Storm-Boi

Chapter 3 - Plan

Chapter 3

Plan

My dreams are filled with electricity. Lightning flashes in and out of grey storm clouds that swirl around. Hurricane force winds buffet me as I stand on a hill. I am a conductor, conducting the storm. It builds around me and rises to a crescendo. Winds whip around me, lifting me into the air, into the eye of the storm.

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I awake to darkness, with the storm fresh in my mind. Five seconds later the pod opens and my cuffs are released. A good day. I stretch my limbs and climb out, my bare feet hitting the cold marble floor. My body still aches from yesterday, and the memories of last night are all too vivid. I stare at my fingers, wondering if they are the same fingers that put a scorch mark on my clothes rack, or maybe that was part of the dream. 

No. I didn’t dream it. I can see the mark.

After dressing in the same boring garment as always, I sit cross legged on the floor, waiting for someone to come in. I fiddle with my fingers, tapping imaginary beats on my thighs, trying to warm my fingertips up. Dammit, this room’s cold, I think as I rub my hands together. They must have turned down the temperature during the night. Maybe they were trying to see how long it took before I froze.

I hear the hiss of a door and I look up. No Stein this time to greet me, just my usual techie. The one that sits outside my door and looks at computers all day.

“What’s the time?” I ask, I never know what time it is when they wake me up. There’s never any pattern.

“5,” he says and I groan. He leads me outside where two guards are waiting. Once they surround me, he sits back down in his swivel chair. Some have an easy life.

The guards lead me down the hallway towards the East end of the building. Oh no, I think, I’m going to the gym. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about exercise, it’s actually a nice break from the usual testing, it’s just that I’m not allowed to chose what I do and for how long. They just set me on one of those new runner things and make me run until I throw up. It’s not a very pleasant experience.

We stop outside the huge steel door that leads to the gym (also known as hell). One guard, the tall one with the moustache and bald patch, punches some numbers into the keypad. A few seconds later, he swipes his security card and the door takes his fingerprints. All this security for the gym really leaves me wondering what they have on my room, I’ve never seen it because it’s always open for me when they lock me up for the night. 

With the trademark hiss of the laboratory’s doors, the big metal thing slides open to reveal the gym. Rows upon rows of top notch fitness equipment that test everything from strength to agility and heart rate.

Stein is standing down the far end of the room near the window. It’s like the only window on the whole of the top storey that I’m actually allowed to look out of. I stare out at the view of south London, wondering what it would be like to be a normal person, not locked up in this hellhole. There’s literally no one awake down there except for street cleaners and rubbish collectors. Everyone else is still asleep. Apparently in the real world, no one rises before ten. Would I be like that if I lived out there? 

I’m snapped from my thoughts by the sound of Stein clearing his throat and pointing to cycle machine. I clamber up and a nearby techie feeds some information into the computer. While I’m waiting I look around. It’s only then that I notice I won’t be doing gym alone today. I smile. On my left is Crow (I don’t know how I didn’t notice him before), he grins at me before wiping the sweat from his forehead. I can tell from the look on his face that they’ve set his bike on a steep incline. He actually looks in pain.