An Average Day at Laminax

Chapter 18

It has been a week since I had been captured, and I feel like I'm going insane. Doing the same thing every day, over and over again. These sappy workers always smiling at me whenever they walk by me. During the first three days of my imprisonment here, I was relatively happy, but after sitting out in the snowfall in the basketball court, watching as the snow fell on my fur and on the mountains, I was at peace with myself. I was accepting my fate here, and it was beautiful. An overcast covered the sky, and the sun had set. A slight fog was in the basketball court, blocking my view of the jagged mountains. If I had lived right up to that moment, it would've been perfect, because after that, I had a deep feeling of despair and anger in my stomach that slowly grew as the days went by. Each night, I laid in my bed and thought of all the things I had left behind. My family, friends, work... I didn't know if Emilio was alive. Was Mr. Abel still Administrator of the Houston branch? Do my peers and co-workers wonder where I am? My family? Probably not. I thought about all those I had interacted and seen during my last days as a human. Adam Cambridge, Matthew Lavigne, Mr. Pritchard, Mary Kohler, Tangaroa Kobayashi-Peters, Emmet Campbell, Ha-Joon Park, Tomás Tsinnijinnie, the old guy at the booth... they all think I'm dead now. They probably knew I was infected, and they know what happens to infected workers. Same with my family. I am no longer on the news anymore. I have been forgotten and assumed dead. It works, in a way. My human form was dead, yes, but I was now in a new body. I'm still the same, I just look different. Quite depressing to think about, really. As I woke up one day with the familiar burning feeling of despair in my stomach rising once again, I decided that I was going to escape here. What true freedom did I have here? I was a prisoner in one of those really nice prisons they have in Scandinavia, true, but I was still a prisoner. I had my breakfast, went about my day as normal. I headed into one of the many lounges that they had and had small, causal conversation with the workers. After I finished talking with a Sudanese engineer named Waleed Elsheikh, I went back to my room and watched some TV. I no longer required a security guard whenever I walked around the laboratory, as I was trusted enough to not try and escape, but for no longer.

When the sun was slowly setting in the distance, I walked out of my room casually and went towards the basketball court. I looked up at the high fence without any barbed wire at top. If I managed to climb over it, I would be free. I took a longer look at the fence, calculating a plan. I took a breath and began to run towards the fence. I jumped onto the wire and climbed upwards quickly. When I reached the top, I quickly climbed down and jumped off the fence when I was near the ground. I turned around to see four security guards in the basketball, noticing me. Turning around, I ran into the forest. I didn't stop running until I reached a large flowing river that blocked me from getting to the other side. I was stuck here. In anger, I threw multiple rocks into the river. I sat down on the ground and waited. Eventually, the guards came along and escorted me back to the laboratory. I was taken to Richards office, and he had a brief talk to me about the consequences if I tried to escape again, gave me a verbal warning and sent me back.

The next day, I spent a significantly longer time formulating my plan. Since I had already tried to escape once, I now had a security guard with me whenever I walked around the place. I went to the lounge, talked with a few people yet again and went back to my room to re-analyse my plan. Once I was ready, I said to the guard that I was heading outside to the basketball court, and as planned, he came along with me. A few workers were on the court this time, playing a small, friendly match of basketball. The sun hadn't set yet and there was an overcast of clouds. I watched as the security guard district himself by watching the game, not taking notice of me. Slowly, I made my way to the fence, and climbed. The security guard noticed me and said "HEY! GET DOWN!" I ignored him and continued to climb. Once I had reached the top, I felt a great surge of electricity going through my body. My limbs failed, and I fell down onto the forest in the other side of the fence, losing consciousness.

