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Chapter III

IMPATIENCE

Ex

The rest of the week felt like a major blur.

I remembered going outside for the first time ever Monday, but Tuesday through Saturday felt like I had been put through a blender and was too difficult to determine. Out of all those days, I know I went outside the wall every single day, but the things in-between felt like backround compared to what I did as my final test for the day.

When I wasn't outside practicing my flying, I was inside trying to start a good habit of doing as I was told when I was told so I could be on my best behavior when those big bad government guys came around--and tomorrow, Sunday, was the day where I was either going to die or be grounded forever. I hated the idea of being tied to a ball and chain and being kept under a watchful eye for the next, I dunno, ninety years, but my voice in this matter had no power. Everything about my fate would be up to men who barely knew a thing about me. Well, seems I hated that as well. My life depended on the impression these guys got from me, so I couldn't slip up while they were here.

The alarm hadn't even gone off yet. I was still up trying to figure out how to act like a good guy and not completely embarrass myself so that I didn't have to get locked up forever. What time was it? I turned over in my bed and looked up at the clock, finding it five past midnight. It would be a good hour before the sun came up, but I still couldn't find a means to sleep.

How long had I been up? That was a tough question. I thought I went to bed six hours ago, but I was still here laying in my bed wide awake trying to find a means to go to sleep. Alexander told me I would need my rest if I was going to be at my max for my curtain call, so what I was doing right now was a complete defiance of his suggestion. It wasn't my fault though, or maybe it was. I wanted to go to sleep and catch a few winks before the sun came up so those government guys didn't see me in a weakened state.

Not only that, but my stomach was in knots at this point. I had no clue why other than I was starting to feel nervous about this little evaluation they were going to place upon me. Alexander explained it to me once a long time ago, telling me that it was just a reaction I was causing and nervousness was starting to swell up inside me.

Truth be told, I couldn't remember a time where I felt this nervous. The closest I could remember was when I had to fly for the first time and being high in the air had me feeling almost the same way I was feeling right now. I felt sick to my stomach but also lightheaded every time I thought about them forever grounding me or worse--killing me. Even if it meant spending the rest of my days here, I'd rather deal with the latter rather than be buried six feet under.

I sighed and shook my head, lying on my back as I looked up at the ceiling. My arms were folded behind my neck while I crossed one leg behind the other and stared. I didn't expect to see anything in the ceiling except concrete and an overhead light which was out. The only sound I could count on to stop the ambience from driving me crazy was the light music I had playing near my night stand. I thought I could go to sleep just from that, which was what I did to usually get me to sleep, but it didn't work tonight. Even shutting my eyes for a solid half hour, I couldn't even lull myself into some sort of nap. At least a nap would allow me an hour or two of sleep, but I couldn't even get that now.

"Talk about insomnia," I groaned, closing my eyes once more in hopes I could fall to sleep. "At least give me an hour. I'll take an hour over staying awake for an entire day."

That was a lie. I wanted more than an hour of sleep. Hell, I wanted at least six hours, but I knew that was an impossible task. I had to meet the professors and the Director at the courtyard of Project's House at eight, and I took a good hour to get ready. That was why I woke up at seven so I could take a shower, eat, dress, and then leave. Such was my daily routine.

Another glance at the clock told me only twenty minutes had passed since my last glimpse. Time was going fast, at least. Unfortunately it wasn't going fast enough.

I finally grew fed up with trying to get some shut eye. One night without sleep wasn't going to kill me. I shifted and sat up, stepping off my bed so I could stand, realizing I was much sorer than I realized. After stretching my body in various ways, I walked around my room in hopes of finding something to fill up the next two hours until I had to get ready.

The kitchen was my first option. Though it was way too early to eat, I was hungry from last night's training and never really went to bed fulfilled. As I looked inside, I saw the usual: bread, eggs, water, milk, ham, cheese, bacon, two leftover pizza boxes, and other things. I flipped the light for the kitchen on and went to work making my extremely early morning breakfast. I had about an hour and a half to kill, and I had a feeling breakfast was going to take up that half hour.

