10

Earth: Phase 1 test

Passers-by pretended not to see. It had become a routine.

"Pass, pass! shouted the guards to the curious. Then the view became just that, a view. You could see her from her window at night. You could see it from the top of the tallest towers. We complained about it, and despite the attention we didn't want to give her, she was there. Coming from where? We didn't know. She was right there. It cast its shadow over the poor neighborhoods and sat enthroned in the middle of the barrier. A group of guards had surrounded it for several days, then their number had diminished until only two remained who preferred to spend their days in the towers rather than watching over this gigantic ball.

The Sphere had appeared a few minutes after the Awakening. The governments thus called these five minutes when the human being had passed from the stage of being ignorant to a being blind to his own imprisonment.

The reactions were as numerous as there were men and women on this planet. Screens hung from towers in the Etlas neighborhood showed a parade of reactions. A man sitting on his bed who hadn't gotten up. A woman running towards the gigantic form laughing hysterically before being stopped by the guards.

Thousands of faces followed one another and intertwined. Some showed denial, others depression, and so the emotions paraded through the world, rage, madness, admiration, horror, questioning, scientific reasoning, arrogance and looking forward to new possibilities. But the greatest source of questioning remained inexorably still.

Several spheres had appeared on the planet, and had destroyed everything in their path, buildings... houses... hospitals... animals...

Humanity was aware that a test had begun. The only test that would allow a privileged few to obtain full citizenship of the RC, to have the right to move and live freely in the Confederation and therefore the authorization to leave this planet which was becoming more and more suffocating for some.

The promises of this citizenship and the benefits it would grant had from the start attracted the attention of the Etlas petty bourgeoisie who saw in it the possibility of enriching themselves and obtaining the attention of the leaders of the RC.

They had initially barred access to the circular juggernaut in hopes that only a chosen few could pass the test. They were all dead.

The number of candidates then dropped dramatically. The more affluent regularly sent individuals they had paid to try the test. They promised them that their families would be protected and that money would be given to them. Surveillance around the foreign object had diminished to entice the more ambitious or desperate to try. But the number of dead remained higher than the number of survivors. To date, 10,000 people had died. And only two had succeeded. The scene had been filmed and was replayed on the screens. The media had quickly realized that the Sphere could become a new means of entertainment and had set up a perimeter around it. No one could approach the object without a camera recording the event.

The man could not have been more than thirty years old and held in his arms a package of white color. He stared at the sphere for almost two hours until the package in his arms suddenly began to move and squirm. His hands rested delicately on the white sheet which had hidden what appeared to be, now that he revealed it, a baby.

At that moment, tears rang out, and the child's flushed face appeared on the screen. The father then came out of his contemplation to rock him. When he had calmed down, the man walked over to the circular object and stroked it with one hand without touching it. Then he gently took the infant's hand and placed it with his own on the Sphere.

They did not collapse directly, then it was as if a wall had just opened. When the two bodies had penetrated the object, it closed.

For a week, the surveillance increased, but no one came out. It was as if they had been swallowed.

Unfortunately, since that day, theories all more obscure than the other have been put forward. Opportunists had knowingly approached the Sphere with a child in their arms, hoping to have found the missing piece to the puzzle. Bad idea. They were found dead at his feet, with a wriggling child full of life in their arms. Others had in desperation left their son or daughter in front of the object and had urged them to touch it. The children were found unharmed, but the wall remained closed. The Sphere only seemed to work for more mature beings.

Kieran did not understand why, he was just in front of the object that night. His father often told him that he was just an incompetent and that he regretted having allowed him to utter his first cry. He was barely four years old when he placed him before his committee members. The latter had gauged him with their eyes, when he had never known anything other than his nurse's knees. Kieran got scared and hid behind his father. This was the wrong move. The committee gave him disappointed looks and that was the last time his father went out with him in public. A few years later, his sister had passed what he learned was an exam to choose a successor at the head of the company.

His father had never left him needy, far from it. Money had never been in question for him. But that day had robbed him of something more precious, the love and affection of his father that he had learned to be, conditional.

Yet he was not in front of this sphere because of his complex relationship with his parent, at least, not only. Faced with the horror of his discoveries, of his foundations becoming strewn with corpses, he had had no other choice. So he had decided to somehow free himself from it and take a step forward.

Meanwhile on another side of the Sphere, in the streets of Bresse, a frantic race disturbed the nocturnal silence.

"Damn it!" cried the young woman, as she had just collapsed on the ground. She got up quickly without looking behind her. They were only a few feet away from her. She heard footsteps approaching quickly. They were laughing. She had to run faster, there was only that left to do even if it was her last race. She turned left, then right,

the neighborhood she had known since childhood had become a labyrinth closing in on her. Had she already passed by this street? She was sure she had already seen this store ten minutes ago. She had been running for an hour, and sweat was seeping from all her pores, but she was making progress. In front of her the White Sphere grew more and more imposing, but she paid little attention to it.

Run, run! she whispered to herself to push her race a little further.

