I felt like a little child being taken to the naughty corner as I followed the woman out of the room. There was no kitchen in the hotel unit, just a bedroom. I found that a little weird, but it didn’t bother me as much as my clothes. They looked like a cross between a bath robe and a jumpsuit, only with the legs chopped off half way down the thigh. But as soon as I got into the hallway, I could see that everyone was wearing the absurd outfits.
As soon as I saw that there were others like me, confused by what was going on as much as I was, it was easier. In fact, every room on the floor seemed to be housing one of us. Well, I thought. At least this means I’m not alone.
The girl from the room opposite me was about my height, and looked my age. She gave me a weary look as she walked out of the room, following her guide. “Do you know what’s going on?” I asked her.
“No talking.” My guide’s words floated through the air like a song, and I didn’t want to disobey. Alright. No talking. I smiled, trying to show her that I understood.
We were on floor twenty, which meant that we had to walk down twenty floors to ground level. It would have been much easier if we just took the elevator. We could have squashed in, especially because all of the women in white nurses’ outfits stopped at the top of the stairs and told us to follow the leader. There were two elevators, anyway, so I don’t know why we had to walk.
I was about half way down the line, but it wasn’t that long. There must have been thirty people in the rooms on that floor, not nearly enough to stretch across the kilometres that the video showed. It seemed a little odd, but who cared? My thoughts were on the injections.
“Psst.” I heard a near-silent whisper as we neared the fifteenth floor. “Do you know how we got here?” When I looked around I realised that it was the weary girl trying to ask me a question.
“Dunno. Last thing I remember I was going to a party… BAM! Wake up here.” The sound effects weren’t as valuable because I was whispering, but she got the point. “Maybe after the injections we can change out of these ridiculous towels and go for a swim.”
There must have been one woman at the front, because she yelled at us, “Stop talking back there or you won’t get your injections!” It was silent after that, bar the soft patter of bare feet on the cold metal stairs. I realised that we weren’t the only two who were talking. When everyone fell silent, it was like a graveyard.
Until we went outside.
The lobby floor was gleaming with the newly cleaned white tiles, outlined by a thick border of grey grout. Massive, almost invisible windows spanned the whole length of the front wall, interrupted above the door by a frame. I twisted my neck to pan the whole length of the lobby, it had to be at least thirty meters. This one room was almost bigger than two houses put together, and certainly cleaner. The trail of children, who all looked about my age, snaked through the lobby and towards the door.
Everyone had a comment on the sun. “We don’t get it like this in New Zealand,” I turned and said to Weary. We were turning left, and I could see that the hotel did stretch just as far as the video had shown. But there were three sections to it, and we were on the far end. It looked like we were headed for one of the other sections.
“New Zealand? Me too. No one else looks Kiwi though. I thought I might be the only one.” She paused for a moment, as if wondering if I thought the same thing, or waiting for me to agree. “Jess, by the way.”
I was slightly surprised that she was from New Zealand, but I hadn’t been thinking about it. Not about names, either. In fact, they were the last things on my mind. “Steph.”
We walking in silence from then on, feeling the soft sand pass through our toes like silk. The sun was hardly a few hours past sunrise, but it felt like we were walking inside an oven. I was suddenly conscious that I hadn’t put any sun block on, but I could see the line was starting to curve off to the left. It seemed that we had arrived.
This end of the hotel was different, it didn’t look like a hotel at all, and we didn’t walk in through a lobby. We entered through a side door, at the end of the building. This section wasn’t as recently built as the hotel we had left, but the walls were painted white in a recent attempt to make the place look nicer. I appreciated the effort. I was their special guest.
We went through a series of twisted passages, presumably so no guest at the hotel could accidentally find the place. They weren’t special guests. I was. The warm feeling was back again, and a smile trawled onto my face. I remember thinking it was weird, because we had left the sun. It should be cool in this building. It wasn’t even as well lit as the other. So why was I feeling warm and happy. I liked the warmth, not the cold.
Cold reminded me too much of New Zealand, and I didn’t want to be in New Zealand.
We were led into a hall about the size of the school gym. Running the length of the hall, right down the centre, was a row of big, comfy looking chairs. The girl at the front was taken to the chair at the end, and we all followed, each stopping in front of a chair.
“Sit.” We sat.
It was only then, sinking into the soft, cushioned chair that I looked at the stage. Just as I gazed up there, a man in what looked to be his thirties walked on from the right. “Congratulations,” he said.
I didn’t know why I was being congratulated, but I grinned. Thank you, perked up an oddly cheerful voice in my head. “Thank you,” I repeated.
So did everyone else.
I suppose that should have crept me out, but I was too busy wondering why I was being congratulated. The man looked down the row of children and started to explain.
“You have been chosen to live a life of luxury. Indeed, a life of your dreams. You should feel very privileged.” I do, I heard the perky voice again, but I didn’t want to disrupt his speech. “Everything you could ever want is right here; sun, surf, sand and serenity. Don’t worry about your family or friends. They have all been told prior to your trip.
“If you are wondering why you can’t remember being taken here, it’s because we want to keep Tau’tavaka a secret. If we let anyone come here, then it won’t be the untouched, beautiful place it is today. We couldn’t have you telling all of your friends how to get here, could we? You wouldn’t want that.” He had the kind of voice that sounded like I had heard it before, but I couldn’t ever remember meeting him. Not that his face was easy to remember. I had almost forgotten what colour hair he had by the time I had left the room.
“The only condition of you staying on Tau’tavaka is that you follow our orders, for environment preservation and safety reasons. Do you understand?” I nodded, not caring what anyone else was doing. I didn’t want to be kicked off the island. I already loved it there.
“If there are any problems, just ask the staff and they will take you directly to me.” He looked at the back of the room with a funny twitch in his eye. “Any problems, and come straight to me.” He repeated. I nodded.
“Sit still.” He said, and walked off the stage.
There was a jolt as the stage moved. No, wait, I thought. The chair is moving. I looked down at the floor and saw that I was moving backwards. The two chairs to the left and right of me were moving forwards. Why?
My question was soon answered, as more nurses in white uniforms were filing into the room. One came up behind me and said, “Sit still now, this won’t hurt a bit.”
I nodded.
Something cold and sharp pierced my left arm; the injection! “Do you like injections?”
Injections are great, the perky voice told me. “Injections are great,” I repeated.
“Good girl. Now off you go, back to bed.” She took a step back, and I realised that she was done. “I imagine you’re feeling quite tired, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Very tired,” I nodded, my eyelids suddenly falling over my eyes like a setting sun over the horizon. I followed the rest back to the hotel end of the buildings, walked like a zombie up the stairs and flopped onto my bed.
*_*
“You love it here. Everything is perfect. You don’t want your friends or family. You don’t want to go home. Everything you could ever want is right here…"
