I hit the send button on the cell phone. As I breathed in the fumes, things get hazier and hazier. Only one thing is still clear: the fact that Mother and Father better believe me, and tell the whole world about the video I sent them. I hope it gets through, I hope they answer it, and most of all, I hope they believe me.
      Eco Friendly, a company that has taken over our minds, country, planet, and school. The crap they sell there may be saving the environment, but it’s killing off us. I’m Test Subject Thirteen, and this is my story.
      The billboards with smiling faces read: Eco Friendly, saving the Earth one step at a time! Eco Friendly was on every poster, billboard, and channel advertising C1020s, or telling you how to save energy at home. The company was owned the government. It was mandatory to have most of their products, and everyone was in poverty because of the expense. The real issues aren’t the smiling faces splashed on everything, the products you had to buy, or even the fact that they practically owned the corrupted government. It was what was inside the products, and how they are made. If you are watching this video this means you can really trust people, no matter how blind they are to real life. My name is Test Subject Thirteen, and I’m here to tell you, those thirteen missing, have been found and I’m one of the last ones still alive. This isn’t just my story, this is our story.
      Laughing, I remember laughing. What were we laughing at? Then again, it doesn’t matter. The fine details don’t matter when you’re in a situation like this. It’s a memory, the only good one I have too. What I do know about it: I was with my parents. That’s the important bit. It proves I have parents, and have a life that I could escape back to. This fact gives me drive, motive, a good rock solid reason to escape. I’ve been conscious in this room for about an hour. How long I’ve been unconscious? No flipping clue. I know nothing, except for that I had a life, and I want it back.
      In my uncomfortable cot and uncomfortable clothing I sat and stared at the wall for what seemed like forever. Then the door creaked open. And a hard looking woman stepped in the room. She wore a lab coat with the Eco Friendly logo on it.
      “Your food.” she says, gesturing to the tray she set down on my little nightstand. “The tests will begin when you finish. Hurry up.” The lady leaves, the door creaking shut behind her. I don’t like the sound of tests, because it’s one thing to wake up in a dark, dumpy room with bad lighting, but it’s another to wake up in a creepy room and hear that you are about to be tested on. It’s not like she was even nice about either. I go over to the food, and it’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like a gray blob and it jiggles when you shake the tray. Then I start to remember something. Once I remember a company called Eco Friendly started selling junk like this. They called it “Fit Food”, and it was supposed to keep you healthy. It had tasted nasty. Just in case, I took the tray, and dumped its contents into the toilet in the corner of the room. The women came back in and roughly grabbed me.
      “Time for your tests.” then she lowered her voice, “I’ll give you a parcel containing things to help you escape.  Don’t talk to anyone about it, except for subjects one through twelve. You are Test Subject Thirteen, and your life is about to get a whole lot worse.” She then left me in a room with a doctor.
      “Test Subject Thirteen, please hold that square object on the table there.” I reached out for it then he stopped me. “Wait a second, I need a blood sample so I can compare.” I felt a sting of a needle in the back of my neck as she drew blood. “You may proceed.” When I grabbed it pain shot through me and red welts started forming all the way up my arm. As this was happening, the doctor was sticking needles in me and writing things down. I was about to scream from all the pain, when the welts started exploding. “Don’t put it down.” he said in a sharp assertive voice.
      “Agggghhhhhhhh!” I screamed in pain. The goo that came out of the welts was like acid, melting my flesh.
      “Put the object down.”
      “Gladly.” I set back down that evil little square. Then the scientist put on thick, elbow high gloves and started washing my arm. He then slathered it with a green goop.
      “Now pick it up with this.” I realized I had no choice but to follow his instructions. For several hours it went on like this. I kept picking up the object with different materials while all sorts of things varying in pain happened. This process repeated itself until picking it up on a thin sheet of glass did nothing. “We can use it to power the new even more energy efficient CF1020s!”
      “All that was to make a better light bulb?!” I couldn’t believe it. Especially looking at my arm, which was red and the flesh melted in places. I went through all that pain so we could be the slightest bit more efficient. I was so mad, I wanted to hit something, but I didn’t.
