The worst part of being locked in a cell alone for four years is probably that company really freaks me out. Don't get me wrong, pretty much everything about Isolation sucks but permanently having the social skills of a twelve year old really takes the cake. Now, suddenly, they're training a hot new guard and I'm all 'Oh hi, Bellamy. I know I'm a prisoner and all but do you wanna split this carton of juice I stole from medical later?' What a hot date. Maybe afterwards we can take a romantic from my cell to the airlock before I get floated. Romantic.
Mullins opens my door. I know it's him because he always comes in baton first even though I haven't tried to fight him in years. He cuffs me and we start walking to Medical. It's really the only place I go these days. I like Abby, she and Bellamy are the only people who talk to me like I'm going to live past eighteen. I think it's because I'm blonde, like her daughter. Sometimes we gossip and she tells me about people on the main ship. She's kind of self righteous but I take what I can get.
"You can uncuff her, Mullins." Ah, the everlasting handcuff argument. Abby tells him to take them off, then Mullins goes.
"She's violent." Cue Abby rolling her eyes. And, "Protocol states, violent criminals are to remain restrained in all public settings." Then Abby makes her 'get a load of this guy' face at me and I laugh. I look up when the door opens and Bellamy walks in, not on schedule. Everyone stares at him for a moment until he closes the door and walks over.
"Mullins, I'm on Medical. You can leave." This is a break in my routine and it's making me itch. Mullins glares at Bellamy before stalking off, without undoing my handcuffs. Abby sighs and Bellamy turns back to us. I lift my arms towards him and he uses his key to uncuff me.
"He's such an ass." Abby says quietly, we both hear her anyway and I smile. "I got your blood results back, Gemma. Vitamin deficiency, just like I thought." She starts pulling out vials and setting them up near my bed while she talks. "I tried to tell them that you can't lock someone in windowless cells and expect them to be healthy but did they listen, no." She takes a blood drawing needle and motions for my arm. Bellamy looks hard at the needle and pales a bit.
"I'll be outside if you need me." He tells Abby. She nods at him and he ducks out the door quickly. Abby gets back to work.
"I need to do before and after tests. Pointless," she sticks me with the needle, "because we already know what the results will be. It's not like I'm a doctor or anything." She draws the blood and pushes my shoulders so I'm lying down. "Let me know if you get lightheaded." I nod and she puts an IV in my arm where the needle just was.
"Are those all vitamins?" I ask her quietly, gesturing to the vials she has with my other arm.
"Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12." She picks up the vials as she explains. "Flu shot, and finally your favorite." I frown and she smiles at me.
"Nothing like a giant needle to the heart, huh." She laughs lightly.
"Well, I could always skip the heart medication and see what happens? Last time it was the shakes and heart palpitations, right?" I glare at her but she doesn't stop smiling.
"Or they could just let me exercise like a real human and I wouldn't have any of these problems." She frowns at that and I shut up. I don't mean to make Abby feel guilty, it's my fault I'm in here after all. But honestly, they're wasting all these supplies when they could just let me walk around and get some sun. Plus, I wouldn't look like a ghost. It's a win-win situation.
Abby finishes setting up my IV and another guard brings a different delinquent in who's got blood all over him.
"Patient name is Monty Green. Got in a fight during lunch." He sets the kid, Monty, in a chair and Abby rushes over to help him. I stare at him for a second but don't remember him from before I was locked up.
"Doesn't really look like a fair fight." The guard glances over at me when I speak and looks back at Abby accusingly.
"She should be restrained." Abby huffs but is too busy with Monty to reply. It looks like his nose is broken. The guard comes over and straps my arms down to the chair. I try to make eye contact with him but he won't look at me.
"Where's your one to one?" I try to shrug with the straps but it's hard. I don't want Bellamy to get in trouble. The guard tightens one of the straps too much.
"You're hurting me." He doesn't respond. Bellamy walks back in and takes a look around the room. The guard glares at him.
"Blake, are you on duty or not?" Bellamy just nods and walks over to me.
"I was told she didn't need to be restrained."
