Ksenia got in line next to Tariq and wrapped her arms around herself to stay warm. The cold breeze tugged at her clothes and almost made her loose her balance. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the taste of freedom while she still could.
She was going to miss this.
Ksenia heard Tariq’s frightened mumbling and opened her eyes to face him. He had turned pale and his stare was focused on the “prison” in front of him. She let out a dreadful sigh and gave him a light squeeze in his hand. Tariq returned to being silent and looked down on her.
A miniscule smile appeared on his lips.
Ksenia forced herself to smile back, pushing her own fear away for the moment while some of the guards stepped forward and opened the colossal gate in front of them. Both their smiles quickly disappeared.
The group of guards surrounded the teens and led them inside the fences and towards the TWC-building. The door was made out of massive wood with iron bars in front of it to either keep enemies out or to keep the teens inside. Ksenia wasn’t sure yet which one. The path was made out of pointy small stones and she could feel them poking into her thin soles as she was forced to walk over it.
She regretted not taking the time to find her all-stars.
Tariq had fallen back into his old habbit of mumbling unintelligible things and Ksenia gave him another light squeeze in his hand, partially to distract herself a little bit.
She couldn’t help but feel like a criminal with all the guns pointed at them as they were brought to a stop in front of the door. The gate closed itself behind them with a loud click and she could feel the freedom slowly seeping away like sand between her fingers. A slight panic took a hold of her and made her heart beat faster.
This wouldn’t be such a bad moment for the entire world to stop existing.
The iron bars were pulled back into the walls as one of the guards stepped forward and pushed the heavy door open. They were rushed inside and before she knew it, they were standing inside the enormous hall with a marble floor that begged to be looked at.
With exception of them and a few people in suits, the hall was empty. The walls were decorated with TWC quotes and portraits of well known persons. There was one portrait that immediately caught the eye due to its enormous size.
The president.
His familiar steel grey eyes stared down on them with a mischievous look. His hair was pitch black and Ksenia was pretty sure that it was fake, considering he was already passed the sixty.
A light shiver traveled through her body as a wave of bad memories flooded her mind and she quickly looked away.
She had seen those eyes before. Cold and cruel.
They had been looking down at her from a wall too as she was crying of pain from the “small surgery”.
It was on the day that the whole TWC thing started to show its signs in her daily life;
The day that the guards had showed up on their doorstep to make sure they would go to the hospital and get the chip inserted in their wrists. Her dad had still blindly believed in the TWC system back then and trusted the guards when they took his daughter with them.
She remembered that day all too well. The cold room; the big sinister portrait on the sterile white wall.
The doctor with his lies.
He had promised her that it wouldn’t hurt at all as he fastened belts around her arm and picked up a scalpel. A small cut and he’d be done.
The cut itself didn’t even hurt that much but he forgot to mention the painful process of attaching the chip around her artery. She had been crying throughout the whole surgery while trying to remember that this chip was for the best.
* * * * *
The group of teens were standing perfectly in line and were still surrounded by the guards as they waited for the tall man in front of them to speak up. He was wearing a navy blue suit and had short brown hair. His stare was cold and could probably kill a man if he wanted it to.
Ksenia felt a cold shiver travel down her spine when he looked at them, one by one. Men like these were the type that always got their way, whether it was by manipulating, intimidating or torturing.
Ksenia focused on her shoes and noticed that the sole was starting to let loose on certain points. Once again she regretted not taking the time to dig up her all-stars. They were a lot stronger than the cheap things she was wearing at the moment. The only reason why she still had those, was because Jordan once said that they looked good on her. Great reason, right?
The man cleared his throat with a lot of confidence and Ksenia quickly looked up. He was still staring at them with his cold eyes and had his arms crossed in front of him.
Not the most geruststellende image.
He slowly walked around in front of the line and not once did he look away. Ksenia saw the other teenagers shrink in a bit, intimidated and scared of this man who obviously had a lot of authority. The TWC knew how to pick the right persons for the job. And they had done an awesome job on this guy.
“Good evening, everyone, and welcome to one of the biggest transfer camps in this continent. I am Richard Veriton, director of this youth facility. I will now quickly explain to you why you’re here, what will happen in the near future and what is expected from you. And you better pay attention because I’m not going to repeat a single word.”
Ksenia slowly wrapped her arms around herself and tried to empty her mind from the depressing and scary thoughts that were wandering around in it.
“You were brought here because you are our future and we want to prepare you all for that in the right way. We don’t want to take the risk of ruining that future because you guys had to grow up in broken families or because your parents taught you wrong. You are here because we want you to have a normal youth and because you deserve being raised by people who know what’s good for all of us.
