Cameron watched in horror as Justin sat strapped in the chair with the full face helmet covering him. At first, he was talking to someone (she thought she heard him say Ryken, but she could have been mistaken) but then the tone soon changed. He was yelling, squirming in the chair as something awful must have played in the screen in front of him. 

“I’m not doing it, I’m not doing it,” Cameron began repeating, along with, “Let him out! Just let him out!” Two guards then gripped her arms to keep her from attempting to escape the room, so she had no choice but to stand there and watch from behind the glass. When they finally carried him off, she felt equal parts relief because they let him out, and extreme fear for what awaited her. It couldn’t be that bad, right? It was fake. “It’s fake,” she repeated, this time in a whisper to herself. 

“Cameron, you’re up next,” William spoke, nodding to the guards to bring her into the room. Her body began to shake, but she forced herself to walk with them until they seated her into the chair and strapped her arms and legs securely. Next, they lowered the helmet over her, which for right now, was completely blank. She breathed deeply in an attempt to calm herself, but as soon as she seemed to lower her heart rate, the screen right in front of her eyes flickered on. 

The scene was a wooded area, one that looked quite familiar, but it was hard for Cameron to pinpoint exactly where she was. She looked to her right to the a dozen or so tents around a large bonfire. It was cold, and her breath fogged in front of her and rose up into a clear sky above. Wait a minute… 

She was back on that hunt with the men from Chesapeake. “No, no, no,” she began to repeat as she circled around. “Don’t make me do this, don’t make me do this.” No replies. A twig snapped in the treeline, and she gasped. Three men appeared, all faces she had seen before. The fact that this was fake had been completely forgotten at this point, and adrenaline was now coursing through her veins. “Stay away from me!” 

“Cameron, what’s wrong?” One of the men asked. It was the one she had killed in his sleep. 

“I know what you’re doing. Leave me alone!” Her hand went down to reach for the dagger she had become so used to, but nothing was on her thigh. 

“Aw, look, fellas,” another man spoke. “She thought she’d be able to fight us.” 

Cameron began to walk backwards towards the tents and tripped, falling backwards into the cold dirt, and as the men crept closer, she scooted herself back. “I can’t do this again. Stay back!” 

They were too close now, and instead of trying to fight them, Cameron curled up in a ball on the ground and began to sob. She had already been defeated. All of this fighting over the past month or two, and now, she was unable to do anything but lay in a fetal position.

As soon as the men had approached her, the helmet was lifted off of her eyes, and she winced at the bright light from the room. “Oh thank god,” she whimpered with tears in her eyes. 

William was in the corner, shaking his head in disappointment. She must’ve failed the test. 

Avery spoke from the other side of the glass. “Take her back to the room, and we’ll go over the results.”