CHAPTER 2: Routines
When the next day finally did come, the little girl had not slept a wink all night. After her breakfast, which was the same as it had been every day (a weird, oddly tasting smoothie), the man she had met the night before was back.
"Out," he commanded. When the little girl did not move, he walked over to her and pulled her up by the arm.
"I said, out!" Pulled to her feet, the girl struggled to find her footing, stumbling for awhile as she hurried to walk out after the man.
Outside of her room was a hallway that seemed to go on forever, in both directions. They walked to the right, and were soon joined by the other children she had seen last night, and what she assumed, were their "handlers". The other children seemed just as scared as she was. There were several doors on both sides of the hallway the further they walked, but no one else came out of them after a point.
At the end of the long hallway they entered a massive elevator and rode down several floors. As they stepped out, there was another hallway. The girl felt so confused, this place was huge! Yet this time they didn't walk that far before a door opened and they were ushered inside.
The room was filled with strange looking machines and the walls were filled with screens. All walls except one, where there was a mirror that stretched the length of the wall. The children huddled together, trying to find comfort and strength in numbers, afraid of what would happen to them now.
"Subjects Echo one, two and three as well as Delta one through four will begin. Handlers begin your evaluation." As the voice stopped speaking, four boys and three girls were grabbed and pulled over to one of the strange machines. The others huddled in closer together.
"Handlers, remaining subjects will be moved to section RL-258." The speaker clicked off, and the other children were ushered out of the door. This was the last time the little girl saw two of the boys.
/
Three days later, after many physical tests, the little girl was not escorted down to the physical test facility. They, instead, took the elevator up several floors. Part of the little girl had fallen asleep from physical exhaustion, numbness, and hopelessness, but that part was quick to wake up now. The fear and panic was back in full force.
She had always been a lively child, so running all day was not a huge problem for her. But now there was something else. She had seen the other girls and boys, except for two, a day ago. They had seemed fine, very silent and nervous, but fine. Except for the look in their eyes. She was not used to thinking about the big things in life, but the look in their eyes she would never forget. It was the same that she had seen in the eyes of a man in her village once. Her mother had told her that the man had gotten lost in the mountains, and had lost himself, lost his spirit, on the way. What could have happened to the others for them to have that look? She did not want to find out.
They stopped in front of a door, and she was pushed inside by Dr. Vanvarda. Inside the too brightly lit room was a small table and a chair. On the other side of the room was another door. As the door she had entered closed behind her, she was left alone, squinting against the bright lights.. But she was not alone for long. Soon after a very cold, calculating man came through the other door. He walked up to the table and pointed for her to sit. She quickly did as told, having learned taking too long would cause punishment.
"Are you afraid?" The man had a cold, raspy voice. She did not like this man any more than she did her handler. Afraid to speak up, she nodded instead.
"You will answer me verbally, and you will call me, sir!" She jumped in fright at his shouted command.
"Are you afraid?"
She hesitated, the memory of cold water still fresh in her mind, before she answered,
"Yes sir."
The man smiled, then turned and walked back out the door he had come from.
/
This had continued throughout the day. The man would enter the room, ask her a question, then leave. She could not make any sense of it. The questions he asked had no meaning. He asked her about the weather, if the snail was aware of the shell, if the wind was faster than time… on and on, the one more confusing than the other. Then several hours later, he had begun showing her a picture and asking a question about the picture. Still, nothing made sense. It was almost night now (she thought) and her head hurt. She was hungry and tired, head aching from the brightness in the room. Most of all she was confused. Her head was spinning. Nothing made sense. Nothing at all.
The next time the man entered, he was not alone. There was a woman with him. The woman went to stand by the door the girl had entered from, and the man once again came up to stand in front of the girl. He still had the same cold smile on his face, only it had grown bigger throughout the day.
"One last question for the day," the girl let out a sigh of relief "What is your name?"
She was even more confused by that. They didn't know her name? They had stolen her in the middle of the night from her bed and they did not know her name? As the man started to lose his smile, she was quick to answer.
"Tifa Lockheart, sir."
His smile was back, but it didn't look the same. It was… evil now.
"Wrong." And then, with a sharp sting, the world went black.
/
Tifa woke up to someone banging on her door. Days had gone by since she had first met the man who asked the questions. She did not know his name, but she had learned to fear him. After the first day, they had begun to tie her to the chair in the room. They had put some kind of devices to her head, and if she didn't answer a question the right way, their way, she would get shocked with electricity. After a few days her body had begun to shake all the time. She had problems waking up, but they were also pumping her full of drugs at the end of each session, so she supposed it could have to do with that as well.
But today, she felt something different. A tingling. An odd kind of tingling. It was in her head and in her chest, by her heart. Beside the tingling she felt, there was an odd kind of buzz in her head. Like a fly that was buzzing around her head. It was very annoying.
Maybe it was a fly? She went to wave it away, but noticed that her hands were caught. Opening her eyes, she found herself in the "question room". That was odd in itself.
Odder still was that Dr. Vanvarda was standing in front of her, banging on the desk.
"Finally." He seemed even more annoyed than usually. "You have received classification. Time to move." Desperation, and yet the slightest glint of hope lit up in her. Maybe she would go home now? She wasn't sure if she dared to hope.
As she was being untied, against her better judgment, the question bubbled out of her. "Will I be going home now?"
Dr. Vanvarda laughed out loud. It was a horrible sound that Tifa wished she would never hear again. The doctor stood up and looked her in the eyes, a ruthless smile on his lips.
"You have no home. No identity, no family, no name. No life, no hope. You are a project, for us to do with as we wish, nothing more." And with those words, Tifa Lockheart was gone, replaced by Project Nube.
To be continued…