However, we won’t be starting with this “program” in this camp. This is only just a transfer camp, a pit stop. You will be here for a week at its longest.
First your luggage will be taken and only if something is really necessary, such as medicines, you will be allowed to keep it with you. The rest will be held in storage until you are finished with the program.
After that you will be brought to a room that you have to share with 2 or 3 other teens. Guys and girls separated.
They will scan your chip in just a moment after they’ve checked your luggage and with this information they will decide to which camp you’re being send. We are trying to find you all a place where you can start over without having to keep up your old reputation. Unfortunately, this also means that you probably won’t end up in a camp with your old friends or classmates, but believe me when I say that this is for the best. And you will have enough people around you to make new friends with.
In your new camp you’ll be with teens of your own age group and with specialists who know exactly what’s going on with you in those certain ages. I promise you that it will be a great experience and that you will get all the attention that you need. And last but not least, we expect from you to give it your all and help us with building up this better future!”
He held his fist in the air as he yelled that last sentence. Encouraging. Ksenia wondered if that speech of his was helping in any way but when she looked around and saw the dedicated look on some of the teens’ faces, she remembered that the biggest part of the population still truly believed in the TWC. People like her and her parents were probably the reason that these camps excisted in the first place. Always cautious. Maybe even paranoid.
Richard Veriton gave the guards a short nod and walked off to another hall. The group of guards led the teens after him onto another beautiful marble black floor with ocean blue rays waved through it. Ksenia was so fixated on it that she didn’t even notice all the tables and scanners until one of the guards pulled her out of the group and pushed her towards them. Her bag got turned inside-out on one of the tables and the guard started going through her stuff. She now noticed that the group had been pulled apart and that the same thing was happening to everyone. Somewhere on the other side of the room stood Tariq, looking very upset as his guard registrated all his belongings into the computer and put them in a thick plastic bag.
Ksenia focused on the table in front of her again and watched how the guard was putting her stuff into one of the bags.
“Excuse me but that’s my bible. It’s really important to me…and like really necessary.”
The guard stared at her in disgust as she quickly grabbed it out of his hand and clung to it.
She didn’t hear the guy behind her approaching and a small squeal escaped her lips when he torn the bible away from her with his strong hands. Ksenia quickly turned around and stared right into Richard Veriton’s cold eyes.
“This,” he said while pointing at the book with his other hand, “is poison. It is strictly forbidden in these camps along with praying and other religious actions. It messes with people their minds and it doesn’t go along with the TWC. So say goodbye to that God of yours because you won’t be meeting him anymore in these places.”
He walked away before she could even reply and threw her bible into a big container which stood in the middle of the room. Ksenia stared at him with her eyes wide open and felt the fear quickly awakening. She knew that she wasn’t going to say goodbye to Him and realized that this would probably cause her trouble in the near future. Some horrid torture scenes from a certain movies flashed through her mind and send a whole bunch of cold shivers down her spine.
The guard finished with placing everything in the bag and scanned her wrist-chip with some small device that was attached to the computer. He quickly went through her background information and added a note about the incidents that had taken place at her house and in the bus this morning. Almost everything was written down in that little chip. It was hard to keep secrets in these days.
At last the guard made her walk through a scan to make sure she wasn’t hiding anything from them. She was allowed to keep her necklace and her rings but the rest of her accessories got taken away. Along with the bracelet that Jordan had given her for her birthday. It was the only thing he had ever given to her and even though he had actually bought it for this girl that he wanted to have, she turned him down because she was already dating a guy, the bracelet really meant a lot to her and she couldn’t help but let out a small tear as she watched it disappear into the bag.
Ksenia sighed deeply and tried to remind herself that she was still mad at him. She had always been quite awful in staying mad at someone for a longer time, especially if that person could heal a gaping wound with one sweet word.
The guard impatiently pushed her towards the rest of the group that had already formed a line and made her stand next to Tariq. He looked at her and tried to be encouraging but his sad smile didn’t exactly have that affect on her. Ksenia forced the corners of her mouth to curl up and tried to forget about the whole bracelet thing.
Instead she started worrying about her dad as the group of teens were led down another hallway towards the dorms. He was probably being shipped off to one of the prisoncamps in Yarutsk at the moment, facing 5 years of labor-work for causing trouble.
They entered a long hallway with wooden doors on every side. Ksenia stared at the cement under her feet and was disappointed when she heard that those doors led to their rooms.
No marble floors for them.
One of the guards had a list in his hand and called off names with the number of their room. Ksenia ended up with a room on the end of the hallway and started walking when the guard was done with the list and the group of intimidating men just simply walked away. It was the longest hallway she had ever seen in her life and it took her more than 5 minutes to reach the end of it. Tariq had offered to walk her to her room but she friendly declined his offer when she heard that he had a room somewhere on the beginning.