I grabbed the pizza box from yesterday and pulled it out, setting it on the table and quickly grabbing three slices of cheese. I put them in the oven and waited for them to cook. Sure, I could've used the microwave, but I preferred the stove seeing as it took a stove to do the job properly.

While they cooked, I flipped on the rest of the lights and turned on the TV. I doubted there would be anything worth watching but regardless I flipped through the channels and sighed. I stopped at the show titled "Adventure Time", knowing that was as good as I was going to get it.

I waited until the cartoon was at a dull point, about ten minutes into it before, pulling the pizza out, devouring it with pure hunger. Some days I just hated eating pizza, and there were others where I couldn't get enough of it. This was just one of those in-between days where I could eat it but I didn't feel like stomaching it after I was done. Once the final slice was history, I sat back at my couch and continued watching the show. Though I had plenty of books to read, I put them off and just watched the show.

As the time passed, I lost track of how many episodes passed, but I realized one thing after glancing outside. The sun was halfway from rising, telling me it had to be a little past six. I used this as a chance to get ready instead of waiting another full hour just to get ready then. I left the TV on and stripped down, heading into the shower, taking my time cleaning myself up, allowing the warm water to cover my body completely for another fifteen minutes with shampoo and condition in-between before stepping out to dry myself off. Once I was dry enough, I changed into the clothes I was going to wear for the day: tight jeans and a red shirt.

Grabbing a comb, I stood in front of the mirror and began to brush my head hair. Though I had an idea to cut a little off the top to save time, I turned the thought down for another day. Even though these men never saw me before, I still wanted to make a good first impression on them regardless of my attitude towards them.

I quickly finished and brushed my teeth once I was done with the hair, making sure I brushed every single tooth at least twice before cleaning up and waited to be called. I sat down on my couch again and looked at my clock, finding it was fifteen minutes before seven. I still had an hour left to kill before they needed me, so I just sat there and reclined, closing my eyes until I let my body relax against the soft surface.

Even after all the things I did, I still felt wide awake, but I kept my eyes closed since I wanted to relax as much as possible before everything hit the fan for the day.

Before I could let my body completely turn sluggish, the door to my room slid open and Alexander shook me back into reality. He looked tired himself but also out of breath. What was with him? He pulled me onto my feet and shook me, but I don't think I was the one who needed to be woken up since I had been up for the past two hours.

"Ex! Come with me!" he urgently spoke, tugging on my wrist, pulling me out of my room.

I grabbed my bag from the counter and followed him out. "Hey, hey, hey! Whoa! What's going on?" I exclaimed, being forcefully tugged out of my room. This was really unlike him.

He turned yet kept his grip on my wrist. "They're here."

I raised a brow, almost certain of who he was talking about, but I had to be sure. "Who? Who's here?"

"The men sent by the president himself to evaluate you and see if you're ready to enter the real world yet," he replied hastily. Though he was still out of breath, he sure could still talk fast.

"I thought they wouldn't be here until eight," I countered softly, remembering that was exactly what I was told.

He sighed and shook his head. "Let's just say they were a few hours ahead of schedule and didn't bother to check in with us. We have about half an hour to get everything situated before we can begin any sort of test."

"How long will they be here?" I asked.

"For the whole day, and they'll be watching you every moment of it as well."

"Can't say I like having cameras watching me all day," I mumbled.

He huffed, smiling. "But that's what we do already."

I sighed and nodded. "Point taken, but I don't know these people. For all I know, they're creeps who just want to figure out what makes me tick. Couldn't they have just started their own Project and begin their own research?"

"Remember what Director Kindle told you? We gave them the information they requested, but we left out plenty of details so, in the event they wanted to create someone like you, they would have to start with plenty of failures before getting to you."

So that's why the Director kept a lot of the information from them. If they ever got the notion to create someone like me, he wanted them to stay in the backburner for as long as possible while I could progress and become more mature with my years. I had to give him credit on that, for he did think on his feet with that little plan of his. It bought us time while simultaneously crippling them in the long run for the time being.

Alexander continued to pull me down the hallways where a few of the scientists were jogging past us. They all looked nervous but more so they looked like they were in a hurry, but I had no clue as to why.

