everything heavily to make sure you’re safe, but understand that if given the opportunity these children would have killed you without hesitation.” Ms Stair speaks sternly, looking like she’s finally woke up.

I had heard stories of what happens to kids like this, “the statements”. Children born for the sole purpose of making or embodying a political point. I wish I could say I found this information because I’m super smart and was just researching one day, but I found this out because my favorite youtuber mentioned a documentary that talked about it so I binged the whole thing. (Really sad stuff, wouldn’t recommend).

From what I remember, with my barely functioning memory, most statements aren’t raised for violence. A large amount just become overzealous because of the pressure to embody their ideal set, but these kids are different. They were made for this. Made to attack. These kids are a different breed.

I feel myself start to panic again. How am I supposed to combat this? I fall over anything that’s on the ground, let alone running from an actual terrorist situation. I am surrounded by children who were actually trained to be terrorists, who actually want an excuse to kill me.

The four hundred points don’t feel worth it anymore, in fact they feel like a terrible reward. I’m fighting people trained from birth to be terrorists, and I’m not even getting full credit for that!? Or money at least!? Who– “Camilla, we need to go.” My, totally valid, thought process is interrupted by Christian. Before I can even respond he grabs my hand and I can see Kyle spraying my perfume while we both start running in the other direction.

Did the idea of facing off with these people really make me that afraid that I couldn’t pay attention to anything around me? He starts pulling me out of the gymnasium, and I have no clue what his “plan” is. Or if he even have a plan at this point. He starts dragging me out into the hallway and the smell of my perfume is getting farther and farther away. Our gym’s storage room is in a different room, but since it’s a storage room for gym supplies it counts as part of the gym. Surprisingly, it seems like nobody else stayed in the building. Or, if they did, they aren’t in the gym.

He starts pushing things up against the doors that lead into the storage room, anything he can find really, while I just stand around. He ends up pushing a few boxes and containers full of equipment in front of a door, and a cart of supplies. I’m already useless in a situation like this, and now it’s worse. I can’t even help save people who’ve gotten lost in the chaos of the exam.

“If you block off–”

“It doesn’t matter who doesn’t win so long as we win. You need to understand that.”

He always does this. He never thinks about other people, just himself or his goals. I want to be angry, but….I see that look in his eyes. He doesn’t look sure of himself at all, and for the first time it looks like he’s making it up as he goes.

He shuts off the light and quickly moves to a shelf. He lays down on the first shelf, and pulls me onto the same shelf. It’s not that bad of a hiding spot but I don’t see why we have to hide at all. He’s shut all the doors, but he’s still determined to hide despite that. I don’t see how they could get inside. Christian puts his hand on my hand and squeezes it gently. I look at him anxiously. Why did we have to hide so close together? “Calm your breathing. They could hear that from a mile away.” He whispers, very bluntly. I want to get mad at him for toying with my feelings, but there’s no toying this time. He wants to win.

It’s best not to get in his way at a time like this, he might kill me. “O-Okay, but I wanted to ask you something–” “Quieter, please.” I sigh at his response. Either he’s trying to deter me from this conversation or he’s that socially inept, I don’t know which is worse. “How were you so calm when they told us the statements would be here?” I ask in a whisper. Everything goes quiet after I ask that.

I’ve never seen him get this quiet at anything I’ve said before. I don’t know what I thought would happen if I brought it up, but I didn’t think his reaction would be–I’m distracted by him putting his hand over my mouth and moving closer. He presses me up against the wall like he’s trying to shield me from something. I want to fight back, but I don’t want to risk the chance of one of those psychos finding us. I hear giggling coming from outside the door.

I freeze up and I know I’m about to freak out, but I can’t help myself. Some girl, that’s been trained to kill, is right outside the door giggling and I just have to sit here and wallow in that fear while also making sure I don’t alert her to where I am. That’s what makes the exams difficult. It’s meant to stress us out mentally to the point we crack. It’s probably why Christian pulled me so close and is pressing me against the wall. He’s trying to hide my erratic breathing because he knows that I can’t on my own. He holds me closer, putting my head against his chest. I know Christian is an asshole, but I can’t help but blush when my head is pressed against the chest of a boy my age.

