‘Oh lord, I’ve had enough of these people out here.’ I think. People are everywhere, people line the block and wrap around the corner. Pushing and shoving their way just to get a closer look. I don’t know where we are going and what we are trying to look at. But of course I am also shoving my way to the front.
“Mia!” calls my friend Chloe from behind me.
“Chlo!” I shove through people to get to her. “Chlo what’s going on? Where are we going?”
“How should I know?” A girl shoves passed us and knocks Chloe down. Weirdly, she was going the wrong direction.
“Oh my god are you ok?” I ask, helping her up as people are still shoving past us.
“What is wrong with everyone? It’s like everyone is in a trance.”
“Do you know how we got here?” I ask, getting increasingly scared as I realize I don’t remember how I ended up here.
“No… What is happening…”
“Excuse me sir!” I say as I grab a man by the arm, “Do you know how you got here?”
“Um no…” I can see the realization and fear growing in his eyes.
“Miss!” Chloe grabs a woman, “How did you get here?”
It spreads like wildfire, a wave going through the packed street as everyone realizes no one remembers how we got here. Everyone stops dead in their tracks. Then suddenly everything goes black.
‘Why is everyone running?’ I wonder. People are everywhere, people fill the field and spill out to the river. Pushing and shoving their way just to get a closer look. I don’t know where we are going and what we are trying to look at. But of course I am also shoving my way to the front.
‘Chloe is here.. I need to find Chloe’ I think, somehow. I haven’t seen her but something in me tells me she’s here. I scan the crowd for my friend and I spot her. She is currently being pushed toward the river by the hoard of people.
“Chloe!” I yell as I shove my way toward her.
“Mia! What’s going on? Where are we going?”
“How should I know?”
“How did we get here? We were in a forest, then a city, now a field?!”
“Chlo what are you talking about?”
“You don’t remember? The covered forest? The packed city street?”
As she says this I slowly remember the forest. It ended much like the city, someone asked how we got here, everyone stopped moving, and the world went black. That time it wasn’t me or Chloe who had asked, it was Sasha. All three of us were right next to each other. Then the memories of the city came back too.
“Chlo, where’s Sasha?”
“Havent seen her since the forest, does that mean you remember?”
“Yes, but what is this?” I ask as people shove by us, “Wait since the forest? We saw her in the city, she knocked you down, she was running the wrong way!” I yell over the crowd.
“That was her?”
“Ya that was her! Let’s go that way!” I shout pointing in the opposite direction of the moving crowd. Chloe and I start shoving our way though the crowd of people. It seems as if the crowd is never ending, it goes on and on.
“Mia, we are never going to make it! The crowd just keeps growing!”
“We have to try!”
“We’ve been trying for like 10 minutes and haven’t made any progress!”
“What else can we do!”
“Maybe we are thinking about this the wrong way! What if we get everyone to stop like in the city!”
“But what if we wake up somewhere else?!”
“We can’t go on like this! Mia, we have to try!” The crowd is so loud it hurts my ears, I don’t think that this is a good idea but she’s right we don’t have another choice.
“Miss, do you know how you got here?” I say stopping a lady, the same realization and fear grows in her eyes.
“Sir how’d you get here?” Chloe says, grabbing a man’s arm. “Where were you this morning?” she says stopping an old lady. It spreads like wildfire, a wave going through the field as everyone realizes no one remembers how we got here. Everyone stops dead in their tracks.
“Come on Mia run! Quickly come on!” We sprint though the still crowd, I’ve never run faster in my life.
“Chlo look!” I say pointing, “Right there! The crowd ends!”
“Run!” we faster than I ever imagined we could. The minute we reach the clearing, suddenly everything goes black.
“Amazing work girls! 3 is a new school record! We are so proud!”
There is a bright fluorescent light, I cant open my eyes for a minute. I squint to see what looks like a classroom, I’m sitting at an uncomfortable desk. I look to my right to see Chloe, she also has her eyes half open. I look at the white board in front of me to see a list; forest, city, field. Next to the field there is a check mark. I finally come to the woman standing in front of me, she has a clipboard she’s writing on and she looks very familiar. I suddenly remember everything, the woman is Miss Rock. The simulation Chloe and I were just in was a test. A test about going against the grain for a special program me and Chloe got selected for. Sasha, our other friend, is a graduate of the program so she volunteered to be the booster for our test. She held the previous record, hers was 5. Chloe and I start to recognize what Miss Rock had said and we both slowly stand.
“Oh my god Mia! We did it!”
“School record!” I jump into Chloe’s held out arms.
“Record holders on our first try!” she says, squeezing tight.
“You guys did amazing!” Sasha says, walking into the room. “Must have learned from the best.”
“We certainly did! Thank you for being our booster!” I say pulling her into the hug.
“Ya thank you so much!”
“No problem!” she says laughing.
“We did it! We beat the hardest test of the program, and with the record too!” Chloe says with a triumphant smile, as the hug falls.
“Oh ya Chlo! We make a great team!”