The Day The Sun Fell From The Sky by Amelia Gold Page B

had meant to.
    “What the hell?” He yelps loudly, waking some of the other test subjects.
    “What?” Some of them ask groggily.
    “She hit me!” He protests.
    I am supposed to be feigning anger but I can barely keep my eyes open.
    “What’s going on?” Someone asks, opening the door.
    “She hit me.” Zeb repeats, feigning frustration.
    “Come here.” The night supervisor gestures to me.
    I stand up on shaking legs and I follow them out of the recovery room.
    “The rest of you stay put.” Says the supervisor.
    After we get out of the recovery room, I am taken into an empty office. I think I’m dreaming but I swear that the doctor who is on the graveyard shift is Hash. He can see that I recognize him, even though I’m too weak to actually say anything to him. He just smiles at me without speaking.
    “Did they buy it?” Asks another vaguely familiar voice.
    “Yes but we need to be quick.” Says Zeb.
    “Here, let me put this on you.” Iv is holding a tube of some sort of paste.
    What is going on?
    “I’m really sorry, Myc, but we’re going to have to kill you.” Hash tells me.
    Then he injects me with a substance that causes my whole body to go numb. I can feel the absence take over my body and then sleep takes me away.
    *_*
    I am gasping for breath. I feel like I’ve been held under water for a long time and am resurfacing to breathe for the first time.
    “Where am I?” I ask loudly, sitting up too quickly.
    “ Myc, calm down.” Says Iv as she pushes me back. “You have to relax or the medication might cause you to have a heart attack.”
    “What happened?” I ask them.
    After my vision clears, I can see that I am in the back of a small van. Iv is hovering over me, trying to straighten my top which has been creased by my sudden upward motion, and Hash is in the front passenger seat. There is another person driving that I don’t recognize.
    “We got you out.” Says Iv.
    “Where’s Zeb?” I suddenly remember.
    “He’s going to cover for us.” Hash tells me.
    “That’s horrible.” I reply. “They’re going to kill him.”
    “They might not.” Hash laughs. “Have you noticed how good he is at talking himself out of situations?”
    “How can you laugh at a time like this?” I say with disbelief.
    “Don’t you want to know what happened?” Iv reminds me.
    “Yes.” I nod.
    “Pav shot you.” She tells me.
    “Who’s Pav?” I ask her.
    “The driver.” Says Hash.
    “When Hash told you that we were going to kill you, he wasn’t kidding.” Iv explains.
    “What?” I ask them, trying to comprehend the impossible.
    “You were clinically dead.” Hash informs me. “We got Iv to add some makeup for realism but makeup can’t fool machines and monitors. Only drugs can do that.”
    I remember the drug – whatever it was that he shot into my arm.
    “What did you give me?” I ask him.
    “A very advanced depressant. It repressed all your systems enough to fool the machines but not enough to actually kill you.” He explains.
    “You were in the in-between.” Iv tells me.
    “That was so dangerous.” I tell them, angrily. There was every chance that the drug might have worked too well and actually killed me.
    “Consider the alternative.” Says Pav.
    He was right in that had I stayed at the prison, I would have died from the final phases of that program and there would have been no way to come back from that.
    “Hey be nice.” Iv protests on my behalf.
    “People are dying. I’m sorry if I don’t have the time to be nice .” He replies.
    “Don’t mind him.” She tells me.
    “So, you put makeup on me. Pav provides the gunshot sound for everyone to hear. Zeb takes the blame. And once we’re out, Hash injects me with some sort of a stimulant to bring me back to life again.” I tell them what I understand of their elaborate operation.
    “Yes, that sounds about right.” Hash laughs.
    “Can you do me a favour?” I turn to Iv. “Can you slap that crazy doctor