Chapter One

I know I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming. The sunlight glinting off my grandmother’s glasses isn’t providing any warmth and the hum of the dragonflies buzzing over the lake is too loud, almost deafening. My head is spinning but I try to hang onto the words coming out of my grandmother’s mouth. They’re important. I don’t know how I know that but every fiber of my being believes it.

“They take you and you don’t come back.” Her eyes lock onto mine with a look so serious I feel myself shiver.

“Take you where?”

As if not to hear me grandmother just continues to stare at me.

“Grandmother, what are you talking about? Who’s taking who?” My heart pounds as I plead for answers.

But then, grandmother disappears. I whip my head around wildly looking for her, or anyone. I can’t even place where I am even though just moments ago it felt so familiar. Too quickly the sun starts to set as if it’s falling out of the sky completely. Everything goes dark.

 

I wake in a cold sweat on a metal floor. Long strands of black hard stick to my face and my body shivers against the cold. My eyes adjust to the limited light enough to make out a blanket balled up in a corner of the small room. I crawl toward it and bundle myself up. The rough material suggests its old and worn but it’s too dark to even see what color it is. The humming followed me out of my dream and is even louder but instead of dragonflies it sounds larger. Much larger and mechanical, like an engine.

               Looking around the room I can see a door with a small window emitting a soft glow like a nightlight in the hallway, and a window on the opposite wall. I put my hand out onto the floor to boost myself up on my feet but my fingertips bump something and knock it over. A small shape rolls a few inches and I reach for it. The crunchy plastic of a water bottle is extra loud in the heavy silence but my hand works feverishly to get the lid off, unaware of how dry my mouth was until now. When was the last time I drank anything? Or ate anything? How long have I been asleep here?

               Wherever here is.

               I let the last drops of water dot my tongue wondering if I’d get more. I look out the door window into a dimly lit hall lined with more doors like mine, each with a slot in the middle. I reach down and my hand doesn’t find a handle. Shoving doesn’t open the door either. I turn to scope the rest of the room which can’t be more than five by five feet. Reminds me of a jail cell.

Almost.

Except there’s no bars on the window. I cross the room with hopes of figuring out where I am. At first, all I can see is black as if a blanket was covering the window. I check but of course there’s no latch to open it from the inside. I stare harder and slowly small pinpoints of light become more noticeable, like distant stars. But they can’t be stars because they’re in every direction, even when I look down.

Where am I?

“Hello?” The voice makes me jump as it pierces the silence. I rush back to the door and see a figure in the window diagonal from me. “Is anyone else out there?”

Just as I’m about to call out a response there is a loud shhhh sound like pressure being released. The figure in the window disappears and there’s a heavy thud. I wait but no more questions come. Slumping back to the floor I shiver but this time not from the cold. What is this place?

 

I must have drifted off again to the lull of the humming. The light coming from the hall is brighter giving the illusion of daytime but outside the window is still dark. I begin to hear footsteps. Faint but distinct in the quiet. Three to four footsteps and then a flop. I slowly lift myself to my feet and peer down the hall. With the lights fully on I can see that the cell doors go another thirty feet or more before the hall ends at a larger door.

Coming down the hall is a cloaked figure dressed in black from head to toe including a face cover. At every door he stops and slips a water bottle from the bag on his shoulder through the slot in the door. As he nears my door I drop back to the ground. Without looking in at me the water bottle is dropped and the footsteps move on.

I sip the water more conservatively this time. Somewhere several doors down a girl’s voice calls out, “Hey! What the hell? No food? Are you trying to starve-“ Her rant is cut off by the shhhh and thud. Unfortunately, my stomach starts to growl.

I sit back on the floor with my blanket which I can now see is a dark navy blue. Twirling the water bottle in my hands I notice the label isn’t about the water but actually a typed note, or more like instructions.

 

               If you have to use the restroom knock on your door three times

               and wait. Someone will come to get you.

               Any other noises will be dealt with.

               Water is provided every six hours. Food every twelve.

               You will arrive to your new home in three days.

 

New home? What is that supposed to mean? I lean my head back against the wall and stare off into nothing. My brain runs circles and come up empty to all the questions adding up. With the lack of stimulation, I start to nod off again, just hovering on the edge of consciousness.

The bright sunlight shines behind my eyes again, but before the landscape can come into focus something pushes against my back, light but insistent. My eyes flutter open to the blank metal walls. It’s still quiet, but the push against my lower back continues. I quickly flip over to my hands and knees and stare at the wall. A flap of metal folds out like a tiny door. I pull it back and a hand reaches through. A sharp scream escapes my mouth but I clamp my hand over it quickly and wait for the punishment.