“Did you know there’s somebody like me in your school? It’s hard to tell but I still can, I could see him from a mile away hehe.” Her words send shivers down my spine. Somebody like her? A statement or a statement that was trained to be a terrorist? Either option is terrible, but the main issue is who it is. Who would be a statement? Christian grabs a handful of my hair and I start to whimper. I feel his breath getting heavier, he’s breathing down my neck. I want to stop him, but I can’t. He’s got total control over me and there’s nothing I can do.

“We can’t resist a challenge, if he’s in there with you he’s probably itching to fight me. I can’t wait either, if only I could bring my knife then this would be some real fun!” The girl laughs. Christian lets go of me and gets off of the shelf. He stands up and reaches into his pants pocket. I didn’t remember that he was carrying the arrest tape, and now he’s about to risk our chances over some petty jab! I grab his wrist, “You’re not thinking straight—”

“I’m thinking just fine.” He has this look in his eyes, it’s the same twisted look they had earlier. He wasn’t just ready for this fight, he was excited for it too. It was like she unlocked something in him and he was ready for a fight. “We can’t resist a challenge” the words echo in my mind. She was saying that about statements, but Christian isn’t a statement. He never said he was, not that he’d tell me either way, but it seems so sudden. Statements are just like us, they’re humans but they’re raised differently. They can’t be “activated” like an animal or machine. “They’ve already found us. In a situation like this it’s better to neutralize a threat before they find a way inside on their own” He speaks so clinically and matter-of-factly that his actions feel intentional. Key word, feel.

I’m not the smartest girl in the world, but I’m not stupid.

“You’re not partners with Josh, I know what you’re doing-”

“Could you stop me even if you wanted to?”

He starts pulling everything he had placed in front of the door out of the way. I can hear the girl on the other side giggle even louder. When she realizes that the door is still locked she starts pounding on it, “Come on! Let’s play!” She exclaims. I roll off of the shelf and run away from the door. He unlocks the door and backs away in the blink of an eye. It’s the same smiling girl from earlier. She waves at the both of us, leaving me shaking.

I know I should do something but I can’t do anything. This isn’t something I should be apart of, and I know it.

She charges at Christian and he swiftly runs out of the way. “Hiya! My name is Maya, what’s your name!” She introduces herself while she charges at Christian yet again. They both move so fast and effortless that I don’t know who to focus on. She aims for his gut, he flies out of the way. He aims for her side, she ducks out of the way as well.

She aims for his arm, but he grabs her hand. There’s a stone-cold expression on his face. He seemed so excited earlier, but now he’s moving like a machine. He pushes her into a shelf and elbows her in the stomach. I can’t help but cover my mouth in shock as I watch them both go blow for blow. I knew Christian was strong, but I’ve never seen him fight before. How could he be equally matched with somebody trained to be a terrorist unless—somebody else ran in and right past Christian. He was coming right after me! I was so focused on the smiling girl when we were introduced to the core four terrorists, I had forgotten about him.

He was the boy with the shaggy hair that had been shaking in anticipation. He had curly black hair and dark brown eyes. I want to run away, but my legs feel like jello. He looks like he’s about to start salivating. Christian’s too preoccupied with fighting Maya and I’m all alone here with this psycho dude. “I can’t believe they left us alone with a trans girl! After I almost murdered one I thought I’d never get this chance again!” He tosses his head back and he lets out a cackle. He shoves me onto the ground and I don’t know what to do other than frantically wriggle around like an idiot. He grabs my wrists with a single hand, and pins them above my head. I can’t fail this. I can’t! I try to kick or do anything to get him off but it’s hopeless, I already knew it was but I tried anyway.

He elbows me in the stomach and I feel the pain spread throughout my body. “Careful, Micah, can’t get us eliminated~” Maya coos, facing off with Christian while taking the time to tease her teammate. Micah. The name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember much about him.

“The rules only say that we can’t hit anywhere above the shoulders, nothing about taking our time.” He says with a scoff. He grabs the capture tape from his pocket, but before he can officially capture me, Maya comes flying at him. Christian had shoved her so hard, she ended up falling atop of Micah. Their weight crushes me like a bunch of weights, before Christian rushes over and kicks them both off of me. He grabs my hand and pulls me up from the ground.

Everything is happening so quickly and Christian isn’t giving me any time to adjust. He starts running while tightly holding my hand. The two of them manage to get up nearly as fast as I did, except they didn’t help each other. They just got up on their own after everything he did to fight them off. They both stare at each other in silence and I brace myself for their rage.

