Witnessed A Monster: Location One

Chapter Two- Initiation

I look up, finding a run down, shabby little building with a factory-like building behind it, the parking lot nearly full. I got out of the car and shut the door, still staring up. Age creaked up on it, the paint peels off the sides of the panels. Discoloration covers the top of the building from what used to seem to be black, into a taupe color. I slipped off my hoodie and wrapped it neatly around my waste as I strudded nervously into the building. Humming and murmurs fills the room as everyone is dozed off or dazed at the wall. The smell of bleach comes in strong storms as I try to brush it away. I stumbled over a few miniature toy trucks into a line of around three people. Where did those come from? Bzz- green ticket. Bzz- red ticket, Bzz- green ticket. They all clear out of the way as I stand face to face with an older saggy woman with a deadly glance. 
    “Name.” she says impatiently looking down at her keyboard. 
    “Uh- Amber.” I shrug and look down at my torn up shoes with holes tattering the top.
    “Ok dear, sign these papers, and grab your ticket.” Bzz- red ticket. I grabbed the clipboard and tore the ticket neatly from the grey box. And took a seat in the bleak hospital like room. Bzz- Bzz- I shook my head nervously and scribbled down my signature, not really caring what I was signing away for. Anything would be better than this life. I flipped through the stack of papers and carefully regarded them in a little bin. I come back to my seat and tap my foot nervously. Switching over once and a while. I look around and notice a little boy. Why would he be here? We make eye contact and he gives me a smile and walks over. I jolt back nervously, I had not tried to get his attention, his dad completely distracted. I noticed he had a red card like me. 
    “Hi! I'm Micheal, but my dad says that I’m going to get a new name today! Would you like to see my toy truck?”
    “H-hi Micheal- does your dad know you're over here?” I question as he places the truck on my chair arm and pushes it back and forth making truck noises.
    “My dad doesn’t care most of the time. I'm my mom's problem” He gives a slight frown and suddenly jolts back, “She says that dad is going to take responsibility”.
    “Oh- uh how about that truck?” I murmur and glance towards the small hot wheels truck with plastic fire flying out the back of the tail pipes. 
    “It's really cool! Ooo!” He suddenly snatches my red card. “I got the same one! My dad got green. I felt really special. It's my favorite color.”
    “Really? That's pretty cool.” I gently snatch the paper out of the boy's hand as he continues to mess around with his truck. I smile in almost pity realising how lucky I was to have a loving mom. “Why don't you go back over to your dad? He might worry about you.” 
    “I don't think so..” He mumbled with a frightened face. “I like you, you're nicer.” 
    “Oh, well thank you. Now tell me more about your truck.” I sigh and smile childishly. I would only have to talk to him for another hour or so. 
    “You wanna know a secret?” He says, still staring intently at his truck.
    “Mhm- what you got?” I say, acting amused.
    “My mom told me that this place whenever we go in here, they will never find us again! That's how good they are at their jobs!”  
“Oh, well that's good,” I scooped up one of his scattered trucks.
    “Wanna race?” I challenge and get onto the floor. His face beams and he bends over crouching and pulls back his car. 
    “IT'S ON!” He yells. I flinch at the abnormal loudness coming from such a small being. 
    “SHUT UP MICHAEL. Leave that poor woman alone.” So that's his dad. I put my hand up to my lip and motion with my hands three, two, one! I shove my car forward gently to make sure his car was quicker . 
“And he wins!” I harshly whisper. He grins. “Ok now pick up these cars ok?” I lean back up into my chair and doze off, until he joins seats right beside me. 
“Can I sit here?” He asked kicking his legs back and forth inches off the ground. I nod and pick up my red card from the ground. 
The two doors on the opposite sides of the ticket woman swing open at the same time. Everyone jolts back from the sudden sound. 
“GREEN TICKETS. You’ll be coming with me.” Micheal’s dad and about a half of the room suddenly bolted out of their seats shoving their ways through the small door. His dad not even looking back once for his son. 
“Looks like I’ll be with you!” He cheers, his hands making pumping motions.
“I don't thin-” 
“RED TICKETS. You’ll be coming with me.” An older man with a dirty white beard and a haze over his eyes stands infront of the two steel doors.
I jump up, grabbing my card and start to walk away, suddenly remembering my extra piece of luggage. “You aren’t going to leave me right?” He sighs.
