Foster | Teen Ink

Foster

May 31, 2019
By maureen-mach, Cedarburg, Wisconsin
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maureen-mach, Cedarburg, Wisconsin
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Author's note:

This is based off of the maze runner.

The author's comments:

There are not anymore chapters so this is it. 

Stefan has seen how the world has supposably gotten better from when Chaos tried to help, by putting chips into people to control them. He believed that for a long time, that getting the chip was going to help people but when he looked at the kids who were tested on he feels bad. He put it to the side so he won't get in trouble.

“Stefan!” he turned around and it was Teresa, his best friend.

With a smile on his face he turned around, “Hey T.”

Teresa questioned him, “Why are you here? We have to do more testing.”

Stefan flinched when she said subjects, took out he was friends with some of the kids when he was younger like Nick and Effy.

The shorter girl noticed and threw a quick smile, “Sorry I… “ She fumbled around with her words, “Know that you care about some of them.”

He managed a quick smile, “It’s fine; so why are we doing more testing?”

Teresa shrugged, “I don’t know why but Cook said that we have to.”


Stefan was listening; as he continued to tug on his sleeves, he never knew why but when you work for Chaos you all seem to dress the same.  Teresa noticed that Stefan’s mind was on something else but she let him be. “You are Cook’s favorite anyway, maybe you'll get special treatment and all that jazz.”


Stefan and Teresa walked down the long hallways that were illuminated by white overhead lights, as they made their way down Teresa slipped her hand into Stefan’s. The younger one out of the two noticed but he let it happen.There was a turn coming up; Teresa was humming lightly as if she was trying to distract herself. Stefan never took note of it.Teresa all of sudden stopped, their hands came apart, he looked at her in confusion.

“Stefan you have to believe me when I say this ok, you have to believe me.”

Stefan was confused but he let her continue.

She hadn’t even given him a chance to ask what was wrong, “Everything is going to change.”

He didn’t understand what she meant; he looked at her, she seemed to have glossy eyes. Stefan wanted to ask what she meant, why would she mention this right before testing, was everyone going to be affected by this?


She grabbed his hand again,”Hey if we work with them, we won't be treated exactly the same. We have a goal and we need you, okay don't worry you will be fine.”  

She noticed that he seemed distressed.

Teresa noticed that Stefan wanted to know more but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him now, she would have to tell him later.

Stefan never felt afraid before in Chaos but now that everything is going to change according to Teresa, he doesn't know how to feel.  He braced himself and started running.


He heard Teresa call after him but he just ran faster. If you ask him, things can be a little bit better but if it changes for the worse, Stefan can’t bear to even think of that. He still wandered around letting his feet carry him and take him anywhere.


He wanted to know why  there was barely any color, why certain kids had roommates while the others didn’t. Stefan always wanted one. He was confused on where he was, the amber eyed teen came to a stop. He looked at the bottom of his feet where he saw that there was a fine line between the white illuminated area and the dark long hallway that gave him the chills. He really shouldn’t be doing this. It was already enough that he ran off, and now late for testing but getting caught in abandoned hallway is something else.  He looked back as if someone was going to come and tell him to stop. There was a bright blue light that lit up on a spot of the wall, Stefan walked slowly like if something was going to come and grab him by the leg. He looked at the walls of the hallway: they seemed smooth, he looked up at the ceiling; there was no sign of any sort of lighting.


He wondered if chaos was organizing his whole entire interaction with this dark hallway just to see how he reacted. The blue light was now shining more prominently; Stefan was now officially afraid.


He was building up the courage to touch it, to know why this wall was here. His hand trembled as it went forward, it was like he couldn’t get his eyes off of it. Stefan quickly brought his hand back to his chest never thinking  it was going to be cold; he scooted back while falling in the process. Click, clack. Stefan heard a gasp from the opposite end from the hall.

 

Cook was walking around wondering where Stefan went, when Teresa had suddenly arrived and breathlessly exclaimed, “I don't know where Stefan went.”

She paused to take a breath, “He started running because I told what.” she stopped  because she was about to rat herself out.”

Teresa looked down at the floor stuttering over her words “I-I don’t k-know Cook and now Im-m worried, because you know how curious he is.”

