I sat up with a start. The sound of a gun firing echoed around my head, haunting me from since I was a child. My head was pounding furiously, I put my hand to my head and found a golf ball sized lump there. I must have smashed my head in my last training session with Lucifer. I hopped out of my large bed, finding pillows from my bed in places around my even larger room. I walked to my mirror and stared at myself- very long curly black hair, large emerald green eyes, medium height and not too fat but not skinny, muscular and well-built. I picked up my blue paddle-brush and began to brush out my tangles.

The door creaked.

"Heeelllooo!" Someone called out, making me jump and breaking me out of my reverence. God, doesn't anyone knock before coming in anymore? I thought to myself. I turned to see it was only Nanni, her bright pink plait, balled on her head and pounds of makeup on her face made her instantaneously recognisable. The bright yellow puffy dress she was wearing clashed with the unnaturally pink hair, making her look like a grapefruit, a very ugly grapefruit.

"Hello Nanni," I called.

"Ready for another exciting day?" Her voice was high and perky. Her 'o's are drawn out and long and her 'c's and 's's are so long it sounds as if she's hissing. She makes it so impossible not to mock her when she turns away.

"Well?" She sounded impatient as she tapped her foot on the wooden floors.

"Sure" I mumbled as I continued to brush my hair, which was now looking less like a bird’s nest and more like a squirrel's tail.

“Rye, I’ve taught you better manners than that. I have had you since you were five, you know. So say it as I’ve drummed it into that thick head of yours." Nanni sighed as she went through my closet.

"Of course Nanni, it’ll be splendid!" I said with fake enthusiasm.

"Good!" She said, giving me one of her ‘I-will-get-you-for-that’ smiles.

"Here's what you are wearing today" said Nanni as she laid out a bright pink dress much like hers on my newly made bed. I pulled a displeasing face; Nanni caught me and shook her head. Apparently, I know nothing of today's fashion.

“You know, I do training all day, I don’t sit at luncheons smiling and giggling like you,” I spat back at her, whilst glaring.

“Maybe one day you’ll be as lucky as I am,” she giggled as she waved my protest away.

 

If I survive the next five years here.

 

"Ta ta!" She screamed as she left my room, going to the next floor to terrorise the unfortunate people she came across next. Hopefully, it will be Lucifer she comes across, he'll sort that mad-woman out, I thought with a smirk. I walked over to my bed, picked up my dress, if you could even call it that. It truly was hideous! I balled it up and threw it into the fire.

I enjoyed the sweet strawberry aroma it released as I went to my closet and grabbed out a pair if leather jeans perfect for running in and a plain hanging green tunic with a brown leather belt at the waist, making the rest of my tunic cascade down like a green waterfall. I tied my hair up into a ponytail, slung my satchel containing black yoga pants and a black tank for training, on my shoulder and walked out of my room, slamming shut the door behind me.

 

2: TWO

 

o.o.O.o.o

"Okay ladies, I want you sparring now!" Twwwweeeeet! The trainer blew the whistle as we found a partner and began to fight. I don't know why, but I get a sick feeling of enjoyment after watching my partner fall to the ground in defeat. My partner, Leanne, instantly threw a punch to my head. Predictable, I thought as I dodged, grabbed her hand and pushed back on her, hard. She stumbled and fell onto the hard concrete floor of the training room. Just as quickly as she fell to the floor she jumped up and took out my legs with two sharp kicks.

 

"Damn she kicks hard" I whispered as I stood up and dusted myself off. The trainer blew the whistle again and we left the room using the door by the weapons rack. I put the finger up at the trainer; luckily he wasn't looking my way. Something like that could have gotten me seriously injured or worse...

 

o.o.O.o.o

 

There was one kid named Gerard who had crooked square glasses and a little red coat. He had the emotional intelligence of a goat. Gerard was like me, quiet, caring; an introvert. He also had a dark side with witty comments and would often become violent. I don't think he was right in the head. One day he got angry, real angry. He began to attack the experimenters that watch our training and lessons, he started biting and punching them. He then actually tried eating them. The trainers began shepherding us into a safe room but I hid behind the weapons rack. All I remember is that his eyes were a glowing red, a significant change from his original brown. The guards tried to sedate him but he'd brake out of it so they knocked him out and dragged him into a "rehabilitation" room. We only saw him once after that, his face was blank and he didn't recognise any of us. As soon as someone barked an order he would do it and would attack anyone in his way. I know that for a fact, for thanks to Gerard I now have a lovely long scar on my right leg. He left then with some government officials. We have no idea where his is now or what he's doing. I guess that instilled enough fear into us to not misbehave.

