Brian spent the following two hours in the police car, listening to cheesy country music played over a very muffled speaker. He let his head loll back over the headrest, bored to death – considering he'd just been arrested.
The car eventually pulled over, and the officer in the driver's seat got out. Soon he returned, only poking his head in. He gestured for the officer riding in the passengers' seat to get out.
The two talked quietly for a few minutes outside the car before returning. They had apparently decided to switch seats.
The driving started up again.
"Excuse me," Brian started. The officer turned and through the bars gave him a questioning look.
"I know I have the 'right to remain silent' and all, but how much further?" Brian desperately asked.
The officer smirked. "Well, first off, you ain't got no rights, so feel free to talk away. And to answer your question, it ain't that much further with us, just to the next state-line. But you'll still have a long way to go, ain't that right Bob?" He asked, poking the driving officer.
'Bob' shrugged. The original officer spoke up again. "Pay no attention to Bob here," He said, gesturing to his partner. "He don't like you mutants much. You shoulda seen him when he heard the announcement; happy as a clam, he was."
Against his better judgement, Brian pressed further. "Announcement?"
The officer stared at him for a moment. "You don't know kid?"
Feeling lost, Brian just shook his head no.
The officer whistled. "Woo, talk about a mind trip." He said with a slight laugh. "I guess everythin' will make a load of more sense when you hear all them details and such."
Bob elbowed his partner at this point. "It doesn't need to now." He gruffly said before reaching for the dial on the radio to turn up the volume.
The partner gave one last look back at brain before turning around and taking a sip of his coffee.
The rest of the ride was silent.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
By the time they reached the state-line, Brian guessed it had to be close to one or so in the morning. A few miles prior, the car had gone off the highway onto a small, lumpy dirt road that was ridden with potholes.
The terrain had gone from wet and forested in the city to dry and desert-like. The occasional over-sized rock formation or bush dotted the landscape around the dirt path.
Brian squinted off into the distance. He thought he'd caught sight of something in the distance. The car went over another little hill, and it became clear.
Orange lights gleamed in the distance, giving an eerie, false sense of daylight. In the middle of the lit scene, he saw many other cars and what he thought might be a long building. Getting closer though, he realized it was in fact an airplane. The drab green ones the military used for transporting cargo.
Pulling up amongst the other vehicles, the car he was in stopped. The driver picked up a small radio off the dashboard.
"This is A14 and A15 reporting. Over." Bob looked back at Brian. "We have IV-40225-6. Over" He added.
"Good. Send him in. Over." A static voice responded.
The two officers got out of the car first, the roughly escorted Brian out.
They gruffly led him over to a small, shack-like building. Other officers and several military personnel were milling about. The few that actually looked at him gave Brian hard looks.
Once at the shack, one of the officers knocked on the door. A balding, overweight man clad in a dirty lab coat opened the door. "IV-40225-6?" He questioned, and the officers nodded.
"Ah, good. We're just getting ready to take off." The balding man said, turning around and grabbing something off the cluttered desk directly behind him. It was one of the testers, similar to the ones used at Brian's school. The officer on his right – he wasn't quite sure which one it was– grabbed his right arm and held his finger into the machine. The machine, with quick accuracy, took a quick prick of his finger. It took a few seconds to analyze the blood, but sure as ever, Brian's picture popped up on the small screen, along with a few other details.
The balding man grinned, "He's good to go," He said, already turning around to replace the handheld unit.
"C'mon," one of the officers said. In unison, the two officers moved towards the plane. Brian could see there was a lot of activity going on around the base of the cargo hold. 'Oh shit,' He silently cursed when at that point he fully realized what was going to happen.
"Please," He whispered to the officers, growing desperate. "Help me. My parents have money, and…and, I'm not even a mutant yet." He begged.
He caught a mournful look from the officer he had talked with earlier; but the other just kept walking, his face cold.
When they reached the entrance to the marked off area surrounding the plane, they were met by a young uniformed man. He wore desert camouflage from head to toe. He stared down at Brian, looking a bit shocked. Brian on the other hand was practically coughing up a lung from all the dust that was being kicked up. The look the young soldier gave was one of complete disbelief – clearly doubting the danger level of the boy.
The soldier cleared his throat. He held a clipboard in hand and took down Brian's number. "Ok, I'll take it from here, gentlemen." He stated to the officers. Bob was quick to leave but the second stayed behind a second later. In Brian's ear, he whispered, "My advice: accept your fate kid." And with that he walked away.
The soldier looked down on him once more. He held on tightly to Brian's upper arm. He yelled orders Brian didn't understand. Two more nearly identical soldiers came over. They escorted Brian up the cargo plane's ramp, into the belly of it.
The plane had obviously been converted for this specific purpose. Instead of an empty hull, Brian saw there was a series of what he assumed to be cells. Most of the cells had solid, metallic walls around them, but here and there, a block of cells made only of thick circular bars could be seen. He noticed all these cages were empty.
Brian was put in one of the solid cages. Well, not exactly put, it was more like thrown into. The thick door slammed shut behind him, and he heard multiple locking mechanisms. The room was approximately five by five-feet, with a stainless steel chair bolted down against one of the walls.
Awkwardly, Brian sat laid down on the metal floor. It was then that he realized he was still handcuffed. But it soon didn't matter as sleep overtook him.