“Wow that was amazing!” Maya exclaims. Huh? I know she said ‘I wanna play’ but I didn’t think she was actually serious. Was the fighting just a game to her? If it was just her I could understand, but Micah was smiling too. Like he didn’t just get his teammate thrown at him and kicked in the gut with a disgusting combo-move so dirty it should be in a video game.

“Fighting in an eclosed space is too easy. I like to have more room, wouldn't you agree?” Christian looks directly at Maya when he asks that, and she nods happily. They’re all in total sync with each other to the point where it doesn’t feel like a two v two matchup, it feels like a one v two and I’m just a bystander. Well, it would feel that way if Micah didn’t start chasing me again.

This time I actually have some room to run away, so I do what anybody with no upper body strength would do in this situation. Run in the opposite direction, hoping that the clock will run out before he can catch me, while Christian fights Maya. “They made you people sound like killing machines when I was trained, but you’re so weak!” Micah shouts, before kicking me in the back. I launch forward and fall to the ground. Blood is rushing through my entire body and I feel like I’m going to be pummeled to death by this psycho. He puts his knee on my back and holds my arms above my head with a single hand. I’m back in the same position I was in when I was in the storage room. He grabs my wrist and starts to unravel the tape. I know I shouldn’t give up, but I do. I know better than to believe I’m strong enough to fight back. I turn my head to look at Christian while the tape wraps around my wrist.

He’s still fighting, still evenly matched with Maya. The two of them are still evenly matched. After he finishes taping my arm, Micah sat down next to me on the gym floor. I half-expect him to choke me out or something, but he pats me on the back.

“What did you think I was actually that crazy?” He asks. I don’t know how I should answer, I guess the best way answer is just to tell the truth. So, I just nod my head. Micah laughs and he seems a little surprised by my answer. I want to say I understand his surprise, but fuck him for that.

How was I supposed to know he was acting? What would I have picked up on to reach that conclusion? Why is he surprised that I believed him? He never gave me a heads up or a hint that he wasn’t actually batshit insane. A ‘Hey Camilla, I’m just joking’ would be on the nose but it’d help.

“You were literally shaking in anticipation, I saw you. And if you aren’t crazy why’d you hit me in the stomach?" I ask. I brace myself for the bullshit answer he’s about to give me. “I was a little excited, but that’s because I didn’t get to have a gym class in awhile. And for a reward for being an upstanding guy whose been pretty receptive to my treatment I was finally allowed to have an energy drink again, probably had some extra jitters from that” He explains, and there’s no denying it. It’s bullshit.

“So, if you’re not crazy does that mean Maya–”
“Oh no, she is actually crazy. She’s having the time of her life.”

I look back at Maya and Christian fighting each other. He’s cracking a little smile as he grabs onto her wrist and pushes her onto the ground. “And he’s having the time of his life too.” I sigh. We both find ourselves saying ‘psychos’ at the same time and we both giggle at how we jinxed each other. I turn my focus to the fight again. Christian is unrolling the tape and he has Maya held down! With one swift moment we could– DING!! DING!!

An automated voice came over the loudspeakers. “The games have ended. Please return the gymnasium. The games have ended. Please return the auditorium.” The voice repeats. Micah and I look at each other and shrug our shoulders. “Well we’ve already done our part. Just gotta round our psychos back up before they overload.” He pushes himself off the floor and walks over to the two. Once the fight is over he looks disappointed. He doesn’t seem mad about the loss, he seems mad about the fact it’s over. But it was always going to end. Maybe that’s what making him so upset.

I want to get mad, I think a part of me is mad. After that mall incident I thought he’d be more determined to win, but he risked it all for a petty taught. After making me feel bad about his whole mom situation too. Despite all of that, I know it isn’t the best time for me to blow up at him. Christian is a logical thinker most of the time. He’s a douchebag, but a logical douchebag. It’s probably something I could never understand. I get up and follow behind Micah. “Sooo, see you next time? On monday I think? I don’t know the date. There’s no guarantee I get to be your terrorist again, but you could see me for the second half” He says. I nod along. “Maybe. Would be nice to see a sorta-kinda familiar face.”

“Yeah especially since you’re gonna be tied up and–oh that might be a spoiler.”

Wait….TIED UP!?