Bite me

Chapter 1

Chapter One

I studied the guard as he walked through the hallway, right passed where I sat. His hands were placed firmly on his gun like he expected an attack.

Two minutes passed before he returned from the corner he'd disappeared behind. I wasn't at all surprised by the two woman chained by shackles, connected to the belt around his waist with their feet dragging across the floor.

They were the 7th transition today. And there would be more- today, tomorrow, the day after.

Nobody knew what for. If you got called up, you weren't ever coming back down again. At least, that's what it'd been like for Christine. And jimmy, Marise, Aime.

For all we knew, they could be dead and I wouldn't know because I was still stuck here.

"How do you think they work it out? Who they call up, I mean." I asked distractedly, watching the final steps as the three disappeared back through the door he'd come through.

"Stop fretting, dear." Miranda said from the cell next to mine.

I shook my head dismissively and began biting my thumb nails. How I had any left, I didn't know. "I'm not fretting." I muttered.

Her croaked laugh echoed through the quiet of the cells. "Coral, you're going to bite that down to the bud." She said staring at the thumb I was currently gnawing on.

I smiled back, although it never felt right on my lips. "I'm not fretting." I said again, evening my voice out to make it sound stronger. For a second, I could almost believe it.

"What's wrong?" She said.

"Nothing... I mean, it's just this." I gestured around the underground cells they kept us in, dark and suffocating, before moving over to the 27 metal bars that separated the two of us. "Where are they taking all these people?" I muttered.

She sighed deep and meaningful. "Isn't that a question," She began. "But you can't worry over that. You know they won't tell us anything, so you have to forget it. Don't let it torment you, Coral. If you're chosen, you'll find out. If you're not, you won't."

I pressed my forehead up against the metal. "That's exactly it. What if one of us does get chosen? What if you got chosen? I couldn't live with that."

The thought of the woman who had quite literally been my saving grace, and whom I now considered family, being taken... literally broke me. She'd been here ever since I was captured and her throaty laugh kept me sane.

"I know." She said quietly, patting me on the hand that was clenched around the bars. "But how many people do you think are down here? Hundreds? Thousands?" She gestured around the building, the corridors streaming every which way into lands unknown and places we'd never see. "And you think it's likely a little old lady like me would get chosen? I'm no good for nothing." She smiled.

I had no idea how many humans were down here. All I knew was that we were underground. I know that the scale of this place could quite possibly hold thousands, but we're not allowed out long enough to venture. Trust me, I'd tried.

"You're not good for nothing. If you weren't here, I think I'd have already been sanctioned more times than I could count. I can get a little... Rowdy."

She squeezed my hand, a small smile touching her rosy lips. "Don't I know." She joked. "But you'd get on with it, get over it, forget about it and me. But for now, I'm here, and once again... there's so many people. I'm not likely to be going anywhere, Coral." She coughed.

"That doesn't mean it's impossible." I said once she'd returned back to normal. Her warm honey eyes met mine and crinkled at the sides with a small tug of her lips, like thread pulling at fabric, the way the binding creases, lifting up at the sides.