"Yeah? Did she tell you that?" The guard asks him sarcastically. I can tell Bellamy wants to roll his eyes. "What if you'd come back and the doctor was dead, huh?" The guard starts getting in Bellamy's face. He's a few inches shorter than Bellamy and it's kind of funny.
"You're right." Bellamy tells him.
"What?"
"I said you're right." The guard was obviously expecting an argument.
Instead he just throws Bellamy another glare and stocks over the Monty and Abby. She's put some bandages on the boys face and given him some pain medication. You can tell cause everyone gets the same dopey look on their face when they get pain medication. Or maybe I just spend too much time in this stupid room. The guard grabs Monty roughly and pulls him up. Abby scolds him but he doesn't listen to her and the guard and Monty both leave. Abby turns back to me and loosens the strap that was digging into my wrist.
"Careful, I'm a dangerous criminal." I warn her and she laughs.
"Does the dangerous criminal want orange juice or milk?"
"Juice, please."
About an hour later, Abby removes the IV and puts a bandage on my arm. Bellamy unties the straps from my wrists.
"Let me know if it bleeds for a long time, you're a little anemic." I nod and poke the bandage.
"Can I get a sleeping shot?" Abby looks at me, concerned.
"You haven't been sleeping?" I shrug.
"I've had a really exciting day." She eyes me for a second before agreeing and pulling out another vial. She gives me the shot and puts everything away. It takes about 20 minutes for it to kick in and it's a ten minute walk to my cell. Thirteen if we take the elevator.
"Can I have another juice?" She eyes me again and shakes her head.
"Juice is a medical supply here, Gemma." I frown and lean against the chair.
"But I'm feeling faint." I lean further against the chair. "And lightheaded." Abby rolls her eyes but gives me a juice and I stand up straight. I turn the Bellamy and hold out my wrists for him to cuff. He cuffs me and I say bye to Abby before we leave.
While we walk I struggle to open the juice container. Bellamy takes it out of my hands and for a second I think he's going to confiscate it but her just opens it and hands it back to me.
"Finish that before we get to your cell. I don't want Mullins to think I'm being soft on you."
"But you are being soft on me." Bellamy gives me the side eye but smiles a little.
Bellamy taking me to Medical quickly became my Thursday routine. Routines were really the only thing I had to keep me sane. They rarely changed in the five years I spent in isolation and when they did it really messed with me. The first time I got a new guard I panicked so badly that he thought I was having a heart attack. It really freaked him out. It was kind of funny.
So, when Bellamy suddenly disappeared and a new girl moved into the cell next to me all in the same week I was a little grumpy to say the least. The girl was nice enough. Kinda moody but I can't really blame her for that. We talked through the vent between our cells when the guards were gone.
"You really lived in the floor? For seventeen years?" I knew it wasn't possible but I pictured her being like, six inches tall.
"Yeah."
"That's awesome."
"It was not awesome. It sucked." I pick at the dirt under my nails while we talk. "I couldn't go anywhere outside our room, or talk to anyone except my mom and brother." Sounds a lot like here, except I never had a brother.
"What did you eat?"
"My brother snuck me food and sometimes we cooked in the room. He brought me lots of stuff."
"I wish I had a brother."
"No you don't. My mother got floated for it." I shrug but realize she can't see me.
"My mom is dead. I didn't even get a brother out of it." She grunts.
"Footsteps." She says and I quickly move away from the vent and lay on my bed. The footsteps stop outside my door and I hear a loud bang before it opens. That'll be Mullins. He opens the door and comes in, baton first.
"Up and at'em, Walt. Shower time." I stand up silently and he yanks my arm towards him before I can do anything. He cuffs me quickly and finally puts away the baton.
After I finish showering he cuffs me again. I glare at him and he glares back.
"Got a problem, Walt?" I keep glaring at him silently. "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time."
"Shut up." I scoff. Mullins turns to me quickly and shakes out his baton. He raises it at me threateningly. I glance at the baton before turning my glare back to him. He's so annoying. I think I hate him.
"What are you gonna do, float me?" He shocks me with the baton and my legs give out quickly. I definitely hate him.
