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I felt him slap me as I was sleeping and my eyes snapped open to find one of the masked guards standing over my bed.
“What’s going on?” I asked, blinking to clear my blurry vision. I didn’t expect to fall asleep when I laid down earlier, but I guess I was more exhausted than initially thought.
“I said get up,” he barked, and lifted his hand to cuff my head one more time. I rolled away at the last minute and he only managed to nudge the back of my skull, but it still hurt.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed and rolled to the side, sat up and then stood to glare at his masked face. I could see dark blue eyes behind it, and noticed fine wrinkles around the edges before he stepped back in shock. He was older than me, probably in his late thirties or forties. “Do you get off on this, you old pig?”
He didn’t respond to that in any way. He simply said, “You are required in the courtyard. Come with me or you will be punished.”
“Required for what?” I demanded and took a step towards him.
He raised his hand, and that’s when I noticed the short, black baton he was carrying. “You must obey or you will be punished.”
I hated how arrogant his voice was, so despite my fear and confusion, I crossed my arms in front of me and said, “No. Fuck you.”
He lifted the black baton higher and pressed it against my shoulder. I was about to laugh at him, but a jolt of red hot fire exploded into my flesh and I heard a loud ZAP echo in my ears.
My knees buckled and I fell to the ground. I grabbed my shoulder and yelled, “Fuck! Why’d you do that?”
“You must obey or you will be punished. That was only on setting number one.”
“How many settings are there?” I asked, rubbing my tender muscle and breathing through the throbbing ache that radiated from the point of contact.
“Fifteen,” he replied. “Now get up and follow me to the courtyard.”
I obeyed this time. I walked behind him and past another guard stationed at my door. I saw Penny and Ryker following behind with guards of their own and similar looks of misery on their faces. Penny had on a silky nightgown like mine, and Ryker was dressed in simple silky boxers. They were both barefoot, like me.
I wondered if they’d tested the guards and found out about the black baton like I did. The ozone scent of burning electrical contact hanging in the air suggested they had.
I followed the first guard through the door at the end of the hallway, then as he turned sharply to the right and down another corridor to a room filled with tables and chairs. It was all industrial, exactly what I would expect to see in a prison facility, a stark contrast to the comfortable finishings of our room cells.
I glanced back to see them walking behind us and caught Ryker’s eye. He looked like he was in rough shape, but he gave me a wink that would suggest otherwise. He seemed like the type of guy who would still try to pound me hard, even if he was in pain. Hell, he probably liked the pain with pleasure. He was that edgy, right to his core.
I followed the man through the room, and past a guard post, and towards metal double doors. He held his hand up to a box on the side of one door. A green light scanned him, and the doors clicked open.
He pushed, and the rest of us trailed behind. Despite having eaten and slept, I was still weak and hadn’t showered. Nothing felt right about my body or my mind. My shoulder stung from the baton zap and my heart was heavy at being a captive.
The moment we stepped outside, the glaring sunlight blinded me. I stopped and felt somebody walk into me from behind.
“Keep moving,” he said and roughly shoved me along. I blinked to adjust to the light and felt my eyes water up. Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I lifted my hand to wipe them away. My feet were tender on the rocky ground but nobody cared. I was shoved hard again to keep moving.
After a few steps, I was able to see clearly. I looked around, back towards the building we’d just left, but it was just one of five buildings in a row.
I looked ahead and saw a couple of large outbuildings, like airplane hangars, with guard towers located along a tall chain-link fence that was topped with razor sharp wire. It felt more like a prison out here. It couldn’t get more cliché as a prison if it had tried, and if I hadn’t been so filled with fear and sorrow, I might have laughed at it. But I was, so I kept my lips pressed into a grim line and marched on.
We walked towards the largest of outbuildings resembling one of the big industrial warehouses in Oakville, but this one was far from home. Outside of the fence, the landscape looked dry and barren and was filled with low, scrubby brush with no trees in sight.
The guard held up his hand and signaled for us to stop, so we did. Penny was on my right side, Ryker was on my left.
I glanced at Penny, and she looked okay. She was tired, and she had deep circles under her eyes, while her hair was limp and hung in dank curls around her face. Otherwise, she looked okay.
“Hey,” I whispered, and she nodded at me, clearly afraid to reply in front of the guards.
“Hey,” Ryker said to get my attention, and I turned towards him. As soon as I looked into his eyes, I wanted to melt. I wanted to forget about everything and let it all dissolve around the two of us. I wanted to fall into his arms and let him protect me, to tell him about Kingston and let myself forget about everything happening around me.
“They shot him,” I said, choking on my clenched throat again, like I did every time I thought about Kingston.
“Who?” Ryker asked, standing straighter. He winced as he reached his full height, put his hand on his ribs, and hunched over once more. “Who did they shoot?”
