Page 4 of Seeded By Two

The silence that answered seemed somehow even deeper this time.

I flushed a more vivid shade of red and gnawed at my bottom lip.

The Assistant raised her finger to her ear once more and nodded along to whatever it was she was listening to.

Her eyes flashed in my direction for an instant before she turned her head to one side and mumbled:

“Are you sure? We have many other finer females and—”

Yes, I thought. Many finer females.

Most of those lined up behind me, safely tucked away in the back row, were athletically built, with strong powerful muscles that looked capable of breaking multiple human Olympic medals without breaking a sweat.

Whereas me…

Well, I was just me.

“Understood,” the Assistant said, straightening up.

She locked eyes on number five and, for a moment, I thought I had been spared whatever outcome was meant to happen from this thing that was happening and said:

“Number five. Please step back.”

Number five’s smile faltered.

She peered at the Assistant and frowned as if she’d misspoken and there was some mistake.

The Assistant only shrugged her shoulders.

As number five stepped back into line, she shared confused expressions with the other females who muttered under their breath before glancing in my direction accusingly.

Don’t look at me that way! I wanted to say, shrugging my shoulders. I had no part in this — whatever this is!

“Number eight,” the Assistant said, drawing up to me. “Please follow me.”

She turned without waiting and marched toward the door.

I just stared, slack-jawed, and wondered if I had just broken all the records in being the very first female to have been rejected by a Seeding Facility!

The Assistant had reached the door before I had even taken a single step toward her.

I looked back amongst the other females and Assistants, imploring them pitifully for someone to stand up, to step forward, to say something, to do something, to get me out of whatever mess I’d ended up in.

When no one said a word, and instead only seemed to glare at me harder without pity, I hung my head and approached the door where the Assistant stood waiting for me.

The instant I stepped through it, the door slammed shut behind me, cutting short the hushed whispers of the remaining females still standing in line inside the Claiming Room.

It was high school all over again.

Last to be chosen, first to be rejected.

And to think I had actually thought my life might change for the better in this place.

“This way, please,” the Assistant said.

I missed a step when I heard what I had expected all along:

The howling screams of baying monsters.

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