Suddenly, the truck came to a stop. Many of the Escorts looked around nervously, as if they were trying to see what this situation might become. Garrett moved to put his arms around me protectively. We all sat in earnest for about 5 minutes, until the back door of the truck opened, revealing about 10 very strong and scary looking men. They were holding shackles. Upon seeing the men many of the Escorts backed away towards the back wall. Their attempts were futile.
The biggest man in the middle held a giant megaphone. He spoke into it promptly. "Get your ass's up, traitor scum, and assemble into lines of 10 facing the door. Do it quickly, and if you don't obey we won't hesitate to use force." As he said this, the hand not holding the megaphone went to his belt where a taser was located. I felt Garrett bristle next to me, his anger rippling through him.
"Don't," I said harshly, looking up at him with pleading eyes. He nodded, but remained rigid. Many of the Escorts began to stand, and I followed their lead. I needed to learn when to fight my battles if I wanted to withstand Dystonia's punishment. Garrett stood as well. We then began forming lines like cattle. Suddenly, I heard an outburst from the other side of the truck.
"Fucking pigs! That's what you are, horrible disgusting pigs. If you even think I am going to be herded into lines like cattle waiting to be killed, then you need to get your heads out of your ass's!" A man with long shaggy hair was screaming this to the guards with shackles, and looking absolutely crazy. When some of the guards came over to him, he managed to put up some sort of a fight. He punched one squarely in the nose, and blood spurt out to all corners. Grabbing the man's head, he then threw him face first into another guard. Their heads met with a sickening crack, and they crumpled to the ground. It was too late at this point however. He was finally surrounded, and without time to even say a word, was tasered harshly until he fell to the floor. Once unconscious, the main guard walked over to the man's still body, and lifted him by his hair.
"Let this be your example," he said shortly, and then dropped the man where he was. Nervously, I got into a line, with Garrett right behind me. Hell if I was going to be tasered to unconsciousness. I inwardly saluted the man who put up a fight, but knew that if that were me, I would have never lasted as long as him.
Once everyone had been assorted into lines, the guards came by and shackled us all together. The metal was heavy and cold, and (I realized quickly) impossible to break or get off. In fact, the metal was too cold, and too clean. I wondered if maybe the military had started using the new kinds of metals we had recently found out in space. It wouldn't surprise me necessarily, our country was known for making huge advances in science and, most importantly, in the military. I quickly cast the thought aside. I would probably never find out, anyways.
The lines began to move, and before I knew it we had all started walking in the direction of a large and horrible looking concrete building. It was surrounded by an electric fence, and there were no windows or simple looking doors. It reminded me exactly like a prison. It probably was a prison. The only thing that made me doubt it was that Dystonia usually had a much more secure system than a simple electric fence. However, other features could be hidden.
Finally, we were lead through a giant heavy lead door, and into the building. There, we were once again herded into a large square and empty room with the exception of two stair cases on either side of the room, both leading down into the ground. The guards gathered once more in front of us all, and the one with the megaphone continued to speak.
"Well, I'm a little surprised that that went as well as it did. In fact, I'm a little disappointed. I was really hoping for one of you bastards to put up a fight so I could kill one of you. Oh well. It will happen at some point," he chuckled at this, and the rest of the guards joined in on the laughter.
God they were horrible. They were only one of the many examples as to why our country was so fucked up. To be able to treat other humans like that, hell their own people, it took something, a darkness I didn't understand or want to understand. I looked up expectantly at Garrett, preparing myself for his angry glares. However, he was already looking at me. I don't know what he was thinking, but I could only guess that his thoughts closely resembled mine.
"Alright, I guess I've wasted enough time daydreaming," continued the guard, smirking horribly. "I need all females to go to the right wall, and males to the left. That's right, hurry it up now." Quickly, everyone shuffled to the opposite sides of the walls. It was time for me to part with Garrett, and as he left for his side of the room, he quickly grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently, looking into my eyes.
