Liev strained with all his might. It wasn’t a muscular effort, but a mental one. Regardless, he was sweating already from the effort. Slowly, as though he were pushing his way through a dense crowd, he lifted off the ground by a few inches.

“And he’s up,” one of the scientists in the room remarked as a timer started counting how long Liev could maintain his levitation.

Liev grunted as he felt himself begin to dip back down but he managed to stay aloft.

“You’re losing altitude,” the scientist said. “Barely an inch above ground.”

He chanced a glance over to the timer and was pleased to see he was nearing his personal best of fifteen seconds. All he wanted was to beat that record and then he could rest. It was such a strange sensation, floating there, feeling the strange energy within him pulsating, draining away with every second.

“Half and inch,” the scientist announced.

“Shut up,” Liev snapped with a final push that brought him back up just long enough to breach his fifteen second record.

As soon as the clock ticked over to sixteen seconds, Liev relaxed and let himself come back down. He grabbed the towel off the wrack next to him and wiped the sweat off his face.

“New personal best,” Doctor Pren noted. “How do you feel?”

“Good,” Liev gasped. “Exhausted, but good.”

“What was his peak height?” Doctor Pren asked.

“Three inches,” replied the scientist at Liev’s side.

“An improvement on both height and duration.” Doctor Pren was smiling broadly as she noted it all on her tablet. “Get some lunch, drink some water, and we’ll try again in a few hours.”

It was a relief to hear those words after hours of testing and Liev grinned as he stepped off of the platform where he did his levitating. The nurse helped remove the various sensors from his body and then let him get dressed in more than just the thin gown he wore for the tests. As he left, Doctor Pren called for the next subject to come in so they could begin testing them.

Liev wasn’t sure how many of them there were. It wasn’t a secret or anything, he’d just never bothered counting. As he made his way to the cafeteria he met up with Mel.

“How was it today?” Mel asked as they joined the queue for food.

“New personal best,” Liev bragged. “Fifteen seconds with a peak height of three inches.”

“Ooh, congrats. And here I thought my ten seconds was pretty good.”

Today’s lunch turned out to be lasagna and baked potatoes with a mixed fruit pie on the side.

“’Sup losers,” Kyle said as he joined Mel and Liev.

“Could you not say that every time?” Mel asked and Kyle shrugged.

“At least my power’s useful,” he grunted.

“All you can do is boil water,” Liev pointed out, “and not for very long.”

“I cooked some ramen today,” Kyle bragged. “And I kept my room warm all night, even when I fell asleep. While they had the AC on.”

“Okay, that is a bit impressive,” Mel admitted.

“I’m probably the most powerful one of us in here,” Kyle stuck out his chest and looked around to see if anyone else had heard him.

“That’s not saying a whole lot,” a passing scientist remarked. “You all are barely impressive. I’m still waiting for when one of you is actually super and can do something truly amazing.”

“Hey, I don’t see you flying, or boiling water with your mind, or whatever else you’ve found out we can do,” Kyle bit back but the scientist just kept on walking.

Regardless, the exchange had deflated Kyle somewhat and the three of them settled down to eat in silence. To Liev’s surprise, it was Mes who eventually broke the silence.

“You think any of us will ever get that powerful?”

“I hope not,” Liev admitted.

“Why not?” Kyle asked. “It’d be amazing if I could make things so hot I could melt steel.”

“Right now we’re an oddity,” Liev stated. “The best we can do is on par with a party trick. We’re fun to study but not a threat. How do you think people would react if we were actually powerful?”

“The scientists would be excited,” Kyle shrugged.

“If I could fly,” Liev said, “really fly, like supersonic or something, I’d hide it. I’d never let anyone know.”

“You’re just paranoid.”

Liev didn’t try to continue the argument. He was naturally a little paranoid and assumed they were all being recorded and worried what would happen if the people in charge started to suspect he was hiding some hidden potential. He wasn’t, but he didn’t want anyone to get the wrong impression about him and what he could or couldn’t do.

“We are all getting stronger,” Mel pointed out after a while. “Maybe we’ll get there gradually, like a weight lifter or something.”

