WHO ARE YOU?

He opened his eyes, though he could barely see anything due to his cloudy vision, after a few minutes his vision started getting clear. He found himself in a huge dark room with around 80-100 people in it who were sleeping or sitting on the ground. The room was quite dark as not even a single ray of sunlight reached in it. Each person was placed 5 feet apart from the other in a systematic order. He felt itching on his neck and when he went to scratch it, his hands touched a chain that was wrapped around his neck. He was shocked to see that. He then noticed that the chain was locked up with a hook attached to the ground which means he cannot possibly move around over here. He looked around and saw that everyone was in the same situation as him, all were trying to figure out where they were and what place this was. His eyes caught that there were some flies which were flying on the top of his left leg, he waved his hand over his leg to move the flies away and flipped his left leg and as soon as he did that he was shocked and scared to see his whole calf was covered in blood, he wiped the blood with his bare hands and what he saw was that a number was carved on his leg with a sharp object. "144" he read the number which was carved on his leg. It was causing him pain but his mind was occupied noticing the other injuries on his body. Swelling on his forehead and the gunshot on his right hand. A creaking sound echoed in the room when 2 officers wearing a blue-colored uniform with the word "CENTRIA" written on it entered the room. One was carrying a paper in his hand and the other was carrying a key. "144" read the officer from the paper in his hand. While reading the word written on their uniforms he got a pretty good idea of where exactly he was. "I see," he said to himself. One officer pointed towards him while the other started approaching him and opened up the lock with the key in his hand, and grabbed one end of the chain with his hand, the officer forcefully pulled the chain tied on his neck giving him a jerk. "Let's get going." Said the officer but he was not capable of standing on his own feet. The officer grunted and dragged him out of the room pulling the chain. Outside the room, he saw a lobby, which was a closed space with only metal doors. He remained calm, after being dragged down the floor for a couple of minutes the officers stopped by the door and opened it. As he entered the room he noticed that the room was quite small but had one more door in it which led to another room, the room in which he was had a table and two chairs, at one end there was a fair blue-eyed lady with blonde hair wearing a black coat sitting on a chair. The other chair was empty and had several drops of blood on it. The floor also had trails of blood, as if someone was dragged in and out of this room several times just like him. The soldier picked him up and made him sit on the chair. "Prisoner No. 144, Mr, Ali afreed Hussain, age 31 years, marital status single. Nice to meet you, myself Paula A Guard." Said the lady reading all this information from a file placed on the table. "Prisoner?" Questioned Afreed. "Well, you are a prisoner over here." Said Paula. "Hm-mh, this is Centria after all." Sarcastically said Afreed. "Quite observant" Said Paula as if she was a little impressed. "Why am I here?" Asked Afreed. "Your nation 'The great Southern empire' lost the war against us. You all were taken into our custody. Your country has provided us with all the information regarding their missing soldiers with a request to free you all from our custody. But….. I don't think so we would do that just like that. " Answered Paula. "What's the catch?" Questioned Afreed looking straight into Paula's eyes. Paula was astonished, after she processed the situation, she gave a slight smile and asked "Aren't you a little too confident and straight forward?" "And what if I am?" Asked Afreed arrogantly. After hearing what Afreed said the officer pulled the chain giving a jerk to him. "Ahh!" Exclaimed Afreed out of pain. "You see? There's not much you can do." Said Paula. "Would you just tell me why am I here?" Asked Afreed frustrated. "Okay, so this is how it is. You all Southern soldiers are currently in the custody of Centria, if it was up to the government you all would have been dead, but you aren't, we are giving you all a chance." Explained Paula. "By 'we' you mean?" Asked Afreed. "Us! The research administration. Professionally I am a scientist and we need you all to assist us in an experiment." Said Paula. "Huh! Basically you want us to be lab rats." Said Afreed giving a sarcastic laugh. "Aww, don't be like that, see if the experiment goes well, what you get is freedom. And even if the experiment is a failure you will be freed as you did your part of the work. But we need your 100 percent cooperation. After agreeing with us, if you back out what you get is not death, it's suffering for the rest of your life." Said Paula. "And what's this experiment about?" Asked Afreed with concern. " I won't go into details, it's simple, what you have to do is stay awake, do not sleep. For 30 days." Said Paula. Afreed laughed. "Haha, I don't think I am technically capable of performing this task." Said Afreed "Don't you worry, due to the medications we will provide you with, your body won't be able to sleep, even if you want to." Said Paula. "In short, you are just gonna drug me." Said Afreed "Hmm, that's one way to put it." Said Paula. "And what if I don't agree to do it?" Asked Afreed. "Then this will turn out to be a war-refugee case, which might turn into a class action due to a huge number of refugees. Then the NC (nation's committee) will come to a conclusion after days, months, years blah blah blah god knows!" Said Paula. "BULLSHIT!!". Exclaimed Afreed. "Sorry?" Asked Paula. "I really don't have a choice, do I? If I say no here, your officer takes out the gun he has been hiding, shoots me and drags me to the other room, whose door is right behind us and brings some other refugee from the stock you are having." Said Afreed. "Hm-hm, you noticed the trails of blood on the floor didn't you?. Haha, an intelligence agent after all." Said Paula. Afreed started staring at her in a confused state. "How do you know that?" Asked Afreed. "Your country was desperate my dear, they were like an open book and babbled out all the information. A secret intelligence agent isn't that bad, you must be getting handsomely paid. But coming to the point, now that you have said it and you know that you don't have a choice then we shall proceed, according to the file you have 4 more brothers, out of which one is dead, and other three are in our custody as refugees, so you have a task. We need 4 subjects for this experiment, one is you and the other 3 can be your brothers if you convince them to get involved in this experiment. I guess it will be good for all of you, to be handed over to your country, you will be regarded as war heroes who were ready to sacrifice themselves and all that same old patriotism s**t. But remember, you shall warn them that this experiment requires hundred percent cooperation. Said Paula. "I will think about----" "It was not a request." Interrupted Paula, smiling at him. "Understood." Said Afreed. " Hmm, I think I have given you enough information, now you have got a task to convince your brothers to agree to cooperate. I will give you the room with them for a while." Paula opened the file on the table and read out "160,169 and 123. Officers get these refugees." The officer marked the numbers on the piece of paper he was having and left the room with the other officer. "I have a question." Said Afreed. "What is it?" Asked Paula. "Why give this chance? To let me go with my family out of here alive?" Paula opened the file again and read out "Ali Afreed Hussain, Male, fertile, no health complications, healthy weight, grade 1 undercover intelligence agent, grade 3 elite soldier, attack strategist of base camp no. 34 of the Southern army. 8 medals in the first 5 years of service." "Are you praising me?" "I am trying to say that your body, your background makes you the perfect candidate for this experiment, you are our prime test subject, and your brothers will be our subordinate test subjects. And this experiment requires full cooperation, so I expect it's a pretty good deal for all of you to get back to your country in one piece, if you convince your brothers to cooperate that is." The 2 officers entered the room followed by 3 prisoners dragged down by chains. "Well, I will give you the room, make sure you complete your task, or else……" Paula raised her eyebrows and left the rooms and so did the officers. The three prisoners stood up and they all looked at Afreed. Afreed saw them he smiled with tears dropping from his eyes, he rushed towards them and so did the three of them out of joy and they hugged each other. Afreed closed his eyes and said "You don't know how relieved I am right now, to see you all alive."