Coming Out Ch 1
The Road to Desire
They marched us out of our living area and along a grey hall. There was only one place they could be taking us. The Bidding Hall. Most of us had just graduated from the Learning System and turned eighteen. Those with the best marks got offered to the rich families. Those with lower marks got sent to the labourer cities and turned into breeding stock.
We went through a door and into a very bright white room. On the far side were a group of people all dressed in expensive suits or dresses. These would be the representatives of the families. The people charged with buying what was needed.
A wide black line in the middle of the floor demarcated how far we were to go. I adjusted my drab grey shift and tried to fix my dirty hair into something that didn't look like a tangle of thatch.
The sale started with little fanfare. The reps consulted tablets and made their choices. We would be asked to step forward and strip so we could be looked at closely. They were technically allowed to come over and touch us if they wanted. That didn't happen very often, though.
"Two six seven four eight, step forward and disrobe," came the command.
I did as I was told. I pulled my shift over my head and stood with my hands at my sides as I'd been taught at school. One of the reps made a twirling motion with his hand. I turned around slowly. He nodded his head once.
I put my shift back on and followed a guard out of the room. We turned left out of the door and made our way down a different corridor. I obviously wasn't being taken back to my living area. I guessed I wasn't going to be allowed to take my few pathetic possessions with me. I should've been sad, but somehow I wasn't.
We walked for several minutes until we came to another room. There were multiple nozzles about three quarters of the way up grey tiled walls. A shower.
"Strip," I was commanded by a voice coming from a speaker mounted just to the right of the door.
I took my shift off and stepped to one of the shower nozzles. A few seconds later a hard stream of cold water came shooting out. There was no soap or shampoo to wash myself with.
"Just let the water get most of the grime off. Remember to soak your head as well. You have two minutes," came the voice.
I soaked myself as thoroughly as I could. With about twenty seconds left I stuck my head under the water and got my hair wet. The water shut off and I stood there shivering. Another door opened and a middle aged woman came in carrying a small white bundle. She dropped it on the only chair in the place.
"Dry off and then put it on," she said with a dead voice.
I went to the chair and lifted the bundle. It was a white shift. Nothing else. No towel. I started drying myself with the shift. I then put it on. It was made of a fairly thick material. I looked down at myself and saw it wasn't see through. The same guard as before came in through the door that the woman had come through. He held it open and nodded towards it.
I followed him down another hall to a bank of elevators. He pressed a button and a few seconds later one of the doors opened. He motioned for me to get on. I had only been on an elevator once before and I was nervous. The guard got on after me and pressed the number four on the control panel. We rode up in silence.
When we got to the fourth floor, the door opened onto a large paved area. Several aircars and an airvan were parked there. The guard motioned for me to get off. As I did a woman flanked by two large men came towards me.
"Two six seven four eight? Come with me," she said. "Some one get this poor girl a towel for her hair. Honestly, we pay good money for her and they send her out like this? She could catch pneumonia and then where would we be?"
One of the men handed me a towel as we moved over to the airvan. He opened the rear door and motioned for me to get in. I did so. The outside of the van was nondescript and painted a dull white colour. The inside wasn't much better. The only thing that broke up the colour monotony were several black safety belts that were placed every metre or so along both sides. I took one of the middle seats and put the safety belt on. As I did this, the door was shut and locked.
I had no idea where I was going or who had bought me, but I was hoping it would be better than the hell I was leaving behind...
The airvan landed on a pad in the middle of a clearing. All around were trees and more trees. I had read about them, but never seen one. The scents that I smelled were almost overwhelming. Grass, moss, tree bark, leaf matter. It was all so amazing. I stood in one spot and just turned around and around until I almost fell over from dizziness. The woman and her guards let me experience all this for several minutes, until they realized they were behind schedule and we needed to get going.
I was put in the back of another white van, this one a ground vehicle. I had just finished putting on my safety belt when the vehicle surged forward and began to drive. We passed over countless bumps in the road. Trees pressed in on both sides of the vehicle. I wanted to ask if the driver could open a window for me, but I kept my mouth shut.
We finally came to a halt in a compound. I was let out of the van. There were buildings everywhere. Some were multi storey structures, some squat and one storey. They were all made from artificial wood. On the roofs were solar panels. In between the buildings were banks of solar cells. The forest around the compound had been cleared back more than ten metres to allow the collection of as much of the sun's rays as possible. On a hill a short distance from where we stood was a miniature electrical generating station.
The woman came over to me, took my arm and led me into one of the smaller structures. Inside was an examining table and various medical instruments.
"Several nurses are going to be coming to see you shortly. You have nothing to worry about. They're going to give you a few injections, take blood and measurements," she told me in a quiet voice. "Put on this gown, please."
She left the room and I removed my shift and put on the gown. I sat on the table and found myself getting cold. A couple of minutes later three nurses came in.
"Please lie down and try to relax," one of them said.
As I lay there, they circled around me. One took blood, another used a hand scanner to get my height and other measurements. A sensor built into the table told them my weight. The third nurse injected me with multiple hypo sprays. I was told they were vitamins and other things to help improve my health. I heard them murmuring to each other about the poor state I was in.