It was good when we broke for lunch. Everyone needed a break after a morning of physical and mental training. If I had to assemble a rifle one more time I was going to scream. Even the big, open dining hall was a relief after the morning I’d had. Rebecca and I carried our trays of army grade slop towards a table when she said, “Hey, there’s Samantha, why don’t we sit over there?” I grunted noncommittally and off we went.

“Hey guys,” Samantha said, “How are you doing?” She was happy and glowing; giving off that vibe like Jessica had. I wondered if it was just natural for Seers.

“Fine,” I said with a shrug. “Tired.”

“I can’t wait for this to be over with,” Rebecca said.

Samantha nodded. “Did you hear about the latest attacks?”

I shook my head. “What now?” I’d not been near a radio or a tv yet today. 

“Sao Paulo, Lima, and Phoenix, apparently,” she said, her bright demeanor dropping for a change.

“Fuck, how bad?” I asked. 

“In Phoenix, they hit an airport. They’re saying the death toll is at around 50 right now, with at least twice as many injured. In Lima, they hit a shanty town and the whole thing is on fire, still. They aren’t clear on Sao Paulo yet.” 

No one responded. We all just sort of stared at our trays, trying to take it in.

Samantha continued, “They are saying the one in Lima looked like a ‘golden lion’ or something. It just swooped in and breathed fire on everything and everyone. Breathed fire, can you imagine that? At least the one in Phoenix just had wings and a sword. Still managed to kill a bunch of people though. Just flew through the crowd of people waiting at their gates.” She shook her head, as though trying to clear the images.

“Monsters,” Rebecca breathed quietly next to me. 

I clenched my fist. Behind my eyes, I could see the faces of the crowd at the skating rink, I could see the blue light washing over them, eating them alive. There was no beating such things. Why were we pretending otherwise?

We ate in awkward silence for several minutes. Samantha, being her usual chipper self, couldn’t seem to cope with that. 

“I heard that you haven’t been selected for any special training yet,” she said to Rebecca. It was the code for ‘you have not manifested any powers yet’.

Rebecca said, “No, nothing yet. Probably nothing ever. I’m just a Witness, not a Survivor, and I honestly didn’t witness that much. I think they made a mistake bringing me here. I’ll be glad to get out.”

“Amen sister. I’m with you on that,” said a large, dark-skinned man sitting across the table from me. 

Samantha turned back to him, “But Deion,” she said, a look of surprise on her face, “You’ve already manifested. Why would you want to leave?”

“Why would I want to leave, Sam? Easy. I’m not going to join the army, no matter what crap they feed us about ‘aliens’ and ‘extra-dimensionals’.”

“Don’t you want to know about what’s happened to you?” Samantha asked.

“Hell yeah, but I don’t think we are going to find out the truth here. I mean, it’s the government: part of their job is keeping shit from people. How in the hell can I trust them?”

Samantha looked surprised by this outburst. I did not know this Deion guy, I had seen him around but never spoken with him. I watched their little conflict unfold while I stuffed bland goo in my mouth. 

“But the entities,” Samantha began, “They are killing people, and altering people. I mean, you can’t deny that. You see it every day with your own eyes.”

“Yeah, sure, but I also can’t deny that some terrorists are funded by our allies or even the CIA. I mean, for all we know, this is probably something they’ve done and they want us to clean up their mess. You know, like maybe they created the entities or brought them here or something like that and now we have to fix it. Well, fuck that! When the two weeks are up, I’m out of here!”

The others at the table had grown quiet and were now focused on this conversation.

Leaning forward, Samantha whispered, “I don’t think that’s a good idea Deion. I don’t think someone with powers is going to get to walk away from here.”

Deion looked incredulous. “Right. I suppose they are just going to...what? Kill us? Lock us up?”

“Would that be so surprising?” I asked. “As you said, they’re the government.”

Rebecca leaned across me and asked, “What about people who don’t manifest?”

Samantha shrugged. “I don’t know, they probably get to go home. I imagine they are watched though, just in case they manifest later.”

Deion stared at her for a couple of moments before turning away. “This is bullshit. You’re fucking with me.”

“You don’t think we aren’t valuable to the army? I mean, who knows what all the Changed can do? I’ve been thinking about this for a while, wondering if we would really be able to just walk away from all of this. We’ve got freaking super-powers for crying out loud. How could they possibly risk us getting away and doing god knows what?” I asked.

Everyone just stared at me as the wheels began turning. Surely I wasn’t the only one who’d thought of this before now?

“Guess I’m luckier than I thought,” Rebecca said, to no one in particular. 

Deion glared at me while the thought settled in. “No way, no way they could just ‘disappear’ us. People know we agreed to spend time with the army. People know we are here; we can’t just not come back.”

“Accidents happen all the time,” I said. Part of me was enjoying riling him up. Another part of me was getting scared shitless the more I spelled this out. What was I going to do? If I decided I didn’t want to stay, then what?

Samantha added, “Listen, just think it over Deion. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. Consider your options carefully, that’s all I’m saying. You are a good guy, with lots of potential, don’t do anything stupid. Maybe in time, we will be able to get out, but I don’t have high hopes just at this moment.”

Deion stood and backed away from the table. Shaking his head, he said, “This is fucked. This is all fucked.” He turned and stormed off.

Again, we sat in silence, the weight of our fears pressed too hard for us to speak.

I wasn’t given to conspiracy theories, but here I was spinning them. The terrible thing, though, was that I could see it. No way they were going to let us walk out of here. August had basically told me that. Why were they even pretending we had a choice?