Crying Metal

Chapter 7: Force

I fully came to in a white room bare of any decor save a wide holopad viewing screen spanning one wall and a rigid metal chair, which I found myself strapped to by electrowires. I winced and tried to still my waking body. Too much movement and the electrowires would deliver a painfully paralyzing shock to my nerves. This was yet another law-enforcement technique put into use by Society for those who have probable cause to feel strong emotion.

Dr. Salle gazed, glassy-eyed, through the glass partition. A scream, distant but yearning, echoed through the walls, but the man didn't flinch. I shuddered as I recalled the enraged hazel eyes of 422. My ears rang and my throat burned and ached from dehydration. I was hooked to a chair, trying to calm my heart rate by pondering as to whether the cold-hearted man watching me actually felt any sympathy.

Cool hands came in contact with my skin. I gently turned my head and my eyes shot daggers at the blank-faced woman who was adjusting the chair to face the holopad. Her pale blond hair was pulled into a bun so tight that I wondered if she had any nerves to feel it. My body was bare, save the long, white, sleeveless sanitary gown that hung to just below my knees.

My knees. They were battered and bruised where they had never been before.

"407, you will be viewing a program today and you will stay silent and attentive throughout the whole of it. Afterwards, you will be answering questions I have for you," Dr. Salle's voice chilled me to the bone.

The nurse stood and strode from the room, her heels clicking on the tiles. The door shut ominously behind her.

The lights in the room dimmed and I felt the smooth electrowires dangerously flush to my skin. The pit of my stomach prickled like I had swallowed thorns.

"Nurse, begin the video."

As soon as it began, my mind screamed for me to look away.

I saw myself, in the hologram, sitting on a chair identical to the one I was currently in. But... It couldn't have been me. She was The Girl, but not ME. The Girl had her eyes shut and her body was motionless. It was somehow... Tranquil. I wondered vaguely if she was sedated.

Then, the whirring of a chainsaw cut through the silence like graffiti. A blade lowered towards her throat. It spun impossibly fast. My heart rate sped up until I thought it would burst. The metal drew closer and closer towards The Girl's neck.

I cringed as the blade came down.