The Misfits

Elias

It reminded Elias so much of Star Trek that he expected the swishing noise when they opened. The lead man walked into a corridor and the talker said, “Follow.”

Elias replied, “Aye, Captain,” in his best ensign voice, knowing that most likely none of them would understand the reference.

Walking into the corridor, Elias looked around. Everything was a sterile white, like a hospital. It even had that astringent smell that hospitals had.

Elias had no real dislike of hospitals, but this place gave him the creeps. For one, it was eerily silent. It was like there was some building wide noise dampening going on. Their footsteps even seemed muffled and while they were in an empty corridor they should have echoed, but they didn’t.

Elias looked around while they walked but didn’t see anything that could help explain why they had taken him or why he was here.

All the doors they passed were closed and none were marked with more than numbers, all being at least four digits long. At least they seemed to be sequential, but his hopes of trying to remember his way by numbers was dashed when, as they turned time after time, the numbers changed drastically enough that trying to remember numbers. He soon gave up trying.

After several minutes of walking in what seemed like random directions meant to confuse Elias, they turned up a corridor that was different. This one was a dead end and the right side seemed to be made entirely of glass.

Looking, he saw that it was a room inside. At least he guessed it was as it seemed to be mostly empty space, but he did see a bed. He also saw a sink, and enclosed space beside it that looked to be straight out of a prison movie. It had a minimum amount of cover to give someone a feeling of privacy, although they were mostly out in the open.

He guessed it was the toilet. There was also an enclosed cube closet to the glass wall that had a frosted strip that he guessed covered the average person (adolescent, child?) so as to not give everyone a free show. Unless you were extremely short or tall that was.

Elias wasn’t sure how well the frosted glass would obscure a person inside what he was guessing was a shower.

He felt himself turning red thinking about being forced to bathe inside it.

Movement caught his eye. He had overlooked someone standing almost in the center of the room. It was a girl with long black hair who appeared to be about his age or maybe slightly older.

She had an exotic look to her, and Elias thought she had some sort of Asian ancestry, although which he couldn’t tell. He was horrible at things like that.

She was wearing white scrubs, so she blended in mostly with the background, which is probably why he missed her. The girl frowned and then gave him a sad little wave.

Elias started to wave back but a guard behind him pushed him forward. He continued on but turned his hand that was at his side palm outward towards the girl and waggled his fingers, hoping that she would get the idea that he was waving back.

The glass wall continued on past the wall that was six inches thick and separated the girl’s room from another.

Looking into it, Elias saw it was a mirror image of the other room and it didn’t look to contain anyone.

The guard in front of him stopped about halfway across the room. Elias didn’t see any kind of door or any way in. The man put his hand to the glass, and it lit up like a computer screen. A section of the glass next to that slide up into the ceiling.

Elias hadn’t seen any lines in the glass to indicate it had sections or there was a door there.

The talker said, “Inside,” and Elias knew there was no sense in fighting it, so he stepped through into the room. He turned back around to see the glass slide back down into place, sealing him into the room.

Once again, he couldn’t see any seams in the glass.

The cuffs around his wrists clicked open and fell to the ground without anyone touching them.

He pounded on the glass as he watched the two guards walk off back the way they came.

The glass was thick, and he doubted the men could hear him through it.

Turning around, he grabbed the handcuffs and threw them at the glass, hoping it would break the glass, but they only bounced off, not even leaving a scratch.

Elias wondered how many other kids were in here. The only one he saw looked to be a captive as well, so he figured that everyone here was being held against their will except for the ones working here.

He had walked past a good number of doors, one of which were glass like his, the girl next to him, and possibly someone on the other side of him, as there was enough room down the corridor for one last room, which could be holding someone.

That was a depressing thought, so he moved to the bed and sat down, waiting for whatever came next.