That was a possibility some of the scientists had posited before. The problem was that, at least in Liev’s case, improvement was at a snails pace. At this rate, he might be able to fly a few feet off the ground for a couple minutes by the time he dies of old age.

“I heard about one of the seers, that she can see up to three minutes into the future now,” Mel went on.

“I heard about her,” Liev admitted, “and I also heard she’s been banned from gambling or investing in the stock market.”

“They can’t do that,” Kyle scoffed.

“It’s what I heard.”

“What’s the point in having that power if she can’t even use it?”

“She can use it, just not to gamble or trade stocks.”

“Yeah, well those are the two best ways to use it.”

Somewhere not too far away, someone began to shout. Their words were muffled quickly as a scuffle broke out. Liev turned to see what was going on and he was surprised to see a number of police in riot gear tackling one of the subjects, tasing them into submission.

“I wanna go home,” the person groaned before they were pulled away and out of sight.

A few of the police remained behind, taking up positions by the doors leading out of the mess hall.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Kyle demanded, rising from his seat and walking over to confront the officers.

“Just go back to your meal,” the officer in charge replied. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Why can’t the other guy go home? I thought we were all here on a voluntary basis.”

“Return to your meal,” the officer repeated.

“I’m free to come and go as I please,” Kyle stated and took another step towards the exit. “I think I’m done for now.”

The officers closed ranks and held up their riot shields. Liev felt his fingernails digging into his palm as he watched and waited for the confrontation to escalate. Kyle stopped before running into the officers.

“Are we here by choice or by force?” Kyle asked.

As though on cue, a voice came over the PA system.

“Attention residents, due to recent events, the compound is under lockdown procedures. More information will be forthcoming soon. Please return to you regular activities.”

“I didn’t sign up for that,” Kyle said. “Now get out of my way or I’ll have to boil your eyeballs.”

The officers hesitated but didn’t move. Liev watched in horror as the officers each jerked as one, putting their hands up to their faces as their eyes all suddenly began to steam. They screamed out and dropped to their knees and Kyle began stripping away their weapons and body armor.

“Come on,” he shouted to those around him. “We’re getting out of here.”

No one else leapt forward to follow him and Kyle’s momentum stalled.

“Really?” he asked. “You’re all just going to roll over and let them keep you here?”

“You’re one of the few with any sort of offensive abilities,” one of the seers replied. “It ends badly for us if we fight.”

“What about me?” Kyle asked.

“Dead as soon as you step outside. Sniper shoots you in the head.”

Kyle cursed and cast around for anything or anyone that could help him.

Liev finally got up from the table and walked over to Kyle. He placed a hand on his shoulder and held his gaze.

“This isn’t a fight we can win,” Liev said. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re giving up? Just like that?”

“We’ve only had powers for a few weeks, and none of us is particularly powerful. You said it yourself, you’re probably one of the most powerful people here, but none of us is bullet proof.”

Kyle looked around the mess hall for a few seconds, looking from face to face.

“We can’t fight our way out,” Liev added.

“Well I’m not taking this lying down,” Kyle stated and began putting on the body armor he’d stripped off the now blinded officers. Last of all he took their pistols and strapped them on along with as much ammo as he could find on them.

“If you dodge left,” the seer said, “the first sniper shot will miss you. I can’t see any further than that.”

“Thanks,” Kyle said, nodding and bracing himself. He took in a few deep breaths, steadying himself, and then dashed out the door, dodging to the left as the sound of the sniper round smashing against the side of the build made Lief and everyone else inside jump.

More gunshots followed, some sounding closer than others. In all, the fighting only lasted a few seconds and the seer was crying before it was over, shaking their head.

“Attention residents,” the voice said over the intercom again, “resisting will be met with force. Please follow all instructions. You will be escorted to your quarters momentarily where you will spend the rest of today in preparation for tomorrow’s exercises. Thank you.”

Liev looked over to where Mel sat. Like most of the people in here, she was in shock and horrified by what had just happened. It wasn’t too surprising to Liev, though. He wondered if their freedom to come and go from here had always been a lie or if something more recent had happened. He’d just have to wait and see. For now, he went back to what was left of his meal and tried to finish it. He doubted he’d get another meal before tomorrow and he didn’t want to be alone with his hunger, locked in his room.