I awoke hours later in a daze. Richard was standing over me. I was lying down in my bed in my room. "Oh, Oliver. You were already warned once, and then you tried to escape again. It was fortunate that the security guard managed to tase you before you escaped." He said. "What? I nearly died! Did you see how high that fence was? Hey, hey! I could've died! And all you're thinking about is how I tried to escape again? I hate this place. It seemed great at first, but I've changed my mind." "Well, it's clear that you are just going to try and escape again. I gave you a warning before. I'm not going with those measures anymore. A more disciplined action is in order. You are endangering yourself, the company and the workers. We have gone for so long without the public knowing of the Gootraxians existence. We will not have one rouge one ruin it all for us." He said. "Well, what are you gonna do that is considered discipline in this country?" I asked. "Well, after a few phone calls to a certain laboratory, you are now being transferred to another lab, far away from here." He replied. I scoffed. "Really? Where? Oh no, not Florida! Not Georgia! Not North Carolina, or Virginia, or wherever the hell you're sending me. Give it to me straight." I said. "You are going to the Fairbanks branch. Are you familiar with it? It's in Alaska, not down south as you thought it would be. As it turns out, they're glad to keep you there for two weeks and discipline you. After you return, I don't think you'd be wanting to leave this place afterwards." He said. I grimaced a little. The Fairbanks branch was one of the worse branches, if not the worst of all the U.S Laminax branches. Security was corrupt, the laboratory was in terrible shape, and the decent treatment and respect of Gootraxians was zero to none. In fact, some guards were known to execute the if they were deemed too aggressive, dangerous or too sick to continue living. From a quick and painless death to a slow and gruesome one, mostly done by the lower moral guards, but still, I was extremely concerned.

"No, no, no... please, Richard, we can talk this out." I said.

"No." Richard replied.

"Please, Richard, if I could just-"

"No."

"PLEASE, RICHARD! We can work something out."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Oliver. The arrangements have already been made. You're set to fly to Fairbanks tomorrow."

And so, Richard strolled out of the room, the feeling of anger in my stomach now overpowering the despair. I sighed heavily and went into my bed again. The following morning, Richard was true to his word. At dawn, I was escorted outside the laboratory into a van in the parking lot. The van drove to the nearby private airfield that Laminax owned and operated and was put into a small jet plane with three security guards and two pilots who were willing to go on a six hour flight to Alaska and back again. I was given a window seat, which I often looked out of during the trip north. Once we landed in another private airfield owned by Laminax outside of Fairbanks six hours later, I was escorted off into another van that drove to the Fairbanks laboratory. Immediately, I noticed that I was treated differently here than that of Calgary. First off, when I actually arrived at the laboratory, I was pushed out by a security guard. Then about thirty minutes later, I had a metal collar around my neck and had my paws in cuffs, being escorted by a menacing security guard towards my new room. When I arrived at the room, the security guard uncuffed me and pushed me inside, turning on the light and leaving. Sitting in front of me on what I assumed to be my bed was an Asian man, dressed in winter clothing with his black hair neatly brushed to the side. He got up and said "Welcome. I am Dr. Alvin Lee, Administrator. I was given details about you by a Dr. Richard Lessard just over a day ago. For the next two weeks, this will be your living quarters. Let me go over some ground rules with you first. Wandering around the lab without a guard is forbidden. You are required to listen to the security guards and my commands at all times. If you don't, discipline will be taken." Alvin continued to talk about my do's and don'ts, and kept on saying something about discipline being taken, though he never specified what. I don't want to find out though, considering the history of this place. Alvin left the room, and I took some time to look around the place. It was a small, almost prison like room. Grey cinderblocks acted as a wall, with a concrete floor and grey ceiling. My bed was on top of a small, slender metal frame, with a small mattress and two sheets on top of it. There was only one, flat pillow at the top of the bed. "We would love to make it nice, believe me, but we already spend most of the budget on more important things than decorating this place to look somewhat appealing, so... it's only two weeks. If you can handle the Coloradan wilderness, you can certainly handle this." Alvin said, exiting the room. "Okay... two weeks. I can handle this for two weeks; I've stayed in worse places." I said to myself.