"Don't be stupid, Walt." He points his baton at me again and it pisses me off. I've barely slept all week and then he zaps me with his stupid little spark baton. We glare at each other for a moment and before her grabs my arm with his other hand, exposing his wrist. So, I bite him. Hard. He shouts in shock and tries to shake me off but I'm not letting go. I think about all the times he's shocked me in the past few years as I sink my teeth further into his wrist. He shouts again for help from other guards before realizing he still has the baton and shocking me again. It hurts but that just makes my jaw clench around his wrist. Another guard runs towards us. Mullins shocks me again before the second guard gets his arms around my middle and yanks. Mullins shrieks when my teeth drag against his skin and a bit of blood squirts into my mouth. Disgusting. Blood tastes awful. I let go of Mullins and spit, trying to get the taste out of my mouth but it makes the other guard think I'm threatening him and they shock me with the baton again. Without Mullins to distract me from the pain I feel the full brunt of the shock and drop completely to the floor. The guard quickly restrains me and I feel the sting of a needle in my neck.
When I come to, I'm strapped to a table and someone is shouting. Everything hurts and it's too bright for me to open my eyes all the way. I think Abby is the one shouting. I squint a little against the harsh lighting and see blonde hair. Definitely Abby. It takes me a minute to understand what she's shouting about but soon I piece together 'electric shock', 'tranquilizers', and 'heart'. She's definitely yelling at Mullins, and if I could sit up and watch I would be laughing. Someone else starts talking, I think it's Waley. I hope he yells at Mullins too. It's funny when he gets in trouble. I start listening more intently when I hear the words 'space' and 'ship'. They aren't gonna float me yet, right? I'm still seventeen for a can't float me until I'm eighteen.
I guess I made a noise, because Abby comes rushing over to me and unties the straps around my arms and chest. She helps me sit up and I try to open my eyes. No one is talking and it makes me nervous.
"Abby?" She touches my arm gently and I look at her, blinking hard. "Are you floating me?" She frowns. Someone touches my other arm and I yank it away before seeing that it's Waley.
"You aren't being floated, Gemma." He squeezes my arm gently. Mullins stalks over to us and glares at me.
"She assaulted a guard." Waley looks at him calmly.
"You just scared her, Mullins." He chides and I stop myself from smiling.
"Scared her? She bit me! Nearly ripped a chunk out of my arm." He thrusts his wrist towards us and it takes all my willpower to not snap my teeth at him.
"And you nearly killed her!" Abby pipes up. "You know you aren't supposed to use stun batons on her and you repeatedly do it anyway." Mullins is about to defend himself when the door opens again and Chancellor Jaha comes in. He makes Mullins leave and turns to Waley.
"What happened?"
"On the way back from the showers Mullins harassed Walt, she spoke back and he shocked her, repeatedly. She bit him in self defense and he continued shocking her until another guard arrived to restrain her. They sedated her and brought her to medical." Jaha nods. He looks from Waley to me.
"Is this true?" True enough. I nod. He looks to Abby.
"How is her condition?"
"She's stable. But it could have been lethal. She has a heart condition." Jaha nods again.
"Is she healthy enough for our mission?" Abby pauses, glancing at me, before nodding. Jaha nods again.
"What mission?" No one answers me.
"I'll deal with Mullins." Jaha turns to Waley. "Take her back to her cell and prepare the rest of the 100." Waley nods. I give Abby a questioning look but she won't meet my eyes and it freaks me out. Waley walks me out of the medical unit and towards my cell.
"What mission? What's the 100?" Waley doesn't answer me and I stop walking. He huffs at me and I glare at him. "Are you floating me?" He gaze softens slightly.
"We aren't floating you, Gemma. This is a good thing. I promise." He starts walking again and I let him pull me along.
"Am I gonna die, Waley?" He stops again and hugs me before I can blink.
"You aren't going to die, Gemma." Before I can hug him back he lets go of me and starts walking again. I follow him silently back to my cell. He tells me to sleep and locks me in for the night.
"What took you so long?" Floor Girl calls through the vent.
"I attacked a guard."
"Good." I laugh.
"Good night."
"Yeah, whatever."