The Experiment by Cassidy Shay (top non fiction books of all time TXT) 📕

remembered that you’re pregnant. And decided against it.” I laugh and pat my belly.
“Yeah, that does sound difficult. I don’t know how much time we’ll have, though.” We talk some more about what the trip will be like, and then Marc has to report for his shift. I stay at the window, looking over the city. It’s only a couple miles away, so everything is close up. I can even see the cars on the roads.
I walk back to the apartment to wait for the Warden. I wait for about an hour before I hear a knock on the door. I open it and the Warden comes in and sits at the table.
“I have decided to allow you to take this trip to the city, and to take Marc with you. You will have a bracelet attached to your wrist, with a tracking device. Marc will also have one on his wrist. If you two are separated from him for too long, or there is too much distance between you two, you will be brought back immediately.”
He looks around the room. “Every hour, you must both check in with me. And I know that you’ll probably want to go shopping or something, so I’ll give you some money out of the Academy account.” He laughs. “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do that, but I figure there’s millions of dollars in there. Taking out a couple hundred won’t hurt anything.”
“Thank you,” I say.”
He just nods. “You may leave tomorrow morning. Marc will drive the car to the city. You can leave at eight in the morning, but you must be back by 8:00 PM the next day.” I nod. “Both of you will be in my office by 7:45 tomorrow morning so we can put the bracelets on.” And then he leaves.
The next morning, I give Belle an extra-long hug before I leave. “I love you, baby.” Marc and I meet at the window and go down the stairs together. When we’re walking through the doorway, my smile disappears.
Clay is in the middle of the Warden’s office, holding the bracelets. This ought to be fun.

He has an evil smile on his face as he twirls the bracelets between his fingers. “Hello, Meagan.”
“Clay.” I stare at him, eyes narrowed. “How are you planning on ruining my day today?”
He grabs my left wrist and pulls it to him, then snaps the bracelet on. It’s black, and small enough so that it won’t attract any extra attention. For its size, it’s very heavy. There’s a small button, which Clay presses.
“Now you can’t take this off unless I insert this key and punch in a password on my remote.” He smiles. “Oh, and I forgot that there’s another password, but the device only recognizes my voice. Cool, right?” It’s too small for me to simply slip off my wrist. For such short notice, they really thought this all through. “It’s water proof. Sticking your and in water will send an electrical shock through your body.”
He starts to put one on Marc. It looks like the one that he wears every day, the same one that’s given to all Vipero, except that this one is much more secure. There’s no chance of getting his off, either. I look at Marc and shrug. I wasn’t planning on running anyway. I have a daughter here.
“Marc must check in at least once every hour. There is a video camera on his bracelet. We must see both of your faces. If an hour and a half goes by without reporting to us, we will be forced to interfere.”
He’s done with Marc’s watch. Now he just stands with his hands clasped behind his back. “If you are, at any time, more than one hundred yards from each other, we will interfere. If we suspect any fishy business, we will be forced to interfere. If you are in any shady locations, we will be forced to interfere.” He pauses. He wants me to ask what it means when he says that he will interfere. I know that he’ll tell me, though, so I don’t ask. After a few seconds of silence, he tells us.
“In the months that you have been pregnant, we have been improving the technology that you used to witness every day.” I wince. This can’t be good.

