Page 106 of Shifting Tides

Before I could say or do anything, Letti shoved me backward into the room. I fell hard on my ass, the impact rocking me for a few seconds that I couldn’t afford. When I was finally able to start scrambling to my feet, Letti slammed the door closed and it clicked with a finality that had my heart banging wildly against my chest.

“That you actually thought I would ever be friends with you is really insulting,” Adina’s muffled voice carried through the closed door when I reached it.

I hammered my fists against the door.

“Let me out. This isn’t funny.” I couldn’t believe how strong and assertive my voice sounded because, on the inside, I was terrified. I wouldn’t say I was claustrophobic, but I damn sure didn’t want to be locked in a room.

They didn’t seem to buy the authority of my tone either, snickering and completely ignoring my demands.

“What do you think, girls? I think she’ll enjoythislevel,” Cora remarked, and I could see her moving toward the panel of buttons on the wall through the window in the door.

What level? And I wasn’t hooked up to any goggles or equipment of any kind. How could a simulation possibly run?

Cora stepped back with a devilish grin on her face. “Have fun,” she said with a wave, and then the three girls skipped away, laughing their heads off.

When I got out of here, I was going to actually rip their damn heads off!

“Get back here and open this fucking door!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, but they were totally out of sight now, and surely out of earshot.

They actually left! How long was I going to be stuck here? It could be a full day before anyone came back into the gym. And even then, I might have a hard time getting someone’s attention.

Were they actually going to leave me in this empty room until then? I was hungry and thirsty, and just knowing the lengths of my captivity made my need to pee suddenly very urgent. No way was I going to pee in a corner.

The lights suddenly began to dim, and when I spun around to see what was happening, I might have leaked a little.

The white walls surrounding me pixelated until they were replaced by dark green shrubbery. Every inch of the room transformed like the wall was made up of millions of pixels. Tiny square by tiny square, the pixels flipped, the white floor becoming brush-covered earth beneath my feet, the ceiling turning into a star-spangled evening sky.

The boundaries of the boxy room in which I’d been standing only seconds ago were gone, and I was now stranded in the middle of a dark forest.

I panicked, my heart beating out of control and disorientation threatening my sanity. How could I really be seeing what I was seeing?

But then I remembered the purpose of this room.Simulation. Apparently, you didn’t need goggles to be in a sim.

I told myself that none of this was real. It was nothing more than a projection. Albeit, an incredibly realistic projection.

The smell of pine was crisp and potent, so strong I could actually taste it in the back of my mouth. The chirping song of crickets came from all directions, which was impressive because I definitely hadn’t seen any speakers before.

Despite how authentic the forest appeared, I had to still be in the room—which meant the walls and door were here somewhere. I just had to find them.

I was banging on the door just a second ago, so it had to be close by. I took a backward step behind me, in the direction I believed the door to be.

Dried leaves and pine thistles crunched under my shoes.Wow, this all seems so real.If I wasn’t so shocked—and furious—I’d probably be really impressed.

I turned and reached forward, blindly feeling for the doorknob that I knew had to be in that general area, but my hands touched nothing but air.

I took another step forward. And another. And another still.

By all logic, I should have bumped into the door by now. The room was only maybe ten feet by ten feet. I put both hands in front of me and walked forward, and when my hands made no contact with the wall, I broke into a run, dodging through the trees.

How was this possible? How could I be running in the same room and not have smacked into the wall yet? It made no sense!

Could I have somehow gotten turned around and run in the wrong direction? Even if I had, I’d run at least double thedistance of the width of the room. It wasn’t possible that I hadn’t found any of the room’s boundaries. Was the floor some kind of conveyor belt?

If that was the case, then I really was stuck. I refused to give in to that possibility.

I turned around and lifted my foot to sprint in the opposite direction, hoping that I had somehow been confused and the door was the other way, that this had to be some trick of the mind, an optical illusion.

My foot caught the back of my other ankle and I tripped, flying forward to the ground. My hands rushed forward to catch myself and met the leaf-littered floor.

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