"17, you're up!" he heard barked at him through the door.
He'd just spent his first restless night at this place. At least he got a place to sleep alone. The first two weeks in the other sleeping area had been agony. Stripped naked, blasted with hot soapy water then torturously waxed bare β for what?! What did he do to deserve this?! He couldn't get any answers either. From the moment he woke up at the facility he was forbidden to speak. He learned that the hard way after a few days. Every time he began to ask a question or speak in any way to the doctors β at least that's what he thought they were β he received a sharp chop across the throat. It gagged and choked him. He couldn't understand why he was being treated this way. At 18, he was an adult now but being treated like an animal or some slab of meat.
The food was good and after the dreadful body wax, he was more or less comfortable. He just couldn't find any reason why he was here, surrounded by all these people wearing medical scrubs. It seemed like some kind of cross between a prison, hospital, and resort. He would occasionally see other guys, perhaps a few years older and far more muscular, but he never had the chance to talk to any of them. They were always chaperoned and lead around on leashes β surely they were all prisoners here, but for what?
A loud electronic buzzing at the door to his room startled him. The door swung open and in walked a gruff looking orderly. "Up!" he commanded.
17 quickly jumped to his feet from his small chair. The attendant grabbed hold of a collar and attached a leash as if he were some sort of animal. "Let's go."
17 shuffled behind the orderly as they went down a long corridor full of closed doors that must be other cells. It was all so dark when he was put into his room last night. He looked at some of the other staff of the facility that exchanged glances back. They would snicker to one another then go back about their tasks, making notes on clipboards, reviewing lists, shaking vials.
The orderly walked to the end of the corridor and sat 17 down in one of four chairs sitting along the wall. The orderly walked over to an open door where another attendant, a lady, was standing; both peered in the room. The two exchanged words, chuckled a bit then the male attendant that brought him here began to walk away. "Stay here" he commanded. 17 glanced over at the orderly in the door way that was still gazing in the room. She looked back down at 17 then back into the room.
He could hear some repetitious commotion in the room - nothing eerie or terrifying, just that there were others in the room behind him. He heard a some papers rustling, things being shifted around and then the attendant in the door disappeared in the room. Moments later she emerged holding a leash followed closely by a guy a few years older than him, only bigger and stronger, and the poor chap was walking bowlegged. He had a brow of perspiration and he was slow and lethargic. "He must be sick, poor fellow," he thought.