      “No, it was to save the Earth. Now Melony will take you to the group cell while I report my findings.” 
      A different lady then the one before took me through the white hallways to a room with twelve other children eating lunch. She threw me in roughly and locked the door. I couldn’t help thinking of the excellent manners these people had. I rolled my eyes.
      “We saved you some lunch, and it’s much better than breakfast.” said a petite girl with wispy silver hair.
      “We were kind of forced to.” a dark haired boy in the corner grumbled.
      “Shut up, Lev.” the little girl snapped.
      The dark haired boy stood up. “So you’re the final lab rat, I’m Lev, Miss Angel over here is Quicksilver, this is Cyanide, Chlorine, Lead, and last but not least, Sulfur.”
      “There are only seven out of thirteen left. In case you haven’t noticed, we named ourselves after things that remind us of this place. So naturally things, that hurt you suited, though there’s Lev for eleven. As Lev said, I’m Quicksilver, pleased took make your acquaintance.” the tiny, pale girl whispered.
      “Nice to meet you as well.” I said, observing everyone. They all looked like they had been through the torture as well. Each had a gaunt face and hollow eyes, and their arms and legs were covered in scars. I thought about the exploding welts, and wondered if they would leave scars like that. “By the way, I’m Acid.” I stated, thrusting out my chin bravely. Lead nodded his head approvingly.
      “We’re the Test Subjects, and Cyanide is our leader, and if you were here earlier you would have had some say in the matter, but it’s too late now. Cyanide will give you a briefing of what we’ve be discussing. Remember to talk in low voices and don’t make it look like your talking. Pretend eat. I’m our vice president, Lead. However, I’m not quite as polite as certain people with silver hair who are a big kiss ups.” this came from a muscular, authorative looking boy. He was still strong looking, despite damage from the tests.
      “I’m not a kiss up, I just like proper introductions.” sniffed Quicksilver.
      Cyanide ran her hand through short bubblegum pink hair. “Shall we begin now? So far we have discussed our pasts. We learned that we have all lost are memories, except for fragments that come back sometimes. I’ve deduced that we’ve all been drugged up so we can’t remember, because that would assist us in escape. We’ve also decided that we need to escape in order to survive. You have anything you’d like to contribute?” I remembered my strange conversation earlier. The lady never gave me anything. Unless… I reached in to my pocket and felt a package in there. Of course, she secretly slipped it in!
      “Actually, I do have something to contribute. A lady gave something to me. We might have an ally, but I think she might’ve been caught.” I put the parcel on the table, remembering how someone different had escorted me here.
      “Well, open it.” Cyanide commanded. I carefully unwrapped the crackly paper from the parcel. Inside were assorted documents, including an explanation of why we had been caught, a chart showing which foods contained drugs to suppress our memories and when they were given to us. There was also a cell phone. After thoroughly examining the contents, everyone pushed away the bowls of ice cream that the run-down servant drone had just served.
      “Why is the good food always drugged?” Lev whined.
      “Because that’s the food they know you’ll eat. Plain and simple.” Cyanide pointed out.
      “The pres. is right.” said Lead nodding in agreement.
      “Well, according to this information, Eco Friendly’s products all contain dangerous substances and are human tested. We don’t just need to escape, we need to stop this!” I pounded my fist on the table for emphasis.
      “Subjects Three and Thirteen, it is testing time.” Chlorine and I left the table, leaving the information behind with the others. I gave a wink and Quicksilver caught on, hiding the information beneath the table. Quicksilver is the only one I trust, but I know I’ll have to trust them all.
      On the way to the testing room, we learned that the doctor leading us was named Corrie. He kept going on and on about what they were about to test on us. “It’s an alternative energy source! In theory heating, caused by contact with air, will evaporate the new substance we created called Nelonphonema. Or Nelon for short. Then the gas spins these turbines, because it travels like wind! We don’t know whether or if it’s safe, so you’re going to have to check it out for us.” By that he meant they were going to stick us in a turbine room and try to generate energy without killing us. Corrie walked us into the turbine rooms. “We’ll be watching from the security room. We put cameras in here so we could.” He left.
