Title: Project: Rapunzel
Chapter: 3
By: Web Spinner
Notes: In this chapter its beginning to sound more like the fairy tale. The fairy tale of Rapunzel doesn't exist yet in this world where this fic takes place.
I am not a normal teenager. No I am not talking about the whole mutant thing but I mean dealing with parents. Unlike most parents they trusted me…. until now. They didn't have to worry that I was out guzzling beer and sleeping with every male at my school. Despite some unsavory rumors, I have never done any of that. Although the peer pressure was tempting at times, I never broke their trust. I am a straight A student and the star player on the soccer team. I am also the president of the art club and yearbook club. My parents were proud of me…until now. Some guys in lab coats stuffed me into an empty van. My parents had vanished. My ankles were tied as well.
"No straight jacket?" I asked. They ignored me and shut the door leaving me in darkness. I heard a click of a lock. The van started and I leaned against the wall. Tears fell down my cheeks, cool and composed Jean Peterson was now crying like a baby. I had this fact but I cried even harder until no more tears would come. I lay down on the truck's floor feeling dehydrated I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I don't know for how long I slept but when the lab coat goons opened the door it was dark. My sore muscles screamed out in protest as I was stood up. My knees buckled but the two men held me tight until I could stand again. I looked at the seven-story building that towered above me. It was made of gray stone. Electric fences topped with barbwire surrounded it. Huge lights poured down fake sunshine onto the grounds. It looked like a prison. There was no sign of my parents when I was pushed and dragged towards the building.
"So here she is," said a woman in a lab coat as I was dragged into the room. The whiteness of the room hurt my eyes. My parents were there as well.
"Dad, tell them to stop. I want to go home. My birthday is tomorrow, remember? Let's go home and have cake and ice cream. I promise I won't even ask for presents. Just take me home," I begged falling to my knees. I was rattling like an idiot but I was desperate. My dad turned away from me again but I could tell he was crying.
"Please Mom," I turned to her but she backed away.
"Honey, these people will fix you," she assured me in her calm voice.
"Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, have no concerns. We will do our best to fix this unfortunate accident. Friends of Humanity thanks you for your sacrifice, but it is for the best. Both of you will be tested to make sure that none of the children that you plan to have in the future will be affected by the mutation gene. Mrs. Peterson, the raise will be on your desk in the morning promoting you to head scientist on the Feed the World project. Congratulations," she said and shook my mother's hand. I glared at the woman. "You sold me to this place for a bunch of rampion?" I screamed at her. Before this, my mother always shared her work with me. She was trying to discover a plant that would hold the most nutrition and was grown easily. She was working with rampion at the moment, which was something like lettuce or spinach. I had always been proud knowing if anyone could fix world hunger it'd be her.
"Come along," said a man in a lab coat and lead my parents away.
"NOO come back!" I yelled at them. I kept screaming for them to come back until my voice was horse.
"Shut up," demanded the woman and hit me soundly on the back of the head. Colors distorted my vision for a minute from the blow. The woman seemed amused. She had coal black hair and even darker eyes. Her skin was a pasty white. Strands of gray ran through her hair like a silvery net. She had a face like a weasel and claw like fingers that wrapped themselves around my arm. She was amazingly strong for such a bony woman. She led me down a long colorless hallway and pushed me into a room. Hands stripped my clothes from my body and I was pushed into a cold shower. The nurses scrubbed me with harsh soap until I felt like my skin was falling off. Then they pulled the clip that had been holding my hair and my hair cascaded to my shoulders. It seemed longer, I thought. Maybe I was just going crazy. They poured foul smelling shampoo into and scrubbed my head unmercifully. Goosebumps pricked my skin as soon as I was pulled from the cold shower. After I had put my own bra and underwear on, they slipped a course sleeveless dress over my bare body. It came down to my knees and agitated my skin. I was shoved into another room. The woman, whose nametag said Ida strapped me into a set.
"What are you doing?" I demanded. A drop eyed old man sat down beside me with a small machine that looked like a pen of some short. He rubbed alcohol on my arm again.
