“This is Juliet Rankis! We need help now! They’re coming! All of them! They’ve found us! Their plan is to kidnap us and they’re going to study us. They’re going to implant ratashes into our blood. You have to help us! They’ll control all of us! Help!” The woman in the video said.

Lucy stared at the woman who looked and talked like her. Yet, it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be. None of it coukd be. This was Juliet Rankis. She was Lucy Howard.

Lucy Howard, identity 7Z4. She lived under the protection of Ross Gov. Care. She was a valuable person. She was a citizen of the Ross Nation. She was just like everybody else.

“Lucy… Is that you?” Sirius asked her. His eyes were filled with confusion.

“No. It can’t be. I’m me. She just looks like me, and sounds like me, and… She’s not me! I’m me!” Lucy said.

“Who is Juliet Rankis then?” Lunette asked.

“I… don’t know. Where did you find this video?”

“The old files.” Meera said. “I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there. I couldn’t resist, and I found this. It looks like Lucy so I brought it over here.”

“That’s crazy. This is crazy. Right? We’re crazy! It’s not Lucy! Right?” Hael asked. He couldn’t believe it either.

“Yeah! It’s not me.” Lucy said.

What was this? Where was this? There was nothing outside the city walls. Ratashes? That was a poison found before the War of 2076. It was all gone. Right?

“My name is Lucy Howard. My identity is 7Z4. I am protected by Ross Gov. Care. They won’t let anything happen to me. I am cared for.” She whispered to herself. It was the mantra they’d been told to tell themselves when they had doubts or worries. It usually worked, but now it felt all wrong.

“Who is they?” Lunette asked.

They all had that question. Only one of them had an answer.

“Ross Gov. Care.” Meera said.

They all gaped at her. “What?” “No.” “That’s not right.” “Why?” All responses thst she got.

“Think about it. This was in the hidden files. Obviously they didn’t want anyone to find it. This girl could be related to Lucy. She could be a sibling or parent. Maybe this is the truth. They won’t show us what’s outside that wall. How do we know what’s really out there?”

They were all silent. They all knew it was true. They didn’t know how to take it though. What was going on?

“What do we do?” Hael asked.

“We run.” Lucy said. “We know this and no one else does. We’ll be a target. We need to leave. Now.”

“How? What if they catch us?” Hael asked.

“We go under the wall. We fight.”

They agreed. They were about to leave when hands grabbed them and they passed out.

When Lucy woke up, she was in a lab. She was chained to the wall and she saw all of her friends chained there too. They were all bruised and broken. They had been discovered.

“I really thought you all had potential.” A voice said. Dr. Vanheld. She was a scientist and teacher. She had taught all the kids. All of them. “I’m so disappointed.”

They all shrunk against the wall.

“It’s all a lie isn’t it?” Lucy asked.

“It is. Ross Gov. Care doesn’t care about any of you. We don’t want to protect you. Our reall mission is to form the perfect race. And unfortunately, the human is not that. They’re too rebellious, as we can see from your demonstration. Erasing your memories did nothing to help with that.”

“I’m Juliet Rankis, aren’t I?”

“Yes. A feisty one, you were. You tried to expose us so many times before. You failed, of course. Now, you won’t be a problem.”

Needles jabbed into the kids. They all screamed out in pain. It was like fire in their veins. It hurt worse than any pain ever.

“Good bye, Juliet. It was a pleasure playing games with you.”

As the darkness sunk into her veins, she felt it take over her. Poison. Ratash to be exact. An instant killer.

The End.