Solitude

Chapter Fourteen- Al the kid

I woke up in my concrete holding cell, my arms and legs strapped down to the metal bench of a bed. Scratchy paper clothes chaffed my skin. I could feel my dry skin catching on the material with the slightest movements, driving me insane. How did I get here? Why was I here? Carver. Where was he? Is he safe? Did he get taken like I had?

Carver protected me, we were safe. I was sure we held them off! We were safe! No, my conscience said, you weren't safe.

We were ambushed. It all slowly came back to me through the haze of panic. None of us made it. There were just too many of them.

Volney had tried his best to continue after a dart hit him, he really did, but his efforts were in vain. His body wasn't strong enough to reject the serum, and his skin wasn't hard enough to deflect the darts like Carver's was. He was down before he knew what had happened, convulsing on the floor from the painful black feathered dart.

Carver had protected me the best he could. Too many had surrounded us, made us both vulnerable. I was vulnerable to begin with. But Carver, Carver could've gotten out of there. If only he didn't have to protect me...

If they hadn't sent more guards after Carver defeated most of the original ones, we would've been fine. But as soon as they overpowered me and threatened him, it was all over.

The door to my cell suddenly slid open, my heart pounding against my ribcage like a sledgehammer. Guards came in, normal ones that wore white armor instead of the black armor we've come to expect. I calmed down some, not the usual guards, but that didn't mean I didn't try to fight. Although I was still woozy and weak and moved in slow motion, I tried. And it didn't even faze them.

These guards didn't taunt me, didn't pull my hair and try to do things to me. They sneered at me, yes, but they did nothing else but unstrap me from the bed and lead me down a white hall I was familiar with.

Torture was left. The unknown to the right.

Thankfully, we went right. A heavy breath of relief was expelled from my lungs and made my body feel lighter. No torture today.

The guards carried most of my weight, my feet dragging on the white linoleum because they refused to listen to me. The headache I had, my limbs not working, and the difficulty I had with breathing meant I'd been drugged. Not with the normal drug though, most likely just a heavy sedative. The farther we went however, the more it felt like it wore away.

Four of the guards led me to a cafeteria of some sort. Two of the four walls were solid concrete painted white. The last two walls had a single door leading in and out, and a large mirror that nearly took up the whole back wall- both on opposite sides.

Three styrofoam trays were set near each other on sperate long metal dinner tables. Each one had something different in it, and each one had a name labeled next to it in large, eligible, black letters. My tray was set in the far right corner of the room so I was facing away from the mirror and towards the door. Carver's was two tables ahead, and placed so that we could look at each other. Volney's was at the end of Carver's table, placed so he would face away from me.

The guards pushed me in, rustling the paper clothing and scratching off more skin. I stumbled forward into the nearest table, brain still cotton logged from the drugs they gave me. My head was pounding and my eyes wouldn't focus. I couldn't focus. I imagined this is what a zombie would feel like. Numb all over and not being able to pay attention, period.

I shuffled across the room to my 'food'. A scoop of artificial mashed potatoes, a spoonful of over steamed corn, three unidentifiable small baked pieces of things that looked like they were supposed to pass as some kind of meat, and a carton of frozen milk. Wonderful.