Experiment #13

The Room

There was nowhere left for Lina to go. Stuck in the corner of an uncomfy bed in a concrete prison. Lina was alone for a long time, still listening to her music. She went from sitting against the wall, to lying flat on her back with her iPod resting on her stomach, her fingers curled around it. She kept the volume low, hoping whoever opened the door again wouldn't catch her with it.

With her eyes closed, Lina imagined she was back in the car, pillow on the window, blanket over her legs, her dad still driving the car, knowing that they were getting ever closer to their destination. But every time she opened her eyes, it made her more upset. Her music kept her calm, but it wasn't enough to help her process what was happening around her.

She didn't know what this place was, or what they were doing.

She didn't know where her dad was either, and that thought brought tears to her eyes.

That was until she heard heavy footsteps approaching and Lina quickly sat up, pausing her song, ripping the earbuds out of her ears and shoving her iPod under her flat pillow. The metal door opened up with a bang and a guard from outside pushed a little girl into the room before slamming it shut and locking it.

The little girl with the purple shirt stood in front of the door, her head hanging down, looking at the floor. Lina could see her shivering, and she heard her sniff a couple times. She looked upset.

Lina sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her.

"Uh... hey..... Hey, are you okay? Did... did something happen?" Lina asked quietly.

The little girl immediately walked over to her bed and climbed on top of it, pulling her legs close into her chest and burying her head in her knees.

"Hey... it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you, okay?"

The little girl began to weep softly to herself and she began wiping the tears from her face. Lina wanted to comfort her, but wasn't sure how. The little girl kept wiping the tears on her arms, occasionally glancing up at Lina. It looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't.

"Hey... it's alright. I don't think they can hurt us here... Can I..... Can I sit next to you?"

Lina pulled her iPod out from underneath the pillow, shoving it in her back pocket before slowly getting up and sitting next to the little girl on the corner of her bed, giving her a little room to herself.

"You... you don't have to be afraid of me, I-"

The little girl suddenly reached out and wrapped her hands around Lina's waist, her head pressing into her shoulder and she started to bawl out loud. Lina was very surprised by this action and froze for a while, just letting the girl cry into her. After a while, the little girl tried to calm down, still wiping the snot and tears onto her already messy arms and Lina did her best to comfort her.

"What happened? Are you okay..? Did they do... something to you?"

The little girl just shook her head and brushed her long brown hair behind her.

"How long... have you been here?"

The little girl hiccuped, sniffed, and tried to speak.

"I-I..... I don't know. A-a... A l-long time..."

"..... How old are you?"

The little girl sniffed, still refusing to look up at Lina, "F-f... Five."

"You're five years old?" Lina said in a surprised tone.

That's so young, what are they doing keeping all these kids here? She's so small!

The little girl began to calm down more and moved her face away from Lina's shoulder. Lina noticed her shirt felt a little damp, but she didn't mind.

"H-h... How... How old are you?" she asked.

"I'm, uh... I'm twelve. But actually... my birthday is in a few days, so..... I'll be thirteen soon."

The little girl looked up at Lina, her eyes still wet.

"Your birthday? When is it?"

Lina held up four fingers for her, "4 days."

She and Lina sat in silence for another moment. The little girl pulled up the edge of her blanket and wiped her face with it, which Lina thought was gross, but she didn't say anything. At least she seemed calm now. But Lina couldn't stand to see her so sad. That was... until she got an idea.

"Hey, do you wanna see something?"

The little girl lifted her head as Lina reached into her back pocket and pulled out her iPod. She unwrapped the cords and let the girl look at it in her palm.

"What is that?" she asked.

"It's, uh... It was an early birthday present... from my mom. You know what this is?"

"...No."

"It's an iPod. Like, a music player. I love listening to music and I wanted one of these for a long time."

"You're not allowed to have that."

"Yeah, I know. But I was able to hide it. I'm not letting anyone get this. You wanna listen to it?"

The little girl nodded and Lina handed her one of the earbuds, instructing her to put it in her ear and Lina did the same with the other one. She scrolled through the various albums she had and let the girl pick one.

They sat and listened to music for a long while. Lina hoped the music was as comforting to the girl as it was to her.

"Oh, by the way... what's your name?"