 

o.o.O.o.o

 

Breakfast in the mess hall was the usual affair. Girls clump together, boys clump together, girls and boys clump together and; me. I grab a tray from the trolley and walk to one of the buffets. This one today had a choice between slop, slop and slop with berries, at least they give us a choice. I walked over to another buffet which had a variety of fruits and juices. I grabbed a dangerous looking blue apple and walked to where they were serving scrambled geese eggs. I gave myself a greedy pile and went back to my table in the corner, book in hand ready to eat and read. No cutlery in sight, mind you. After that kid that stabbed another kid with a butter knife. Nanni would be appalled by this, the thought made me smile.

 

"Hey, is this seat taken?" A boy’s voice made me look up from my book. He had a squared jaw line with shaggy dark brown hair and sapphire blue eyes.

 

"Take it if you want. Although the officials here don't take stealing lightly " I said to him, my voice wasn't hostile but wasn't friendly either. He laughed loudly making everyone turn and stare as he placed his metal tray of danishes and juice down.

 

"No, I'm sitting with you, because I know you." He instructed as he sat down on the plastic white chair.

 

"No. You don’t and no you’re not." I stubbornly said. I had never seen this guy around before, I don’t think. He triggered a flash-back of some sort in the back of my mind; an apple tree with two figures in it flashes before me, talking and laughing, it looks like a younger version of me- that’s crazy, I’ve been here almost my whole life and there are no apple trees in my Shire. At least I don’t think I’ve seen one before. But what if it was a memory? What if I do know him?  

I put that aside, he must have come from the latest shipment, I reason. There were what? Twenty of us now? I counted twenty-two, minus the ones in the labs at the moment. They do that, when they're low on kids, they get a new shipment in from one of the towns in The State. I came in at the age of five on the fourth shipment.

"Well, I've got no one else to sit with and neither do you," he gestured to the empty seats around me and I all of a sudden felt embarrassed. "And you look like you need a friend." He took a sip of his juice and had a pondering look on his face. When he was satisfied he reached out his hand as if wanting me to shake it. Slowly I put my hand in his, afraid of what he might do. He clasped onto it, he was clearly very strong, and shook it.

"Sam" he said.

"Rye" I whispered. I went to eat my scrambled eggs, to find that it had gone cold. I began to eat it anyway. In the first bite, tomato and bacon flooded into my mouth. Delicious! I shovelled the food into my mouth like there was no tomorrow, which could be true based on my last week's behaviour when no one was looking.

"Enjoying yourself, eh?" I looked up remembering I had someone at my table. Sam was grinning at me.

"Absolutely," I returned "never know when it'll be your last meal here" I said. Apparently it wasn't that funny since everyone turned and glared at me even a few nurses and officials dropped their jaws in horror.

"Because the food is so amazing we may just explode”. Sam covered for me and everyone turned away muttering, two blue haired women with puckered ruby red lips in stark white coats came and instructed us to follow them.

Sam and I exchanged worried glances and he grabbed my hand. I was angry at him for grabbing it but he realised I needed strength. At that moment we became a pair, something felt timely like we had done it before.

 

Explode we just may, but it won’t be from the food.

3: THREE

They led us down a long narrow hallway with shiny white tiles, white and blue ultraviolet lights on the roof and white walls. The white was making me feel nauseous and I shut my eyes to try block it all out. The women stopped walking after passing multiple rooms with screaming people inside. Sam had to grab my arm again and stop me so we didn’t all come to a crashing halt.

“Samuel Perkins, you are to come with me,” a deep male’s voice boomed. Samuel? I looked around for a Samuel, and realised it was Sam. God, I’m an idiot. That must be his full name I thought. The speaker was standing at a doorway which opened on him like a grin. He was wearing a green lab coat, with thin, wiry glasses and greying hair. The man smiled, a smile that was meant to be comforting, but only made him look very menacing. I repressed a shudder.

“Well, I suppose this is where our road ends” Sam said to me as we departed. He smiled, making me even more nervous. Sensing this, he reached out and squeezed my hand.

“See you around,” I said. Trying to smile back at him, but it failed and a single teardrop fell from my right eye, this isn’t the first time I’ve been let down.

“Not if I see ya first!” He called as they pushed him into the room.

 

I just lost my only friend.

 

I felt something in my hand, when I opened it I saw a tiny crumpled piece of parchment, I unfolded it and found a tiny note in careful, neat handwriting. It read:

Relax and you shall see

“Ahem,” the woman in front of me cleared her throat and I expectantly looked up. “Rye Salva, you are to follow me.” She said as she opened the door next to the one Sam went into and I trotted after her like an obedient dog. That’s it Rye, keep it up, play ‘em at their own game, I thought to myself. We walked into an antechamber like room. That was making me feel claustrophobic. It was white all over, with a shiny metal bench on the left side of the room. On the bench was a light blue cotton hospital gown.

