“About what?” Without intending to, I was moving toward the door. The door opened. The Ender guard stepped back to let me out. I walked out into the hallway. Everything felt floaty and dreamlike.
Keep going. You don’t have to do anything. Just don’t resist me.
It was a strange sensation. Sort of like ice-skating down the hallway without any skates. I wasn’t trying to walk, wasn’t trying to resist. But I was moving.
I didn’t know where I was going. Not just the final destination, but whether I was going to open a door, or turn, or go to the end of the hall. I just put one foot in front of the other.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t alarming. It was almost calming. Maybe it was because I knew it was Hyden controlling me, even if Dawson was giving the orders.
Just stay with me.
I wasn’t stupid; I knew they were making him do this. Dawson probably had a rifle aimed on him. So something was going to happen. I could hear concern in his voice.
I recognized where he was making me walk. The shooting range.
The new Ender guard there was taller and bigger than the one I’d attacked. This one opened the door for me, and I entered.
I looked up and saw the same elegant female Ender from before watching me from the glassed-in viewing area off the control room.
I thought I was going to the last stall again, but I stopped midway. I turned, and instead of a rifle, I saw a gun, a Glock 85. It was the same kind of gun that Helena had had me use. Did they know that?
I didn’t see a target. I didn’t want to touch the gun, but it wasn’t my decision. Hyden did it for me.
My hand moved down and wrapped around the cold metal of the gun. It raised.
The Ender woman behind the glass spoke to someone in the control room. I heard a rustling on the range and turned my attention there. This time, instead of a target, an Ender man wearing a black bulletproof bodysuit and a helmet walked out. He faced me, a living version of the target image I’d shot at before.
“That’s a bulletproof suit, right?”
They tell me yes.
Hyden raised my arm and aimed, using my eyes. My finger pulled the trigger. The Ender stumbled back from the impact but remained on his feet.
The Ender behind glass spoke through her microphone. “Would the target please move forward?”
The man walked toward me until he was ten feet away. I could see where the bullet had torn a hole in his suit, at the heart. It was easy to see because of a red powder that had been released where the fibers were torn.
“Good job,” the Ender said through his protective helmet. His eyes narrowed in a look of approval.
“Target. You are dismissed,” said the Ender behind the glass.
He left. I wondered what that proved to them. Probably that if I trusted someone, that person could control my body more easily. So now …
Oh, they wouldn’t.
But yes, they did.
Michael entered the range. He appeared to be wearing the same kind of bulletproof bodysuit and helmet.
But was he?
He tried to leave, but I could see that they had locked down his boots magnetically. He struggled but couldn’t lift his feet. He was forced to stand there.
It was a horrible test. This wasn’t just a nameless, able-bodied Ender; this was someone I knew and loved like a brother. What if his suit wasn’t bulletproof ?
They’re telling me to tell you to relax.
“Don’t do this, Hyden.”
They say he won’t get hurt.
My arm holding the gun raised.
Michael flinched.
“Make it stop,” I said. “Refuse!”
It’ll be just like the last one.
“Don’t make me. Please, Hyden.”
I could see Michael’s eyes through the helmet. He closed them.
“I won’t do this!” I shouted at Hyden.
I fought as hard as I could. My insides were torn to shreds. I could not gain control of my hands.
“I’m so sorry,” I said to Michael.
My finger pulled the trigger, the gun went off with a loud pop, and Michael fell backward to the floor.
Instantly, I had my control back. I dropped the gun and ran to him. I pulled off his helmet.
“Michael, can you hear me?”
His eyes fluttered open. “Callie?”
I looked at his chest. Same hole, circled with red, just like the Ender.
A look of surprise came over Michael’s face. “You shot me.”
Ender guards came and took me away, to another one of their rooms with a projection of a beach. A few chairs were placed around a plain, school-issue table. A moment later, they brought in Hyden and left us alone.
“What were you thinking?” I said.
He held out his arms. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Making me shoot Michael? I can’t believe you did that.”
“They made me. They threatened to torture you if I didn’t cooperate.” His eyes pleaded. “They said the bullets were fake.”