Aug 12, 2005 15:07
An electric cattle prod to the side woke Dareli up, making her yelp and jump out of the bed she ordered onto the cold rock floor, her anger suppressing her drowsiness.
“Get up; we need to do some test.” Said one of the guys who fed her every three hours or poured that same bucket of water over her, kicking her in the side once and stepping back. Dareli stood, glared at the two men and gathered up the blankets that fell with her. Before jumping back into the bed, wrapped in her blanket and comforter, she simply replied, “No.” The two men stared at the lump beneath the sheets in shock and confusion, turning to each other a few times as if to ask, “What do we do?” Dareli went back to sleep as the two of them went out side, probably to ask their boss what to do.
After a few minutes, the two idiotic big men came back, a huge black body bag slung over one of the shoulders. For a second, Dareli thought it was for her but soon realized the bag was already full with somebody else. They lazily dropped the bag in the corner, unzipping it to reveal a young girl, around 13, with dark brown hair and tan skin. Taking out the familiar cattle prod, they shocked the poor girl, making her jump awake in the bag and fly out into the corner, huddling in fear and pain. One of the men grabbed the body bag and walked out, the other screaming at the terrified girl, telling her shut up. Smiling his sick, satisfied smile, the other man left the girl behind, who sat crying in the corner.
After a few seconds the new girl was sobbing and started screaming, wanting to get out, and saying something about going home. Soon, Dareli got annoyed and sat up in her bed.
“Hey! Shut up! They don’t give a crap about what you have to say or home or anything about you.” Dareli said, hearing the girl gasp, apparently not knowing someone else was there.
“Who…Who’s there? Please don’t hurt me! I DON’T WANT DIE! PLEASE!” The girl became hysterical and started crying again while screaming about things she had to live for. Dareli tried to talk but the young girls sobbing and screaming overpowered her voice.
“HEY!” Dareli finally screamed, getting the girl to quiet down in fear. “I’m one of the good guys! I’m in here with you, the same room, the same mess, the same danger. So Shut up and get over here, they’re not going to do anything for a while so you might as well sleep on something warm then the cold floor.” Dareli said, waiting for the girls reply.
“I can’t see, where are you?” She said finally, her voice cracking as she was on the verge of crying again.
“Just follow the voice and feel around. What’s your name?”
“Shannon…OW!”
“Be careful, it’s all stone crap. What’s your power?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because both my parents are mutants or something and so I should have a power. I’ve been working on finding it, but I can’t. They picked me up in my own backyard while I was practicing for soccer.” Shannon said sadly, finally reaching the bed and climbing in after Dareli made room.
“Well, just go to sleep, we’ll figure out what will happen when it does. Don’t worry and sleep. Here, have some candy.” After figuring the candy had nothing in it after small bites from it day by day, she handed it to Shannon, who ate it eagerly and tried to rest.
The group of seven parked far away from the site, not wanting to be detected and walked out into the dark, forbidding forest. Pam made it rain heavily so if there were cameras around they could not pick up on them so easily. James focused on listening around the pitter patter of rain and see if you could hear anybody else. The rest just waited, Daniel under Devin’s drawn umbrella with his laptop to see how close they were getting. Dylan was far ahead from the group, blending into the background and checking for camera’s or traps. In a line, it was Daniel in front, then Pam, then James, then Devin, then Anthony and finally Kat, who focused on seeing anything in the darkness with her cat eyes. After a half hour or so of walking, Daniel signaled silently to stop, confirming that they were on the edge of where the car disappeared.
The only difference it made was that it was a clearing, no trees in a perfect circle where the car disappeared. Daniel signaled for the others to walk around the outside of the circle, looking for a door after Devin drew each an umbrella or poncho. Daniel’s heart was beating at an alarming rate, hoping against the odds that Dareli was still alive or unharmed.
The door opened and the bright light filled the room as the two staff members turned on the light and wheeled in a rather odd looking wheelchair. It looked like a large dentist chair, except it had arm rest with straps all up to the neck and down the separate leg rest, even across the torso. It was covered in dark brown stains against the black, Dareli having an idea of what the stains were but pushed the thought out of her mind.
Wheeling the chair in, they set it up by the bed and pointed to Dareli, who stared back with no expression. Shannon, on the other hand was terrified and clung on to Dareli, screaming for them to leave her alone.
“YOU CAN’T TAKE HER! PLEASE, JUST LET US GO! DON’T, PLEASE!” Shannon screamed, hanging onto Dareli so tight Dareli could barely breathe. Dareli just whispered into Shannon’s ear, soothing her to let go.
“It’s all right Shannon, I’ll be fine. Just make sure they don’t take you anywhere, if they try, search under the mattress. Be careful, be safe, and above all be calm. Don’t show them your fear.” With that, Shannon let go, her puffy red eyes shining as she watched Dareli stand and sit in the chair. The two men strapped her in from toe to neck; Dareli didn’t say a word or change her expression of boredom and apathy. Before being wheeled out, Dareli gave Shannon a reassuring smile, peering into those scared green eyes one last time before she left.