Human or Raven

Chapter 3

Standing in the enclosed metal tube all my bravery had left me. My knees shook and my breathing got shallow. I was about to have a panic attack when all the sudden the floor under me started to move. The single square of track glided over nothing but a a solid six foot drop into the cogs of the machine.
No going back!
I repeated in my head. The floor stopped and the gas started pouring in yellow in color and another Sealed lock close behind me. I started to breath it in this has to be here for a reason. After a min I started coughing and after another I was laying on the tile gasping for air. The gas cleared but still I felt it's affects. I kept sifting trying to get air in my lungs but little entered. The floor started moving again but at this point I was barely conscious.
I need air! My lungs screamed and then the strange hold that was on my lungs released and I breathed in deeply. Again the floor stopped but this time it wasn't gas that greeted me when the door is sealed. Instead there was a Metallic voice
"Please lay in fetal position."
I did as the voice said which was easily considering I was already laying on the floor.
"Aren't you supposed to lay in the fetal position after your crying for your mother?" I said mockingly but then again a pain came so violent that I would have jumped up if not for the machine holding me In place. Tears sprang out of my eyes as another needle injected into my spine. The roller coaster of terror continued. Each and every procedure prompted a body reaction but I wouldn't pass out.
"No turning back!" I said as loud as I could which wasn't probably over a faint whine. Finally my stomach twisted and I was forced to throw up on the platform. My body couldn't take much more. I lay on my stomach feeling miserable. My clothes where in tatters from all the places the machine cut through to reach where it needed. Then again the machine stopped.
"Why?!?!" I screamed.
I closed my eyes tight and a red mist covered the room but I just lay there not moving and finally I allowed myself to blacked out.
I awoke groggy and pain ridden, not able to move my body. I felt strange like I'd been stretched and my joints ached but not as much as my back. My shoulders throbbed horribly. I had never had a rib brake before but if I had to guess this is what it would feel like. I finally managed to open my eyes to see I was still on the ground but the floor I was on was no longer the same cold metallic I had been on in the machine. Now i was resting on a warming mat still stomach down. A man leaned down check my vitals but jumped a bit when he saw I was awake. I looked up and recognized his blurry face...
"Charlie?" I said about a whisper. I was vaguely confused but, about what? Oh. "How are you not as bad off as the rest of us?" I asked amazed
"I didn't go through the machine." He said to me. The liar! There was another way. He tried to help me get up and I batted him away.
"You said there was no other way!" I growled
"There wasn't" he paused "I'm not going to meet them only you can. I stay inside the city but will never get to see them." I had come up to my hands and knees but I was so weak that I couldn't do more than reach out my hand for him to help me up. He kneeled down beside. To get me to stand he was forced to place his shoulder under my chest and rap my arm around his shoulder, while he stood he pushed me up. Once I was standing I realized I was about two inches taller than the man that helped me up. Wow! I distinctly remember Charlie being taller than me before. What gives? The height difference wasn't the only thing I noticed all around the room just like I was there where people laying on the floor on their stomachs so that way they wouldn't lay on the .... "Charlie what are those?" I pointed to the sleeping girl on the floor next to where I was with ...things protruding from her back.
"If we can leave the sleeping quarters I'll explain everything."