Overdose

6. The Executioner

I looked at the girl lying in the bed. "She's new." Caesar said.

I wish I could have met Yvonne under better circumstances.

"How'd she go?" She looked peaceful, but of course she was sleeping. No one looks peaceful once they find out where they are. Her eye twitched, and I noticed the scar on it.

"Pills."

Mutanol. I already knew that's what she was on. That's what the psychiatrists gave us. The psychiatrists that were working with the same people that had taken us. There was about ten psychiatrists that I knew for a fact were working with Valentine Industries. Two in Ivingly, three in Liverpool, one in Ireland, two in Glasgow, one somewhere in Wales and one in Scotland. However, they had only started putting therapists in other places besides Ivingly at the time, so many of us mainly came from Ivingly.

I looked away.

Everytime another teen was brought in, I had a passing thought of when I was brought here. My attempt was a lot messier. Xander had told me that when I had arrived to the Facility, they were almost sure I was going to die. He said that it took a while to heal me and they almost thought it wasn't going to work. I wish I had died. Being in that place, that Hell...Everyday I wished for death. My first attempt at escaping was unsuccessful. It was a year after I had arrived, and I got caught before I even made it to the door.

"How long has she been out?"

"She was in a coma for a month at the hospital. We just administered the drugs yesterday. She should be waking up soon. Watch over her." Caesar left.

The drugs they used for healing. When they brought teens to the hospital, they administered drugs that could bring you from the brink of death. They didn't have any bad side effects, unless you count the fact that being given them meant you were stuck in that terrible place.

The girl stirred in her sleep. A few minutes later, she opened her eyes.

"Am I in the hospital?"
Poor thing. Everyone who was brought in there was either in a coma, or was pronounced dead on site. It made it easier to kidnap us. I suppose if they had told our parents that we were sent to a mental hospital, the parent would try to visit. It was easier for them to just say we were dead. That way, the parent would not expect to see us again. After a while of me being there, they finally trusted me enough to tell me that they would create mannequins of us, so they would have a body to bury.

I shook my head, sadly. "I wish I could say that you were. Unfortunately, you're in the Facility."

"Am I dreaming?"

"Oh, if you were dreaming you'd be having a nightmare. This is sadly not a dream."

"Who are you? Why am I here?"

"I'm the Executioner." She gave me a strange look. "I don't remember my real name. Or anything about my life before this. I know I had a brother who was younger than me. That's about it."

"I have no brothers or sisters. Only child." She let out a small laugh. "I only have my mom."

"What's her name?"

"Sierra." I could see it in her eyes. Tears were welling up. She wiped one of them away.

"You need to remember her name. I don't remember my parents or my brother's name." I looked down. "I wish I did."

"How long have you been here?"

"Three years now, I believe." I cautiously sat on the hospital bed next to her. Who knows what she went through? And I remembered how I was when I woke up. I didn't trust the first person I saw, and I didn't expect her to trust me.

"You've been here for three years?" She asked incredulously. I nodded.

"Tried to escape my second year." I admitted. "But life goes on here, and after a while..."

As I was talking, I started to get a strange feeling. As if, I was realizing how much

time I had spent there. And I had constantly been worrying about getting out, or my family. But, when I was talking to Yvonne, I realized that there was no point in dwelling on such things as family or escaping. There was no point in constantly worrying anymore. I know it sounds weird, but for some reason I just started wondering why I cared so much.

"Anyways, like I said, life goes on here."

"You make it sound like some kind of boarding school."

"I've just been here for so long. You start to forget what life is like outside, you know?"

"I'm going to get out of here." Yvonne said, looking determined.

"You can think that." I walked her over to the door. The guard outside opened it. "I'm supposed to show her around." The guard looked at me suspiciously.

"Where am I going to run to? You have gates everywhere." I said bluntly, rolling my eyes. The guard sighed and opened the door leading out into the dorms.

"You will sleep here. You'll have a roommate and a bathroom. You will be monitored. There's no cameras in the bathroom though, don't worry."

"That's a relief. The one thing I was worried about was cameras in the bathroom." I could sense the sarcasm in her voice. It's pretty easy when you're a constant user of sarcasm yourself.

We turned and left the room. I led her out of that hall and down another one, to show her to what we called the "rec room". It was where most of us stayed during the day after we were let out of our dorms. It was a large room with a bunch of chairs and tables, bookshelves, one basketball hoop, and exercise equipment.

Xander had told me that they wanted to show us that they could be "nice". If they wanted to be nice, they could have let us go.

As we left the rec room, we passed by a door leading to stairs. They went down to the basement.

"What's down there?" She asked.

"Containment Unit." I said, looking away. If being in the Facility wasn't bad enough, the Containment Unit was worse. It was where the rejected or failed experiments went.

I had seen one of them when they were brought down there. They looked terrifying. Mutated limbs, skin lesions, and other things I can't bring myself to mention. Killing them would be a blessing.

"You don't want to see what's down there, trust me." I pulled her away from the door, but I knew she wasn't going to forget about it so easily. I ended my tour with the infirmary. "Here's where you will be treated, should you get seriously injured during training or..." My voice trailed off.

"Oh, don't you two look cozy." Xander said, walking over to us. "Hi, I'm Xander. I pretty much run this place."

"Didn't realize you were The Master." I muttered under my breath. Xander shook his hand out, and waited for Yvonne to shake it. She didn't. He pulled his hand back and shoved it in his suit pocket, looking disrespected.

"Yvonne, how are you enjoying your tour of the Facility so far?" He asked, with his usually annoying smile on his face.

"What do you want me to say? It's not exactly the best boarding school I've ever been to." I tried to hold in my laughter but I knew that Xander could hear it.

Xander let out a fake chuckle, and then sighed. "Well, since you two seem to be such good friends, maybe you should stay around Yvonne, Exe. I think it would be good for you to have a friend."

I was going to say something, but static came over the intercom, meaning there was an announcement.

"Good evening, everybody. Dinner is being served in the rec hall. Make your way there or don't eat at all."

Xander looked at the two of us. "Well, Yvonne, unless you're anorexic, I suggest you two head to dinner." Xander was really never one for saying appropriate things. I'm not sure he had ever been friends with someone who had a mental illness. He left the two of us and went to his evil lair.

Yvonne looked at me. "Does he really run this place?"

"He likes to think he does. Let's go to dinner. They aren't kidding about not letting you eat."