“Change into these,” the woman said as she pointed to the gown, “I’ll be waiting in the next room, and don’t even try escaping; there are guards on the other side.” She walked through the door, leaving me alone. I changed out of my jeans and tunic and struggled into the hospital gown, which felt like it was knitted out of pine needles. I look at the little piece of paper again. ‘relax and you shall see’ What does that even mean? It was unrecognisable writing and the final letter or every word ended with an up-stroke. The writing was old-fashioned and done in some sort of substance compromised for ink.  I walk through the door a few moments after, to find myself in a freezing cold room with sterile utensils and silver machines that beep and show diagrams. This must be where they do they’re experiments. The air smells funny, like they’ve added something to it. My breath comes out as a white mist; I look up and see a row of men and women wearing identical faces of hatred and disgust.

 They hate us children of the Shires, our parents and fore-parents were exiled from The State a long time ago. We are all treated like we aren’t human when the Superiors are around. We children have developed special ‘gifts’ over time, advancing over their own children and using our ‘gifts’ to hurt them and do all sorts of things. That’s why at the age of five a select amount of children from the Shires are taken to a different facility depending on our skill, to be ‘cleansed’. I don’t actually know mine, I presume I don’t have one and they just took me to prove a point.

   

My heart starts beating faster now and my lungs can’t seem to find enough air. I try to relax, but my efforts are in vain. As an attempt to escape, I run to the door I entered moments ago and try to open it, it’s locked. I bang on it screaming for someone to open it, to help, yet no-one replies. But then I hear it, a voice, it’s slurred, but I can just hear it.

“Rye! Everything will be okay” the voice yells. Sam! It’s Sam! My joy is uncontrollable as I begin to laugh hysterically.

“SAM!” I scream on the top of my lungs, both the fear and the joy making me seem high. Upon hearing Sam’s voice, I feel myself relax; my pace slow and my breathing go back to its usual rate. The wall in front of me liquefies and I see him: he is wearing an identical garment to me, but he is strapped to a metal table, the scientist injecting him with vials filled with different coloured liquids. I begin to yell and smash myself against the wall, like an angry bull in a frenzied state. They can’t change him with their sciences, they simply can’t! I’m quickly snapped back into reality when I’m grasped by two sets of solid hands on both my shoulder and they drag me to a chair. The chair is connected to a wire, which is connected to a metal box and a blank screen, the Machine.

 

I’ve heard whispered snatches about the Machine. They inject you with a translucid golden liquid that allows them to get inside your brain, changing memories and inserting new ones, all while you scream helpless in agonising pain. It’s reserved for only the worst of us Shire kids. They like it, you know, changing our memories, making us scream and killing the spirit of the person inside of us.

 

They tie me into the chair with leather straps, one around both wrists, ankles and one around my head. The two men place little pads onto my chest and temples, monitoring something no doubt. One of the men, with a gruff face and bushy black beard grabs my wrist and jabs a pronged machine into my wrist. It’s a sharp, piercing pain that travels up my spine into the back of my brain. I bite back a scream and a bust of blood flowers into my mouth, like a scarlet rose blooming in the darkest corners of my mouth.

“It’s a tracker,” the gruff man said, his voice dirty and deep “it’s so if any of you bitches escape, we can kill you.” He yanked the machine out of my arm and I glared at him. He raised his fist in the air and punched me in the jaw. I spat on his face, a mixture of blood and enzymes, and maybe a bit of egg. Okay, a lot of egg.

“Enough!”  A woman’s voice booms; loud and clear. I look up to face the row of men and women.

“We will begin the procedure now, if you would, Larkin.” The woman said. The other man, Larkin, in a stark white lab coat pulls a needle out of his pocket and tests it, allowing gold liquid to squirt out into the air. It makes an awful hissing noise as it hits the floor. Larkin steps forward and cups my face in his hands. He inspects my face like it’s a piece of meat, and with no hesitation, he jabs the needle into the side of my neck. It burns like hellfire as I feel it seep into me. I feel nothing at all; maybe I’m immune to it! I could survive! I thought. The thought didn’t last long.

 It began with my limbs; they began to burn away, the pain immeasurable. I began to contract and spasm, my body racked with pain. I screamed as my heart beat like a fatalistic drum, loud in my ears, my eyes rolling to the back of my head. I was rammed with what felt like a screwdriver to the brain. I kept screaming; my body was being controlled by something other than me. I moved vigorously shaking and clenching my hands into fists. There was something in my head, it felt hot and was pinching the brain cells, taking them and replacing them with pain. I shook back and forth, my hands trying to break free of the restraints. I kept on screaming until, I was silenced by the peace of darkness.