As I took a seat in the cafeteria surrounded by teenagers and children in white clothes, surrounded by guards masked. The Males on one side and the Females on the other side. I stared at the trays in front of me, the tray with two slices of bread that always tasted stale and the bowl of cereal, where the cereal was mush and the milk was room temperature. As the room was only filled with the sounds of the clattering of spoons. Since that was all they gave us to eat with.
There were the small whispers that haunted to room,
"Who got beaten up today do you know 153?" The girl to my left nudged my shoulder, making me spill some milk on the tray from the spoon. I glanced at the number that was imprinted on her sleeve 765
"I don't know," I whispered as a Guard walked past our table, my eyes only scanned around the room. Where was that boy who told me not to take the pills, where was the boy who knew my name? Nobody knew anyone's name around here except the Doctors.
That was when the siren rang, the three beeps. The beeps that told us to swallow the pills we were given. As on cue, everyone picked up their small container, placed the individual pills in their mouth and grabbed the plastic cup of water to drink. As I carefully placed the pills in my mouth, I didn't plan to swallow them.
"Oi!" a Guard shouted, walking towards me, my heart only skipped a beat, as they stormed up to the girl directly seated behind me, "Where are your pills."
"I don't know," she said, I avoided looking at her, avoided turning my head I looked straight ahead at all the Guards that watched us.
"Where are they?"
"I wasn't given them."
The sound of the girl screaming only echoed in the room, I could not flinch, I could not move, and I didn't want to move. The pills didn't seem to even dissolve in my mouth, against my dried cheeks. The sound of the echoing of a baton only echoed again and again.
The other Guards only walked towards me, to the scene behind me. I didn't want to look, I didn't want to see, but everyone else's eyes were behind me, and everyone was staring at the girl. As my head slowly turned, I could see the blood that was splattered against the floor, against my pants, when I turned to see the Guards beating 496, relentlessly, she was dead.
They picked her up, and four Guards carried 496 out. And I somehow was covered in her blood.
" ...we are only protecting you..." echoed in my mind. As I watched the blood drip on the floor, from 496 being carried. I abruptly turned my head, looking around everyone was still watching the girl, I looked down and picked the serviette that they gave us from the tray and slid to my knees, under the bench I spat the tables, and scrunched it between my hands, rubbing the blood into the serviette.
"What are you doing?" A guard asked, I looked up from my hands and knees, from the hand I was scrubbing the blood splatters with, the serviette drenched in blood.
"Cleaning... the blood is on me... it's on the floor... it's on me." I whispered.
"Guard 98 take Patient 153 to the showers." the guard pressed his hand against his helmet.
"Why?" the static sounded
"You got blood on her." The guard chuckled.
YOU ARE READING
The Glass Room
General FictionAs long as Maddy can remember, she has spent the last 13 years of her life in the Glass Rooms. She can still remember the day that the Soldiers took her from her parents. But she can barely remember how the air feels against skin, what the sun looks...