I turned to Alexander. "What's with them?"

He sighed again. "With the men arriving earlier than expected, we're frantically trying to sort out all of our data files and cache those we don't want them to see."

"So they're allowed to snoop through your things," I stated, not so much as a question.

"Yes, and I despise them for that," he grunted. "Not only that but, if they find anything pertaining to their evaluation, they are allowed to copy it and take it with them on their return back to the President, and there are plenty of files we would rather keep secret from them rather than have them know."

"Like what?"

"Like what genes to splice, how to splice them, what traits to pass on, and what your genetic code is made up of," he shook his head. "Ex, the less they know the better. We don't want this research getting in the wrong hands."

"I thought the government is supposed to protect you guys, not hinder you," I shot back, following him around the corner.

He huffed. "That's the façade they want you to believe, Ex, but, in reality, they can be easily corrupted and will do anything to preserve the safety of the nation as a whole, and that includes taking away certain freedoms, taking what they want and, thus, abusing their power. It's a sickening philosophy they follow but it's a philosophy they've followed for centuries and has gotten worse."

"Well hell," I huffed. "Talk about an unfair advantage."

"Yeah, no kidding," he replied.

It took some pushing and shoving to get to the room where Blake and the Director were waiting. Even they looked like they were fumbling through plenty of files by the time we arrived. We stayed behind while Blake struggled to get his papers together, grunting as a good sum of the stack fell over and scattered across the floor.

Alexander stepped forward and knelt down, doing his best to pick up as many of the papers as possible. Instead of Alexander making quick glimpses of Blake, things turned vice versa whereas Blake looked over at Alexander and smiled, nearly blushing before quickly turning away. I had seen that look once before, but I had never seen it appear across Blake's face rather upon Alexander's and it only happened around a week ago. I still couldn't figure out why they were doing that to each other, especially if the other didn't know about it but I didn't decide to bother with it.

I stayed back and sighed. None of this was my forte. I could do large stacks of tests that would take me hours to complete, but I had no clue what went where and who to give it to. I almost felt like I would be more of a hindrance rather than an asset in this case, so I continued to stay back against the wall and watched them try and organize their files as best as possible.

Another scientist barged in, another I saw frequently but never really knew, and went over to Director Kindle. He leaned over and whispered something into the Director's ear, making the man flinch in surprise, turning to the scientist for more details. They stayed in a hushed conversation for a few minutes until the scientist left in a hurry.

I felt the Director's hand on my shoulder. "Come with me, Ex."

He didn't give me much of a chance to even ask why and pulled me along. "Alright." I groaned, feeling a pattern going on here.

Once again, I was forced to follow him through the chaos that now plagued the facility. Things seemed to get less and less crowded and messy once we reached the front of Project's House where the Director stopped and stood.

I turned to him. "Why are we here?"

"They'll be arriving any minute now, and they've requested to meet you first off so there won't be speculation about you later," he replied in a strained tone, almost as if he was already growing weary of the day.

At least I could feel for the guy. I got no sleep this morning, ate at four, and found myself in the middle of a chaotic mess once I stepped out of my room. We were both tired just by the morning, and there was still the rest of the day to worry about as well, so we were going to have to use as much of our reserve strength as we possibly could.

"How many?" I asked, wanted to know a little but about the situation before it went too deep.

"Six in total," he replied almost immediately. "Three very high caliber scientists and three expert level government-trained soldiers. The scientists will be inspecting you personally, asking you a certain variety of questions, and they will want to know as much about you for the rest of the day."

"Can't say I like having suitors coming to pick me apart," I huffed.

I heard him snicker, which did lighten the mood between us. "It's only for a day and a half at the max, Ex. Of course this will be the day where they will be the final judge to determine whether or not you will live or die, but I will fight to keep you alive and to make sure you're given the green light for the reveal."

I sighed and shook my head. "What's so special about this reveal anyway? Like, what's the point of it?"

He waited a few minutes to answer. "I thought I told you, but I suppose I wasn't exactly clear." He sighed. "The point of your exposure to the world will help determine possible allies between the different countries that wish to ally with us. If they see that we are capable of creating a being from a certain buffet of DNA and genes with a basis to hold them all together then once we make allies we can give them the same knowledge and strengthen them much like we have."

