Another wave crashed over him, filling the boat up more, and he continued to throw water out with his bucket. Though, this time, I could’ve sworn a flicker of doubt crossed his translucent face.
“Don’t you have a family?” I pressed, sensing I might be on the edge of something. “Parents or grandparents? A brother or a sister? If not for yourself—jump for them! Don’t you think they’d want you to?”
Another wave rolled over him, and this time he straightened his back, his legs now fully submerged in water, and he glanced at me uncertainly.
I immediately gave him a warm, encouraging smile. “They’d want you to jump, wouldn’t they?”
It took him a moment, but then he nodded slowly. “They would,” he croaked.
As a fifth wave hit his boat, I knew we’d run out of time. Neither he nor the boat were going to survive another one.
“So jump then!Now!” I screamed.
Still, he hesitated, eyeing the gap between his vessel and mine nervously.
A final wave rolled over him and swallowed the boat. It sunk beneath the water, dragging him down with it. The stunned expression on his young face stole my breath.
He’d wanted to live. I’d seen it in his eyes. And yet, he hadn’t jumped. His stubbornness and hesitation had cost him his life.
His blue eyes glowed wide beneath the water, his lips mouthing his last, silent words as the waves pulled him under, and then he was gone.
And I once more felt perturbed.
I hadn’t wanted to witness another death. The little girl’s had been enough.
Why had they both been shown to me? I didn’t understand.
The water and the storm faded, plunging me into darkness again. But, this time, the wall and ceiling lights switched on barely three seconds later. And not the reddish ones. The white lights that had shone when I first entered the room.
Which I guessed meant the screening was over.
I glanced down to see my hands trembling, the shock of the past however many minutes this test had lasted—I’d lost track of how long I’d been in here—finally catching up with me. My knees gave way and I sank to the floor, my chest heaving.
A nausea then rolled through me that had nothing to do with the rocky waves I’d just been surrounded by. It rose up from the depths of my gut, birthing from my tightly wound emotions, and for almost a minute, I wanted nothing more than to vomit. I probably would have, had I not taken Anna’s advice and begun the screening on an empty stomach.
The simulations hadn’t been real, and yet, in the heat of the moment, they had felt real. I had felt the loss of two lives, both young, and run a gamut of emotions in less than an hour, emotions that some might not experience in their entire lifetime.
Now that I was out the other side, I needed to take a moment to breathe and… think.
Anna was considering me for a career in outreach, leading up to some kind of leadership position. Was all of that required just for preliminary screening? I hadn’t even started training under her mentorship yet.
What was the eventualjobgoing to be like?
My stomach knotted tighter, and then a twist of the door’s handle dragged my attention across the room. Anna strode in,carrying the cloth bag that contained my food and wearing a mildly apologetic look on her face.
When she reached me, however, she gave a high-pitched laugh. “I’m sorry,” she said, eyeing me over. “It’s just… your hair.”
I grimaced, imagining the state it was in. Well, I didn’t need to imagine it. I could feel it sticking out like a mane. I was unable to find humor in the situation, though. Nor did I exactly appreciate being laughed at after what she had just put me through.
“Yes, it tends to do that,” I replied, my tone clipped.
“I apologize,” she said, trying to suppress her smirk. “The screening was stressful, going into it blind. I should know, given that I designed the modules for you. But, as I said, it wouldn’t have been much of a test if you knew what to exp?—”
“Youdesigned them for me?” I couldn’t help but blurt, my blood pressure rising again. It had been bad enough that she’d put me through all that without warning, not to speak of her being the architect of it all.
She nodded as if she were proud of herself, completely missing my tone.
“What was the point of all that?” I asked.