There had been a few teens leaning against the wall in the beginning and middle of the hall but at this dead end with dim light, she didn’t see a single soul. She stared at the door in front of her with the number 547 carved into it. The silence filled her ears as she just stood there; staring.
Waiting for something unkown to happen.
The minutes slowly passed by but nothing changed around her. Ksenia took a deep breath and knocked softly on the door.
Silence.
She tried the doorknob and the door stiffly opened. The TWC hadn’t put a lot of effort into making these rooms comfortable and warm.
The room was made out of stone and the only furniture pieces were the three wooden beds with a thin mattress and navy blue sheets. Two of the beds looked like they were already in use so Ksenia sat down on the third one that was placed in a corner. It was a bit cold but the sheets seemed thick enough to keep her warm at night. A deep sigh escaped between her lips as she stared at the stone ceiling.
“Depressing, isn’t it?”
Ksenia jumped up from the bed and stared at the girl that had suddenly appeared in the door opening. She wore a simple shirt and long jeans and short brown locks curled around her face. The girl stepped forward with an amused smile on her face and extended her hand.
“Sorry for scaring you. I tend to have that effect on people. I’m Esca.”
A small awkward smile appeared on Ksenia’s own face when she shook the girl’s hand and introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Ksenia. And yeah, this is quite depressing.”
She sat down again and Esca settled at the other end of the bed. She was pretty tall and her brown green eyes showed confidence when she focused on the new girl in front of her. Ksenia looked down at her hands and probably looked more nervous than she wanted to.
“Hopefully the next camp will look a bit better than this place. I’m not quite sure if anyone could survive two years in a room like this. If not, longer.”
Ksenia looked around again and had to agree with her. She would go mad if she had to stay her even longer than a month.
They had some small-talk about where they both came from and about some other details. Ksenia was just about to tell Esca of what happened with her father this morning when a bell started ringing.
“Rooms 450 - 350, cantine.”
Ksenia gave Esca a questioning look when she heard that through the speakers from the hallway.
“Supper. They give every group of rooms a half hour to get their food and eat it in the cantine. They always start with the group of rooms on the end of the hallway but don’t worry, tonight you will be eating with the other newbies. You’re going to have to wait a little right now but tomorrow you will be eating earlier with us.”
Esca sounded as if she had been here for ages but she had only been her for three days. Though that could be considered old for this place. Normally a teen was gone in one or two days after arriving.
Another girl suddenly entered the room and sank down on one of the other beds. Her black hair was in a bun and she looked a little spoiled though there was a friendly smile on her face. Ksenia gave her a small smile and they quickly introduced themselves.
They talked until the speakers announced that it was time for the newcomers to go to the cantine. Just as she was about to ask Esca where it was, a guard swung the door open and grabbed her by her arm. He quickly led her to the beginning of the hall where he opened one of the first doors to his left and pushed her into a huge hall filled with tables and chairs. Still no marble floor.
Ksenia looked around the room and noticed that her group hadn’t been the only group of newcomers.
She spotted Tariq sitting at a table somewhere in the middle of the room and waved at him. He looked up and seemed quite relieved to see her when he waved back with a smile. Ksenia walked towards the long table with food and placed a bowl of soup and bread on her tray. She wasn’t really hungry and skipped the rest.
After having maneuvered her way towards his table she sat down next to him and gave him a small squeeze in his arm. She normally wasn’t really that touchy around people but Tariq had something innocent over him that just begged to be hugged and in this weird new environment he was the only one that she felt comfortable around. Tariq softly bumped her with his shoulder as reply and continued with eating his meal.
The soup tasted better than she had expected and the bread was still fresh. Maybe she had been a bit too pessimistic about this place. Ksenia had pictured this to be some sort of prison or labor camp and though sometimes it came close, the food sure wasn’t anything like that at all.
The bell rang again when they had just finished eating and Ksenia returned her tray to the long table which had been cleared in the meantime. A few guards showed them where the bathrooms were and Ksenia took a quick shower. They didn’t get any new clothes though so she was forced to put back on her old jeans and t-shirt.
Tariq was standing next to his door in the hallway and she had a short conversation with him before she said goodnight and headed back for her room. She begged with all her heart that she would at least end up in a camp with him. It was nice knowing someone you could go to.
Esca and Ruria were already sleeping when she entered the room and she tiptoed to her bed. With a deep sigh Ksenia slipped under the navy blue sheets and closed her eyes. After a long prayer she finally fell asleep with a peaceful feeling over her as the fear and stress slowly seeped away.
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