How her story starts off

I know I should be looking for Celia. But this journal has answers that to the questions I need. It's a diary, Lu's Mother's diary, and it starts off with her first pregnancy, the child before Lu.

    The dates are smudged, and I struggle to read her swirling letters, as she wrote in an old font that no longer exists.

      Cursive, I believe the word was.

      I traced the words with my fingers, trying to get them in the correct order, sounding out each letter until the proper word fits.

    Lu's Mother, Astra, was pregnant before Lu had been thought of. An older sister name Leah. She had been overjoyed, her husband even more so.

    The talk about the Tests putting a strain on the marriage. Astra's husband was harsh, forcing Leah to go through rigorous training by the time she was ten years old. She had tried to get him to calm down, but it was moot point; her husband was determined to make Leah into a perfect soldier by the time her 13th birthday came around.

    Not only that, but Astra was trying to get a job as one of the workers in that assisted with the Tests. She had a hunch that something wasn't right when her twin brother had been failed in his testing back when they had been children.

    I set the book to the side, frowning. There was so much going on right now, but what I gathered was; Astra lost her brother, never really setting her trust in the System.

    The crazy part of her story was that she was still willing to start a family with her supposed husband and use her kid as a guinea pig. I didn't know if she was smart for that or just plain crazy.

    It dawned on me that if Astra was still working as part of the Testing process, she could help me track Celia, and break her out.

    Getting up, I ran out from my room, going to search for Lu.

    "No." Lu said, as she grabbed a bread roll from the dinner table, and stuffed half of it in her mouth. Since giving the credits to Val, the leader of this hide-out, there were more supplies, and thankfully more food.

    Lu crossed her arms, as she made to walk away from me, but I walked in front of her to stop her. The gangly girl didn't know what to make of me, since I was taller than her, and had more muscle than her.

    Yet she didn't look scared per se. More like she was annoyed, rolling her eyes at me.

    "I wouldn't do that if I were you." she warned, hands on her hips. "There's a reason why I made it out here for so long."

    "I was part of the program too." I retorted, anger settling in the pit of my stomach.

    "Yes but they stole samples of you. They didn't train you like they did to me." she replied, as she kicked the feet out from under me, and twisted my arm so a popping noise was heard.

      I let out a startled cry, spots dancing in my vision, and tried not to move so much. She sneered at me, expertly sliding the bone back in place. "See? I barely did anything to you." she said, taking a step back as I cradled my arm, and moved to and fro.

      She was a  speed demon for sure, and through the hurt and confusion, I was in awe that someone half my size had the capabilities to throw me around so easily.

    "My trainer told me all the time that the ones that are the smallest are the most dangerous. If your opponent is smart, they won't get cocky, and try to finish you off because you have a small form." her eyes flicked to mine. "Lucky for me, 99.9 percent of my opponents make that same mistake."

    I tried to play it off and not show that the quick takedown she did on me didn't bother me as much but I couldn't downplay the angry blush that appeared on my face and neck. She gave a peace sign and left.

    Annoyed, I began to try to implement scouts into the system, appearing on their side like small glitches. They would probably last me a week, two weeks if the person that was monitoring the Online wasn't paying as much attention.

    It truly pained me that Celia was still in there, somewhere, possibly getting her head opened and studied. The thought of that happening made me queasy, and I sat back in the chair, covering my face.

    All I had wanted to do was survive outside and away from the System, and from the looks of it I was probably going to have to go back in there and track her down myself.

    I scrubbed my face, trying not to dwell on it as much, and rubbed the scar that was on my knee.

    They had done surgeries on me without pain medicine, to see "how high of a pain tolerance I had." I just thought it was a way that they could control me again.

    They always made sure I was aware that any time, any day, they could inflict pain on me, especially if I didn't behave.

      I sighed as I cracked open Astra's journal once more, trying to see if she had managed to find something that could sneak me back into the System, or something that could possibly damage it down to the point where everyone could be freed.

    I didn't have luck with that but she manage to discover parts of the System where it was weak, it was possible to break through the firewalls. I got up from the seat, heading over to the secret lab that was kept at a distance from the others.

    Luckily I had access because I was able to hack into the wealthiest people that lived in the System and steal credits to help us stay alive. It was a lot for us, but not enough for the rich to notice it was missing.