Compilation of Local Writers' Stories

I Survived A Stay At The Apocalypse Hotel

At least, so far..

***

My name is Lisa Montgomery. The reason my name is important is because for the last three years I've gone by Janet Matthews and have lived in an entirely different part of the country surrounded by people that have never known my real name or past. I didn't have a choice.

Three years ago, when people still called me Lisa, I was a sophomore in college on the east coast of the U.S. Like many college students, I was always strapped for cash. My mother had left when I was a baby, and my father had passed away during my senior year of high school. Aside from some distant relatives I had never met in another state, I was all the family I had.

While I had a hard time when my Dad died, by the time I got to college I made fast friends with my roommate and some of her sorority sisters. But missing my father aside, having no family meant I didn't have anyone to call if I ran short on cash. Which, being a dumbass, I inevitably did.

I was moving past the ramen and cereal phase of frugality and into the water and crackers phase when I passed one of those tables you always see on college campuses. You know what I'm talking about. The metal folding table with the weird sign/tablecloth that is telling you to sign up to protest this or support that, or maybe just join a weird club dedicated to some obscure interest. After nearly two years of college life, I typically just blocked them out. But the sign on the front caught my eye.

On the left side there was a logo of some kind. It was a short triangle atop a square that was missing its bottom side, and inside that shape was what looked like an arrow pointed down. Underneath the symbol it said "Markley Research Group: A subsidiary of Tattersall Global". Okay, so far, so corporately creepy and off-putting.

But the right side of the sign said, "Be evaluated for participation in a two-week clinical trial. Stay in a luxury hotel for 14 days and nights. Leave with fond memories and $5,000.00."

Holy Shit.

I would like to say that there was some major thought process or weighing of options that I went through at that point. In reality, the speed with which I rushed over to the table was akin to how quickly and instinctively I would take my hand off a hot stove. Even though it was early in the morning, I saw other people drifting up to the table too. I felt a nervous fear that someone else would get the open slot or slots before I could, so I stuck out my hand awkwardly and introduced myself to the smiling woman sitting behind the table, thinking to occupy her attention before someone else could.

She shook my hand with a quick laugh and told me to have a seat. Introducing herself as Margaret, she told me to fill out the forms she was handing me, and after she reviewed them she could ask follow-up questions and answer any I had as well. I took the clipboard from her gratefully, trying not to stare at the scar that ran past her left eye and back into her hairline.

The questions were extensive, but nothing that seemed overly weird for some kind of scientific experiment. Age, weight, health conditions, mental conditions, phobias, genetic ancestry (if known), family health and mental conditions (if known), that kind of thing. I did notice that there were a lot of questions that boiled down to how crazy was I and any genetic problems I might have, but there was also what seemed like a small personality test and a section on food allergies.

And for the most part, I was honest. Look, I'm generally a very truthful person. But I really was desperate for money, and I didn't think one little lie on the questionnaire would be a big deal. Under "known genetic disorders" I checked no.

I have what is called minor thalassaemia. It's inherited, though my father didn't have it and I don't know if my mother did or not. Basically what it means is that some of the haemoglobin in my red blood cells is abnormal. Some people have a really hard time with it, but mine has always been very mild thankfully. I really didn't think it would be a big deal, and I didn't want to get kicked out of the running for something so stupid.