After a small session of white noise rang in my right ear for some time and faded, I shifted on a cold surface. I opened my eyes to see metal walls in front of me and not much else. I groaned and pushed myself upright, rubbing my head tenderly. The back of it was throbbing continuously.

“Did they hurt you?”

I jumped and looked to my right. Kris was sitting on an adjacent bench glancing at me with his head lowered and his arms resting on his upper legs. His face was covered in small proportions of dirt and his hair looked messy.

“Kris…” I stared at him as my heart calmed down.

He sighed and moved his gaze to the ground. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised to be here. This was bound to happen eventually…I guess I was just too hopeful for other options.”

“We…we can’t lose hope!”

“We’re in a government holding room, Jill. They’ve already tried to get me to confess that I’m crazy and that Tao is an alien. Every time I didn’t confess, they beat me.”

My heart sank to my feet and I couldn’t respond.

“Only God knows what they’re doing to Tao…” Kris closed his eyes tightly and pressed his hands to his face.

The silence that followed stabbed at my sanity and I had to stand up and walked around a little. “We can’t lose hope now…there just has to be another way!” I turned to Kris.

“What, Jill? What other options do we have now?” Kris stared at her hard. “We’re in the belly of the beast now. These people will do everything they can to prove that we’re insane and probably put Tao away somewhere where he can’t ever see the light of day again!”

“If we could just talk to them…”

Kris sighed and rubbed his face again. “You’re so naïve.”

I glared. “I may be naïve, but at least I have hope! I care about Tao and I want to get him out of this situation! Don’t you want to do the same?”

“Of course I do!! I’ve been trying to protect him ever since we met in high school!”

“So just because we’re in the government’s holding room doesn’t mean your efforts have all been wasted. We didn’t lose yet!”

Kris stared at her for several seconds, then shook his head and turned his gaze back to the floor.

Jill sighed huffily and walked toward the metal door with a tinted window near the top.

“Hello?” Jill knocked on the door multiple times. “I want to talk to someone!”

After several seconds, a lock clicked open and the tinted window slide to the side, revealing a pair of eyes looking back at her.

“What do you want?” The person asked gruffly. I guessed he was a security guard.

“I want to see him. The panda.” Jill said adamantly.

“Not gonna happen.” The guard answered immediately.

“Why not? You think he’s gonna infect me with a deadly disease? He’s not dangerous! He’s my friend and I want to talk to him!”

The security guard chuckled. “Not dangerous, huh? So you consider attacking a member of our staff, almost killing one of our scientists, and almost stabbing our president with a glass shard is not considered dangerous?”

“Well maybe if you treated him like an actual human being and not a test subject—“ The tinted glass swung closed, making me back away in surprise. “Hey!” I banged on the door some more.

“Stop banging on the door or else I’ll bring out the Tasers!” The guard shouted.

“You have to let me talk to him!”

“No one is allowed to talk to him!”

“I’m different!”

“Yes I’m sure you are.” Footsteps faded away from the door.

“No, come back! Hey!!” I crashed my fists against the door until they hurt.

“You see?” Kris said quietly. “This is the end…for all of us.”

Tears came to my eyes but I violently forced them down. “No...I refuse to accept this situation!” I continued to bang on the door. “Come Taser me then! I don’t care! If it’ll get me talking to your president I’ll do it forever!”

Kris stared at me exasperatedly. “Jill, what are you doing—“

Suddenly the door swung open and my side was hit with a dose of unbearable pain. My entire body shook violently for several seconds and then all of my senses shut off in an instant.