Chapter 2 -The Room-

Peter awakes in the Reformation District and is tested and learns of many more tests to come.

I fade in and out of conscious for days after the train. When I would awaken there would be someone with me giving me water and bread. We were on a different train as far as I could tell. Laying on the cold rusty ground I can feel the vibrations of every spin of the wheels, of every pebble the wheels go over. 

I awaken after being sleep who knows how long. 

"Where am I?" 

I try to look around but the entire room is spinning and blurry. After lying still for a few minuets when I open my eyes again. I am in a cell. It is dark and grey. My hands fumble to feel the surface I am laying on to push myself up into a sitting position. However when I try to move my hands I feel binds wrapped around my wrists holding down my arms. I try to scram, my mouth has a gag around it I had not felt before. Confusion and fear seep deep into my bones. 

What is happening? Where am I? What is going on? 

I lay there having no idea where I am for what seems like hours, the only noise is the tick-tock of a clock. I try to count the seconds to have a relative idea of how long I have been awake, but knowing I have been awake for 18,734 seconds at this very moment does not help me much. Although I am guessing it is around five and a half hours, considering how there is 3,600 seconds in an hour. 

Then the lights come on and the restraints, which were metal and actually built into the table, unclasp. I sit up and quickly push myself off the table. Then the lights go off and I hear the clamps clasping again. But not only mine, I hear what sounds like hundreds of clamps simultaneously clasping. I walk around the room feeling around, from what I can tell there are four objects in the room, a toilet, a sink, the metal table, and a folded blanket on the floor with a pillow on top. 

I try the sink, water flows. I use my hands as a cup and drink water thirstily. I had not realized how thirsty I was while on the table. But it makes sense, I had been on a train for days likely, with minimal water and who knows how long I have been here without any water. I drink and drink, I know I have drank too much when I vomit into the sink. But I have obviously been here a while, since no food comes up. Only the recently drunk water. 

I feel around the walls and discover a light switch. When I flick it, a single white light dandling from the ceiling brightens. Immediately I notice a mirror above the sink and an iron door to the left of the light switch. I walk to the mirror, and look at myself, I am hardly recognizable. My face is bruised, my wavy brown hair is cut short into a buzz cut, I guess I must have been here longer than expected because my whole body is quite pale. I am wearing a white uniform that consists of my pants and shirt being one unit of clothing. My shoes are just extensions of my pants and When I turn around I can not find a zipper to the clothing. Which makes me wonder how did my unconscious body change into this thing? I notice on the back of the completely white, tight fitting, uniform that there seems to be a label or code on it. E178. Just that letter and the numbers in black.

This time I am too distracted to count the seconds of some unseen clock, I am investigating the room. I shake out the blanket and feel inside the pillow, but there is nothing special. Only the embroidery of E178 on the top right corner of the green blanket and the bottom right corner of the white pillow. When I examine the door I see that the bottom does not completely touch the floor and can be seen through. Laying on the floor looking through all I can see it darkness. Then looking as far left as possible I see a faint light. This light does not come from the darkness but seems to be coming from a small slit, next to me. Such as a light would be exposed from my door. 

I stand and walk over to the wall on the door's left, brushing my hand against the door I wonder... Is someone over there? Someone like me who is innocent of a crime they were charged for?

I knock on the wall and lay my ear against the wall listening to see if there will be a reply. Then I hear it, as silent as it was it was definitely there. A faint soft "Hello?" 

I knock again louder, "Hello? Is someone in there?" I speak in a soft manner because if someone is there, then there must be others. Perhaps even the people that locked me up.

"Yes, who are you? Where am I?" the voice whispers back.

"Hello, I am Peter, I do not know where this is either. Were you told you were being brought to the Reformation District also?"

"I'm Emily, and yes I was told I was being taken to the Reformation District, but I did not do the crime they condemned me for. I witnessed a solider rape a woman in a alley way and then kill her, I was blamed for the rape and murder."