"No you are not giving me another shot," I screamed at him. Ida held my arm down with bony claws. I looked away as pain seared my arm. It hit me like a wave that almost knocked the breath out of me. Ida grabbed me but the pain was crippling as she shoved me out of the room. We walked down another hallway. All of the hallways were identical here. I was led to another the room that was actually a circle. In the middle of it was cut out and guarded by an arm rail. A tower of some short shot up from the floors below that had been cut out as well. The tower was 6 feet from where the room had been cut. I leaned over the rail to see the other floors railing. I couldn't see the bottom of the tower. Ida placed her hand on a flat screen and there was faint buzz. The floor beneath us started to move. I would've jumped back but Ida held me tightly. A ramp slowly made its way to the tower. Once it reached the outer wall of the tower, a door appeared. She shoved me down the ramp into the circular tower. It was white like everything in this place that God had surly forsaken. The room was circular. There was only a small cot on a wall and a table. Both, I noticed, were bolted to the floor. There was a curtain that hid a toilet, a tiny shower and a sink. I looked at the door and licked my cracked lips.
"You can't escape. I am the only one who can come and go from this tower. Your food will arrive three times a day. You make a mess and you clean it up or live in filth if you'd wish. I could care less. You have medical exams once a day. Think of me as your new mother. If you misbehave, you will be punished," Ida said as she grabbed my chin and forced me to look at her.
"What are you going to do? Ground me?" I asked. I never saw the blow coming but I found my self sprawled out on the floor with my head ringing. Only then did I notice my arm. I had been tattooed. The dark letters and numbers read ZEL8948. I screamed curses at her.
"You tattooed me like a Jew in the holocaust!" I yelled at her. This was insane! Of course I had read about it in history but this stuff never happened any more, until now.
"Hardly. They were human. You are not. Zel8948 is your new identity. Get used to it," she spat at me. Then to my amazement, she started to laugh. It was more like a cackle that reminded me of witches you read about as a child in the fairytales.
"What' s so funny?" I hissed at her.
"Rapunzel, that's what we'll call you. Get it? Your mother sold you for rampion. How deliciously clever I am. Rapunzel," she laughed and left. I didn't move from where I had been knocked on the floor. Rapunzel? She had called me that. It sounded like some odd name that should have been used in a fantasy book, not here. The room only had one small window that I could easily slip out of. Maybe even fall to my death if I'd wish to. But I didn't want to die, not now, not yet. They would win if I died. There would be one less mutant on the planet.
Chapter: 3
By: Web Spinner
Notes: In this chapter its beginning to sound more like the fairy tale. The fairy tale of Rapunzel doesn't exist yet in this world where this fic takes place.
I am not a normal teenager. No I am not talking about the whole mutant thing but I mean dealing with parents. Unlike most parents they trusted me…. until now. They didn't have to worry that I was out guzzling beer and sleeping with every male at my school. Despite some unsavory rumors, I have never done any of that. Although the peer pressure was tempting at times, I never broke their trust. I am a straight A student and the star player on the soccer team. I am also the president of the art club and yearbook club. My parents were proud of me…until now. Some guys in lab coats stuffed me into an empty van. My parents had vanished. My ankles were tied as well.
"No straight jacket?" I asked. They ignored me and shut the door leaving me in darkness. I heard a click of a lock. The van started and I leaned against the wall. Tears fell down my cheeks, cool and composed Jean Peterson was now crying like a baby. I had this fact but I cried even harder until no more tears would come. I lay down on the truck's floor feeling dehydrated I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I don't know for how long I slept but when the lab coat goons opened the door it was dark. My sore muscles screamed out in protest as I was stood up. My knees buckled but the two men held me tight until I could stand again. I looked at the seven-story building that towered above me. It was made of gray stone. Electric fences topped with barbwire surrounded it. Huge lights poured down fake sunshine onto the grounds. It looked like a prison. There was no sign of my parents when I was pushed and dragged towards the building.
"So here she is," said a woman in a lab coat as I was dragged into the room. The whiteness of the room hurt my eyes. My parents were there as well.
"Dad, tell them to stop. I want to go home. My birthday is tomorrow, remember? Let's go home and have cake and ice cream. I promise I won't even ask for presents. Just take me home," I begged falling to my knees. I was rattling like an idiot but I was desperate. My dad turned away from me again but I could tell he was crying.
"Please Mom," I turned to her but she backed away.
"Honey, these people will fix you," she assured me in her calm voice.
"Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, have no concerns. We will do our best to fix this unfortunate accident. Friends of Humanity thanks you for your sacrifice, but it is for the best. Both of you will be tested to make sure that none of the children that you plan to have in the future will be affected by the mutation gene. Mrs. Peterson, the raise will be on your desk in the morning promoting you to head scientist on the Feed the World project. Congratulations," she said and shook my mother's hand. I glared at the woman. "You sold me to this place for a bunch of rampion?" I screamed at her. Before this, my mother always shared her work with me. She was trying to discover a plant that would hold the most nutrition and was grown easily. She was working with rampion at the moment, which was something like lettuce or spinach. I had always been proud knowing if anyone could fix world hunger it'd be her.
"Come along," said a man in a lab coat and lead my parents away.
"NOO come back!" I yelled at them. I kept screaming for them to come back until my voice was horse.
"Shut up," demanded the woman and hit me soundly on the back of the head. Colors distorted my vision for a minute from the blow. The woman seemed amused. She had coal black hair and even darker eyes. Her skin was a pasty white. Strands of gray ran through her hair like a silvery net. She had a face like a weasel and claw like fingers that wrapped themselves around my arm. She was amazingly strong for such a bony woman. She led me down a long colorless hallway and pushed me into a room. Hands stripped my clothes from my body and I was pushed into a cold shower. The nurses scrubbed me with harsh soap until I felt like my skin was falling off. Then they pulled the clip that had been holding my hair and my hair cascaded to my shoulders. It seemed longer, I thought. Maybe I was just going crazy. They poured foul smelling shampoo into and scrubbed my head unmercifully. Goosebumps pricked my skin as soon as I was pulled from the cold shower. After I had put my own bra and underwear on, they slipped a course sleeveless dress over my bare body. It came down to my knees and agitated my skin. I was shoved into another room. The woman, whose nametag said Ida strapped me into a set.
"What are you doing?" I demanded. A drop eyed old man sat down beside me with a small machine that looked like a pen of some short. He rubbed alcohol on my arm again.
"No you are not giving me another shot," I screamed at him. Ida held my arm down with bony claws. I looked away as pain seared my arm. It hit me like a wave that almost knocked the breath out of me. Ida grabbed me but the pain was crippling as she shoved me out of the room. We walked down another hallway. All of the hallways were identical here. I was led to another the room that was actually a circle. In the middle of it was cut out and guarded by an arm rail. A tower of some short shot up from the floors below that had been cut out as well. The tower was 6 feet from where the room had been cut. I leaned over the rail to see the other floors railing. I couldn't see the bottom of the tower. Ida placed her hand on a flat screen and there was faint buzz. The floor beneath us started to move. I would've jumped back but Ida held me tightly. A ramp slowly made its way to the tower. Once it reached the outer wall of the tower, a door appeared. She shoved me down the ramp into the circular tower. It was white like everything in this place that God had surly forsaken. The room was circular. There was only a small cot on a wall and a table. Both, I noticed, were bolted to the floor. There was a curtain that hid a toilet, a tiny shower and a sink. I looked at the door and licked my cracked lips.
"You can't escape. I am the only one who can come and go from this tower. Your food will arrive three times a day. You make a mess and you clean it up or live in filth if you'd wish. I could care less. You have medical exams once a day. Think of me as your new mother. If you misbehave, you will be punished," Ida said as she grabbed my chin and forced me to look at her.
"What are you going to do? Ground me?" I asked. I never saw the blow coming but I found my self sprawled out on the floor with my head ringing. Only then did I notice my arm. I had been tattooed. The dark letters and numbers read ZEL8948. I screamed curses at her.
"You tattooed me like a Jew in the holocaust!" I yelled at her. This was insane! Of course I had read about it in history but this stuff never happened any more, until now.
"Hardly. They were human. You are not. Zel8948 is your new identity. Get used to it," she spat at me. Then to my amazement, she started to laugh. It was more like a cackle that reminded me of witches you read about as a child in the fairytales.
"What' s so funny?" I hissed at her.
"Rapunzel, that's what we'll call you. Get it? Your mother sold you for rampion. How deliciously clever I am. Rapunzel," she laughed and left. I didn't move from where I had been knocked on the floor. Rapunzel? She had called me that. It sounded like some odd name that should have been used in a fantasy book, not here. The room only had one small window that I could easily slip out of. Maybe even fall to my death if I'd wish to. But I didn't want to die, not now, not yet. They would win if I died. There would be one less mutant on the planet.