Cosmic Collisions (Novel)

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen:

Isla didn't recognize the man who had opened the bolted door, but he was huge compared to her five foot slim self. He had a chain attached to his belt that held about 20 keys and somehow he had managed to find the right one and stick it in the padlook. Isla had rammed herself into him, hoping that by some miracle, she would surprise him and she could escape. That decision soon backfired on her though as he had grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder as if she were a sack of jellyfish.

Now, with her wrist still in agony and in an awkward position, she stood in the narrow glass case that the man had put her in. Trying not to panic, which was proving to be harder by the minute, Isla took in her surroundings. She saw people just like herself in more glass cases, mirroring her look of panic, sweat dripping down their faces. Intergalactic Federation officers walked in between their specimens with their clipboards, while others sat at massive computers collecting data from their finds. Isla watched in horror as the young man at the far end of the lab in the glass case screamed out in pain as one of the officers pushed a button and blue lasers shot out of the glass and attacked him. Isla realised when they moved on to the next one that they were eluctriculing them. Banging her elbows against the glass, she didn't see a woman in a lab coat coming up to her, due to both her fear and her impaired vision in one eye.

"Let's see how you do," said the woman and Isla hated her immediately. Her tone sounded so cheerful that it made Isla want to punch her arm through the glass and strangle her.

Pressing the button next to the glass case she was in, Isla screamed. She had never experienced such pain before as the blue laser lights cut into her flesh and seemed to penetrate her heart as it pounded. Thrashing around banging her head against the glass and kicking out, hurting her further. It seemed to go out for ages and she felt her start to droop. Determined not to lose consciousness, Isla forced her eyes wide-open and a new found pain snaked up her spine as the woman continued pushing the button with her clipboard and recording her pain levels. Isla suddenly felt the blue lights pushing her up. Still encased in the box, her bare feet lifted off the ground and gradually rose to the high ceiling. Abruptly, they let go of her and some of the pain she was feeling subsided until the very last one on her heart and rib cage let her go and she plummeted down the squared glass case landing with a groan. Isla didn't even know that her body could twist into that position and the agony she'd felt before when she was stung by the jellyfish or when she had damaged her wrist and eye was miniscule compared to the pain that radiates through her entire body. Both her arms felt as if they'd been pulled out of their sockets and both her wrists were now screaming in pain.

The glass in front of her then swung open and the man from before yanked her arm. The searing pain running from her shoulder to her elbow enveloped her mind.

***

Isla thought it must have been a few hours since she was brutally electrocuted and shoved into the cell landing in a heap on the floor. She lay there trying to muster up the strength to push herself up again. One of the things that struck her about this place was that no one, apart from Estelle and the woman from the lab, talked to her or anyone else. When she finally managed to pull herself up painfully on the bars next to the chain with the padlock on it and called out in a hoarse whisper, "Hello! Can someone finally tell me what the hell is going on in this place?"

"Be quiet! Are you insane?" hissed Estella from the cell on her left. The young man sitting on the left cell jumped up, gritting his teeth in pain. Isla jumped back in shock hurting her ankles even further.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you, but Estelle's right, shh!" he whispered.

Just then before Isla could reply to the bolts of the massive door across the room. They stared in silence, not even daring to breathe. Once they saw who it was, Isla noticed that Estelle seemed to relax just a little bit. Someone with a lab coat flowing out behind them came towards Isla's cell and as she took one step backwards she fell.