Number 17

Chapter One: The White Room

My eyes fluttered open slowly. Everything surrounding me was a spinning blur, and I felt as though I were falling. I went to steady myself with my hands but they were strapped down, unable to move. I didn't have the energy to fight it. I just tried to focus ahead of me , to slow the spinning of the white walls around me. I heard a faint voice yelling, "Number 17 is awake ! I repeat doctor for Number 17!" The next moment there was a man in a white long jacket leaning over me. He began shining a light into my eyes and I jerked my head away quickly, which didn't work very well with my dizziness. I felt like I was dropping again. "I'm going to need to ask you a few questions okay?" He asked , and pulled my head to face him. I just squinted at him with lost eyes. "Do you remember what you are called?" He stared straight into my eyes, as if to see if I was lying when I answered him. I opened my mouth to speak , when I suddenly realized I didn't know the answer to his question. I shook my head slowly. "Good," he replied. "You are now called Number 17. Okay?" I just stared at him confused. "How old are you?" I didn't know. Why didn't I know? These sounded like basic questions. It was then I realized the last thing I remembered was waking up just minutes ago. Nothing else. "You don't know do you?" He asked, and for some reason with a smile. "No..." I managed to whisper. My voice sounded new, like I had never heard it before. But how did I remember how to speak if I don't remember my own voice ? The doctor grinned. "Okay 17. You are done for now. If you need anything I am Doctor M." Then, he rushed away to the sound of a nurse calling him. I sat there, trying to gather all of this information in my head, attempting to make sense of it. But as hard as I tried nothing made sense to me. I finally had enough energy to turn my head to look next to me. On the right of me sat a girl. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She looked panicky and was fighting against the handcuffs and leg locks attached to the white chair she sat in. Tears streaked her cheeks, and soon she began to scream as she fought relentlessly. A women in all white ran over to her and suddenly she was calm again. I saw just before I turned the women sticking a needle back in her small bag. She wasn't calm for no reason. She had fallen asleep from whatever shot that women had given her. I swallowed hard and stared straight ahead of me again- too scared to move anymore. "This is crazy isn't it?" A voice came from next to me. I gathered the courage to turn to my other side and saw a boy sitting there. I nodded, too lost to speak. "I don't remember-" his voice cracked. " anything." "I don't either. What's happening?" I asked, although I knew the answer. He wouldn't know either. He shrugged his shoulders with a shake of his head. I looked down at the white tiled floor, shaking slightly. I tried desperately to remember something, anything, from my past- if I even had one. I didn't even know how old I was. It was so frustrating- the only faint thing that seemed familiar to me was a faint sound in my head. A song. A familiar tune playing in my head non stop. I didn't recognize where I had heard it or what it even was. But it was comforting. Just then, men similar to the man who called himself Doctor M, came and unlocked the first 15 people. I froze- this was it. Soon they would take me too. Some of them struggled as they were hand cuffed to the doctors wrists and pulled out of the sliding doors and into a white hallway. I looked next to me- the boy was still there. He was number 16- and I was happy for this. I wasn't entirely alone. I didn't remember how much time had passed before the doctors returned. Doctor M came over to me, with a sinister smile unlocked my hands and feet. He immediately handcuffed my wrist to his so he could drag me out of the room. I should have fought back, but if I had where would I go anyway? I was weak and lost. I soon was in a small white room and they began their examination of me. They stood me on a scale and I heard a women say "5'4", 98 pounds. Little underweight." They thrust me onto a little white table with paper stretched over it. Again, that little light was shining in my eyes. I blinked and pulled away, but the Doctor slapped my cheek back to face the women. "Open your mouth." She instructed. I shook my head no , worried they would give me something bad. "I wasn't asking. Open." She was staring me down, sternly. I opened my mouth and she was then shining that light down my throat, then my ears. "Healthy enough girl- send her right." As soon as she said this I was thrust into another white room, and strapped into a chair next to that same boy again. After minutes had passed , Number 19 entered. Number 18, and the girl who had panicked next to me, never came back. A lot of numbers never came back. Number 16 whispered to me, " I guess we are the ones they need for whatever this is." I looked at him , confused. "What do you mean?" "We are the healthy ones. They probably don't need the others in whatever this all is." "You mean they are killing them ?" I shouted. "Shh!" He gave me a stern glare. "Be quieter." he whispered . "I don't know for sure - but anyone who acted up or was unhealthy was sent to the left." I was about to break down and lose my control over my emotions. I would say I had never been so scared , but I couldn't remember. "It's gonna be okay . " he looked me straight in the eyes and my heart skipped a beat. For a moment I was lost in his eyes , not caring about the unknown path ahead of me. But I was snapped out of it by the sound of screaming. An older man was shouting, thrusting about in his chair. "Where is my wife! Where is she? What have you done to her!" Over and over he screamed for her as my heart broke. He remembered someone, something from his past. The men in the white coats unlocked him from his chair and yanked him out of the room. He didn't go without a fight. The man thrust back and forth, kicking and yelling for his wife. They injected him in the neck with what I assumed to be the same shot used on Number 18. He went limp. I never saw him again after the white doors slammed behind him as they left. I began to cry , tears streaming my cheeks and hitting the white dress I was wearing. Number 16 called out to me. "Hey, everything gonna be okay alright ? Someday we will remember and we will figure all of this out. Now calm down." I looked at him again and felt my heart beat quicken , yet I calmed down. I nodded and forced a small smile. "Can I ask you something?" I felt weird asking him this , but I wanted to know. "How old do I look like I am?" "About 17 or 18." He smiled."and you have long,brown, wavy hair. And large brown eyes." He almost blushed as he said this. "What about me?" He asked. I paused. "You look about 17 or 18 also. You have short brown hair, brown eyes, and slightly tan skin." He nodded slowly and smiled at me. All of a sudden he went limp. My heart beat sped up. "16?!" I whispered harshly. I saw the doctors pulling the syringes out of his neck and many others. Soon I felt a prick in my neck too. Everything went black.