Hunted

Chapter 5.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months since I had woken from the previous experiment. I should have been relieved, but in all honesty, I was horrified. He never came back to my cell to recheck my vitals. What was he planning?

I sat at my usual spot with a tray holding a simple ham sandwich and an apple in front of me. My food wasn't appealing. The sandwich was dull and the apple was kind of mushy.

Five other captives sat with me. We inaudibly picked at our food. We were not authorized to converse to one another until we were informed we could. Men in black gear stood by with guns, watching. They were always observing and listening. I overheard the others call them the Authority. They were a whole new kind of monster.

"You may speak," one guard shouted.

Quiet murmuring filled the room.

"Has anyone seen Sam? I haven't seen her lately," a petite girl with brown curly hair asked the table.

We stared at her with confusion. I had never heard her speak, but that didn't mean much. I never conversed with any of them or really paid attention. There wasn't really a point. Why get attached when people here tend to vanish? We were prisoners here, lab rats, and we were disposable. People never lasted long here, and no one knew what was going to happen once they left. I went back to picking at my food until a voice next to me spoke up.

"Who?" a boy next to me asked.

I glanced up from behind my hair. I've never seen him before, but he sported some of the same scars I did. Some of the experiments they put us through left reminders. Scars were one of the indicators of how long a captive had been here in this hell hole. He had been here a while, but I had never seen him. We are assigned to a certain table and sit with the same people every day. 

He was new.

"Oh, um, 76940? She was here yesterday, but now you are in her spot," she stared at the boy with accusing eyes.

He huffed to himself before he shrugged his shoulders and went back to his sandwich. She glanced at the other two people sitting at our table and they all gave her a compassionate look.

"I'm sorry, I haven't seen her. I know you two have gotten close," another boy at the end of the table said.

The girl stared at me with blue hopeful eyes. This encounter made me uncomfortable and I felt a lump form in my throat. I cleared my throat and shook my head at her.

She broke eye contact and put her head down in defeat. I caught a tear escape as it traveled down her cheek.

"What's your name?"

I recoiled in my seat from an elbow that nudged my arm. The arm that nudged me belonged to the new boy at our table. I peered up at him and took in his appearance. His slightly curly sandy hair hung over his eyes. His jaw was pronounced along with his lean muscular build. He was cute, actually, he was really cute. I felt my cheeks burn as that thought crossed my mind. I gazed at my food and ignored his question. I couldn't believe I thought that.

"She doesn't speak," the girl at the end bitterly whispered to him. "She never has."

"I heard she has been here for years. Look at all her scars," the boy next to her whispered.