I woke up to two adults, a man and a woman, standing over me. I believed it was my sixteenth birthday again, and that they were going to die. I bolted into a seating position, only to find that the people standing above me were the man who had given me a ride, along with a nurse. "I see you're awake." He said. "I'd like to welcome you to my rehabilitation center. I built it for people like you, who've had bad things happen to them. You've been asleep for two days. We had to put you on an IV."

"Thanks for bringing me here" I said. "But who are you?"

"I suppose I should explain myself." He answered. "I am John Dalton. I own this center, along with every building in the entire town. After I'd struck rich by investing in a very successful stock, I came here and built this place. As people failed the tests for passing into the better world, There became a growing need for other residential areas. I built them the town, which the failed patients now live in."

"What is this 'Better World' you keep talking about?" I asked.

"It's not death, I can assure you of that." He answered. "But, unless you pass the tests, you can't travel there, and I, by my oath, cannot tell you what the better world is."

"Alright." I said. "Suppose I believe you're not some crazy person imprisoning me here and working me till I die. How do you know I'd stay here?"

"You have nowhere else to go." He said.

"Fine." I replied. "I'll stay. Get me on these tests of yours."

After John had given me a tour of the center (And after I'd spent two weeks getting my wounds healed), he showed me into a triangular room he called the "Testing Room." There were three different tests set up. A group of treadmills dominated one wall. On another were a line of skill tests. On the third wall was an obstacle course.

John said "Here's what you have to do. First, go onto one of those treadmills and run as fast as you can. It will stop after five minutes. Be ready, it's a bit jerky. Next, you will go over to the skill tests. You will choose one, and complete it to the best of your ability. Then, you will proceed to the obstacle course. Finish as fast as you can. All three of the tests will show you your results. Record them on one of the sheets by the door. Oh, and don't skew the data. We get the data as well, and we factor honesty into our qualifications."

John left the room. I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pencil, then walked over to the line of treadmills. I started out slow, then began to speed up. By the end, I had reached around fifteen miles per hour. Then it stopped. I was flung backwards before I knew what was happening. After I got back on my feet, I checked the data on the treadmill's screen. It said I had a score of two hundred forty six. I looked at the data sheet. There was a maximum score of five hundred for all three tests. I sighed, and then wrote down a 246 in the blank.

Then I moved on to the skill tests. These were much harder. It was a tricky puzzle game where you had five lives for fifty levels. You had to send one little ball into a group of much larger balls - all of them deviously placed - to knock them off of the screen. I was bad. I died at level thirteen. I got a score of seventy-five.

Then I moved on to the obstacle course. I pressed the start button, and then sped through the strait, dodging flying objects, leaping over hurdles, and ducking under fences. I finished with a time of eighteen second, and got a score of four hundred and ninety six. I jumped into the air in enjoyment. Even though I'd bombed the other two tests, I was fairly sure a near perfect score would get me through.

I left the Testing Room, and, following the maps on the walls, found my way to the results room. I found John there, and I gave him my results. He looked at them and then slammed the door in my face.