CHAPTER 2 – I GET CAPTURED
I woke up tied to a metal table. It was warm from my body and wet from, water? I hoped it was water I was feeling. I looked around. There were others there with me. Most were children. The youngest was about six, and the oldest was maybe twenty-two? Which meant I was somewhere in the middle. We were all lined up in rows. All of us had straps around our wrists and ankles. I wondered why. None of these kids looked dangerous, if anything, they looked frightened.
Psst. I heard someone say. I looked around trying to find where it had come from. I locked eyes with a small boy to my left. You're the new one, right? I heard him say. But his lips remained absolutely still. "Did you say something?" I whispered. "Where are we? What happened? Why are all of these kids here?" Shhhh! Stop talking! Don't you know how to use your powers? If they hear you, they'll cut out your tongue! "Powers?" I asked. "What powers? I'm a normal girl, from a normal place! Tell me what's going on!" I didn't notice my voice had risen. The boy just looked at me, eyes wide with fear. "Looks like we got a talker, aye boys?" I heard a grown man say behind me. Don't talk. Don't say a single word.
Use your brain. Just imagine putting what you're going to say, inside my head. The footsteps grew louder as they got closer. I stayed still and did what the boy asked. This is stupid. It sounds like I'm talking to myself. I thought. The boy looked at me and smiled, like I did something right. See? The footsteps went away. "Maybe you didn't hear anything, boss? The TK's are probably just messing with us." The guards don't know we can do this. So, try to be quiet, okay?
What do they mean by TK's? Where are we? Why can we do this? Where's my family? I asked him. He looked at me sympathetically. You're family… They're probably gone. Not dead, gone. Their memory was most likely wiped clean, and they started a new life. I tried not to cry. I really did. It just sort of came out, a silent cry.
It's okay. He said. It's what happened to all of our families. And where we are… We're in a secret facility North of San Diego. That didn't make sense. San Diego? That's far from Virginia. I couldn't have been out for that long. A day at most? I know what you're probably thinking. There's no way they could've brought you here in a small amount of time. Truth is, you've been out for days. They shoot us with a special gun. The darts inside interact with our specific DNA. So, we're out for days when it only seems like a little while. It was a lot to take in. He told me more about it, but it just confused me even more.
So, why are we here? I asked. Because "we're a danger to society". He said as if he were quoting someone. What's that supposed to mean? I've never hurt anyone. I would never harm anyone, I swear. None of the kids here looked like they would hurt anybody. Much less could. They all looked weak and pale. You don't know what we can do, do you? He asked it like a real question. Honestly, I didn't know what I could do. I didn't know what he or any of these kids could possibly do. I started to ask, but something stopped me. I felt as if I was being watched.
I looked around and spotted an old man. High on a balcony he just stood there. I felt as though he was just looking at me, and no one else. We locked eyes, and just stared. He cracked a smile, not a warm, happy smile, but a menacing, evil smile that only a psychopathic killer would have. And that's when I realized that this man probably had a lot more blood on his hands than a psychopath.