I could stay in this forever.
When I reach the other side, Rita flips the switch, causing the floor to stop moving. The jolt causes me to topple forward. I don’t fall, but I do trip. Both girls laugh as if I am their own private joke. I chose to ignore them, but if they don’t watch it, they will be on my bad side.
In this room, there are several open closets with nothing but white clothes in them.
“Choose,” Rita demands.
“What?”
“Chose an outfit,” Cloe explains.
I walk from one group of clothes to another. One group is men’s clothes only. Others are filled with dresses that are far too fancy to wear to a mess hall, and others that are way too short to wear at all.
“So, we have freedom of choice with what we wear,” I say, “just not the color.” I snicker.
Both women look at me as if I were an alien. Maybe I am, or, maybe they are.
I think about what the rest of my family are wearing. Apart from my mother and little sister who are in dresses, each member of my group is wearing white jeans and a plain t-shirt. I select the same thing. There must be a reason they chose something so easy to move in.
I lace a pair of white tennis shoes over my white socks. I much prefer my black combat boots. These will be no good to run or fight in, should it come to that, which I am sure at some point it will.
The nurses lead me through one last room. Warm bursts of air come from all directions, warming me and drying my hair.
“Now to your pod,” Rita says,
I follow them out of the Bath House with a smile on my face. I don’t know these people know who we are or what we can do, but they just made one mistake. Our Methrodine dependency drug us down, it was our weakness, and they took it away.
From all of us.
Chapter Fifteen
The nurses lead me into yet another stark white room. Over the door to this room it says Pod 960.
I walk inside the room, the nurses parting ways with me without so much as a goodbye or nice to meet you.
I guess it wasn’t.
Inside the room are cubicles with letters written on them.
As soon as I walk in, two guards walk up to me. I recognize one of them immediately, he is Smith, the man who was with Johnathan in the woods.
“Your hand, Miss,” Smith says, reaching for my arm.
“For what?” I ask.
“Just do it,” Eli shouts over the top of a cubical with a smile on his face. “The quicker you do it, the faster you get to come hug me, sister.”
I smile back at my brother while handing my arm to Smith. He raises a white laser gun over my forearm. I think for a moment it might be some sort of scanner, but I am wrong. It isn’t a scanner at all, it is a printer. I watch as the red laser beam tattoos P960F2.
“Before you ask,” Smith begins. “P stands for Pod which is the place that you live. The 960 means this is the Pod that you will live in. There are around 40 members which live in this Pod, and each member that lives here needs guarded for one reason or another. You will be in cubby F, person 2 in the cubby. Now did I answer your questions you were going to ask? Oh yeah, it’s permanent, so don’t try taking it off.”
I smile at this man I didn’t like at first. I might have to re-think that.
“It does answer my questions, thank you,” I say as I walk in towards my brother. He is in cubby E from what I can tell. He, Mar, and Zac all are assigned this cubical. There are three beds in a row, one dresser, and two chairs. Other than that, there is not much in this ten by ten square.
One side of the box is open, exposing it to the hall that crosses between the cubbies.
“Are there only two guards here?” I ask.
“No,” Mar shakes her head. “Most of the time three, sometimes more.”
“How did you like The Cleansing?” Zac asks, with a shudder to his voice.
“Not much,” I answer, with the same shudder. I begin to think how bad this must have been for him, he is only twelve, and Dia is only five.
“Shawn and Leah are in B,” Eli says. “Your mom and Dia are in S, they requested to be transferred to this pod once they found out where you were going to be staying.”
My brother stops to think about where the others are.
“Magi is in A, and you and Jake are in F,” Mar finishes. “Magi thinks they will put Sam in with her once she is released.”
“Any word on Samantha?” I ask.
Eli shakes his head. A sadness goes through me.
“How long was I gone?”
“Three hours,” Mar says, looking at her watch.
“Hey,” my brother says, “Jake is wanting to see you. We will stay close.”
“Okay,” I say as I turn and walk out of the cubby.
Mine and Jake’s cube is only one over from theirs. I walk into the doorless room, and Jake is nowhere to be found. I lay down on the bed, running my fingers over the tattooed letters and numbers on my wrist.
How many more times do we need to be marred by life?
“It’s appalling isn’t it!” Jake says from the doorway. He runs his finger over his wrist.
He walks over, laying on the bed next to me. I touch