Cook breathed in “Teresa it's fine, we can find him by the chip.”

She looked at him with a mix of confusion and anger. “What are you talking about?” she stopped and her eyes widened. “he isn’t supposed to have the chip yet.”

All Cook did was smile, “We’ll find him, don't worry.”


Stefan looked at the end, there was a tall looking figure that looked at the wall and back at him. The figure came closer and closer, he noticed that it looked like a girl; it couldn’t be Teresa because she was shorter. The only person he thought it could be was Trina or maybe Effy if she had escaped, but he doubted the second option.

With fear in his voice Stefan yelled, “Trina, is that you?” Trina was the head scientist at chaos, the orchestrator of this whole thing, you could say.

He couldn’t see her but he felt that forced smile, “Yes, Stefan it's me, now why are you over here?”
Stefan got up from his spot, “I was going to Cooks and I started running and I got lost.”

She made a motion with her hand to the wall “So, you figured out what this is ?” he shook his head.


“Why is this here?” he questioned “Why in this dark hallway?

Trina's face was illuminated by the blue light of the wall, “There is a lot that you don’t know Stefan.”


The doctors looked around the screens, watching what some were creating in the kids mind, one of them tapped away on a keyboard. “He has to react to this different than everyone else, right?”

 

All the special treatment was because he was too valuable to lose. The chip didn’t affect him nearly as greatly as some other kids; the scientists needed to know what he has that others don’t. Now Stefan was more scared than anything. He looked at the wall and closed his eyes imagining who wrote on the wall, he opened his eyes and there they were their faces looking haunted. Some with smiles, other with mouths open as if they were taken over, he looked near his name and there was no face.


Trina coughed into her sleeve signifying that he should leave; he got up. She nodded still ahead of him and without turning around She mentioned, “You are supposed to meet up with Cook, now come on it's time you get there.


Stefan began to run out of the dark hallway. As he was getting closer to the more familiar hallways he looked down and found the line of contrast. The teen looked back and the whispers and blue stopped. Even Trina wasn’t there anymore. He thought that it was odd but he kept going; he couldn’t keep Cook and Teresa waiting.


Stefan busted through the doors of the laboratory that was long with one white wall and then all the other three are a clear blue.With tables full of computers,papers, tvs for being able to look at the subjects and tables with chairs.

“I’m sorry Cook, I got lost but Trina knew where I was.”

Cook turned around, “Don’t worry Stefan it happens to all of us.”

Teresa walked over and quickly hugged him and whispered, “I was actually scared for you.”

Stefan noticed that Cook seemed oddly calmed today, he asked, “So what are we doing today?”

Cook without looking up told Stefan, “You and Teresa will be doing some testing and then we will be preparing you guys to be sent in with the subjects.”

 

The two teens nodded in agreement.

Teresa spoke up, “What type of testing are we doing?”

Cook looked up from his computer that was full of the color blue “Just the typical type, no need to ask.”


Teresa snuck a glance at Stefan and made her eyebrows go up, he did the same back.

Cook went on, “It will be the typical procedure so nothing new to be worried about and Trina will be observing as well, so best behavior.”


They both nodded but Stefan wasn’t interested in what the testing was going to be like; he needed to know why they had to be sent in, what were they going to do that was useful for research. Because Teresa and him are the only two kids left, every single other one has been sent into Foster.


“Teresa you are going first, I just need to have a chat with Stefan here and I will come in later.” Teresa nodded and walked towards the door that had a gold plate with the words: “TESTING ROOM”

Cook watched as Teresa closed the door; he quickly looked back at Stefan, he noticed that the teen looked nervous, “what are you nervous about” he stopped for a second and mumbled, “Not like you are going to die anyway.”

Stefan twisted his head and put on a face that had the same resemblance as a confused puppy, “What you say?”

Cook rolled his eyes putting his hand on Stefans shoulders, “You are a survivor.”

Stefan looked at Cooks eyes they seemed pitch black, “You give me weird vibes you know, I might even tell Trina.”

Cook eyes widened, “We wouldn’t want that.”