"Hm? Oh... I'm Poppy."

"Poppy? That's cute. My name's Lina."

"...Lina?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I have one of these too?"

"Yeah, maybe one day. What color would you want?"

"Purple."

"Purple? Like your shirt?"

"Yeah."

They suddenly heard heavy footsteps approaching the door and Lina ripped away the iPod and quickly shoved it into her back pocket. Poppy scooted away from her to the other end of the bed as a guard opened the door and peered inside.

"You. Thirteen. Come with me."

Lina subtly pushed the iPod deep into her pocket, hoping the earbud wire wasn't sticking out anywhere before she slowly stood up and followed the guard out of the room. She glanced back at Poppy before the guard pulled her away and locked the door. She was pushed back outside, into the elevator and back down a couple floors, where she was led once again into Cass's office. Lina didn't think they'd be meeting each other this often. She needed no invitation to sit down in the metal chair.

"Hey, Lina! You settling in okay?"

"Um... I dunno. Uh... what time is it, how long was I waiting? I thought they didn't need anything else from me today?"

"I thought so too! It's only been a couple hours since I fully processed you. Approval doesn't usually happen so quickly..."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing! I guess they're just excited to start working with you!"

"Huh...? Working with what? What are they going to do with me?"

"Oh, they just want to get started with some tests, and don't worry, you'll be fine! Oh, and before I forget..." Cass leaned forward to whisper to Lina, "I'll keep your iPod safe while you're down there, they might be working with you for a while."

"Oh, yeah. Sure."

Lina pulled her iPod out of her pocket and handed it to Cass who put it in her cabinet drawer for safe keeping. She started typing something into her computer before turning back to Lina.

"Yep, they should be done with you by... the end of the day."

A thought popped into Lina's mind.

"..... What about the other kids?"

"... What?"

"You know there are like... hundreds of other kids here, right? Do... do they get tested too?"

"Some of them do. But you Lina, you're a special kid."

"What...? But then... why are you locking them up like this is a prison?" Lina retorted.

Cass laughed to herself, "What? Lina, this isn't a prison! We're here to help them."

"But-"

The door behind them flew open, making Lina jump as another man in a lab coat entered.

"Oh, sorry if I'm interrupting anything. Is this thirteen?" he asked, gesturing to Lina.

"Ah, yes she is! And dont' worry, you're not interrupting anything. Just waiting for you to come get her."

Cass looked back at Lina.

"Go ahead, Lina. They're ready for you."

Lina opened her mouth to say more, but shut it and looked at the man standing in front of her. She sighed and followed him back out into the hall and into the elevator. Her nerves rising as her mind began to race. Where was she being taken to this time? What were they going to do to her now? The man beside her said nothing.

The elevator moved downwards for a long while and when they stepped out, they walked down a long hallway together, but there weren't any doors on either side of the walls. Just a pair of doors in front of them, with a keypad beside it. Lina waited in front of the doors as the man entered a code on the keypad.

"Once we're inside, don't touch anything. Just follow me."

Lina nodded. The doors unlocked with a loud beeped and the man opened them for Lina. The entire room before them was blanketed in darkness, to the point where Lina could hardly see anything. She just looked down at the man's feet to follow him. But as her vision adjusted to the darkness, she started noticing what was actually in the room around her. They almost looked like... no... they couldn't be.

Cages...

Cages large and small stacked on top of each other lining the entire room. Lina's heart raced the more she looked at them and she began to feel more nervous. When they reached the end of the room, they stopped at another pair of double doors, the light coming through the small rectangular windows lit up their feet. The man started typing in a code on the keypad to unlock the door. As Lina stood still, she was unaware of a long hand reaching out and suddenly grabbing her shoe. She screamed loudly and started shaking her leg. The man quickly looked over and started kicking at it.

"No! Get back! Stop it, get back!"

The arm suddenly let go and shrank back into the bars of its cage. Lina breathed heavily, her eyes wide with fear. The man typed in the rest of the code, unlocking the doors and pulling Lina into the next hallway.

"C'mon, this way."

"Wh- what..... What was that?"

"Don't think about it, it doesn't matter."

Lina looked back down at the floor as thoughts collided and raced through her mind.

What is this place? What are they really going to do to her?