The Extractor

Prologue

 I have been getting a lot of people saying that I don't describe the room enough, or the characters in this chapter. Just so ya know. Its suppose to be like that. I'm trying to focuse on what they are doing in this chapter, not what it looks like or how they feel. Honestly, this is just to set the basis of the PLOT not the characters. So. . .ya. I'm not complaining about the critiques, I'm just saying that it is suppose to be that way.

Prologue

“Number 3658,” A faceless, emotionless voice said. “Room 324,”

A boy, about sixteen, in the corner stood up and grabbed his crutches from the wall. He limped over to the door on the far left of the room and passed a girl with a bleeding forehead leaning on her mother’s shoulder. Her face was stained with tears, like many of the others sitting in the room. His eyes lingered on her for a few seconds to long. Her eyes followed him to the room.

 He opened the door, and inside sat a woman with an unreadable face.

“Please sit down James,” She said, sounding almost as emotionless as the voice in the lobby. “I’m sure you would be much more comfortable with your leg elevated.” She gestured to a chair with a footrest.

“Thank y-” 

“No, please don’t talk.” She pushed him gently onto the chair, “Just relax.”

She had given this same speech to many different people, all for the same reason. It was her job. She was not paid; she did not even do it on her own will.

“I believe that we are all friends here, so we should get to know each other, my name is Namie,” she pointed to herself, “And you are James.”

James rested his head back on the headrest and set his crippled foot on the rest. He did not bother asking any other questions, though many swirled in his head.

“You understand the rules of the city, don’t you James?” James nodded. “Then you realize that you are of no more use to the community in this state.” She grabbed his crutches and set them against a wall far out of James’s reach.

“Hey, my crutches!” yelled James sitting up in the chair. The woman pushed him back down.

“You won’t need them anymore,” She said bringing something over his eyes.

The machine covered James’s eyes with a strange white metal that clouded his senses. He could not think, in fact he did not think. All he could see was this blinding white light in the back of his eye.

“Hey, what are you-” his words faded as his mind grew blank.

His memories left him one by one. His first ride on a bike, his first kiss, all being coaxed out of his subconscious by the little machine over his eyes.

He watched them leave. Helpless to try and pull them back.

“Not another Worthless,” Namie said looking at a meter that refused to move from the little words that said Worthless to Worthwhile. 

She picked up a small phone from the back wall and pressed the red button next to it. “Hello, we have another Worthless. Goes by the name of James, number 3658. Fields or Dell?”

“Did you say James?” the voice on the other end asked with interest.

“Yes,” Namie said looking back at the insensible form of James.

“How many other ‘James’ have there been?”

“None.”

“Bring him to me.”

Namie nodded then hung up the phone. She looked at James.

“Well James, ready?” she asked him though he could not hear her.

She picked up his body with strength well beyond a woman of her years. She placed him in a compartment on the far side of the wall, and then pressed another button and he plummeted to the floor below him.

 “Number 3659, Room 324.”

 Back out in the holding room, the girl stood up dizzily, holding her head where it was bleeding. She walked to the room and Namie stopped her, “Please come into this room miss, the accommodations are much more suiting for a girl in your situation,” she took her arm and lead her into a room four doors down the hall.

“Thank you,” she said rubbing her head, dabbing at the blood with a piece of cloth.

“I believe that we are all friends here, so we should get to know each other, my name is Namie,” she pointed to herself, “and you are...”

“Annaliea,”

“Annaliea, what a pretty name.” she opened the door to Room 328, “Come inside, please take a seat, relax.”

“Thank you Namie,” she took a seat and Namie took the cloth from her, and threw it in a pile much like the pile in Room 324, “I have never been so frightened in my life, without this institution I don’t think I would have survived.” Namie gave her a patch that she placed over her wound, all the blood from her forehead ran into the patch. “Hey, I don’t...” she started but the loss of blood took too much out of her, she felt dizzy.

“I’m just doing my job Annaliea, relax and let me work, this will only take a second.” She lead Annaliea to a chair similar to the one in Room 324, sat her down and place the same machine over her eye.

Annaliea’s memories fled her mind much swifter than James’s did, and she passed out within three minute. Namie looked at the Meter; the small arrow was pointed directly over Worthwhile.

“Finally,” Namie exclaimed taking the machine off her eyes. “A Valuable.”

She picked up a small phone from the back wall and pressed the red button next to it. “Hello, yes I have one. By the name of Annaliea, number 3659.”

“James and Annaliea, I think these two will prove very promising in the future,” The voice paused, “Bring them both to me; I will have number 3 cover you.”

“Yes,” Namie said and hung up the phone. “Look like it’s your lucky day.”