13 Novella 1

Controlled

You travel until the sun comes up, Abi weeping silently onto your shoulder for the larger proportion of the journey. Few words are exchanged and your driver barely looks backs despite your hushed and concerning words of comfort.

You sit in silence and do an awful lot of thinking and planning. You are too exhausted to create a rational explanation but you cannot sleep. To close your eyes would be giving in. Besides, you needed to stay awake for Abi who is twisting her black promise ring around her finger.

After maybe three hours you pull up next to what looks like an enormous disused factory in the middle of literal no where. You're not even sure that you are still in Sheffield. Doesn't matter.

The car grinds to a halt and you shift Abi's weight to wake her. She opens her eyes in one swift movement, surveying the ugly concrete and metal building until her eyes widen further. You look out the left window as your driver clears his throat.

Taking the hint you exit onto crunchy gravel, a definite bite to the early autumn air, still searching for what has caught your sister's attention. The answer is a woman in a sharp navy suit and heavy binder under her arm. She smiles, showing too many teeth.

"Abi (l/n) and (Y/n) (l/n)? Ages 13 and 17? Sent from 127 cooperfeild estate Sheffield?" She states. It's not really a question. "here for teens volunteer reset programme?" You get the feeling she isn't checking.

"Yes" you reply, then, "what is this programme?" You rush out, unable to last much longer without answers.

She looks you up and down and sighs, apparently not bothering to answer- it's clear you're not worth the effort.

"Follow me".

You do as you are told, leaving your bags in the trunk of the taxi.

You are lead round the back of the building to an inconsequential administration entrance with red seats and a potted plant in the corner. You sit, Abi tucking in close beside you while the suited woman says something that you don't catch to the younger woman at the desk.

She has warm brown eyes and longer hair matched with a caring expression. She glances at you so quickly you almost miss the wink she sends in your direction.

You don't react, not wanting to create suspicion for her. She rises and slips out a back door off to the right and for a moment you feel safe.

That is when six men burst through those very doors and head straight for you.

Abi screams and is dragged from your side roughly, a gag placed and a bag swiftly put over her head. This is the last thing you see before the same happens to you, and you are picked up by each elbow and hauled forward. You instantly panic; men touching you never ended well.

Your heart rate thrums in your ears too loudly to think, and you are hyper aware of the three sets of hands pinning you down from every direction it seems.

Through the panic you sense freshly polished floors beneath your feet and try to calm down long enough to get a sense of where you were headed. You struggle some more and receive a kick to the back of your knee, instantly buckling you.

You trip but are once again hailed upright by your captors who don't seem to have broken a sweat.

Your heart pounds a desperate crescendo and your mouth feels dry. You bite the inside of your cheek and taste the warm metallic tang of blood. Real then.

You sense Abi and her captors have left you and panic truly sets in.

Struggling and screaming, you are thrown into a room and hear a door clang shut behind you. Your hands are surprisingly free so you pull away the bag and gag to find yourself kneeling in a small yellow tinged box room containing what resembles a pristine dentists chair. There is another woman stood in the corner but not the friendly one from before. No, this woman is heavy set under her white coat with a brunette bun resting on her wide neck.

She strides forward and grabs you, and you realise you have no chance of fighting her off; she is far too strong. Instead you scream for Abi, hoping whenever she is, this isn't happening to her too.

"Oh would you pack it in" the woman growls, lifting you clean off the ground and into the chair, which, you realise too late, has restraints on the arms and legs. You try again to struggle but she is working swiftly to tie you down.

Incapacitated you lose it completely, when from the next room you hear the blood curdling scream of your sister as something cold touches your forehead.

You prepare to let the panic overwhelm you as usual, but for some reason you are silent and not struggling. In fact you are frozen. Why aren't you struggling? Why are you silent? You feel dread and adrenaline course through you, but still you cannot move.

That's when you look up and take in the horrifying machine above you, all needles and scalpels and drills in hospital whites. Abi's screams shut off abruptly and you find yourself floating as one arm of the machine gently caresses your forehead. You sigh, it isn't hurting you. In fact, you are having no reaction to the cold metal being placed over the right side of your face and ear.

Vaguely you hear the woman talk "Subject B2 is under, awaiting further instruction"

You feel pressure on your forehead and sensation of floating. You are somewhat aware that your restraints are being undone.

Stand.
It's not the woman talking it's someone in your head, so why aren't you panicking, and why are you obeying?
Leave the room. You do so.
Take a right hand turn. Yes.
Continue into chamber 5. You head that way now and register a door with a number on it.

Commence cyber conversion.

You reach out for the handle and swing it open towards you.

* * *

You march dreamily into what registers as a huge factory space and barely comprehend the rows of hundreds of people with metal frames on the sides of the faces like your own, each blinking a blue light from the temple area.

Take your place. Your thoughts are not your own and you obey without question, your mind empty of everything but the voice.

Step forward. You do so in a trance, you are heading for more rooms, but you don't even notice the shrieks of human pain emanating from them. Forward again, there are five people in front of you, it will be your turn soon.

Four people. You hear metal machinery and steam pipes whistling.

Three. Faint orange light is coming from under the doors.

Two. Perhaps you ought to blink soon.

One. There is only one person in front of you. You see the back of her head, blonde and curly and completely stationery. Abigail.

She steps forward into a chamber and the door closes on her.

You don't react.

Not until that scream pierces the room and ricochets through your skull, sparking something in your mind that slaps you sharply back into reality.