      The gas soon started up, and Chlorine began choking right away. I held my breath and put my shirt to my face. There was no way I was going to make it if we weren’t let out soon. As the gas filled my lungs I stopped coughing, and a little voice in my head asked me why I breathed. That voice was right. Breathing’s overrated. So I went to play with the candy whale sitting in the corner. He was nice. Chlorine came over and played with the candy whale as well. Thump. Her body hit the floor. What kind of game was that? I wanted to play too! Then I blacked out.
      I woke up in my cot with a doctor checking me over. “The gas didn’t cause any permanent damage, it seems, so you can go back in a couple of days to see if you’ve built up a resistance against the Nelon gas. For now you should stick to simpler tasks, such as what you did before lunch yesterday. The tests will begin and after lunch. Luckily, you only lost twelve hours.” After her analysis, the doctor packed up and left. 
      I laughed crazily while I was escorted to lunch. It was hilarious how the doctor thought I was lucky to go back to tests. When my escort looked at me and then asked the doctor, “Are you sure there’s no permanent damage?” I laughed even harder.
      The lunch room was missing two. “Where are Lead and Chlorine?” I asked.
      “Just because it saves energy, doesn’t mean it’s safe.” answered Cyanide. “I think this has gone on long enough. Eco Friendly has been kidnapping children and testing on them forever. We can’t just save ourselves, we need to save everyone. Those free children, and the people buying the products. They still put that dangerous stuff in, they just mask it for consumers. If something broke, and people tried to pick it up, they’d get seriously hurt. I say in the name of Lead and Chlorine, if we can’t save ourselves, we must save the world. We couldn’t escape, but if we created a diversion, then someone could download the security footage on the phone. We could record a narration on the phone the night before, and send them together before they gas us to death.”
      “What if we die in the process?” Lev asked.
      “We’d die escaping Lev, it’s better to die saving others then to die running.”
      “Here’s the phone. I kept it safe last night, but it’s yours, Acid.”
      “Thanks, Quicksilver. Now, who will create the diversion?”
      “I like breaking things.” Responded Lev.
      “I’m not just called quicksilver because it’s a mythical poison, I’m a pretty fast runner as well.”
      “Since it’s my phone, I’d like to do the narration. I also want to down load the security footage. Will the president honor me by coming along as well?”
      “I sure that would be better, and Mercury, you tag along.” Mercury was the kind of girl you didn’t notice. She always sat in the back of the room absorbing everything without a sound. She bobbed her head in agreement. “After lunch, mission is a go, so make that narration, we have twenty minutes left, Acid.”
      “Got it.” I sat in the corner for the next twenty minutes, pouring out my soul to the little contraption. Telling it about how horrible everything is and what they should do about it.
      “Testing, testing.” It always amazes me how happy scientists sound about hurting kids. “Okay, we are all testing some radio activity of objects together, sounds fun right?” I personally was thinking convenient.
      “If kids getting radiation poisoning is your idea of fun then your twisted man. And no, I don’t want to here you enthusiastically describe your reason for killing me.” The scientist stood there, dumbstruck. The motioned for everyone to follow him. In the room we had more objects to pick up. This is my favorite. When it was time to pick the stuff up the diversion makers starting breaking things and throwing things. While the doctors and scientists scrambled around dodging the items and calling security, my group slipped out.
      We crept through the halls and got to the security room. Every thing was easy. Too easy. I downloaded the tape and composed the message and then gas started to fill the room. 
      “Time to test!” said a crazy voice. That was why it was so easy, they wanted to test Nelon gas on us again. I hit the send button. This time the Nelon gas had me corned. I slumped to the floor, hoping that I was the last child that would ever need to go through this. I slumped to the floor vision so bleary, and hallucinations were soon to follow. At least I would having fun. But one question was still in my mind: is saving the world worth it, if no one is left to enjoy it?
Eco Friendly
Grades 6-8
1