"Those green eyes. I will never forget them," and he turned his face away from mine.
"Garrett stop! We will see each other again, I promise!" I yelled a little to loudly. At this, a few of the guards looked over to where I was, and began hastily walking towards me. Garrett turned again to face me.
"Don't make promises you can't keep," he smiled sadly, and started again to walk away from me.
"Garrett! God dammit, don't leave me!" I screamed harshly, tears threatenting to pour and panic taking over my entire body, pushing out any sort of reason. However, he didn't turn around this time, and I began to run towards him. This was too much too fast. I couldn't lose my best friend, the one who had kept with me through all of this bullshit. However, before I could go very far, I felt the back of a strong hand come into contact with my face. My jaw lurched sideways, and I crumpled to the ground, landing with a gasp while clutching my right cheek.
"What part of get to the right side of the room don't you understand, traitor scum?" yelled the guard who had knocked me to the ground. He began stomping back towards me, and at this I scrambled away to the wall. "That's what I thought."
I glanced hopefully towards Garrett, expecting him to react to the outburst. However, he wasn't even looking over at me. He stared blankly at the wall in front of him, as if nothing had happened.
What the hell? So he could just go from "caring" so much about me to not even raising an eyebrow when I was thrown to the floor? I could feel tears sliding down my cheeks, but willed them to stop. There would be plenty of time to wallow in sadness later.
"Alright, both men and women, go down the staircase on your side of the wall," said the main guard, and after took his mouth away from the megaphone and said something to his fellow men. They nodded quickly in agreement, and promptly split up evenly, half going with the women and half with the men. The main one came with us, except he ditched the megaphone and gave it to a guard on the other side. I figured this was because there was definitely more men then women.
We began to head down the stairs, and I looked one last time to Garrett. Again, he was staring blankly forward. I looked back down, sadness and disappointment flooding my emotions. I needed to stop thinking about Garrett. It was time for me to look out for myself, and think about the situation at hand, and how I was going to get out of it.
My cheek still burned furiously, and I knew that there would probably be a bruise underneath my eye. Still, I wanted to think about the situation at hand. The stairwell I walked down was like the room above; dark, dank, and made of concrete. We had to be in a prison of some sort. Maybe not a permanent one, but one where we would start our journey as prisoners. Finally, the stairway ended, and turned into a dark hallway, lighted by the occasional flickering light bulbs located on the ceiling. It was extremely eerie.
The hallway eventually opened up into a large room, filled with showerheads and drains. There were also multiple doors on the walls. I counted, and found that there were 10 showers and 10 doors. It seemed a little weird for a prison, but it wasn't as if I knew how prisons looked.
"Okay, strip off your cloths and put them in this bag right here," said the main guard as he held up a large black garbage bag. Many of the women looked reluctant at first, until the guard spoke up again. "If you can't do it yourself, I'm sure I've got a few guys here who would love to do it for you," he smirked evilly. At this, most of us began stripping off our clothes and putting them in the bag as they got passed around. However, I still was anxious. I didn't want to get stark naked in front of these rejects. The only action they probably ever got was from their boss's sex slaves. Still, I didn't want to get hit again, so I stripped, quickly taking of my shirt, pants, and socks. When I was down to my bra and underwear, it took more willpower to get those items off. I swiftly unhooked my nude cotton bra, and slipped the straps down my arms until my breasts were fully exposed to the cold air. At the reaction, my pink nipples hardened quickly.
I had never had large breasts, but I was perfectly fine with my size; 34c. With a small waist, and medium sized hips, my figure created a proportional hourglass, and I had always considered myself pretty average at 130 pounds, with the exception of my height. I usually ended up towering over women in Dystonia, who were on average about 5'3. I, however, was about 5'9. I was fine with that, and usually fine with my body, with the exception of my hips, which had always been too large for my taste. I remember when I was 16 coming home from school and begging my mom to let me get a surgery to saw down the size of my hipbones. She was quite surprised by my request.
"Honey, now why the hell would you want to do that?"
