Chapter 3
It happened so fast; the doors were thrown open once again, but this time they were dragging us out. They got Tom first by his arm. ''Get out!'' the officer commanded. Tom tried to fight but he landed hard on the pavement and just as soon, there were three officers on him pulling him up and dragging him off out of our view. Bill tried to rush out after him, but the officers got him by his hair to slow him down. He too was dragged off. Then it was my turn. I reluctantly followed their orders, telling Roxy to do the same. It didn't help to fight, as Tom learned the hard way. Two officers pulled me around the truck. There were titanic grey buildings surrounding all of us. They raised high into the dark sky. Everything was grey deadness. No true life about the place. It was like the grey darkness was enveloping you. There was a line of people, all terrified and exhausted. 'Inspection line.' I thought to myself. There were even more officers everywhere to make sure no one tried anything brave. The officers brought me to the line where I met back up with Tom and Bill. We looked at each other but said nothing. I could see the fear in Bill's eyes as clearly as if he had let it show on his face. We were soon joined by the others. It took a long time to really move in the line. They were doing physical examinations to every one of us, then sending us into a building to our right. Once you were the next person up you had to strip off all clothing. There was a barrel with a fire going to the far right of us, and I soon
realized why. ''They're burning our clothes.'' I told Roxy and the boys.
''Damn.'' Georg said and we all looked at him, ''This was my favorite sleep shirt.'' He tried to
lighten the mood. It worked but only in the most miniscule way. ''I think the welfare of our clothes is the last thing on our mind.'' Roxy half smiled with tears in
her eyes. She was so scared. We all were, but I just wanted to make everyone else feel better.
I have very maternal instincts and I couldn't stand that I couldn't fix this for everyone. I knew it wasn't my fault, but it still didn't help me to feel better. Bill went first out of the six of us. He felt very uncomfortable being naked in front of all those people, even more so that he was going to be poked a prodded in front of everyone, as well. Tom was next to be inspected by this point. He took all his clothes off slowly and tried not to be self-conscious. It was, honestly, very hard not to look. He was very attractive, even with a blood covered nose, mouth and neck, but I didn't want to think like that given our situation. When they sent Bill into the building, an officer sent Tom over to the inspection booth, which was only about five feet away from where I was as next in line. I shed my clothes as slowly as I could.
Every couple of seconds Tom would look over to make sure everyone was okay. He was apparently the protective one. Suddenly Tom's attention was averted to an officer a few feet away from me. I looked at the officer, too. He was striding over to me, staring at me hungrily; I tried to cover myself with my arms as much as possible, even if I already knew it wouldn't help my situation. He stopped in front of me, smirked, tilted his head back a little and narrowed his eyes, trying to be seductive or something, then said, ''You should stay in my apartment tonight. I have a nice bed that would be plenty big enough for the two of us,'' He paused for a second and ran his hand through my hair; then he saw Roxy, ''or three of us.'' He added. I kept a straight face and locked eyes with him, ''I would rather sleep on concrete in icy rain. Thanks.'' Before I could even blink he grabbed my jaw hard, ''It wasn't really a suggestion.'' He leaned into kiss me. I tried to get away from him, but he was a lot stronger than I was. Please stop! Please stop! Please stop! I repeated over and over in my head, but then the man was tackled to the ground by Tom. He drew his fist back to hit the officer. ''Stop! It's not worth it!'' I screamed, falling to the ground and grabbing his arm. ''They will shoot you. They will. It's not worth it.'' He let his arm fall to his side, and then officers were pulling him back to inspection. The jerk that Tom tackled got up, glared at me then went back to his original position without a word. ''Get up! It's your turn.'' The officer giving directions snapped at me. I stood up and walk over to the examination table. It really was just like a normal physical except some parts were left out and of course that you had no less than 50 people watching. Then I was sent to the building after being handed a small bottle. There was even more grey. Everything was grey! Grey tiles, grey concrete, it was a giant shower room. At least thirty shower heads were on the ceiling. I waited for the others at the very front of the room, I figured we'd be better off if we all stuck together. We would have to find the twins afterwards, unless they found us first. I was soon joined by Roxy who literally ran up to me. ''Are you okay?'' I inquired. ''I am so far, but you might have another broken nose to set.'' She said with worry in her voice.