"That's a pretty bold statement, Director," I replied with uncertainty. "You'd really give them all the knowledge you've obtained from me just to make friends?"

He shook his head. "That's not the exact point. The point is to bring the world together to form a common goal--to bring peace and serenity. You weren't just created to become the newest evolution in man, but you were created to become the next peacekeeper of the world."

I shook my head this time. "All of that makes my brain hurt."

"I don't expect you to understand it all quite yet, Ex, but, I assure you, once we get the authority to create more like you, we will be able to change the world in ways we never thought possible. We sent a man to the moon! Soon, we will send them to Mars! We've achieved flight in more than one way! We've harnessed the powers of the elements!"

He looked at me only to find me puzzled. I already knew about our race to the moon and the government's latest project to send a man to Mars, and I knew flight was attainable from aircraft and...me. If he was talking about the periodic table of elements, then I guess we sorta controlled the elements even though that was still partially a lie since we couldn't really "control" them. I didn't bother even telling the Director that considering I had my beliefs and he had his, so I could only hope that his plan turned out great despite it having lots of flaws.

Kindle looked forward and grunted. "There they are."

His eyesight was just as keen as mine, though mine was genetically supposed to be better. I saw the black colored car drive straight towards the base at high speed, leaving a massive cloud of dust and dirt behind in its wake. Those had to be the men the Director just mentioned because no one in their right minds would just drive this far out into the middle of nowhere unannounced and head for glass dome filled with soldiers and scientists.

The car stopped right at the front gates so that the soldiers up front could identify them and give them clearance to enter the base. I let out a pained sigh while keeping my eyes locked intently on the car. My body seemed to be trembling even before they were let in, and I still couldn't figure out why.

Whoever those scientists and soldiers in the car were, I already knew one thing about them even before meeting them: they were both my jury and my executioner. They had the hammer of judgment to decide my fate and the axe to kill me if they thought I was more of a danger than a hope. I gulped and waited, watching as the car was let in, seeing it drive down the gray road towards the center of Project's House. My wings furrowed and twitched just from the anxiety and even with my willpower trying to keep them on taps, I couldn't stop my feathers from twitching at the most random of times.

I was the epitome of being scared, and I couldn't stop myself from acting that way. This was the first time I felt like I wasn't ready for something, but I knew that was understandable. Who didn't feel nervous about meeting a group of people who determined their fate? Anyone who said they didn't were liars. Even the Director was nervous, probably not as nervous as me, but still nervous enough to be scared.

The car soon stopped at the front of the building. He and I both watched six people step out--four men and two women. The soldiers were all-male except for one of the two girls while the scientists were the exact same fashion. The scientists all wore clean and neat suits and showed off their intelligence and held digital boards in their arms before hiking up the stairs while the soldiers wore black suits and black sunglasses, each looking kinda frightening considering they were strong and held a sense of gravity while they followed the scientists up the large set of stairs.

Director Kindle leaned into my ears. "Just remember last week, Ex. Keep calm, keep a level head, remain polite and humble, and do as we tell you, okay?"

"Yes, sir," I replied as my throat went dry.

"If you're unsure about anything, talk to Alexander, Blake, or me and we'll see what we can do. Just make sure you do what we tell you and act appropriately and we'll all come out of this in one piece."

I didn't have a chance to reply once the scientists made it to the top stair and stood right in front of us. The first was a lady while the other two who followed were men, all wearing expensive looking clothes that I had to guess cost thousands of dollars. The lady was a white fox while the other two were a falcon and a wolf.

She looked at the Director first. "Director Kindle. It is a pleasure to meet you after seeing you a few months ago."

I heard him swallow. "Yes, Dartha, it humbles me to have you at our fine base. I hope you find everything well worth the drive out into the middle of nowhere."

Dartha giggled. "I hope so as well." She turned to me. "Is this the one?"

He placed his hand firmly on my shoulder. "This would indeed be the culmination of almost over three decades of work--Project X. We've called him 'Ex' with an 'e' in the front as a proper name."

