"No!" I scream, leaping towards the door as it slides shut. I slam my body against the thick metal as hard as I can and beat on it with my palm. "Let me out, let me out!"

"Hey, what's wrong in there?" Tanner calls, opening the door from the outside. I raise my fists at him and his calm voice, ready to fight. Peyton and Landon stare at me like I'm insane.

"Are you claustrophobic or something?" Tanner asks, drawing my eyes back to him.

"W-What? No, I'm fine. I mean, I guess. But you just said..." I trail off as my adrenaline levels fall. I lower my hands, feeling stupid.

"Holland, I said welcome to another part of the Camps."

"Wait, what?" I gape, "I thought you just said welcome to--"

"Of course you did," Peyton draws out with a joking smile, "but I just think you're afraid of the dark. After all, you're making excuses to get back into the light."

"Very funny," I say to Peyton's smirk. It threatens to make me smile through my fearful seriousness.

"You should head back in there," Tanner instructs, shooting an annoyed glance at Peyton. Peyton laughs in response.

I shake my head in confusion as Landon continues to stare at me with a look I can't distinguish. Calmly, Tanner switches the black door closed, shutting me back into the dark room. I turn away from the door again. Maybe I really did imagine Tanner welcoming me to the Enhancement Project. Maybe it was my overactive imagination after all. I just don't know anymore.

As if on cue, the blue holographic grids illuminate again. The electronic rays warm my skin as they glide over my hands and arms. Somehow I find myself relaxing against the heat as they take a full-body scan of me. I don't trust it, but I have no choice.

The grids click off for a moment and then flash back on, aiming their beams at the ceiling. An invisible speaker bursts with the sound of a female's voice. My heart jumps into my throat. I know that cold voice all too well. It's the voice from the Enhancement Project.

"Identity validated. Welcome, Miss Holland A. Renner of Philadelphia, East Block, 1156."

A pedestal-like grid awakens in the center of the room, spewing more brightness. "Please step onto the grid, Miss Renner."

Familiar fear floods my senses. I have nowhere to go, nowhere to run to. Refusal isn't an option either. So I take in a swallow of air and walk closer to the square of light. I bend to run my hand across the floor, and nothing happens. The light intersects with my fingers, but no poison gas releases from the vents. Hesitantly, I stand again and skim my right foot over the grid.

"Okay," I reassure myself. I lower my foot onto the grid. Nothing happens.

I exhale in semi-relief, shifting my weight. I step onto the grid, expecting to be incinerated. The feeling I get instead is much scarier and causes me to scream.

The entire room flies downward, taking me along with it. I fall to my knees with my jaw clenched and my stomach in knots. The room feels as if there's not enough oxygen in it, and my body threatens to implode.

The speed of the room soon slows down, halting altogether within a handful of seconds. One of the walls splits open in the middle, releasing a shower of white light in my face. I block the light with my hands as I pick myself up from the ground.

Squinting my eyes so that I can barely see, I walk out of the elevator-like room. A whoosh of air sends shivers up my neck, signaling that the elevator has left me behind.

As my eyes adjust to the light, an intermixing hum of voices fill my ears. Shoulders zoom past me, and white and navy clothing does the same.

I blink widely at least thirty times before I can see at all. An enormous mass of people fills the wide, endless commonplace in every direction. Some people sit on white ledges overlooking the room while others stand. White walls and fluorescent lights harshly encase the large crowd.

My back hits against the elevator doors in fear, the whiteness just too much to bear. God, this is just too familiar, I think to myself. Then something clicks within me. The whiteness, the voice, the comment from Tanner, the eeriness of the entire room. This can't a coincidence. This can't be.

I recognize the room immediately: it's the exact room Stephen and I met that group of scientists. It's the same massive room in which all Enhancement Project subjects were sorted and tattooed with black rectangles.

My focus darts around the room, and I notice that everyone is wearing light shirts and dark sweatpants with no shoes. Some people even have healing lashes on their cheeks. Scabby, painful lashes.

How could I have been so stupid? Peyton, Tanner, and Landon were so kind, so nice, but they were forcing my guard down. I knew it was weird how such a few number of rebels would fight an army of Screeners back in Grand Rapids. All along this was a trap. Stephen and I were too dangerous for society, and the Screeners must have staged a rebellion to root out resisters like us. Now they've taken us back into the Project, back where we belong.

Oh, crap. They've got us in the Enhancement Project. Again.

"Oh, God, no!" I say out loud, my voice low enough that the crowd doesn't hear it. I spin around and bang my fists against the elevator doors. They don't open, and then I realize Stephen is probably stuck down here, too.

I bolt into the tight crowd, not sure which way to go. If Stephen hypothetically arrived in this giant room 20 seconds before me, he's already masked himself in the crowd. He must know this is a trap.