Rape and murder? This girl sounds no older than twelve. How could she do anything of such a manner? But then again, I was arrested unjustly and blamed for murder. Then I remember, in school right when I transferred from secondary, to primary school, we learned how every case of homicide has been solved within the past fifty years. Now I realize why the soldiers were able to arrest people. They were the ones committing the crimes...

"Emily, you have your light on correct? I want you to look in the mirror, turn around and tell me the number that is in black letters on your back. Can you do that?"

There is a moment of silence then I hear her whisper 'Yes.' I wait what seems like a half hour but was likely only a minuet, I hear the faint shuffling of her feet as she moves, her shoes are not silent and make clicking noises so the shuffling is her trying to hide her walking, I assume. 

"The number is E179, what is your number? Do you know what it means?" 

"No Emily, I do not. My number is E178. I am guessing it is the cell number of these rooms. When did you get off of the metal table with the clamps? Or where you ever on one?" I ask.

"I got off during the fifteen seconds of when the light came on, on it's own. I have no idea what is going on." 

"Me neither but-" Then I heard it, the clicks of foot steps. "I hear people coming turn off your light!" I run to the light switch but it is too late. The door swings open and three soldiers stand at the door. The soldier in the center is holding a walkie-talkie and says.

"E178 is awake and off the bed. Audio recordings show that he has been communicating with E179. We will be bringing them both into the secondary chambers to be evaluated. A532 out."

The center soldier pulls out a gun and uses it to motion out the door, when I am out in the hallway outside my door. I see how dark the was really is. I look down and see I am standing on a grate and that there are a few lights on below me. I lean against the wall fearing that there is no railing and I could fall. I have never been one for high places. Soon the guards call in Emily or E179's awakening and the same soldier says he is bringing her in. We are walking in a straight line, for nearly ten minuets by the time a soldier opens a door to let us into a light filled room. 

The room we enter is jam-packed with tables, and on those tables we see soldiers and people in the uniform we are wearing with all different codes. A623, F444, E152, D234, among many more. However the people in the coded uniforms do not seem to be generally angry. Most of them have even grown out their buzz cut. There is no major difference between the male and female uniform besides the female one having more room in the chest area. 

We pass through what I am assuming is the lunchroom, and into a different metal door. This door has no handle the soldier with the gun that has been directing us turns and stands next to the door. The wall opens up in a tiny two inch by two inch square and a needle comes out and is injected into the soldier's neck. When the needle is withdrawn, a green light shines above the door, and a computerized voice announces, "A532: Granted permission to transport E178, and E179 to secondary chambers." Then the door opens and E179 and I are hurried inside. When the door shuts behind him, I looked back, Emily is standing behind me facing the door feeling it as if trying to find the door's hidden handle. 

"Welcome! E178, and E179. Welcome to the Reform District." A voice booms from the center of the large grey room. 

Peter looks over to the man who had welcomed him and he recognizes him. Mr. Jay Heartland, Secretary of Defense of Endland. He was an old man with short grey hair in a black suit, and a wrinkled face. 

"What is going on?" Emily shouts from behind Peter, she then walks up to Jay and stands only three feet away staring into his eyes beaming with hatred. 

"Why E179, you are about to go through the second part of your scanning. Escaping from the confines of the metal tables in your old rooms was the first test. We call that the reaction test, most people do not escape during that time, the room only lights up once every day. So welcome and we are happy to have you with us today. The door behind me to the right is E179's intelligence scanning room while the room behind me to the left is E178's inelegance scanning room. Please hurry we could have people coming any second."

Then Emily walked away, she walked past him and entered the right room. The door then bolted behind her and Jay looked at me and motioned for me to enter the left room. I walked to the room but before I entered I looked back, he was facing away. That is when I saw it, the back of his shirt, in bold black letters:

A007 

Then I stepped inside the room, and the door bolted shut behind me. 

Author's Note

I understand that this is a little short for a first chapter and the story just jumps right in, but I am trying to work on chatacter development. Peter is a strong, independent character who does not question much but believes in his government, how did that work?