365 Days

Infirmaries and Last Meals

The car glides into the large building, and Officer Sullivan expertly parks. He yanks open the car door and pulls me out. 

"Let's go," he says gruffly.

"Ow! Hey," I protest, but he's already directing me up a large flight of stairs.

When we reach the top, I gasp. The stairs open up into a large, grand atrium, with adults and other 13-year-olds milling about and talking.

"What is this place?" I wonder aloud, but the officer is already pulling me into a room off to the side. I read on the door, Infirmary.

Woah, woah, woah, hold up. Infirmary?"

Wait here. A doctor will be with you in a few minutes." And with that, he leaves.

The waiting room is quite bare, with white walls and linoleum flooring. A nurse wait behind a counter.

"Number?" she calls.

Is she talking to me?

"Citizen number?" She tries again, this time a little more impatiently.

There's no one else here, so she must be talking to me."Uh, one-oh-three, five-seven-eight..." I trail off, unsure.

"Kara Sims?" she asks.

I nod, and a stern-looking doctor enters the waiting room.

"Ready for next recruit, miss," he says in a robotic tone, his white lab coat stained with red ink.

Or is that...

"Right here, sir." she points me towards the doctor.

"Follow me." And I do, into a nondescript room with a counter, sink, two chairs and a hospital bed.

I sit on one of the chairs, and he sits in the other. Pulling out a clipboard, he clears his throat.

"Ah, yes. Kara Sims? I see. Alrighty then..."

He reaches into a cupboard and pulls out a small tray. On it lie five different syringes, each their own size and containing a different color liquid inside.

Uh oh. This can't be good.

"Please, lie on the bed." he says.

I do as I'm told silently. "This will not hurt," he adds; a pathetic attempt at reassurance.

I have a big feeling it will...

He picks up the smallest syringe with an orange liquid inside, and depresses it carefully into my neck.

It pinches, and instantly, a sore feeling spreads all over my body. It reaches my head and my eyes slowly close. Darkness spreads as crazy thoughts rush across my mind, like:

What if The Abandonment is all just some crazy, organized dream?

__________________________________________________________________________

Turns out, it's not.I wake up and the first thing I notice is that my heartbeat is lightning-fast. I sit upright quickly.

That was not a good idea.

"Ow..." I groan as the unbearable pain rushes through my bloodstream. I glance over and see the tray, with five empty syringes.

The doctor is in the corner, talking on a small phone. "Yes. Yes, I gave her all the required shots and inserted her chip. The only thing is that she has asthma, but it's not that serious. Only something to keep an eye on."

I look down, and I notice that a small electronic display has been embedded underneath my skin.

So this is the chip. The device that will probably kill me in the wilderness. It reads: 1:57; Day -; #103578; Status - Conscious; 1 km away from boundary

The doctor walks over, and hands me a mirror. "You are dismissed," he says gruffly.

I hold the mirror up to my face, and I notice my long hair has been chopped off into a uneven pixie cut. Also, a small tattoo has been inked by my left cheekbone. It is a small green star, barely noticeable. Weird...

I exit the Infirmary and step out into the main hallway.

__________________________________________________________________________

Later, I sit at a large communal dinner table, surrounded by food and more kids. Most are chatting and eating, so I help myself to the buffet before me.

One kid leans over to me and whispers, "Watch this kid." He points to another boy across the table who has bright green hair. I see him putting a large helping of chicken onto his plate, but instead of putting the knife back onto the dish, he slips it underneath the table.

"What is he doing?" I exclaim, confused.

Nobody else has seemed to notice.

He stands, and walks calmly toward a door marked Exit, Staff Only. No Recruits Past This Point.

I realize that there are at least four guards in this room, standing in the shadows. One steps toward the kid, and he whirls around, pointing the knife at the guard.

And then he drops it, and collapses toward the ground.

I gasp.

He flinches for one moment, and then does not move.

The guard picks him up calmly as if he weighs nothing, and walks through the door.

"What was that all about?" I ask the boy sitting beside me.

"He forgot that they can control the chips. They shocked him, hard."

I am speechless, but I finally manage to ask one question, "Is he dead?"

"I doubt it." The kid turns back to his food, uninterested.

I guess there's no escaping from here.

__________________________________________________________________________

Lying in bed that night in my assigned room, I realize that I have forgotten about something.

 I jump up and pick up my windbreaker, searching both pockets. Victorious, I pull out a small beaded bracelet.

I hold it close to my heart for a second, thinking of my family and my mother, then slip it carefully onto my wrist.

I will survive this, no matter what.