The Switching

Chapter 4

The guard on my left, a big bulky man with a murky expression punched in some numbers on the door and it made a soft beeping sound, as to clarify it had opened. The same man ushered us into a room with some heavy equipment on the far right. The room was small, and there was a huge machine placed smack in the center. It had strange hookups, with ten slots each fitting a single person. Cold chills ran up my spine, and I shuttered. That must be where they "extract". But what? All the slots were filled with actual people. The guards yanked me over to three slots labeled 8 and 10. The girl named Alice was in 8, her long lashes closed.

No one was in 10.

Then a new slot shot up, labeled 9. What was going on here? And why was I so special? The guard on the right let go of my limp arm, and I almost cried with joy. I rubbed my upper arm, and saw the red blotchy marks the men made. I was about to escape, when both guards yanked me into slot 9, and I was trapped. Then they left, and I started struggling, screaming my head off and punching the glass. A hose popped in the slot, and started spraying an ugly green fume. It floated around, soon fitting the entire tube. My eyes, stinging, closed groggily, and I forced them open. But it was too late. The toxic air took me over, and soon enough I looked exactly like Alice, not knowing what would happen, and the endless yearning for darkness swallowed me whole.