“No, no I would never…” I grab his hands as he carries a little brief case of toy trucks and a little red card. So much for his dad. Who leaves their kid like that? I would have to find him after. Even at that is iffy. I might just call a child's protection program. “So? Who are you going to be?” I question him with excitement in my voice. 
“I WANNA BE A TRUCK” he hollers. Everyone's eyes stared through us and I suddenly let go of the boy's hand. “I'm sorry- I can't control my voice.” I suddenly feel bad, remembering my cousins when they were little. Always yelling no matter how many times uncle Rick told them to shut their traps. He slips his hand through mine as if a little paw. He could only be about four.   
“Just remember not to yell. Inside voice.” I whispered. He giggles and puts his finger on his lips. I follow the motion.
“Today will be the last time of your life.” a loud chuckle comes from in front of the crowd. 
“Haha! Get it ‘time of your li-..” He falls short realising that nobody cares.
“We will need everyone to separate depending on groups. It can be friends, although I recommend not, family, or anyone in this room. You will spend the rest of your old lives with them.” We all grimly smile, even though the joke is getting old quickly. “Any questions?”
Some older lady in front of us raises her hand. 
    “What will be the process?” She shyly speaks, hesitantly as if someone was following her. I would guess she had some type of paranoia if it wasn’t for being in this building right now.
    “Oh I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, but right now I will say to get in these suits.” We all looked over at once to find orange prison suits with numbers on the left top of the shoulder. “If you guys may, flip your red cards over! Behold there is a number. Your number matches your suit.” This guy seems way too cheerful for this job. I never expected for it to be such a big group either. I walk over, Micheal following as people toss suits blindly behind them. Micheal, being the youngest in the group, finds his tiny suit pretty fast. A suit flew into my face as I wiped it off, noticing the number three hundred and seventy four across the top of the shoulder pad. 
    “Welp, I found mine.” I say holding it out in front of me. Noticing it had a pocket on the chest spot on both sides. “Stylish” I snicker and turn around to see Michael already in his suit. He swirls around on the tip of his right foot and takes a bow. I give a quick clap.
    “OK. Get into groups and find a door. No more than one group at a door. Got it?” We all nod.
    “Let's go to number seven!” Micheal screams and races, shoving through the slow crowd towards the door. “It's lucky!” He replies and points up towards the illuminated red seven. I slide past the crowd and join him. The suit fits tightly around my hips making it hard to make sudden movements, Micheal’s suit being at least two sizes too big. I'm guessing he's been the smallest kid the whole facility has seen. 
    “Ok! Here are care packets. They include some snacks to tide you over until you finally di-  get a better life!” We all look over at him strangely, his glassy eyes following with laser beams. He started tossing black bags towards everyone, one for each group. I wondered if they gave extra to the bigger groups or if its just small snacks. He passes a tilted toss above my head, I didn’t have enough time to catch it, and it falls to my feet.   
“Can I see? Can I see??” Micheal squeaks. 
    “Do not open the bags until you enter the ma-  the cubicle.” He stutters over his words.
BEEP. The red numbers start to blink and the electric door opens up. Why would they pay so much for such heavy duty doors? They must really care about privacy. The doors slowly inch open. Micheal lifts himself on his tippy toes on and off nervously. Click. The doors now stand wide open; we stride inside looking side to side and seeing only white walls. No doors. Click. The door slaps back dangerously fast. Micheal  hurls over towards me. An announcement speaker stings into the air the horrible screams coming from it. “WELCOME TO THE MAZE.” What did he- ”YOU HAVE THREE DAYS TO FINISH. ANYTHING IS ALLOWED TO MEET THE FINISH LINE.” A small cackle comes from the end of the speaker. “INSIDE YOUR BAG IS A KNIFE, FIVE WATER BOTTLES, SMALL TRINKETS, AND FIVE MEALS. BE CAREFUL THOUGH, TWO OF THE BAGS ARE FILLED WITH POISON. THE ONLY WAY TO TELL, will be a small red sticker place underneath the plate.” I looked down at my shoes and wondered what was going to happen. Micheal clung to me with little tear stains on the garishly bright orange jumpsuit. I put my hand on his head. “SEVERAL ROBOTS WILL BE LET OUT.  TRUST ME, YOU DONT WANNA BE NEAR HIM. OTHER THAN THAT, FIGURE IT OUT. ANY QUESTIONS? Oh wait. I can't hear you.” The speaker left off a small click and that was the end of it.