I keep waiting but nothing comes.

I drop my hand and let out the breath I was holding. The hand in the wall retreated when I screamed. I stoop down and look through the hole which goes all the way through to the next cell. At first I don’t see anything but the far metal wall but then my vision is consumed by a dark brown eye staring back at me.

I swallow the urge to scream again. Something tells me I wouldn’t be so lucky a second time. The silence builds as we just stare at each other. Finally, I swallow the lump and take a deep breath, “Hello?”

The eye widens and disappears leaving me to the metal wall once again. I start to roll off my stomach but the eye returns. A male voice comes through a little muffled, “Do you think they can hear us?”

“Well I already screamed and talked and they haven’t gassed me yet.” Yet.

“Do you think those other two are alive?”

“I think so. If these people wanted us dead, they could have done it instead of locking us up and giving us food and water.” I hang onto that hope. I don’t think I convinced him because he turns his head away. Messy black hair pokes out in different directions on the side of his head while dark stubble lines his jaw. “What’s your name?”

He looks back at me again. “Miles. You?”

“Claire.”

“What are we doing here Claire?” His voice is flat.

“I wish I knew. I don’t even know where here is, my window is covered.” I look back at the blackness.

“It doesn’t look like it’s covered, more like there’s just nothing to see.”

My eyes scrunch together trying to make sense of what he means. In the distance I hear the first set of knocks. Miles disappears from my sight so I get up and look out my window into the hallway. A cloaked guard goes to a door, unlocks it and pulls a girl out. She looks about 15 and is dressed in jeans and a wrinkled pink T-shirt. Her long blonde hair reaches down past her waist and her impossibly big blue eyes dart around in a panic.

The guard walks her all the way to the end of the hall where they disappear through the large door. In every door window another face appears watching with wide eyed.  Minutes pass without anyone moving until the door opens again and the guard leads the girl back to her cell and leaves. Then another set of knocks echoes through the hall. I ball my blanket up and lay it in front of the hole in the wall.

My hand trembles but I knock on my door. One. Two. Three. And I wait.

Two more guards enter into the hallway to accommodate the sudden amount of requests. One comes to my door. I hear the key slide in and turn and the bolt move back. When the door swings upon the blank face doesn’t even appear to look at me before grabbing my arm. I stifle a squeal and shuffle to keep pace. I turn my head to see Miles looking out his window at me.  The guard leads me to the large door and a black gloved hand enters a code into a keypad. The fingers move too fast for me to remember the sequence.

Behind the door is a short hallway ending at the base of a set of stairs leading up and out of sight into darkness. I’m jerked to a halt outside a door to my left. Another guard stands there silently. The door opens and a skinny guy with thick framed glasses and shaggy, dirty brown hair comes out. The first guard grabs the boy’s arm but he shrugs it off and starts to walk back to the previous hallway. The guard grabs a handful of the boy’s hair who yells out but the guard doesn’t release as he marches him back to his cell.

My guard nudges me to the door. “Two minutes,” his voice is deep and older.

I walk into the restroom and shut the door. There’s no lock. The bright lighting hurts my eyes that have grown accustomed to the muted lights. It bounces off the porcelain toilet and sink. I quickly relieve myself and wonder how long I’ve been holding it. The sink faucet squeaks as I turn on the cold water to splash my face. Clear green eyes stare back at me in the mirror. The freckles that dot my nose stand out against my pale skin. My baggy grey hoodie hides my frail body.

The sharp knock on the door startles me, “Times up.”

I take a deep breath and open the door. The guard takes my arm and I willingly let him lead me back to my room. Once the door is shut and the footsteps leave I drop down and move the blanket. “Miles?”

The familiar brown eye eclipses my vision. “Claire? Are you okay?” His eye is wide and his thick brow is raised with concern. I guess y company is better than no company.

“Yeah, it’s just a normal bathroom they take you to and you’re given two minutes then brought back.”

“What about the boy in front of you? They were hurting him.” The light from the hallway catches Miles’ eye in just the right way I can see flecks of a lighter amber in the deep brown.

“He tried to brush the guard off and walk without restraint. They’re keeping a tight grip on us.”

“Where do you think we’re going? Where do they send the unwanted?”

“How do you know everyone here is unwanted?” My heart rate quickens.

“Well I know no one wants me and there’s nothing else I can have in common with this many others.”

Miles moves out of my vision and stuffs his blanket over the hole. I’m left to stare into the dark blindsided by his abrupt absence. My mouth is dry. I curl into a tight ball wrapped tightly in my blanket.

“I’m not unwanted,” I whisper to myself over and over.