Taken (Erin Bowman)

successfully educated to stay within their confines. This is crucial, for if we want our experiments to continue beyond the first generation of test subjects, we cannot have them scaling the Wall freely. . . .
    Group A has transitioned from chaos to war. Subjects are split and fighting one another over resources and control of the best living complexes. . . .
    Group C has built a surprisingly stable town. In just over a year they now have livestock fields and markets. They have rebuilt all the cabins and their leader has formed a council, where representatives are elected from the group and lead lifestyle decisions for the greater community. Talks of something similar have sprung up in B. . . .
    Group D is remarkably ingenious. Freshwater springs have been found and guided into reservoirs. Shelters from sun and wind have been created. Women have a surprising amount of power in this group when compared to other test groups and share in many of the otherwise masculine roles. . . .
    Group E is extinct. Research here has been halted. Group A continues to battle. Much blood has been shed and I fear they will eliminate themselves completely. . . .
    The first of the extractions are approaching. It has been agreed that removing test subjects from Group A would be foolish. The children have gone mad, and any technologies created from them will likely be unstable and volatile. For Group A, the Laicos Project is over. I am cutting the electricity to everything but the cameras. They will remain on so that we can confirm what we hope for: that the savages die out completely. Extractions will instead be performed in Groups B, C, and D.
    Eighteen seems to be a fitting year for boys. They are well matured and physically in their prime. In Group D, however, many of the girls are as strong and tough as the males, partaking in very similar roles and careers. Given this revelation, I believe it may be beneficial to have several test subjects of the female gender and Group D will be the provider. We will pull girls at sixteen and we will do so selectively, ensuring we remove only the best candidates to undergo experimentation.
    All extracted subjects will be shipped to Taem, where continued research will take place. They will be kept in separate wings and labs. There will be no crossover between test subjects from different locations. . . .
    I move on to the next set of books, which are full of notes regarding the Heists: how they are performed, how each group reacts to them. The shaking earth and general feeling of discomfort during our Claysoot Heists now make sense. The Order flew in by helicopter—a steel bird that sounds similar to the objects I witnessed AmWest manning during their attack on Taem—and dropped odorless drugs to subdue the town while the boy was removed.
    There are hundreds of pages covering experimentation in the next several journals, but I skim through them. The scenes Frank’s words depict are too grim, and I don’t want to read about the people who died on his tables. I flip frantically through the documentation, and before I know it, I’ve worked my way to the final journal.
    I’ve recruited a new addition for our labs today, a boy by the name of Harvey Maldoon. He is young but brilliant, a genius at the mere age of sixteen. The blessed child is already hard at work, confident that he can create a Forgery as skilled and mature as its source. He promises me it will remain healthy and strong, rather than faltering after a day like the replicas my other lab workers have created.
    “Heists” (a term coined in Group C that we have adopted internally) will continue, and I keep my fingers crossed that Harvey will be successful. I need him to be successful. Only then can I set up a production compound closer to the borderlines. AmWest continues to attempt infiltration. They are persistent, and while I must protect our people from their wrath and our freshwater from their greed, I cannot keep losing the lives of Order members at their hands. These Forgeries, these lives without family or history or homes, will be an invaluable resource.
    The journal ends here, but I know where the story is headed. Experimentation would carry on for many years, and while Harvey would eventually create a successful Forgery, he would never manage to create the limitless variety that Frank still craves today. All along, things would steadily fall apart in Taem. Laws would become overbearing and people would begin to