The fox leaned forward and squinted her eyes at me. "Truly fascinating. And you were raised here, am I correct?"

I looked to Kindle, who just nodded, and then looked back. "Yeah, I've spent all my life here."

The rest of the scientists joined us, along with the menacing soldiers to protect them, as if they really needed the extra protection. We basically had an army here, and I doubted three measly men could cut an army down to size, and I didn't care how good they were. The scientists/creepy people continued to look me over like I was inside a display case until Director Kindle cleared his throat and caught their attention. I couldn't be more grateful that he did that or else I was going to have to punch at least one of them in the face.

"I believe we have a schedule to maintain, yes?" he asked, gesturing to the lobby doors.

One of the men, the falcon, stepped forward and adjusted his glasses. "Indeed we do. The name is Professor Zang. A pleasure it is, Director."

They exchanged hands. "Likewise, professor. If there are no other questions then I suggest we move on so your evaluation can be complete."

I could hear chuckling from behind as they stayed behind, tapping away at their digital pads. My wings were visible for them to gawk at as long as they were behind me, and I could feel my nervousness start to build up again, causing my feathers to twitch again. Please, I just wanted to get through this day and receive enough of their praise to let me live and not keep my grounded. I sped up my walking and caught up to the Director, keeping close while the people behind me eyed me with curiosity. Though I was used to it by the people here, I wasn't used to it by outside people. It felt...weird.

Yeah, I could tell this was going to be a long day.

Either I was going to die or I was going to live, but I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't going to be of the latter this time.

If there was a shred of hope I managed to keep inside of me somewhere, apparently I misplaced it and felt nothing but fear and dread for how I performed for the day. Everything started off well--to an extent--but quickly went downhill halfway through the first test which had to be my transparency test which, by the way, was the one I sucked at the most. It was almost a repeat of how things went a week prior to this ordeal, yet I could only feel ten times worse about it considering I had six people determining whether or not I would walk out of this facility.

It started after I was sent into the testing chamber and be sent to blend in with the jungle once again, but I failed after my body refused to let the ability to cover up my chest, which was bare and open for anyone to see. I was once again shocked as a punishment and felt terrible moving onto my accuracy training, which put me through having to use a gun and other various weapons to kill or incapacitate my opponents. That turned out to be a near failure after I missed a dozen of my targets and found my aim excruciatingly off, sometimes killing enemies I was supposed to just wound and immobilize the enemies I was tasked to kill. The next test proved more fruitful amongst the others considering it was fighting/martial arts where I did exactly as I was instructed and brought my confidence up back from the depths of hell.

All of that brings me back to the present where I just sat alone at lunch. Well...alone. Though I sat against my usual windowsill, the room was also occupied by the scientists and soldiers who watched me from a distance and scribbled things onto sheets after their pads shut off. The people actually watching me for research had stacks of papers on the table behind theirs and continued to write things on the sheets given to them as if I was doing something worth knowing, which I highly doubted.

I peeled my orange and bit into the fruit. Could they just leave me alone for, like, an hour maybe? It took all the willpower I had to keep calm and not punch each one of them in the throat. They acted as if they knew everything about me, like my favorite color, food, and activity to do when I wasn't testing. They constantly asked me about my wings just to see what new information they could add to their sheets, and I sometimes gave them false information just because they were so nosey.

The Director wouldn't like that probably, but I could guess that he was just as tired of them as I was. He didn't have to deal with them all day long and have to deal with their questions, though. I felt like I got the short end of the stick.

I tried to keep my focus off of them and focus on something else entirely, like the food that was now going cold on my tray. Quickly devouring the rest of my orange, I moved onto the tiny potatoes and ate them one by one. Even though I was more into my food, I could still feel their gaze locked on me which only had my anger boiling.

Soon, my potatoes were done and moved onto the strips of ham. Director Kindle told me before I left to keep my anger under taps as long as I possibly could, but I knew for a fact my patience was wearing thin with these people enough for me to completely snap. Slowly, I felt like standing up, going up to them, and sock each one in the jaw just for making me feel like this, but I would regret that decision later. All I could do was wait it out as long as possible, like Kindle said, and just hope things went off without a hitch the rest of the day.