Stefan crossed his arms feeling like a toddler, “No we wouldn’t.”

Cook smiled, “Go sit on the couch, you are lucky that Trina's here.”


Stefan walked over to the couch that had a small round clear table, he stood straight staring at the book that was there. “Why is getting the chip a good choice” When he no longer heard Cooks, footsteps and the click signifying that the door had closed; he threw himself backwards into the couch and picked up the book. Stefan was glad that he didn’t have the chip yet, but he felt bad for the kids who had to wait for it to be activated or maybe it already was and they didn’t know.

He remembers when they were deciding who to put in foster. All the doctors had to run tests on kids. There was a kid named Devin that was younger than him. He apparently said some things that Chaos wasn’t too pleased by, they put him on the gurney with old stains that were red but turned brown; he was screaming and crying the whole way down to the room where they put the sick. When Stefan heard Devin he ran out, trying to convince the guards that his test was wrong, that they had used a dirty needle. He remembered pulling on the guards arms trying to get them to stop pushing him down the white hallway, he remembers screaming for the kid and crying. The guard then grabbed his arm and threw him back. He hit the wall hard, his crying became more prominent because he heard Devin scream his name down the hallway. If anyone had seen him down the hallway,it would have been him sitting with his knees to his chest with tears on his cheeks, staring at the floor as if that would bring back Devin. Stefan wasn’t even friends with him in the first place, he didn’t even know him up until now and there he was blubbering about a kid. He for some reason can't remember what happened afterwards, everything is blurry and white. Stefan swears that Trina had done something to him, so he wouldn’t see chaos in a bad limelight; for all he knows she could have erased his memory.


 

He shook his head at the memory of Devin going with the others; he doesn't want to think about that at the moment. Stefan was skimming the book, his eyes went to the part where it said “once you get the chip, your life will be better.” Stefan didn’t want the chip, Teresa did and he has no clue why. The kids who have their chips describe them   as a burning sensation in their neck, and when the decisions are made for them; they feel like they are screaming but no sounds come out. That freaked Stefan out, all the subjects already had their chips but they won’t become active until they are 18.

He heard the door click open;  Teresa came out of the door. He stood up automatically, rushing to her, with question in his voice he asked, “T, are you ok? Did they do something to you?”

She looked at him in the eyes, he stared back into her icy blue ones, “Take your chance if you see it.”

He heard the door creek open, Cook yelled his name, “Stefan come on it's your turn, leave her alone!”

Stefan looked at her nodding and left to go into the testing room.

He heard her murmur, “Its ok, you'll be fine.” Teresa ran her hand up his arm and looked up to him eyes watery and all.


Stefan walked into the room it was clear blue, test tubes,blood samples, binders and a gurney; there was also a treadmill before anyone could close the door Teresa sat with her knees to her chest. He stared at her and saw something move, it was Cook.


“You're  testing now, so come on.”

Stefan shook his head, “You guys did something to her, what happened?”

Cook rolled his eyes, “Teresa is just making a scene, you know her she's melodramatic.”

Stefan rolled his eyes mimicking the second in command “Will you know, her gee she's melodramatic.”

Cook pushed Stefan, “Go do your testing with Trina you brat.”

Stefan looked back at the older man, “Rude.”


Cook smiled and was out the room, Stefan turned around in the white waiting room that was small before walking over to the larger room, that had “PROPERTY OF CHAOS” labeled on near the bottom of the iron door. The door opened with squeak and in the room there was Trina standing with a clipboard with a smile.

 

Trina was looking at the computer screens around her, peering at what her fellew co-workers were creating in Stefan’s mind. She had to voice something that was bothering her,“Why bring Devin up , I made sure that he wouldn't remember that.”

A doctor clammed up noticing her tone stumbling over their own words, “The chip has to be able to not hurt people when in stressful situations, this is simply just testing it out but with memories instead.”

All she managed to do was to shake her head, “Fine but alert me when you guys are done okay because I have to go check on the other kids.”

“Okay boss.”


Trina walked out of the room, her heels clicking on the floor. She almost felt pity for Stefan. She knew how he doesn't want people to have the chip but it is what the world needs to survive.



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