((A/N: At the head of each chapter where a new character is introduced, there will be a cast list for your benefit. In this chapter:
The bus driver Joe dirt
Caroline (the main character. Her name will change soon)- this chick: . /user/Jennifer_Arter/media/toedit4asta6_ .html
Adalind- (sorry it's so pixellated) this chick: . /user/Jennifer_Arter/media/2edit2adalind_ .html
Chapter 1
My leg shook violently as I watched the clock, waiting for the dismissal bell to ring, and I fidgeted with the hem of my uniform. It was the last day of school before winter break, and it couldn't end fast enough. Groups of people had drifted together, and chattered endlessly. I sat alone in the middle of the class, making sure my sleeves covered my scarred wrists at all times, and counting down the seconds until I could run out to the bus and leave this dump. Of course, home was a worse dump, but at least I could escape from there. The hands on the clock ticked closer to their destination, and I counted down in my head.
3...2...1...BRIIIIIIIING! Freedom!
I vaulted out of my seat, taking my books into my arms with one fluid motion and running out the classroom door at full speed. My skirt flapped around in the wind when I got outside, and I mentally grimaced once again at the outfit that had always been a little too short and a little too tight for my tastes. I kept up my pace and reached the big yellow bus in record time. I jogged up he stairs, and stopped to look curiously at the driver, whom I didn't recognize.
"Uhhm...am I on the right bus?" I asked him, before mentally kicking myself when I realized he doesn't know where I live.
"Only if you're on route 7." He chuckled in a voice that gave me shivers up and down my spine. I was on the right bus. I guess our driver was just sick today. I took my usual seat at the very back, and when I sat down I realized the bus was different. Maybe the bus had broken down this morning? Weird coincidence- both the bus, and the bus driver being replaced on the same day? I don't think that's ever happened before! The other girls piled onto the bus. All the guys that rode our bus were in some kind of sport, and all of them either had a game or practice today. As a result, the bus was half-empty and full of girls. The bus doors closed, and so did the doors around the driver, closing him off from the rest of the bus. The vehicle began to move, and we were soon on our way down the familiar street that lead to my neighborhood. I watched the trees go by out the window, and I watched as we passed right by our turn. The sign and entrance to the neighborhood went whizzing by, and I sat up. All of the other girls had seen it too, and were chattering nervously. The bus driver had a map, he should've known where to turn. Maybe he was just taking another route?
The bus continued down the straight road, and the upset voices grew louder by the minute. Soon a girl named Adalind, a petite Asian girl who was a thin as a stick, shuffled slowly up to front of the bus and knocked on the window that sat between us and the driver. He opened it and looked at her questioningly before looking back at the road.
"Sir? We passed our turn a few minutes ago...do you have your map with you?" She asked quietly, nervously. The sound of her shaky voice carried all the way to the last row, where I sat alone. The bus was now completely silent. I suppose I wasn't the only girl who got creeped out by the bus driver. He looked up at Adalind with a sickening grin, reaching for something between his seat and the side of the bus. He pulled out a gas mask, and just before he slipped it over his face, he said "I know." Adalind backed away uncertainly, and I couldn't see her eyes but I knew the skittish girl would look as terrified as she felt, as all of us felt at the moment. I could just barely see the driver reach forward and flip a switch. A quiet hisssss filled the air, and a sheer pink mist descended from the roof, barely visible. Adalind collapsed in the aisle, and people started screaming. I lifted my shirt over my nose to avoid breathing it in, but it was no use. Girls were dropping left and right, falling out of their seats and all over each other as their bodies went limp, and their eyes closed. My own vision got blurry, and I felt lightheaded. In contrast to my head (which for all I knew could've been an inflating balloon, I couldn't feel anything anymore) my eyelids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. I knew that I couldn't fight it, and I wouldn't make it to the window even if I could move my arms.
In an attempt to prevent injury when I did pass out, I laid down on the seat. My shirt slipped off my face, and with one last dizzy breath I slipped into oblivion.
I waded through the dense fog shrouding my senses, and I could just barely feel myself being hoisted over someone's shoulder. I groaned, and the man carrying me tensed up. "Hey! HEY! This one's wakin' up!" He exclaimed, and something was put over my face. I still couldn't move my arms to push it away, and cool air fanned into my face. The bit of light that had peeked through the fog went out, and I passed out again.
Something wet and cold splashed into my face, the icy water shocking me awake in a state of panic. I exhaled through my nose to get the lingering water out, and tried to wipe some of it off my face. It was at that moment that I discovered that my hands were restricted behind my back. I was sitting on the floor of a small, dimly lit room with no windows, my hands chained behind my back so that I couldn't move more than a foot away from the wall without dislocating something. The other girls from the bus were in the same state as me, lined up against three of the blank walls with two feet of space in between them. A plain wood door was set into the stone wall that didn't have girls chained to it. Half of the girls had already woken up, or had started to. Some were looking around warily or confused, some were crying. Others still were nudging the drugged girls beside them to wake them up. The panicked chatter began, and as the last of the girls came-to, the small room was filled with wails, tears, whispers, etc.
My head throbbed from the noise, and I squeezed my eyes closed. The noise vanished. I initially thought I had simply succeeded in tuning out the other girls so I could think, but it was too quiet for that. I opened my eyes to see the door opening, and a graceful, statuesque woman walk in. She wordlessly demanded our attention, and received it fully. Eye contact was made with every girl in the room before she spoke, and her warm brown eyes calmed me to a certain degree. This woman was clearly here to help us. To let us know this was a misunderstanding, or a demonstration to show us why we needed to practice stranger danger or something. She was going to let us all go home, and our lives would return to normal.
"Hello, girls. My name is Tanya. From this moment on, you will come to me with all of your problems. And I do not mean problems such as wanting to go home, or not liking something. I am speaking of problems in the sense of needing help to complete orders. I can see that some of you are confused, worried...that is understood. You will get used to things eventually, and you will live quite nicely if you do whatever you are told to do. And I mean anything you are told to do. Allow me to make myself clearer: girls, from this point on, you are slaves. In two weeks, you will be presented at an auction, and sold one-by-one to the highest bidders. Until then, you will do what you are told, and undergo several cosmetic treatments. Don't worry, though- your new owners are classy and important people. You will no doubt be living luxuriously in your new homes, as long as you follow the golden rule- your master's word is your command."
Several large, burly men came into the room and began unlocking the girls from the walls. They were lead with their hands still locked behind their backs out of the room in groups of four. I was the last girl in the third group to be taken out. We were ushered down a long, dim hallway with several doors branching off of it. The second door on the left side was opened, and we were thrust into it one-by-one after having our handcuffs removed. The room held four beds, and another door at the back of the room led into a bathroom with two sinks and two showers. There were no windows in this room, either. I collapsed onto the bed farthest from the door, burying my face into my pillow to hide the silent tears of panic and grief. I would be lucky to ever see the outside world again. Now that I think about it, I suppose I was a bit to eager to assume that the charming woman, who was probably chosen to give us our orientation because she was so charismatic, was there to help us. The only advice she offered was to behave, and roll with anything thrown at you in the rest of the hell that is your life.