The sound of a tray setting down close by grabbed my attention. My feathered twitched, forcing me to shift my gaze from my food to the falcon sitting at the closest table to me. It didn't look like he touched even a crumb on his plate but did keep steady eyes on me.

I could feel my patience level dropping. What was that TV show called...Dragonball Z? That had to be it. I felt like a vein was just going to emerge from my forehead and start pulsing with rage much like Goku or Vegeta. It took every ounce of restraint I had not to tell him off.

Instead of showing hostility towards him, I looked at him with a fake smile. The sooner I could get him out of here the better, so I might as well try and act like his friend until then. I was going to hate the rest of the day.

"You're...Zang, right?" I asked dreadfully.

He nodded and smiled. "Yes, I'm glad you remembered me from our brief greeting earlier."

I huffed. "Hard to forget a man such as yourself when you play Twenty-Q with an abnormal person. You've been hounding me all day, you do realize that right?"

Zang remained silent for a few moments. Seems I struck a nerve. "I'm terribly sorry about that, Ex. We're just here to study you and figure out whether or not you're eligible to enter the real world."

I sighed. "I'm not a danger, if that's what you're implying." I bit into my ham. "Look, I know why you're here and that's to pass judgment on me. You're either my angel or my executioner, but, in all honesty, I'd rather you not be the latter of those options."

"You're very astute, Ex," he complimented. "From what we've gathered from you today, I don't think we have any reason to kill you."

"Then can you please go?" I asked as politely as I could.

He shook his head. "That's not how it works, Ex. The day isn't done either, and, I will admit this, we are bound by the contract the President issued to us, exclusively forbidding us to leave until the day is done. For you and us, that will be around ten o' clock tonight."

"But I won't be testing after eight," I countered.

"We know, and that is why the remaining two hours will be for debriefing. No, we will not be debriefing you, if that was what you were wondering. We'll be talking with the Director and the professors close to you, so you will not have to worry about us interfering with your daily life after eight."

"Thank. God," I mumbled with slight delight.

He zipped his drink and went on. "Listen, Ex. I don't mean to be a bother to you, and I really mean that. My colleagues and I just wish to know more about you, and we used this as a way to avoid reading more papers about you. Instead, we chose a more hands-on approach where we could see you in action first-hand instead of on video tapes."

I chuckled lightly. Were they not impressed by video? "So you had to see if all of what I did wasn't just Photoshop and special effects."

Zang smiled gaily. "We scientists can hypothesize, but I wanted to see you personally, and I must say I am rather impressed with what you've done today."

We sat there in silence for a few minutes. I didn't care if he thought what I did today was impressive because I thought I did pretty bad today considering all my mishaps. Either he was saying that just to make me feel better and boost my confidence, or he was just trying to cover up a lie. I couldn't read minds, so I had no clue about either.

He stood up and took a few steps towards me. I immediately reacted and spread my left wing out to stop him. With my muscles flexing and the feathers along my extra limb vibrating, he stopped where he was and took that same step backwards towards the table. Even though I believed he got the message, I had to be certain for sure.

"You've invaded most of my personal space today, professor," I coldly spoke, forgetting the little talk we had. I was on the verge of snapping, and this guy wasn't going to completely ruin my day. "Please don't push your luck thinking you're my friend."

He stared at my wings in awe before looking into my serious eyes. He got the picture. "I see, I see. I'll just take my leave then." He took his tray then looked me back in the eye. "It was...a pleasure speaking to you, Ex."

With that, he left me to my cold food. The man then went to his friends and convinced them to leave as well and soon they were all out of the room, leaving me alone for the first time in hours. They didn't leave in a hurry, but they did want to get out of there as soon as possible, which did make me happy.

I folded my wing back in and sighed, shaking my head. "It's only another eight hours, Ex. You can get through this without snapping."

The day was still long, and I had eight more hours to suffer for the time being. I finished off the rest of my food and let out a long, drawn out sigh, barging through the double doors with newfound strength.

I was finishing this day whether I liked it or not.