“We have developed the technology to control your brain’s signals from a long distance.
“If we are forced to interfere, a pulse will emanate from the bracelets, and it will paralyze you. And we will have control of what your brain thinks is happening to you.” He smiles and steps forward, twists the end of my nose. “Have a great time.”
When he’s gone, the Warden doesn’t say anything. He leads us through the halls until we get to a small room. We enter, and I remember my first day. There is a big bin, where you dump all personal belongings upon your arrival to this fine establishment. There is a curtain in the corner, so that you can change into your jumpsuit in privacy.
On the opposite side of the room, there is a door. I’ve been through that door once before, when I was five. And now, I’m going back out. Freedom is so close, I can taste it, hear it, feel and smell it. Now I just need to see it.
Outside the door is a small hallway. A Vipero sits on a chair. He stands when he sees us, but as usual, the man is silent. There is a jumpsuit folded in his hand, the smallest size that the Academy holds. He is waiting for a new Azulate to come to the Academy.
There is one more door before we find freedom. There is a code that the Warden has to punch in, and then there is a loud click as the door is unlocked. He opens the door, and a cold wind blows in.
Marc and I step out, and we are momentarily blinded. Although the inside of the Academy is well-lit, it’s nothing compared to the sun. The air is cold, but the sun provides a type of warmth that I thought I would never feel again.
There is a black car parked in front of the building. The Warden hands Marc the key. Marc opens the door for me, and then walks around to the other side. I still haven’t moved. “Are you coming?” I just look around me. I never thought that this would happen.
Marc walks over to me and gently grabs my elbow. “Come on, Meagan. We only have thirty six hours. I want you to have fun.” He guides me to the car, still holding my elbow.
It only takes a couple minutes to get to the city. The scenery consists of hills and desert. I have my face sticking out the open window, watching everything flash by. Marc glances over at me and laughs.
“Hey,” I say, defending myself. “If you hadn’t seen the outdoors in almost nineteen years, you’d be doing the same thing.”
“But you have the windows. They have two of them on Floor Six now. And you have the Memories. You’ve seen it plenty of times.” He is only teasing me, but I shake my head as we enter the city.
“It’s not the same.”
The city is much different from the city in the Memories. Centuries, and a rise in population, have demanded change from what used to be a small town. Every building is a skyscraper, most with at least fifty floors.
They hadn’t wanted to extend the city outward into the desert, so they just expanded up.
We drive through the streets, around old buildings. It only takes a few minutes for us to reach our destination. The houses in the residential section of the city are mostly alike, with small differences.
We make several turns, and then he slows down and pulls into a driveway. “This is my house.” He looks at my jumpsuit. “I thoughts we could come here first so that you could get some different clothes.” He takes the key out of the ignition and opens the door. “Annabel still has her maternity clothes from when she was pregnant.” He takes keys out of his pocket and unlocks the door. When we go inside, he yells out, “Annabel!” I hear a pot crash to the floor, and a high-pitched squeal flows through the house.
We head into the kitchen, which is just off to the side. He steps into the doorway and is knocked back into me by a small female body. She wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
She kisses him, and then pulls back for a minute. “Why are you here? You were just here a couple weeks ago. Oh, never mind. I don’t care.” She kisses him again.
I don’t know what to do. I stand there awkwardly, one hand on my lower back, the other on my stomach. After a couple seconds, Marc remembers me and starts resisting her kisses.
He unwraps her from him and then turns to me, an arm around Annabel’s shoulders. “Honey, this is Meagan. Meagan, this is the love of my life, Annabel.” She steps forward to hug me.
“Wow. When Marc came home a couple weeks ago, he said that you were pregnant. But not this pregnant. I mean… Wow.” I just smile and nod.
She’s the same height as me, which makes her much smaller than Marc. Seeing them side by side is almost comical. She has shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. If I were not pregnant, we would probably wear the same size clothes.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” I say. “Marc has talked a lot about you. You should have seen him the week before he got his vacation. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut about you.”
She steps back and fits herself into Marc’s side, the last piece that completes a puzzle. His arm instinctively goes around her shoulders.
“I was just making eggs for breakfast.” She leads us into the kitchen. “But then you guys showed up and… well, I kinda made a mess.” There is an upside down frying pan and a half-cooked egg on the floor.
“We haven’t eaten yet, either. Why don’t we get Meagan some new clothes and then go out? I don’t think she’s ever had waffles before.”
Annabel instructs him to clean the egg off the floor and tells me to follow her to her bedroom. She digs in her closet and pulls out a big box.
“This is all my maternity stuff from my last pregnancy. I’ve been keeping it in case I get pregnant again.” She starts digging through the box and pulls out a shirt and a pair of jeans. “What do you think of these?”
It’s a purple top, with a pretty design on it. The jeans are dark blue with lots of stuff on the back pockets.
“I love them,” I say. She goes back to the closet to find some shoes, and I start undressing. When I the outfit on, I turn around and look in the mirror. The clothes fit well, and the way that the shirt falls over my stomach makes it seem smaller than it really is. The shoes match the shirt, and Annabel hands me a white sweater to keep me warm.
Marc comes in to ask if we’re ready. Annabel grabs a sweatshirt and we leave the room. “I’ll be right out,” he tells us. I’m gonna just change into some regular clothes.” While we’re waiting, Annabel takes me on a tour of the house.
She shows me the living room and dining room, and then takes me