But she stopped abruptly when she saw the obstacle standing in front of her.

"Magnificent hunt, Elkurt! You're prime prey," the man said, licking his lips.

Hate and disgust quickly replaced the fear that had invaded him since the beginning of the chase.

"You! It's you! Derek, you monster!" she screamed in rage, she wanted to throw herself on him and rip his insides out before throwing him into a grinder just like he had done to Ryan.

"What are you waiting for bitch? Come on, jump on me! I already have a lot of little ideas that will make your death more than enjoyable.

Laughter accompanied this statement reminding him that they were not alone. Six other men watched the scene.

Rayne finally realized his situation. She couldn't run away anymore. This option had just been shattered. Tonight she was going to die.

A few meters from her, the sphere shone. She had never seen him so close.

She watched Derek walk towards her, but it was like watching him approach through a filter. He started by slapping her, then grabbed her by the collar and shook her before throwing her to the ground.

A rain of blows followed. There were so many of them that she didn't think he was hitting her alone. She felt her ribs breaking, her nose sinking under the kicks of the boots, her fingers being trampled.

Her bag had spilled on the floor and her eyes fell on the notebook she hadn't left since the day Karl had given it to her.

She put her bloody hand on it, she couldn't take it, her dislocated fingers made it impossible.

A scream then echoed through the night as Derek's foot slammed into his hand again with all its weight.

"Enough !"

It wasn't her who screamed. She would never have made that mistake.

Enough ! repeated a male voice.

Enough ! You know our code. She did not struggle, she is entitled to a noble death.

Derek turned to look at the man in a mask who had just said those words. Then pretended to resume his task.

"You know the rules!

"That bitch cost me everything and you want me to let her die peacefully! I can't set foot in this fucking warehouse anymore without being insulted. My landlord kicked me out because this little prick thinks I'm a freak. And what do you want to do? Give that bitch mercy?"

He punctuated his answer with a middle finger in the direction of the one who had called out to him before turning back to Rayne and suddenly ripping his top off. He ran his fingers over her skin, stroking it in a way that contrasted with the malevolent smile that appeared on her face.

"We're going to have a really good time sweetie," he said before licking her ear.

Suddenly, two pairs of arms grabbed him. Two men from his team held him as he struggled. The man who had interrupted him the first time walked towards him.

“You know the rules and you know the consequences Derek. I warned you.

Derek then stopped resisting and his face fell.

"Rule 10 Any violation of Rule 1 of the code will see the accused sentenced to the same sentence as his victim for breach of his oath. »

"No no !" he shouted

"The victim here will be taken to the Sphere and will be tested."

"I refuse! You don't have the right! I'm your teammate! I just did my job!" he yelled, but his pleas were cut short by a punch to the face that knocked him out dead in his tracks.

The man then walked towards the young woman lying on the ground. She was shaking, but not moving. His eyes scanned the individual who was picking up his belongings scattered on the floor. He gently lifted his fingers to pick up the notebook and replaced it in the bag.

" Karl… "

The man froze, but the expression on his face remained hidden by his mask.

"I know it's you…" she whispered before she started coughing.

The man then turned his head towards him so that she wouldn't choke on her own blood.

"How?" he whispered discreetly in her ear

"I…. I would recognize your voice among a thousand."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that's all I can do…Darcy…kids…"

"Need you, you're the only reason they survived so long." I understand... But I need to know...

"No. I swear, I swear. I wasn't on Derek's team the night Ryan died. Otherwise I would have…"

"That was all I wanted to know…and for what it's worth…I forgive you…I never should have taken that night job."

Rayne was certain that behind this mask her friend was in tears. But she could no longer do anything for him or for his soul. Her body was losing its strength and it was a miracle that she was still awake.

Karl picked her up gently and carried her in his arms. A memory came to mind then. Her father carried her to his bed, while her mother next to him stroked her hair. They had looked at him with so much love. She would see them and Ryan again soon.

" We have arrived."

He was therefore his executioner, the object that would take his life. It was even more striking up close, and the city lighting paled in comparison to its brilliance.

Karl walked over and set her down as close as possible. She noticed two men next to her leading Derek away. He didn't look good. Blood was streaming from his lips and he had barely regained consciousness. Seeing what was in front of him, he began to struggle again.

"It's time," Karl announced.

Rayne looked up at the smooth walls in front of him with pained eyes. She wasn't going to crawl to her death. No, not after surviving it all. Determined, she put her hand on the ground and struggled to get up despite the pain. Her ribs were on fire, the fingers of her hand were frozen at unlikely angles, but she struggled to straighten herself. She placed her left arm across her chest for support and slowly raised her right hand towards the stranger.

She brushed her fingertips over the instrument of her sentence. She was convinced that at this moment she would collapse, but her hand was to her astonishment caught by the wall that had become liquid. Something was pulling her against her will inside. As his body was quickly absorbed, an old friend smiled beneath his mask.

On the other side of town in the Etlas district, a young man had also just passed the first test.