I follow the crowd in the direction I deem to be the right. The sameness of the large room makes my plan difficult, and I can't seem to find Stephen. I pull out of the mass of people while trying not to panic, instead searching for Stephen from a fixed position instead.

Across the room, I spot a man climbing a set of invisible stairs. My eyes catch onto a faint shadows of white steps. Wheel turn in my brain as I turn towards the closest wall. I need my own stairs to get a better vantage point. Examining every inch of the wall, I end up squinting to find more stairs or ladders. Pairs of bare feet stare down at me overhead, mocking me from their ledges.

"C'mon, c'mon," I urge myself while scanning the wall. I finally spot a column of white ladder rungs camouflaged into the wall. I rush over to the rungs, reaching for the highest one I can. I pull my left leg onto the bar below it, steadying myself before I begin climbing. Once I reach an adequate height, I twist my body around to face the crowd. I practically hear the female voice taunting me in my head as I search for Stephen.

Welcome to the Enhancement Project. Welcome to the Enhancement Project. Welcome to the Enhancement Project.

I search and search for Stephen, mentally sorting through the males. A dozen of the guys I spot have softer features than my Stephen. Some are a little too tan. Most of them just aren't him.

Panning over the entire area, I finally see Stephen jogging within the crowd. As quickly as possible, I descend two of the rungs before leaping off the wall. My boots thump against the ground, contrasting the populace greatly in comparison to their bare toes. I steady myself before chasing after Stephen.

I don't bother using manners as I shove my way through the crowd, slamming shoulder and treading over feet. Most people get the idea and make space for me to pass in between them. I guess the crowd has never seen people run before, and I draw a lot of attention to myself. While brushing off the abundant side glances, I continue jogging at an unfaltering pace.

Finally, I set my eyes on Stephen's backside, and my heart flutters at the sight of his shoulder blades. I excuse myself as I roughly squeeze between bodies to get to Stephen, my nerves still full of fear. I grab Stephen's left arm as I successfully reach his side.

"Stephen, we gotta go," I rush as I slide my hand into his. I pull on his arm to make him speed up. Part of my nervous energy diminishes as I grasp the fact we're together again, not blindly alone.

"Holland?" Stephen says, surprised by my sudden appearance. His pace quickens as he talks, not questioning my motives. "Thank God you found me. I was just thinking that--"

"This place looks familiar," I finish for him. Between the heads in front of me, I spot a wide archway ahead of us. "I know, and it is. We're in the Project again."

We jog past a group of boys and girls around our age before continuing. "But how?" Stephen asks, "Tanner and the others rescued us from the city."

"Yeah, but they must have staged it. It was too coincidental," I tell him, glancing into his focused eyes. It feels great to be in Stephen's presence again, given the circumstances. "This place looks exactly like the Project. The walls, the air, even the clothing on these people is the same. Plus the elevator lock us inside this room. There's no way out of here."

Stephen nods understandingly, "Then let's try to escape through the halls."

A question mark forms in my mind, but I understand what Stephen means when I see it for myself. Straight ahead of us, five adjacent, blank hallways form our option for escape. Holographic grids identical to the ones in the elevators cover the archways like cellophane.

Ironically, the crowd doesn't step an inch into any of the pale passageways. Each person casually turns away from the archways and backtracks across the commonplace. Stephen and I glance at each other uneasily.

"Great, another set of grid," Stephen says under his breath. He refers his next remark towards our five choices. "Which one should we go through?"

I decide quickly while eyeing up the grids. "The middle one. I have feeling it's safer than the others."

Stephen laughs. "Either way, get ready to sprint, 400."

The middle arch closes in on us, and I can feel the anticipation building within my veins. Whatever happens next will be the end of us, but it's too late now to care.

"Don't fall behind too much, 399," I say back to him, letting go of his hand. Running side-by-side while feeling completely unstoppable, we leap through the holographic barrier. Warmth burns my skin as the lights skim over our bare arms. I let out a groan, but my voice is drowned out by piercing-loud alarms blaring into our ears.

-- -- -- -- --

OKAY OFF TOPIC BUT I JUST SAW INSURGENT TODAY AND IT WAS AMAZING! IT WAS JUST LIKE THE BOOK AND I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!!

but sorry about late update! i was really sick, and i couldn't focus well. this chapter affects the rest of the novel, so i had to do it right. this update is dedicated to @kaijuviper because she introduced me to a new website that helped me fix up this chapter :)

however i still haven't used the question/answer things yet in this update! (#whoops) but i included lots of action instead. hopefully you think that the trade-off was fair. eventually, i will use the answers though, so you'll just have to wait in suspence until then ;)

Question: Choose a verb: tackle, shoot, or block.

because you obviously know what they'll be used for in the next update ;)