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I’d already said goodbye to my mother. Even if I hadn’t been labeled as an Aberrant, I’d have been sent to my assigned sector immediately after my test. They wouldn’t tell her where I would be sent to. They never did because they didn’t want parents looking for their children after the designated childrearing time was over. Parents got twenty-one years with their children and not a day more than that. My connection to my mother was permanently severed now. I’d never see her again and she’d never know I’d been sent away.
It was the law.
The sound of the combat boots on the black and white tile floor was loud. They marched me along and I was forced to keep up with their frantic pace. I was led to the end of the hallway, into a simple elevator. The man pressed a button and it started moving down. We went deep underground and when the elevator doors finally opened, it revealed a vastly different world beneath.
There were no happy posters here because there was no need for them. This was a place for those who didn’t fit into the sectors and had no hope of ever joining them. This was a prison for people
like me.
They made me exit the elevator and harshly guided me down another hallway. We passed a number of doors with tiny barred windows that were well above my line of sight. I couldn’t look into them, but I had little doubt that other Aberrants were housed inside each one. The enforcers finally stopped in front of one of them. The man who seemed to be in charge stood in front of the eye scanner and I watched as the blue laser scanned over him. The large rust-colored metal door slid open and I could finally see inside.
There was a very simple cot. A stainless-steel toilet with a roll of toilet paper on top of it. There was nothing else. Not even a book.
“Inside. Your transport will arrive in the morning,” the leader said.
There weren’t any other options for me. I couldn’t run because they’d hurt me. I didn’t know if they were allowed to kill me, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. The government took Aberrants seriously and that was becoming clearer to me by the second.
Earth had ceased being my home the moment my result had popped up on the screen. I realized that now. My life was over.
My feet started to move forward of their own accord. I walked into the dim cell and I didn’t even turn when I heard the door slide closed behind me. I made my way over to the cot and sat down.
I felt numb.
I’d been scared of this happening for so long that I didn’t know how to process my feelings. I had no idea what my future held now, what Kryoan would be like. How the alien who purchased me would treat me. Would he hurt me? Would he have tentacles or four weird beady eyeballs? Would he have teeth like a shark?
I laid back and stared at the flickering light in the ceiling. I don’t know how long I glowered at the stupid thing. Eventually I closed my eyes and tried to doze off. I didn’t cover myself with the cheap polyester blanket and I tossed and turned, but I finally fell into a fitful sleep. For a long time, I didn’t even dream.
At least, until the nightmares started.
Torture. Pain. Cruel alien masters that hurt me whenever they were given the opportunity. The strike of a whip at the smallest hint of defiance. The complete loss of my freedom.
I woke up time and time again in a cold sweat. My heart pounded in my chest and my skin felt clammy. I felt shaky and I finally pushed myself back up to a seated position, feeling even more tired than I had when I first laid down. I tried rubbing my arms in order to chase the chill away, but it didn’t help. Nothing seemed to help.
I wondered how much time had passed. My test had been in the evening after dinner and the enforcer had mentioned that they’d come to collect me in the morning. There was no way for me to figure out if it was still nighttime or if the sun had risen yet. Hidden deep underground, I had no way of knowing.
I felt so helpless.
I don’t know how much time had passed when I started to hear things outside my cell. Loud footsteps. Barking orders. Doors opening.
Mine slid open sometime later, revealing the dim hall I’d been led through to my own cell. There was a single enforcer outside waiting for me.
“Come on. It’s your turn to be loaded,” he instructed forcefully. Left with no other options, I obeyed. He led me down the hallway to yet another elevator. Once we were both inside, we started ascending very quickly to ground level. It started to slow once we rose a few more levels, opening into what appeared to be some sort of spaceport, only with a much more intensive level of security. A number of police officers were stationed throughout the oversized room and they were holding rather terrifying looking guns that were most certainly designed to kill. There were a lot of them.
I went quietly with the enforcer escorting me. He led me through the airport, and I kept my eyes down, not even daring to look out of the big windows that revealed a large number of spaceships docked outside. Finally, we arrived at a gate and were ushered through by two burly and very pissed-off-looking soldiers. We crossed the gangway and entered into what appeared to be a cargo hold, only the perimeter was lined with a multitude of cells. On the right side, men were clustered together against the walls. On the left was where the women were being held.
There were at least fifty others, all Aberrants scheduled to be exiled from Earth and sold like cattle to whomever had enough money to purchase us.
I had felt nothing since I had seen my result. I had felt so numb but now something else was starting to brew deep in the pit of my belly. I was beginning to feel angry and I didn’t fight it. This was unfair. It wasn’t my fault that I’d been different. That I hadn’t fit into any of the sectors. That I wasn’t a perfect, predefined mold that served others and the rest of my community. This was wrong. I didn’t deserve this.
The enforcer pushed me forward into a cell with a few other women. They all cowered against the steel wall, their expressions ones of terror and anxiety. I staggered into the cell and felt my fury grow even stronger. I turned around and glared at the man.
“Have a great fucking life, fuckface,” I snapped as I crossed my arms over my chest.
A shocked gasp came from behind me. I didn’t even turn to look.
The enforcer glared back at me for a moment before he spat in my face.
“Good riddance, you goddamn waste of space. I hope Kryoan treats you just as well as you fucking deserve,” he snapped.
