The two weary men had entered a large room. It was lined with huge metal pipes that snaked up the walls and disappeared in the ceiling. Some of the pipes leaked fluid. Small puddles gathered in damaged areas of the tiled floor. Most of the room was filled with round cylinder shaped aquariums that were arranged in rows.
"What the hell are these?" Alfred questioned, weaving through the glass columns.
The fluid was murky, making it hard to see what they contained. He walked up to one and cupped his hands to the glass, peering inside. A shift in the tank, moved some of the sediments exposing a pale human arm. Alfred jolted back bumping into Ivan.
"They must be like us." He said sorrowfully.
"Th-they still alive?"
Ivan reached out and touched the glass gently. There was a small label on the glass that had the name of the person contained inside, followed by a serial number.
"Da, I believe so."
"So, they can them up, then what? What is the point in all this?"
"Tell me, when you were captured and brought here, what of it do you remember?"
Alfred tried to find those memories, but, he had none.
"I cannot remember."
"I do not recall it either. Not a single memory of what I was doing in my life. I do not know the age of my daughter, my home, where I worked." Said Ivan, looking at the bruises circling his wrists. "Not even my full name. How long does it take to forget such things? If we were to escape, where would we go if we have no memory?"
Frantically, Alfred racked his brain. The Russian was right. He himself could not remember the life he had been living before.
"Regardless, I aint going to let them put me in a test tube!"
Ivan shoved Alfred onto one of the tanks and cupped a hand over his mouth.
"Hush." He hissed. "Now is not a good time to be yelling."
Alfred calmed down and was released. He trailed Ivan, walking further into the room.
"Ow..." His foot landed on something sharp. "I stepped on something." He whispered, wincing.
Ivan reared around. He bent down to investigate, lifting his foot. A large piece of glass stuck out of his heel. He pulled it free and scanned the floor, it was covered with shards.
"There is glass everywhere, be careful." He stood and continued on.
Straining to see the ground, Alfred, tried his best to avoid the glass.
Ivan had gone farther ahead. He had discovered one of the tanks broken. It looked as though the captive inside had smashed it open. A chuck of the container still remained intact. It had a small label on it, like the others.
Ivan Briginski, 862-172291.